Maria Alexandrovna (), born Princess Wilhelmine Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (8 August 1824 – 3 June 1880), was Empress of Russia as the first wife of Emperor Alexander II.

Marie was legally the daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse, and of Princess Wilhelmine of Baden. She was given a good education and raised in relative austerity, with an emphasis on simplicity, piety and domesticity. Her mother died when Marie was only twelve, and when she was fourteen, she caught the eye of Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, who was visiting her father's court while making his Grand tour of Western Europe. The couple were married after Marie turned sixteen. The new tsesarevna did not initially enjoy court life because of her withdrawn nature, and the fact that she found the splendor and extravagance of the Russian court daunting after the frugality that she was accustomed to. Marie soon grew to identify strongly with her adopted country, and her young age at marriage facilitated this adoption.

After the death of Maria's father-in-law Nicholas I in 1855, Alexander and Maria became emperor and empress consort of Russia. After the death of her mother-in-law in 1860, Maria took on a greater role in public life. She became one of the founders of the Russian Red Cross Society, part of the International Red Cross Movement which was founded in 1863 to promote nursing and medical care across the world. She also established Russia's first all-female schools. She gave her husband strong moral support as he navigated the legislations to end serfdom. She also interested herself in the arts: The Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Mariinskyi Palace were built under her patronage and named after her.

Despite identifying strongly with Russia and Russian interests, Marie visited her native Hesse regularly every year from the early 1860s onwards, and kept in touch with her own family, as also with her husband's relatives across Europe. She suffered from tuberculosis from 1863 onwards and spent long periods of time in southern Europe to avoid the harsh winters of Russia. Her health worsened after the death of her eldest son Nicholas Alexandrovich, who died just before the date of his intended wedding. She was noted for her wisdom and intellect, and her generous devotion to family, including her husband's mistress and her children.

Childhood

Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie was born on  in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. She was the youngest child among the seven children of Prince Hereditary Ludwig of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, sister of Russian Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. Although her parents were double first cousins, they were a mismatched couple: Ludwig was dull, shy and withdrawn, while Wilhelmine, eleven years his junior, was pretty and charming. After the birth of three sons, the couple grew apart during the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars while Ludwig was in the battlefields. After a gap of eleven years, Princess Wilhelmine went on to have four more children, but court rumors attributed the biological paternity of the second set of children to Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, Grand Master of the stables of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Of those four children, Marie and her brother Alexander, who was a year older, lived to adulthood. While Prince Ludwig officially recognized the children as his, he and his wife became estranged by 1827. Her ancestry chart below assumes her legitimacy. See Grancy's page for her rumored paternal ancestry.

In 1828, Princess Wilhelmine moved with her two younger children and their household to Heiligenberg, a mountainside estate nestled on a hill overlooking the village of Jugenheim that she purchased that same year Wilhelmine Marie was 4 years old when she moved with 5-years-old Alexander and their mother to Heiligenberg, where the siblings spent most of their childhood. The castle had been previously a nunnery and was located some 20 kilometers from Darmstadt. In 1829, however, their parents celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in apparent harmony. In 1830, their paternal grandfather, Ludwig I of Hesse, died and their father became the new reigning Grand Duke. The ducal couple gradually reconciled and used Heiligenberg in the summer months.

Wilhelmine Marie grew up under the care of her mother, who was responsible for her high education and had preference for French culture. This was evident in her lessons, which had special emphasis on finances, history, and literature. After her mother died of tuberculosis, her lady-in-waiting and possible paternal aunt, Marianne von Senarclens de Grancy, successfully took over the responsibility of 11-years-old Marie's education.

After their mother's death, Marie and Alexander moved permanently to their father's court in Darmstadt. The siblings would remain very close throughout their lives. She became close to her two elder brothers Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Prince Karl of Hesse. However, the cloud over the birth's legitimacy continued to be cast upon Marie and Alexander since Ludwig II was cold and distant towards the children.

Engagement

In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, traveled to western Europe to complete his education and search for a wife. His parents had preselected Princess Alexandrine of Baden, but he was unmoved. On 13 March, after visiting the courts of Prussia, Württemberg and Baden, Alexander's entourage made an unplanned stop at the court of Hesse. Although the Grand Duke's only surviving daughter wasn't on the list of possible brides, they stopped for one day in Darmstadt because it was on their way and they needed some rest. Invited to a performance of Gaspare Spontini's La vestale by the Grand Duke, Alexander was introduced to 14-year-old Marie, who was slender and tall for her age, but still wore her hair loose. She was eating cherries and had to spit the pits into her hands when she was pushed forward to be introduced to the Tsesarevich. Alexander's tutor, Vasily Zhukovsky, who was traveling with him, described the Princess as: "modest, charming and even intelligent."

Alexander was smitten and stayed to dine with the boring Ludwig II to see Marie again. Before he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket containing a piece of her hair. That night Alexander wrote to his father: "I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England." As his son had carefully planned, Nicholas I received the letter nine days later on the day of the annunciation and saw the timing as a good omen. He gave his approval  despite the gossip surrounding her birth: if Ludwig II recognized her as his daughter, that was good enough. In early June, Alexander returned to Darmstadt to propose to Marie, who accepted. As she wasn't yet fifteen, a long engagement period was necessary before the actual marriage would take place. Towards the closing weeks of 1839, he returned to Darmstadt to visit her again. A Russian Orthodox priest came to Darmstadt to give her instruction in the Russian Orthodox religion.

The engagement between the Princess of Hesse and the Russian Tsesarevich was officially announced in April 1840. Two generations earlier, another princess of Hesse-Darmstadt had married a Tsesarevich: Marie's paternal great-aunt, Natalia Alexeievna, was the first wife of Tsar Paul I. In addition, Marie's maternal aunt Louise of Baden (Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna)  had married Tsar Alexander I, though she died when Marie was only two years old. However, Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia) objected to her son's choice of a wife. The Empress wasn't only disturbed by the rumors surrounding Marie's paternity, but ill-disposed towards the Hesse family and concerned that Marie might have inherited her mother's consumption.  In a letter to his mother, Alexander wrote: "I love her, and I would rather give up the throne, than not marry her. I will marry only her, that has my decision!" After being persuaded by her husband, Empress Alexandra went to Frankfurt, where she met Marie in June. By then, Marie had quickly learned the Russian language. The Empress liked what she saw and gave her permission for the marriage.

Tsesarevna

Wedding

A few weeks after her sixteenth birthday in August 1840, Marie's party set out for Russia. She was escorted by her brother Alexander and her governess, Mlle. von Grancy, who remained in Russia. Marie arrived in September and shared her impressions of
Saint Petersburg in a letter to her family: "St. Petersburg is much more beautiful than I thought. The Neva River contributes to this. I think it is difficult to find a greater city. The view from the Winter Palace on the Neva is wonderful!" Her arrival in Russia was greeted with great ceremony with a continuous round of amusements. French plays, operas and new ballets were performed in the Chinese theater, and each Sunday her future mother-in-law gave a banquet in the Alexander Palace. However, Marie had a hard time adapting to her new surroundings. Years later, her-lady-in waiting Anna Tiutcheva was to write about this period in the life of her mistress: "Having been raised in seclusion even, one might say, in austerity, in the little castle of Jugenheim, where she saw her father only rarely, she was more frightened than bedazzled when she was suddenly brought to the most opulent and brilliant court of all European nations. She told me that many times. After constant battles of overcoming her awkwardness, later on, under cover of darkness and the stillness of her room, she would give freedom to her muffled cries".

Having been raised in the Lutheran religion, Marie was received into the Russian Orthodox Church on  and became Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. On the next day, the official betrothal was held in the presence of the Imperial Family, the whole court, the Russian nobility, many notable foreign guests, and representatives of foreign states. The wedding took place on  in the Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, on the eve of Alexander's twenty-third birthday. Maria wore a white dress richly embroidered with silver, a crimson robe with white satin and fine ermine fastened on her shoulders, and diamond jewelry (tiara, earrings, a necklace, and bracelets). Her future mother-in-law decorated her hair with orange blossoms sticking them between the diamonds in her tiara and pinned a small branch on her chest. The wedding was attended by members of the Russian Imperial family, the court and numerous guests and it was followed by a festive dinner ball.

First years

After the wedding, the young couple settled in a suite of rooms in the south-west block of the Winter Palace. During the summer, they resided in Tsarskoye Selo. Their apartments were located in the Zubov wing of the Catherine Palace.

Maria Alexandrovna struggled to assimilate herself with the court and make friends. Endless balls and court receptions bored her, but etiquette obliged her to fulfill the duties of representation as the wife of the Tsarevich. She reflected that life at court demanded "daily heroism... I lived like a volunteer fireman, ready to jump up at the alarm. Of course, I wasn't too sure about where to run or what to do." She preferred country life in Tsarskoye Selo, where she enjoyed a more private life.

Maria won the approval of her father-in-law, Nicholas I. Nicholas I forbade anyone from discussing, or even thinking about, any rumors about her.

Like her late mother, Maria took great interest in horticulture and imported flowers from her native Germany, such as lilies of the valley and cowslips. In the mornings, she took long walks with her ladies-in-waiting through the parks at the Catherine and Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.

In this early period of her life in Russia, Maria was guided by her husband's aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. Although seventeen years apart in age, the two women became close friends and frequently ran their salons as a joint venture.

Maria and Alexander made a happy couple, full of tender care for one another. He ordered that banquets of fresh strawberries should be placed on his wife's dining table and enjoyed her company spending his mornings sitting on her bed. There were regular informal gatherings at the young couple's household of loud readings, music, and card playing.  Alongside her husband, Maria read Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, Feodor Dostoevsky's Poor Folk, and later, Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches, sharing Alexander's sympathies for the plight of the serfs and becoming an ardent abolitionist. The Tsarevich and the Tsarevna charmed their guests with their manners. She gave useful advice to her husband, who in turn gave her confidence to guide herself into society.

Sixteen months after her wedding, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to her first child, Alexandra, born in August 1842, two years after her arrival in Russia. In September 1843, she gave birth to a son, Nicholas. Two more sons, Alexander and Vladimir, were born in 1845 and 1847. Shortly after having her third son, her health began to fail and she had to go to Bad Kissingen in Bavaria to recuperate. To mark each birth, Alexander and Maria planted oak trees in their private garden at Tsarskoye Selo, where skittles, swings and slides were provided for the children. Indoors, she played the piano and created tapestries with her family. In July 1849, both parents were devastated when their daughter Alexandra died from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half. Grief-stricken by her loss, Maria had to go to the sea town of Revel in Estonia to recuperate. Even many years later, she would still cry over the death of her eldest child. In January 1850, she gave birth to a fourth son, Grand Duke Alexei.

