Matt McQuillan (born 19 June 1981) is a Canadian professional golfer. He has played on the Canadian Tour since 2003, and won one tournament there. McQuillan earned 2011 playing privileges on the PGA Tour with a strong performance in stage three of Q-School, on his first attempt at the finals. His best career PGA Tour finish is a tie for third in the 2011 John Deere Classic.

Early years
Matthew Justin McQuillan was born in Kingston, Ontario. His father Mark and mother Donna are members at the Garrison Golf and Curling Club in Kingston, and introduced Matt to golf there in 1991. His father is a single-figure handicap player, and coached him for a few years. He received instruction at Garrison first in the club's junior program from pro shop manager John Holland, and then privately from assistant professional Kevin Dickey (a former Canadian Tour player).

Junior successes
McQuillan won the Garrison Men's Open and the Garrison Men's Club Championship in 1996 at age 15, becoming the youngest-ever winner of both events. He won the Club Championship again in 1998 (by 11 shots) and 1999 (by 20 shots, with a record score of 278, ten under par). He eventually won the Garrison Open half-a-dozen times. In 2002 he set the competitive course record at Garrison with a score of 9-under-par 63.

As McQuillan continued to improve, he earned success at higher levels, including victories in the 1999 Ontario Junior Championship at the Dalewood Golf Club in Port Hope, and in the 1999 Ontario Junior Match Play Championship. He claimed second place at the 1999 Canadian Junior Championship at the Maple City Golf Club in Chatham, Ontario. He was selected as Kingston's Amateur Athlete of the Year for 1999.

McQuillan represented Canada for the first time at the 2000 World Junior Team event in Japan, finishing as third individual scorer.

College and amateur golf
McQuillan graduated from La Salle Secondary School in Kingston, and earned a golf scholarship to Oklahoma State University, beginning in the fall of 2000, where he played for coach Mike Holder. McQuillan later transferred to the University of Georgia, but left college before completing his degree.

McQuillan placed second in the 2000 Ontario Men's Amateur Championship at the National Golf Club of Canada in Woodbridge, Ontario, earning a place on the four-player Ontario Willingdon Cup team. McQuillan represented Canada on the 2001 Four Nations' Cup team, which emerged victorious over teams from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan; this event was held at the Lambton Golf Club in Toronto. The six Canadian team members also included David Hearn, Jon Mills, and Lee Curry. McQuillan advanced to the semi-finals of the 2001 Canadian Amateur Championship, finally ending his tournament run with a loss to heralded amateur Graham Cooke. In 2002, McQuillan was the top-ranked player in Ontario entering the Ontario Amateur, but had to withdraw, suffering from mononucleosis.

Professional career
McQuillan turned professional, and finished 7th at the 2003 Spring qualifying tournament for the Canadian Tour. His most successful Canadian Tour result to date has been a victory at the 2005 Telus Edmonton Open, scoring 13-under-par 271 at the Edmonton Golf & Country Club, from 30 June to 3 July; McQuillan edged the runner-up, promising amateur Graham DeLaet, and won $24,000 (Canadian funds). McQuillan played in three Nationwide Tour events in 2005, with his best finish a tie for 25th position in the Alberta Classic.

He finished runner-up at the 2006 Canadian Tour Championship. For a time in the mid-2000s, he represented the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club in Kingston, but no longer does so. However, he still works with Dickey, now a teacher at Cataraqui. McQuillan received an honorary membership from Cataraqui on 21 December 2010, after he earned PGA Tour playing privileges for 2011.

McQuillan successfully played on the Tar Heels Tour in the Carolinas during the spring of 2008, in preparation for a return to PGA Tour qualifying in the fall of 2008. He set a new competitive course record at Cataraqui in mid-July 2008, winning the Cataraqui Pro-Am tournament, with a score of 62, 8-under-par, breaking the previous mark by one stroke. McQuillan played on the EGolf Professional Tour with success early in 2010, and played well at the Seaforth Country Classic on the Canadian Tour in August 2010, finishing in 4th place. He retains exempt status on the Canadian Tour for 2011. McQuillan worked as a bartender in Kingston to supplement his income between stints on pro golf tours.

Qualifies for PGA Tour
McQuillan entered PGA Tour qualifying in the fall of 2010, beginning at first stage. He scored 67 in the final round at first stage to advance. He then advanced to the third and final stage of 2010 PGA Tour qualifying, by placing third at the second stage qualifying event, hosted by the Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, California. McQuillan successfully gained PGA Tour status for the 2011 season, by finishing T16 at 11-under-par after six rounds, at final stage, hosted by the Orange County National facility near Orlando, Florida. This was his first trip to the finals.

2011 PGA Tour
McQuillan made his 2011 debut at the Sony Open in Hawaii in Honolulu, the first PGA Tour event of his career. He survived the 36-hole cut with rounds of 68-69, then finishing on the 36-hole final day (caused by a rainout on the scheduled first round day) with 71-74 for 282 and 55th place, winning $12,705. McQuillan earned last-minute entry to the Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs, shot a first-round 7-under-par 65 which included seven birdies and an eagle, but followed up with rounds of 76-73-77 to miss the fourth-round cut with a score of 3-over-par 291. At the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, McQuillan struggled with rounds of 74-77 to miss the halfway cut with a score of 7-over-par 151. McQuillan scored 76-76-68 for 6-over-par 220 in the AT&T National Pro-Am, missing the 54-hole cut. McQuillan shot rounds of 76-73 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic near Cancun, Mexico, missing the 36-hole cut. McQuillan scored 71-74 at the 2011 Puerto Rico Open, held just east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to miss the 36-hole cut by one stroke.

After playing on the PGA Tour for ten weeks in 2011, making just one cut in six events, McQuillan said the course setups he had been facing were much tougher than anything he had seen before, but added that he was settling into life on the Tour, and anticipated an improvement in his performance as he gained experience. McQuillan dropped down to the Nationwide Tour for his next event, the Louisiana Classic. After opening with 70-66 to move into contention, he struggled on the weekend with rounds of 76 and 73 to finish at one-over-par 285, tied for 62nd place, earning $1,463. McQuillan's struggles continued at the Valero Texas Open, where he missed the 36-hole cut after rounds of 82-75. McQuillan shot 78-77 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans to miss the cut by 12 strokes. McQuillan played the Nationwide Tour's Stadion Classic at UGA on his former home course in Athens, Georgia, but missed the 36-hole cut by three strokes with scores of 71-76. His next event was the HP Byron Nelson Championship near Dallas, where his scores of 73-73 missed the 36-hole cut by three strokes. McQuillan played the Nationwide Tour's Maryland event, the Melwood Prince George's County Open, and missed the cut by two shots with scores of 72-71. He shot 70-73 to miss the 36-hole cut by one stroke at the FedEx St. Jude Classic near Memphis. Although he missed another cut, by four strokes, at the Travelers Championship near Hartford with scores of 73-67, his second round was his first under 70 on the PGA Tour since Pebble Beach, four months before.

2011 John Deere Classic
McQuillan broke out of his slump at the John Deere Classic, in Silvis, Illinois. He opened with 64 to tie for second place, one stroke out of the lead. He made the halfway cut comfortably with a second-round 69, then played well on the weekend with rounds of 70-64, finishing with 17-under-par 267, to tie for third place, winning $261,000. His three eagles led the field. His position on the Official World Golf Ranking jumped to #506. McQuillan continued his good play at the Viking Classic, near Jackson, Mississippi, where he scored 72-65-71-67, for 13-under-par 275, to tie for 34th place, winning $18,990. McQuillan made his third straight cut at the RBC Canadian Open, held over the Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club in Vancouver, scoring 68-73-74-70 for 5-over-par 285, tied for 31st place, and winning $33,800. McQuillan saw his streak of three straight made cuts end at the 2011 Greenbrier Classic, where his scores of 71-74 missed the 36-hole cut by four strokes. McQuillan tied for sixth place at the 2011 Reno-Tahoe Open with scores of 71-69-71-66 for a 277 total, 11-under-par, winning $97,125.
McQuillan's scores of 69-70 at the Wyndham Championship missed the halfway cut by two strokes, and he failed to make the top 125-point scorers for the FedEx Cup, missing the four playoff events. McQuillan made seven cuts in 21 events and ended the season 137th on the money list.

In 2017, McQuillan qualified for the PGA Tour Canada.

Professional wins (2)

Canadian Tour wins (1)

Other wins (1)
2008 Cataraqui Pro-Am

See also
2010 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates

References

External links

Canadian male golfers
Oklahoma State Cowboys golfers
Georgia Bulldogs men's golfers
PGA Tour golfers
Golfing people from Ontario
Canadian people of Irish descent
Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario
1981 births
Living people

Matt McQuillan


Logic programming is using mathematical logic to write computer programs. There are specialized programming languages where the user can directly enter logical statements. Probably the best-known of these languages is called Prolog. Alonzo Church used a form of logic programming in what is known as lambda calculus today. Logic programming has also been used in LISP.

Programs consist of a set of rules and facts. In most cases, logic programming uses what is called negation as failure or weak negation: This means that if it is not possible to derive some clause  from the facts and rules, the system will assume that its negation is true.
Logic

Logic programming


Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev (; 26 June 1925 – 10 January 1970) was a Soviet fighter pilot with extensive experience in piloting different types of aircraft. He was the first commander of the cosmonaut corps and the cosmonaut who commanded the historic Voskhod 2 mission which saw the first man walk in space in 1965.

Early life
Pavel Belyayev was one of 6 children and was known as Pasha to his family and friends. He was born on 26 June 1925, in Chelishchevo, now Babushkinsky District, Vologda Oblast, Russia. In 1932 his family moved to the nearby village of Minkovo. His father was a physician's assistant and his mother worked on a collective farm. Belyayev began his schooling at the age of 7 in 1932. Physics and geography were his favourite subjects. As a boy he enjoyed playing hockey and hunting. Just before his 13th birthday the family moved to Kamensk-Uralsky region. He continued his education at the Gorkogo secondary school.

