In the United States of America, there has usually only been two main political parties. But there are many different factions with varying viewpoints within the two main parties. Since the 1860s, the two main parties have been the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Currently, the Republican Party has the most seats in the House of Representatives while the Democrats have the most seats in the Senate. The Vice President, a Democrat, holds a tie breaking vote in the United States Senate.

The United States currently has two major political parties: the Democrats and the Republicans. But there are other parties that aren't as represented in the United States government and are usually underfunded or misrepresented. Usually these smaller parties aren't as well known, which makes it difficult for them to win elections. The major parties have a duopoly, meaning that they share almost all the political power in the country. Most constitutional republic countries have more than two parties.

The three largest parties aside from the two main political parties are the Libertarian Party, Green Party of the United States, and the Constitution Party in respective order.

Democratic Party

The Democratic Party was started in 1828 as a pro-slavery party and the first President was Andrew Jackson in 1829. However, through the economic resurgence after the Great Depression in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the Democratic party became a proponent of racial equality. Many 20th century United States Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and 21st century presidents such as  Barack Obama and Joe Biden are Democrats. They have 48 out of 100 seats in the U.S. Senate (independents caucusing with the democratic party hold two seats in the U.S. senate) and 222 out of 435 seats in the House of Representatives. 24 out of 50 state governors are also Democrats. The party generally promotes liberalism and is often classed as a center-left to left-wing party. Currently, the party has 60 million registered voters across America.

The party's philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy. These interventions, such as the introduction of social programs, anti-gun laws, support for labor unions, affordable college tuitions, moves toward universal health care and equal opportunity, consumer protection and environmental protection form the core of the party's economic policy.

Republican Party

The Republican Party was started in 1854 as an anti-slavery party and its first President was Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Others include Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In the Nixon years, there was a shift to appeal to the implicit racial biases of white voters that did not like the civil rights movement of the 1960's in what is called the southern strategy. This strategy created the appearance of equity while ignoring minorities in the process. 26 out of 50 states have a Republican governor. It has around 55 million registered voters across America. Currently, the Republican Party is identified as conservative.

The party philosophy centers around social and economic independence, and a capitalist economic system. It is also known for its anti-abortion efforts, pro-gun laws, anti-regulatory policy, and reduction of government intervention in the economy as well as being in support of privatized health care. The party believes in lower taxes, less social programs, and personal liberty.

Independents

There are over 420 registered political parties in the United States of America, with many different blends of political viewpoints. However, there are only two nationally recognized political parties, the Republicans and Democrats. Most of the other parties fall under those two political parties with variations, or under other ideological umbrellas, like Progressive, Libertarian, Conservative, Socialist, Communist, etc. They are either underfunded or undersupported and highly suppressed. Nearly 44% of politically active citizens prefer to identify as Independent because of this suppression.{{}} It is less common to achieve political influence in modern government functions, but some lawmakers such as Joe Lieberman may retire their parties with their careers.

Famous examples include:

 1st President: George Washington
 Presidential Candidate: Evan McMullin (2016)
 Presidential Candidate: Ross Perot (1992)
 Senator and Presidential Candidate: Bernie Sanders (Caucuses with Democratic Party)

Related pages
List of presidents of the United States

References

Sources
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

Independent politicians

Political parties in the United States


The cinnamon bird, also known as Cinnamologus, Cinomolgus, or Cynnamolgus is a mythical creature described in various bestiaries as a giant bird that collected cinnamon to build its nests.

According to Herodotus
According to Herodotus in his The History, the cinnamon bird inhabited Arabia, the only country known to produce cinnamon at the time.  The giant cinnamon birds collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew, and used them to construct their nests, fastened to sheer cliffs.  The Arabians employed a trick to obtain the cinnamon.  They cut oxen and other beasts of burden into pieces, laid them near the birds' nests and withdrew to a distance; the birds were then tempted down to carry the chunks of meat back to their nests, where the weight of the carcasses broke them from the cliffs, leaving the Arabians to collect the fallen cinnamon.

According to Aristotle
In Aristotle's Historia Animalium (History of Animals), one of his works of natural history, he explains that the cinnamon bird brought the cinnamon from unknown locations to build its nest on the slender branches in the tops of high trees.  The inhabitants of the bird's home attached leaden weights to their arrow tips to topple the nests, collecting the cinnamon sticks within.  Aristotle referred to the bird as .

According to Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder adopted a more skeptical view of the cinnamon bird, erroneously named cinnamolgus.  He discredited Herodotus specifically and antiquity in general in his Naturalis historia (Natural History) by asserting that the tales were invented by the natives to raise the price of their commodities.

Other appearances in classical literature
De Natura Animalium (On Animals) by Claudius Aelianus
Solinus' Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium (Collection of Remarkable Facts)
Physiologus, a collection of moralized animal tales expanded upon over 1000 years
A Latin prose bestiary from the 12th century with Aristotle's version of the cinnamon bird
How We Visited the Land of Satin from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais, referred to as cinnamologi

References
Nigg, Joseph. The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present.  Oxford University Press, 1999.
 Françoise Lecocq,
 « L'œuf du phénix. Myrrhe, encens et cannelle dans le mythe du phénix », L'animal et le savoir, de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, 2009, Presses univ. de Caen ; preprint on line : , p. 107-130. Archived copy
 « Kinnamômon ornéon ou phénix ? L'oiseau, la viande et la cannelle », Prédateurs dans tous leurs états. Evolution, biodiversité, interactions, mythes, symboles, XXXIe Rencontre Internationale d'Archéologie et d'Histoire d'Antibes, dir. J.-P. Brugal, A. Gardeisen, A. Zucker, Éditions APDCA, Antibes, 2011, p. 409–420.

Legendary birds
Greek legendary creatures
Roman legendary creatures
Cinnamon

Cinnamon bird


The 3rd Guards Volnovakha Red Banner Order of Suvorov Motor Rifle Division (Military Unit Number 61415) was a division of the Soviet Army from 1957 to around 1992. It traced its history from the highly decorated 3rd Guards Rifle Division of World War II. The 3rd Guards Rifle Division was formed from the 153rd Rifle Division.

History

September 1941 to mid-1943
From 20 September to 9 November, the division conducted operations as part of the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front in the area of Mga and Sinyavino. From 10 to 14 November, the division relocated to the left flank of the army, south of the city of Volkhov. From 15 November to 28 December, the division conducted combat operations near Volkhov and then pursued the retreating German troops to the station of Pogostye.

In the summer of 1942, the division was brought back up to strength and entered the Stavka reserve.

From the end of August to September 1942, the division took part in the Sinyavino Offensive of the Volkhov Front. The division was tasked with breaking through the German defenses in the area of the  Kruglaya grove and taking the station of Sinyavino. The 5th Guards Rifle Regiment advanced towards Gontovaya Lipka on 27 August. The division fought on the hill of Kruglaya grove between 10 September and 15 October.

In early December 1942, the division was withdrawn from the Stavka reserve and transferred under the 2nd Guards Army of the Stalingrad Front. In winter conditions, the division completed a difficult forced march of 200 to 280 kilometers from the railway station to the concentration areas. From 15 to 31 December 1942, the division engaged in active combat operations near Stalingrad.

During the Stalingrad strategic offensive, on the line of the Myshkova River, the division, as a part of the 2nd Guards Army, played a decisive role in the repulse of the counterattack of the German Kotelnikovo group. The division concentrated on a defensive line near the sovkhoz of Krep on the banks of the Myshkova river on 17 December. The division conducted difficult battles in the area of Vasilyevka on 20 December. Elements of the 3rd Guards defended the sector from Ivanovka to Kapkinka, repulsing the main attack in the sector from Vasilyevka to Kapkinka. With the army, the division begna its own offensive on 24 December and forced the German troops to retreat to the south. The division reached the area of the sovkhoz imeni Lenina by 15:00 on 29 December (10 km east of Kotelnikovo). At 10:30 on 31 December the division was fighting on the line from hill 107.8 to the northern outskirts of Verkhny Vasilyevsky to the eastern outskirts of Komissarovsky. Continuing the offensive toward Rostov, the division participated in the liberation of Novocherkassk on 13 February 1943, and three days later reached the Mius River, where German resistance forced them to take defensive positions.

The 22nd Guards Artillery Regiment was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 22 February.

Summer 1943 to the end of the war
In August–September 1943, the 3rd Guards Division took part in the Donbas strategic offensive operation. The division liberated the inhabited localities of Bolshoy Tokmak (on 20 September 1943) and Volnovakha (on 10 September 1943). The 3rd Guards Rifle Division was among the units to receive the Volnovakha honorific in recognitions of its actions.

In late September, during the Melitopol Offensive, the 3rd Guards reached the lower Dnieper and the Black Sea coast, liberating Kakhovka on 2 November 1943. In December, as a part of the 4th Ukrainian Front, the division eliminated the German bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper (in the area of Kherson) after a stubborn battle. In February 1944, the army was transferred to the area of the Isthmus of Perekop, and in April–May it took part in the Crimean strategic operation, resulting in the liberation of Yevpatoriya on 13 April 1944, and, together with other forces of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol on 9 May. In May–June, the 2nd Guards Army was relocated to the area of cities of Dorogobuzh and Yelnya. From 20 May, it was in the Stavka reserve, and on July 8 it was included in the 1st Baltic Front. In July, during the Šiauliai Offensive, the division repulsed German attacks to the west and northwest of Šiauliai. In October, it participated in the Memel Offensive. On 20 December, it was reassigned to the 3rd Belorussian Front. In January–April 1945, during the East Prussian Offensive, it broke the German fortified defenses and eliminated, in conjunction with other troops, encircled German forces southwest of Koenigsberg and the Sambia group.

