The Standard Bank Building (10 November 1908) was designed by Architects Stucke & Bannister. It is found in Marshalltown in the South African city of Johannesburg in  Commissioner, Harrison and Fox streets

Design

The building has a handsome stone-faced design in the neo-Baroque late Victorian style or Beaux Arts Style which was beginning to dominate the New Regent Street and Piccadilly in London at the end of the 19th century. It is a formal and stately five story building with an excess of neo-Baroque ornamentation on the facade in a rather dry, rationalized manner. It creates an impersonal, monumental impression, ideally suited to a time which liked to express the might of the British Empire. The corners are crowned by domes supported on ionic style classical columns. The corner entrance on Commissioner and Harrison Streets is dominated by two larger than life figures. Justice and Commerce sculptured by a Greek sculpture called Marigo. The building has a skeleton of steel, the walls being filled in with brick, which was clad on the outside with sawn sandstone.

Construction
Construction began in 1906 and suffered delays because frame steel orders coincided with the San Francisco earthquake. Much building material was sent to that stricken city while other customers waited.  An innovation for the time was the reinforced concrete employed for the floors.

References

Bank buildings in South Africa
Buildings and structures in Johannesburg
Heritage Buildings in Johannesburg

Standard Bank Building


Stephen Boyd (4 July 19312 June 1977) was an actor. He was born in Northern Ireland. He appeared in stage productions in the U.S. and Canada before breaking into English movies in 1955. Four years later, he played "Messala" in Ben-Hur (1959) opposite Charlton Heston. Gore Vidal, who did uncredited work on the screenplay, wanted to give "Messala" a homosexual slant.  He convinced director William Wyler and Boyd that the bitter hatred between the two characters was the result of a gay relationship gone wrong. Heston was furious about this gay angle when he found out about it years later. Boyd won a Golden Globe for his performance in Ben-Hur.

Boyd was the first to be considered for the role of Marc Antony in Cleopatra (1963) opposite Elizabeth Taylor. Production was delayed for months when Taylor fell ill. Boyd dropped out of the production to honor other commitments. He appeared in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) with Sophia Loren and Christopher Plummer. The role of Antony went to Richard Burton.

Boyd appeared in other spectacles like Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962), Genghis Khan (1965), and The Bible (1966). He starred in the sci-fi adventure Fantastic Voyage (1966).  His co-star in Voyage, Raquel Welch, made sexual advances to him. He declined with, "An actress is a little bit more than a woman, but an actor is a little bit less than a man." She concluded from this remark (and later reported) that Boyd  was gay. Boyd always had difficulty picking good scripts. His last movies were cheesy exploitation flicks made in Europe. He was married twice for very brief periods of time. He never came out as gay. He died of a heart attack while playing golf in California.

References

Irish actors
1931 births
1977 deaths
Actors from Northern Ireland

Stephen Boyd


Spitz-type breeds of dog have a long thick coat of fur that is often white, and pointed ears and noses. Many times, the tail is over the dog's back.

Origins
No one knows where Spitz-type dogs came from, though most seen today live in the Arctic. There is no archaeological signs showing stages between the wolf and Spitz-type dogs, but Spitz-like skeletons have been found up to 5,000 years old.

Though it is not certain for how long wolves have bred with Spitz-type dogs, it is known that humans have bred Spitz types with wolves in more recent times to get wolf-like breeds such as the Alaskan Malamute.

About 3000 years ago, dogs began to migrate from the Arctic into temperate Europe, North America, Asia, and sometimes Africa. Skeletons from around 2,000 years ago in Switzerland show that Spitz-type dogs have lived in central Europe for thousands of years. These dogs are the ancestors of the European Spitz-types, such as the German Spitz and Schipperke. Many Spitz-types also migrated into Korea and China. Later, many of these dogs were moved by humans to Japan, most likely from Korea. These Asian Spitz types are the ancestors of today's breeds such as the Chow Chow and the Akita Inu.

Uses

Through special breeding, Spitz types have evolved to help humans in three ways: hunting, herding, and pulling sleds. Smaller breeds such as the Finnish Spitz and the Lundehund were used in Scandinavia to hunt birds and smaller mammals. Larger breeds such as the Karelian Bear Dog and the Norwegian Elkhound were used for hunting large animals like moose and elk. The largest of all the Spitz types, notably the Canadian Eskimo Dog and the Greenland Dog, were used to pull sleds up until the 19th century.

Spitz types are good at living in cold northern climates. They often have a warm, water-proof layer of fur that is thicker than the outer layer of fur. Small ears help reduce the risk of frostbite, and thick fur that grows on the paws protects the dogs from sharp ice.

Many Spitz-type breeds behave like wolves in their independence and aggression towards new humans and animals. They may need much training before they become friendly. Some, like the Karelian Bear Dog, are not friendly enough to ever become companion dogs.

The cuteness of the Spitz-type have caused people to create companion dog breeds from them. The very small Pomeranian was at first a much larger dog similar to a Keeshond before being bred to make a small court animal. The Keeshond, is a friendly and loyal, though very lively, pet. Other companion Spitz-type dog breeds is the American Eskimo Dog, and the intelligent Japanese Spitz. The extinct Silky Spitz (Seidenspitz) was a longhaired silky coated white colored variety, it is said that the breed was of pomeranian and maltese dog mix. Also the Bologneserspitz or Seidenpudelspitz are extinct toy dogs.

Dog breeds originating in Germany

Spitz (dog)


Year 1140 (MCXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events
 By area

 Europe
 December 21 – Conrad III of Germany besieged Weinsberg, the stronghold of Welfs.
 Henry Jasomirgott is made count palatine of the Rhine.
 The town of Lanark in Scotland is made a Royal Burgh by David I of Scotland.
 Marburg becomes a town.
 The Assizes of Ariano are enacted by Roger II of Sicily.
 Roger II of Sicily places the practice of medicine under royal control.

 By topic

 Religion
 June 3 – Pierre Abelard is condemned for heresy by a church court in Sens, France.
 September 8 – Sephardi Jewish philosopher Judah Halevi, having completed the Kuzari, arrives in Alexandria on a pilgrimage to Palestine.
 The first Cistercian monastery in Spain is founded in Fitero. The order enjoys a rapid expansion in the region in the following 15 years.
 Camaldolite monk Gratian founds the science of Canon law with the publication of the Decretum Gratiani.

Births
 May 28 – Xin Qiji, Chinese poet (d. 1207)
 Minamoto no Yoshihira, Japanese warrior (d. 1160)

Deaths
 January 12 – Louis I, Landgrave of Thuringia
 February 6 – Thurstan, Archbishop of York
 February 14
 Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia
 Leo I, Prince of Armenia
 November 15 – Adelaide of Hungary, Duchess of Bohemia
 date unknown &ndahs; Kitti Sri Megha, Sri Lankan ruler

References

1140


Gliding is when an object or animal goes through the air without active flight. All gliders use an aerofoil to slow their rate of descent. Glider planes have wings, and gliding animals have membranes which they stretch out. By using rising air they can prolong their stay in the air. The word 'soaring' describes this, and is also used for the sport of gliding.

Air will rise if it is heated by the ground or if it is deflected by mountains. Improvements in aerodynamics, in instruments and in the understanding of the weather have allowed flights over great distances at high speeds. The world record distance is now over 3000 km.

Aviation
Animal locomotion

Gliding


Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (31 August 1602 – 8 September 1675) was Princess of Orange by marriage to Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. She acted as the political adviser of her spouse during his reign, and acted as his de facto deputy and regent during his infirmity from 1640 to 1647. She also served as chair of the regency council during the minority of her grandson William III, Prince of Orange from 1650 until 1672.

Biography

Early life
Amalia was born in Braunfels as a daughter of Count Johann Albrecht I of Solms-Braunfels (1563-1623) and his wife, Countess Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1568-1617). She was a member of the House of Solms, a ruling family with Imperial immediacy, and spent her childhood at the parental Braunfels castle.

She became part of the court of Elizabeth, wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, the "Winter King" of Bohemia. After imperial forces defeated Frederick V, she fled from Prague with the pregnant queen to the west. Shelter was denied to them along the way because the emperor forbade it as Frederick had been placed under an Imperial ban. Elizabeth went into labour during their flight and Amalia helped her with her delivery of Prince Maurice at Küstrin castle.

The end of their journey was The Hague, where stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, uncle of the elector gave them asylum in 1621. They often appeared at his court, where Maurice's younger half-brother Frederick Henry became infatuated with Amalia in 1622. She refused to become his lover and held out for marriage. They were first cousins, once removed.

When Maurice of Nassau died, he made his half-brother Frederick Henry promise to wed. Frederick married Amalia on 4 April 1625.

Wife to the Stadtholder

When Frederick Henry became stadtholder after the death of his half-brother Prince Maurice, his influence grew substantially, as did Amalia's. Together Frederick Henry and Amalia succeeded in expanding court life in The Hague. They had several palaces built, including Huis ten Bosch. Amalia was a great collector of art and amassed many jewels, which were inherited by her four surviving daughters. She was described as intelligent, arrogant and ambitious, not beautiful but with a fresh and appealing appearance.

Amalia was the prime mover of several royal marriages, including that of her son William III to Mary, Princess Royal of England and Scotland (daughter of King Charles I of England) and of their daughters with several German princes.

The relationship between Amalia and Frederik Hendrik was described as happy, and Amalia is acknowledged to have acted as his political adviser. From 1640 until his death in 1647, Frederik Hendrik's health (he suffered from gout and probably also from a form of Alzheimer's) made it increasingly difficult for him to participate in politics, and during these seven years, Amalia therefore effectively functioned as regent and stadtholder, maintaining diplomatic contacts and making political decisions on his behalf. Her de facto political position was acknowledged and diplomats, aware of this, tried to influence her decisions by costly presents. It was reportedly Amalia who was behind Frederik Hendrik's participation in the negotiations which was eventually to result in the Peace of Münster of 1648. As a recognition, King Philip IV of Spain granted her the seigniory and castle of Turnhout in 1649.