During her first decade in Russia, Maria Alexandrovna enjoyed the company and support of her brother Alexander, who had accompanied her to Russia to follow a military career there. In 1851, he contracted a morganatic marriage with Julia von Hauke, one of his sister's ladies-in-waiting. As a consequence, he fell from grace and had to resign his Russian commission. He left the country, returning to Heiligenberg, the siblings' childhood home. In October 1853, Maria had a much-awaited second daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.

Empress

On 18 February 1855, Nicholas I died of pneumonia and was succeeded by Alexander to the Russian throne as Tsar. It was a turbulent period as Russian troops were being defeated by an international coalition in the Crimean War. After a siege lasting eleven months, Sevastopol fell in September 1855. With a prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued, Russia sued for peace in March 1856 in Paris. The humiliation of defeat was left behind by the coronation festivities that were held with Byzantine splendor from 14 to 26 August 1856. The coronation ceremony lasted five hours took place at the Assumption Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin on . When four court ladies tried to fix the crown to the 30-years-old Empress's head it nearly clattered to the ground, saved only by the fold of her cloak, a bad omen by the time. Nine months after the coronation, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to a fifth son, Sergei, in April 1857. Suffering from depression, she was sent to Kissingen to recuperate. On 3 October [O.S. 21 September] 1860, she gave birth to Paul, her eighth and final child,  but was so weakened that she was forced to spend several months resting on a couch in her boudoir in the Winter Palace. A month later, her mother-in-law died.

Charity Institutions

Since Russian tradition gave precedence to the Empress Mother over the reigning tsar's consort, it was only then that Maria Alexandrovna took a more decisive role in charitable activities. It was with her that the Red Cross was established in Russia, which quickly turned into the largest and wealthiest public structure. Under her organization, the institution accumulated in its accounts huge sums of money transferred by benefactors from all over the Empire. The women's committees recollected twice the average funds recollected by provincial committees.

Maria Alexandrovna was the supreme patroness of the Red Cross: In total, she patronized 5 hospitals, 12 alms-houses, 30 shelters, 2 institutes, 38 gymnasiums, 156 lower schools, and 5 private charitable societies. Empress Maria expanded charitable activities during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The beginning of a new era in women's education in Russia was marked by her establishment of open all-union women's educational institutions in 1872. The students received lessons of physics, chemistry, and medicine.

Emancipation Manifesto

Tsar Alexander II relied on Maria Alexandrovna's judgment and serious nature to support his government, opening official documents and discussing states of affairs with her. She supported Alexander's ideals of introducing reforms. Two opposite philosophical currents divided Russian politics of their time: Westernizers and Slavophiles. The Westernizers, led by Alexander Herzen, Vissarion Belinsky, Ivan Turgenev and Mikhail Bakunin, wanted Russia aligned to Western science and values such as free thought, rationalism and individual liberty. By contrast, the Slavophiles, led by Aleksey Khomyakov, the two Aksakov brothers, Konstantine and Ivan, and Ivan Kireyevsky and his brother Pyotr Kireevsky advocated three principles: Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism.

Although she embraced Slavism with fervor, Maria Alexandrovna encouraged freedom and capitalism. She played an important role in the liberation of the serfs that came into fruition with the Emancipation Proclamation on , ending serfdom in Russia.

Court life

The Russian court began its season early December and lasted until Lent. While subzero temperatures and icy winds kept the streets empty, balls and banquets were held indoors in overheated palaces, where their gracious host, Alexander II, gave intimate parties known as Les Bals des Palmières for which hundreds of palm trees were brought to the Winter Palace in horse-drawn boxes. However, Maria Alexandrovna did not share her husband's enthusiasm since she still disliked court events and considered Russian nobility frivolous. Society complained that she seemed cold, distant, and had no taste in dress. Behind her back, she was called la petite bourgeoise allemande.

Instead of letting the gossips affect her, Empress Maria paid great attention to the upbringing and education of her children, carefully choosing experienced teachers and ensuring their environment was strict. Her efforts centered on her eldest son, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, her favorite child who resembled her most.

Empress Maria expressed her anger about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russia and her poor treatment of her daughter-in-law and Empress Maria's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She complained to her brother Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse that England was "certainly hostile to us. That makes the Tsar very anxious, on Marie's account too." When she learned about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russians, she wrote "The insulting things  that the Queen says in her letters to Alfred about the Tsar and the Russian people are worthy of a fish-wife. Added to this is her grief that 'our dear Marie' should belong to a nation from whose vocabulary the words truth, justice, and humanity are lacking. Silly old fool." When her daughter Maria complained about Queen Victoria, she sympathized with Maria: "To be quite frank, it is difficult to take such a mother-in-law seriously, and I am sorry on Marie's account."

Declining health

As Empress consort, Maria Alexandrovna had to attend many state functions, but from the 1860s her health declined. The doctors advised her to spend the winters in a warm climate and stop
intercourse with her husband in an effort to prolong her life. Preferring to remain in Russia, she agreed to the suggestion of recuperating in Crimea. Alexander II then bought for his wife the Livadia villa, a two-story wooden villa from the heirs of Polish Count Lev Potocki. At the end of August 1861, Maria, her husband, and their children Alexei, Sergei and Paul visited Crimea for the first time. She was charmed by the southern flora, the mild climate, the beautiful house, and the surrounding park. The modest villa was expanded with the additions of a large palace, a small palace, and a church. Construction took place between 1862 and 1866 under the direction of Ippolito Monighetti, a Russian architect who had redecorated her apartments in the Catherine Palace in the 1850s.

Feeling better, Maria Alexandrovna financed the Mariinsky Theatre in St Peterburg in 1859–1860, built according to the plans of architect Albert Cavos as an opera and ballet house. The theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera  A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness. (The name was changed into Kirov Theatre during the Soviet period, but the original name was restored in 1992, and at present there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer.)

The humid summers in Saint Petersburg began to take a toll on Maria's frail constitution, to the point she was absent from Russia's capital for long periods of time. In June 1864, she left Russia, accompanied by her husband and their three youngest children, to take the waters in the Bavarian spa of Bad Kissingen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria came to meet his distant aunt and became infatuated with her. In late July, Alexander II returned to Russia, but Maria traveled to Bad Schwalbach, where she celebrated her birthday with Ludwig II. In late August, the whole family was reunited in Darmstadt.

As she was still sick, Maria Alexandrovna spent the winter in Nice, where she received the announcement of the Tsarevich's engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Nicholas was nevertheless in frail health and joined his mother in Nice in early 1865, but was seriously ill with meningitis of the spine by then. Attended by her brother Alexander and her sister-in-law, the Empress did not leave her son's side during his illness. Nicholas was initially misdiagnosed with simple rheumatism and deteriorated rapidly. The whole family gathered around his deathbed on . Princess Dagmar, who was with the Romanovs during her fiancé's final days, was quickly engaged to his brother, the future Emperor Alexander III, whom she would marry the following year. Both Alexander II and Maria were devastated by the death of their eldest son on whom their hopes for the future lay. The Tsarina spent the following year grieving and found some solace with her family in Hesse, since her brother Karl had recently lost his only daughter Anna.

In 1866, Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. With the passing of the years, they still respected each other but grew apart romantically, particularly after the deterioration of her health and
the death of their eldest children. Alexander had many affairs, but they did not threaten their marriage. From the mid-1850s until 1862, he had a relationship with Alexandra Sergeevna Dolgorukova, one of Russia's most illustrious noblewomen and the Tsarina's ladies-in-waiting. This affair ended in 1862 when Alexandra married General Pyotr Pavlovich Albedinsky (1826–1883).
In 1865, Alexander II fell deeply in love with 18-year-old Catherine Dolgorukova, a distant cousin of his former mistress. Catherine resisted his advances for over a year, but they became lovers in July 1866. Empress Maria inevitably heard about the affair, but she initially did not attach great importance to it.

In order to have comfortable accommodations and rest in their route from St Petersburg to Crimea, Alexander II ordered the reconstruction of the Imperial Palace in Kiev.  It was in total disrepair and abandoned for almost half a century after the palace burned down in a series of fires in the early 19th century. The commission was assigned in 1867 to the architect Konstantin Mayevsky, using old drawings and watercolors as guide. Work took place from 1868 to 1870 and the Kievan palace was then renamed Mariinskyi Palace after the Empress Maria Alexandrovna.  By her wish, a large park was established off the southern side of the palace. The palace was used as a residence for visiting members of the imperial family until 1917. Currently it is the official ceremonial residence of the President of Ukraine.

Last years

From the early 1860s through the 1870s, Maria Alexandrovna began to pay extended visits to her homeland. Usually accompanied by her husband, children and their Russian entourage, she stayed at Schloss Heiligenberg, the small castle of her brother Alexander, who lived with his morganatic wife and their children at Jugenheim outside Darmstadt. There she met Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of her nephew Louis of Hesse. She resisted Alice's suggestion that her brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, marry her only daughter Maria, but the couple would wed anyway in 1874. In December 1875, Empress Maria visited England to meet her first British grandchild. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "I thought her very ladylike, kind and amiable. We were at ease at once, but she has a sad expression and looks so delicate. I think we should get on very well together, poor thing. I pity her much."

After Princess Alice died in 1878, it was Maria Alexandrovna's turn to pity the British royal family. She invited her motherless relatives to visit during the holidays she spent with brother Alexander at Heiligenberg. It was during these visits that her second youngest son Sergei met his future wife, Alice's second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. It was also here that Maria met Elisabeth's youngest surviving sister, Princess Alix, who would eventually become the devoted and ill-fated wife of Maria's eldest grandson, Emperor Nicholas II. A legend alleges that on a visit to Darmstadt, upon meeting Alix, Empress Maria turned to her ladies-in-waiting with the words, "Kiss her hand. That is your empress to be."

Tsar Alexander had three children with Princess Dolgorukova, whom he moved into the Imperial Palace during Maria's final illness out of fear that she might become the target of assassins. The affair, in the face of the Tsarina's declining health, served to alienate the rest of his adult children, save their son Alexei and their daughter. When the Grand Duchess Marie made a visit to her mother in May 1880, she was horrified to learn of the imperial mistress' living arrangements and confronted her father. Courtiers spread stories that the dying Empress was forced to hear the noise of Catherine's children moving about overhead, but their rooms were actually far away from each other. After Maria Alexandrovna asked to meet her husband's children with Catherine, he brought their two older children, George and Olga, to her deathbed, where she kissed and blessed both children. Both rulers were in tears during the meeting. With her blessing, the couple entered into a morganatic marriage on .

