History.

Early history.

Archaeological investigations in 1968 indicated that the site of the present Cathedral was a medieval burial ground, supporting the hypothesis that a wooden church existed on the site in the 12th century. This was replaced by a limestone structure built around 1326, which is mentioned in historical records.  In the 14th century, Metropolitan Peter persuaded Ivan I (Ivan Kalita) that he should build a cathedral to the Theotokos (Blessed Virgin Mary) in Moscow like the Cathedral of the Dormition in the capital city Vladimir. Construction of the cathedral began on August 4, 1326, and the cathedral was finished and consecrated on August 4, 1327. At that time Moscow became the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal' principality.  By the end of the 15th century the old cathedral had become dilapidated, and in 1472 the Moscow architects Kryvtsov and Myshkin began construction of a new cathedral. Two years later, in May 1474, the building was nearing completion when it collapsed due to earthquake.

Present structure.

Following the disaster, Ivan III then invited Aristotele Fioravanti, a celebrated architect and engineer from Bologna, Italy, to come to Moscow and entrusted him with the task of designing the cathedral from scratch in the traditions of Russian architecture. The Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir was once again taken as a model for the building, and so Fioravanti travelled to Vladimir in order to study Russian methods of building. He designed a light and spacious masterpiece that combined the spirit of the Renaissance with Russian traditions. The foundation for the new cathedral was laid in 1475, and in 1479 the new cathedral was consecrated by Metropolitan Geronty. The interior was painted with frescoes and adorned with many icons, including the Theotokos of Vladimir and Blachernitissa.  The design of the new church, with its five domes (symbolic of Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists) proved immensely popular, and was taken as a template for numerous other churches throughout Russia.  In 1547, the coronation of the first Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, took place in this cathedral. From 1721 it was the scene of the coronation of the Russian emperors. The ritual installation of metropolitans and patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church also took place in this cathedral, and their tombs are to be found here.  The cathedral suffered from many disasters in its history, including fires in 1518, 1547, 1682, and 1737, and looting under the armies of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Time of Troubles in 1612. During the French occupation of Russia, it was looted and used as a horse stable.  It was thoroughly restored in 1894-1895 and from 1910-1918. On November 21, 1917, the cathedral was the setting for the installation of Tikhon (Belavin), the Metropolitan of Moscow, as the first patriarch of the restored Patriarchate of Moscow. However, following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the new Bolshevik government closed all churches in the Moscow Kremlin, and converted the cathedral into a museum. By special permission from Vladimir Lenin, the last Pascha (Easter service) was held in 1918. The final moment of this Paschal service was the subject of an unfinished painting by Pavel Korin entitled "Farewell to Rus". Most of the church treasures were transferred to the Kremlin Armory, or were sold overseas.  The building was repaired in 1949/50, 1960 and 1978.  In 1990, the Dormition Cathedral was returned to the church for periodic religious services, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was restored to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991.

Architecture.

Dormition Cathedral is a tremendous six-pillared building with five apses and five domes. It was modeled after the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, in that it made extensive use of limestone masonry on a high limestone base, and was laid out as a three nave church with a vaulted cross-dome. It is built of well-trimmed white-stone blocks. However, Fioravanti did not use cantilever vaults as was common in Russian architecture, but introduced groin vaults and transverse arches. For the upper portion of the building, he used specially-made bricks, larger than the standard Russian size, which reduced weight and allowed for more slender arch supports. Thus, the easternmost pair of columns in front of the apses are typically Russian in the use of massive rectangular open piers, whereas the remaining four are simpler Corinthian columns. The slim shape of these columns contributes significantly to the light, spacious effect of the interior.  Inside, the church decoration is dominated by its fresco painting. The huge iconostasis dates from 1547, but its two highest tiers are later additions from 1626 and 1653/1654 under Patriarch Nikon. In addition to its liturgical function, the iconostasis also served as a sort of trophy wall, in that Russian Tsars would add the most important icons from cities they had conquered to its collection. One of the oldest, "icons with the bust of Saint George" dates from the 12th century and was transferred to Moscow by Tsar Ivan IV on the conquest of the city of Veliky Novgorod in 1561.  However, one of the most important icons of the Russian Orthodox Church, the "Theotokos of Vladimir" kept at the Cathedral from 1395-1919 is now at the Tretyakov Gallery.  Near the south entrance to the Cathedral is the Monomach Throne of Ivan IV (1551).

In the arts.

The plaza in front of the Cathedral is the setting for the famous Coronation Scene in Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov".

The Cathedral of the Dormition (, or "Uspensky sobor"), also known as the Assumption Cathedral or Cathedral of the Assumption is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. It is located on the north side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where a narrow alley separates the north from the Patriarch's Palace with the Twelve Apostles Church. Separately in the southwest, also separated by a narrow passage from the church, is the Palace of Facets. The Cathedral is regarded as the mother church of Muscovite Russia. In its present form it was constructed between 1475–79 at the behest of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti. From 1547 to 1896 it was where the Coronation of the Russian monarch was held. In addition, it is the burial place for most of the Moscow Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and it also serves as a part of Moscow Kremlin Museums.


Life.

Marie Louise d'Orléans was born at the Palais Royal in Paris. She was the eldest daughter of Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans and of his first wife, Princess Henrietta of England. As a "petite-fille de France" she was entitled to the attribute of "Royal Highness," although, as was customary at court at the palace of Versailles, her style, "Mademoiselle d'Orléans", was more often used. Charming, pretty and graceful, Marie Louise, who was her father's favourite child, had a happy childhood, residing most of the time in the Palais Royal, and at the château de Saint-Cloud situated a few kilometres west of Paris. Marie Louise spent a lot of time with both her paternal and maternal grandmothers—Anne of Austria, who doted on her and left the bulk of her fortune to her when she died in 1666; and Henrietta Maria, who lived in Colombes.  Marie Louise's mother died in 1670. The following year, her father married Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. All her life, Marie Louise would maintain an affectionate correspondence with her stepmother.

Queen.

In July 1679, Marie was informed by her father, Philippe, and uncle, King Louis XIV of her betrothal to Charles II of Spain. Distressed by the arranged marriage, Marie spent most of her time weeping, since she had fallen in love with her cousin Louis. The proxy marriage took place at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 30 August 1679; standing for the groom was Mademoiselle d'Orléans' distant cousin Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti. Until mid-September there were a series of formal events held in honour of the new Queen of Spain. Marie Louise went to the convent of Val-de-Grâce, before her departure, where the heart of her mother was kept. She would never return to France. On 19 November 1679, Marie Louise married Charles in person in Quintanapalla, near Burgos, Spain. This was the start of a lonely existence at the Spanish court. Her new husband had fallen in love with her and remained so until the end of his life. However, the confining etiquette of the Spanish Court (e.g., touching the Queen was forbidden), the King's mental and physical infirmities and her unsuccessful attempts to bear a child caused her distress.  Her French attendants were accused of plotting against the King and his family and, as a result, one of her personal maids was tortured. Riots occurred outside the palace in Madrid. Unlike the fashionable palaces at Versailles, Saint-Cloud and Paris, her new residences were the forbidding "Real Alcázar de Madrid" and the even more stark "Palacio del Buen Retiro—"a country palace where Marie Louise was allowed to stable her French horses. She also spent time in the "Palacio Real de Aranjuez", south of Madrid.  After ten years of marriage the couple had no children. Marie Louise confided to the French ambassador, that  "she was really not a virgin any longer, but that as far as she could figure things, she believed she would never have children."  During the last years of her life she became overweight. She was reportedly fond of sweetened lemon and cinnamon drinks which required around thirty-two pounds of sugar per day. After horseback riding on 11 February 1689, she felt a severe pain in the abdomen which forced her to lie down the rest of the evening. She died the following night.

Aftermath.

The death of Marie Louise left her husband heartbroken. There were rumours that she had been poisoned by the notorious "intrigante" Olympia Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, at the behest of her mother-in-law, the dowager queen Mariana of Austria, because of Marie Louise's childlessness. Mariana and Marie Louise had, however, not been known to be estranged and the elder queen appeared devastated at the young queen's death. It seems likely that the real cause of Marie Louise's death was appendicitis.

Marie Louise d'Orléans (26 March 1662 – 12 February 1689) was Queen consort of Spain from 1679 to 1689 as the first wife of King Charles II of Spain. She was a granddaughter of Louis XIII of France. In her adopted Spain, she was known as "María Luisa de Orleans".


Career.

Järryd turned professional in 1980. He won his first tour doubles title in 1981 in Linz, Austria. One year later he captured his first top-level singles title, also at Linz. In 1983, Järryd won his first Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open, partnering his fellow Swede Hans Simonsson. Järryd had a strong year in 1984, winning two singles and five doubles titles. He also finished runner-up in the men's doubles at the US Open that year, partnering Stefan Edberg.  1985 saw Järryd's career-best Grand Slam singles performance, when he beat Claudio Panatta, Scott Davis, Vincent Van Patten, Danie Visser and Heinz Günthardt to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon before being knocked-out in four sets by Boris Becker. Järryd reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1985, and captured the world No. 1 doubles ranking that August. At the French Open and US Open, Järryd progressed to career best finishes in those two tournaments, finishing the fourth round and quarterfinal respectively. In 1986 he won the WCT Finals by beating Boris Becker in the final, while he and Edberg were the men's doubles runners-up at the French Open.  Järryd won three of the four Grand Slam men's doubles titles in 1987, at the Australian Open (partnering Edberg), French Open (partnering Robert Seguso) and US Open (partnering Edberg). Järryd was also a member of Swedish team which won the Davis Cup that year. He won two singles rubbers in the final where Sweden beat India 5–0. (Järryd also played on three Swedish teams which finished runners-up in the Davis Cup in 1986, 1988 and 1989.)  In 1988, Järryd partnered John Fitzgerald to finish runner-up in the men's doubles at both the French Open and Wimbledon. Järryd also won a men's doubles bronze medal at the Olympic Games that year, partnering Edberg. Järryd was also a member of the Swedish team which won the World Team Cup in 1988. The following year, Järryd partnered Fitzgerald to win the men's doubles title at Wimbledon; thus completing a career set of all four Grand Slam men's doubles titles. 1991 again saw Järryd capture three of the four men's doubles titles, as he partnered Fitzgerald to win the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, his last Grand Slam titles. Järryd reached his last Grand Slam doubles final at the 1993 Australian Open, partnering Fitzgerald again.  Over the course of his career, Järryd won eight top-level singles titles and 59 tour doubles titles. His final singles title came in 1993 at Rotterdam. He won his final doubles title in 1995 at St. Petersburg. Järryd retired from the professional tour in 1996.