In 1647, her spouse died and was succeeded as stadtholder and Prince of Orange by their son William II, Prince of Orange.

Regency
After the death of her son William II in 1650, her grandson William III (Prince William III of Orange and later also King William III of England) became prince of Orange. A regency council was appointed during his minority, and Amalia and her former daughter-in-law Mary Stuart fought over guardianship and thereby chairmanship of the regency council; the High Court of Holland and Zeeland finally granted both Mary and Amalia shared guardianship, and thereby shared part in the regency council of Orange.

Amalia was supported against Mary by her son-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg, and she was on good terms with the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, a relationship which did not change with the Act of Exclusion of 1654, barring the prince from all ancestral offices. When Mary died in 1660, Amalia in practice took sole control of the regency of her grandson. She maintained good relations to De Witt even by the passing of the 1667 Eternal Edict, which abolished the office of stadholder entirely. During this time she lived in the Oude Hof on the Noordeinde, maintaining her court and diplomatic contacts with royalty.

In 1672, her grandson was declared an adult and his regency council thereby dismissed. Amalia retired and witnessed him becoming stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel and captain-general of the Union. She died at her home in The Hague, aged 73.

Tributes

A wine from wine estate Solms-Delta in Franschhoek (South Africa) is named after Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. The wine honours the role played by her in Dutch political life. Her grandson, William III, King of England, provided refuge and support to thousands of French Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Some 180 of these refugees, fleeing religious persecution, were relocated to the Cape and granted farms in Franschhoek. Here they laid the foundations of the modern South African wine industry.

Issue
 Stadtholder William II (1626–1650), married Mary of England
 Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627–1667), married Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg
 Henriette Amalia of Nassau (1628), died in infancy
 Elisabeth of Nassau (1630), died shortly after birth
 Isabella Charlotte of Nassau (1632–1642), died in childhood
 Albertine Agnes of Nassau (1634–1696), married William Frederick, Count of Nassau-Dietz
 Henriette Catherine of Nassau (1637–1708), married John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
 Henry Louis of Nassau (1639), died in infancy
 Maria of Nassau (1642–1688), married Louis Henry Maurice, son of Louis Philip of Palatine-Simmern-Kaiserslautern

Amalia also suffered many miscarriages:
 A miscarried daughter (1629)
 A miscarried daughter (1631)
 A miscarried son (1633)
 A miscarried son (1635)
 A miscarried daughter (1636)
 A miscarried son (1638)
 A miscarried daughter (1640)
 A miscarried daughter (1641)
 A miscarried son (1643)
 A miscarried daughter (1645)
 A miscarried daughter (1646)
 A miscarried son (1647)

Ancestry

References

External links

The Correspondence of Amalia von Solms-Braunfels in EMLO
County of Solms in German Wikipedia

1602 births
1675 deaths
People from Braunfels
People from Solms-Braunfels
Princesses of Orange
House of Orange-Nassau
House of Solms-Braunfels
Countesses of Nassau
Burials in the Royal Crypt at Nieuwe Kerk, Delft
17th-century women rulers
German ladies-in-waiting
Mothers of monarchs

Amalia of Solms-Braunfels


This is a list of bridges in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They are listed from west to east for the Ottawa River or North to South for the Rideau River and Canal.

Spanning the Ottawa River

Bridges spanning the Ottawa River from west to east:
OCRR railway bridge
Connects Vydon Acres to Pontiac-Station, Quebec near Chats Falls.

Champlain Bridge
Connects Island Park Drive in Westboro to Place Samuel-de-Champlain in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau, Quebec. Owned by the National Capital Commission.

Prince of Wales Bridge
Railway bridge connecting Mechanicsville to the Hull sector of Gatineau, Quebec via Lemieux Island

Chaudière Bridge
Connects Booth Street in Lebreton Flats to Rue Eddy in Hull; Ottawa's oldest bridge.

Portage Bridge
Connects Wellington Street in Lebreton Flats to Boulevard Maisonneuve in Hull.

Interprovincial (Alexandra) Bridge
Connects St. Patrick Street and Murray Street in Lower Town to Boulevard des Allumettières in Hull.

Macdonald-Cartier Bridge
Connects King Edward Avenue in Lower Town to Autoroute de la Gatineau (Autoroute 5) in Hull.

Spanning the Rideau River

Bridges spanning the Rideau River from north to south:

Sussex Drive
Connects Lower Town and New Edinburgh via Sussex Drive

Minto Bridges
Connects King Edward Avenue in Lower Town to Union Street in New Edinburgh

St. Patrick Bridge
Connects St. Patrick Street in Lower Town to Beechwood Avenue in Vanier.

Cummings Bridge
Connects Rideau Street in Sandy Hill to Montreal Road in Vanier.

Hurdman Bridge
Connects Sandy Hill and Eastway Gardens via the Queensway, Highway 417.

Pedestrian bridge
Connects the University of Ottawa's Lees Avenue campus (formerly Algonquin College's Rideau Campus) in Ottawa East to Hurdman Park.

Transitway
Connects the Lees Transitway Station and Hurdman Transitway Station.

George McIlraith Bridge
Connects Main Street in Old Ottawa South to Smyth Road in Alta Vista.

Billings Bridge
Connects Old Ottawa South and Alta Vista via Bank Street.

G. Dunbar Bridge
Connects Carleton University and Riverside Park via Bronson Avenue.

O-Train bridge
Connects Carleton and Confederation stops

Heron Road Bridge
Connects Baseline Road in Courtland Park to Heron Road in Alta Vista. Also crosses the Rideau Canal.

Hog's Back Road
Connects Rideau View and Riverside Park via Hog's Back Road. Owned by the National Capital Commission. Also crosses over the Rideau Canal.

Canadian Northern Ontario Railway Federal Bridge
Connects the Merivale area to the Mooney's Bay neighbourhood.

 Michael J. E. Sheflin Bridge
Connects Clearview to Airport-Uplands via Hunt Club Road.

 Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge (under construction)
Planned completion date for 2012 and will connect Barrhaven and Riverside South via Strandherd Drive and Earl Armstrong Road.

Nicolls Island Road
Connects Nicolls Island to the mainland in Gloucester.

Bridge Street
Connects Bridge Street in Manotick to Mitch Owens Road in Osgoode.

Regional Road 6
Connects Roger Stevens Drive in Kars to Snake Island Road in Osgoode.

Highway 416
Connects Reevecraig to Sabourins Crossing

West Branch of the Rideau River
Barnsdale Road
Connects Nepean to Manotick

Bridge Street
Connects downtown Manotick to Long Island.

Spanning the Rideau Canal

Bridges spanning the Rideau Canal from north to south:

Plaza Bridge
Connects Wellington Street in Centretown to Rideau Street in the By Ward Market.

Mackenzie King Bridge
Connects Albert and Slater Streets in Centretown to Waller Street in Sandy Hill. The Transitway also uses this bridge.

Laurier Bridge
Connects Centretown and the University of Ottawa via Laurier Avenue.

Corktown Footbridge
Connects Centretown to Campus Transitway Station

Queensway
Connects The Glebe and Centretown with Old Ottawa East via Highway 417.

Pretoria Bridge
Connects Elgin Street in The Glebe with Hawthorne Avenue in Old Ottawa East. This is a Lift bridge.

Bank Street Bridge
Connects The Glebe and Old Ottawa South

Bronson Bridge
Connects The Glebe and Carleton University via Bronson Avenue

Rail tunnel (just west of Dows Lake)
Used by O-Train; connects Carleton and Carling stations

Heron Road Bridge
see above

Hog's Back Bridge
A swing bridge. Connects Riverside Drive and Prince of Wales Drive

Other bridges
Bridges not spanning the above water courses:

Pooley's Bridge
The oldest bridge entirely within Ottawa , spanning the tailrace in Lebreton Flats

Somerset Street bridge   or (a.k.a. "O-Train Bridge" )
Connects Somerset Street West over the O-Train tracks

Bridges carrying roads or pedestrian ways over or under Highways 417, Highway 416 and Ottawa Highway 174 ar not listed.

Related pages

Ottawa
Canada-related lists
Ottawa

List of bridges in Ottawa


Urswick is a civil parish that includes the villages of Great Urswick and Little Urswick. It is located in the Furness area of Cumbria, England. The villages are situated to the south-west of the town of Ulverston. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 351, decreasing at the 2011 census to 1,397.

Great Urswick is situated along the north and west sides of Urswick Tarn, a small body of water (c. 1100 feet by 600), although the largest such natural body in Low Furness. The tarn is fed from the surrounding hills and feeds Gleaston Beck to the south, the water is said to have a red hue due to the iron content of the surrounding land.  Little Urswick, the smaller of the two settlements, stands further south on the lower slopes of a limestone outcrop known as Bolton Heads.

Toponymy

A number of explanations have been suggested for Urswick's name.  The '-wick' element is perhaps from the Old English wic meaning 'farm' or 'trading centre', an element commonly found in settlements on or near Roman roads (see below).  It has been suggested that the first element may mean 'bison lake' from Old English ur + sǣ . However, an alternative explanation has been proposed which incorporates the first definite historical reference to the ancient estate that incorporated the present Urswick villages – Chiluestreuic – from the Domesday survey (see references).