Empress Maria Alexandrovna died on 3 June 1880, aged 55. She was buried with full dignity with her children present and remembered for her wisdom and grace. In later years, Nicholas II's eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga, claimed that as a small child she saw the ghost of her great-grandmother, according to her nanny Margaretta Eagar.

Issue

Through her marriage with Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to and raised eight children, which consisted of six sons and two daughters:

Honours

 : Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel, 20 February 1861
 : Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa

The city of Mariinsk in Kemerovo Oblast, and the city of Mariehamn in Åland are named after Empress Maria.

Ancestry

Notes

References
 Banks, ECS. Road to Ekaterinburg: Nicholas and Alexandra's Daughters 1913–1918. SilverWood Books 2012.
Cowles, Virginia. The Romanovs. Harper & Ross, 1971.
 Gilbert, Paul. My Russia: The Children's Island, Alexander Park, Tsarkoye Selo.  Published in Royal Russia: a Celebration of the Romanov Dynasty & Imperial Russia in Words & Photographs. No 4. Gilbert's Books, 2013.
 Gilbert, Paul. Alexander II and Tsarkoe Selo.  Published in Royal Russia Annual: a Celebration of the Romanov Dynasty & Imperial Russia in Words & Photographs.  No 2. Gilbert's Books, 2012.
King, Greg. Livadia in the Reign of Alexander II. Published in Imperial Crimea: Estates Enchanment & The Last of the Romanovs. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
Korneva, Galina & Cheboksarova, Tatiana.  Russia & Europe: Dynastic Ties . Eurohistory, 2013.
 Markelov I.I. Memories of 1839. The first meeting of Emperor Alexander II and the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Russian Antiquity., 94, No.4 .. – 1898. – 19–22 p.
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. Burke's Royal Families of the World: Volume I Europe & Latin America, 1977, pp. 212–215, 474–476.
 Nelipa, Margarita. Alexander III His Life and Reign.  Gilbert's Books, 2014.
 Radzinsky, Edvard. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar.  Free Press, 2006.
Tiutcheva, Anna Feodorovna. At the court of two Emperors. Moscow, Novosti. 1990.
 Van der Kiste, John. The Romanovs 1818–1959. Sutton Publishing, 1999. .
 Zeepvat, Charlotte. Heiligenberg: Our Ardently Loved Hill. Published in Royalty Digest. No 49. July 1995.
 Zeepvat, Charlotte. The Camera and the Tsars, Sutton Publishing, 2004. .
Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn:Stories from the last century of Imperial Russia. Sutton Publishing, 2000.

External links

 Profile, Mariagessen.narod.ru
 Манифестъ. — О кончинѣ Ея Императорскаго Величества Государыни Императрицы Маріи Александровны.

1824 births
1880 deaths
19th-century women from the Russian Empire
Nobility from Darmstadt
People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse
House of Hesse-Darmstadt
Empresses consort of Russia
Duchesses of Holstein-Gottorp
House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Russian grand duchesses by marriage
Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Lutheranism
Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel
Burials at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
Daughters of monarchs

Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)


W and Z bosons are a group of elementary particles. They are bosons, meaning they have a spin of 0 or 1. Both had been found in experiments by the year 1983. Together, they are responsible for a force known as "weak force." Weak force is called weak because it is not as strong as the strong force. There are two W bosons with different charges, the normal W+, and its antiparticle, the W –. Z bosons are their own antiparticle.

Naming
W bosons are named after the weak force that they are responsible for. Weak force is what physicists believe is responsible for the breaking down of some radioactive elements, in the form of Beta decay. In the late '70s, scientists managed to combine early versions of the weak force with electromagnetism, and called it the electroweak force.

Creation of W and Z bosons
W and Z bosons are only known to be created under Beta decay, which is a form of radioactive decay.

Beta Decay
Beta decay occurs when there are a lot of neutrons in an atom. Simplified diagram hints that neutron corresponds to one proton and one electron. When there are too many neutrons in one atom nucleus, one neutron will split and form a proton and an electron. The proton stays where it is, and the electron will be launched out of the atom. Resulting Beta radiation is harmful to humans.

Weak force is believed to be able to change the flavor of a quark. For example, when it changes a down quark in a neutron into an up quark, the charge of the neutron becomes +1, since it would have the same arrangement of quarks as a proton. The three-quark neutron with a charge of +1 is no longer a neutron after this, as it fulfills all of the requirements to be a proton. Therefore, Beta decay will cause a neutron to become a proton (along with some other end-products).

W boson decay
When a quark changes flavor, as it does in Beta decay, it releases a W boson. On average, W bosons only last for 3x10-25 seconds before themselves decaying into other particles, which is why we had not discovered them until less than half a century ago. Surprisingly, W bosons have a mass of about 80 times that of a proton. Keep in mind that the neutron that it came from has almost the same weight as the proton. In the quantum world, it is not uncommon for a more massive particle to come from a less massive particle; the extra mass comes from stored energy via Einstein's famous formula, . After the 3x10-25 seconds has passed, a W boson decays into one electron and one neutrino. Since neutrinos rarely interact with matter, we can ignore them from now on. The electron is propelled out of the atom at a high speed. The proton that was produced by the Beta decay stays in the atom nucleus, and raises the atomic number by one.

Z boson decay
Z bosons are also predicted in the Standard Model of physics, which successfully predicted the existence of W bosons. Z Bosons decay into a fermion and its antiparticle, which are particles such as electrons and quarks which have spin in units of half of the reduced Planck constant.

References

Elementary particles

W and Z bosons


Zerah Colburn (born Cabot, Vermont, 1804; died 1839) was a child prodigy.  He became famous when he was a little boy because he could do unbelievably difficult sums very easily.  However, he wasted his talent and never became a useful mathematician.

Zerah's father was a carpenter.  He and his wife had six children, and they had very little money.

When he was five he started to go to school.  After six weeks his father heard him doing multiplication sums.  His father asked him what 13 times 97 was.  The boy immediately said "1261".

His father took him to Boston to show him to famous people.  They asked the boy questions: what is 1449 times 1449?  The boy said "2,099,601".  Someone else asked him how many seconds there were in 2000 years.  He said "63,072,000,000".

His father looked for rich people who would pay for the boy's education.  In Boston $5000 was raised so that he did not have to be shown off in public all the time.  Nevertheless, his father took him to Europe.  In London people asked him more questions, e.g. is 4,294,967,297 a prime number?  The boy said "No, it can be divided by 641".

People wanted the boy to explain how he did these calculations, but he could not say how he did it.  He became famous.  Napoleon was going to meet him, but he lost the Battle of Waterloo and was not able to make the visit.  He went to school in Paris and then in London, but by the time he was 15 people were not interested in helping him any more.  He joined a touring group of actors and got the part of Richard III in the play by Shakespeare.  He met William Rowan Hamilton who was also a prodigy and who did become a famous mathematician.  Zerah soon got fed up with mathematics and became a Methodist minister.  He taught languages at Norwich University in Vermont.  He wrote an autobiography in which he tried to explain how he did his calculations.

When he died most people had forgotten about him.

His nephew, also named Zerah Colburn, was a famous locomotive designer.

Trivia

Zerah, like his father, had 12 fingers and 12 toes.

Other websites
 Famous Americans: article on him and his nephew
 Account of his life

Child prodigies
American autobiographers
1839 deaths
1804 births
American teachers
People educated at Westminster School, London
Educators from Vermont

Zerah Colburn


One Night in the Tropics is a 1940 comedy film which was the film debut of Abbott and Costello. They are listed as supporting actors but have major exposure with five of their classic routines, including an abbreviated version of "Who's on First?" Their work earned them a two-picture deal with Universal, and their next film, Buck Privates, made them bona fide stars. Songs in the film were by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields.

The film is based on a 1914 novel, Love Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers, the creator of Charlie Chan. It was filmed as a silent movie in 1919 as Love Insurance by Paramount Pictures with Bryant Washburn and Lois Wilson, and in 1925 by Universal as The Reckless Age.

Plot
Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, devises a novel policy for his friend, Steve: a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia. Encouraged by Jim's argument that Jim has never had to pay out on a policy so that the marriage is a sure thing, Steve accepts. The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe, who sends two enforcers to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned. Everyone involved in the situation winds up sailing or flying to San Marcos (a fictional South American country), where another complication develops, when Lucky becomes enamored of Cynthia. Lucky eventually marries Cynthia, but Roscoe does not have to pay the $1-million because Steve marries Mickey.

Cast
 Allan Jones as Jim "Lucky" Moore
 Nancy Kelly as Cynthia Merrick
 Bud Abbott as Abbott
 Lou Costello as Costello
 Robert Cummings as Steve Harper
 Mary Boland as Aunt Kitty Marblehead
 William Frawley as Roscoe
 Peggy Moran as Mickey Fitzgerald
 Leo Carrillo as Escobar
 Don Alvarado as Rodolfo
 Nina Orla as Nina
 Edgar Dearing as Cop with Black Eye (uncredited)
 Larry Steers as Desk Clerk (uncredited)

Production
One Night in the Tropics was filmed from August 26 through September 30, 1940 under the film's working title, Riviera, an unproduced Jerome Kern musical from 1937 originally planned for Danielle Darrieux; Kern's songs were reused in the film. It had several working titles before Universal settled on One Night in the Tropics, including Moonlight in the Tropics, Love Insurance, and Caribbean Holiday. It was hoped that the film would ease Universal's financial plight. It did little to help, but led to a string of Abbott and Costello films that did save Universal.

Promotion
Just prior to the beginning of production, on August 21, 1940, Jones and Cummings were guests on Abbott and Costello's radio show and promoted the film.

World premiere
The film had its world premiere in Costello's home town of Paterson, New Jersey on October 30, 1940.

Rerelease
The film was re-released (at 69 minutes) by Realart Pictures in 1950 with The Naughty Nineties and in 1954 with Little Giant.

Home media
This film has been released twice on DVD. The first time, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume One on February 10, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008, as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.