Postwar
After the end of the war, the division was reduced to the 13th Separate Guards Rifle Brigade on 31 July 1946. It was reorganized as the 3rd Guards Rifle Division again in October 1953. The division was reorganized as the 3rd Guards Motor Rifle Division at Klaipėda on 25 June 1957.

The 3rd Guards Rifle Division was in the Voronezh Military District with the 11th Guards Rifle Corps in 1945-6, and later in 1955 and 1957.  In the 1980s, the division became the 3rd Guards Motor Rifle Division for Coastal Defence on 12 October 1989 and transferred to the Baltic Fleet. Before that time it had been subordinated to the Baltic Military District. On 1 September 1993, the division was disbanded.

Assignments
 Western Special Military District, 22nd Army, 62nd Rifle Corps (from mid-June to July 1941)
 Western Front, 20th Army (July - early August 1941)
 Western Front, 16th Army (Soviet Union) (August - early September 1941)
 Western Front, a reserve of 20 Army (from 6 to 20 September 1941)
 Stavka Reserve (20 September - early October 1941)
 Leningrad Front, 54th Army (c (no later) 1 October 1941 to (no earlier than that date) July 1, 1942). Since February 1942 in the 4th Guards Rifle Corps.
 Volkhov Front, 2nd Guards Army, 6th Guards Rifle Corps (August - 1 October 1942)
 Don Front - 15 December 1942.
 Stalingrad Front 2nd Guards Army - from 15 to 31 December 1942.
 Southern Front, 2nd Guards Army 13th Guards Rifle Corps - from 1 January to 20 October 1943.
 4th Ukrainian Front, 2nd Guards Army 13th Guards Rifle Corps - 20 October 1943
 4th Ukrainian Front, 2nd Guards Army 13th Guards Rifle Corps – on 8 July 1944.
 1st Baltic Front, 2nd Guards Army 13th Guards Rifle Corps – 8 July to 20 December 1944.
 3rd Belorussian Front, 2nd Guards Army 13th Guards Rifle Corps – from 20 December 1944
 3rd Belorussian Front, Samland Group of Forces, 2nd Guards Army, 11th Guards Rifle Corps – on 1 April 1945

Division units

On 5 July 1941
 435th Rifle Regiment
 505th Rifle Regiment
 666th Rifle Regiment
 122nd Separate Artillery Battalion
565th Light Artillery Regiment
 581st Howitzer Artillery Regiment
 150th Separate Anti-Tank Battalion
 460th Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion
 238th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion
 208th Separate Sapper Battalion
 297th Separate Communications Battalion
 362nd Separate Medical-Sanitary Battalion
 7th Separate Chemical Defense Company
 193rd Auto Transport Company
 Field bakery and the divisional veterinary hospital.

In December 1942
 5th Guards Rifle Regiment
 9th Guards Rifle Regiment
 13th Guards Rifle Regiment (see :ru:13-й гвардейский стрелковый полк)
 22nd Guards Artillery Regiment
 11th Guards Mortar Battalion
 15th Guards Mortar Battalion
 10th Guards Sapper Battalion
 3rd Guards Battalion

Commanders
The following officers commanded the first formation of the 153rd Rifle Division and the 3rd Guards Rifle Division:

Colonel Nikolai Gagen (16 July 1940 – 18 December 1941; promoted to major general on 9 November 1941)
Colonel Anatoly Krasnov (19 December 1941 – 8 March 1942)
Major General Nikolay Martynchuk (9 March – 17 October 1942)
Colonel Kantemir Tsalikov (18 October 1942 – 20 May 1944; promoted to major general on 27 November 1942)
Colonel Leonty Karida (21 May – 28 June 1944)
Colonel Grigory Polishchuk (29 June 1944 – 18 October 1946; promoted to major general on 5 May 1945)
Colonel Aleksandr Glebovich Maykov (December 1946 – 5 May 1947)
Lieutenant General Mark Timofeyevich Karakoz (March 1947 – 19 March 1949)
Major General Yemelyan Vasilievich Kozik (19 March 1949 – 15 December 1951)
Colonel Sergey Yepifanovich Shelkovy (25 December 1951 – 25 December 1953, major general 3 August 1953)
Major General Grigory Polishchuk (25 November 1953 – 10 November 1956)
Colonel Nikolay Ivanovich Gordychuk (10 November 1956 – 10 December 1960, major general 25 May 1959)
Colonel Pyotr Fyodorovich Rodionov (10 December 1960 – 18 June 1962, major general 27 April 1962)
Colonel Roman Markovich Koletvintsev (18 June 1962 – 20 March 1965)
Colonel Ivan Yakovlevich Kulikov (20 March 1965 – November 1966)
Colonel Ivan Andreyevich Kibal (Unknown – 6 December 1973, major general 19 February 1968)
Colonel Vitaly Andreyevich Tsapko (6 December 1973 – Unknown, major general 25 April 1975)

Awards

18 September 1941 - the 153rd Rifle Division received the name:3rd Guards Rifle Division '.
10 September 1943 - The division was given the name 'Volnovakha.
24 April 1944  - the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner
5 April 1945  - the division was awarded the Order of Suvorov

Notes

References
 General Staff. Military-scientific management. Collection of military documents of the German-Soviet War. Issue 32. - Moscow: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, 1957.

 Station, Benedict Timofeevich, "Divo-Division". - Ekaterinburg, Argo, 1995. 126 p.
 Stadnyuk, Ivan Fotievich, War: Roman. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1987. - "Library Series"

External links
 Library Mikhail Grachev
 Genealogy Forum
 Oksana Korneva. Historian - Genealogy.
 Annex to the site  MO "60 years of the Great Victory"
 Vladimir Martov. Belarusian Chronicle, 1941
 Do not forget!
 OI Nuzhdin. Ural State University. Nevelsk defensive operations of 22nd Army
 Military-patriotic club "Memory" at Voronezh State University

003
Military units and formations established in 1957
Military units and formations disestablished in 1993
Wikipedia articles needing cleanup after translation from Russian
1957 establishments in the Soviet Union
1993 disestablishments in Russia

3rd Guards Motor Rifle Division


Ilya Mark Scheinker (25 June 1902 in Tula – 26 August 1954 in New York City) was a Russian neurologist and neuropathologist who in 1936 collaborated with Josef Gerstmann and Ernst Sträussler to describe Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, a variant of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

They studied at the University of Jena, and the University of Vienna, graduating in 1922, authoring several papers regarding multiple sclerosis. After the anschluss, he fled to Paris, working with Georges Guillain at Salpêtrière from 1938, before emigrating to New York in 1941 after the Nazi invasion of France. With assistance from Tracy Putnam, he found work at the Cincinnati General Hospital as head of neuropathology, where he authored several landmark textbooks, before opening a renowned private practice. After suffering a Myocardial infarction in 1950, he returned to New York where he was offered a teaching position at New York Medical College, until his death two years later.

References

1902 births
1952 deaths
Austrian neurologists
American neurologists
Russian neurologists
Jewish American scientists
People from Tula, Russia

Ilya Scheinker


Elmwood, also known as the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft House, the Schoolcraft House or the Indian Agency, is a frame house located at 435 East Water Street in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.  It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 - Dec. 10, 1864) was a notable author, explorer, and Native American culture expert.  Schoolcraft was born on March 28, 1793, in Albany County, New York.  In 1817, he participated in a mineralogical trip through what is now Missouri and Arkansas, and in 1820 he was the topographer on an expedition through the upper Mississippi River and Lake Superior regions.  After publishing an 1821 book on his travels, Schoolcraft was appointed in 1822 as US Indian agent at Sault Ste. Marie.  There, Schoolcraft accepted an invitation from John Johnston to stay at his house.  In 1823, Schoolcraft married Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, daughter of Johnston and his wife Ozhaguscodaywayquay, herself the daughter of Ojibwe war chief Waubojeeg,  After their marriage, the couple continued to live in the Johnston house.  The Schoolcrafts had four children: William (1824), who died young, a stillborn daughter in 1825, Janee in 1826 and John in 1829.

Henry Schoolcraft remained an Indian Agent at Sault Ste. Marie and (in 1833) Mackinac Island, and became superintendent of Indian affairs in 1836.  In 1841, he resigned his commission and moved to New York City.  Perhaps due to the death of their first two children, Henry and Jane grew estranged, and Jane died soon after Henry's resignation in 1841.  Schoolcraft wrote further about Indian culture, and died on Dec. 10, 1864 in Washington, D.C.