The name 'Great Urswick' originated as 'Much Urswick', not because of its size but because of its association with Michael le Fleming.  The village was an original part of Michael's lands, granted to him before 1111 by Henry I, whilst Little Urswick belonged to Stephen of Blois and later Furness Abbey.  The name 'Much Urswick', meaning 'Michael's Urswick', was used to differentiate between the lands of Michael and Furness Abbey.

History
Urswick has visible remains of several prehistoric settlements, including a univallate hill fort known as Skelmore Heads, on the hills overlooking the village.  There can be little doubt that the history of the village dates back to the Bronze Age or further, given the wealth of ancient sites in the local area.  In 2023 it was confirmed that a human bone and a periwinkle shell bead found in Heaning Wood Bone Cave in Great Urswick were about 11,000 years old, representing "clear evidence of Mesolithic burials in the north [of England]".

The history of Roman presence in the village, as with the rest of Furness, is currently under investigation.  Finds of Roman coins, including pre-invasion issues, from Furness indicate that the Romans were active in the area from the earliest days of the Roman invasion. An article published in 2007 made a claim for Roman military activity focused on what later became Dalton-in-Furness: the medieval secular capital of Furness.  The author bases his argument on observations made by an 18th-century antiquarian; unsupported by 20th and 21st century investigations providing evidence for Roman archaeology.  Such evidence would undoubtedly include Roman finds linked to contexts discovered in the evaluation of archaeological loci where Roman activity is suspected during late 20th and early 21st century urban development. Despite the cutting of many service and foundation trenches in Dalton, no such evidence has been revealed.  This strongly suggests that this approach remains speculative at best.

Roman finds, including coins, have been found by metal-detector users to the west of Great Urswick.  Field survey by the Urswick Origins Discovery Programme (UODP) in 2003 and 2004 also located and recorded a significant quantity of worked red, (St Bees) sandstone masonry in the walls of the Church of St Mary and St Michael, (see below) and in field walls to the north-west and west of the church.  St Bees sandstone is not native to Urswick parish. The sandstone found by the UODP teams is considered unlikely to have belonged to a (long-demolished) medieval building or buildings; partly because the majority of it occurs in field walls and in the church and churchyard walls between the medieval villages of Great and Little Urswick. Some pieces also show distinctive tooling and other features (such as bar or cramp slots) that find comparison with tooling and features on masonry from Roman sites on Hadrian's Wall and its hinterland.  Sandstones are known to have been imported and worked for specific architectural features in Roman forts elsewhere in Cumbria – for example, at Waterhead (Ambleside) and Hardknott in Eskdale. In 2004 the UODP ran an evaluation excavation project alongside a commissioned professional geophysical survey, (by UK-based GSB Prospection) of 1.08ha of two fields to the west and south-west of Great Urswick's church, (see below) to test the results from the field survey. The results of the geophysical survey were published – Life Before Barrow – Part 1: Urswick Origins Discovery Programme Interim Report 1 – 2004-5: First Light Heritage Agency, Ulverston 2005.

In 2005, following an eleven-year historical research and archaeological survey, evaluation excavation and remote sensing investigation programme; excavations began on what was considered through a range of field and remote sensing evidence, (see above) to be the site of a 1st-century/early 2nd century Roman fort, organised by First Light Heritage Agency with the aid of students from the University of Cardiff's Archaeology Department and local people. The outcomes of the 2004 and 2005 projects have received local criticism which failed to fully take into account evidence resulting from an 8-year study of the site published in 2002 (available from Oxbow Books, Oxford: see reference below.) Critics also chose to ignore evidence published in 2005 resulting from the 2003-4 field survey, evaluation excavation and geophysical survey (see above). The first interim publication of the 2004/5 archaeological interventions will appear in 2012 via a new website dedicated to the archaeology of the Lake District and Cumbria.

There has also been research to suggest that some of the fabric of the present St Mary & St Michael's Church (previously St Mary's) may date back to the sub-Roman period.  The early medieval origins of the church were first highlighted in the early 20th century when fragments of two early Christian stone crosses were discovered built into the church fabric – one with a significant Anglo-Saxon runic inscription and sculptural representation of two figures. A specific historical context for this Anglo-Saxon inscription and depiction has been proposed, (see references), and an archaeological and historical context for an early medieval religious site, incorporating a post-Roman, pre-Norman church forming the focus for a significant large early Christian monastic estate.

It has further been suggested that this early historic estate may be the birthplace of St Patrick: a theory which has been challenged chiefly by some Cumbrian prehistorians, industrial and commercial sector archaeologists and historic environment curators – again without full and proper reference to the historical and archaeological investigations; the first phase of which was published in 2002, (as noted above), and ongoing from 2002 to the present.

Urswick was probably recorded in the Domesday Survey, as part of a larger estate – Hougun.  The name Hougun may derive from the Old Norse word haugr: meaning hill or mound.  Houganai or island of Hougun was also the name given to the nearby island of Walney Island.

As noted above, it has been suggested that it may be Chiluestreuic, previously thought to refer to the now lost Killerwick near Dalton-in-Furness.  The 'chil-' element, probably representing Old Irish cill, referring to a monastery or hermit's cell, certainly fits if Urswick was home to an early monastery.

In the 12th century, Great Urswick became part of the manor of Muchland, whilst Little Urswick remained within the Liberty of Furness belonging to Stephen of Blois who later granted it to Furness Abbey.  The Abbey also claimed rights to the already ancient St Mary's Church, which led to a long running dispute with the lords of Muchland, finally settled in the Abbey's favour.  In the 13th century Little Urswick was part of an exchange of land between the Abbey and Muchland and was ceded to the latter.

Nowadays, Urswick has largely become a commuter village for the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness. However, agriculture also remains important, with the villages surrounded by farms.

In popular culture
Little Urswick has an entry in The Meaning of Liff ("(n.) The member of any class who most inclines a teacher towards the view that capital punishment should be introduced in schools.")

See also

Listed buildings in Urswick
Urswick Grammar School

References

Other sources
Dickinson, S (2002); The Beacon on the Bay : the discovery of an early Christian church and monastic site at Great Urswick, Low Furness, Cumbria, and the case for its connections with St.Ninian, St.Patrick, St.Hild and St.Columba.
 British Archaeology – the Council for British Archaeology publication: issues 87 (March/April 2006), 88, (May/June 2006) and 89 (July/August 2006) for an article about the church and the 2004/5 excavations and remote sensing programme (Issue 87), a letter of critique, (Issue 88) and a rebuttal (Issue 89).

External links

  Cumbria County History Trust: Urswick (nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)

Civil parishes in Cumbria
South Lakeland District
Furness

Urswick


Alter Ego is an American magazine devoted to comic books and comic-book creators of the 1930s to late-1960s periods comprising what fans and historians call the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comic Books.

It was founded as a fanzine by Jerry Bails in 1961, and later taken over by Roy Thomas. 10 issues were released through 1969, with issue #11 following nine years later. In 1999, following a five-issue run the previous years as a flip-book with Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego began regular bimonthly publication as a formal magazine with glossy covers. TwoMorrows Publishing is the owner of the magazine and it is headquartered in Raleigh, NC.

Volume 1

Alter-Ego supported the superhero revivals of the era that Jerry Bails dubbed "The Second Heroic Age of Comics", popularly known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz encouraged Bails and collaborator Roy Thomas, who would eventually become Marvel Comics editor-in-chief.

Bails contacted readers whose letters had appeared in DC's The Brave and the Bold #35, the first comic book to print readers' full mailing addresses in its letter column. Some of those readers were active in other fandoms, and helped spread word-of-mouth about Alter Ego. Schwartz loaned Bails his copies of the comics and science fiction fanzine Xero, and Bails wrote to everyone in their letter column as well. Soon, Bails was receiving two or three responses daily from people interested in subscribing.

The first issue of Alter Ego appeared in March 1961. Bails' wife Sondra typed out the contents, and the lettering was done with plastic lettering guides. The 22-page issue featured three JSA-related articles, two columns, and an amateur comic strip:

 A cover featuring the "Bestest League of America", a Roy Thomas parody of the Justice League of America
 The editorial "A Matter of Policy"
 "On the Drawing Board" — Four pages of news, including advance word of the forthcoming "Flash of Two Worlds" story (Flash #123), previews of the upcoming Batman and Secret Origins Annuals, and hints of the Atom revival slated for Showcase #34
 "The Wiles of the Wizard, Portrait of a Villain"
 "Reincarnation of the Spectre" — Thomas' proposal for a new version of the Spectre, as a man divided into two characters representing good and evil, ego and id: the Spectre and Count Dis.
 "Merciful Minerva: The Story of Wonder Woman"
 "The Bestest League of America" — The first chapter of Thomas' Justice League of America parody.

Alter Ego also sponsored the Alley Awards, a series of comic book awards that lasted until the end of the 1960s. By the awards' third year, the number of ballots received had become so overwhelming that Bails called for a fan get-together at which votes could be tabulated by group effort. This gathering of Midwestern fans, held in March 1964 at Bails' Detroit, Michigan-area home of Bails, was dubbed the "Alley Tally", and its success provided inspiration for the organizing of comic book conventions that began soon afterward.

The original run of Alter Ego lasted 11 issues, spread over 17 years. 10 issues were released between 1961 and 1969, with issue #11 following nine years later, in 1978. Bails edited and published the first four issues before turning it over to fan-artist Ronn Foss (and, initially, Foss' wife Myra and his friend Grass Green) who edited issues #5-6. Thomas edited a further four issues, and issue #11 almost a decade later in collaboration with Mike Friedrich.

Some material from the original Alter-Ego was collected into trade paperback by Bill Schelly as Alter Ego Best Of Legendary Comics Fanzine (Hamster Press 1997) .