Anders Per Järryd (; born 13 July 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. During his career he won eight Grand Slam doubles titles (three French Open, two Wimbledon, two US Open, one Australian Open), reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5.


History.

The fortress, established in 1492 during the reign of Ivan III of Moscow, took its name (literally: Ivan-town — "gorod" in Russian means "town" or "city") from that of the Tsar. Between 1581 and 1590 and from 1612 to 1704, Sweden controlled the area. Ivangorod was granted town privileges and administered as a Russian township under the Crown of Sweden (who conquered it in 1612 from boyar Teuvo Aminev) until 1649, when its burghers were ordered to remove to a Narva suburb. In 1617 Russia and Sweden signed the Treaty of Stolbovo, which placed the area under Swedish sovereignty. Russia reconquered it during the Great Northern War in 1704. Despite other changes in territory and sovereignty, Ivangorod was considered an administrative part of the town of Narva from 1649 until 1945. In 1780, Ivangorod, together with Narva, was included into Narvsky Uyezd of St. Petersburg Governorate. In 1796, Narvsky Uyezd was abolished and merged into Yamburgsky Uyezd.  During the Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920), the newly independent Republic of Estonia established control over the whole of Narva, including Ivangorod, in January 1919, a move which Soviet Russia recognized in the 1920 Treaty of Tartu. In January 1945 Soviet authorities defined the Narva River as the border between the Estonian SSR and Russian SFSR, and as a result the administration of Ivangorod transferred from Narva to the Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast. Having grown in population, Ivangorod gained town status on October 28, 1954.  After the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991, there have been some disputes about the Estonian-Russian border in the Narva area, as the new constitution of Estonia (adopted in 1992) recognizes the 1920 Treaty of Tartu border to be currently legal. The Russian Federation, however, regards Estonia as a successor of the Estonian SSR and recognizes the 1945 border between two former national republics. Officially, Estonia has no territorial claims in the area, which is also reflected in the new Estonian-Russian border treaty, according to which Ivangorod remains a part of Russia. Although the foreign ministers of Estonia and Russia signed the treaty in 2005, due to continuing political tensions it has not been ratified.

Administrative and municipal status.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated within Kingiseppsky District as Ivangorodskoye Settlement Municipal Formation. As a municipal division, Ivangorodskoye Settlement Municipal Formation is incorporated within Kingiseppsky Municipal District as Ivangorodskoye Urban Settlement.

Restricted access.

The town of Ivangorod is included into the border security zone, intended to protect the borders of Russia from unwanted activity. In order to visit the zone, a permit issued by the local Federal Security Service department or a valid Schengen visa is required. An EU passport with a Russian visa is also valid (2016).

Economy.

Industry.

Ivangorod has enterprises of textile, food, and timber industries, as well as a plant producing metallic plants and reservoirs. The Narva Hydroelectric Station is located in the town limits as well.

Transportation.

The railway connecting St. Petersburg with Tallinn passes through Ivangorod. There is infrequent suburban service to Baltiysky railway station of St. Petersburg, as well as passenger service to Tallinn.  The A180 Highway connects St. Petersburg and Ivangorod. It coincides with the European route E20 connecting St. Petersburg via Tallinn with Shannon Airport.

Culture.

Ivangorod contains thirty-three cultural heritage monuments of federal significance and additionally seven objects classified as cultural and historical heritage of local significance. All federal monuments are related to the Ivangorod Fortress. The fortress functions as a museum.

Twin towns and sister cities.

Ivangorod is twinned with:

Ivangorod (; ; ) is a town in Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Narva River by the Estonia–Russia border, west of St. Petersburg. Population:


Background.

At the Battle of Gaugamela (1 October 331 BC), in which Alexander defeated Darius III, Bessus commanded the left wing of the Persian army, chiefly composed of warriors from his Satrapy who had been mobilized before the Battle of Issus. The envelopment ordered by Darius failed and the Persians lost the battle after hours of fierce fighting. Bessus survived the battle and remained with his king, whose routed army eluded Alexander's forces and spent the winter in Ecbatana. The next year Darius attempted to flee to Bactria in the east. Bessus, conspiring with fellow satraps, deposed Darius and, according to sources, put him in golden chains. It is not clear whether Bessus was motivated primarily by personal ambition or by disillusionment with Darius as a leader. He may have intended to surrender the deposed king to the Macedonians, but Alexander ordered his forces to continue to pursue the Persians.  According to sources, the panicked conspirators stabbed Darius and left him dying in a cart to be found by a Macedonian soldier. The Babylonian Chronicle known as BCHP 1 indicates this happened in July 330 BC. The site has been identified near modern Ahuan.  Bessus immediately proclaimed himself King of Kings of Persia and adopted the throne name Artaxerxes (V). His self-proclaimed ascension was justifiable, since the Satrap of Bactria, known as "Mathišta", was the Persian noble next in the line of succession to the Persian throne. But since most of the Persian Empire had already been conquered and Bessus only ruled over a loose alliance of those provinces not yet occupied by the Macedonians, historians do not generally regard him as an official King of Kings of Persia.

Capture and execution.

Bessus returned to Bactria and tried to organize resistance among the eastern satrapies. Alexander was forced to move his force to suppress the uprising in 329 BC, entering Bactria. After burning the crops Bessus fled east, crossing the river Oxus. However his own Bactrian mounted levies deserted "en masse", rather than abandon their homeland. Bessus was seized by several of his chieftains who handed him over to the pursuing Macedonians in an isolated village. The Macedonian vanguard was commanded by General Ptolemy who, under orders from Alexander, had the former satrap put in a wooden collar and tied naked to a stake by the road down which the main army was marching. Alexander questioned Bessus as to why he had betrayed Darius and continued to lead resistance to the Macedonians. Bessus claimed that he had been only one of several nobles who had jointly agreed on the need to dethrone their irresolute king. Unsatisfied by his responses Alexander ordered the prisoner to be whipped and taken to Balkh and then to Hamadan for trial and punishment.  A fellow conspirator against Darius, Satibarzanes Satrap of Aria, had already surrendered to Alexander and had been pardoned. However, unlike Bessus, Satibarzanes had not aspired to the Persian throne. At Hamadan, Alexander ordered that Bessus's nose and earlobes be cut off, which was a Persian custom for those involved in rebellion and regicide; the Behistun inscription relates that Darius the Great punished the usurper Phraortes of Media (who was the son of Upadaranma, king of Media) in a similar manner (c. 521 BC).  Ancient reports contradict each other about the nature of Bessus's execution. The historian Quintus Curtius Rufus says he was crucified in the place where Darius had been killed, Arrian states that he was tortured and then decapitated in Ecbatana, and Plutarch suggests that he was torn apart in Bactria by recoiling trees after a Macedonian trial, a style which was according to Persian custom: two trees would have been forcibly bent towards each other, the victim tied to both, and then the trees released, causing an agonizing and drawn-out death in which the ligaments, tendons, muscles and organs would slowly come apart as the trees straightened themselves.

Bessus, also known as Artaxerxes V (died summer 329 BC), was a prominent Persian Satrap of Bactria in Persia, and later self-proclaimed King of Kings of Persia. According to classical sources, he killed his predecessor and relative, Darius III, after the Persian army had been defeated by Alexander the Great.


Biography.

Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse was born at Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France, but as a young woman she changed her last name to "Tailleferre" to spite her father, who had refused to support her musical studies. She studied piano with her mother at home, composing short works of her own, after which she began studying at the Paris Conservatory where she met Louis Durey, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, and Arthur Honegger. At the Paris Conservatory her skills were rewarded with prizes in several categories. Most notably, Tailleferre wrote 18 short works in the "Petit livre de harpe de Madame Tardieu" for Caroline Luigini, the Conservatory’s Assistant Professor of harp.  With her new friends, she soon was associating with the artistic crowd in the Paris districts of Montmartre and Montparnasse, including the sculptor Emmanuel Centore who later married her sister Jeanne. It was in the Montparnasse atelier of one of her painter friends where the initial idea for "Les Six" began. The publication of Jean Cocteau's manifesto "Le coq et l'Arlequin" resulted in Henri Collet's media articles that led to instant fame for the group, of which Tailleferre was the only female member.  In 1923, Tailleferre began to spend a great deal of time with Maurice Ravel at his home in Montfort-l'Amaury. Ravel encouraged her to enter the "Prix de Rome" Competition. In 1926, she married Ralph Barton, an American caricaturist, and moved to Manhattan, New York. She remained in the United States until 1927, when she and her husband returned to France. They divorced shortly thereafter.  Tailleferre wrote many of her most important works during the 1920s, including her "First Piano Concerto", the "Harp Concertino", the ballets "Le marchand d'oiseaux" (the most frequently performed ballet in the repertoire of the Ballets suédois during the 1920s), "La nouvelle Cythère", which was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the ill-fated 1929 season of the famous Ballets Russes, and "Sous les ramparts d'Athènes" in collaboration with Paul Claudel, as well as several pioneering film scores, including "B'anda", in which she used African themes.  The 1930s were even more fruitful, with the "Concerto for Two Pianos, Chorus, Saxophones, and Orchestra", the "Violin Concerto", the opera cycle "Du style galant au style méchant", the operas "Zoulaïna" and "Le marin de Bolivar", and her masterwork, "La cantate de Narcisse", in collaboration with Paul Valéry. Her work in film music included "Le petit chose" by Maurice Cloche and a series of documentaries.  At the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to leave the majority of her scores at her home in Grasse, with the exception of her recently completed "Three Études for Piano and Orchestra". Escaping across Spain to Portugal, she found passage on a boat that brought her to the United States, where she lived the war years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  After the war, in 1946, she returned to her home in France, where she composed orchestral and chamber music, plus numerous other works including the ballets "Paris-Magie" (with Lise Delarme) and "Parisiana" (for the Royal Ballet of Copenhagen), the operas "Il était un petit navire" (with Henri Jeanson), "Dolores", "La petite sirène" (with Philippe Soupault, based on Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Mermaid"), and "Le maître" (to a libretto by Ionesco), the musical comedy "Parfums", the "Concerto des vaines paroles" for baritone voice, piano, and orchestra, the "Concerto for Soprano and Orchestra", the "Concertino for Flute, Piano, and Orchestra", the "Second Piano Concerto", the "Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra", her "Second Sonata for Violin and Piano", and the "Sonata for Harp", as well as an impressive number of film and television scores. The majority of this music was not published until after her death.  In 1976, she accepted the post of accompanist for a children's music and movement class at the "École alsacienne", a private school in Paris. During the last period of her life, she concentrated mainly on smaller forms due to increasing problems with arthritis in her hands. She nevertheless produced the "Sonate champêtre" for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano; the "Sonata for Two Pianos"; "Chorale and Variations for Two Pianos or Orchestra"; a series of children's songs (on texts by Jean Tardieu); and pieces for young pianists. Her last major work was the "Concerto de la fidelité" for coloratura soprano and orchestra, which was premièred at the Paris Opera the year before her death.  Germaine Tailleferre continued to compose right up until a few weeks before her death, on 7 November 1983 in Paris. She is buried in Quincy-Voisins, Seine-et-Marne, France.