References

External links

1940 films
Abbott and Costello films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland
1940 comedy films
Universal Pictures films
Films based on American novels
Films based on works by Earl Derr Biggers
American comedy films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films

One Night in the Tropics


The term nanocell refers to a drug delivery platform consisting of a polymer-bound chemotherapeutic drug combined with a lipid-bound anti-angiogenesis drug. Nanocells are currently being developed in the lab of Shiladitya Sengupta of MIT.

Theory
Angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels, plays a major role in the development of a tumor.  After a tumor has grown to about the size of a cubic millimeter, its core becomes hypoxic, and it begins to release growth factors to recruit new blood vessels that will supply it with oxygen.  Inhibiting angiogenesis has been investigated as a means of preventing tumor growth but has not proven to be fully successful, for tumor cells cut off from the blood supply can eventually develop "reactive resistance" to hypoxia.  These resistant cancer cells could be killed by chemotherapeutic drugs, but once the vasculature to the tumor has been cut off, there is no way for chemotherapy to be delivered.  Nanotechnology offers a way to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs and anti-angiogenic drugs in the same vehicle so that as the blood supply is shut off, chemotherapy is present to prevent any hypoxia-resistant cells from proliferating.

Technology
Labs at MIT are in the process of developing nanocells capable of delivering both types of drugs.  Each nanocell is between 120 and 200 _m in diameter and can be thought of as "a balloon within a balloon."  Inside each nanocell is a chemotherapeutic drug covalently bound to a polymer, and on the surface of each cell is a lipid coat containing an anti-angiogenic drug.  The technology makes use of the fact that a tumor's blood vessels have pores 600 _m in diameter and are much leakier than normal blood vessels, which have pores only around 50 _m in diameter.  The nanocells circulate in the blood, and because of their size, they leak out of blood vessels only in tumors.  Once there, the nanocells are degraded by enzymes produced by the tumor.  Work remains to be done to win clinical approval for the technology, but results from Sengupta's lab indicate that the nanocells are more effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy.

References

 Nanocell targets cancer
 Nanocell's double hit on cancer
 MIT engineers an anti-cancer smart bomb
 Sengupta S, Eavarone D, Capila I, Zhao G, Watson N, Kiziltepe T, Sasisekharan R. Temporal targeting of tumour cells and neovasculature with a nanoscale delivery system. Nature. 2005 Jul 28;436(7050):568-72.

External links
 Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology

Drug delivery devices
Dosage forms

Nanocell


Shortwave radio is a name for radio waves in the range of 3-30 megahertz. Shortwave is often used for broadcasting, and radio receivers made to tune in those broadcasts are sometimes called shortwave radios. The earth's ionosphere carries radio waves in this range over great distances, and signals can travel around the globe under certain conditions. This makes it possible for radio stations all over the world to broadcast to listeners in faraway countries. Sunspot activity and solar flares can interfere with shortwave reception, and different frequencies work better at different times during the day or year.

Since their beginning in the early days of radio, shortwave stations have carried news and cultural information about the station's locality or country of origin. Many governments or national news agencies have shortwave stations, that broadcast in both English and their native languages, so they can inform both non-natives and natives about things in their country. Some broadcast in several different languages, to reach a wider listening audience. Some of these stations are Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of Russia.

Shortwave stations may also be run by private companies or groups. Some broadcast religious programming. HCJB and WEWN include actual church services in their programs. Others may broadcast weather or time information. WWV and WWVH give the current Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) at 2.500, 5.000, 10.000, and 15.000 megahertz. WWV is also on 20.000 megahertz.

A few stations are unlicensed, and their operators are called "pirates". Pirate stations may not broadcast regularly, or from the same location each time. They may carry music not played by other stations, and express unpopular opinions. Government authorities work to stop these stations, because they are not licensed and interfere with licensed ones.

Shortwave listenership has lessened with the rise of the Internet, but is still important to people worldwide, especially in areas the Internet and computer technology have not yet reached. Many longtime stations now stream their programming over the Internet, as audio feeds or podcasting, along with their radio broadcasts.

Two-way radio sets on ships and airplanes also use shortwaves to talk with ground stations that are far away, when they cannot use a communications satellite.

Other websites
Shortwave Station Guide
List of stations at World Radio Network

References

Radio
Audio technology

Shortwave radio


The Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights is a biennial award created in October 1976 on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Bruno Kreisky. The laureates are rewarded for their achievements in the field of human rights. The prize was divided in 1993 into a human rights prize (between 7000 and 30,000 Euros) and a prize in recognition of merit.
The Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Human Rights has awarded in 14 conferments more than 130 individuals, institutions and human rights projects for outstanding services to the development and protection of international human rights and extraordinary achievements in the area of humanitarian aid.
The prize winners are chosen both by the board of trustees of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation and by an international jury.

Laureates

1979
 Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, Chile
 Arie Lova Eliav, Israel
 Issam Sartawi, Palestine
 Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo, Nicaragua
 Hildegard Goss-Mayr and Jean Goss, Austria/France
 Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé, South Africa
 Amnesty International Group II, Austria
 Amnesty International, Austrian Section
 Committee for Human Rights, International Trade Union, Austria

1981
 Simha Flapan, Israel
 Raymonda Tawil, Israel
 Nelson Mandela, South Africa
 Rosa Jochmann, Austria
 Domitila Chúngara, Bolivia
 Enrique Álvarez Córdova, El Salvador
 Kim Chi-ha, South Korea
 Kim Dae Jung, South Korea
 Histadrut, Israel
 Fondation pour une entraide intellectuelle européenne, France
 Orlando Fals Borda, Columbia
 Felix Ermacora, Austria

1984
 The Austrian Aid Committee for Nicaragua, Austria
 The Austrian Volkshilfe, Austria
 The Austrian League for Human Rights, Austria
 Union of Concerned Scientists
 The Society of Friends of Tel Aviv University, Austria
 Vicaría de la Solidaridad, Chile
 Oswald Amstler, Austria
 Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, USA
 Muzaffer Saraç, Turkey
 Shulamit Aloni, Israel
 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil
 Father Leopold Ungar, Austria
 Yolanda Urízar Martínez de Aguilar, Guatemala
 Marianella García Villas, El Salvador

1986
 The Bruno Kreisky Archives Foundation, Austria
 The Vienna Institute for Development and Cooperation, Austria
 Herbert Amry, Austria
 The Austrian Institute for Peace Research and Education, Austria
 The Committee of Mothers of Political Prisoners, the Disappeared and Murdered in El Salvador, El Salvador
 The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission, Guatemala
 The Austrian Board for Refudee Aid, Austria
 International Historians of the Labour Movement, ITH
 Jewish-Arab House in Beth Berl, Israel
 Erich Weisbier, Austria

1988
 Frei Betto, Brazil
 Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
 Latif Dori, Israel
 Anton Lubowski, Namibia
 Sergio Ramírez Mercado, Nicaragua
 Claudia Vilanek, Austria
 Bishop Leonidas Eduardo Proaño Villalba, Ecuador
 The Society of Friends of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer, Austria
 The Society for Austrian-Arab Relations, Austria
 Greenpeace, Austria
 The Guatemalan Human Rights Organisation GAM, Guatemala
 International Helsinki Federation, Austria
 The Korean Catholic Justice and Peace Committee, Netherlands
 Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, Israel
 Catholic Social Academy of Austria, Austria
 The Committee for Social and Medical Aid for Palestinians, Austria
 Unidad Nacional de Trabajadores Salvadoreños, El Salvador
 The Association for the History of the Labour Movement, Austria

1991
 Bärbel Bohley, Germany
 Congress of South African Trade Unions, South Africa
 Yael Dayan, Israel
 Faisal Husseini, Palestine
 International Center for Peace in the Middle East, Israel/Palestine
 İnsan Hakları Derneği, Turkey
 Horst Kleinschmidt, South Africa/Great Britain
 Committee Cap Anamur, Germany
 Felicia Langer, Israel
 Paulinho Paiakan, Brazil
 Standing Committee for National Dialogue, El Salvador
 Poznán Human Rights Center, Poland
 Jalal Talabani, Syria/Iraq
 Alfredo Vázquez Carrizosa, Colombia
 Anti-Apartheid Movement, Austria
 CARE, Austria
 Social Services at Schwechat Airport, Austria
 Liesl Frankl, Austria
 Association of Women's solidarity, Austria
 Society for the Endangered Peoples, Austria
 Bishop Erwin Kräutler, Brazil
 The Austrian Red Cross, Austria
 Science shop at the University of Linz, Austria
 Aid Committee for Refugees in Austria, Austria

1993
 Abe J. Nathan, Israel
 The indigenous people of the Canela, Brazil
 Gani Fawehinmi, Nigeria
 Nicolae Gheorghe, Romania
 Christine Hubka and Gertrud Hennefeld, Austria
 Father Georg Sporschill, SJ, Romania
 Kemal Kurspahić and Zlatko Dizdarević, Bosnia-Herzegovina
 Tanja Petovar, Yugoslavia
 Memorial, Russia
 Rudolf Pichlmayr, Germany
 Martha Kyrle, Austria
 SOS Mitmensch, Austria
 Croatian-Muslim-Serbian-Dialogue, Austria

1995
Sumaya Farhat Naser, Palestine
Sergej Adamowitsch Kowaljow, Russia
Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria
Leyla Zana, Turkey
 Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran, Austria
 World University Service, Graz, Austria
 Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Menschenrechte, Austria
 Flüchtlingshilfe Poysdorf (Maria Loley), Austria
 The homeless shelter "Die Gruft" Austria
 Father August Janisch Austria

1997
 Abbas Amir-Entezam, Iran
 Emily Lau, Hong Kong
 Uri Avnery, Israel
 Ivan Zvonimir Čičak, Croatia
 Otto Tausig, Austria
 Willi Resetarits, Austria
 Austrian Network Against Poverty, Austria

2000
 Radhika Coomaraswamy, Sri Lanka, UN-Special Ambassador for the matters related to violence against women
 The Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Yugoslavia
 Austrian NGO-project "An anti-discrimination law for Austria"
 Karlheinz Böhm, Austria/Ethiopia

2002
 Cardinal Franz König, Austria, the former archbishop of Vienna for his dedication to tolerance and dialogue
 Ute Bock, Austria, for her commitment to helping refugees
 Amira Hass, Israel/Palestine, for her outstanding and independent work in journalism;
 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights from Gaza/Palestine, for its dedication to protecting human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

2005
 Nadja Lorenz and Georg Bürstmayr, Austria for the advocacy of the asylum seekers' and migrants' rights in Austria
 Andrej Sannikov from Belarus for his work within the Charter 97, a citizens' action group and human rights organisation from Minsk.