Volume 2
In 1997, at a reunion of comics fans, Roy Thomas and comics historian Bill Schelly met with TwoMorrows Publishing and agreed to bring back Alter Ego as a component of TwoMorrow's Comic Book Artist magazine. Thomas reprised his role as editor, with Schelly becoming associate editor. In spring 1998, Alter Ego volume 2 debuted as a flip-book with Comic Book Artist. This arrangement lasted for five issues, which have subsequently been collected into a book: Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006) .

Volume 3
Alter Ego became its own magazine again in 1999, again with Thomas as editor, and formatted as a glossy magazine. It is published by TwoMorrows Publishing. FCA, the Fawcett Collectors of America fanzine, is published as part of Alter Ego. Schelly has contributed a series of Comic Fandom Archive articles to nearly every issue, as well as a column that usually focuses on notable fans of the 1960s and 1970s.

Awards
In 2007, Alter Ego was nominated for an Eagle Award for Favourite Magazine About Comics, and won the Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Publication.

References

External links
 TwoMorrows' Alter Ego official site
Read or download scans of full issues of Alter Ego (volume 1) at ComicBookPlus.com

Bimonthly magazines published in the United States
Science fiction magazines published in the United States
Comics zines
Eisner Award winners for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Magazines about comics
Magazines established in 1961
Magazines published in North Carolina
Science fiction fanzines

Alter Ego (magazine)


Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.

Early life
Sheikh was born on 16 February 1937 in Surendranagar (now in Saurashtra region of Gujarat, India). He matriculated in 1955. He completed B. A. in Fine Art in 1959 and M. A. in 1961 from Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He received ARCA from Royal College of Art, London in 1966.

Career
In 1960, he joined as a professor of Fine Arts in the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda. His teaching positions have included teaching art history in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1960–63 and 1967–81,) and as Professor of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1982–1993). He has been a Visiting Artist at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1987 and 2002, and a Writer/Artist in Residence at Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbertide, Italy (1998), at the University of Pennsylvania (2002), and at Montalvo, California (2005).

Sheikh has been a major figure in the world of Indian art for more than four decades. He has participated in major exhibitions all over the world and his works are displayed in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, USA. Ghulam has been active not merely as an artist but also as a teacher and writer.

His collection of Gujarati surrealistic poems, Athwa (1974) won him considerable critical acclaim. He has also written a prose series, Gher Jatan and edited special issues of Kshitij as well as Vishwamanav and Sayujya magazines. American Chitrakala (1964) is his translated work.

Style
"Sheikh's art is by its nature," writes Chaitanya Sambrani, "one that takes on task of narrating, and therefore, recreating the world. There is a close tie-in between this narrative and an act of mapping the world, which gives to the speaking subject the possibility of addressing the world as his/her own". Recently Sheikh had been working on the Mappa Mundi series where he defines new horizons and ponders over to locate himself in. Sheikh construes these personal universes enthused from the miniature shrines where he urges the audience to exercise the freedom to build up their Mappa Mundi.

Personal life
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh lives with his artist-wife Nilima in Vadodara, India.

Awards
 National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1962.
 Padmashri by Government of India, 1983
 Kalidas Samman, Madhya Pradesh Government, 2002.
 Padma Bhushan by Government of India, 2014
 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati, 2022

Exhibitions

 Solo Exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay, 1960
 National Exhibition, New Delhi, 1962
 The VII Tokyo Biennale, Tokyo, Japan, 1963
 Cinquieme Biennale de Paris, Paris, 1967
 25 Years of Indian Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1972
 Contemporary painting of India, Belgrade, Warsaw, Sofia, Brussels, 1974
 III Triennale (India), Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1975
 Place for People (6 artists), Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay and Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, 1981
 Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, Festival of India, London, 1982
 Returning Home, Solo Exhibition (a retrospective selection of work from 1968 to 1985) at Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d'Art Modeme, Paris, 1985
 Timeless Art, exhibition and auction, Times of India sesquicentennial at Victoria Terminus, Bombay, 1989
 Realism as an Attitude, IV Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan, 1995
 Two-person show (with Bhupen Khakhar), Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA, 2002

Publications
2017, 'Nirkhe te Nazar', a collection of writings on visual arts in Gujarati, Samvad Prakashan, Vadodara & Khsitij Sansodhan Prakashan Kendra, Mumbai.
 Athwa (poems in Gujarati), Butala, Vadodara 1974.
 Laxma Goud, monograph on the artist, Hyderabad, A. P. Lalit Kala Akademi, Hyderabad 1981.
 Contemporary Art of Baroda (ed.), Tulika, New Delhi 1996.
 Essays, articles and papers in 'Marg', 'Journal of Arts & Ideas', 'Lalit Kala Contemporary' as well as Hindi and Gujarati journals.
 Exhibition catalogues of K G Subramanyan, Jeram Patel, Laxma Goud, DLN Reddy, D Devraj, etc.

Bibliography

 Geeta Kapur, Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy, London,1982
 Ajay Sinha, Revolving Routes, Form, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1983
 From Art to Life (interview with Gieve Patel for exhibition catalogue), Returning Home, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1985
 Timothy Hyman, Sheikh's One Painting, Returning Home (exhibition catalogue), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1985
  New Figuration in India, Art International, Spring 1990
 Geeta Kapur Riddles of the Sphinx, in Journeys (exhibition catalogue), CMC Gallery, New Delhi, 1991
 Kamala Kapoor, New Thresholds of Meaning, Art India, Quarter 3, 2001
 Palimpsest, interview with Kavita Singh, (exhibition catalogue), Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2001
 Kamala Kapoor in Valerie Breuvart (ed.) VITAMIN P : New Perspectives in Painting, Phaidon Press, London/ New York 2002
 Gayatri Sinha, The Art of Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Lustre Press / Roli Books, New Delhi, 2002
 Zecchini Laetitia, "More than one world: An interview with Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh", Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 53, 1-2, 2017

See also

References

External links

 Profile on Google Arts & Culture
 Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh Archive on Asia Art Archive

1937 births
Indian Muslims
Indian male painters
Living people
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
People associated with Santiniketan
People from Vadodara
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni
20th-century Indian painters
Gujarati-language poets
Painters from Gujarat
20th-century Indian male artists
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Gujarati

Gulam Mohammed Sheikh


John Flavel (c. 1627–1691) was an English Puritan Presbyterian minister and author.

Life
Flavel, the eldest son of the Rev. Richard Flavel, described as 'a painful and eminent minister,' who was incumbent successively of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, Hasler and Willersey, Gloucestershire (from which last living he was ejected in 1662), was born in or about 1627 at Bromsgrove.

Having received his early education at the schools of the neighbourhood, he entered University College, Oxford, at an early age, and gained a good reputation for talent and diligence.

On 27 April 1650, he was sent by 'the standing committee of Devon' to Diptford, a parish on the Avon, five miles from Totnes, where the minister, Mr. Walplate, had become infirm. On 17 October 1650, after examination and the preaching of a 'trial sermon,' he was ordained Mr. Walplate's assistant by the classis at Salisbury. He continued to minister at Diptford for about six years, succeeding the senior minister when he died, and endearing himself greatly to the people, not only by his earnestness, but by his easy dealings with them in the matter of tithes.

In 1656 he removed to Dartmouth, though the Diptford emoluments were much greater. On the passing of the Act of Uniformity (1662) he was ejected, but continued to preach in private until the Five Mile Act drove him from Dartmouth. He kept as near it, however, as possible, removing to Slapton, five miles off, and there preached twice each Sunday to all who came, among whom were many of his old parishioners. On the granting of the indulgence of 1671 he returned to Dartmouth, and continued to officiate there even after the liberty to do so was withdrawn. In the end he found himself obliged to remove to London, travelling by sea and narrowly escaping shipwreck in a storm, which is said to have ceased in answer to his prayers. Finding that he would be safer at Dartmouth he returned there, and met with his people nightly in his own house, until in 1687, on the relaxation of the penal laws, they built a meeting-house for him. Just before his death he acted as moderator at a meeting of dissenting ministers held at Topsham. He died suddenly of paralysis at Exeter on 26 June 1691, and was buried in Dartmouth churchyard. Wood bitterly comments on the violence of his dissent.

Family
Flavel was four times married: first to Jane Randal; secondly, to Elizabeth Morries; thirdly, to Ann Downe; and, lastly, to a daughter of the Rev. George Jeffries.

There is a portrait of him in Dr Williams's Library, London.

Written works
He was a voluminous and popular author. There is a play of fine fancy in some of them, such as the 'Husbandry Spiritualised.' All display vigorous diction and strong evangelical sentiments.

They comprise:

Navigation Spiritualised, London 1664.
Antipharmacum Saluberrimum, or a serious and seasonable Caveat to all the Saints in this Hour of Temptation. 1664.
Tydings from Rome, or England's Alarm. 1667.
A Saint indeed, London 1668.
Husbandry Spiritualised, London 1669.
The Fountain of Life Opened, or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory, containing forty-two sermons, London 1672.
A Token for Mourners, London 1674.
The Seaman's Companion, London 1676.
A pathetic and serious Dissuasive from the horrid and detestable Sins of Drunkenness, Swearing, Uncleanness, Forgetfulness of Mercies, Violation of Promises, and Atheistic Contempt of Death. 1677
Divine Conduct, or the Mystery of Providence Opened, London 1678, 1814, 1822.
The Touchstone of Sincerity, London 1679.
Sacramental Meditations upon divers select places of Scripture, London 1679.
A Table or Scheme of the Sins and Duties of Believers. 1679
A Faithful and Succinct Account of some late and wonderful Sea Deliverances. 1679.
The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption, London 1680.
A Practical Treatise of Fear, wherein the various Kinds, Uses, Causes, Effects, and Remedies thereof are distinctly opened and prescribed, London 1682.
The Righteous Man's Refuge, London 1682.
Preparations for Sufferings, or the Best Work in the Worst Times, London 1682.
Pneumatologia, a Treatise of the Soul of Man, London 1685.
The Balm of the Covenant applied to the Bleeding Wounds of afflicted Saints. 1688
England's Duty under the present Gospel Liberty, London 1689.
Mount Pisgah, or a Thanksgiving Sermon for England's Delivery from Popery, London 1689.
The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and the Necessity of Conversion, London 1691.
Vindiciarum Vindex, or a Refutation of the weak and impertinent Rejoinder of Mr. Philip Carey (a leading anabaptist in Dartmouth). 1691.
An Exposition of the Assembly's Catechism, London 1692.
Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable Discourse of the Occasions, Causes, Nature, Rise, Growth, and Remedies of Mental Errors.
Gospel Unity recommended to the Churches of Christ.
Vindiciæ Legis et Fœderis.
A Familiar Conference between a Minister and a doubting Christian concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Editions of Flavel's writings appeared more than 720 times from 1664 to the present day.