Works.

"See List of compositions by Germaine Tailleferre"

Germaine Tailleferre (; 19 April 18927 November 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as "Les Six".


Career.

Fernández was recognized primarily as a doubles specialist during her professional career. She won a career doubles Grand Slam with 17 Grand Slam women's doubles title – six French Open, five US Open, four Wimbledon, and two Australian Open winning at least one Grand Slam title every year from 1988–1997, except 1989, and for three straight years winning three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles in the same year (1992–1994). She won 14 of her 17 Grand Slam titles partnering Natasha Zvereva; their partnership is the second most successful doubles pair in Grand Slam history after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver in the Open era.  In mixed doubles, Fernández was the runner-up in three of the four Grand Slam mixed doubles events in 1995 (Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) partnering Cyril Suk. Fernández captured 68 career titles in women's doubles and reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in 1991 and attained the No. 1 ranking again in 1993, 1994 and 1995. She won a total of 69 doubles titles during her career.  Fernández represented the United States at the Olympic Games in 1992 (Barcelona) and 1996 (Atlanta). She teamed with Mary Joe Fernández (no relation) to win the women's doubles gold medal on both occasions. The first gold medal was won against the home team of Conchita Martínez and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario with the king and queen of Spain in the audience. The two medals are on Fernández's desk, and a license plate on her car states "DBL GLD".  Fernández represented Puerto Rico when San Juan played host to the Pan Am Games in 1979. Just 15, Fernández won a bronze medal. In 1982 at the Central American-Caribbean Games in Cuba, she teamed with Marilda Juliá to win doubles gold and won a silver medal in the singles as well. She represented Puerto Rico at the 1984 Olympics.  Fernández was also on the United States team that won the Federation Cup in 1990.  In singles, Fernández reached as high as world No. 17. She also won two top-level titles and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1994 (ranked 99 becoming the lowest-ranked grand Slam singles semifinalist at Wimbledon) and the quarterfinals at the US Open in 1991 and 1994.  Fernández retired from the professional tour in 1997, and in 1999, she was named Puerto Rico's "Female Athlete of the Century".  On July 12, 2010, Fernández was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame with Zvereva.

Personal life.

Her father Tuto was a well-known doctor in Puerto Rico. Her cousin José Ferrer was a famous Puerto Rican actor and director. Fernández started playing tennis when she was seven. She studied at the prestigious Academia San José in Guaynabo. When she turned professional in 1983, she became Puerto Rico's first female professional athlete. Before turning professional, she played tennis for one season at Clemson University in 1982–83, where she was singles and doubles All-American and reached the National Collegiate Athletics Association singles final.  Since retiring from the tour, Fernández has worked as a tennis coach. She has coached players including the former world No. 1 doubles player Rennae Stubbs, Lisa Raymond, and Samantha Stosur. She coached Sam Stosur to her first Grand Slam title at the 2005 US Open with Lisa Raymond. She also coached for the Puerto Rican national team and the University of South Florida.  She earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of South Florida in 2003 and later graduated from Rollins College's Crummer School of Business where she earned a Master of Business Administration. She is the mother of twins, Karson Xavier and Madison Jane, and the partner of retired professional golfer and former LPGA and WWE executive Jane Geddes.  In 2010, Fernández started a company named Baby Goes Pro. She presently resides in Connecticut, and is the Director of Adult Tennis at Chelsea Piers Connecticut, as well as Summer Director at The Long Ridge Tennis Club.

Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964) is a Puerto Rican professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1983 and is the first Puerto-Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.


History.

The Diet of Hungary () was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period. The name of the legislative body was originally "Parlamentum" during the Middle Ages, the "Diet" expression gained mostly in the Early Modern period. It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, and again until 1946.  The articles of the 1790 diet set out that the diet should meet at least once every 3 years, but, since the diet was called by the Habsburg monarchy, this promise was not kept on several occasions thereafter. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867.  The Latin term "Natio Hungarica" ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the political elite which had participation in the diet, consisting of the nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a few enfranchised burghers, regardless of language or ethnicity. Natio Hungarica was a geographic, institutional and juridico-political category.  The democratic character of the Hungarian parliament was reestablished with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the communist dictatorship in 1989. Today's parliament is still called the "Országgyűlés," as in royal times, but is called the 'National Assembly' to distance itself from the historical royal diet.

2010–2014 Parliament.

At the sixth parliamentary elections, four parties or party alliances passed the minimum threshold: the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union in alliance with the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) (263 seats in common, 227 for Fidesz and 36 for KDNP). Fidesz-KDNP candidates won enough seats to achieve a two-thirds majority required to modify major laws and the country's constitution. The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) won 59 seats, while its former coalition party Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) failed to win any seats and became extra-parliamentary after 20 years. There were two newcomers to the Országgyűlés: Jobbik (47 seats) and Politics Can Be Different (LMP) (16 seats). 1 independent (former Fidesz member Oszkár Molnár) got into the Parliament, winning a constituency (Edelény) in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County.  The other prestigious party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum also lost all its seats.  The heads of the factions are:  The new parliamentary session hold the inaugural session on 14 May 2010. The President of Fidesz and Prime Minister is Viktor Orbán. Pál Schmitt served as Speaker of the National Assembly until August 2010 when he became President of Hungary. He was replaced by László Kövér.  After the 2010 local elections, held on 3 October, Katalin Szili founded the Social Union and became its first chairperson. As a result, she quit the Hungarian Socialist Party and their parliamentarian group. Continuing the parliamentarian work as formally independent MP.

2006–2010 Parliament.

At parliamentary elections in 2006, four parties or party alliances passed the minimum threshold: the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) (190 seats), the coalition party Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) (20 seats), the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union in alliance with the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) (164 seats in common, 141 for Fidesz and 23 for KDNP), and the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) (11 seats) and 1 independent (István Gyenesei) got into the Parliament, winning a constituency in Somogy county.  The heads of the factions were:  The head of the allied faction Fidesz-KDNP was Viktor Orbán. The head of the minority government (since 2008, when SZDSZ left the coalition) was Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány then Gordon Bajnai. The speaker of the Assembly was Katalin Szili (2006-2009) then Béla Katona (2009-2010) of the MSZP.

Historical composition of the National Assembly since 1990.

The numbers come from the legislature's inaugural session. Later changes may occur:

The National Assembly (; "Country Assembly") is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to 4-year terms. Election of members is done using parallel voting; involving single-member districts and one list election; parties must win at least 5% of the popular vote in order to enter the list of members of the assembly (but area winners enter regardless). The Assembly includes 25 standing committees to debate and report on introduced bills and to supervise the activities of the ministers. The Constitutional Court of Hungary has the right to challenge legislation on the grounds of constitutionality. The assembly has met in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest since 1902.


Overview.

The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely. Many studies have found that there is no unifying characteristic capable of classifying the family. In general, Araliaceae has large, usually alternate leaves, often with aromatic ethereal oils, five-petaled flowers, two to five carpels, simple umbels, and berries without carpophores or oil cavities. Some taxa carry prickles, and the family is often woody but also occasionally herbaceous. While Araliaceae is predominantly a tropical family, some taxa are also endemic to temperate climates. They are found in the Americas, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Pacific islands.  Some examples of Araliaceae include the angelica tree ("Aralia spinosa"), the devil's club ("Oplopanax horridus"), ivy ("Hedera" spp., including" Hedera helix")"," and herbs such as ginseng" Panax "spp. Leaves are sometimes lauroid (resembling "Laurus") and simple to compound; when compound, they are ternate, pinnate, or palmate.  Araliaceae are found in the pluvial montane forest, very humid montane forest, and humid lowland river forest regions. They are present, too, in laurel forest, cloud forest, and warm, humid habitats.

Taxonomy and Systematics.