Schoolcraft House History
After being appointed to his position in Sault Ste. Marie, Schoolcraft requested the construction of a suitable building to house the agency.  Schoolcraft designated a site, and plans were drawn up by Obed Wait, who had earlier designed Michigan's territorial capitol located in Detroit.  Construction began in 1826 and was completed in 1827.    The building, dubbed "Elmwood" due to the surrounding elms, was the headquarters for Indian affairs throughout the upper Great Lakes, as well as the home of the Schoolcrafts, from its construction until 1833, when the agency headquarters was relocated to Mackinac Island.  The building was still used by the agency through the 1830s and 1840s.

In 1853, the government leased Elmwood to Charles T. Harvey, who supervised the construction of the first Soo Locks while living in the house. Sault Ste. Marie merchant and businessman Peter Barbeau purchased the building in 1874 when the government sold it.  Around the 1880s, substantial Queen Anne-style alterations were done to the building, diminishing the "classical elegance" of the original design.  Around 1900, the building, along with a swath of the surrounding shoreline, was sold to the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company.  It was used as an office building, then lay vacant for decades while owned by Union Carbide.  It was used in the 1950s and 1960s to display the collection of the Chippewa County Historical Society.

In 1979, Elmwood was moved from its original location at 705 East Portage Avenue to its current location at 435 East Water Street, next to the John Johnston House.  At the same time, the building was restored to its original footprint, in particular removing the extensive 1880s additions.  It is planned to reconstruct the original Federal-style appearance of the structure.  The west wing, that originally housed the Indian Affairs Agency, is open to the public.

Description

The original section of Elmwood was a Federal style building, with a two-story central section and single-story wings on each side connected to the central section via breezeways.  The entire structure was nearly  long, with a veranda running the full length. The interior had 15 rooms.

The building was originally situated directly on the banks of the St. Marys River, within a grove of maples, mountain ash, and elms (from which it took its name).

References

External links
 Sault Historic Sites - Water Street Historic Block - includes the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft House

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan
Federal architecture in Michigan
Houses completed in 1827
Buildings and structures in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Michigan State Historic Sites in Chippewa County
Houses in Chippewa County, Michigan
Museums in Chippewa County, Michigan
Historic house museums in Michigan
National Register of Historic Places in Chippewa County, Michigan
1827 establishments in Michigan Territory

Elmwood (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan)


Christoforos Zachariadis () was a fighter in the Greek Revolution of 1821, and was originally from Kyparissia. He participated in military operations in Moldavia and Wallachia initially and then later in the Peloponnese. He worked with the "Committee of Zakynthos". Politically, he was considered to be a follower of the Anglophile faction.

Biography
Christoforos or Christos Zachariadis was born in Kyparissia but was raised in Zakynthos. Later he moved to Odessa where he worked as a secretary in a commercial store. There, in 1820, he was initiated into the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. When the Revolution in the Danubian Principalities broke out, he was one of the founders of the Sacred Band in Focşani and then he served as an adjutant to the captain Giannakis Kolokotronis.

On 27 May he took part in the battle against the Ottoman cavalry at the Notseti monastery. After the suppression of the revolution in the Danubian Principalities, he fled to the Peloponnese, along with Giannakis and Apostolis Kolokotronis, Ioannis Petas and other fighters. He arrived in the  Peloponnese in August 1821 and took part in the Battle of the Trench, the Siege of Tripolitsa and later in the battles during the Siege of Patras.

In 1825 he was the bearer of the note of the "Zakynthos Commission", which was signed by Theodoros Kolokotronis, Andreas Zaimis, Andreas Miaoulis, Kanellos Deligiannis, and others, in which they asked for English protection of the nascent Greek state.  During the same period he was a representative of the "Zakynthos Commission" in the Greek provisional capital, Nafplio. In fact, in September 1825, in a letter to the committee he chastised the political infighting between various factions in the capital. During the Third Siege of Missolonghi he acted as a spy in the Egyptian camp and managed to obtain important information, which he later communicated to the besieged.

References

Bibliography
Fotios Chrysanthopoulos (1888). Βίοι Πελοποννησίων ανδρών και των εξώθεν εις την Πελοπόννησον ελθόντων κληρικών, στρατιωτικών και πολιτικών των αγωνισαμένων τον αγώνα της επαναστάσεως. Athens: Σταύρος Ανδρόπουλος, Τυπογραφείο Π. Δ. Σακελλαρίου.
Dionysios Kokkinos, Η Ελληνική Επανάστασις, εκδόσεις Μέλισσα, 6th Edition, Athens, 1974.
Apostolos E. Vakalopoulos, Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού, Vol. VII, Thessaoniki, 1982.

Greek people of the Greek War of Independence
Members of the Filiki Eteria
People from Kyparissia

Christoforos Zachariadis


The Easybeats were an Australian rock band who formed in Sydney in late 1964. They are best known for their 1966 hit single "Friday on My Mind", which is regarded as the first Australian rock song to achieve international success; Rolling Stone described it as "the first international victory for Oz rock". One of the most popular and successful bands in the country, they were one of the few Australian bands of their time to foreground their original material; their first album Easy (1965) was one of the earliest Australian rock albums featuring all original songs.

The five founding members, all migrants from Europe, met at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney in 1964, and rose to national prominence in 1965 with the song "She's So Fine", which reached number three in Australia. Their concerts and public appearances were marked by an intense fanaticism frequently compared to Beatlemania; this phenomenon was subsequently dubbed "Easyfever". They relocated to the UK in 1966, where they recorded "Friday On My Mind". Following its success, the band struggled to maintain international recognition. Compounded by financial and contractual issues, drug use, and the increasing independence of guitarists and songwriters Harry Vanda and George Young, they returned to Australia in 1969 amid declining popularity back home and subsequently disbanded.

Lead singer Stevie Wright started a solo career and had a number one Australian hit with "Evie" in 1974; he died in 2015 after lengthy battles with drugs and alcohol and years of poor health. Guitarists Vanda and Young continued as a songwriting and producing duo and produced several albums by AC/DC; Young died in 2017. During their six-year run, they scored 15 top 40 hits in Australia, including "She's So Fine" and "Women (Make You Feel Alright)", with number-one hits including "Friday on My Mind" and "Sorry". They reunited for a tour in 1986. In 2005, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

History

19641965: formation, Albert Productions and early success

All five founder members were from families that had migrated to Australia from Europe: lead singer Stevie Wright and drummer Gordon "Snowy" Fleet were English-born; rhythm guitarist George Young was Scottish-born; lead guitarist Harry Vanda and bassist Dick Diamonde were Dutch-born. The band formed at the Villawood Migrant Hostel. The families of the band members spent their first years in Australia housed at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in the early and mid-sixties.

The Easybeats' first gigs were in late 1964 at a music venue called Beatle Village, located in the basement of the Courthouse Hotel in Taylor Square in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The band was inspired by the "British Invasion" spearheaded by the Beatles. The Easybeats quickly rose to become one of the most popular groups in the city. Real estate agent turned pop music entrepreneur Mike Vaughan became their manager. Through his efforts, they were signed to a contract with Albert Productions, one of Australia's first independent record production companies. The company was established by Ted Albert, whose family owned J. Albert & Sons, a prominent music publishing company. Albert signed the band to a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label. The group recorded a number of songs at the 2UW Theatre, owned by the parent company of Albert Productions, J. Albert and Son. They chose the bluesy "For My Woman" as their first single. It was picked up by Sydney radio and became a minor hit, reaching No. 33 on the charts.

19651966: rise to success and Easyfever

"She's So Fine", Easy and It's 2 Easy
Although "For My Woman" gained them some attention, the band felt they needed a more uptempo song to break through commercially. Their next single, "She's So Fine", gave them that commercial success, reaching No. 3 on the Australian charts and launching them to national stardom. Their concerts and public appearances were regularly marked by intense fan hysteria similar to "Beatlemania", soon dubbed "Easyfever" by the Australian press.

The band's follow-up single, the high-energy "Wedding Ring", released on 26 August 1965, was also a hit, reaching No. 7. On 23 September 1965, the group released its first album, Easy. It was one of the earliest albums of all original material written by an Australian rock group. All the songs were written by group members, with vocalist Stevie Wright and guitarist George Young co-writing eight of the fourteen songs on the album.

For the next single, "Sad and Lonely and Blue", the band returned to the blues based feel of "For My Woman". However, like "For My Woman", it failed to make the top 10, only reaching No. 21. Both "Wedding Ring" and "Sad and Lonely and Blue" were included on the group's second album, It's 2 Easy, released 24 March 1966. The lead singles from that album, "Women (Make You Feel Alright)" and "Come and See Her", put the group back in the top 10, reaching No. 4 and No. 3 respectively on the Australian charts. This time, Stevie Wright and George Young wrote all fourteen songs on the album. The Wright-Young songwriting team also wrote songs for other artists at this time, including "Step Back", which became a No. 1 hit for Johnny Young (no relation) in 1966.

United Artists Records and Volume 3
In early 1966, while the group was still touring Australia, manager Mike Vaughan flew to New York City to attempt to secure an American recording contract for the band. Despite an initial lack of interest, Vaughan was able to convince United Artists Records to sign the band. Just before relocating to London in 1966, they recorded a farewell TV special for the Seven Network, titled The Easybeats (more commonly known as The Coca-Cola Special), one of the few surviving appearances from the band's career during this period. The group left for the UK on 10 July 1966.