In 1942, Belyayev took on temporary work as a turner in a factory and later became a check operator in the Sinarsk pipes factory in support of the war effort. He applied to the special air force school in Sverdlovsk but failed to gain admission. He then attempted to join a fighting ski unit as a volunteer, but was again rejected because he was too young. In 1943, just prior to turning 18, he was called up. He then entered the 3rd Sarapul School where he began training as a naval pilot. He graduated in 1944 and then moved to the Stalin Naval Air School.

Air Force career
Belyayev graduated as a military pilot in 1945 with the rank of junior lieutenant. The war had ended in the west, so Belyayev was sent to defend Russia's eastern regions. He flew Yakovlev, Lavochkin and MiG fighters in the final days of the war against the Japanese, August 1945.

Belyayev remained in the East for the next decade, being stationed largely in Siberia. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1947. In 1950 he was promoted to senior lieutenant. During this time he flew seven different aircraft types and came to be considered one of the Soviet Union's most gifted commander pilots. He was awarded the Distinguished Combat service medal in 1953. In 1954 he was promoted to captain. While he remained fond of hunting, he also enjoyed more academic pursuits in his downtime including reading and writing poetry and playing the piano and accordion. In 1956 Belyayev succeeded in gaining entry into advanced studies at the Red Banner Air Force Academy. He graduated in 1959 as military pilot second class and with the rank of major.

Cosmonaut selection
During Belyayev's final studies at the Red banner Air Force Academy he had been interviewed and tested for possible inclusion in the space program. The selectors were impressed by his ability to withstand high g-Forces. Belyayev was sent to Air Squadron 661 4th IAD of the Black Sea Fleet. A month later he was appointed commander of the regiment's 241st squadron. By the time he was finally selected he had logged over 1,000 hours flight time in both piston and jet aircraft and had also completed approximately 40 parachute jumps.
Belyayev reported for assignment at the newly formed TsPK (cosmonaut training centre) on 25 March 1960. At 34, he was the oldest candidate accepted into the program. As a major he was the highest ranking candidate and the only one to have seen active service in World War II. Because of his senior rank, Belyayev became the first commander of the cosmonaut corps. Belyayev and Vladimir Komarov (2 years Belyayev's junior) were the only candidates to have Air Force Academy training. Yuri Gagarin nicknamed the two senior officers "The Professors"

In August Belyayev fractured his lower leg just above the ankle in parachute training, an accident that delayed his progress by approximately 12 months and excluded him from any early space flights. Due to the severity of the injury, it seemed unlikely that Belyayev would be readmitted to the program, but he worked constantly to recover and regain his fitness. After a year's absence he passed his medical and returned to training.

Space flight
After the success of the first Voskhod mission in 1964, a second more technically demanding mission was planned for 1965. Its primary aim was to have a cosmonaut leave the capsule and "space-walk". Belyayev was confirmed as prime crew commander of Voskhod 2 just 3 days prior to launch. There had been concern about his mission fitness following a poor performance in the altitude chamber testing 2 months before. It was his crewman Alexei Leonov who finally reported that "Those responsible for the malfunction were the factory specialists supporting the equipment", and that Belyayev had successfully corrected the fault himself, thereby also taking responsibility for the problem himself. Leonov, who had been chosen to perform the space walk described how he preferred to have Belyayev as his mission commander over Khrunov. "I lobbied hard for Pasha, whom I thought more capable than Khrunov. I had worked with him more; I trusted him."

Voskhod 2
Voskhod 2 launched with Belyayev and Leonov on board on 18 March 1965. Belyayev's call sign was Diamond (Russian: Алмаз) and his designation as mission commander was 1.

After Leonov successfully performed the first space walk, Belyayev prepared to return to Earth. Belyayev had to perform a manual reentry when the automatic reentry system failed. This required Belyayev to use the equipped Vzor navigation device to orient the capsule. Due to the cramped conditions inside the capsule and its poor design, Belyayev had to lie across the seats to use the Vzor while Leonov held him in place. Belyayev asked Leonov to check the craft's attitude, a move which caused the craft to overshoot its intended landing area by approximately  because of the extra time this took. Upon landing Belyayev had to force open the hatch after the explosive bolts failed to open it. Belyayev then had to pull Leonov, whose legs had become jammed under the TV screen console, out of the capsule. After spending a night back inside the capsule in extremely cold conditions, the crew were met by an advance rescue party the following morning. It took another day to clear a spot in the forest for a rescue helicopter to land  from the landing site.

After the success of the mission Belyayev and Leonov were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, given 15,000 rubles, a Volga car and 45 days leave.

Apollo 15 commander, astronaut David Scott recalled meeting Belyayev at the 1967 Paris Air Show, when he and other NASA representatives visited the Russian pavilion. "He was really gracious… Belyayev was a very positive, thoughtful guy, a real leader; I liked him a lot." On a reciprocal visit to the American pavilion, Belyayev disclosed that he had been "the first cosmonaut to bring his mission back to Earth on manual control".

He was originally to fly the Vostok 8 mission into Earth's Van Allen radiation belt, but this was cancelled.

Personal life
In 1948, he married Tatyana Filippovna Prikazchikova. They had two daughters; Irina and Ludmila.

Death and legacy
Belyayev died five years after the Voskhod 2 mission in 1970 from peritonitis that resulted from an operation on a stomach ulcer. He is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Belyayev has been commemorated with other prominent figures from the early Russian space program with a bust on Cosmonauts Alley in Moscow. Pavel Belyayev was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union (23 March 1965), Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, numerous medals and foreign orders. He also bore the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria, Hero of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia.

His name appears on the plaque accompanying the Fallen Astronaut sculpture placed on the Moon on 1 August 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15.

Accounts of Belyayev's life and space career appear in the 2003 book Fallen Astronauts and the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea, both by Colin Burgess. Belyayev is also used as a character in Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens 2005 novel, Freefall, in which he is the first person to land on the Moon, hours before Apollo 11.

Pavel Belyayev appeared on various stamps. In 1965, he appeared on stamps from the Soviet Union, Cuba, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Hungary. In 1966, he appeared on stamps from Bulgaria, Mali, and Mauritania.

A crater on the far side of the Moon was named after Belyayev by the IAU in 1970.

A minor planet discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh is named 2030 Belyaev after him.

Konstantin Khabensky portrayed Belyayev in the 2017 Russian film The Age of Pioneers, a dramatisation of the Voskhod 2 mission. Leonov acted as creative consultant and the film is dedicated to Belyayev.

Honors and awards

 Hero of the Soviet Union Medal "Gold Star"  (23 March 1965)
 Title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
 Order of Lenin (23 March 1965)
 Order of the Red Star (17 June 1961)
 Medal for Combat Service (11 November 1953)
 Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (9 May 1945)
 Medal "For the Victory over Japan" (30 September 1945)
 Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (25 May 1965)
 Medal "For Development of the Virgin Lands" (19 March 1965)
 Hero of Socialist Labour (Bulgaria, 1965)
 Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1965)
 Hero of Labour (Vietnam, 1965)
 Hero of Mongolia
 Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia, 1967).
 Order of Karl Marx (East Germany, 1965).
 Order of the Syrian Arab Republic with diamond.
 Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
 Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"
 Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 Medal "For Impeccable Service" 1st and 2nd class

References

Inline citations

General references

External links

 the official website of the city administration Baikonur - Honorary citizens of Baikonur

1925 births
1970 deaths
People from Babushkinsky District, Vologda Oblast
1965 in spaceflight
Soviet cosmonauts
Heroes of the Soviet Union
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Deaths from peritonitis
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Soviet World War II pilots
Voskhod program cosmonauts

Pavel Belyayev


Edward Durell Stone Jr. (August 30, 1932 – July 10, 2009) was an American landscape architect.

Biography
The son of the architect, Edward Durell Stone, he graduated from The Hill School, and then went on to Yale, where he received a degree in Architectural Design. Later he served three years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. This allowed him to see the world and the  "natural beauty of the land", which played a role in his decision to pursue landscape architecture. He received his master's degree of Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Stone began his career in 1959. Initially, he practiced under another Fort Lauderdale architect, but soon became self-employed and founded EDSA. The firm began to prosper while collaborating on projects with Stone's father.

Stone's career continued after getting its boost in 1960 when he created his firm, Edward Durell Stone Jr. and Associates or EDSA. In 1991, it was unanimous opinion among interviewed principals of large and small firms that Stone's firm was among the top five.(Landscape Architecture, 60). Stone's work and career greatly impacted tourism and community-living in the United States, especially in Florida, as well as in the Caribbean and Europe.(Gillette, 75) In Landscape Architecture Magazine, Jane Brown Gillette reports that Stone realized what he wanted to do at age seventeen while attending a dinner dance at the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Here the scenery within the building's courtyard affected him in such a way that would eventually have an effect on many landscapes throughout Florida and the Caribbean and on the profession of landscape architecture through his work.

Stone was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and he received the 1994 ASLA Medal. The medal "is the highest honor the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) may bestow upon a landscape architect whose lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of the public and the environment." Stone served three consecutive four-year terms on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, appointed by Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, and he served as a consultant to the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital in Washington, D.C., and to the Governor's Conference on Environmental Quality in the State of Florida.

At EDSA, Stone continued to play a role in directing the charettes that begin most projects, and he participated in design reviews (Gillete, 77). Gillette says EDSA specializes in recreation-based communities and resorts, both national and international. The firm also does work in urban and campus design, in places of entertainment and attraction, and in environment and ecotourism. Some of EDSA's main projects include Disney World's West Side, Euro Disneyland, Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale, the Fort Lauderdale Beach Revitalization, El Conquistador Resort and Country Club, and Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort and Casino. Stone and his firm have become recognized for their expertise in planning and design for resort and community development. The projects in Fort Lauderdale, voted best city of its size in 1994, have helped make the city a tourist destination (Gillette, 91). In designing these places, Stone says they try to create "an idealized place, what the environment would be if everything were right in the world."(Gillette, 78)

References

External links
 EDSA website
 Bracken Lecture Series - Department of Landscape Architecture: Penn State
 ASLA.org
 Disney World's West Side
 Gillette, Jane Brown. 1997. "Team Leader". Landscape Architecture March 1997. pg 73–79, 91.
 Landscape Architecture. 1991. "Landscape Architecture's Ten Largest Firms". Landscape Architecture Sept. 1991. pg. 60-70

1932 births
2009 deaths
The Hill School alumni
American landscape architects
Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni
Yale School of Architecture alumni

Edward Durell Stone Jr.