Araliaceae is one of six angiosperm families recognized by APG IV belonging to the Apiales, an order within the Asterids. Araliaceae is accepted to be a monophyletic branch within the Apiales.  Within Araliaceae, there are four accepted groups:  1. The Greater "Raukaua" group, sister to the rest of the main Araliaceae clades.  2. The Aralia-Panax group, consisting of the mostly monophyletic genera "Aralia" and "Panax."  3. The Polyscias-Pseudopanax group, sister to both genus "Cussonia" and the Asian Palmate group.  4. The Asian Palmate group, largest of the groups representing Araliaceae.  There are also multiple taxa that float around these groups, but are not within them.  The generic level classification of the Araliaceae has been unstable and remains under study. For instance, numerous genera have been synonymized under "Schefflera", within which about half the species within Araliaceae are placed. Recent molecular phylogenies have shown that this large pantropical genus is polyphyletic and some believe it should be divided again into several genera, though these would probably not correspond with the previously recognized genera.  Recent molecular systematics techniques have made major improvements into understanding of the evolution of Araliaceae, leading to the knowledge existing today. Due to widely varying morphological characters, the systematics of Araliaceae had been largely debated over the past century, especially in the absence of molecular evidence. For instance, Araliaceae were previously merged into the closely related Apiaceae (synonym: Umbelliferae) in some taxonomic treatments that have since been rejected. The family is closely related to the Apiaceae and Pittosporaceae, but some of the exact boundaries between Araliaceae and the other families of Apiales are still uncertain and are currently being examined.  One example group that proved problematic for Araliaceae systematics is subfamily Hydrocotyloideae. Molecular phylogenies suggest at least some of the genera traditionally spanning across Araliaceae and Apiaceae as Hydrocotyloideae appear to be more closely related to Araliaceae. It has been recommended that subfamily Hydrocotyloideae be narrowed to just include genera "Hydrocotyle," "Trachymene," and "Harmsiopanax" to form a monophyletic group in Araliaceae.

Subfamilies and genera.

Subfamily Aralioideae  Subfamily Hydrocotyloideae

See also.

List of foliage plant diseases (Araliaceae)

The Araliaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of 55 genera and 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguishable based on its woody habit, tropical distribution, and the presence of simple umbels.


Description.

"Lycopodium clavatum" is a spore-bearing vascular plant, growing mainly prostrate along the ground with stems up to long; the stems are much branched, and densely clothed with small, spirally arranged microphyll leaves. The leaves are 3–5 mm long and 0.7–1 mm broad, tapered to a fine hair-like white point. The branches bearing strobili or spore cones turn erect, reaching above ground, and their leaves are modified as sporophylls that enclose the spore capsules or sporangia. The spore cones are yellow-green, long, and broad. The horizontal stems produce roots at frequent intervals along their length, allowing the stem to grow indefinitely along the ground. The stems superficially resemble small seedlings of coniferous trees, though it is not related to these.

Distribution.

"Lycopodium clavatum" has a widespread distribution across several continents. There are distinct subspecies and varieties in different parts of its range:  Although globally widespread, like many clubmosses, it is confined to undisturbed sites, disappearing from farmed areas and sites with regular burning. As a result, it is endangered in many areas. In the UK it is one of 101 species named as a high priority for conservation by the wild plant charity Plantlife.  Common names for this species include wolf's-foot clubmoss, common clubmoss, wolf-paw clubmoss, running ground-pine, running pine, running moss, princess pine, and others.  The spores of this moss, "lycopodium powder", are explosive if present in the air in high enough densities. They were used as flash powder in early photography and magic acts.  Bioactive secondary metabolites in clubmosses include triterpenoids with acetylcholinesterase inhibitor activity isolated from this species.

Lycopodium clavatum (common club moss, stag's-horn clubmoss, running clubmoss, or ground pine) is the most widespread species in the genus "Lycopodium" in the clubmoss family.


Early life.

Prince Valdemar was born on 27 October 1858 at Bernstorff Palace in Gentofte north of Copenhagen. His father was Prince Christian of Denmark, later King Christian IX. His mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. He was baptised on 21 December 1858.  In March 1863, the Danish royal family, including four-year-old Valdemar, travelled to London for the wedding of his eldest sister, Alexandra, to the Prince of Wales, the son and heir of Queen Victoria. That November, his parents succeeded to the throne of Denmark following the death of King Frederick VII.  Prince Valdemar received his early education from tutors. In the summer of 1874, he accompanied his father during his visit to Iceland for the millennium celebrations. After his confirmation in 1874, as was customary for princes at that time, he started a military education and entered the naval college. In 1879, he was sub-lieutenant and in 1880 lieutenant. In the following years, he participated in several naval expeditions. From 1883, Valdemar lived at Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen with his nephew Prince George of Greece, who had been taken as a boy to Denmark to be enlisted in the Danish royal navy, and be consigned to the care of Valdemar, who was an admiral in the Danish fleet. Feeling abandoned by his father on this occasion, George would later describe to his fiancée the profound attachment he developed for his uncle from that day forward.

Marriage.

He married Princess Marie d'Orleans on 20 October 1885 in a civil ceremony in Paris. They had a religious ceremony on 22 October 1885 at the Château d'Eu, the residence of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris. The wedding was believed by one source to have been politically arranged, and in France, it was believed that the Count of Paris (the bride's uncle) was personally responsible for the match. However, the same source claimed that "there was every reason to believe that [it was] a genuine love match". At the time of their marriage, it was decided that any sons would be brought up in Valdemar's Lutheran faith, while any daughters would be raised as Catholics, the faith of their mother. The couple's four sons were consequently Lutherans, while their only daughter, Margaret was raised a Catholic and married a Catholic prince.

Later life.

Valdemar had a lifelong naval career. He was the first president of the Seamen's Association of 1856.  He died on 14 January 1939 in the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen and was buried in Roskilde Cathedral. He was the last surviving child of Christian IX.

Prince Valdemar of Denmark (27 October 1858 – 14 January 1939) was the third son and youngest child of Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. He had a lifelong naval career.


History.

In the 2nd century BC, many of the Boii tribe were pushed north across the Alps out of northern Italy by the Romans. They established a new capital called Boiodurum by the Romans (from Gaulish "Boioduron"), now within the Innstadt district of Passau.  Passau was an ancient Roman colony called Batavis, Latin for "for the "Batavi"." The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe often mentioned by classical authors, and they were regularly associated with the Suebian marauders, the Heruli. "Batavis" (Passau-Altstadt) was a Roman castrum in the province of Raetia, while another late Roman castrum, "Boiotro" (Passau-Innstadt), was in the province of Noricum.  During the second half of the 5th century, St. Severinus established a monastery here. The site was subject to repeated raids by the Alemanni. In 739, an English monk called Boniface founded the diocese of Passau, which for many years was the largest diocese of the German Kingdom/Holy Roman Empire, covering territory in southern Bavaria and most of what is now Upper and Lower Austria. From the 10th century the bishops of Passau also exercised secular authority as Prince-Bishops in the immediate area around Passau (see ). In the Treaty of Passau (1552), Archduke Ferdinand I, representing Emperor Charles V, secured the agreement of the Protestant princes to submit the religious question to a diet. This led to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.  During the Renaissance and early modern period, Passau was one of the most prolific centres of sword and bladed weapon manufacture in Germany (after Solingen). Passau smiths stamped their blades with the Passau wolf, usually a rather simplified rendering of the wolf on the city's coat-of-arms. Superstitious warriors believed that the Passau wolf conferred invulnerability on the blade's bearer, and thus Passau swords acquired a great premium. According to the "", aside from the wolf, some cabalistic signs and inscriptions were added. As a result, the whole practice of placing magical charms on swords to protect the wearers came to be known for a time as "Passau art". (See Eduard Wagner, "Cut and Thrust Weapons", 1969.) Other cities' smiths, including those of Solingen, recognized the marketing value of the Passau wolf and adopted it for themselves. By the 17th century, Solingen was producing more wolf-stamped blades than Passau was.  In 1662, a devastating fire consumed most of the city. Passau was subsequently rebuilt in the Baroque style.  Passau was secularised and divided between the Electorate of Bavaria and the Electorate of Salzburg in 1803. The portion belonging to Salzburg became part of Bavaria in 1805.  From 1892 until 1894, Adolf Hitler and his family lived in Passau. The city archives mention Hitler being in Passau on four different occasions in the 1920s for speeches. In addition, Heinrich Himmler spent some time here.  In November 1933, the building of "" (Hall of the Nibelungs) was announced. Intended to hold 8,000 to 10,000 guests, and another 30,000 in front of it, in 1935 the hall also became quarters for a unit of the "Austrian Legion". Beginning in 1934, these troops had occupied a building that belonged to Sigmund Mandl, a Jewish merchant. That building, in turn, was referred to as "SA barracks".  Beginning in 1940, Passau offered the building at Bräugasse 13 to Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle.  During World War II, the town also housed three sub-camps of the infamous Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp: Passau I (Oberilzmühle), Passau II (Waldwerke Passau-Ilzstadt) and Passau III (Jandelsbrunn).  On May 3, 1945, a message from Major General Stanley Eric Reinhart’s 261st Infantry Regiment stated at 3:15 am: "AMG Officer has unconditional surrender of PASSAU signed by Burgermeister, Chief of Police and Lt. Col of Med Corps there. All troops are to turn themselves in this morning."  It was the site of a post World War II American sector displaced persons camp. On 2 June 2013, the old town suffered from severe flooding as a result of several days of rain and its location at the confluence of three rivers Peak elevations of floods as early as 1501 are displayed on a wall at the Old City Hall. Flood water reaches the base of that wall on average once every 5 years.

Subdivisions.

Until 2013, the City of Passau was subdivided into eight statistical districts, which in general coincide with formerly separate municipalities. Since 2013, the city is divided in 16 so-called areas of open council ("Bürgerversammlungsgebiete").

Main sights.

Many river cruises down the Danube start at Passau and there is a cycling path all the way down to Vienna. It is on the designated heritage route, the Route of Emperors and Kings.  Passau is notable for its gothic and baroque architecture. The town is dominated by the Veste Oberhaus and the Veste Niederhaus, both parts of the former fortress of the Bishop, on the mountain crest between the Danube and the Ilz.  Tourism in Passau focuses mainly on the three rivers, the St. Stephen's Cathedral ("Der Passauer Stephansdom") and the "Old City" ("Die Altstadt").  With 17,774 pipes and 233 registers, the organ at St. Stephen's was long held to be the largest church pipe organ in the world and is today second in size only to the organ at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, which was expanded in 1994. Organ concerts are held daily between May and September. St.Stephen's is a true masterpiece of Italian Baroque, built by Italian architect Carlo Lurago and decorated in part by Carpoforo Tencalla.  Among many other churches are the Jesuits church of St. Michael, the oldest parish church of St. Paul and the pilgrim church Mariahilf on the hill south of the rivers Inn and Danube.  Before the cathedral is a large square (Domplatz) with the Lamberg-Palais, where the Peace of Passau was concluded. The medieval Old Residence south of the cathedral and the baroque New Residence further west at Residenzplatz were the palaces of the Prince-Bishops within the town. Right beside the 14th century Gothic Town Hall with its neo Gothic tower and the big 19th century former Hauptzollamtsgebäude (Main Customs Office) at the Danube is the Scharfrichterhaus, an important jazz and cabaret stage on which political cabaret is performed.