In August 1966, Albert Productions released an EP of material recorded before the group left Australia. Titled Easyfever, it reach No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. Albert Productions then released an entire album of material titled Volume 3 on 3 November 1966. This too was a commercial success and its lead single, "Sorry", topped the Australian charts. Again, Stevie Wright and George Young wrote all thirteen songs on the album.

19661967: international success

Shel Talmy, Vanda & Young and "Friday on My Mind"
After arriving in London the band recorded a number of songs with Ted Albert at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, but these were deemed unsuitable by United Artists Records and Albert was removed as producer. The band was then teamed with freelance producer Shel Talmy, who had achieved great success with his production for the Who and the Kinks. United Artists also felt that the band's song writing was too "unsophisticated" for the competitive UK market. The label had already released the Wright/Young composition "Come And See Her" as a single in the UK on 15 July and it had not sold well. Dutch-born Vanda, now having a stronger grasp of English, replaced Wright as Young's song writing partner at this point.

After auditioning several titles for Talmy, "Friday on My Mind" caught the producer's ear as the next single. The band recorded the song with Talmy at IBC Studios, London in September. "Friday on My Mind" was released in the UK on 14 October 1966. It reached #6 on the UK Charts making it the group's first big international hit. The song charted in multiple countries: No. 1 in Australia, No. 13 in Canada, No. 16 in the US, and the Top 10 in Germany, the Netherlands and France, and sold over one million copies worldwide. It was awarded a gold disc.

19671969: decline in popularity and break-up

Following up "Friday on My Mind", Easy Come, Easy Go and the scrapped album
On 17 March 1967, United Artists released the follow-up single to "Friday on My Mind"; "Who'll Be The One". The single was a commercial failure and did not make the UK charts (although it was No. 14 in Australia). The band was against releasing the single to begin with, as they felt it was not a strong enough track to follow "Friday on My Mind". Later that month, they toured Europe in support of The Rolling Stones.

During this period, the band was filmed by Australian director Peter Clifton for a proposed documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Filmed under the title Between Heaven and Hell (which was later changed to Easy Come, Easy Go), the documentary was lost for nearly 42 years.  It was restored, reedited and shown at film festivals in 2012.

In May, their first album for United Artists was released: Good Friday (re-titled Friday on My Mind in the US). That same month, they returned to Australia for a nationwide tour.  After the tour, drummer Snowy Fleet decided to quit the band.  Fleet was unhappy at the amount of time he had to spend away from his wife and young children. Returning to the UK without a drummer, the group began several recordings with a session drummer, Freddie Smith – a Glaswegian who had played with George Young's older brother Alex (stage name George Alexander) in Bobby Patrick & The Big Six.

During this period, the band recorded their next single, "Heaven And Hell", which marked a turning point for the group, with its sophisticated songwriting and arrangements. Vanda and Young were influenced by the current psychedelic pop, popular in the UK and US. The single was produced by Glyn Johns, who had worked as an engineer on the Shel Talmy sessions. The band also began work on a new album with Johns, most of which was recorded and prepared for issue but was never released because of the band's complicated financial and contractual problems.

"Heaven And Hell" was released in June and, like the previous single, it also failed to make a mark on the UK charts. This was due, in part, to the song being banned by the BBC. The single also ran into problems in the US, where a censored version titled "Heaven", replaced the lyric "Discovering someone else in your bed" with "discovering that her love has gone dead". In Australia the single did much better; reaching #8.

After extensive auditions in London a replacement drummer was found in Tony Cahill (born 20 December 1941) who had formerly played with Brisbane band The Purple Hearts. With Cahill, the band toured the US in August, supporting Gene Pitney. During their US visit, they recorded their next single, "Falling Off the Edge of the World", in New York.  The single received moderate airplay in the US, but did not chart.

Vigil

The band returned to London and continued to work in the studio. Their next single, "The Music Goes 'Round My Head", again written by Vanda and Young, is considered to have been influenced by the emerging UK Rocksteady/Ska scene. In late 1967, Vanda and Young began writing for other artists. Two of their songs, "Bring a Little Lovin'" and "Come In, You'll Get Pneumonia", were covered by Los Bravos (and later by Ricky Martin as "Dime Que Me Quieres") and Paul Revere and The Raiders respectively. Still trying to get back into the UK charts, the band moved to a more pop-friendly sound and released the soft rock, ballad "Hello, How Are You" on 8 March 1968. The plan worked and the song reached #20 in the UK charts. However, in retrospect, the band have cited the change in sound as a mistake, stating that it alienated the band's longterm fans.

In May, the band finally released their second album for United Artists; Vigil (re-titled Falling Off The Edge of the World in the US). The album was a mixture of recent singles, new recordings and out-takes from the scrapped 1967 album. Two of the songs recorded for the abandoned LP, "Land of Make Believe" and "Good Times", were released as singles. The baroque pop ballad "Land of Make Believe" was released in the UK on 5 July and in Australia on 18 July. Although failing to chart in the UK, it reached No. 18 on the Australian charts. The B-side to the Australian single was the next UK single; "Good Times". Released on 13 September, "Good Times" again failed to chart in the UK. An often-told story about the song is that when the track was broadcast on BBC radio, it was reputedly heard by Paul McCartney on his car radio; McCartney apparently rang the station immediately to request a repeat playing. The song featured Steve Marriott of the Small Faces on backing vocals and Nicky Hopkins on piano. In November, Albert Productions released the UK B-side to "Good Times", the instrumental track "Lay Me Down and Die", as a single in Australia. The single was slammed by critics and reached #59 on the Australian chart; their lowest-charting single to date.

Through late 1968, the formerly tight-knit band began to drift apart. Drugs were a factor, but the growing independence of the Vanda and Young team as a creative unit was also a major catalyst. By this time the duo were working substantially on their own and between them they could now play almost any instrument needed for recordings and had become skilled in engineering and producing their own recordings. They wrote prolifically, but many of their songs from this period remained unreleased for many years. They were also reluctant to do more than a few gigs per month, and so the band only came together for occasional performances or for 'demo' sessions at Central Sound Studios in Denmark Street.

New contract with Polydor and "St. Louis"
In 1969, the band parted ways with United Artists and their production company Albert Productions to sign with Polydor Records.  In April, the group went into London's Olympic Studios to record their first single for Polydor. They teamed up with producer Ray Singer, a former member of UK band Nirvana, who had made a name for himself as a producer with Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)". "St. Louis" was released on 27 June 1969, but failed to chart in the UK. However it reached No. 21 on the Go-Set charts in Australia. In July 1969, it was announced that the working relationship between manager Mike Vaughan and the group had come to an end.

To continue their work as songwriters for hire, Vanda and Young took over a flat on Moscow Road in Bayswater in London which had previously been used as a jingle studio for pirate radio stations. With modifications, it became a 4-track home studio and Vanda and Young began producing demos, working mostly on their own. As with their Central Sound records, they played most of the instruments on their recordings with the other Easybeats members occasionally contributing. Nine of these demo recordings (with single "St. Louis" and "Can't Find Love") were released by Polydor as an album under The Easybeats' name as Friends. This album was released after their break-up.

Final Australian tour and break-up
In September 1969, the band undertook a short European tour and then reluctantly accepted the offer of a five-week Australian tour. The tour was reported as being a last-ditch attempt to bail the group out of its mounting pool of debts.

A number of factors made the Australian tour less than successful. Rather than playing larger venues as they did on the 1967 tour, the band was booked to play mainly smaller clubs and dance halls. Also, the band had reverted to 'no frills' hard rock whereas the Australian pop scene was preoccupied with progressive rock, soul, and bubblegum pop.

The situation was further complicated by Albert Productions' unwelcome release (against the band's wishes) of several lo-fi demo recordings on The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2. The recordings were songwriter demos sent to Albert Productions in 1967 and 1968 for other artists to record. "Peculiar Hole in the Sky" from that album was released as a single, it was originally recorded by Australian band the Valentines.

In October 1969 the band made a valedictory TV appearance in the ATN-7 Easybeats Special (which was broadcast after the tour on 2 November). After their performance at Caesar's Place Disco, Sydney, on 25 October, a wedding was held for Diamonde and actress Charlene Collins. The following day, the Easybeats travelled to Orange, New South Wales. There they made a television appearance at the CBN-8 television studios and performed a show at the Amoco Centre in Orange city centre. However, the show was interrupted by hostile audience members and was cancelled after only 20 minutes. This was The Easybeats' final performance. After the tour, the band went their separate ways.

1969present: post break-up

1970s: Vanda & Young and Wright's solo commercial success

Vanda and Young

Vanda and Young returned to the UK and remained there for three years, working to pay off debts incurred during The Easybeats' years. During the period 1970-74 they recorded under a number of names: Paintbox, Tramp, Eddie Avana, Moondance, Haffy's Whisky Sour, Vanda & Young, Band of Hope and the Marcus Hook Roll Band. They returned to Australia in 1973 and reunited with Ted Albert and became the house producers for his new Albert Productions record label, writing for and/or producing many chart-topping acts including Stevie Wright, Rose Tattoo, Cheetah, the Angels and William Shakespeare.

They wrote and produced several major hits for John Paul Young including "Love Is in the Air" and "Yesterday's Hero", which was also a hit for The Bay City Rollers, and produced the first six albums for AC/DC (which featured George's younger brothers Angus Young and Malcolm Young).