Sven Otto Julius Littorin (born 1966) is a Swedish former politician and architect of major structural reforms. As Minister for Employment in the cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt, he was in charge of the major overhaul of Swedish labor policies between 2006-2010. As President of the European Council of Ministers, in its Epsco formation, he oversaw the European Union response to labor market effects during the financial crisis of 2008-09. As party secretary of the Moderate Party 2002-2006, he played a major role in restructuring the party. As chief of staff to Minister for Fiscal and Financial Affairs during the Swedish banking crisis of 1992, he was one of the architects behind the Swedish banking rescue that Paul Krugman later proposed as a model for solving the Financial crisis of 2007–2008.

He was born and grew up in Östergötland, where he was active in the Moderate Youth League from an early stage. He was national chairman of the Moderate School Youth, a part of the youth league, 1984-1985. He has a B.Sc. in economics and business administration at Lund University. His résumé formerly also listed an MBA from the unaccredited Fairfax University (at the time licensed in Louisiana), but that degree was removed from his list of qualifications after it aroused controversy in June 2007 In 2011, Littorin was a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Since 2011 he has been a political affairs consultant, based in London, England.

Between 1991 and 1993, he was chief of staff to Minister for Fiscal and Financial Affairs, Bo Lundgren, later leader of the Moderate Party. After that he worked in the private sphere for, inter alia, Kreab. In 1997, he co-founded Momentor AB, a venture capital company, and worked as a senior partner until 2002. In 2002, he was appointed party secretary by Bo Lundgren and later became a part of Fredrik Reinfeldt's team. He has played an integral part in the subsequent modernisation of the party. After the success of the Moderate Party in the 2006 general election, he resigned as secretary general, and was later named Minister for Employment in the cabinet presented by Prime Minister Reinfeldt on 6 October 2006. Until 31 December 2006, this ministerial post was located within the Ministry of Enterprise, after which a separate Ministry of Employment. On 7 July 2010, he announced his immediate resignation, citing personal circumstances.

Reforms
As Sweden's Minister for Employment, Littorin was in charge of USD 12bn of the government budget; the second largest part of public spending, covering areas such as the unemployment insurance system, active labor market programs, and nine government agencies, including the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Work Environment Authority, and the Labor Court.

Littorin was in charge of some of the major policy reforms introduced during the first government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. These reforms included a major overhaul of the unemployment insurance system and a complete renovation of the Public Employment Service, introducing new instructions, a new board of directors, a new management team, a new structure and organization, new targets and incentives, as well as opening up for private competition. He has the current record of having answered the highest number of questions in Parliament - 337 - during one single term. As a Minister, he gave over 4.000 interviews, and made numerous public appearances domestically and internationally; among others for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Monetary Fund, and World Economic Forum.

During the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in autumn 2009, Littorin was also President of the European Council of Ministers, in its Epsco formation (Ministers for Employment, Social Policy, Health, and Consumer Affairs). As such, he oversaw European Union response to labor market effects caused by the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Littorin was also member of the Swedish Government's Globalization Council.

Resignation
On 7 July 2010, Littorin announced his immediate resignation. He had the day before been confronted by a reporter for the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet whether it was true that he had purchased sex. Littorin denied the allegations, but nevertheless resigned from the government. The official reason that he stated was the "harshness" of the media against him and his children, as well as "for private reasons", following divorce and a custody battle over his children.

Personal life
Littorin divorced from his first wife and has children from this marriage. He married Therése Evling in 2013.

References

External links

1966 births
Living people
Moderate Party politicians
People using unaccredited degrees
Swedish Ministers for Employment
Swedish male bloggers

Sven Otto Littorin


Messiah is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. It is Handel's most famous work, and in England, the most often performed of any big choral work. The title Messiah means "the anointed one" and is the name given to Jesus Christ in the Christian teaching.

Background to its composition

Georg Frideric Handel was born in Germany. When he was a young man he came to England and he liked it so much that he soon visited England again and stayed there for the rest of his life, becoming a naturalised Englishman says the legend.  Actually he was composer for the King of Hannover, who then became King of England, and Handel followed his "employer".

The main reason why Handel liked England at that time was because the people liked his music and gave him support. At this time Handel was known as a composer of operas. For about 20 years Handel spent most of his time working on operas: composing them, organising performances and looking for opera singers to sing his works.

By the late 1730s, however, people's tastes started to change and opera was not so popular. Handel changed to writing oratorios. Although it is thought that Handel invented the oratorio he in fact did not.Oratorio is Italian, after the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri at Rome, where famous musical services were held in the 16th century. Handel is just one composer of many who wrote oratorios. His oratorios are based on the English tradition of the Masque, which was something between a play and an opera. However, oratorios were about stories from the Old Testament. Instead of ancient gods or Roman emperors (which is what operas were about at that time) he used dramatic stories from the Bible. Among many great oratorios that he wrote, Messiah is his most famous one. However, it is different from his other oratorios in some ways.

Handel composes the Messiah

The words of Messiah were written by a librettist Charles Jennens. He chose several passages from the Bible and made a libretto, which he sent to Handel in 1741 (although people today often call the work "The Messiah", both Handel and Jennens call it Messiah without the word "the"). Handel immediately realized that a great work of music could be made from Jennens' libretto. He thought that Jennens was a very clever person, and in his letters to him he calls the work "Your Oratorio Messiah". Handel sat down in the front room of his house in Brook Street, London, and wrote the whole oratorio in twenty four days. It is a long work, lasting over four hours, and when one thinks that Handel had to write out all the parts for the choir and orchestra, he must have worked unbelievably hard. When he had finished the work, he put it in a drawer for seven weeks. Perhaps he thought it would never be played in London, because at that time the London audiences did not seem to like him.

Handel goes to Dublin

Just at that time he got an invitation to go to Dublin. He was asked to give a concert to get money for charity. The main charity for which money was being raised was the debtor's prison. In those days people who ran into debt (meaning that they owed lots of people money but had no money to pay them) were sent to prison. There they were fed by charity (people who fed them out of kindness). If no one fed them they just starved to death. Handel had nearly been sent to a debtor's prison himself a few years earlier.

He went to Dublin as soon as he could, and he was there by November. On 23 December, he performed his oratorio L'Allegro. Unlike the London audiences, people in Dublin loved it. This was followed by Alexander's Feast, Imeneo and, in April, Messiah. He was a very great success in Dublin, and he stayed there until August, when he returned to London.

The music

Messiah tells the story of Christ. It is divided into three parts. Part One tells of the coming and the birth of Christ. Part Two is about his death on the cross, and his Ascension into Heaven, and Part III concentrates on Paul's teaching of the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven. Handel usually performed his oratorios in theatres, not in churches, and his audience went as a change from going to the opera. They did not go for religious worship.

Handel's oratorios are normally dramatic, with the four solo singers (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) each taking the part of a character from the Bible. Messiah is different. The soloists sing about the story of Christ. The great choruses, where the choir sings, praise the Lord in the wonderful music. Some of the music is homophonic (e.g. the Hallelujah chorus), some of the choruses are dramatic dialogues (e.g. Lift up your heads), or they are a fugue (He trusted in God and Amen), or they describe things dramatically (All we like sheep).

The Hallelujah Chorus

The most well known of all the movements in Messiah is the one popularly known as the "Hallelujah Chorus," because of the frequently sung exclamation "Hallelujah". It occurs at the end of the Part Two of the oratorio.'

It has become a tradition for the audience to stand up for the "Hallelujah Chorus," although it is unknown when this practice began.

There is a well-known but apocryphal story of King George II attending a royal performance of Messiah and supposedly rising to his feet during the "Hallelujah Chorus." Whenever the king stood up, everyone in his presence had to stand, hence the whole audience rose to their feet as well. However, this story does not appear to be based on any historical source.

Compositions by George Frideric Handel
Oratorios

Messiah (Handel)


The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and Russian troops invaded the North Holland peninsula in the Batavian Republic. The campaign had two strategic objectives: to neutralize the Batavian fleet and to promote an uprising by followers of the former stadtholder William V against the Batavian government. The invasion was opposed by a slightly smaller joint Franco-Batavian army. Tactically, the Anglo-Russian forces were successful initially, defeating the defenders in the battles of Callantsoog and the Krabbendam, but subsequent battles went against the Anglo-Russian forces. Following a defeat at Castricum, the Duke of York, the British supreme commander, decided upon a strategic retreat to the original bridgehead in the extreme north of the peninsula. Subsequently, an agreement was negotiated with the supreme commander of the Franco-Batavian forces, General Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, that allowed the Anglo-Russian forces to evacuate this bridgehead unmolested. However, the expedition partly succeeded in its first objective, capturing a significant proportion of the Batavian fleet.

Background
In the 1780s, a pro-French Patriot rebellion failed to establish a democratic Dutch republic without the House of Orange-Nassau, when the latter's power was restored following the 1787 Prussian invasion of Holland.
The Dutch Republic, again ruled by the Orangists, had been a member of the First Coalition that opposed the revolutionary French Republic after 1792. In 1795, at the end of their Flanders Campaign, the forces of stadtholder William V of Orange, and his British and Austrian allies were defeated by the invading French army under General Charles Pichegru, augmented with a contingent of Dutch Patriot revolutionaries under General Herman Willem Daendels. The Dutch Republic was overthrown; the stadtholder fled the country to London; and the Batavian Republic was proclaimed.

Despite the conquest of the old Republic in 1795, the war had not ended; the Netherlands had just changed sides and now fully participated in the continuing conflagration, but its role had changed. France did not need its army so much as its naval resources, in which France itself was deficient. In 1796, under the new alliance, the Dutch started a programme of naval construction. Manning the new ships was a problem, because the officer corps of the old navy was staunchly Orangist. People like the "Hero of Doggerbank" Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen honourably withheld their services. The new navy was therefore officered by people like Jan Willem de Winter, who were of the correct political hue, but had only limited experience. This directly led to the debacles of the surrender at Saldanha Bay in 1796, and of the Battle of Camperdown in 1797. At Camperdown the Batavian navy behaved creditably, but this did not lessen the material losses, and the Republic had to start its naval construction programme all over again. This programme soon brought the Batavian navy up to sufficient strength that Great Britain had to worry about its potential contribution to a threatened French invasion of England or Ireland.