References

Sources

External links

The Life of the late Rev. Mr. John Flavel, minister of Dartmouth
Flavel, John (c. 1630–1691)
John Flavel – brief biography and further links
The Mystery of Providence text
Chapter by Chapter Summary of The Mystery of Providence
On Keeping the Heart by John Flavel | AgapePress GitHub Repository
On Keeping the Heart (John Flavel)

1627 births
1691 deaths
English Calvinist and Reformed theologians
English Presbyterian ministers of the Interregnum (England)
English evangelicals
Ejected English ministers of 1662
People from Bromsgrove
English male non-fiction writers

John Flavel


Fawlty Towers is a British television sitcom. It was broadcast by the BBC in two series, one in 1975, the other in 1979. Only twelve episodes were ever broadcast. However, the show is still liked by millions of people. Fawlty Towers has influenced other comedies.

It is set in a hotel in the coastal Devon town of Torquay.

Main characters
The owners of the hotel are Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales).

They are helped by Polly, a young British maid (Connie Booth) and Manuel, a clumsy waiter from Barcelona in Spain (Andrew Sachs).

In series two there is also a chef, Terry (Brian Hall).

Basil is a rude, angry man, who fought in the Korean War. He has been married to Sybil for fifteen years. Sybil and Basil do not love each other. Polly has a talent for painting, and this is shown in some episodes when her artwork is laid upon the front desk, annoying Basil. Manuel speaks only a little English and he often makes mistakes due to misunderstanding things. When he makes a mistake Basil usually apologises to the guests by saying, "I'm so sorry, he's from Barcelona."

Other characters
The Major (Ballard Berkeley) is a regular guest. He is old and forgetful. The aged and easily shocked Miss Tibbs (Gilly Flower) and Miss Gatsby (Renee Roberts) are also regular guests.

Episodes
There were twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers made.

The first six episodes were made in 1975, the last six in 1979. Fawlty Towers still has many fans, and many people regard it as the best comedy series made by the BBC. It was voted 5th in a poll in Britain to find "Britain's Best Sitcom" 2004.

One of the most famous episodes is "The Germans". In that episode, people from Germany are visiting the hotel. Basil dislikes Germans, because he blames them for starting World War II. He tells his staff not to mention the war ("Don't mention the war!"). He himself continually mentions the war, and even imitates Adolf Hitler.

The episodes, in order with date of first showing, are:

Season One

A Touch of Class (19 September 1975)
The Builders (26 September 1975)
The Wedding Party (3 October 1975)
The Hotel Inspectors (10 October 1975)
Gourmet Night (17 October 1975)
The Germans (24 October 1975)

Season Two

Communication Problems (19 February 1979)
The Psychiatrist (26 February 1979)
Waldorf Salad (5 March 1979)
The Kipper and the Corpse (12 March 1979)
The Anniversary (26 March 1979)
Basil the Rat (25 October 1979)

Other websites

1975 television series debuts
1979 television series endings
1970s British sitcoms
1970s British workplace television series
1970s workplace comedy television series
BBC television sitcoms
British workplace comedy television series
Television series about marriage
Torquay
English-language television programs
1979 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Fawlty Towers


Nathan Currier (born 1960, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) is an American composer.

Biography
Coming from a musical family, Currier is son of composer Marilyn Currier (1931) and brother of composer Sebastian Currier (1959).

His principal teachers were David Diamond, Joseph Schwantner, Bernard Rands, Stephen Albert and Frederic Rzewski. He studied at the Juilliard School, where he received the Doctorate in 1989, and also served on their Evening Division faculty over a ten-year period.
Starting in 2007 he served for two years as a visiting faculty member at the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia. In 2016 he initiated a concert series called Orchard Circle, with concerts in New York City and Philadelphia.

Awards

 2008 International Sackler Prize for Music Composition
 2008-09 Fellowship at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
 1999 Academy Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters
 1995-96 Rome Prize for Composition from the American Academy in Rome
 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship
 1993 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
 1992 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
 1991 Fromm Foundation Grant
 1991 Charles Ives Fellowship from The American Academy of Arts and Letters
 1987-88 Fulbright Fellowship
 1987 Barlow Prize in Composition

Gaian Variations interrupted premiere

Currier's largest work is an oratorio called Gaian Variations. The premiere took place at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, on April 21, 2004, but was interrupted mid-concert, shortly after the beginning of the third act. The work is about Gaia, a scientific hypothesis developed by James Lovelock to explain the role of living systems in the regulation of Earth's climate and biogeochemical cycles. The composer described his work as both a description of the theory and a contextualization of it within the history of science, and he spent years writing the large work for chorus, orchestra and soloists. During the premiere the Brooklyn Philharmonic suddenly stopped, claiming that it was headed into overtime, ultimately triggering a lawsuit.

Leading American composer John Corigliano, also a board member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, called Gaian Variations, "Just beautiful. Very, very skilled work, and very inspired too." The New York Times, however, published a highly critical review by Allan Kozinn that began by claiming the work's texts (featuring writings by Lovelock himself, describing his Gaia theory) were "mostly pseudoscientific."

Currier, who has since given talks on climate change for Al Gore's The Climate Project, felt that the urgency of climate change gave the subject matter such importance that he had used his personal savings to prevent cancellation of the concert when neither the Brooklyn Philharmonic nor another environmental organization, Earth Day Network, raised the needed funds. Currier was given a pro bono lawyer through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts shortly after the performance, but the Executive Vice President and Director of the Hess Oil Company, J. Barclay Collins II, also a client of the same firm (Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld) and chairman of the Board of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, intervened, and Currier lost legal representation. On the New York Times's ArtsBeat blog, oil executive Collins (who retired from the petroleum company in January 2010) was quoted as saying that Currier's lawsuit was "totally without merit." It was not until 2008 that Currier again found legal support, being represented by Alex T. Roshuk, and the case was finally filed in Supreme Court of the State of New York Kings County in 2009. Currier was quoted shortly thereafter in the New York Post as saying that he only wanted the orchestra to play the work again.

Currier later became actively involved with Gaia science itself. With NASA scientist Paul D. Lowman he coauthored a chapter of the book Chimeras and Consciousness, published by MIT Press in 2011. Their paper, Life's Tectonics, concerns Gaia and the role of life and water on plate tectonics, and when NASA recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its exobiology program (Seeking Signs of Life, October 2010), a passage from their paper was condensed and read as part of the opening keynote speech given by Lynn Margulis.

References

External links
 https://web.archive.org/web/20061113060839/http://www.presser.com/Composers/info.cfm?Name=NATHANCURRIER
 http://nathankindcurrier.com
 http://natcurr.com
 www.gaianvariations.com
 "Nathan Currier", University of Virginia
 http://www.sacklercompositionprize.uconn.edu/

1960 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Jewish American classical composers
People from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Juilliard School alumni
University of Virginia faculty
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American Jews

Nathan Currier


Robert "Bobby" Lee Dodd (November 11, 1908 – June 21, 1988) was an American college football coach at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as a player and coach. He is one of only three people to have done this.

Dodd was born in Galax, Virginia. He moved to Kingsport, Tennessee and played several sports at Dobyns-Bennett High School. After high school, he played as a quarterback at the University of Tennessee. From 1931–1945, he worked as an assistant coach for William Alexander at Georgia Tech. Alexander hired Dodd while he was still a student at Tennessee. Dodd replaced Alexander in 1945 and became the third head coach at Georgia Tech. He retired from coaching after the 1966–67 season, with 165 wins, 64 losses, and 8 ties in his career. He also worked as athletic director for Georgia Tech from 1950 until 1976. Dodd died in June 1988 at the age of 79 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Player
Dodd was quarterback for the University of Tennessee football team from 1928 to 1930.  He played for its coach, Robert Neyland. Dodd wanted to play for Georgia Tech but was not offered a scholarship. In the games that Dodd started at Tennessee, they had a record of 27–1–2.

Dodd played a major role in one famous game. During his sophomore year, in a game against Alabama, "Dodd threw a touchdown pass in that game to tie Alabama, 13–13. Then he punted out of bounds inside the Alabama 1-yard line and Tennessee got a safety on the next play to win, 15–13."  This was an important game for both teams since they were rivals.

Another time in Dodd's playing career showed the thinking he would use in his coaching career. "Against Florida in 1930 he got his teammates in a huddle and told them about a play he had used in high school. When the ball was snapped, it was placed on the ground unattended. The players ran in one direction. Then the center returned, picked up the ball, and waltzed to the winning touchdown." Tennessee fans even developed a catch phrase for Dodd during his time there: "In Dodd we trust."