2007
 Gao Zhisheng, China
 Manfred Nowak, Austria
 ZARA Austria (see German Wikipedia article)
 Kofi Annan, United Nations
 Jovan Mirilo, Serbia

2011
 ASPIS, Austria
 ESRA, Austria
 Hemayat, Austria
 Daniel Barenboim, Israel/ Palestine, For his commitment to reconciliation in the Middle East conflict
 West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

2013
Bogaletch Gebre, Ethiopia
Mazen Darwish, Syria
Cecily Corti, Austria

2015
Vian Dakhil, Iraq
Marijana Grandits, Austria
Nachbarinnen in Wien, Austria

2017
Aslı Erdoğan, Turkey
Wolfgang Kaleck, Germany
Queer Base, Austria
Haus Liebhartstal UMF, Austria

2019
Amal Fathy, Egypt
Know Your Rights, Austria
Michael Landau, Austria
Shalom Alaikum – Jewish Aid for Refugees, Austria

2022
Al-Haq, Palestine
Asylum Coordination Austria, Austria
Martin Hochegger, Austria/Tanzania
Maria Kalesnikava, Belarus

References

External links
Bruno Kreisky - Foundation

Peace awards
Human rights awards
Awards established in 1976

Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights


Kallisto or Callisto was a nymph in Greek mythology, a companion of Artemis. Zeus came to her looking like Artemis, and with him she was the mother of Arkas. Hera in her jealousy made Kallisto a bear. Then her son was looked after by Maia, a nymph.

Related pages
Callisto (moon)

Nymphs

Kallisto


The Qur'an () is the holy book of Islam. The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be "The Word of Allah (God)". This book is different from other religious texts in that it is believed to be the literal words of God, through the prophet Muhammad. Some Muslims call it the Final Testament.

It has been written and read only in Arabic for more than 1,400 years. But, because many Muslims around the world do not understand Arabic, the meaning of the Qur'an is also given in other languages, so that readers can understand better what the Arabic words in the Qur'an mean. These books are like dictionaries to the Qur'an - they are not read as part of the religion of Islam, to replace the Arabic Qur'an. Muslims believe that these translations are not the true Qur'an; only the Arabic copy is the true Qur'an. For most self-identified Muslims, the Qur'an is used with the hadith to interpret Sharia law.

History

Muslims believe the Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel in a cave on the mountain of Hira in Mecca, and then over a period of twenty-three years until his death.

The Qur'an was not written all together in book-form while Muhammad was alive; it was kept by oral communication and brief written records. The prophet did not know how to read nor write, but according to Muslims, the prophet's cousin Ali ibn abi Talib, among others, used to write the texts on something when Muhammad was alive. After prophet Muhammad died, Omar ibn Khattab, one of the khulafa u rashidan, compiled the quran into a single book.

The elements, suras, verses, revelations
There are 30 parts in the Qur'an, which make 114 "suras" (chapters). Each sura has a different number of verses.

According to the Muslim teachings, 87 of these suras revealed in Mecca, 27 of these suras revealed in Medina. The suras which took place in Medina are Al-Baqara, Al Imran, Al-Anfal, Al-Ahzab, Al-Ma'ida, An-Nisa, Al-Mumtahina, Az-Zalzala, Al-Hadid, Muhammad, Ar-Ra'd, Ar-Rahman, At-Talaq, Al-Bayyina, Al-Hashr, An-Nasr, An-Nur, Al-Hajj, Al-Munafiqun, Al-Mujadila, Al-Hujraat, At-Tahrim, At-Taghabun, Al-Jumua, As-Saff, Al-Fath, At-Tawba, Al-Insan.

Verses
The verses of the Quran speak about many different topics. For example, the verses of chapter 80 (Abasa) speak about the evils of ableism, also called able-bodyism or ablecentrism. Or verse 2:15 speaks about the evils of being two-faced.

The first and last verse
The first verse revealed is:

(5) اقرَأ بِاسمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذي خَلَقَ (1) خَلَقَ الإِنسانَ مِن عَلَقٍ (2)  اقرَأ وَرَبُّكَ الأَكرَمُ (3) الَّذي عَلَّمَ بِالقَلَمِ (4) عَلَّمَ الإِنسانَ ما لَم يَعلَم
Read (commencing) with the Name of Allah, Who has created (everything). He created man from a hanging mass (clinging) like a leech (in the mother's womb). Read and your Lord is Most Generous, Who taught man (reading and writing) by the pen, Who (besides that) taught man (all that) which he did not know.96 : 1

The last verse revealed is:
Who believe! fulfil (all) obligations. Lawful unto you (for food) are all four-footed animals. Dead meat, blood, pig, any food which has been blessed by a (false) god other than Allah; an animal whose death resulted from strangulation, bludgeoning, arrows, falling, or bloodloss; an animal which was partly consumed by a wild animal or an animal which is sacrificed on a stone altar are forbidden. However, if faced with starvation, exceptions are allowed.

Earliest surviving fragments
Probably the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found in the library of the University of Birmingham, in England.

Radiocarbon dating showed with a probability of more than 95%, the parchment was from between 568 and 645 AD. So the manuscript is at least 1,370 years old. It is the earliest, or among the earliest, in existence.

The fragments are written in ink on sheep or goat skin. They are mounted on a modern paper to help preserve them.  They are going on display at the Barber Institute in Birmingham in October 2015.

Related pages
Quranism

References

Other websites
 Quran Archive - Texts and Studies on the Quran
 Al-Quran  project with more than 145 translations in 35 different languages
 Quran Word by Word // QuranAcademy.org
Quran in audio wav format and books in English

Qur'an


Thomas Hodgkin (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was an English physician. He was born in Pentonville, Middlesex. He researched many kinds of diseases and discovered Hodgkin's disease. He died of dysentery in Jaffa, Ottoman Syria.

1798 births
1866 deaths
English physicians
People from Middlesex
Deaths from dysentery

Thomas Hodgkin


The Battle of Kororāreka was a battle in New Zealand between Maori warriors and the British Army. It took place on 11 March 1845 in the small town of Kororāreka. Today that town is called Russell. The town is on the North Island of New Zealand. The Maori were unhappy with the problems in the town. They cut down the flag pole flying the British flag. Each time the Maori cut down the flag pole, the British Army made a new one. This happened three times. When the British Army put the flag pole back a fourth time, the Maori attacked the town. Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti were the leaders of the Maori. William Hulme was the leader of the British soldiers. The Maori had many more fighters than the British. There were 600 Maori warriors and only 140 British soldiers. The Maori won the battle. The town was destroyed in the fighting. The British Army left the town. The British citizens living there also left. British and American ships waiting in the harbour took them to Auckland.

References

Battles involving New Zealand
Battles involving the United Kingdom
Maori
19th century in Oceania
1845
1840s in the United Kingdom

Battle of Kororāreka


Nazko Cone is a small volcano in central British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately 75 km west of the town of Quesnel. It is in the eastern part of the Anahim Volcanic Belt. The most recent eruption of Nazko Cone was 7200 years ago.

A series of small earthquakes occurred in the area of Nazko Cone beginning on October 10, 2007. Most of these earthquakes were magnitude 1.0 or less; some as strong as magnitude 3.2 were centered 25 kilometers below the surface. The cause of these earthquakes is believed to be the rising of molten magma because there are no faults or tectonic plate boundaries. The source of this magma is from the Anahim hotspot and continues to this day.

Volcanoes of British Columbia

Nazko Cone


Major derives from Latin maior, which means greater. It is used in many contexts:

 Major, a military rank.
 An academic major, the primary focus of a Bachelor's degree, in the United States and some other countries.
 In music, major (in contrast to minor) is a type of scale, key, chord, or interval; see major and minor. Also:
 major scale
 major chord
 the names of various intervals, such as a major third or major sixth
 In British public school terminology, "major" means an older brother or sister (when two people have the same surname), as opposed to "minor".
 In American professional sports, various leagues are described as major (or "the majors") when they represent the highest level of competition in their geographic area, such as Major League Baseball or Major League Soccer.
In American college sports, "major" has multiple meanings. For a more comprehensive discussion of the different meanings of "major" in the college athletics context, see mid-major.
 In golf, a "major championship" is one of an elite tier of annual tournaments (not more than five) recognised by the relevant authorities for a particular branch of the sport. See:
 Men's major golf championships
 Women's major golf championships
 Senior major golf championships
 In snooker, four of the main tournaments in the season are unnofficially known as Major titles
 In English Change Ringing, Major refers to a ringing method rung on eight church bells.
 Major (law) (as opposed to minor (law)), one with the full legal rights of an adult
 People named Major:
 John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 – 1997.
 John C. Major, a Canadian judge
 Major Taylor, an American champion cyclist 1899–1901.
 Mark Major, a Canadian ice hockey player.
 William James Major, a Canadian politician and judge
 Major Applewhite, a former Texas Longhorn quarterback and current Alabama assistant coach
 Major Harris, a former college quarterback for the West Virginia Mountaineers
 Characters named Major:
 Major Gowen, a character on the 1970s British TV series Fawlty Towers.
 The Major, a character on the 1970s American TV series Soap.
 The Major (or simply Major), a nickname for Motoko Kusanagi, a fictional character from the anime/manga series Ghost in the Shell.
 Major Major Major Major, a character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22
 The Major, the leader of Millennium, a Nazi group in Hellsing.
 Major (manga), a baseball-related manga/anime series in Japan.
 Major movie studios, film studios (mostly United States-based) that produce many films per year.
Major record labels, music production and distribution companies that produce most of the music recordings per year.
 Places named Major:
Major, Saskatchewan, small village in the Canadian province, Saskatchewan

Related pages
 Majority (disambiguation)
 Majorat
 Mayor
 Majors

Major (disambiguation)


Bambi II, originally called Bambi and the Great Prince and then Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest, is a 2006 American animated drama movie and the midquel to the 1942 movie Bambi. Although it was eventually released in theatres in 25 countries, in the United States and some other countries it was a direct-to-video release (released on February 7, 2006). Taking place in the middle of Bambi during the title character's adolescence, it shows the Great Prince of the Forest struggling to raise the motherless Bambi, and Bambi's doubts about his father's love.