The First Coalition broke up in 1797, but Britain soon found a new ally in Emperor Paul I of Russia. The new Allies scored some successes in the land war against France, especially in the puppet Cisalpine Republic and Helvetic Republic where the armies of the Second Coalition succeeded in pushing back the French on a broad front in early 1799. The British, especially the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, were eager to maintain this momentum by attacking at other extremes of the French "empire". The Batavian Republic seemed an opportune target for such an attack, with the Prince of Orange lobbying hard for just such a full military effort to reinstate him, and with Orangist agents leading the British to believe that France's hold over the Batavian Republic was weak and that a determined strike by the British towards Amsterdam would lead to a massive uprising against the French. An added incentive was that a combined campaign against the Dutch had been a condition of the agreement with the Russians of 28 December 1798. In that agreement, Emperor Paul I  had placed 45,000 Russian troops at the disposal of the Coalition in return for British subsidies. This convention was further detailed in an agreement of 22 June 1799, whereby Paul promised to furnish a force of seventeen battalions of infantry, two companies of artillery, one company of pioneers, and one squadron of hussars for the expedition to Holland; 17,593 men in total. In return, Britain promised to pay a subsidy of £88,000, and another £44,000 a month when the troops were in the field. Great Britain would itself furnish 13,000 troops and supply most of the transport and naval-escort vessels.

Campaign

From the outset, the joint expedition that was now planned should not be a purely military affair. Pitt assumed that, like the Italian and Swiss populations, the Dutch would enthusiastically support the invasion against the French. According to the British historian Simon Schama: "Once the Orange standard had been raised, he seems to have believed that the Batavian army would go over to the forces of the Coalition to the last man and that its Republic would collapse under the barest pressure." Ultimately, these expectations were disappointed.

Preparations
The British forces were assembled in the vicinity of Canterbury under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. They were mostly made up of volunteers from the militia who had recently been permitted to join regular regiments. While a British transport fleet under Admiral Home Riggs Popham sailed to Reval to collect the Russian contingent, the mustering of the British troops progressed smoothly. It was therefore decided not to wait for the return of Popham but to send a division under Abercromby to establish a bridgehead on which it was hoped the Russian troops and a second division under the designated supreme commander of the expedition, the Duke of York, could easily be disembarked.

The question was where this amphibious landing could best take place. Several locations on the Dutch coast were considered. Many strategists preferred either the mouth of the Meuse river, or the vicinity of Scheveningen, both of which offered an opportunity to quickly deploy the attacking forces and threaten the supply lines of the French army of occupation in the Batavian Republic. These locations had as a severe drawback the dangerous shoals before the Dutch coast that made it difficult to navigate these waters. The extreme north of the North Holland peninsula did not have this drawback and a landing here could thus be supported by British sea power in the North Sea. It also recommended itself to the planners of the invasion, because the area was only lightly fortified; a large part of the Dutch fleet (an important objective of the expedition) was based nearby and might be at least dislocated, if the landing was successful; and the terrain seemed to promise the possibility of an easy advance on the important strategic objective of the city of Amsterdam. The area south of Den Helder was therefore selected as the landing place.

The British did not make a secret of their preparations. The authorities in France and the Batavian Republic were therefore aware of them. The intended landing location was not known to them and they were therefore forced to spread their forces thinly to guard against all eventualities. The Batavian army at the time consisted of two divisions (each of about 10,000 men), one commanded by Lieutenant-General Daendels, the other by Lieutenant-General Jean-Baptiste Dumonceau. The latter had taken up positions in Friesland and Groningen to guard against a landing from the Wadden Sea or an incursion from the East. Daendels indeed was positioned in the northern part of North Holland, with headquarters at Schagen. The French troops (only 15,000 of the full complement of 25,000 troops that the Treaty of The Hague called for) were divided between Zeeland (another logical landing spot, where in 1809 the Walcheren Expedition took place), and the middle of the country, strung out between the coast and Nijmegen. The entire Franco-Batavian army was placed under the command of the French General Brune.

Landing at Callantsoog and the surrender of the Batavian squadron

The invasion met with early success. The depleted Dutch fleet, under Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, evaded battle, leaving the disembarkation of the British troops near Callantsoog on 27 August 1799, unopposed. General Daendels was defeated in the Battle of Callantsoog when he tried to prevent the establishment of a bridgehead by the division under General Abercromby. This was due to the fact that he was forced to divide his forces, because of the nature of the field of battle, a narrow band of dunes, bordered by the North-Sea beach on one side, and a swamp on the other. Due to communication problems, his right wing was never fully engaged, and the forces of his left wing were fed piecemeal into the battle. The British made very good use of the support their gunboats could offer from close inshore. The naval gunfire inflicted heavy losses on the Dutch.

Daendels then concluded that the Helder fortresses were untenable and evacuated their garrisons, thereby offering the invaders a fortified base. This decision proved disastrous for Dutch morale: the sight of the flag of the hereditary stadtholder, who soon joined  the expedition, further undermined the already questionable loyalty of the Dutch fleet in the Zuyder Zee. When Admiral Story belatedly decided to engage the British fleet, he had a full-fledged mutiny on his hands, where the Orangist sailors were led by their own officers, Captains Van Braam and Van Capellen. This led to the Vlieter Incident, the surrender on 30 August of the fleet with 632 guns and 3700 men to Admiral Andrew Mitchell, without a shot being fired. Later, the Prince went aboard Story's flagship, Washington to receive the accolades of the mutineers.

Arnhem and Krabbendam

The Dutch land forces were less amenable to the Prince's powers of persuasion, and neither was the civilian population in North Holland. If anything, the effect of the invasion was to unify the divided Republic against the invader. The Prince's arrogant proclamation, peremptorily ordering the Dutch people to rally to Orange, was also not calculated to convince the Dutch of the wisdom of a restoration of the Stadholderate. It was therefore not surprising that the call for an uprising by the old Stadtholder himself from Lingen met with indifference by the people. A motley band of Orangist émigrés at the Westervoortsche Bridge near Arnhem, was easily put to flight on September 4 by a small detachment of the Batavian National Guard, proving that the invaders had to do the work themselves. Other Orangist incursions in the eastern Netherlands and Friesland met with even less success. Nevertheless, the Uitvoerend Bewind of the Batavian Republic declared martial law and under these emergency measures an aristocratic partisan of the stadtholder, the freule (baroness) Judith Van Dorth tot Holthuizen was convicted of sedition and executed.

Meanwhile, the Franco-Batavian forces on the North Holland front were being reinforced. General Brune brought up a French division under General Dominique Vandamme and ordered General Dumonceau to bring up the main part of his 2nd Batavian division in forced marches from Friesland. The latter arrived on 9 September at Alkmaar. The Franco-Batavian army now had about 25,000 men available against about 20,000 for the British. In view of this numerical superiority, and the fact that reinforcements for the British were expected any day, Brune decided to attack Abercromby's position.

The British prevailed at the Battle of Krabbendam near Alkmaar on 10 September, where the Batavians and French were routed. This defeat was partly due to sloppy staffwork that allocated one narrow road to the columns of both Batavian divisions that were supposed to converge on the hamlet of Krabbendam. This hamlet sat astride one of the few entry roads to the Zijpe polder in which Abercromby had set up an armed camp. The polder formed a natural redoubt with its dike acting as a rampart and its circular drainage canal as a moat. The straight and narrow road through Krabbendam formed one of the few easy entries, but it was easily defensible also. The original plan had this entry point attacked by both Batavian divisions, but because Daendels' division was forced to take a more easterly route, only the division of Dumonceau was brought to bear. This division could not be fully deployed due to the nature of the terrain and the Batavian forces were therefore again fed piecemeal into the battle. They were unable to prevail over the valiant defence of the British 20th Foot. Elsewhere, the French division of General Vandamme was likewise unable to overcome the obstacles of the canal and the dike behind it, that protected the British troops. Vandamme therefore failed to turn Abercromby's right flank as planned.

With Britain having naval superiority, both on the North Sea and the Zuider Zee, British reinforcements under the Duke of York (who assumed supreme command) and Russian troops under general Ivan Ivanovitch Hermann von Fersen could easily be landed at Den Helder. The combined forces soon achieved numerical superiority with 40,000 men against 23,000 of the depleted Franco-Batavian army.

Bergen

The Duke of York decided to exploit this numerical superiority as soon as possible. He therefore prepared for an attack on a broad front. To understand the problems this attack encountered one needs to understand the peculiar nature of the terrain. The North Holland peninsula is bordered on the North-Sea side by a beach and a broad band of dunes (except for a short stretch south of Petten, where only a large dike defends the hinterland against flooding). Next to the dunes is a band of high land that can easily be traversed by a marching army. Further east, the terrain changes to former bogland and other low-lying areas consisting of former lakes that had been drained by the Dutch in the 17th century. These low-lying areas were criss-crossed by ditches and larger drainage canals, needed in the water-management of the area, that formed serious impediments to manoeuvring forces, even when they were not inundated. Such inundations were increasingly performed by the Dutch engineers the more the campaign progressed, to deny more and more freedom of movement to the Anglo-Russian forces. At the time of the Battle of Bergen that commenced on 19 September, most of those inundations were not yet completed, so that at that time the main obstacles were still the watercourses.

The Duke of York drew up a daring plan of attack that amounted to an attempt at double envelopment of the Franco-Batavian army. He divided his forces over four columns. The rightmost column, under the Russian Lieutenant-General Hermann, with 9,000 Russians and 2,500 British troops, starting from Petten and Krabbendam, had as objective the village of Bergen. Next to it marched an Anglo-Russian force of 6,500 troops under Lieutenant-General Dundas with as objective Schoorldam. The next column, 5,000 men under Lieutenant-General Pulteney had as objective the area of Langedijk with the hamlets of Oudkarspel and Heerhugowaard. Finally, the fourth column, 9,000 infantry and 160 cavalry under Lieutenant-General Abercromby, was intended to turn the Franco-Batavian right flank, by first attaining Hoorn and then thrusting southward to Purmerend.