In the period 1976-92 Vanda and Young also recorded several singles under the pseudonym Flash and the Pan which charted in Australia and the UK, including "Hey St. Peter" and "Down Among the Dead Men". They had even more success in Europe with hits such as "Waiting for a Train", "Midnight Man", "Early Morning Wake Up Call", and "Ayla", from the number 1 albums Early Morning Wake Up Call, Headlines, and Nights in France. Singer-model-actress Grace Jones also recorded a successful cover version of their song "Walking in the Rain".

Stevie Wright

Stevie Wright went on to become a cast member of the original Australian stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar (1972–73) and then launched a successful but short-lived solo career with the hit single "Evie" and the album Hard Road in 1974, which reunited him with Vanda and Young, who produced the records and wrote many of the songs, including "Evie", an ambitious three-part suite split over two sides of a single.

In later years Wright suffered debilitating drug and alcohol problems which were further exacerbated by his self-admission to the notorious Chelmsford Private Hospital in Sydney. Its director, Dr Harry Bailey, administered a highly controversial treatment known as "deep sleep therapy" which allegedly cured drug addiction with a combination of drug-induced coma and electroshock. Many patients, including Wright, suffered brain damage and lifelong after-effects, while others died as a result of the treatments.

Snowy Fleet, Tony Cahill and Dick Diamonde
Original drummer Gordon "Snowy" Fleet became a successful builder in Perth, Western Australia, and now runs a rehearsal studio based in Jandakot, Western Australia. His replacement, Tony Cahill, remained in the UK for a time, briefly joining the final studio lineup of Python Lee Jackson as a bassist, before moving to the United States to tour with King Harvest.

Dick Diamonde moved to the New South Wales North Coast and retired from performing, after some years of singing and playing in local pubs.

1980s: Solo careers and the Easybeats reunion tour

In 1980, Flash and the Pan released their second album Lights in the Night.  Their next album, Headlines was released in August 1982.  This featured the singles "Waiting for a Train" which reached #7 on the UK Charts and "Where Were You".  The music video for "Where Were You" featured Stevie Wright as a futuristic rock star miming to George Young's vocals. Wright also provided vocals for the album. That same year there was talk of an Easybeats' reunion. Wright told Juke Magazine in 1983 "we had our lawyers working out the deal" because there was a venue interested in having them "but at the last minute they tried to change the venue and we just said 'forget it'."

In 1983, there was a talk of a solo album with work done again with Vanda and Young. Wright said the album would best be described as "classy rock 'n' roll" and the songs were about "a wide spectrum of all the experiences I've been through". He said the love songs he had were optimistic. This interview gives a good idea as to how Wright worked in the studio with Vanda and Young: "Well, it's a three way thing. They'll sit down and say 'we've got this sort of song' and we'll discuss how we'll approach it. Obviously after this long we do have a very strong bond. I've written a couple of songs but since they're far better at it than I am, I'll let them handle that." According to the Juke Magazine article it was "due for release later that year", however this never happened.

In January 1984, Wright was charged with attempted housebreaking days after attending Westmount drug rehabilitation centre in Katoomba, west of Sydney. He was arrested for heroin use later that month. He had been using heroin since about 1973, and, according to Wright, he remained an addict for 20 years. Also that year, Flash and the Pan's next album, Early Morning Wake Up Call, was released.

In November 1986, the original line-up reunited for an Australian tour.  The tour was warmly received by critics and fans.  Wright reformed the Stevie Wright Band and relaunched his live career, gigging around Australia in hotels and clubs between 1986 and 1988.  In 1987, Flash and the Pan released their fifth album, Nights in France.

Vanda and Young returned to producing AC/DC on their 1988 album Blow Up Your Video.

1990s and beyond: semi-retirement
In 1992 Flash and the Pan released their final album Burning Up The Night. Wright's substance abuse problems spiralled out of control in the 1980s and 1990s and he came close to death on several occasions, but was pulled back from the brink by his partner, Faye. In 1999 journalist Jack Marx published a much-anticipated book about Wright, entitled Sorry - The Wretched Tale of Little Stevie Wright. It was critically applauded by some reviewers - Australian music historian Clinton Walker calling it "gonzo journalism at its best", while The Bulletin later referred to Sorry as "one of the most harrowing rock books ever written".
Nevertheless, Sorry earned the disdain of its subject, Wright's many fans and other critics. Internet reviewer Ken Grady (Luna Cafe, 1999) described Marx as "a self serving hypocrite" and concluded his review by observing: "The only thing that Marx has achieved is to depict himself as a very unlikeable, morally bankrupt leech."

The 2000s saw a band calling itself "The Easybeats" tour and make TV appearances around Europe. No members were in any line-up of the Australian band or played on any of the records, despite the lead singer using a similar name. In addition, another English cover band has taken the Easybeats name, while also having no members who were in the Australian band or played on any of the original recordings. In 2000, George Young produced AC/DC's Stiff Upper Lip album.  It was the first time he had worked with the group without Harry Vanda co-producing.

Due to his health, Wright only performed a small number of shows in the 2000s, although in 2002 he was well enough to perform as part of the all-star Long Way to the Top national concert tour. His autobiography, Hard Road, was published in 2004. In 2007, Stevie Wright performed at the Gathering Festival in Yandina, Sunshine Coast.  On 31 January 2009, Wright closed the Legends of Rock festival in Byron Bay, Australia. On 14 July 2005, the Easybeats were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.  Wright, Vanda and Snowy Fleet attended the ceremony.

Cahill died in Sydney on 13 August 2014, as the result of a brain tumour.

After falling ill on 26 December 2015, Wright was admitted to hospital on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. He did not recover and died on the evening the next day.

George Young died on 22 October 2017.

Popular culture

A cover version of "Good Times" by INXS and Jimmy Barnes was a No. 2 in Australia in 1986, and became the biggest selling single on Mushroom Records. In 1987 it became a No. 47 hit in the US after being featured on the soundtrack of the film The Lost Boys.

In 1987, Gary Moore released a cover version of "Friday on My Mind" on the Wild Frontier album that charted in Australia, Ireland, Finland, New Zealand and the UK.

Discography

Studio albums
 Easy (1965)
 It's 2 Easy (1966)
 Volume 3 (1966)
 Good Friday / Friday on My Mind (1967)
 Vigil / Falling Off the Edge of the World (1969)
 Friends (1970)

Members

 Stevie Wright – vocals (1964–1969, 1986) ( 2015)
 George Young – guitar (1964–1969, 1986) ( 2017)
 Harry Vanda – guitar (1964–1969, 1986)
 Dick Diamonde – bass (1964–1969, 1986)
 Snowy Fleet – drums (1964–1967, 1986)
 Tony Cahill – drums (1967–1969) ( 2014)

Timeline

Portrayals in media
Friday on My Mind is an Australian television drama mini series first screened on ABC in 2017, based on the history of the band from its formation at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in 1964 to the 1969 breakup.

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. The Easybeats were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.

|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 2005
| The Easybeats
| ARIA Hall of Fame
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References

Bibliography
Hard Road - The Life and Times of Stevie Wright, by Glenn Goldsmith with Stevie Wright, Random House Australia, 2004,

External links

 MILESAGO - The Easybeats
 The Easybeats All Music Biography

APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Musical groups from Sydney
Australian rock music groups
Parlophone artists
Musical groups established in 1964
Musical groups disestablished in 1969
Beat groups
Australian expatriates in England
Australian musical quintets
1964 establishments in Australia
1969 disestablishments in Australia

The Easybeats


The Wassoulou empire, sometimes referred to as the Mandinka Empire, was a short lived West African state that existed from roughly 1878 until 1898, although dates vary from source to source. It spanned from what is now southwestern Mali and upper Guinea, with its capital in Bissandugu; it expanded further south and east into northern Ghana and Ivory Coast before its downfall.

History

Early Years
The death of Umar Tall, founder of the Toucouleur Empire, in 1864 functionally split his empire between his sons and opened political space for local rulers to re-assert their independence. Samory Toure was one of the most prominent of this generation of leaders.

After taking control of a small warband, he managed to extend his influence over all of the Toron region either by force or diplomacy, building alliances with the powerful Konate family of Gbodou and the leaders of Bissandougou. This first expansionist phase, lasting from 1866 to 1873, saw Samory's army and influence grow dramatically as members of his mother's Camara clan and numerous other volunteers were attracted by his success.

In 1875 the Bate Empire, a theocratic state ruled by the Kaba dynasty of Kankan, sent commissioners to Touré asking for an alliance against his pagan neighbors, particularly the Condé clan based in Gbérédou. Samory accepted, sealing the pact with a meeting at Tintioule. With his Kaba allies, Toure conquered Kouroussa, Norassoba, Baro and other important towns. He also established diplomatic relations with Aguibou Tall (son of Umar Tall) of Dinguiraye in 1878, then an alliance with the almamy of the Imamate of Futa Jallon Ibrahima Sory Dara in 1879.

The army captured the Bure gold mining district on the border of Mali and Guinea to become more financially stable and continue trade, and by 1878 Toure had declared himself Faama (Emperor) of the Wassoulou empire, with Bissandugu as its capital. He took up the Islamic title of Almamy in 1884.