Migrant entry point.

Due to its location on the German-Austrian border, and in the south-east of the country, Passau has become a major migrant entry point into Germany. Refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa who have reached Europe, often entering either overland via Greece or across the sea via the Mediterranean (see Operation Triton), then head north and sometimes enter Germany. In 2015 the BBC reported that traffickers drive migrants and refugees through Austria and leave them on the side of the autobahn. The migrants and refugees then often walk unaccompanied into Passau, the first German town northwards. This situation has caused the government of Passau to divert funds from flood prevention to housing and feeding the refugees and migrants, around 10% of whom are unaccompanied children.

Twin towns - sister cities.

Passau is twinned with:

Passau () is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") because the Danube is joined there by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.


Biography.

Luria was born Salvatore Edoardo Luria in Turin, Italy to an influential Italian Sephardi Jewish family. His parents were Davide and Ester (Sacerdote) Luria. He attended the medical school at the University of Turin studying with Giuseppe Levi. There, he met two other future Nobel laureates: Rita Levi-Montalcini and Renato Dulbecco. He graduated from the University of Turin in 1935. From 1936 to 1937, Luria served his required time in the Italian army as a medical officer. He then took classes in radiology at the University of Rome. Here, he was introduced to Max Delbrück's theories on the gene as a molecule and began to formulate methods for testing genetic theory with the bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria.  In 1938, he received a fellowship to study in the United States, where he intended to work with Delbrück. Soon after Luria received the award, Benito Mussolini's fascist regime banned Jews from academic research fellowships. Without funding sources for work in the U.S. or Italy, Luria left his home country for Paris, France in 1938. As the Nazi German armies invaded France in 1940, Luria fled on bicycle to Marseille where he received an immigration visa to the United States.

Phage research.

Luria arrived in New York City on September 12, 1940, and soon changed his first and middle names. With the help of physicist Enrico Fermi, whom he knew from his time at the University of Rome, Luria received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship at Columbia University. He soon met Delbrück and Hershey, and they collaborated on experiments at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and in Delbrück's lab at Vanderbilt University.  His famous experiment with Delbrück in 1943, known as the Luria–Delbrück experiment, demonstrated statistically that inheritance in bacteria must follow Darwinian rather than Lamarckian principles and that mutant bacteria occurring randomly can still bestow viral resistance without the virus being present. The idea that natural selection affects bacteria has profound consequences, for example, it explains how bacteria develop antibiotic resistance.  From 1943 to 1950, he worked at Indiana University. His first graduate student was James D. Watson, who went on to discover the structure of DNA with Francis Crick. In January 1947, Luria became a naturalized citizen of the United States.  In 1950, Luria moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In the early 1950s, Luria and Giuseppe Bertani discovered the phenomenon of host-controlled restriction and modification of a bacterial virus: a culture of "E. coli" can significantly reduce the production of phages grown in other strains; however, once the phage become established in that strain, they also become restricted in their ability to grow in other strains. It was later discovered by other researchers that bacteria produce enzymes that cut viral DNA at particular sequences but not the bacteria's own DNA, which is protected by methylation. These enzymes became known as restriction enzymes and developed into one of the main molecular tools in molecular biology.

Later work.

In 1959, he became chair of Microbiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he switched his research focus from phages to cell membranes and bacteriocins. While on sabbatical in 1963 to study at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, he found that bacteriocins impair the function of cell membranes. Returning to MIT, his lab discovered that bacteriocins achieve this impairment by forming holes in the cell membrane, allowing ions to flow through and destroy the electrochemical gradient of cells. In 1972, he became chair of The Center for Cancer Research at MIT. The department he established included future Nobel Prize winners David Baltimore, Susumu Tonegawa, Phillip Allen Sharp and H. Robert Horvitz.  In addition to the Nobel Prize, Luria received a number of awards and recognitions. He was named a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1960. From 1968 to 1969, he served as president of the American Society for Microbiology. In 1969, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Max Delbrück, co-winner with Luria of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969. In the U.S. he won the 1974 National Book Award in Science for his popular science book "Life: the Unfinished Experiment" and received the National Medal of Science in 1991.

Political activism.

Throughout his career, Luria was an outspoken political advocate. He joined with Linus Pauling in 1957 to protest against nuclear weapon testing. Luria was an opponent of the Vietnam War and a supporter of organized labor. In the 1970s, he was involved in debates over genetic engineering, advocating a compromise position of moderate oversight and regulation rather than the extremes of a complete ban or full scientific freedom. Due to his political involvement, he was blacklisted from receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health for a short time in 1969.  He was a friend of the noted linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, and communicated with the Jewish American writer Elie Wiesel through a letter, in which he criticized Israel's involvement in the Guatemalan genocide and, satirically, Wiesel's silence on any issue concerning Israel's "terrorist" activities world-wide. As described by Chomsky: "In the mid-1980s, Salvador Luria, a friend of mine who is a Nobel laureate in biology and politically active, knew about this [i.e., the genocide]. It wasn't a big secret. He asked me to collect articles from the Hebrew press which described Israel's participation in genocidal attacks in Guatemala — not just participation, it's a leadership role — because he wanted to send it to Elie Wiesel with a polite letter saying: as a fellow Nobel laureate, I would like to bring this to your attention. Could you use your influence — he didn't ask him to say anything, that's too much, but privately could you communicate to the people you know well at a high level in Israel and say it's not nice to take part in genocide. He never got a response."

Death.

He died in Lexington, Massachusetts of a heart attack.

Salvador Edward Luria (August 13, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an Italian microbiologist, later a naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey, for their discoveries on the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses. Salvador Luria also showed that bacterial resistance to viruses (phages) is genetically inherited.


History.

Early years.

What is now S7 Airlines started in 1957 as "the Tolmachevo united squadron" of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disintegration and during the 1990s Russian economic reforms, a state-run Siberia Airlines was created based on the squadron in 1992 and later privatized in 1994. The same year Siberia was assigned an IATA airline code.  In 1997, Siberia Airlines tried to buy Vnukovo Airlines, to make Moscow its next main hub, but this didn't eventuate. After the 1998 Russian financial crisis, Vnukovo Airlines was heading towards bankruptcy, and Siberia Airlines advised it to merge, but Vnukovo refused. In 1999, Siberia Airlines signed a document to take over Vnukovo Airlines, in the event Vnukovo ceased operations due to insolvency.

Development since the 2000s.

Siberia Airlines began merging with Vnukovo Airlines in 2001. The same year, the airline absorbed Baikal Airlines and then in 2004, the airline absorbed Chelyabinsk Airlines and Enkor. In 2002, Siberia Airlines began its services from Vnukovo Airlines' former base Moscow-Vnukovo, but after some time it shifted all flights (including the charter flights from Moscow-Sheremetyevo) to Moscow-Domodedovo.  The first non-Russian aircraft, Airbus A310s, were acquired in 2004. In summer 2004, during the Farnborough Airshow, the company signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase fifty Sukhoi Superjet 100s, with the first to be delivered in 2007. However, the airline subsequently dropped its plans to order this aircraft, citing that the aircraft's changed specifications no longer met its requirements.  Siberia Airlines rebranded itself as S7 Airlines in 2005.  In line with an International Air Transport Association (IATA) resolution, from December 2006 the airline began to publish its fares for international destinations originating in Russia in euros, rather than US dollars. This resulted in a fare increase, as the conversion rate used was 1 euro = 1 US dollar. Fuel surcharges were also published in euros. Its domestic fares were still to be shown in the local currency. Also in December 2006, the airline became the second Russian air carrier to complete, and pass, the IATA Operational Safety Audit, which is the first global air safety standard.  It was announced in April 2007 that a new division had been set up within the airline, called Globus. This division was to focus on charter flights for tourists to foreign holiday destinations. Initially, the aircraft for this division would be drawn from the mainline fleet, but during 2010–2014, ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft were leased with an all-economy layout, with the option for a further ten aircraft.  S7 joined the Oneworld airline alliance in 2010.  In November 2015, S7 Airlines made an offer to acquire a majority stake in bankrupt Transaero. However, the proposal was rejected by shareholders.  In 2016, American band OK Go partnered with S7 to film a "zero-g" music video for their song "Upside Down & Inside Out", aboard a reduced gravity aircraft.  On 28 August 2018, S7 announced the investment of $192.87 million for a new manufacturing plant of its business plan "Victory" in Moscow. The investment is expected to produce 1000 jobs. In December 2018, a few months after the completion of its purchase of Sea Launch the parent holding company was renamed from S7 Group to S7 AirSpace Corporation to reflect the transition from an aviation-only business.  On 31 March 2019, chairwoman and co-owner Natalia Fileva died after the Epic LT private plane she was in crashed while landing at Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport. In August 2019, S7 Airlines announced the charity work by collecting the financial support for Siberian forests, harmed by massive fires. Therefore, the airline decided to colour one of the Airbus A320-200 to the hybrid-retro livery, to underline its previous and technical name – Siberia Airlines, by combining two liveries: of 1992-2005 and 2017-today. Also in August 2019, the airline's head announced that S7 Airlines and Globus Airlines will merge till December 2019, therefore closing the operations of the second airline. By early December 2019, the merger had been completed.

Financial and operational performance.

There are financial and operational performance S7 Airlines starting from 2011:

Destinations.

S7 Airlines operates to almost 150 destinations domestically within Russia and internationally throughout Europe and Asia.

Codeshare agreements.