The plans of the Anglo-Russian troops were lacking. The attack was supposed to start at dawn on the 19th, but the Russian right wing already started at 3 AM in pitch darkness. Though they gained an early advantage against the surprised French troops on the Franco-Batavian left wing, they also suffered needless losses through friendly fire, as the troops were unable to distinguish friend from foe. They eventually gained Bergen, but were counter-attacked by French reinforcements marching north from Egmond aan Zee. These threatened to turn the Russian right wing by marching along the beach. The Russians, driven out of Bergen, retreated in some disorder to their starting positions because of this threat of being out-flanked. In the confusion general Hermann was made a prisoner of war. The attack of the right-wing pincer therefore was a dismal failure.

The column of General Dundas (accompanied by the commander-in-chief, the Duke of York) made only slow progress after it started its advance at dawn, because of the watercourses it encountered that were difficult to cross, as the defenders had removed the bridges. While they were slowly advancing on Schoorldam, the defender of that position, General Dumonceau with the 2nd Batavian division, had time to launch a diversionary attack on the Russians attacking Bergen, which contributed greatly to the confusion in the Russian ranks. When Dundas finally arrived at Schoorldam, Dumonceau was wounded by grapeshot. What exactly happened on the Dutch side after that is unclear as his replacement, General Bonhomme, failed to make an after-battle report. The upshot was that the division fell back in some disorder on Koedijk. The British failed to exploit this retreat, due to a counter-attack from the Dutch, but mainly because the rout of the Russian troops on the right wing also forced a withdrawal in the form of an orderly rear-guard action of the troops of York and Dundas. They also eventually returned to their starting positions.

The third column, with Generals Pulteney, Don and Coote, likewise found the terrain difficult. This column was forced to use the road on a dike, called the Langedijk (long dike) that divides several polders. This dike was flanked on the right hand by a deep drainage canal, and on the other side the many ditches in the land also hindered easy deployment. The road led to the village of Oudkarspel where the 1st Batavian division of General Daendels had built some fieldworks (the Dutch complained that Brune had prohibited the full development of fortifications, which made the defence more difficult). The first attack on this strongpoint by Pulteney ended in disaster with the British fleeing in panic until they could be rallied behind another dike that gave some cover against the Dutch artillery fire. Several other British frontal attacks were also repulsed with great loss, and an encircling movement proved impracticable due to the canal. General Daendels made the mistake of ordering an under-strength sally from his redoubt by 100 grenadiers. Not only was this easily repulsed, but the rout of the grenadiers enabled the pursuing British, following hot on their heels, to penetrate the Dutch entrenchments and rout the entire group of defenders. This rout could only be stopped at the end of the Langedijk. The retreating troops suffered very heavy losses due to British artillery fire. Daendels finally personally led a counter-attack with only one battalion of grenadiers, but by then the debacle on the British right wing had been communicated to Pulteney, who therefore was already withdrawing to his starting position. The British therefore made no net territorial gains, but they had dealt the Batavians heavy losses in casualties and prisoners.

Finally, the long march of the fourth column under General Abercromby went completely unopposed. He reached Hoorn without mishap and managed to surprise the weak garrison at this city. Hoorn was occupied and briefly the locals displayed the colours of the stadtholder. The planned march south  from Hoorn, which was the point of the entire manoeuvre, as it would have enabled Abercromby to turn the right flank of the Franco-Batavian army, proved impossible because of the obstacles the defenders had prepared (This explains why Abercromby had not encountered opposition on his march to Hoorn). After the retreat of the other columns Abercromby received orders to evacuate Hoorn and likewise go back to his starting position. The citizens of Hoorn quickly took down their orange flags again. Abercromby's work had therefore been completely in vain, and would have been so even if the attack on the right wing had been successful. His route was simply too circuitous to be successful. A more direct route might have offered a better chance of success.

In sum, neither side made any territorial gains in this battle. The losses in personnel were substantial on both sides, and appear to have been about equal.

Alkmaar

After the surrender of the Batavian squadron on 30 August, the British fleet had become master not just of the North Sea, but also of the Zuider Zee. Remarkably, the British had not made use of this advantage (and of the psychological consequences of the surrender for Batavian morale) to force the issue, for instance by making an amphibious landing near Amsterdam. General Krayenhoff, who at the time was in charge of improvising the defences of that city, points out that for a few days Amsterdam lay quite defenseless against such an attack. In his opinion the campaign might have ended then and there. The British fleet had remained strangely passive. This changed in the days after the Battle of Bergen when the British belatedly occupied the undefended ports of Medemblik, Enkhuizen, and Hoorn, at the same time mastering the West Friesland region between these ports. A number of islands in the Zuider Zee were also occupied, but by then the window of opportunity to capture Amsterdam had closed.

On land, the initiative still lay with the expeditionary force, that received new Russian reinforcements after 19 September that made up for at least the Russian losses. The Duke of York did not press the attack for about two weeks because of bad weather, and this afforded an opportunity to the defenders to complete their inundations and other defences. The Langedijk now became a narrow "island" in a shallow lake with the now-improved fortifications of Oudkarspel acting as an impenetrable "Thermopylae." The 1st Batavian division of Daendels still defended this part of the front, but Brune was able to shift large parts of that division (especially its cavalry units) to his other wing. The eastern seaboard of the peninsula was made even more impenetrable by inundations, and a secondary line of entrenchments was prepared between Monnickendam and Purmerend. The main effect of these defensive preparations was, that the low-lying eastern part of the peninsula became impassable to the expeditionary force and that henceforth operations would be limited to the relatively narrow band, consisting of the beach, dunes and the plain directly adjacent to them, roughly the area between Alkmaar and the sea.

The weather improved in early October and the Duke of York then made his plan for what was to become known as the Battle of Alkmaar of 2 October 1799 (though "Second Bergen" would seem more appropriate, as the former city never was involved, and the latter village again became the centre of the battle). The Duke of York's former left wing, under General Abercromby, was moved over completely to the extreme right wing, with the other columns moving to the left to make room. This had the effect of placing exclusively-British formations on both wings (Pulteney and Abercromby) and having mixed Anglo-Russian formations in the column next to Abercromby's under the new Russian commander, General Ivan Essen. The fourth column (between Pulteney and Essen) was made up of British troops under General Dundas. York intended to have all three columns on the right wing converge on the Franco-Batavian left wing, which consisted of the French division of Vandamme near the coast (the 2nd Batavian division of Dumonceau -now commanded by Bonhomme- was placed in the Franco-Batavian center). The division of Pulteney was used as a screening force of the left wing, to deter Daendels.

The plan of attack could now be characterized as one of "single envelopment," with Abercromby's column intended to turn the French left wing by marching along the beach. To this end the start of the advance had to be delayed until 6.30 AM, when low tide allowed Abercromby to use the beach. The Anglo-Russian centre advanced slowly but steadily, much hindered by the difficult terrain of the dunes on the right and the water-course-ridden plain between the dunes and the Alkmaar canal on the left. The Franco-Batavians fought a steady rear-guard action, falling back on Bergen (the French) and Koedijk (the Batavians), where they made a stand. In the afternoon the British brigade in Essen's column (General Coote) seemed to make a sudden dash in the dunes, but got too far ahead of the remainder of Essen's column, which followed far more slowly, and the French launched a spirited counter-attack from Bergen in two columns under Generals Gouvion and Boudet to exploit the gap. They were driven back with some difficulty, but managed to retain the village of Bergen for the remainder of the day, despite continued Anglo-Russian attacks.

Meanwhile, the column of General Abercromby made very slow progress along the beach, mostly because the tide was coming in again, which narrowed the beach to a very small band, consisting of loose sand. The troops and horses were suffering severely from fatigue and thirst. In the course of the afternoon they were observed by the French who brought up sharpshooters at first, who caused a number of casualties, especially of the officers. The French sent more and more substantial reinforcements through the dunes and eventually General Vandamme brought up a substantial cavalry force which he led personally in a charge against the British horse-artillery batteries that temporarily fell into French hands. This cavalry attack was eventually repulsed by a counter-attack led by Lord Paget, who drove the French all the way back to Egmond aan Zee.

By then night had fallen and major operations stopped. Abercromby had by then passed the latitude of Bergen, so  theoretically the French were outflanked there. Though he did not have the strength to exploit this position at the time, General Brune felt sufficiently threatened by this that he decided to order a general strategic retreat from Bergen, and from his other positions of 2 October, on the next morning. Both the French and the Batavians now fell back on their secondary line. Daendels retreated to the prepared positions at Monnickendam and Purmerend, after which Krayenhoff completed the inundations in front of this line. Bonhomme and Vandamme occupied a new line between Uitgeest, Castricum and Wijk aan Zee. This guarded the narrowest part of the North Holland peninsula, as in those days the IJ still  bisected the province. Here they awaited the next move of the enemy.

Castricum

With the retreat of the Franco-Batavian army the greater part of the North Holland peninsula was now in Anglo-Russian hands, at least theoretically. Large parts of the country, the former lakes of the Beemster, Schermer, and Wormer, had been flooded, depriving the British of their rich farmland and the supplies that might have been obtained there. In consequence, most supplies had to be landed at Den Helder and then brought forward with much difficulty across roads that were almost impassable because of the incessant rains. Beside the troops, the hungry mouths of about 3,000 deserters and mutineers that the Hereditary Prince hoped to form into a Dutch Brigade, but that were not employed by the British, had to be fed. Provisions were running short.

The Duke of York (now headquartered in Alkmaar, which city had opened its gates to him on 3 October) wasted as little time as possible in pressing the offensive. He knew that Brune had been reinforced with six French battalions, brought up from Belgium. His own forces were in steady decline, especially because of sickness. By the start of the next phase of the campaign: the Battle of Castricum of 6 October, his effective force amounted to no more than 27,000.