Colonial conflict
During the late 19th century Scramble for Africa European colonization of Africa began to speed up, and Wassoulou came into regular conflict with France.

In late 1881 Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes, commander of the French garrison at Kita in present-day Mali, sent an envoy to Samory Toure to announce that Kiniéran was now a French protectorate. Unimpressed, Toure sacked the town on February 21st, 1882. A French relief column arrived too late, but pursued the Wassoulou army, which turned and fought at Samaya on the 26th. The sofas traditional frontal charges became a slaughter when faced with the latest French weaponry, but Samory quickly pivoted by adopting effective guerilla tactics and hit-and-run cavalry attacks. They harassed the French back to the Niger. This victory won Toure a reputation as the African leader who could stand up to the invading toubab, massively boosting his prestige and recruitment, as well as providing a blueprint for future engagements.

In the aftermath of Samaya, some of the leaders of Bamako began making overtures to Toure. The French, eager to possess this key strategic town on the Niger, rushed a force to establish a fort there on February 1st 1883. Kebe Brema, Samori's brother, led a force to Bamako to lure the French out of their defenses. They fought two  battles at Woyo Wayanko creek in early April, with Kebe Brema winning the first but eventually being forced to retreat.

In 1885 Toure sent men to Freetown in Sierra Leone to propose that Wassoulou become a British protectorate. The British rejected the offer in order to avoid conflict with France, but allowed increased trade in the form of selling more rifles to the Wassoulou army.

When an 1885 French expedition attempted to seize the Buré gold fields by capturing Niagassola, Toure counter-attacked. Dividing his army into three columns, he quickly forced them to withdraw. The French were compelled to negotiate the Treaty of Kenieba Koura, signed on March 28th 1886. This pact recognized the Niger as far upstream as Siguiri as the border between the French and Wassoulou.

War with Kenedougou

At roughly the same time, the frontier on the Bagoe river between the Wassoulou Empire and the Kenedougou Kingdom was descending into violence as forces from both sides raided into the other, and Tieba Traore's army sought to spark a rebellion in the Wassoulou region. With famine and instability widespread, when Samory's forces started forcing conversion to Islam and destroying local sacred sites in 1885, the populace rebelled. Rebels massacred sofa garrisons at Siondougou and Fulala. Samory sent Keme Brema to deal with the situation, and he brutally put down the rebellion. By the end of the 1887 dry season, the last holdouts had been starved into submission.

As the Wassoulou region came back under his control, Samory signed the treaty of Bissandougou with the French. The terms were similar to the treaty signed the year before. With the French now supposed allies, he turned his full force against Kenedougou, beginning a siege of their capital Sikasso in April that would last 15 months.

The siege marked the Wassoulou Empire's high water mark and the beginning of its decline. The Tata of Sikasso was one of the most well-developed defensive systems in West Africa at the time, and Samory had no artillery. His supply lines relied on porters to bring food and ammunition from Bissandougou through still-hostile Bambara territory. Roads became quagmires during the rainy season, and dysentery struck the army, devastating the men and killing Kebe Brema among other important leaders. Meanwhile the French, far from acting as allies, had built a fort at Siguiri and were blocking all trade with the Sahel or Senegal, devastating the economy. When a rumor began that Samory himself was dead, another massive rebellion broke out. By the end of the 1888 rainy season, he was forced to abandon the siege. His starving, desperate troops again brutally sacked Wassoulou, massacring any rebels they found.

Fall of Kankan and Bissandougou

In February 1889 Samory and the French signed yet another treaty, this time at Niako, that pushed colonial control further south. The Empire was vulnerable after the debacle at Sikasso, and the British had stopped selling them breechloading guns in accordance with the Brussels Conference Act of 1890.

In March 10th 1891, a French force under Colonel Louis Archinard set out from Nyamina for a surprise attack on Kankan. He expected to subdue Samory in a few weeks with a lightning campaign. Knowing his fortifications could not stop French artillery, Toure began a war of manoeuvre and scorched earth. Archinard had little trouble capturing Kankan on April 11th and then a deserted Bissandougou, but Toure had left little worth taking.

Archinard's replacement, Colonel Humbert arrived in Kankan in January 1892 and led a small, well-supplied force of picked men on another attack on Bissandougou. The French installed garrisons at Bissandougou and Kerouane. Samory convened another council at Frankonedou on May 9th 1892 where they decided to move east and rebase the empire in Kabadougou, devastating each area before evacuating it to delay French pursuit.

During the first months of 1893 the French, although unable to corner Toure's armies in Guinea, did manage to capture Faranah and block resupply routes to Liberia and Sierra Leone, Wassoulou's primary source of modern weaponry. This left Samory reliant on a longer route through the Gold Coast. The Wassoulou vassals in Kissidougou and the rest of the western- and southernmost parts of the empire surrendered. Samory Toure's empire in the Manding region was now gone.

Kong and Bouna

Samory moved his base out of Kabadougou toward the Bandama and Comoe River to Dabakala in February 1895. His objective, and the key to the whole region, was the ancient Dyula trading city of Kong. The French sought to secure the city by putting together a column led by Col. Monteil in August 1894, but it did not leave Grand Bassam, however, until February 1895. Its passage sparked a popular resistance movement. Monteil stumbled onto the sofas on March 2nd; in a battle on the 14th, the French were forced to retreat and abandon Kong, which pledged fealty to Samory in April. The new Wassoulou Empire in the east would enjoy nearly two years without significant French intervention.

Toure accorded the city of Kong numerous privileges, but the local Dyula merchants' commerce with the coast, dominated by the French, had slowed since their absorption into the Wassoulou empire. When Samory, looking to push further east into the Gold Coast to secure new sources of guns, retreated rather than fight a French force, they sought to take advantage of his weakness by intercepting arms caravans and opening channels to invite the French back. When the discontent eventually broke into open revolt, Samory destroyed the city on May 23rd 1897.

The force that the sofas had encountered was part of France's efforts to control Bouna, and to keep Samory and the British apart. Capt.  came south from the Niger bend to attempt to negotiate another protectorate but was rebuffed, as Toure wanted only to live apart from the French. In April 1897, Governor William Edward Maxwell tried to intimidate Saranken Mori, Samory's son and the commander in the region, into abandoning Bouna. When this failed, a force of the Southern Nigeria Regiment under Henderson marched on the town but were defeated at Dokita, then later routed and Henderson was captured at Wa.

Knowing this setback would prompt an aggressive British response, the French again sent Braulot, at the head of an armed column, to try to acquire Bouna by negotiation. Saranken Mori initially accepted. But when Braulot arrived at Bouna, he was killed and his column destroyed outside the city on August 20th 1897, restarting the war between Wassoulou and the French.

The fall of the Kenedougou capital of Sikasso on May 1st 1898 permitted French colonial forces to launch a concentrated assault against Wassoulou. Toure was forced to migrate once again, this time towards Liberia. Hoping to live off the land while marching, a combination of the unfamiliar mountainous territory of western Ivory Coast, hostile locals, and colonial attacks turned the campaign into a disaster. Thousands died of starvation. Using information from sofa deserters, the French captain Henri Gouraud surprised Toure's forces at Guelemou on September 29th 1898, and captured the Almamy without a fight. With his capture, the Wassoulou Empire ceased to exist.

Government

Operation
The Wassoulou Empire at its height was divided into 62 cantons and 10 provinces, with a population of 300,000 people representing many different ethnicities (Malinke, Senufo, Fula, Mossi, etc.). The head officials, known as keletigi {meaning war chief), were in charge of both the army and the administration of justice in their province. Taxes were generally light.

An important element of Wassoulou governance were regular grand councils of state that brought together all the most important dignitaries of the empire. On these occasions, they decided major questions and organized conquered territory. Some examples include the 1875 council in Bissandougou to inaugurate the capital and proclaim Samory Toure as faama, the 1884 council that formalized Islam as the state religion, and the 1893 council of Frankonedou where the decision was made to move the center of government east, away from the invading French.

Foreign Relations
Samory Toure maintained a diplomatic mission in Freetown to ensure the protection of caravans and the continued flow of trade, especially in arms, between the British colony and the Wassoulou Empire. The French also exchanged regular diplomatic delegations with Wassoulou. After the 1886 treaty of Kenieba Koura, Samory's son Djaoulen Karamo was sent to Paris on a diplomatic/fact-finding mission. He became a francophile and leaned towards a negotiated settlement rather than war in later years. When he opened a diplomatic back channel for this purpose in April 1894, however, Djaoulen Karamo was starved to death.

Wassoulou boasted a highly efficient intelligence network that the French referred to as the 'African telegraph.' Novice soldiers were sent to French posts to gather information, sometimes taking jobs as servants in officers' households where they would overhear sensitive conversations. Dioula merchants also gathered information and passed it along to Wassoulou leaders.

Areas along Wassoulou's borders were often chaotic and unstable, with villages being subject to raids from all sides.