Dodd was selected to be on Grantland Rice's All-American team in 1930.  He was the second player from Tennessee to make an All American team.  The first was Gene McEver in 1929.  In 1959, Dodd was selected for the University of Tennessee's Hall of Fame and to the College Football Hall of Fame as a player. He was elected in the same year as teammate Herman Hickman.

Coach
Dodd had a 165–64–8 record as head coach at Georgia Tech. He led Georgia Tech to two Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships (1951 and 1952) and one national championship in 1952. While he was coach, Tech played in 13 major bowl games. The school won 9 of these games, including six in a row from 1951 to 1956. His team had a 31-game winning streak from 1951 to 1953.

Dodd took over the Georgia Tech football program after Coach Alexander's retirement in 1944. Dodd's coaching ideas were about developing and treating his players well. He did not believe in hard physical practices. Instead, he liked practices that were about the small details of football. Dodd's ideas led to winning. He set the record for career wins at Tech at 165 career coaching wins including a 31-game winning streak from 1951–1953. He also won two Southeastern Conference Titles and the 1952 National Title.  The 1952 title was part of a 12–0 perfect season and Sugar Bowl win over Ole Miss.

Dodd also understood the rivalry with the University of Georgia. His teams won 8 games in a row over the Bulldogs from 1946–1954.  They had 176 points to Georgia's 39 during the winning streak.  This 8–game winning streak is still the longest winning streak for either side in the series.  Dodd ended his career with a 12–9 record against Georgia.

Dodd's career included Georgia Tech leaving the Southeastern Conference.  The initial reason for them leaving was a feud between Dodd and Alabama Crimson Tide Coach Bear Bryant. The feud began when Tech was visiting the Tide at Denny Stadium in 1961. After a Georgia Tech punt, Alabama fair-caught the ball. Chick Granning of Georgia Tech was running down to tackle the receiver of the punt, but relaxed after the signal for the fair catch. Darwin Holt of Alabama continued play and hit his elbow into Granning's face. This caused severe breaks in Granning's face, a broken nose, and blood-filled sinuses. Granning became unconscious and suffered a severe concussion.  These injuries left him unable to play football ever again. Dodd sent Bryant a letter asking Bryant to suspend Holt.  Dodd felt that Holt injured Granning on purpose. Bryant never suspended Holt. The lack of punishment made Dodd angry and caused him to want to leave the SEC.

Another issue for Dodd was Alabama's and other SEC schools' recruiting of players. Schools would recruit more players than they could have on their roster. During the summer practice sessions, the teams would remove extra players.  This would happen after the signing day which meant those players could not find somewhere else to play. Dodd asked the SEC leaders to punish the "tryout camps" of other SEC members, but the SEC did not. Finally, Dodd took Georgia Tech out of the SEC in 1963. Tech would play without a league like Notre Dame and Penn State (at the time) during the final four years of Dodd's coaching career. In 1967, Dodd passed the head coach position to his favorite assistant, Bud Carson. Dodd continued to work as  athletic director which he had first been hired as in 1950. He would not retire from athletic directing until 1976. In 1983, he said he would like to run a United States Football League team if Atlanta was given one. The league, however, shut down before Atlanta received a team.

Legacy

Dodd wanted to win every game, but unlike some other coaches, he did not believe in risking his athletes' health in order to win. He believed that the most important part of college football was the college football player.

In honor of the character of Dodd, each year a Division I college coach who has shown leadership both on and off the field is awarded the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.  This award is given by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1959 and as a coach in 1993. In 1988, Georgia Tech named its stadium Bobby Dodd Stadium in honor of him. The Bobby Dodd Institute is a group that helps people with disabilities; it is named in honor of Dodd for his help to the disabled.

References

1908 births
1988 deaths
American football quarterbacks
Sportspeople from Georgia (U.S. state)
Sportspeople from Virginia

Bobby Dodd


Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov  (25 November 1887 – 26 January 1943) was a Russian botanist and geneticist. He is best known for showing how and where crop plants evolved. He devoted his life to agriculture: the study and improvement of wheat, corn, and other cereal crops.

By 1940, Vavilov had accumulated a collection of 200,000 plant seeds from the Soviet Union and from abroad. He was widely admired, but his life came to a terrible end. Vavilov repeatedly criticised a powerful but poor scientist, Trofim Lysenko. As a result, Vavilov was arrested, and died of starvation in a prison in 1943. Today Vavilov's name stands high. The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in St. Petersburg is named after him. It maintains one of the world's largest collections of plant genetic material.

Vavilovian mimicry
This is mimicry in plants where a weed comes to look like a crop plant. Before herbicides, weeds were plucked by hand. This has been done for thousands of years. The weeds come to look like the crop because the weeders pick those weeds which look most different. Vavilovian mimicry is caused by unintentional selection by humans. The weeds that survive pass on their genes. Gradually, all the weeds look more like the crop plant.

An example is rye, a common Mediterranean species. Rye was originally just a weed growing with wheat and barley. Weeding made it like the crop. Like wheat, it came to have larger seeds and more rigid spindles to which the seeds are attached.

Rye is a tougher plant than wheat: it survives in harsher conditions. Having become a crop like the wheat, rye was able to become a crop plant in harsh areas, such as hills and mountains.

References

Major works by Vavolov
 The origin, variation, immunity and breeding of cultivated plants (translated by K. Starr Chester). 1951. Chronica Botanica 13:1–366
 Origin and geography of cultivated plants (translated by Doris Love). 1992. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
 Five Continents (translated by Doris Love). 1997. IPGRI, Rome; VIR, St. Petersburg

1887 births
1943 deaths
Evolutionary biologists
Geneticists
Russian botanists

Nikolai Vavilov


William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983) was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title between 1919 and 1926  Known as "The Manassa Mauler", Dempsey was a tremendous puncher famous for his exciting fights, many of which set financial and attendance records.

He won the title by beating Jess Willard on July 4, 1919. He defended the title six times before losing it to Gene Tunney in 1926. They had a rematch in 1927 and Tunney again beat Dempsey. It was during this fight where the "Long Count" took place. Dempsey knocked Tunney down in the seventh round. The referee would not start counting until Dempsey went to a neutral corner, so it is estimated that Tunney had as many as fourteen seconds to rise (instead of the usual ten).

Dempsey retired in 1928. He fought exhibitions after his retirement, served as a commander in the Coast Guard during World War II, and opened a restaurant in New York City.

Dempsey died in 1983.

Other websites
 Boxing record

American boxers
Sportspeople from Colorado
1895 births
1983 deaths
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees

Jack Dempsey


Corrado Giaquinto (8 February 1703 – 18 April 1766) was an Italian Rococo painter.

Early training and move to Rome
He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, (c1667–1725), escaping the religious career his parents had intended for him. By October 1724, he left Molfetta, and along with his contemporaries Francesco de Mura (1696–1784) and Giuseppe Bonito (1707–1789), he trained from 1719 to 1723 in the prolific Neapolitan studio of Francesco Solimena, either with Solimena or his pupil, Nicola Maria Rossi.

Giaquinto followed a peripatetic career, with long sojourns in Naples, Rome (between 1723 and 1753), Turin (1733 and 1735–39), and Madrid (1753–1761).

In 1723, he moved to Rome to work in the studio of Sebastiano Conca. He painted in San Lorenzo in Damaso, San Giovanni Calibita, and the ceiling at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. In March 1727, with Giuseppe Rossi as an assistant, Giaquinto opened an independent studio near the Ponte Sisto, in the parish of Saint Giovanni of the Malva in Rome. In 1734, he married Caterina Silvestri Agate.

The first documented work by his hand is Christ crucified with the Madonna, Saint John Evangelist, and Magdalene commissioned in 1730 by King John V of Portugal for the basilica of the Palace of Mafra.

In 1731, he received a prestigious commission, to execute frescoes in the church of San Nicola dei Lorenesi: Saint Nicholas water gush from cliff, three theologic and cardinal Virtues, and in the cupola Paradise. The latest restoration confirms Giaquinto's stylistic independence from Solimena, and reveals his stylistic dependence on Luca Giordano.

Mature work

In 1733, the architect and artistic director for the House of Savoy, Filippo Juvarra, invited Giaquinto to come to Turin, where he painted an altarpiece of Saint John Nepomuk. He then decorated the ceiling of a Villa della Regina with a Triumph of the House of Savoy, Death of Adonis and Apollo & Daphne, and Story of Aenid. Giaquinto returned briefly to Rome in 1735, where his wife died soon after childbirth. He then returned for the next three years, to complete frescoes for the chapel of St Joseph in the church of Santa Teresa in Turin; they depict events in the life and death of Saint Joseph, including his Assumption and Rest in Egypt.

In 1738 Giaquinto returned to Rome, and during the next year he executed in fresco an Assumption of the Virgin for the church of Rocca di Papa, a commission for a relative of Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni.

In 1740, Giaquinto became a member of the Academy of Saint Luke and donated his sketch of  Immaculate Conception with Elias the prophet for the Turinese church of the Carmine, a canvas commissioned by marquis Giuseppe Turinetti di Priero, which finally reached Turin in 1741. A report of 1742 states that Pope Benedict XIV "was taken to the church of San Giovanni Calabita ... where he observed with much pleasure the restoration of that Church embellished with altarpieces from the Painter Signor Corrado Napolitano".

In Madrid, he was patronized by Ferdinand VI of Spain, and was ultimately appointed director of the Academy of San Fernando. His influence there was felt by painters such as Antonio González Velázquez, José del Castillo, Mariano Salvador Maella, and Francisco Goya.

His paintings include A Kneeling Male Nude. He returned to Naples in 1762 to decorate the sacristy in San Luigi di Palazzo, the royal monastery. He died in Naples in 1766.

Among his pupils in Molfetta was Niccoló Porta.