S7 has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet.

Current fleet.

, the S7 Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet development.

On 29 May 2007, the airline announced a proposed order for fifteen Boeing 787 Dreamliners scheduled for delivery in 2014, with an option for ten additional aircraft. However, the order was officially cancelled on 29 January 2009, with S7 stating that it was considering the possibility of taking the aircraft under a leasing scheme. As of November 2008, all Soviet-made aircraft had left the fleet.  In April 2018, S7 renewed interest in the Sukhoi Superjet by planning to purchase 25 Sukhoi Superjet 75 aircraft, with an option of 50 more for the new modification of the Superjet family, and become the launch customer. These will replace the airline's aging Embraer 170 aircraft. The airline plans to take deliveries of this aircraft from 2023. However in September 2019, it was announced the project had been scrapped.  In October 2018, the airline took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8 and became the Russian launch customer of the aircraft type.

Retired Fleet.

At different times, the S7 Airlines fleet has consisted of the following aircraft:

Subsidiaries.

S7 Technics is a subsidiary of S7, located on the grounds of Tolmachevo Airport.

S7 Airlines, legally JSC Siberia Airlines (, "АО Aviakompania Sibir"), is an airline headquartered in Ob, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, with offices in Moscow. As of 2008, it was Russia's largest domestic airline, with its main bases at Domodedovo International Airport and Tolmachevo Airport.


Career.

The youngest of seven children, Garrison started playing tennis at the age of 10 and entered her first tournament at the age of 12. At 14, she won the national girls' 18s title. In 1981, she won both the Wimbledon and US Open junior titles and was ranked the world No. 1 junior player. Garrison graduated from Sterling High School in Houston, Texas in 1982.  Garrison began suffering from the eating disorder bulimia when she was 19, following the death of her mother. "I had never been comfortable with my looks and felt I had lost the only person who loved me unconditionally", Garrison told the "Observer Sport Monthly" in 2006. "The pressure of being labeled 'the next Althea Gibson' only made things worse. I felt I was never going to be allowed to grow into just becoming me."  Garrison turned professional in 1982, and skipped her graduation at Ross Sterling High School to compete in the French Open, her first tournament as a professional, where she reached the quarterfinals. She was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 1982.  Despite battling bulimia during her first few years on the tour, Garrison enjoyed notable success on-court. She reached the Australian Open semifinals in 1983, her first full year on the tour, and finished the year ranked world No. 10. She won her first top-level singles titles in 1984 at the European Indoor Championships in Zürich. She was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1985, and in 1986, she won her first tour doubles at the Canadian Open (partnering Gabriela Sabatini).  At the Australian Open in 1987, Garrison won the mixed doubles (partnering Sherwood Stewart) and finished runner-up in the women's doubles (partnering Lori McNeil). A year later, Garrison and Stewart captured the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon.  At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Garrison teamed with Pam Shriver to win the women's doubles gold medal for the United States, defeating Jana Novotná and Helena Suková of Czechoslovakia in the final. Garrison defeated Shriver in the quarterfinals of the singles event, where she won a bronze medal. At the US Open, she defeated defending champion Navratilova for the first time in her career, advancing to the semifinals, where she lost to Sabatini.  In 1989, Garrison defeated Chris Evert 7–6, 6–2 in the quarterfinals of the US Open in Evert's final tournament. Garrison lost to Navratilova in the semifinals. She finished 1989 ranked a career-high world No. 4 in singles.  The highlight of Garrison's career came in 1990 at Wimbledon, as she defeated Samantha Smith, Cecilia Dahlman, Andrea Leand, Helena Suková, then French Open champion Monica Seles in the quarterfinals 3–6, 6–3, 9–7, and defending Wimbledon champion and world No. 1 Steffi Graf in the semifinals 6–3, 3–6, 6–4 to reach her only Grand Slam singles final, becoming the first African-American woman to do so since Gibson. Moreover, it ended Graf's record 13-time streak of Grand Slam finals. Then, she lost to Navratilova 6–4, 6–1, who thus won her record ninth women's singles title at Wimbledon. Garrison claimed her third mixed doubles title at Wimbledon that year (partnering Rick Leach).  In 1992, Garrison finished runner-up in the Australian Open women's doubles (partnering Mary Joe Fernandez).  Garrison retired from professional tennis in 1996, having remained ranked prior to that year within the top 25 for 14 consecutive years. During her career, she won 14 top-level singles titles and 20 doubles titles.

Personal life and post-tennis career.

Garrison married Willard Jackson in September 1989; however, the marriage ended in divorce in 1997.  Since retiring from the tour, Garrison has worked as a television commentator and maintained active roles in the community and in tennis. She founded the Zina Garrison Foundation for the Homeless in 1988, and the Zina Garrison All-Court Tennis Program, which supports inner-city tennis in Houston, in 1992. She has also served as a member of the United States President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  Garrison has maintained a presence on the professional tennis scene, and was the captain for the U.S. Federation Cup (later Fed Cup) team. Garrison also led the U.S. women's team at the 2008 Beijing Games tennis event where team members Venus and Serena Williams won a gold medal in doubles.  After "piling on weight" in her 40s, Garrison participated in season 16 of the reality TV competition "The Biggest Loser", titled "", which premiered September 11, 2014 on NBC. Despite losing 8 lbs., she was the first person eliminated from the program.

Playing style.

Garrison played an attacking style. It was common for her to slice her backhand and attack the net (a chip-and-charge tactic). Garrison had excellent volleys and overheads. She was able to rally when she wanted to but her main game plan was to get to the net so she could finish with the volley.

Major finals.

Olympics.

Singles: 1 bronze medal.

Garrison lost in the semifinals to Steffi Graf 2–6, 0–6. In 1988, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semifinal players received bronze medals.

Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She was a women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1990, a three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, and a women's doubles gold medalist and singles bronze medalist at the 1988 Olympic Games.


Subspecies.

Subspecies within the species "Margaritifera magaritifera" include:

Description.

The freshwater pearl mussel is one of the longest-living invertebrates in existence. The oldest known specimen in Europe was caught in 1993 in Estonia when it was 134 years old.  Like all bivalve molluscs, the freshwater pearl mussel has a shell consisting of two parts that are hinged together, which can be closed to protect the animal's soft body within. The shell is large, heavy and elongated, typically yellowish-brown in colour when young and becoming darker with age. Older parts of the shell often appear corroded, an identifying feature of this mussel species. The inner surface of the shell is pearl white, sometimes tinged with attractive iridescent colours. Like all molluscs, the freshwater pearl mussel has a muscular 'foot'; this very large, white foot enables the mussel to move slowly and bury itself within the bottom substrate of its freshwater habitat.

Distribution.

The native distribution of this species is Holarctic. The freshwater pearl mussel can be found on both sides of the Atlantic, from the Arctic and temperate regions of western Russia, through Europe to northeastern North America.

Habitat.

Clean, fast-flowing streams and rivers are required for the freshwater pearl mussel, where it lives buried or partly buried in fine gravel and coarse sand, generally in water at depths between 0.5 and 2 metres, but sometimes at greater depths. Clean gravel and sand is essential, particularly for juvenile freshwater pearl mussels, for if the stream or river bottom becomes clogged with silt, they cannot obtain oxygen and will die. Also essential is the presence of a healthy population of salmonids, a group of fish including salmon and trout, on which the freshwater pearl mussel relies for part of its life cycle.

Lifecycle.

Capable of living for up to 130 years, the freshwater pearl mussel begins life as a tiny larva, measuring just 0.6 to 0.7 millimetres long, which is ejected into the water from an adult mussel in a mass of one to four million other larvae. This remarkable event takes place over just one to two days, sometime between July and September. The larvae, known as glochidia, resemble tiny mussels, but their minute shells are held open until they snap shut on a suitable host. The host of freshwater pearl mussel larvae are juvenile fish from the salmonid family, which includes the Atlantic salmon and sea trout. The chances of a larva encountering a suitable fish are very low, and thus nearly all are swept away and die; only a few are inhaled by an Atlantic salmon or sea trout, where they snap shut onto the fish's gills.  Attached to the gills of a fish, the glochidia live and grow in this oxygen-rich environment until the following May or June, when they drop off. The juvenile must land on clean gravely or sandy substrates if it is to successfully grow. Attached to the substrate, juvenile freshwater pearl mussels typically burrow themselves completely into the sand or gravel, while adults are generally found with a third of their shell exposed. Should they become dislodged, freshwater pearl mussels can rebury themselves, and are also capable of moving slowly across sandy sediments, using their large, muscular foot.  The freshwater pearl mussel grows extremely slowly, inhaling water through exposed siphons, and filtering out tiny organic particles on which it feeds. It is thought that in areas where this species was once abundant, this filter feeding acted to clarify the water, benefiting other species which inhabited the rivers and streams. Maturity is reached at an age of 10 to 15 years, followed by a reproductive period of over 75 years in which about 200 million larvae can be produced. In early summer each year, around June and July, male freshwater pearl mussels release sperm into the water, where they are inhaled by female mussels. Inside the female, the fertilized eggs develop in a pouch on the gills for several weeks, until temperature or other environmental cues trigger the female to release the larvae into the surrounding water.

Threats and conservation.

Once the most abundant bivalve mollusc in ancient rivers around the world, numbers of the freshwater pearl mussel are now declining in all countries and this species is nearly extinct in many areas. The causes of this decline are not fully understood, but alteration and degradation of its freshwater habitat undoubtedly plays a central role. The negative impacts humans have on rivers and streams come from a wide range of activities such as river regulation, drainage, sewage disposal, dredging, and water pollution, including the introduction of excess nutrients. Anything that affects the abundance of the fish hosts will also affect the freshwater pearl mussel; for example, the introduction of exotic fish species, such as the rainbow trout, reduce the number of native fish hosts. Introduced species are also directly affecting the freshwater pearl mussel; the invasion of the zebra mussel ("Dreissena polymorpha"), which has been spread to new locations by being transported on the bottom of boats or in ballast waters, has impacted freshwater pearl mussel populations in all countries it has invaded.  The freshwater pearl mussel, which is completely protected in all European countries, has been the focus of a significant amount of conservation efforts. Measures have included the transfer of adult mussels to areas where it had gone extinct, the culture of juvenile mussels, and the release of juvenile trout, which have been infected with glochidia, into small rivers, but mainly the freshwater pearl mussel has benefited from habitat restoration projects in some areas. Due to the essential role salmonid fish play in the life of the freshwater pearl mussel, the conservation of salmon and trout is also central in the survival of this endangered freshwater mussel.