The Story

Picking up shortly after his mother's death, Bambi follows his father, the Great Prince, into the forest. With the help of Thumper and Flower, Bambi must win his father's approval, but the Great Prince finds that his high-spirited son may have a lesson or two to teach him as well.

Production
Many of the backgrounds used in the movie are exactly the same that were used in the original 1942 movie.  The old backgrounds were put through the computer to create a clearer image.

Voice Cast
 Patrick Stewart -  The Great Prince
 Alexander Gould -  Bambi
 Brendon Baerg -  Thumper
 Carolyn Hennesy - Bambi's Mother
 Nicky Jones -  Flower
 Anthony Ghannam - Ronno
 Andrea Bowen - Faline
 Keith Ferguson - Friend Owl
 Cree Summer - Mena
 Brian Pimental - Groundhog/Porcupine
 Mary Day - Additional voice
 Harrison Fahn - Additional voice
 Makenna Cowgill, Emma Rose Lima and Ariel Winter - Thumper's Sisters
 Jordan Orr - Additional voice
 Alexis Restrum - Additional voice
 Grace Rolek - Additional voice
 Jennessa Rose - Additional voice
 George Shenusay - Additional voice
 Kath Soucie - Additional voice
 Frank Welker - Additional voice

Release
The movie was released on home video at differing dates, due to it being a theatrical release in some countries. While the movie was a direct-to-video release in countries like the United States, Japan, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was a theatrical release in some countries like the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Australia and some other European countries. It broke the world record for the longest amount of time between two related movies made in a series, being released 63 and a half years after the first movie. As major studios continue to phase out VHS, this was the last Disney animated movie released on VHS. Following its moratorium strategy, in which releases are made available for a limited time only, Disney gave the DVD a 70-day window for its US release. The movie sold 2.6 million DVDs in its first week in the United States.

Reception
The movie generally received a positive rating from professional critics. It holds a score of 60% "Fresh" in Rotten Tomatoes and has a rating of 6.3 stars out of 10 in IMDb. It was praised for its animation - regarded as some of the best among the Disney direct-to-video sequels - but the story was thought to be lacking and easy to make. Movie fans were much more positive, according to ratings on Amazon.com.

Soundtrack
Bambi II'''s musical score includes instrumental pieces by Bruce Broughton, and new vocal songs by several noted artists, including Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, and Anthony Callea. Coinciding the with film's DVD release, the soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records in the United States on February 7, 2006. Produced by Matt Walker, the CD included 9 songs from the movie, as well as three tracks from the original movie.

 "There is Life" (Alison Krauss) – 2:19
 "First Sign of Spring" – (Michelle Lewis) – 3:49
 "Through Your Eyes" – (Martina McBride) – 4:07
 "The Healing of a Heart" – (Anthony Callea) – 2:43
 "Snow Flakes in the Forest" – (Bruce Broughton) – 1:40
 "Bambi's Dream (Broughton) –  1:27
 "Being Brave (Part 1) (Broughton) –  1:22
 "Being Brave (Part 2) (Broughton) – 1:13
 "Bambi and the Great Prince/End Credit Suite" (Broughton) – 3:34
 "Sing the Day" (Various) – 1:53
 "Main Title (Love is a Song)" (Donald Novis) – 2:56
 "Little April Shower" (Chorus) – 3:54
 "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" (Chorus) – 1:44

 Time period changes
In the original book on which Bambi was based, Ronno was already a stag when Bambi was born, instead of being mere weeks-to-months older than he was as in the movie.  An additional twist is that in the book, Ronno was quite respectable (though a bit of a whiner as he is portrayed in the movie), and there was nothing at all personal about his rivalry with Bambi over Faline. Ronno's character is never named in the original movie.  However, documentation from Disney clearly indicates that the Ronno in Bambi II is the same deer which Bambi fought in the original, right down to the same moves each deer makes during their fight in the sequel. The age of the Great Prince changes as compared to the original movie.  In the original, the Great Prince is said to be twice as old as the oldest deer.  In this movie, the Great Prince is said to have been the same age as Bambi's mother.

 Double-Takes
There are several scenes in Bambi II which are noticeably similar to scenes from the first movie, Bambi. For example:

 In one scene Bambi is shown following his father through snow that, while barely knee-deep on the Great Prince, is neck-deep (and at one point even deeper) on Bambi. The scene is reminiscent of Bambi's first encounter with snow in the original movie.

 The scene where Bambi and Thumper wake Flower up for Groundhog Day is quite similar to the  scene in Bambi where the animals all go to see Bambi in the beginning. "*Friend Owl* Well... [chuckle] this is quite an occasion." In this movie, he says "Oh! The young prince! This is a special occasion. Also, when Bambi and Thumper wake up Flower, the entire background painting used for Flower's den is the same painting used when they woke him up in the original movie.

 When the song "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" was played in Bambi, Friend Owl was annoyed by all the singing birds keeping him awake. In Bambi II, after the groundhog announces that spring has come, all the gathered animals start singing the song, to which Friend Owl moans, "Oh, not that song."

 When Ronno meets Bambi and Faline, he says "Where's everybody going? Forest on fire?" This was similar to the end of the first movie when Bambi and the Great Prince escape the forest fire.

 In Bambi II, Ronno finds himself buried in snow when a great heap of it falls on him from a branch, similar to what happened to Bambi in the first movie.  The difference is that Bambi suffered it only by curiosity, whereas Ronno quite literally brought it upon himself.

 While trying to teach Bambi to growl, Thumper adjusts the position of Bambi's front legs much as he did while trying to teach Bambi to ice-skate in the original movie.

 Following Bambi's less-than-fortunate encounter with a porcupine, Ronno attempts to drive Faline along with his budding antlers, much the same as he did in Bambi'' when he tried to break up a romantic scene between the pair.

 Bambi's jump across the small chasm over a stream while fleeing from Ronno mirrors his jump across a larger chasm in the first movie after he buried a pack of dogs in a rockslide.

 After Bambi's fight with Ronno and Mena's encounter with the trap in Bambi II, she shouts at Bambi the same words that his mother spoke before she was shot: "Faster, Bambi! Don't look back! Keep running! Keep running!"

 When Bambi is trying to escape the pack of dogs later in the movie, after deterring them from Mena, he struggles and jumps up a cliff which is reminiscent of the cliff that Faline tried to escape the dogs from in the original.

 A scene in which the Great Prince repeatedly tells Bambi to get up is reminiscent of a scene in the original movie when Bambi had been shot. The Great Prince says the same words as the forest fire closes in.

 Towards the end, as Bambi's antlers begin to emerge, they are momentarily snagged in a low-hanging branch laden with what appear to be cherry blossoms. This directly mirrors the scene where he becomes "twitterpated" in the original movie.

 After Bambi and Faline kiss, Friend Owl says "Oh, twitterpated!" Flower wonders what "twitterpated" is, and Friend Owl responds "I'll tell you when you're older." Naturally, Friend Owl did explain what "twitterpated" is when Bambi, Thumper, and Flower got older in the original movie.

 The scene in which Bambi and Ronno fight mirrors their fight over Faline in the original movie.

Third sequel
In 2007, Pimental expressed interest of making a third movie, which was supposed to continue were the original left off. The movie was originally meant to be released direct-to-DVD in the U.S and in European theaters in late 2011. However, since DisneyToon Studios was shut down.

Awards

References

Other websites

 Bambi II at the Big Cartoon DataBase(BCDb)

Bambi
2006 movies
2006 animated movies
Disney animated movies
Disney direct-to-video movies
American family movies
American musical movies
Sequel movies

Bambi II


The Conventicle Act 1664 was an Act of the Parliament of England (16 Cha. 2. c. 4) that forbade conventicles, defined as religious assemblies of more than five people other than an immediate family, outside the auspices of the Church of England and the rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

This law was a part of the Clarendon Code, named after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, which aimed to discourage nonconformism and to strengthen the position of the Established Church but the Clarendon Code was not actually the work of Clarendon himself, who favoured a policy of greater tolerance towards dissenters. These prohibitions led many, such as the Covenanters, to vacate their parishes rather than submit to the new Episcopal authorities. Just as the ministers left so too did the congregations, following their old pastors to sermons on the hillside. From small beginnings these field assemblies—or conventicles—were to grow into major problems of public order for the government.

The operation of the Clarendon Code at least as far as Protestants were concerned was mitigated somewhat by Charles II's Royal Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, which suspended the execution of the Penal Laws and allowed a certain number of non-conformist chapels to be staffed and constructed, with the pastors subject to royal approval.

The Conventicle Act was formally repealed in 1689, although its authority had lapsed, by default, in 1667.

Provisions
Firstly, the Act confirmed that the Religion Act 1592 was still in force.

Secondly, it declared that if any person aged sixteen or over after the 1 July 1664 is present at any religious meeting other than of the Church of England where there are five persons or more assembled together (other than those of the same household), then they would be tried by two justices of the peace or one chief magistrate, without a jury.

If found guilty, the penalties were as follows:
first offence: imprisonment for up to three months without bail, or a five pounds fine (to be paid to the poor of the convicted person's parish).
second offence: imprisonment for up to six months without bail, or a ten pounds fine (to be disposed of as above).
third offence: transportation for seven years, or a one hundred pounds fine.

Subsequent sections of the Act allowed for the breaking up of such meetings, if a warrant had been issued, and the arresting of the convenor of the meeting, and the owner of the venue, who were subject to the same penalties as above, if found guilty. There were penalties for officials not carrying out court orders. The prosecution had to occur within three months of the act, and no other prosecution could be brought for the offence. A special clause applied to Quakers who refused to swear an oath in court without due reason. They were immediately declared guilty and sentenced to transportation. Minor variations in procedure and penalties were also made for peers of the realm. The Act was to remain in force for three years.

Jewish reaction
Although aimed at Nonconformists, when the Conventicle Act was passed, the Jews, led by their new rabbi Jacob Sasportas, took their anxieties to Charles II, who told them, "laughing and spitting", not to worry; later the Privy Council put it in writing that Jews could "promise themselves the effects of the same favour as formerly they have had, so long as they demean themselves peaceably and quietly, with due obedience to His Majesty's laws and without scandal to his government". Thus the English Jews, by an act of omission, as it were, became subjects, under no more disabilities than those inherent in their own unwillingness, like Catholics and Nonconformists, to belong to the Church of England or, in their particular case, to swear Christian oaths.

See also
Five Mile Act 1665
Declaration of Indulgence (disambiguation)

References

"Charles II, 1664: An Act to prevent and suppresse seditious Conventicles", The Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628–80 (1819), pp. 516–20. Date accessed: 5 March 2007.