Gallery

References

Sources

Italian Wikipedia entry

External links

Works of Corrado Giaquinto at www.Corrado-Giaquinto.org
Works of Corrado Giaquinto at http://www.the-athenaeum.org

1703 births
1765 deaths
People from Molfetta
18th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
Painters from Naples
Italian Baroque painters
Rococo painters
18th-century Italian male artists

Corrado Giaquinto


The blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird native to North America. It is known for being adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous.

Description
The blue jay measures 22–30 cm (9–12 inches) from bill to tail and weighs 70–100 grams (2.47–3.53 oz), with a wingspan of 34–43 cm (13–17 inches). There is a crown of feathers on the top of the head, which may be raised or lowered according to the bird's mood. When excited or aggressive, the crest may be fully raised. When scared, the crest comes outwards, brushlike. When the bird is feeding among other jays or resting, the crest is flattened to the head, meaning that it is calm.

Its plumage is lavender-blue to mid-blue in the crest, back, wings, and tail, and its face is white. The underside is off-white and the neck has a thin stripe with black which extends to the sides of the head. The main wing and tail feathers are deep with black, sky-blue and white. The bill, legs, and eyes are all black. Males and females look nearly the same except that males are a little bit larger.

Blue jays have strong black bills used for cracking open nuts, and acorns and for eating corn, grains and seeds, although they also eat insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.

Sounds

Blue jays can make many different sounds, and single sounds may vary a bit. Blue jays can learn to mimic human speech. Blue jays can also copy the callings of local hawks so well that it is sometimes difficult to tell which it is. Their voice is normal of most jays in being varied, but the most commonly thought sound is the "alarm call", which is a loud, almost gull-like scream. There is also a high-pitched jayer-jayer call that increases in speed as the bird becomes more excited.This very call can be easily confused with the chick-a-dee's song because of the slow starting chick-ah-dee-ee. Blue Jays will use these calls to band together to bully (mob) predators such as hawks and drive them away from the jays' nests.

Behavior
The blue jay is a slow flier ( 32–40 km/h (20-25 mi/h) when unprovoked) and an easy prey for hawks and owls, when it flies in open lands. It flies with its body and tail held level, with slow wing beats. It is sometimes assertive toward other birds and may chase birds from bird feeders or other food sources, although this happens much less often than it is blamed for. This can be good to other species as well, as it may chase predatory birds, such as hawks and owls which sometimes feed on jays, and will scream if it sees a predator within its territory. It has also been known to sound an "alarm call" when hawks or other dangers are near, and smaller birds often know this call and hide themselves away accordingly. It may also be aggressive towards humans who come close to its nest, and if an owl roosts near the nest during the daytime the blue jay mobs it until it takes a new roost.

Diet

Its food is found both on the ground and in trees and has almost all known types of plant and animal sources, like acorns and beech mast, weed seeds, grain, fruits and other berries, peanuts, bread, meat, small invertebrates of many types, scraps in town parks, bird-table food and rarely eggs and nestlings. Blue jays will sometimes catch food, though to what extent is different among individuals.

Reproduction

The mating season starts in mid-March and reaches into July. Any nice tree or large shrub may be used for nesting, though an evergreen is preferred. The nest is normally made at a height of 3 to 10 meters. This cup-shaped nest is made of twigs, small roots, bark strips, moss, other plant material, cloth, paper, and feathers, sometimes with mud added to the cup.

Blue jays mostly form monogamous pair bonds for life. Both sexes make the nest and take care of the young, though only the female broods them. The male feeds the female while she is brooding the eggs. There are normally 4–5 eggs laid and incubated over 16–18 days. The young leave the nest normally between 17–21 days after hatching.

Intelligence
Jays are some of the more smart birds. They will wait and watch for a person to put food down and as soon as the person walks away they will come down from their hiding place and take it. Along with crows, jays will also watch a person planting seed crops and afterwards dig up and eat the seeds. Jays are very territorial birds, and they will chase others from a feeder for an easier meal. The blue jay has a bad reputation as a raider of other birds' nests, taking eggs, chicks, and nests. However, this may not be as widespread as is normally thought.

References
  Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
  1999: Bird Guide - Blue jay. Retrieved 2007-MAY-29.
  1973: Tool-making and tool-using in the northern blue jay. Science 180(4090): 1076–1078.  (HTML abstract)
  1994: Crows and jays: a guide to the crows, jays and magpies of the world. A&C Black, London.
  1999: Blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata). In: : The Birds of North America 469. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA & American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. Online version.  (requires subscription)

Birds of North America
Corvids

Blue jay


Småland is a historical province (landskap) in southern Sweden.

Småland borders the provinces Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small lands. The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages. The highest summit in Småland is Tomtabacken with its 377 m.

Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren comes from Småland, and many of her stories are also set there. Famous Swedish expresseions are "Mörkaste Småland" ("Darkest Småland") and "För allt smör i Småland" ("For All Butter in Småland").

Other websites

Provinces of Sweden

Småland


Gustav Stresemann (10 May 1878–3 October 1929) was a German liberal politician. He was Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.

Stresemann's politics are hard to define. Today, he is generally considered one of the most important leaders of Germany and a strong supporter of democracy in the fragile Weimar Republic. He is noted as one of the first to see European economic integration. His most important achievement was probably reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and Aristide Briand received the Peace Prize.

Early years
Stresemann was born on 10 May 1878 in the Köpenicker Straße area of southeast Berlin, the youngest of seven children. His father worked as a beer bottler and distributor, and also ran a small bar out of the family home, as well as renting rooms for extra money. The family was lower middle class, but relatively well-off for the neighbourhood, and had enough money to give Gustav with a high-quality education.

Stresemann was an excellent student, especially in German literature and poetry. In an essay written when he left school, he wrote that he would have enjoyed becoming a teacher, but he would only have been qualified to teach languages or the natural sciences, which were not his primary areas of interest. He entered the University of Berlin in 1897 to study political economy. During his studies, Stresemann was exposed to the principal political arguments of his day, particularly the German debate about socialism.

During his university years, Stresemann also became active in Burschenschaften movement of student fraternities, and in April 1898 became editor of the Allgemeine Deutsche Universitäts-Zeitung (), a newspaper run by Konrad Kuster, a leader in the liberal part of the Burschenschaften. His editorials for the paper were often political, and dismissed most political parties as wrong in one way or another. In these early writings, he combined liberalism with nationalism. In 1898, Stresemann left the University of Berlin, and went to the University of Leipzig so that he could study for a doctorate. He completed his studies in January 1901, submitting a thesis on the bottled beer industry in Berlin, which received a relatively high grade.

In 1902 he founded the Saxon Manufacturers' Association. In 1903 he married Käte Kleefeld (1885-1970), daughter of a wealthy Jewish Berlin businessman. At that time he was also a member of Friedrich Naumann's National-Social Association. In 1906 he was elected to the Dresden town council. Though he had initially worked in trade associations, Stresemann soon became a leader of the National Liberal Party in Saxony. In 1907, he was elected to the Reichstag, where he soon became a close associate of party chairman Ernst Bassermann. However, his support of more social-welfare programmess was not popular with some of the party's more conservative members, and he lost his post in the party's executive committee in 1912. Later that year he lost both his Reichstag and town council seats. He returned to business and founded the German-American Economic Association. In 1914 he returned to the Reichstag. He was exempted from war service due to poor health. With Bassermann kept away from the Reichstag by either illness or military service, Stresemann soon became the National Liberals' de facto leader. After Bassermann's death in 1917, Stresemann succeeded him as party leader.

His political ideas grew and changed. At first, in the German Empire, Stresemann was on the left wing of the National Liberals. During World War I, he gradually moved to the right. He supported the monarchy and Germany's expansionist goals. He also spoke in support of unrestricted submarine warfare. However, he still favoured an expansion of the social welfare programme, and also supported allowing more ordinary Prussians to vote.

When the Allies' peace terms became known, Constantin Fehrenbach denounced them and claimed "the will to break the chains of slavery would be implanted" into a generation of Germans. Stresemann said of this speech: "He was inspired in that hour by God to say what was felt by the German people. His words, spoken under Fichte's portrait, the final words of which merged into "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", made it an unforgettably solemn hour. There was in that sense a kind of uplifting grandeur. The impression left on all was tremendous".

Stresemann briefly joined the German Democratic Party after the war, but was expelled for his association with the right wing. He then gathered most of the right wing of the old National Liberal Party into the German People's Party (, DVP), with himself as chairman. Most of its support came from middle class and upper class Protestants. The DVP platform promoted Christian family values, non-religious education, lower tariffs, opposition to welfare spending and agrarian subsides and hostility to "Marxism" (that is, the Communists, and also the Social Democrats).

The DVP was at first seen, along with the German National People's Party, as part of the "national opposition" to the Weimar Republic, particularly for its grudging acceptance of democracy and its attitude towards the Freikorps and the Kapp Putsch in 1920. Although they did not support the Freikorps, the party did not publicly condemn them either. By late 1920, Stresemann gradually moved to cooperation with the parties of the left and centre – possibly in reaction to political murders like that of Walther Rathenau. However, he remained a monarchist at heart.

In the Weimar Republic
On 13 August 1923, in the midst of the Ruhr Crisis, he was appointed Chancellor and Foreign Minister of a grand coalition government. As Chancellor, Stresemann went a long way towards resolving the crisis. In the so-called year of crises (1923) he showed strength by calling-off the popular peaceful resistance at the Ruhr. Since Germany was no longer able to pay the striking workers, more and more money was printed, which finally led to hyperinflation. Hans Luther, who was the current finance minister, ended this disastrous process by introducing a new currency, the Rentenmark, which reassured the people that the democratic system was willing and able to solve urgent problems.