The freshwater pearl mussel ("Margaritifera margaritifera") is an endangered species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusc in the family Margaritiferidae.


Legal resolution.

Some countries have specific laws against cybersquatting beyond the normal rules of trademark law. The United States, for example, has the U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999. This expansion of the Lanham (Trademark) Act (15 U.S.C.) is intended to provide protection against cybersquatting for individuals as well as owners of distinctive trademarked names. However, some notable personalities, including rock star Bruce Springsteen and actor Kevin Spacey, failed to obtain control of their names on the internet.  Jurisdiction is an issue, as shown in the case involving Kevin Spacey, in which Judge Gary A. Feess, of the United States District Court of the Central District of California, ruled that the actor would have to file a complaint in a Canadian court, where the current owner of kevinspacey.com resided. Spacey later won the domain through the Forum (alternative dispute resolution) f.k.a National Arbitration Forum.

International.

Since 1999, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has provided an arbitration system wherein a trademark holder can attempt to claim a squatted site. In 2006, there were 1823 complaints filed with WIPO, which was a 25% increase over the 2005 rate. In 2007 it was stated that 84% of the claims made since 1999 were decided in the complaining party's favor.

Social media.

With the rising of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, a new form of cybersquatting involves registering trademark-protected brands or names of public figures on popular social media websites.  On June 5, 2009, Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, filed a complaint against Twitter, accusing Twitter of cybersquatting. The dispute centered on a Twitter profile that used La Russa's name, had a picture of La Russa, and had a headline that said "Hey there! Tony La Russa is now using Twitter." The profile encouraged users to "join today to start receiving Tony La Russa's updates." According to La Russa, the status updates were vulgar and derogatory. La Russa argued that the author of the profile intended, in bad faith, to divert Internet traffic away from La Russa's website and make a profit from the injury to La Russa's mark. On June 26, 2009, La Russa filed a notice of voluntary dismissal after the parties settled the case.

Efforts to curtail cybersquatting in social media.

Social networking websites have attempted to curb cybersquatting, making cybersquatting a violation of their terms of service.

Twitter.

Twitter's name squatting policy forbids the cybersquatting as seen in many domain name disputes, like "username for sale" accounts: "Attempts to sell or extort other forms of payment in exchange for usernames will result in account suspension." Additionally, Twitter has an "Impersonation Policy" that forbids non-parody impersonation. An account may be guilty of impersonation if it confuses or misleads others; "accounts with the clear intent to confuse or mislead may be permanently suspended." Twitter's standard for defining parody is whether a reasonable person would be aware that the fake profile is a joke. Lastly, soon after the La Russa suit was filed, Twitter took another step to prevent "identity confusion" caused by squatting by unveiling "Verified Accounts". Usernames stamped with the "verified account" insignia indicate that the accounts are real and authentic.

Facebook.

Facebook reserves the right to reclaim usernames on the website if they infringe on a trademark. Trademark owners are responsible for reporting any trademark infringement on a username infringement form Facebook provides. Furthermore, Facebook usernames require "mobile phone authentication". In order to obtain a username, the individual needs to verify the account by phone.

Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.


Historical background.

During World War I the German Imperial Army had occupied the Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire by the autumn of 1915. The front stabilised along the line Riga–Daugavpils–Baranovichi.  Following the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the Russian Provisional Government declared the establishment of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia on, amalgamating the former Russian Governorate of Estonia and the northern portion of the Governorate of Livonia. After the October Revolution later in the same year, the elected Estonian Provincial Assembly declared itself the sovereign power in Estonia on 28 November 1917. On 24 February 1918, a day before the arrival of German troops, the Estonian Salvation Committee of the Provincial Assembly issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence. The Western Allies recognized the Republic of Estonia "de facto" in May 1918.  The term 'Grand Duchy of Livonia' refers to the Livonia region, which made up most of the young United Baltic Duchy.  The Latvian Provisional National Council was constituted on the basis of the law of self-government which the Russian Provisional Government granted to Latvia on 5 July 1917. The Latvian Provisional National Council first met on 16 November 1917 in Valka. On 30 November 1917, the Council declared an autonomous Latvian province within ethnographic boundaries, and a formal independent Latvian republic was declared on 15 January 1918.  After the Russian Revolution, German troops had started advancing from Courland, and by the end of February 1918 the German military administered the territories of Estonia that had declared independence and the Russian Governorate of Livonia. With the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, Bolshevist Russia accepted the loss of the Courland Governorate, and by agreements concluded in Berlin on 27 August 1918, the loss of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia and the Governorate of Livonia.

Attempt to create the United Baltic Duchy.

As a parallel political movement under the German military administration, Baltic Germans began forming provincial councils between September 1917 and March 1918.  On 8 March 1918, the local Baltic German-dominated'declared the restoration of Duchy of Courland ('), which was formally recognised by Kaiser Wilhelm on 15 March 1918. On 12 April 1918, a Provincial Assembly (") composed of 35 Baltic Germans, 13 Estonians, and 11 Latvians passed a resolution calling upon the German Emperor to recognize the Baltic provinces as a monarchy and make them a German protectorate.  The United Baltic Duchy was nominally recognized as a sovereign state by emperor Wilhelm II only on 22 September 1918, half a year after Soviet Russia had formally relinquished all authority over former Russian Imperial Baltic governorates to Germany in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On 5 November 1918, a temporary Regency Council (") for the new state led by Baron Adolf Pilar von Pilchau was formed on a joint basis from the two local Land Councils.  The capital of the new state was to be Riga. It was to be a confederation of seven cantons:'(Courland), Riga,'(Latgale),'(South Livonia),'(North Livonia),'(), and'(Estonia), the four first cantons thus covering the territory corresponding to today's Latvia and the latter three corresponding to today's Estonia.  The first head of state of the United Baltic Duchy was to be Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, not as a sovereign monarch, but as a subordinate to the German, similar to other princes of the German Empire. But Adolf Friedrich never assumed office. The appointed Regency Council consisting of four Baltic Germans, three Estonians and three Latvians functioned until 28 November 1918, without any international recognition, except Germany.  In October 1918, the Chancellor of Germany Prince Maximilian of Baden proposed to have the military administration in the Baltic replaced by civilian authority. The new policy was stated in a telegram from the German Foreign Office to the military administration of the Baltic: "The government of the Reich is unanimous in respect of the fundamental change in our policy towards the Baltic countries, namely that in the first instance policy is to be made with the Baltic peoples."

Independent Estonia and Latvia.

On 18 November 1918, Latvia proclaimed independence. August Winnig, the last representative of the German government, signed an agreement with representatives of the Estonian Provisional Government about handing over power on Estonian territory on 19 November. In Latvia, the Germans formally handed over authority to the Latvian national government headed by on 7 December 1918.  The'was formed by the government of the United Baltic Duchy as its national defense force. Upon taking command of the ', Major Alfred Fletcher, with the backing of the Baltic German land barons, began dismissing native Latvian elements and replacing them with Baltic Germans and'troops. Concurrently, German officers assumed most of the command positions. In his book "Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany, 1918–1923", author Robert G.L. Waite notes: "By mid-February 1919, Latvians composed less than one-fifth of their own army". Britain backed down after recognizing the gravity of the military situation, and the White Russian units and the'moved on and captured Riga on 22 May 1919.  After the capture of Riga, the'were accused of killing 300 Latvians in (), 200 in (), 125 in (), and over 3,000 in Riga. After taking part in the capture of Riga, in June 1919 General ordered his troops not to advance east against the Red Army, as the Allies had been expecting, but north, against the Estonians. On 19 June 1919, the Iron Division and'units launched an attack to capture areas around (), the'continued its advance towards the Estonian coast preparatory for a push on Petrograd. However, the'was defeated by the 3rd Estonian Division (led by ) and North Latvian Brigade in the Battle of, 19–23 June 1919.  On the morning of 23 June 1919, the Germans began a general retreat toward Riga. The Allies again insisted that the Germans withdraw their remaining troops from Latvia, and intervened to impose a ceasefire between the Estonians and the " when the Estonians were about to march into Riga. Meanwhile, an Allied mission composed of British troops under General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough had arrived in the Baltic to clear the Germans from the region and organize native armies for the Baltic states.

Aftermath.

The defeat of Germany in World War I in November 1918, followed by the defeat in 1919 of the'and German'units of General in Latvia by the 3rd Estonian Division and North Latvian Brigade, rendered the United Baltic Duchy irrelevant.  To ensure its return to Latvian control, the'was placed under British authority. After taking command of the'in mid-July 1919, Lt Col Harold Alexander (the future Alexander of Tunis), gradually dismissed the Baltic German elements. The Baltic nations of Estonia and Latvia were established as republics.  Võidupüha or Victory Day or the Victory Day in the Battle of Võnnu is a public holiday in Estonia which takes on June 23. The holiday has been celebrated since 1934 and marks the victory of Estonia and neighboring Latvia in the Battle of Cēsis against the Baltische Landeswehr on June 23, 1919.

The United Baltic Duchy, (,, ) also known as the Grand Duchy of Livonia, was a state proposed by the Baltic German nobility and exiled Russian nobility after the Russian Revolution and German occupation of the Courland, Livonian, and Estonian governorates of the Russian Empire. It was proposed in April 1918, after Estonia and Latvia had formally declared independence.


History.