Army
The Wassoulou army was the preeminent government institution, omnipresent in all administrative and political questions. It was well equipped with modern firearms and boasted a complex structure of permanent units divided into an infantry wing of sofa and a cavalry wing. The bilakoro, uncircumcised novices, served as pages for the soldiers. In 1887 Samori could field 30,000 to 35,000 infantry and about 3,000 cavalry, in regular squadrons of 50 each. There was also a reserve, one out of every ten men from every village, such that each of the empire's 10 provinces could furnish 10,000 men. Even during the move east out of the Manding region, the Wassoulou army consisted of some 12000 infantry, 2000 cavalry, and an overall retinue of some 120,000 people. While the best-armed troops resisted the French using French-made repeater rifles, those armed with the bolt-action chassepot conquered new territory to the east to use as a strategic reserve, and men with flintlocks served as the home guard or internal security. This system enabled Samory to fall back into territory already conquered and organized, leaving no food for the French, for seven years.

The elite troops were armed with the Gras rifle, which local blacksmiths had learned to repair and even build from scratch, but not in the quantities necessary to supply the entire army. The state had a firearms industry that employed about 300–400 blacksmiths. 12 guns were produced a week and roughly 200–300 cartridges a day. Much of the weaponry was imported from British Sierra Leone. They never managed to acquire artillery, however.

The discipline and organization of the Wassoulou army was comparable to and modeled after that of contemporary European armies. Communication and regulations were similar, and runaway tirailleurs were employed as trainers. The strict discipline, as well as threats of punishment and promises of reward or promotion, kept order in the ranks.

Economy
The majority of people living in the empire were subsistence farmers. The state engaged in large-scale commerce to coastal trading cities selling ivory, wax, hides, rubber, and gold, all carried by slaves who were also sold. The proceeds purchased the arms and ammunition necessary to maintain the army. Regular caravans also went north to Bamako and Bobo-Dioulasso to purchase horses.

As Wassoulou came under more and more pressure from the French, they were forced to turn increasingly to the slave trade to fund the war. By the 1880s economic stability was very reliant on the influx of plunder and the internal slave trade fueled by war captives or refugees selling themselves into slavery.

Society and Religion
Particularly after the 1884 codification of Islam as the state religion, it was an important structure and model for building the empire and uniting its diverse inhabitants. Mosques were built in many conquered areas, a judicial system based on Islam principles was put in place, and animist practices were suppressed. The state sponsored Quranic schools throughout the empire, and Samory Toure would often inspect schools in areas he passed through, interviewing students, rewarding good teachers and publicly reprimanding bad ones. In strongly animist areas, the population found this Islamization to be a threat to their cultural traditions and after 1885 revolts became more common; these had to be put down on top of fighting a war against the French. Overall, Samory Toure's heavy-handed methods of prozyletization largely failed, and these animist communities converted to Islam only after the fall of the Wassoulou Empire.

References

Further reading

 Richard Brent Turner.2003. Islam in the African-American experience, Indiana University press. USA.
 Finch Aisha K.2015. Rethinking slave rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the insurgencies of 1841-1844. UNC Press Books, USA.
 Godfrey Mwakikagile. 2010. The Gambia and its people ethnic identities and cultural integration in Africa. New Africa press. South Africa.
 James Stuart Olson. 1996.The peoples of Africa. An ethno historical dictionary. Greenwood. USA.
 Anthony Appiah, Henary Louis Gates.2010. Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press.
 Arnold Hughes, Harry Gailey.1999. Historical dictionary of the Gambia.3rd edition.Scarecrow. USA.
 Nicholas S. Hopkines.1971. Mandinka social organization. In papers on the Manding African series.volume- 3.Indiana University press. USA.
 Donald Wright, 1978. Koli Tengela in Sonko traditions of origin. An example of the process of change in Mandinka oral tradition. History in Africa. Cambridge University press. UK.
 Toby Green. 2011.The rise of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in western Africa. 1350-1589. Cambridge University press. UK.
 Michalle Apotos.2016. Architecture. Islam and identities in West Africa. Lessons from Larabanga. Routledge. UK.

Countries in precolonial Africa
Former countries in Africa
Political history of Mali
History of Guinea
19th century in Sierra Leone
French West Africa
States and territories established in 1878
States and territories disestablished in 1898
1878 establishments in Africa
Sahelian kingdoms
1898 disestablishments in Africa
Former empires
Former empires in Africa

Wassoulou Empire


Millennium Tower was a 180-floor skyscraper that was envisioned by architect Sir Norman Foster in 1989. He intended for it to be built in Tokyo Bay, 2 km offshore from Tokyo, Japan.

Design
The design calls for a cone-shaped pyramid 840 meters high, with a base about as big as the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and glass sides for natural lighting. It is intended to be constructed on water, with boat and bridge access. Since the tower was planned for an area with frequent earthquakes and hurricane-strength winds, the shape is aerodynamic to reduce wind stress, and helical bands are wrapped around the tower for structural support. Steel tanks at the top of the tower are filled with water, and can be rotated as a counterweight against wind.

The tower is a self-contained arcology containing one million square meters of commercial development and housing for 60,000 people, split into sections. Offices and light or clean industries are in the lower levels, apartments above, and the top section houses communications systems and wind or solar generators. Restaurants and viewing platforms would be interspersed through all sections.

Horizontal and vertical high-speed metro lines provide long-distance travel, with cars designed to carry 160 people stopping at intermediate five-story 'sky centers' on every thirtieth floor. Each 'sky center' is decorated by gardens and mezzanines, and provides a particular service such as hotels or restaurants. Short-distance travel is by elevators or escalators.

History
The tower design was commissioned by the Obayashi Corporation as an arcology, intended to address land shortage and overpopulation in Tokyo. The design firm's web site states that "the project demonstrates that high-density or high-rise living does not mean overcrowding or hardship; it can lead to an improved quality of life, where housing, work and leisure facilities are all close at hand".

References

  (Foster & Partners)
 "Millenium Tower", Skyscraperpage
 Emporis - Millennium Tower in Tokyo

Skyscrapers in Tokyo
Proposed skyscrapers in Japan
Unbuilt buildings and structures in Japan
Unbuilt skyscrapers

Millennium Tower (Tokyo)


Devens is a regional enterprise zone and census-designated place in the towns of Ayer and Shirley (in Middlesex County) and Harvard (in Worcester County) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is the successor to Fort Devens, a military post that operated from 1917 to 1996. The population was 1,697 at the 2020 census, down from 1,840 in 2010.

History

The area itself is named after jurist and Civil War general Charles Devens. In 2011, the CDP tried to secede from Ayer, Shirley, and Harvard and become the 352nd town in the state but failed the vote. Some residents are still looking to secede to become a town.

Military use

The area operated as Camp Devens and later Fort Devens from 1917 to 1996. The Fort's sitting was due primarily to its location at a major hub of the rail network in New England. The U.S. Army base was officially closed in 1996 after 79 years of service. Some parcels were retained by the federal military for use as the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area, reactivated as a smaller Fort Devens in 2007.

Civilian use
The process for distribution of surplus land parcels on the former Fort Devens allowed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Shriver Job Corps, Massachusetts National Guard, Massachusetts Veterans and MassDevelopment to acquire the land.  The Bureau of Prisons established the Federal Medical Center, Devens, a prison hospital. The bulk of the land was purchased by MassDevelopment for $17 million. MassDevelopment is a quasi-public development authority that has been given the task of turning Devens into a residential and business community. Since the closing of the military base, many of the existing buildings have been renovated or reconstructed; housing developments now exist, along with a growing business park, a new hotel, restaurants, two disc golf courses and a golf course. Veterans of the Army Security Agency have also expressed interest in building a museum there, as Fort Devens was their principal training facility for more than two decades.

A comprehensive disposition process has been ongoing since 2003, charged with determining the future political governance of Devens. During 2005-06 it was determined that the governance scenario best suited for the regional stakeholders was to create a new independent town. On October 24, 2006, a vote to confirm the disposition recommendation for future governance was voted down by 2 of the 6 stakeholders, the adjoining towns of Harvard and Ayer (residents of Shirley, the Devens residents, MassDevelopment and the Devens Enterprise Commission supported the resolution). On November 7, 2006, during the state elections, the second opportunity to vote on Devens disposition had only Harvard voting against the scenario with the towns of Ayer and Shirley supporting Devens as a town. Devens's disposition will now be determined by another disposition process or by the state legislature. Residents of Devens vote in either Harvard or Ayer but still have no elected representatives that have municipal authority in Devens. MassDevelopment maintains the utilities (such as gas, electricity and water) and contracts out public safety services such as firefighting and police.

Devens is home to, among other enterprises, New England Studios, a film studio opened in 2014  and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which raised $1.8 billion in December 2021 to build a tokamak fusion device.

Geography
Devens is on the boundary between Middlesex and Worcester counties, with about half in the northwest part of the town of Harvard in northeastern Worcester County and the rest in the southeastern part of the town of Shirley and the western part of the town of Ayer in northwestern Middlesex County. The Devens CDP is bordered to the northeast by the village of Ayer and to the west by the village of Shirley.

Massachusetts Route 2 forms the southern edge of the community, with access from Exit 106. Route 2 leads west  to the Leominster/Fitchburg area and east  to Concord.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Devens CDP has a total area of , of which  are land and , or 1.31%, are water. The Nashua River flows northward through the west side of the community, part of the Merrimack River watershed.

Demographics
For demographic information about the area prior to 2010, see Fort Devens (CDP), Massachusetts.