Brune had divided his left wing into three divisions: Gouvion near Wijk aan Zee in the dunes; to his right Boudet around Castricum; and the 2nd Batavian division, still commanded by Bonhomme, around Uitgeest. In front of this entrenched line there were French outposts, in Bakkum and Limmen, commanded by brigadier-general Pacthod. On the morning of 6 October these were attacked by the now-familiar three columns: Abercromby along the beach, Essen in the middle and Dundas on the left, while Pulteney still rather uselessly masked Daendels. The Anglo-Russians of Essen's column easily drove out the French outposts. The Duke of York appears to have had nothing more in mind than an armed reconnaissance, but their early success tempted the Russians to attack Castricum in force and this village was tenaciously defended by Pacthod. The village changed hands several times that day as Brune had Boudet bring up reinforcements. The fighting attracted reinforcements from the columns of Dundas and Abercromby, the latter personally bringing up his reserve-brigade to attack Castricum late in the afternoon

Brune then ordered a bayonet attack which drove back the British and Russians in disorder. They were pursued in the direction of Bakkum by French cavalry under General Barbou and a rout might have ensued had not the light dragoons of Lord Paget intervened in a surprise charge from a hidden dune valley. The French cavalry was now routed in its turn. They drew along the exhausted Franco-Batavian troops that had only shortly before retaken Castricum and a disorderly retreat was about to start

The advance of the British was broken by a counter-attack of the Batavian hussars under Colonel Quaita. This turned the tide in the battle. The Anglo-Russian troops in their turn now broke and retreated in disorder to Bakkum and Limmen, pursued by the Franco-Batavian cavalry. Only the quickly falling darkness ended the slaughter.

All this time the French of General Gouvion and the British column of Abercromby had been fighting a separate battle near the beach and in the dunes. Apart from an artillery duel, in which the Batavian artillery of Gouvion inflicted heavy losses on the British,  this remained rather static, especially after Abercromby left with the British reserve to join Essen. The fight intensified against the evening when Abercromby returned and tried to attack but Gouvion held his line.

On the Batavian right wing of General Daendels, absolutely nothing happened that day, as the inundations made his lines impenetrable. There was a strange incident when the British General Don, under cover of a flag of truce, tried to get permission to cross the Batavian lines on a mission to the Batavian government. As on the Batavian left wing the battle had clearly started, Daendels considered this an abuse of the flag of truce. Besides, Don turned out to have papers on his person that could be considered to be of a seditious nature. Daendels therefore arrested Don as a spy and sent him to Brune's headquarters. Don was incarcerated in the fortress of Lille and only years later exchanged for the Irish rebel James Napper Tandy.

Anglo-Russian retreat and capitulation
Though on the night of 6 October the two armies were back in their starting positions (though the outposts in Bakkum and Limmen remained in British hands), and the Anglo-Russian losses had not been devastating (though they were about double the Franco-Batavian losses), the Duke of York now convened a council of war with his lieutenants-general. The outcome of this conference was that the Anglo-Russian army withdrew completely to the original bridgehead of the Zijpe polder, relinquishing all terrain that had been gained since 19 September. The cities of Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik were also evacuated and the following Batavian troops could only just prevent the burning of the warehouses with naval stores in those cities by the British. The retreat was executed in such haste that two field hospitals full of British wounded were left in Alkmaar, together with 400 women and children of soldiers.

The strategic withdrawal was completed on 8 October, though Prince William of Gloucester, retreating from Hoorn, fought a rearguard action against Daendels in the following days. By mid-October, the situation of before 19 September had been restored, the Anglo-Russians ensconced in their natural redoubt and the Franco-Batavians besieging them. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, and early winter gales made provisioning by sea difficult. The Duke of York was now faced with the prospect of a winter siege in a situation in which his troops might well face starvation (on 13 October provisions for only eleven days were still available). He therefore decided to approach Brune with a proposal for an honourable capitulation transmitted by general Knox on 14 October.

The following negotiations were short. Brune at the behest of the Batavian government at first demanded the return of the captured Batavian squadron. The Duke of York countered with a threat to breach the dike near Petten, thereby inundating the countryside around the Zijpe polder. Though General Krayenhoff was not impressed by this threat (after all, he had spent the previous weeks flooding most of the peninsula himself, and knew that the process could be reversed without too much difficulty) and so advised Brune, the latter was more easily impressed (or feigned this; Krayenhoff also darkly mentions a gift of a number of "magnificent horses" by the Duke to Brune as a possible deal-clincher) and soon agreed to a convention that was very favourable to the Anglo-Russians. In this Convention of Alkmaar that was signed on 18 October no more mention was made of the return of the ships. The Anglo-Russian troops and the Orangist mutineers were granted an undisturbed evacuation, which had to be completed before 1 December. There would be an exchange of 8,000 prisoners of war, including Batavian seamen, that had been captured at the Battle of Camperdown (Admiral De Winter, who had been paroled earlier, was specifically included). The British promised to return the fortresses at Den Helder with their guns in good order. Except for the return of their prisoners of war, the Batavians thought they had got the worst of this exchange, but they were powerless to get a better deal.

An armistice went into force immediately and the evacuation was completed on 19 November, when General Pulteney left with the last British troops. The Russians sailed along the British coast until they reached the Channel islands where they spent the winter, returning to St.Petersburg in August 1800.

Aftermath
The capitulation was favourable to the British and their Russian allies. They extracted their troops unharmed so that these could fight again in other theatres of war. The initial British reports about the conduct of the Russian troops had been highly unfavourable, reason for Czar Paul to dishonour them. The Duke of York thought this too harsh, and he sent a letter to Paul specifically exculpating a number of the Russian regiments.

The British public and Parliament at first were well pleased with the conduct of the British troops. Both Admiral Mitchell and General Abercromby were voted the thanks of Parliament and both received honorary swords, valued at 100 guineas, from the City of London. Mitchell was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). When the failure of the expedition had sunk in and its cost had become clear, popular sentiment changed. In Parliament, the leader of the Opposition, Richard Brinsley Sheridan severely castigated the government in a speech, delivered on 9 February 1800, in the House of Commons

For the Batavian Republic the material losses sustained during the expedition were severe. The Batavian navy lost 16 ships-of-the-line, five frigates, three corvettes, and one brig, out of a total of 55 ships. This surrender technically was accepted in the name of the Stadtholder by the British, a conceit they adopted for diplomatic reasons, but a number of the ships were later "purchased" from the Stadtholder by the Royal Navy.

In France the expedition may have contributed (together with the initial French military reversals in Switzerland) to the fall of the Directoire. They were driven from power in the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire by Napoleon Bonaparte.

References

Sources
  Colenbrander, H.T. (1908) De Bataafsche Republiek
 The campaign in Holland, 1799, by a subaltern (1861) W. Mitchell
  (1996) The Younger Pitt: The consuming struggle. Stanford University Press,
 Harvey, Robert. War of Wars: The Epic Struggle Between Britain and France 1789-1815. London, 2007
 Hague, William. Pitt the Younger.Random House, 2005 ,
 , British minor expeditions: 1746 to 1814. HMSO, 1884
  (1822) Histoire Critique Et Militaire Des Guerres de la Revolution: Nouvelle Edition, Redigee Sur de Nouveaux Documens, Et Augmentee D'un Grand Nombre de Cartes Et de Plans (tome xv, ch. xciii)
   (1832) Geschiedkundige Beschouwing van den Oorlog op het grondgebied der Bataafsche Republiek in 1799. J.C. Vieweg
 Schama, S. (1977), Patriots and Liberators. Revolution in the Netherlands 1780-1813, New York, Vintage books,
 Urban, Mark. Generals: Ten British Commanders Who Shaped the World. Faber and Faber, 2005.

1799 in the Batavian Republic
Campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars
Conflicts in 1799
History of North Holland
Invasions by Great Britain
Military history of the Batavian Republic
Military history of the Netherlands
Military operations involving Great Britain
Military operations involving Russia
Invasions by Russia
Amphibious operations
1799 in Europe
French Directory
Amphibious operations involving the United Kingdom
Paul I of Russia

Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland


For the city in British Columbia, see Surrey, British Columbia.

Surrey is a county in southern England. The size of Surrey is about 1,663 km² and it has about 1,059,000 people (2002). It is near London. Surrey's largest town is Guildford. In Guildford there is also a university. The River Thames forms part of Surrey's north border.

Surrey is a setting of War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (Woking, Leatherhead in particular).

Surrey is near London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports. It has access to major road routes (including the M25, M3 and M23). It has frequent rail services into Central London.

Ceremonial counties of England

Surrey


A number is called a perfect number if by adding all the positive divisors of the number (except itself), the result is the number itself.

6 is the first perfect number. Its divisors (other than the number itself: 6) are 1, 2, and 3 and 1 + 2 + 3 equals 6. Other perfect numbers include 28, 496 and 8128.

Perfect numbers that are even

Euclid discovered that the first four perfect numbers are generated by the formula 2n-1(2n - 1):

for n = 2:   21(22 - 1) = 6
for n = 3:   22(23 - 1) = 28
for n = 5:   24(25 - 1) = 496
for n = 7:   26(27 - 1) = 8128

Euclid saw that 2n - 1 is a prime number in these four cases.  He then proved that the formula 2n-1(2n - 1) gives an even perfect number whenever 2n - 1 is prime (Euclid, Prop. IX.36).

Ancient mathematicians made many assumptions about perfect numbers based on the four they knew. Most of the assumptions were wrong. One of these assumptions was that since 2, 3, 5, and 7 are precisely the first four primes, the fifth perfect number would be obtained when n = 11, the fifth prime. However, 211 - 1 = 2047 = 23 × 89 is not prime and therefore n = 11 does not give a perfect number. Two other wrong assumptions were:

The fifth perfect number would have five digits since the first four had 1, 2, 3, and 4 digits respectively.
The perfect numbers would alternately end in 6 or 8.

The fifth perfect number () has 8 digits. This falsifies the first assumption. For the second assumption, the fifth perfect number indeed ends with a 6. However, the sixth (8 589 869 056) also ends in a 6. It is straightforward to show the last digit of any even perfect number must be 6 or 8.

In order for  to be prime, it is necessary that  should be prime.  Prime numbers of the form 2n - 1 are known as Mersenne primes, after the seventeenth-century monk Marin Mersenne, who studied number theory and perfect numbers.