In 1521, the tradesman Jean Dinocheau had a chapel built on the outskirts of Paris, which he dedicated to Saint Susanna. In 1577, his nephew Etienne Dinocheau had it extended into a larger church. In 1629, it became the parish church and thereafter underwent further work. The first stone of the church of Saint-Roch was laid by Louis XIV in 1653, accompanied by his mother Anne of Austria. Originally designed by Jacques Lemercier, the building's construction was halted in 1660 and was resumed in 1701 under the direction of architect Jacques Hardouin-Mansart, brother of the better-known Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Work was finally completed in 1754.  At the time of the French Revolution, the church of Saint-Roch was often at the centre of events and was the scene of many shootings which have left their mark on the façade. 13 Vendémiaire was one such occasion, this was pivotal in the rise of Napoleon. It was not only the outside of the church that was damaged. During the Revolution it was ransacked, and many works of art were stolen or destroyed.

Notable people.

The church contains the memorials of Denis Diderot, the Comte de Grasse, Baron d'Holbach, Henri de Lorraine-Harcourt, the playwright Pierre Corneille, André le Nôtre, Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin and Marie Anne de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV, and Claude-Adrien Helvétius. In 1791, several tombs were relocated from the Couvent des Jacobins, Saint-Honoré when it was taken over by Jacobin Club; they included that of the soldier François de Créquy (1629-1687), designed by Charles Le Brun and executed by Antoine Coysevox, and the painter Pierre Mignard (1612-1695).  Other notable burials included César de Vendôme (1664), René Duguay-Trouin (1736), Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1771), and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1806), while the Marquis de Sade, the Marquis de Lafayette and Vauban were among those married in this church.  After the failed November 1830 Polish Uprising, Saint-Roch became known as the 'Polish church' due to the many exiles who attended service there; they included Chopin (1810-1849), who allegedly composed a Veni Creator prayer he played on the church organ during Mass.  On 18 November 1880 Prince Roland Bonaparte and Marie-Félix Blanc were married at the church.  In 1825 a mass composed by Hector Berlioz was performed at the church.

The Church of Saint-Roch () is a late Baroque 126 meter-long church in Paris, dedicated to Saint Roch. Located at 284 rue Saint-Honoré, in the 1st arrondissement, it was built between 1653 and 1740.


Life.

Bobola was born in 1591 into a noble family in the Sandomir Palatinate in the Province of Lesser Poland of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, then a constituent part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1611 he entered the Society of Jesus in Vilnius, then in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the other part of the Commonwealth. He subsequently professed solemn vows and was ordained in 1622, after which he served for several years as an advisor, preacher, Superior of a Jesuit residence, and other jobs in various places.  From 1652 Bobola also worked as a country "missionary", in various locations of Lithuania: these included Polotsk, where he was probably stationed in 1655, and also Pinsk, (both now in Belarus). On 16 May 1657, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, he was captured in the village of Janów (now Ivanava, Belarus) by the Cossacks of Bohdan Chmielnicki and, after being subjected to a variety of tortures, killed.  One description of Bobola's death written in 1865 states:  A second account states that when Bobola refused to renounce his religion, he was stripped, tied to a hedge and whipped. In mockery, the Cossacks placed a crown of twigs on his head and then dragged him to his place of execution, a butcher's shop.

Veneration.

Bobola's body was originally buried in the Jesuit church in Pinsk. It was later moved to their church in Polotsk. By the beginning of the 18th century, however, nobody knew where Bobola's body was buried. In 1701 Father Martin Godebski, S.J., the Rector of the Pinsk College, reputedly had a vision of Bobola. This caused him to order a search for the body. It was reportedly found completely incorrupt, which is recognized by the Church and its supporters as evidence of holiness. In 1719 the casket was officially reopened and the body inspected by qualified medical personnel (five physicians and pharmacists). It was reportedly still completely incorrupt: pliable and with soft flesh. In 1922, the Bolsheviks moved the corpse, later described by an American journalist as a "remarkably well-preserved mummy", to the Museum of Hygiene of People's Commissioners of Health in Moscow. The whereabouts of the remains was not known to the Catholic authorities, and Pope Pius XI charged the Papal Famine Relief Mission in Russia, headed by American Jesuit Father Edmund A. Walsh, with the task of locating and "rescuing" them. In October 1923—as a kind of "pay" for help during famine—the remains were released to Walsh and his Assistant Director, Father Louis J. Gallagher, S.J. Well-packed by the two Jesuits, they were delivered to the Holy See by Gallagher on All Saints' Day (1 November) 1923. In May 1924, the relics were installed in Rome's Church of the Gesù, the main church of the Society of Jesus.  Since 19 June 1938 the body has been venerated at a shrine in Warsaw, with an arm remaining at the original shrine in Rome (see photo at left).  Declared Blessed by Pope Pius IX on 30 October 1853, Bobola was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 17 April 1938. His feast day was originally celebrated by the Jesuits on 23 May, but it is now generally celebrated on 16 May. In 2002, the Bishops' Conference of Poland declared Bobola a patron saint of Poland.

External links.

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Andrew Bobola, S.J. (, 1591 – 16 May 1657) was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the Apostle of Lithuania and the "hunter of souls". He was tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.


Design.

The TKS spacecraft was designed by Vladimir Chelomei (the VA capsule) and V. N. Bugayskiy (the FGB block) as a manned spacecraft launched with Proton rocket alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft for use with "Almaz" space stations. Development began in 1965; the "Almaz programme" had been abandoned by the time the first TKS spacecraft flew in 1977. The VA spacecraft (""Vozvrashaemiy Apparat"") was flown separately on four test missions with two craft per launch to test the design, as well as one "all-up" test mission and three resupply missions.  The project had further evolved with space station ""Modulny"" (""Modular"") based on the TKS design outline, reworked to dock with Salyut 7, Mir and ISS space stations. This development was designated FGB, or Functional Cargo Block.  The TKS spacecraft consisted of an 11F74 "Vozvraschaemyi Apparat" (or "Return Vehicle" commonly referred to as the VA), attached to an 11F77 "Transportniy Korabl Snabzheniya" ("Functional/Cargo Block" module or FGB).

TKS VA.

The TKS VA spacecraft was itself a very compact and efficient spacecraft. Typically it would reenter the atmosphere within 2 orbits, but could fly autonomously for up to 31 hours. The pressurized crew re-entry capsule was equipped with its own environmental control system, and topped with reaction control system, de-orbit braking engine, parachute system, and soft landing engines. Although extensively flight tested, it never flew with a crew on board.  The VA design was derived from the planned capsule for the Chelomei's LK-1 manned circumlunar spacecraft of the 1960s. It was also the basis for Chelomei's LK-700 Lunar Lander crew capsule. The VA looked somewhat similar to the Apollo capsule, but was 30% smaller than its NASA counterpart.

TKS FGB.

The FGB was entered from the VA spacecraft via a short tunnel. At the aft end a pilot station was equipped with controls and windows for manual docking with the Almaz space station. The docking port was also located here. Operational TKS spacecraft would have delivered KSI film return capsules to Almaz stations. These would have been stored around the docking port for transfer to the film capsule airlock for loading.

Missions.

VA spacecraft test flights.

Four flights with eight VA spacecraft without an FGB module were conducted to speed up the development of the TKS spacecraft:

TKS-1 (Kosmos 929).

Kosmos 929 was the first flight of a "complete" TKS spacecraft (VA spacecraft with FGB), launched on 17 July 1977 – it was a "solo" test flight and was not destined for a Salyut space station. The VA capsule returned to Earth 16 August 1977. The remainder of the spacecraft – the FGB – deorbited on 2 February 1978.

TKS-2 (Kosmos 1267).

On 25 April 1981, TKS-2 was launched unmanned as Kosmos 1267, the first FGB to dock with a space station. After separation and recovery of the VA capsule on 24 May 1981, the FGB docked on 19 June with Salyut 6, after 57 days of autonomous flight. It remained attached to the station until both deorbited and were destroyed on 29 July 1982.

TKS-3 (Kosmos 1443).

On 2 March 1983, TKS-3 was launched unmanned as Kosmos 1443. This time, the VA remained attached and the first "complete" TKS docked to Salyut 7 two days after launch. TKS-3 separated from the station on 14 August. After undocking, the FGB and the VA spacecraft separated and the VA spacecraft continued in space for four more days demonstrating autonomous flight, before the VA capsule successfully re-entered on 23 August 1983, landing 100 km south-east of Aralsk and returning 350 kg of material from the station. The FGB deorbited itself on 19 September 1983.

TKS-4 (Kosmos 1686).

TKS-4 was launched unmanned as Kosmos 1686 on 27 September 1985. The landing systems, ECS, seats, and manned controls were removed from the VA spacecraft, and instead other payload was installed: a high-resolution photo apparatus, an infrared telescope and the "Ozon" spectrometer. The TKS successfully docked with Salyut 7.  The "military" long-duration crew Salyut 7 EO-4, consisting of Viktor Savinykh, Alexander Volkov and the commander Vladimir Vasyutin, had manned Salyut 7 that month to conduct experiments with TKS-4. Commander Vasyutin fell ill soon after arriving at the station. Originally scheduled to have a six-month stay aboard Salyut 7, Vasyutin's illness forced the crew to make an emergency return to Earth on 21 November 1985, preventing the crew from finishing the TKS experiments. The crew of Soyuz T-15 returned to Salyut 7 in May 1986, to conclude some of the experiments and ferry equipment to the then new Mir space station.  Salyut 7 was moved to a higher orbit after that mission, while awaiting another "TKS" crew – there were even plans to return using the Buran shuttle. Such flights never materialized before Salyut 7 and Kosmos 1686 deorbited on 7 February 1991, burning up together over Argentina.

Further usage.

The TKS design, which has never been flown manned, has gone on to provide the basic structure for several later space-station components, such as:  Two TKS/Almaz VA capsules were bought for commercial use by the private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz. As of 2014, one of those were auctioned for 1 million euro, and the other was reportedly shipped away from the company's headquarters on Isle of Man in an undisclosed direction.

Existing hardware.

Some VA capsules are on display in museums or in storage.  Known articles include:

Gallery.

TKS-based and descendant spacecraft and modules.

The TKS spacecraft (,, "Transport Supply Spacecraft", GRAU index 11F72) was a Soviet spacecraft conceived in the late 1960s for resupply flights to the military Almaz space station.