Stresemann's decision to end passive resistance was motivated by his view that making a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of Versailles was the only way to win relief from the treaty's harsher provisions. He, like virtually every German, felt Versailles was an onerous Diktat that sullied the nation's honour. However, he felt that trying to fulfill the treaty's terms was the only way Germany could demonstrate that the reparations bill was truly beyond its capacity. He also wished to recover the Rhineland - he wrote to the Crown Prince on 23 July 1923: "The most important objective of German politics is the liberation of German territory from foreign occupation. First, we must remove the strangler from our throat".

However, some of his moves - like his refusal to deal firmly with culprits of the Beer Hall Putsch - alienated the Social Democrats. They left the coalition and caused its collapse on 23 November 1923. Stresemann remained as Foreign Minister in the government of his successor, Centrist Wilhelm Marx. He remained foreign minister for the rest of his life in eight successive governments ranging from the centre-right to the centre-left.

As Foreign Minister, Stresemann had numerous achievements. His first notable achievement was the Dawes Plan of 1924, which reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment and reorganized the Reichsbank.

After Sir Austen Chamberlain became British Foreign Secretary, he wanted a British guarantee to France and Belgium as the Anglo-American guarantee had fallen due to the United States' refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Stresemann later wrote: "Chamberlain had never been our friend. His first act was to attempt to restore the old Entente through a three-power alliance of England, France and Belgium, directed against Germany. German diplomacy faced a catastrophic situation". Stresemann conceived the idea that Germany would guarantee her western borders and pledged never to invade Belgium and France again, along with a guarantee from Britain that they would come to Germany's aid if attacked by France. Germany was in no position at the time to attack, as Stresemann wrote to the Crown Prince: "The renunciation of a military conflict with France has only a theoretical significance, in so far as there is no possibility of a war with France". Stresemann negotiated the Locarno Treaties with Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium. On the third day of negotiations Stresemann explained Germany's demands to the French Foreign Secretary, Aristide Briand. As Stresemann recorded, Briand "almost fell off his sofa, when he heard my explanations". Stresemann said that Germany alone should not make sacrifices for peace; European countries should cede colonies to Germany; the disarmament control commission should leave Germany; the Anglo-French occupation of the Rhineland should be ended; and Britain and France should disarm as Germany had done. The Treaties were signed in October 1925 at Locarno. Germany officially recognized the post-World War I western border for the first time, and was guaranteed peace with France, and promised admission to the League of Nations and evacuation of the last Allied occupation troops from the Rhineland. Germany's eastern borders were guaranteed to Poland only by France, not by a general agreement.

Stresemann was not willing to conclude a similar treaty with Poland: "There will be no Locarno of the east" he said. Moreover, he never excluded the use of force to regain the eastern territories of Germany which had come under Polish control as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles. The reason were atrocities against the German minority in the former German territories committed by or tolerated by the Polish government, see: and Hermann Rauschning. In the session of the League of Nations on 15 December 1928 in Lugano Stresemann formulated a furious charge against Poland because of these crimes which were well known to the League of Nations. The chairman Aristide Briand, French foreign minister, concluded the session after this speech with the words: "The League of Nations must never break the sacred support of the minority-rights."

After this reconciliation with the Versailles powers, Stresemann moved to allay the growing suspicion of the Soviet Union. He said to Nikolay Krestinsky in June 1925, as recorded in his diary: "I had said I would not come to conclude a treaty with Russia so long as our political situation in the other direction was not cleared up, as I wanted to answer the question whether we had a treaty with Russia in the negative". The Treaty of Berlin signed in April 1926 reaffirmed and strengthened the Rapallo Treaty of 1922. In September 1926, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations as permanent member of the Security Council. This was a sign that Germany was quickly becoming a "normal" state and assured the Soviet Union of Germany's sincerity in the Treaty of Berlin. Stresemann wrote to the Crown Prince: "All the questions which to-day preoccupy the German people can be transformed into as many vexations for the Entente by a skilful orator before the League of Nations". As Germany now had a veto on League resolutions, she could gain concessions from other countries on modifications on the Polish border or Anschluss with Austria, as other countries needed her vote. Germany could now act as "the spokesman of the whole German cultural community" and thereby provoke the German minorities in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Stresemann was co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926 for these achievements.

Germany signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in August 1928. It renounced the use of violence to resolve international conflicts. Although Stresemann did not propose the pact, Germany's adherence convinced many people that Weimar Germany was a Germany that could be reasoned with. This new insight was instrumental in the Young Plan of February 1929 which led to more reductions in German reparations payment.

Gustav Stresemann's success owed much to his friendly personal character and his willingness to change. He was close personal friends with many influential foreigners. The most noted was Briand, with whom he shared the Peace Prize.

Stresemann was not, however, in any sense pro-French. His main preoccupation was how to free Germany from the burden of reparations payments to Britain and France, imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. His strategy for this was to forge an economic alliance with the United States. The U.S. was Germany's main source of food and raw materials, and one of Germany's largest export markets for manufactured goods. Germany's economic recovery was thus in the interests of the U.S., and gave the U.S. an incentive to help Germany escape from the reparations burden. The Dawes and Young plans were the result of this strategy. Stresemann had a close relationship with Herbert Hoover, who was Secretary of Commerce in 1921-28 and President from 1929. This strategy worked remarkably well until it was derailed by the Great Depression after Stresemann's death.

During his period in the foreign ministry, Stresemann came more and more to accept the Republic, which he had at first rejected. By the mid-1920s, having contributed much to a (temporary) consolidation of the feeble democratic order, Stresemann was regarded as a Vernunftrepublikaner (republican by reason) - someone who accepted the Republic as the least of all evils, but was in their heart still loyal to the monarchy. The conservative opposition criticized him for his supporting the republic and fulfilling too willingly the demands of the Western powers. Along with Matthias Erzberger and others, he was attacked as an Erfüllungspolitiker ("fulfillment politician").

In 1925, when he first proposed an agreement with France, he made it clear that in doing so he intended to "gain a free hand to secure a peaceful change of the borders in the East and [...] concentrate on a later incorporation of German territories in the East". In the same year, while Poland was in a state of political and economic crisis, Stresemann began a trade war against the country. Stresemann hoped for an escalation of the Polish crisis, which would enable Germany to regain territories ceded to Poland after World War I, and he wanted Germany to gain a larger market for its products there. So Stresemann refused to engage in any international cooperation that would have "prematurely" restabilized the Polish economy. In response to a British proposal, Stresemann wrote to the German ambassador in London: "[A] final and lasting recapitalization of Poland must be delayed until the country is ripe for a settlement of the border according to our wishes and until our own position is sufficiently strong". According to Stresemann's letter, there should be no settlement "until [Poland's] economic and financial distress has reached an extreme stage and reduced the entire Polish body politic to a state of powerlessness".

Gustav Stresemann died of a stroke in October 1929 at the age of 51. His massive gravesite is in Berlin's Luisenstadt Cemetery at Südstern in Kreuzberg, and includes work by the German sculptor Hugo Lederer. Stresemann's sudden and premature death, as well as the death of his "pragmatic moderate" French counterpart Aristide Briand in 1932, and the assassination of Briand's successor Louis Barthou in 1934, left a vacuum in European statesmanship that further tilted the slippery slope towards World War II.

Gustav and Käthe had two sons, Wolfgang and Joachim Stresemann.

First Cabinet, August - October 1923
 Gustav Stresemann (DVP) - Chancellor and Foreign Minister
 Robert Schmidt (SPD) - Vice Chancellor and Reconstruction Minister
 Wilhelm Sollmann (SPD) - Interior Minister
 Rudolf Hilferding (SPD) - Finance Minister
 Hans von Raumer (DVP) - Economics Minister
 Heinrich Brauns (Z) - Labour Minister
 Gustav Radbruch (SPD) - Justice Minister
 Otto Gessler (DDP) - Defence Minister
 Anton Höfle (Z) - Postal Minister
 Rudolf Oeser (DDP) - Transport Minister
 Hans Luther - Food Minister
 Johannes Fuchs (Z) - Occupied Areas Minister

Second Cabinet, October - November 1923
 Gustav Stresemann (DVP) - Chancellor and Foreign Minister
 Wilhelm Sollmann (SPD) - Interior Minister
 Hans Luther - Finance Minister
 Joseph Koeth - Economics Minister
 Heinrich Brauns (Z) - Employment Minister
 Gustav Radbruch (SPD) - Justice Minister
 Otto Gessler (DDP) - Defence Minister
 Anton Höfle (Z) - Postal Minister
 Rudolf Oeser (DDP) - Transport Minister
 Gerhard Graf von Kanitz - Food Minister
 Robert Schmidt (SPD) - Reconstruction Minister
 Johannes Fuchs (Z) - Occupied Areas Minister

Changes
 3 November 1923 - The Social Democratic Ministers Sollmann, Radbruch and Schmidt resigned. Sollmann was succeeded as Interior Minister by Karl Jarres (DVP). The others were not replaced before the ministry fell.

Quotes

Footnotes

Books
 Turner, Henry Ashby Stresemann and the politics of the Weimar Republic, Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1963.
 Wright, Jonathan Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman (2002).
 Enssle, Manfred J. Stresemann's Territorial Revisionism (1980).

Other websites

 Hitler, Stresemann and the Discontinuity of German Foreign Policy  by Edgar Feuchtwanger
 Nobel biography
 STRESEMANN AND LITHUANIA IN THE NINETEEN TWENTIES

1878 births
1929 deaths
Anti-communists
Chancellors of the Weimar Republic
German Nobel Prize winners
Government ministers of the Weimar Republic
Members of the Reichstag (German Empire)
Members of the Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
Politicians from Berlin

Gustav Stresemann