Government
Devens residents are represented at two levels:
 An elected committee, the Devens Committee. that is an advisory committee to MassDevelopment. The committee has five members with a chair, vice-chair and secretary
 Some residents living outside of Devens proper are represented by the town governments of the Towns of Ayer (northeast) and Harvard (southeast).

Nuclear fusion facility
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff, raised $1.8 billion in December 2021 to build a tokamak fusion device, called SPARC, at a scale intended to achieve "net energy," that is, it is expected to output more energy than required to sustain its nuclear fusion reactions.  The company is building this facility in Devens. The full-scale machine is planned to be fully operational by 2025.

Education
Devens is a non-operating school district. It currently contracts with the town of Harvard for educating its children. However, Devens is the home of the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School. Parker is a public charter school with students from about 30 towns in the central Massachusetts area.

Places of interest
With the exception of the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Devens cantonment area, the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area, and the  Federal Medical Center prison, most of the former Fort Devens area has been returned to civilian use.

Of interest to the general public in Devens:
 Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge is located to the south side of the former Fort Devens base.
 Fort Devens Historic District is located to the north of the former Fort Devens.
 The Fort Devens Museum http://fortdevensmuseum.org (94 Jackson Rd, #305) is a small museum on the history of Fort Devens from 1917 to the present

References

External links

 Devenscommunity.com, information about the current status of redevelopment in Devens

Census-designated places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Census-designated places in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Villages in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Villages in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Villages in Massachusetts
Census-designated places in Massachusetts

Devens, Massachusetts


Mir Movsum Agha (full name Azerbaijani: Seyidəli Mir Abutalıb oğlu Mirmövsümzadə; English: Seyidali Mir Abutalib oghlu Mirmovsumzade 1883 – 17 November 1950) was a physically disabled person, who was believed to have supernatural powers by the residents of Baku and outskirt villages.

A shrine was built for Mir Movsum Agha in Shuvalan after his death; that shrine now has a blue maiolica, Central Asian-style dome.

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and the First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva are regular visitors to Mir Movsum Aga's sanctuary. The First Lady once donated a carpet decorated with an image of Movsum Mir Aga that was made by painter Kamil Aliyev to the sanctuary.
In 2011, historian Tarana Jabiyeva wrote a book about Mir Movsum Agha called "Eternal resident of Icheri-Shahar" that was presented by the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan.

References

1883 births
1950 deaths
People from Baku
Azerbaijani people with disabilities

Mir Movsum Agha


14-3-3 protein gamma is a protein that in humans is encoded by the YWHAG gene.

This gene product belongs to the 14-3-3 protein family which mediate signal transduction by binding to phosphoserine-containing proteins. This highly conserved protein family is found in both plants and mammals, and this protein is 100% identical to the rat ortholog. It is induced by growth factors in human vascular smooth muscle cells, and is also highly expressed in skeletal and heart muscles, suggesting an important role for this protein in muscle tissue. It has been shown to interact with RAF1 and protein kinase C, proteins involved in various signal transduction pathways.

Interactions

YWHAG has been shown to interact with C-Raf, EPB41L3, KIF1C and Stratifin.

References

Further reading

External links

14-3-3 proteins

YWHAG


Harrison's Rocks is a series of sandstone crags approximately  south of the village of Groombridge in the county of East Sussex. The site is a notable example of a periglacial tor landform developed in rocks of the Ardingly Sandstone Member of the Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation. It is popular with rock climbers, and is the largest of the cluster of local outcrops known by climbers as Southern Sandstone.

Harrison's Rocks is owned by climbers and is managed on their behalf by the British Mountaineering Council with funding from the English Sports Council.

Geology

Harrison's Rocks are a notable example of a periglacial tor landform, developed in rocks of the Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation of the Wealden Supergroup of early Cretaceous age. Harrison's Rocks is composed of a soft sandstone, which is prone to being worn away.

Climbing

Harrison's Rocks has been owned by the British Mountaineering Council since 2009, and is managed by a local group of volunteers known as the Harrison's Rocks Management Group.

There are approximately four hundred short climbs at Harrison's Rocks, ranging widely in difficulty. Climbing is exclusively protected by means of a "top rope".  This is the same as at all Southern Sandstone outcrops.  Lead-climbing is prohibited for two main reasons.  Firstly, it is dangerous because the rock is too friable; any gear placed in the sandstone cracks would easily rip out in the event of a leader fall.  Lead-climbing is also discouraged for reasons of conservation - it is unacceptable for climbers to risk further damage to the thin rock crust on the surface of the crags.  Unconsolidated and friable sand lies beneath this crust.  Deep rope-grooves can be seen in places at Harrison's Rocks and are testament to the fragility of the rock.

All of the climbs are quite short, with the highest at approximately  and the lowest at . Most climbs have a ring drilled and set into the rock at the top for setting up a top rope, but some rely on the use of tree trunks for protection.

Filming

In 1981, Doctor Who was filmed at Harrison's Rocks. It was Peter Davison's first transmitted story, Castrovalva (Doctor Who).

Campsite
A campsite was set up at Harrison's Rocks as a memorial to Julie Tullis, a former club member, who died on K2 in August 1986 after reaching the summit with Kurt Diemberger. The campground is owned and looked after by the Forestry Commission.

See also
Geology of East Sussex

References

External links

Sport in East Sussex
Climbing areas of England
Withyham

Harrison's Rocks


Assassin is the third novel of the Samuel Carver series by English thriller writer, Tom Cain, released on 2 July 2009 through Bantam Press.

Plot
This novel takes place twelve years after the previous Samuel Carver novel, The Survivor, with Carver having spent the intervening years as a security consultant. The plot of the novel centres on a copycat killer attempting to implicate Carver in the assassination of America's first black president.

Reception
The book was well received, with critics praising its fast-paced action and complex plot.

Sarah Broadhurst of Love Reading stated that she thinks Cain "comes mighty close" to reaching the standard of thriller writing attained by Lee Child in his Jack Reacher series;a large influence on Cain; and states that the novel is "Terrific stuff. Highly recommended". This praise was echoed by Roddy Brooks, writing for the Coventry Telegraph, who found the finale to be "nerve-jangling"; the novel as a whole to be a "fast-moving thriller"; and stated that "Cain is a master of the genre.".

The Daily Telegraphs Jeremy Jehu was a little more critical. Referring to the twelve-year jump in the characters story, Jehu stated that "[Cain's] solution in this third Carver romp is an act of either outrageous chutzpah or unmitigated cheek."; however also states that "Cain still rattles out a punchy yarn, but fans might well feel taken for a ride – albeit an exciting one.".

References

2009 British novels
British thriller novels
Novels by Tom Cain
Bantam Press books

Assassin (Cain novel)


In mathematics, an interval exchange transformation is a kind of dynamical system that generalises circle rotation.  The phase space consists of the unit interval, and the transformation acts by cutting the interval into several subintervals, and then permuting these subintervals.  They arise naturally in the study of polygonal billiards and in area-preserving flows.

Formal definition
Let  and let  be a permutation on .  Consider a vector  of positive real numbers (the widths of the subintervals), satisfying

Define a map  called the interval exchange transformation associated with the pair  as follows. For  let

Then for , define

if  lies in the subinterval .  Thus  acts on each subinterval of the form  by a translation, and it rearranges these subintervals so that the subinterval at position  is moved to position .

Properties
Any interval exchange transformation  is a bijection of  to itself that preserves the Lebesgue measure.  It is continuous except at a finite number of points.

The inverse of the interval exchange transformation  is again an interval exchange transformation.  In fact, it is the transformation  where  for all .

If  and  (in cycle notation), and if we join up the ends of the interval to make a circle, then  is just a circle rotation.  The Weyl equidistribution theorem then asserts that if the length  is irrational, then  is uniquely ergodic. Roughly speaking, this means that the orbits of points of  are uniformly evenly distributed.  On the other hand, if  is rational then each point of the interval is periodic, and the period is the denominator of  (written in lowest terms).

If , and provided  satisfies certain non-degeneracy conditions (namely there is no integer  such that ), a deep theorem which was a conjecture of M.Keane and due independently to William A. Veech and to Howard Masur asserts that for almost all choices of  in the unit simplex  the interval exchange transformation  is again uniquely ergodic.  However, for  there also exist choices of  so that  is ergodic but not uniquely ergodic.  Even in these cases, the number of ergodic invariant measures of  is finite, and is at most .

Interval maps have a topological entropy of zero.

Odometers

The dyadic odometer can be understood as an interval exchange transformation of a countable number of intervals. The dyadic odometer is most easily written as the transformation

defined on the Cantor space  The standard mapping from Cantor space into the unit interval is given by

This mapping is a measure-preserving homomorphism from the Cantor set to the unit interval, in that it maps the standard Bernoulli measure on the Cantor set to the Lebesgue measure on the unit interval. A visualization of the odometer and its first three iterates appear on the right.

Higher dimensions
Two and higher-dimensional generalizations include polygon exchanges, polyhedral exchanges and piecewise isometries.

See also
 Odometer

Notes

References
 Artur Avila and Giovanni Forni, Weak mixing for interval exchange transformations and translation flows, arXiv:math/0406326v1, https://arxiv.org/abs/math.DS/0406326

Chaotic maps

Interval exchange transformation