Acts of the Parliament of England concerning religion
1664 in law
English Reformation
Persecution of Protestants
Persecution of the Covenanters
Christianity and law in the 17th century
1664 in England
1664 in Christianity
17th-century Judaism
Religious persecution
Jewish English history

Conventicle Act 1664


The continental prophecies is a group of illuminated books by William Blake that have been subject of numerous studies due to their recurrent and unorthodox use of political, literary and sexual metaphors. They consist of America, Europe and The Song of Los (Africa and Asia).

Background
Blake's works describing the four continents prophecies are part of his "Lambeth Books", based on their creation at his home in Lambeth, Surrey. Of these works there are America a Prophecy created in 1793, Europe a Prophecy created in 1794, and The Song of Los created in 1795. Like other "Lambeth Books", all aspects of the works, including the composition of the designs, their printing, coloring, and sale, happened at his home. The pages of the works and images were 23 x 17 cm in size. All three of the works were occasionally bound together as a set.

Plot
The plots of America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy and The Song of Los, divided into "Africa" and "Asia", are all part of the same group of poems. They, like The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, describe the story of Orc as the works all portray these events with a focus on satire, society, liberty found in revolution, and the apocalypse.

America
The first book, America a Prophecy, describes Orc's encouragement of the rebellion in the Americas. The work begins with the King of England trembling as he sees Orc. Orc provokes the people to rise up, and he witnesses an apocalyptic revelation of a new world.

Europe
The second book, Europe a Prophecy, describes the rebellion in France. The work describes the entrapment of men and women into constrictive gender relationships, and the serpent was originally the infinite bound up by the finite under God's tyranny. At the end of the story, Los calls forth a rebellion.

Africa
"Africa" is the first half of The Song of Los, created last. The story begins in Africa with Los singing of Adam, Noah, and Moses were witnesses to Urizen granting laws to humanity. These laws involve abstractions being granted to Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, gospel being given to Jesus, a bible for Mahomet, and a book on war given to Odin. The last of the laws were those of the five senses, which were given to John Locke and to Isaac Newton. All of these laws were chains that bound the mind and caused the world.

Asia
"Asia" is the second half of The Song of Los. In the work, Orc creates fires in the mind that provokes a thought revolution. This causes the kings of the world to be startled as an apocalypse of sorts is begun.

Themes
Blake scholars have suggested that the Continental prophecies follow a common thread in depicting the struggle for freedom experienced during Blake's time, in the American War and in the outbreak of revolutionary activity in London. The recurring appearance of Orc, symbol of rebellion against oppression, throughout the series (especially in America and Europe) reinforces this view. Scholars such as Stephen Behrend have stressed the mutual interdependence of the series pointing out the subject of slavery as a recurrent motive. David V. Erdman called the Continental Prophecies a "spiritual history of the world".

Each of the works deal with satire, with a particular focus on Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and John Locke as a Cerberus figure when he attacked all three. Although Blake was wrong when he labeled Locke a deist, he was not incorrect to find many similarities between Locke's views and deism. However, there were many similar beliefs between the two that Blake does not mention: their opposition to slavery, their promotion of toleration, and the view that the senses are primary to knowledge. As for Bacon, Blake claimed that he was a non-believer. However, Blake did not have access to some of Bacon's works dealing with allegory that, though Blake would not agree with, would have removed the original claims. When Blake labeled Newton as a deist, he ridiculed Newton's works and interest in the apocalyptic.

Blake's specific criticism of individuals is based on the type of threat he believed they posed, especially when a work uses true beliefs but in a misleading manner. While Blake was opposed to Hobbes view, he believed that the straightforwardness of the view were not as dangerous as Locke's arguments were more persuasive to others. In the same way, Blake attacked Swedenborg instead of attacking those like Augustine or Calvin who also promote the belief of predestination that Blake was strongly against. As for general beliefs, Blake felt that there was more to fear from deism than atheism, as deism was more persuasive and dangerous. This view is transformed into Blake's works as the contraries and the negations, with contrariness being represented as devil/angel. As such, Locke is a contrary to Blake, as they both use the same system but in different manners, whereas Hobbes merely negates Blake's view by not caring to use the system.

See also
William Blake's prophetic books
Illuminated manuscript
William Blake's mythology
Slavery

Notes

References
 Behrendt, Stephen. Reading William Blake. New York: St Martin's Press, 1992.
 Bentley, G. E. (Jr). The Stranger From Paradise. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
 Frye, Northrop. Fearful Symmetry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
 Gleckner, Robert F. et al. Romantic Generations. Bucknell University Press, 2001.
 Pierce, John Benjamin . The Wond'rous Art: William Blake and writing. Dickinson Univ Press, 2003.
 Stevenson, W.H. (ed.). Blake: The Complete Poems 2nd ed. London: Longman, 1989.

External links
 Blake Archive page

18th-century illuminated manuscripts
Poetry by William Blake
British poems

Continental prophecies


The Han dynasty came to power in 202 BC. They followed the philosophies of Confucianism and legalism. This was called 'the Han synthesis'.

Under this dynasty, China made progress in arts and science. The empire also became larger and larger. China started trading with a number of other countries. They started the Silk Road. Merchants used the Silk Road to reach China. During this dynasty Buddhism was introduced in China. Today, the dominant ethnic group of China calls themselves the Han Chinese since this was the dynasty where many of the norms of Chinese culture found a firm foundation in the culture, including Confucianism and Chinese characters. The first emperor of the Han dynasty is Liu Bang, known in Chinese as Emperor Gaozu of Han. The Han dynasty was considered the golden age of early china.

The Han dynasty ruled China from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. The new emperor maintained a legalist ideology just like the Qin dynasty but also had ideas of Confucianism to have a centralized system showing benevolence. After eighty years, Emperor Wu of Han launched a period of military expansion. The Han armies controlled many territories, including Silk Road in Mongolia and Xinjiang. The Silk Road  helped make a political, economic, military, and culture center, but it was very expensive to manage and further expansion was cut off. Several factors contributed to the fall of the Han dynasty, including uprisings of desperate and hungry people, the spread of attacks by nomadic groups, and official corruption.

Literature
Fairbank, John King and Merle Goldman 1992. China: a new history. 2nd enlarged edition 2006. Cambridge: MA; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Other websites

 Han Dynasty by Minnesota State University
 Han Dynasty art with video commentary, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Chinese dynasties
3rd-century BC establishments
3rd-century disestablishments

Han dynasty


Raffaele Calace (1863 – 1934) was an Italian mandolin player, composer, and luthier.

Calace was born in Naples, Italy, the son of Antonio Calace, a successful instrument maker. He initially trained to be a musician, discovered the mandolin, and soon became a virtuoso. After Calace graduated with high honors from the Regio Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, he set out to elevate the mandolin's place in music. To achieve this, he toured Europe and Japan, giving concerts on the Neapolitan mandolin and liuto cantabile. The liuto cantabile is a bass variant of the mandolin family that scholars believe Neapolitan luthiers of the Vinaccia family created in the last decade of the 19th century, and that Raffaele Calace subsequently perfected. Raffaele Calace made three long-playing phonograph records on which he plays mandolin and liuto cantabile.

Raffaele Calace wrote about 200 compositions for mandolin. These include concert works for mandolin solo and compositions for mandolin and other instruments—duets with piano, trio combinations with mandola and guitar, the Romantic Mandolin Quartet (two mandolins, mandola, and guitar), and quintets.

Calace also wrote pedagogical works, including a mandolin method, Schule für Mandoline, and a method for playing the liuto cantabile. The mandolin method was published in 1910 and elaborates on the 18th-century Italian mandolin tutors by Giovanni Battista Gervasio (c. 1725–c. 1785), Gabriele Leone (c. 1725–c. 1790) and others. It shows the development of the traditional Italian playing style. The Calace school forms a bridge between other modern methods for mandolin, such as those by Raffaele Calace's countryman Silvio Ranieri (1882-1956), a Roman virtuoso who settled in Brussels, and the American-based Italian mandolinist Giuseppe Pettine (1874-1966).

Raffaele Calace and his brother Nicola Calace (1859-1923), also a musician, also became instrument makers in the Neapolitan mandolin family. They introduced improvements in building techniques and modernized the Neapolitan mandolin. Among other innovations, they enlarged its sound box and—like the Roman luthier Luigi Embergher—extended the fingerboard over the sound hole to increase the range.

When Nicola Calace emigrated to the United States in 1898, Raffaele continued the Calace workshop with his daughter Maria (also a mandolin player), and his son Giuseppe Calace. Today the Calace atelier is run by Calace's grandson Raffaele Jr.

See also
 List of mandolinists (sorted)

References

External links

Naxos biography

1863 births
1934 deaths
Italian composers
Italian male composers
Italian luthiers
Italian mandolinists
Composers from Naples
Italian musical instrument makers

Raffaele Calace


History is the study of past events. People know what happened in the past by looking at things from the past including sources (like books, newspapers, scripts and letters), buildings and artifacts (like pottery, tools, coins and human or animal remains.) Libraries, archives, and museums collect and keep these things for people to study history. A person who studies history is called a historian. A person who studies pre-history and history through things left behind by ancient cultures is called an archaeologist. A person who studies mankind and society is called an anthropologist. The study of the sources and methods used to study and write history is called historiography.

People can learn about the past by talking to people who remember things that happened at some point in the past. This is called oral history. For example, when people who had been slaves and American Civil War survivors got old, some historians recorded them talking about their lives, so that history would not be lost.

In old times people in different parts of the world kept separate histories because they did not meet each other very often. Some groups of people never met each other. The rulers of Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome and Ancient China each thought that they ruled the only important parts of the world and that other parts were "barbarian". But they were still connected, even if they didn't realize it.

The term "historically" is used to say that something has been a certain way during most of its history. For example, a historically female university is a university which has had a student body that was mostly or entirely female for most of its history.  The term is often used for historically female and historically black (African American) schools.