Two millennia after Euclid, Euler proved that the formula 2n-1(2n - 1) will yield all the even perfect numbers. Therefore, every Mersenne prime will yield a distinct even perfect number–there is a concrete one-to-one association between even perfect numbers and Mersenne primes. This result is often referred to as the "Euclid-Euler Theorem". Till January 2013, only 48 Mersenne primes are known. This means there are 48 perfect numbers known, the largest being 257,885,160 × (257,885,161 - 1) with 34,850,340 digits.

The first 42 even perfect numbers are 2n-1(2n - 1) for
n = 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 61, 89, 107, 127, 521, 607, 1279, 2203, 2281, 3217, 4253, 4423, 9689, 9941, 11213, 19937, 21701, 23209, 44497, 86243, 110503, 132049, 216091, 756839, 859433, 1257787, 1398269, 2976221, 3021377, 6972593, 13466917, 20996011, 24036583, 25964951
The other 7 known are for n = 30402457, 32582657, 37156667, 42643801, 43112609, 57885161, 74207281.
It is currently not known whether there are others between them.

It is still not known if there are infinitely many Mersenne primes and perfect numbers. The search for new Mersenne primes is the goal of the GIMPS distributed computing project.

Since any even perfect number has the form 2n-1(2n - 1), it is a triangular number, and, like all triangular numbers, it is  the sum of all natural numbers up to a certain point; in this case: 2n - 1.  Also, any even perfect number except the first one is the sum of the first 2(n-1)/2 odd cubes:

Perfect numbers that are odd

It is not known whether there are any odd perfect numbers. Various results have been obtained, but none that has helped to locate one or otherwise resolve the question of their existence. Carl Pomerance  has presented a heuristic argument which suggests that no odd perfect numbers exist.  Also, it has been conjectured that there are no odd Ore's harmonic numbers. If true, this would mean that there are no odd perfect numbers.

Any odd perfect number N must satisfy the following conditions:
 N > 10300.  It is likely that, in the near future, it will be proven that N > 10500.
 N is of the form

where:
 q, p1, ..., pk are distinct primes.
 q ≡ α ≡ 1 (modulo 4) (Euler).

Proof
Let  be odd perfect number. Since divisor function is multiplicative,
.

 must be an even not divisible by 4 and all the remaining must be odd.

forces .
 Either qα > 1020, or  > 1020 for some j (Cohen 1987).
 N <  (Nielsen 2003).
 The relation ≡ ...≡  ≡  1 (modulo 3) is not satisfied (McDaniel 1970).
 The smallest prime factor of N is less than (2k + 8) / 3 (Grün 1952).

 The largest prime factor of N is greater than 108 (Takeshi Goto and Yasuo Ohno, 2006).
 The second largest prime factor is greater than 104, and the third largest prime factor is greater than 100 (Iannucci 1999, 2000).
 N has at least 75 prime factors; and at least 9 distinct prime factors. If 3 is not one of the factors of N, then N has at least 12 distinct prime factors (Nielsen 2006; Kevin Hare 2005).

Minor results
Even perfect numbers have a very precise form; odd perfect numbers are rare, if indeed they do exist. There are a number of results on perfect numbers that are actually quite easy to prove but nevertheless superficially impressive; some of them also come under Richard Guy's Strong Law of Small Numbers:
Every odd perfect number is of the form 12m + 1 or 4356m + 1089 or 468m + 117 or 2916m + 729 (Roberts 2008).
An odd perfect number is not divisible by 105 (Kühnel 1949).
Every odd perfect number is the sum of two squares (Stuyvaert 1896).
A Fermat number cannot be a perfect number (Luca 2000).
The only even perfect number of the form   is 28 (Makowski 1962).
By dividing the definition through by the perfect number N,  the reciprocals of the factors of a perfect number N must add up to 2:
For 6, we have ;
For 28, we have , etc.
 The number of divisors of a perfect number (whether even or odd) must be even, since N cannot be a perfect square.
From these two results it follows that every perfect number is an Ore's harmonic number.

Related concepts
The sum of proper divisors gives various other kinds of numbers.  Numbers where the sum is less than the number itself are called deficient, and where it is greater than the number, abundant. These terms, together with perfect itself, come from Greek numerology. A pair of numbers which are the sum of each other's proper divisors are called amicable, and larger cycles of numbers are called sociable. A positive integer such that every smaller positive integer is a sum of distinct divisors of it is a practical number.

By definition, a perfect number is a fixed point of the restricted sum-of-divisors function s(n) = σ(n) − n, and the aliquot sequence associated with a perfect number is a constant sequence.

References

 Graeme L. Cohen, On the largest component of an odd perfect number, Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, vol. 42 (1987), no. 2, pp. 280–286.
 Euclid, Elements, Book IX, Proposition 36. See D.E. Joyce's website for a translation and discussion of this proposition and its proof.
 Takeshi Goto and Yasuo Ohno, Odd perfect numbers have a prime factor exceeding 108. Preprint, 2006. Available from Takeshi Goto's webpage "Largest prime factor of an odd perfect number ".
 Otto Grün, Über ungerade vollkommene Zahlen, Mathematische Zeitschrift, vol. 55 (1952), pp. 353–354.
 Kevin Hare, New techniques for bounds on the total number of prime factors of an odd perfect number.  Preprint, 2005. Available from his webpage .
 Douglas E. Iannucci, The second largest prime divisor of an odd perfect number exceeds ten thousand, Mathematics of Computation, vol. 68 (1999), no. 228, pp. 1749–1760.
 Douglas E. Iannucci, The third largest prime divisor of an odd perfect number exceeds one hundred, Mathematics of Computation, vol. 69 (2000), no. 230, pages 867–879.
 H.-J. Kanold, Untersuchungen über ungerade vollkommene Zahlen, Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, vol. 183 (1941), pp. 98–109.
 Ullrich Kühnel, Verschärfung der notwendigen Bedingungen für die Existenz von ungeraden vollkommenen Zahlen, "Mathematische Zeitschrift", vol. 52 (1949), 201—211.
 Florian Luca, The anti-social Fermat number, Amer. Math. Monthly 107 (2000), pp. 171–173.
 W. L. McDaniel, The non-existence of odd perfect numbers of a certain form, Archiv der Mathematik (Basel), vol. 21 (1970), pp. 52–53.
 Pace P. Nielsen, "An upper bound for odd perfect numbers," Integers, vol. 3 (2003), A14, 9 pp.
 Pace P. Nielsen, Odd perfect numbers have at least nine different prime factors, Mathematics of Computation, in press, 2006.
 T. Roberts, "On the Form of an Odd Perfect Number", Australian Mathematical Gazette, 35:4 (2008), p244.
 R. Steuerwald, Verschärfung einer notwendigen Bedingung für die Existenz einer ungeraden vollkommenen Zahl, S.-B. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 1937, pp. 69–72.
 Tomohiro Yamada, Odd perfect numbers of a special form, Colloq. Math. vol. 103 (2005), pp. 303–307.

Other websites

 David Moews: Perfect, amicable and sociable numbers
 Perfect numbers - History and Theory
 Perfect Number - from MathWorld
 List of Perfect Numbers  at the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
List of known Perfect Numbers  All known perfect numbers are here.
OddPerfect.org  A projected distributed computing project to search for odd perfect numbers.

Number theory
Integer sequences

Perfect number


Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece after Athens. There were 325,182 people at the census of 2011. Including the suburbs, there were 1,110,312 people. It is in the region of Macedonia in northern Greece. It is the capital of the Thessaloniki prefecture and it is the capital of the periphery of central Macedonia. It is the largest city in the geographical region of Macedonia. It has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa in the Köppen climate classification). The average rainfall is relatively low, due to the rain shadow from the Pindos mountains. Unlike in Athens, there are frequent frosts and snow every winter.

History

Thessaloniki was established by King Cassander of Macedon, friend of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. He named the city after the sister of Alexander the Great, princess Thessalonike, which in Greek means victory over Thessaly.

From late antiquity to the late Middle Ages (330AD-1430AD) it was the second most important city of Byzantine Empire. Then Thessaloniki faced many invasions from enemies such as the Avaroi, Bulgars and others. In the year 1204, the crusaders conquered Thessaloniki and created the Kingdom of Thessalonica. Later it was liberated by Byzantines and then sold to the Republic of Venice but the year 1430, it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

Thessaloniki was a part of Ottoman Empire for approximately 500 years and in 1912 it became part of Greece when Greece acquired Macedonia following the Balkan Wars. Many famous people have lived or were born here, such as the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, many saints like Cyril and Methodius, who invented the Cyrillic alphabet, and Saint Demetrius, who is the patron saint of the city, and many politicians, such as the founder of modern-day Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Most of the city was completely destroyed in a large fire in 1917 and was rebuilt in the 1920s. Thessaloniki was place to both the Salonica and Macedonian fronts during World War 1, this fronts were made of French, Serbian, English, Italian, and a Russian division. This fronts were key in 1918 to the Entente victory over both Bulgaria and Austria. It was later occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, during the Greek Invasion.

Sights of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki has many sights. The most famous sight in Thessaloniki is the white tower. The White tower was a part of Thessaloniki's ancient walls that were built many times through the ages. Thessaloniki was the second-most well-fortified city in the Byzantine Empire, after Constantinople (Istanbul). The walls can still be seen above the city today and despite the many earthquakes, they are still standing. The city was home to a Roman imperial palace and mausoleum. The palace ruins can be seen today but the mausoleum together with a Roman arch can be still seen standing today. Very important sights of Thessaloniki are the medieval churches such as Agios Dimitrios, Agios Georgios and Agia Sofia. Agios Dimitrios it the largest and oldest Basilica in Greece. Thessaloniki's Christian monuments are part of the UNESCO World Heritage initiative. The city also has many Ottoman monuments, such as the Bey Hammam and the old district of the city near the walls, with its distinctly Turkish architecture. Many museums are in the city and some of them are: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, Jewish Museum, Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and others.

Thessaloniki is known throughout Greece and the countries nearby as a city with a great nightlife even in winter, when most famous Greek tourist destinations are closed. It is also widely considered the Greek city of love due to its many romantic streets and alleys.