Timeline of history

Pre-history
 Ancient history
 Sumer
 Ancient Egypt
 Babylonia
Ancient Armenia
 Ancient Greece
 Ancient India
 Ancient China and Japan, Korea, Mongolia
 Ancient Southeast Asia - Cambodia - Thailand - Indonesia
 Ancient North America - Iroquois, Mohawk, Huron, Haida, Lenape, Mohican, Cree, Sioux, Inuit, Dene
 Ancient Central America - Aztecs, Maya, Olmecs, Toltecs, Teotihuacan, Mixtecs
 Ancient South America - Inca, Chimu, Tihuanacu, Huari
 Ancient Africa
 Ancient Australia
 Roman Empire
 Christian Rome - Justinian to the rise of Byzantium
 Chinese Dynasties
 Byzantine Empire
 Early Islamic Caliphate - Muhammad to The Crusades
 Early Middle Ages - end of European Dark Ages to rise of Roman Catholic Church
 High Middle Ages and the Crusades - conflict with Islam, Cathars, pagan tribes in Lithuania, etc.
 Late Middle Ages - 13th century to 15th century
 Late Islamic Caliphate - to fall of Muslim Spain
 Mongol Empire
 Renaissance - 15th century renewal of science etc., based on texts from Ancient Greece and Roman Empire that were preserved by Muslims and captured by Christians
 European colonization of the Americas - 15th century impact on America
Spanish Empire
British Empire
 Baroque era - mid 16th century to mid-late 18th century
 Conflict of Ottoman Empire with Austria-Hungary
 Rise of the Qing Dynasty in China
 Enlightenment - mid 17th century to late 18th century
 19th century
British Empire
 20th century
History of Australia since colonizing Australia
History of the United States
 Modern History and origins of modern world power structure
World War I
 World War II
 United Nations ascendance - how it became so central.
 Chinese Revolution, Partition of India, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
 US-Soviet Cold War including Korean War, Vietnam War, Soviet-Afghan War
 Recent conflicts in the Muslim World - Arab-Israeli Wars, US invasion of Afghanistan, US invasion of Iraq
 Recent conflicts in West Africa - Uganda, Chad, Rwanda, Congo, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and so on

Current events, modern economic history, modern social history and modern intellectual history take very different views of the way history has affected the way that we think today.

Related pages

 List of historians
 World History
 Political economy
 Historical novel
Basic English 850 words

References

History


William Dunlop Brackenridge (1810–1893) was a British-American nurseryman and botanist.

Brackenridge emigrated to Philadelphia in 1837, where he was employed by Robert Buist, nurseryman. He was appointed horticulturalist, then assistant botanist, for the United States Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842. Originally, the well-known botanist Asa Gray was to be the chief botanist, and William Rich, a Washington, DC socialite and son of an ambassador, was politically appointed as his assistant. However, Gray never went on the expedition due to taking an academic job, and Rich was appointed botanist, so they needed a new assistant.  Rich was reportedly of little use on the trip, and Brackenridge did almost all the collecting and serious botany work.

Brackenridge was assigned to the U.S. Ship Vincennes. In 1839, he collected plants in the Sydney and Hunter River districts of New South Wales, Australia. From 1841 to 1842, the ships explored the Oregon and California coasts, with trips inland. After returning, he continued working with the collected plants and wrote the fern report for the expedition, included in the overall botanical report written by Asa Gray. After 1855, he lived in Baltimore and worked as a nurseryman and landscape architect. Near Mount Shasta, he discovered the California Pitcher Plant, Darlingtonia californica, one of the noted successes of the expedition. John Torrey chose the genus name to honor his friend, Pennsylvania botanist William Darlington.

Brackenridge Passage in Puget Sound is named for him.

Reports of the day indicate that Brackenridge was a hardy, strapping six-footer. He and his wife Isobel were Presbyterians. They had at least four children: Agnes (1846), Robert Buist (1847), William D. (1850), and Jane Henderson Brackenridge (1854).

Plants named for W. D. Brackenridge
The plant genus Brackenridgea A. Gray, in the Ochnaceae (Fiji and Australia)
The tree fern Cyathea brackenridgei Mett. (Cyatheaceae)

Plants named by W. D. Brackenridge
(list not inclusive)
Diclidopteris Brack. (genus)
Diellia Brack. (genus; now included in Asplenium L.)
Onychium densum Brack.: now Aspidotis densa (Brack.) Lellinger
Antrophyum subfalcatum Brack.
Cyrtogonium palustre Brack.: now Bolbitis palustris (Brack.) Hennipman
Sitolobium samoense Brack.: now Dennstaedtia samoensis ( Brack.) T.Moore
Gymnogramma pilosa Brack.:  now Coniogramme pilosa (Brack.) Hieron.
Blechnum coriaceum (Brack.) Brownlie
Blechnum vittatum Brack.
Polypodium sarmentosum Brack.: now Adenophorus sarmentosus ( Brack. ) K.Wilson
Goniopteris costata Brack.: now Pneumatopteris costata (Brack.) Holtt.
Lastrea attenuata Brack.: now Plesioneuron attenuatum (Brack.) Holtt.
Goniopteris glandulifera Brack.: now Pneumatopteris glandulifera (Brack.) Holtt.
Elaphoglossum intermedium Brack.
Oleandra hirta Brack.

Works by W. D. Brackenridge
Brackenridge, William Dunlop. United States Exploring Edition Report, Volume XVI - Botany - Filices. 1854.
Brackenridge, William Dunlop. United States Exploring Edition Report, Volume XVI - Botany - Filices: Atlas. 1856.

See also
 European and American voyages of scientific exploration

References

Engraving of W. D. Brackenridge: Frontispiece, The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist: Devoted to Horticulture, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 26:312. December 1884.
William Dunlop Brackenridge Papers, circa 1838-1875 in Smithsonian Institution Archives:
Bornholdt, Mariana D. "Botanizing Western Oregon In 1841 – The Wilkes Inland Expedition":
Journal of William Dunlop Brackenridge for October, 1841: California Historical Society Quarterly, 24(4):326-336. December, 1945.

External links

19th-century Scottish botanists
Pteridologists
1893 deaths
1810 births
American horticulturists
Scottish horticulturists
People of the United States Exploring Expedition
People from Ayr
Scottish emigrants to the United States
Scottish Presbyterians
19th-century American botanists

William Brackenridge


The Wast Midlands () is a metropolitan coonty in wastren central Ingland wi a 2009 estimatit population o 2,638,700. It came intae existence as a metropolitan coonty in 1974 efter the passage o the Local Govrenment Act 1972, formed frae pairts o Staffordshire, Worcestershire an Warwickshire. The coonty itsel is a NUTS 2 region athin the wider NUTS 1 region o the same name. The county conseests o seiven metropolitan boroughs: the City of Birmingham, the City of Coventry an the City of Wolverhampton, plus Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull an Walsall. The Wast Midlands Coonty Cooncil wis abolished on 31 Mairch 1986, an sae its destricts (the metropolitan boroughs) are nou effectively unitary authorities. Houesomeivver, the metropolitan coonty continues tae exist in law an as a geographic frame o reference.

The coonty is whiles describit as the "Wast Midlands metropolitan aurie" or the "Wast Midlands conurbation", awtho thir hae different, an less clearly defined, bundaries. The main conurbation, or urban aurie, daes no include Coventry for example. The name "Wast Midlands" is an aa uised for the hintle lairger Wast Midlands region, which whiles causes confusion.

Geografie

The Wast Midlands is a landlockit coonty that borders the coonties o Warwickshire tae the east, Worcestershire tae the sooth, an Staffordshire tae the north an wast.

The West Midlands Coonty is ane o the maist hivily urbanised coonties in the UK. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country an Solihull thegither form the maist muckle conurbation in the Unitit Kinrick ootside Lunnon, wi a combined population o aroond 2.27 million. Housomeibver, the Wast Midlands is no entirely urban; Coventry is separatit frae the Wast Midlands conurbation bi a stretch o green belt land roughly 15 mile (24 km) athort, kent as the "Meriden Gap", which retains a strangly rural character. A smawer piece o green belt atween Birmingham, Walsall an Wast Bromwich includes Barr Beacon an the Sandwell Valley.

The heichest pynt in the Wast Midlands is Turners Hill, wi a heicht o 271 m (889 ft). The hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Barr Beacon is anither hill in the Wast Midlands, locatit on the border o Birmingham an Walsall, wi a heicht o 227 m (745 ft).

Thare are 23 Steids o Special Scientific Interest in the coonty. Ane o thir SSSIs is Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, which haes an aurie o 970 hectares (2,400 acres). As a result, it is ane o the lairgest urban pairks in Europe, an the lairgest ootside o a caipital ceety in Europe. The pairk an aa haes National Nature Reserve status.

Thare are numerous rivers that pass throu the coonty, includin the River Tame. The river basin is the maist urbanised basin in the Unitit Kinrick, wi approximately 42% o the basin bein urbanised. The River Tame is fed bi the River Rea, River Anker, an the River Blythe, which in turn is fed bi the River Cole. The River Sowe an River Sherbourne baith flow throu Coventry. The River Stour flows throu the wast o the Wast Midlands coonty.

Touns an ceeties

 Aldridge
 Bloxwich
 Bilston
 Birmingham *
 Blackheath
 Brierley Hill
 Chelmsley Wood
 Brownhills
 Coseley
 Coventry *
 Cradley Heath
 Darlaston
 Dudley
 Fordbridge
 Halesowen
 Longbridge
 Netherton
 Oldbury
 Rowley Regis
 Quarry Bank
 Rubery
 Sedgley
 Smethwick
 Solihull
 Stourbridge
 Sutton Coldfield
 Tipton
 Walsall
 Wednesfield
 Wednesbury
 Wast Bromwich
 Willenhall
 Wolverhampton *

* = ceety

Sport
The Wast Midlands is hame tae numerous sports teams. In fitbaa, thare are sax Fitbaa League teams in the coonty o which fower, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers an West Bromwich Albion, play in the Premiership. Aston Villa, Wast Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City an Walsall are aften referred tae as the Wast Midlands "big sax".

The Wast Midlands is an aa hame tae Warwickshire County Cricket Club, who are based at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, which an aa hosts Test matches an One Day Internationals. The Birmingham Panthers basketbaw team replaced the Birmingham Bullets an are currently based at a facility providit bi the Varsity o Wolverhampton in Walsall. In rugby union, the Wast Midlands is hame tae Moseley Rugby Football Club, Birmingham & Solihull RFC, Dudley Kingswinford RFC, Stourbridge RFC, Walsall RFC an Coventry RFC.

Freemit airtins

 Photographs o Birmingham an the Wast Midlands
 Identity in the Wast Midlands
 Wast Midlands Joint Committee

Metropolitan coonties
Wast Midlands (region)
NUTS 2 statistical regions o the Unitit Kinrick

Wast Midlands (coonty)