Thessaloniki


The National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1955–56 season to the best performing player of the regular season. The winner receives the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, which is named in honor of the first commissioner (then president) of the NBA, who served from 1946 until 1963. Until the 1979–80 season, the MVP was selected by a vote of NBA players. Since the 1980–81 season, the award is decided by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

Each member of the voting panel casts a vote for first to fifth place selections. Each first-place vote is worth 10 points; each second-place vote is worth seven; each third-place vote is worth five, fourth-place is worth three and fifth-place is worth one. Starting from 2010, one ballot was cast by fans through online voting. The player with the highest point total wins the award. As of June 2019, the current holder of the award is Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Every player who has won this award and has been eligible for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been inducted. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award a record six times. He is also the only player to win the award despite his team not making the playoffs back in the 1975–76 season. Both Bill Russell and Michael Jordan won the award five times, while Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James won the award four times. Russell and James are the only players to have won the award four times in five seasons.Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson each won the award three times, while Bob Pettit, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash and Stephen Curry have each won it twice. Only two rookies have won the award: Chamberlain in the 1959–60 season and Wes Unseld in the 1968–69 season. Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria, Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Nash of Canada, Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, and Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece are the only MVP winners considered "international players" by the NBA.

Curry in 2015–16 is the only player to have won the award unanimously. Shaquille O'Neal in 1999–2000 and James in 2012–13 are the only two players to have fallen one vote shy of a unanimous selection, both receiving 120 of 121 votes. Since the 1975–76 season, only two players have been named MVP for a season in which their team failed to win at least 50 regular-season games—Moses Malone (twice, 1978–79 and 1981–82) and Russell Westbrook (2016–17).

1956 establishments in the United States
Most valuable player awards
National Basketball Association
Sports trophies and awards

NBA Most Valuable Player Award


Cheat Mountain is an exceptionally high and rugged ridge situated in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. It is about  long (north to south) and more than five miles (8 km) wide at its widest. Its highest point is at its southernmost end at Thorny Flat, which has an elevation of . Several other knobs rise above  along its length.

The mountain was once home to the largest red spruce forest south of Maine and a large portion of it now lies within the Monongahela National Forest.

Geography
Cheat Mountain traverses the entire length of central Randolph County, West Virginia, from a northern point just west of Parsons to a southern point about  south of the Randolph/Pocahontas county line, near the community of Stony Bottom, where it impinges upon Back Allegheny Mountain. All but the northernmost  and the southernmost  are within Randolph County. The western flank of Cheat Mountain is skirted by U.S. Route 219 which connects a string of communities in the Tygart River Valley (notably, from north to south, Montrose, Kerens, Elkins, Beverly, Huttonsville and Valley Head). The eastern flank, overlooking the valley of Shavers Fork, is more remote. However, all but the northernmost  or so of it is skirted by the Western Maryland Railroad, connecting (from north to south) the communities of Bowden, Bemis and Cheat Bridge. Cheat Mountain is crossed (east/west) by two federal highways: U.S. Route 33 in its northern third and U.S. Route 250 in its southern third.

The Cheat River, a tributary of the Monongahela, is formed at Parsons, just east of the northern tip of Cheat Mountain, by the confluence of Shavers Fork and Black Fork.

History

Civil War
Cheat Mountain was strategically important during the early Operations in Western Virginia campaign of the American Civil War.  One engagement —  the Battle of Cheat Mountain  —   took place here September 12–15, 1861.

Gen. Robert E. Lee directed his first offensive of the Civil War against Brig. Gen. Joseph Reynolds's entrenchments on the summit of Cheat Mountain. The Confederate attacks were uncoordinated, however, and the Federal defense was so stubborn that Col. Albert Rust (who led the attacks) was convinced that he confronted an overwhelming force, when he actually faced only about 300 determined Federals. Lee called off the attack and, after maneuvering in the vicinity, withdrew to Valley Head on September 17, 1861. During the night of October 2–3, Reynolds with two brigades advanced from Cheat Mountain to reconnoiter the Confederate position at Camp Bartow on the Greenbrier River. He drove in the Confederate pickets and opened fire with his artillery. After sporadic fighting and an abortive attempt to turn his enemy's right flank, Reynolds withdrew to Cheat Mountain. Also in October, Lee renewed operations against Laurel Mountain with the troops of Floyd and Loring, but the operation was called off because of poor communication and lack of supplies. Lee was recalled to Richmond on October 30 after achieving little in western Virginia.

In December, Confederate forces under Col. Edward Johnson occupied the summit of nearby Allegheny Mountain to defend the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. A Union force under Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy attacked Johnson on December 13. Fighting continued for much of the morning as each side maneuvered to gain the advantage. Finally, Milroy's troops were repulsed, and he retreated to his camps near Cheat Mountain. At the end of 1861, Johnson remained at Camp Allegheny with five regiments, with Henry Heth at Lewisburg with two regiments.

The highest Union camp of the War was located at Cheat Summit, also known as White Top, at the southern end of Cheat Mountain. This commanding stronghold controlled the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike as it passed west into the Tygart River Valley. Cheat Summit Fort (Fort Milroy) was occupied from July 16, 1861 until April 1862 when it was abandoned due to extremes of weather as well as strategic developments.

An account of the Civil War activity on Cheat Mountain can be found in Ambrose Bierce's article "On A Mountain".

Logging era
The West Virginia timber industry grew rapidly toward the turn of the 20th century.  In the early 1900s, Cheat was extensively timbered by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and its Cass operation, West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company. By 1905, the summit had been reached by loggers and by 1960 the mountain was virtually barren. The timbering of Cheat has been chronicled in many books. Notable is W. E. Blackhurst's Of Men and A Mighty Mountain (1965) which details how difficult life was on the mountain for the mostly immigrant workers of the lumber operation.

Tourist era
A state park and tourist service, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, opened in 1960 and takes visitors up the side of Cheat Mountain to Bald Knob via the same route the logging railroad used in the 1900s. (Contrary to popular belief, Cass Railroad does not take visitors to the summit of Cheat Mountain, but rather the summit of the connected Back Allegheny Mountain.)

In 1974, the Snowshoe Mountain ski resort opened on the southern tip of Cheat Mountain near Thorny Flat.

See also
Barton Knob
Cheat Mountain salamander
White Top

References

External links
Nature Conservancy: Cheat Mountain

Ridges of West Virginia
Ridges of Pocahontas County, West Virginia
Landforms of Randolph County, West Virginia
Landforms of Tucker County, West Virginia
Allegheny Mountains
Monongahela National Forest
Randolph County, West Virginia in the American Civil War

Cheat Mountain


Joan Cross CBE (7 September 1900 – 12 December 1993) was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten. She also sang in the Italian and German operatic repertoires. She later became a musical administrator, taking on the direction of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company.

Career
Cross was born in London. She attended St Paul's Girls' School, where her music teacher was the composer Gustav Holst, and studied singing at the Trinity College of Music. In 1923, she joined the chorus of the Vic-Wells opera company at the Old Vic, later taking on a wide range of solo soprano roles for the Sadler's Wells company and a few at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her Covent Garden performances included Mimi in La Bohème and Desdemona (to Lauritz Melchior's Otello) in 1934.

During this period she also became a noted Marschallin, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, Elisabeth, Elsa, Madame Butterfly, Aida, Donna Anna and Tatiana.

Cross undertook the direction of Sadler's Wells Opera Company in the Second World War. Sadler's Wells had been forced to convert to a touring company because its theatre was requisitioned by the government for war-related purposes. The theatre reopened on 7 June 1945 with the première of Britten's Peter Grimes, in which work Cross created the leading female role of Ellen Orford.

The other Britten roles that she created were:

Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (Glyndebourne 1946);
Lady Billows in Albert Herring (Glyndebourne 1947);
Elizabeth I in Gloriana (Covent Garden 1953); and
Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw (La Fenice, Venice 1954).

In the series of Decca recordings of his operas Britten conducted, Cross appeared only in the 1955 mono recording of The Turn of the Screw, the other operas being recorded after her retirement from singing—namely Peter Grimes in 1958, Albert Herring in 1964 and The Rape of Lucretia in 1970. (Gloriana was not commercially recorded until 1992, when Cross was aged 92.) However, archival recordings of her performances as Ellen Orford and the Female Chorus became available in the 1990s.

Because of rifts within the Sadler's Wells Company, Cross left to become a founding member of the English Opera Group in 1946–7. She sang comparatively little in the post-war years and retired from singing in 1955.

Cross began directing opera in 1946, beginning with Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden and, in 1950, she staged La traviata for Sadler's Wells. In addition to directing in London she also worked abroad, primarily in the Netherlands and with the Norwegian National Opera.

She founded the Opera School (later the National School of Opera, then London Opera Centre) with Anne Wood in 1948.

Joan Cross died in Aldeburgh on 12 December 1993. She is buried in Saint Peter and Saint Paul's churchyard, Aldeburgh, where her associates Britten, Peter Pears and Imogen Holst are also interred.

As well as her Britten recordings, Cross made 78-rpm discs of a number of operatic arias and other pieces of music during the 1930s and '40s. They attest not only to the beauty of her good-sized lyric voice but also to the high quality of her technique and the intelligence of her interpretations.

Sources
D. Brook, Singers of Today (Revised Edition – Rockliff, London 1958), 55–60.

1900 births
1993 deaths
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
English operatic sopranos
Benjamin Britten
Singers from London
20th-century British women opera singers
British arts administrators
Women arts administrators

Joan Cross


Steric effects are the effects seen in molecules that come from the fact that atoms occupy space. When atoms are put close to each other, this costs energy. The electrons near the atoms want to stay away from each other. This can change the way molecules want to react. It can also change the shape (or conformation) of the molecule. The amount of space that a group of atoms takes is called the "steric bulk".
An example of steric effects is steric hindrance. This is when a large group in a molecule makes reactions not work. For example, an SN2 reaction does not happen on carbon atoms that have three substituents. Steric hindrance however can also be a positive thing. Sometimes, chemists would like a reaction to happen in one place rather than another one. A bulky group can block a position. It can also change the shape such that only one diastereomer from a reaction is made.

Steric effects are usually smaller than electronic effects. These affect the molecule's shape and reactivity as well, but they come from the way electrons are placed in bonds.

Stereochemistry

Steric effects