The Mongol invasion of Khwarazmia () took place between 1219 and 1221, as troops of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan invaded the lands of the Khwarazmian Empire in Central Asia. The campaign, which followed the annexation of the Qara Khitai Khanate, saw widespread devastation and atrocities. The invasion marked the completion of the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, and began the Mongol conquest of Persia.

Both belligerents, although large, had been formed recently: the Khwarazmian dynasty had expanded from their homeland to replace the Seljuk Empire in the late 1100s and early 1200s; nearly-simultaneously, Genghis Khan had unified the Mongolic peoples and conquered the Western Xia dynasty. Although relations were initially cordial, Genghis was angered by a series of diplomatic provocations. When a senior Mongol diplomat was executed by Khwarazmshah Muhammed II, the Khan mobilized his forces, estimated to be between 90,000 and 200,000 men, and invaded. The Shah's forces were widely dispersed and probably outnumbered — realizing his disadvantage, he decided to garrison his cities individually to bog the Mongols down. However, through excellent organization and planning, they were able to isolate and conquer the Transoxianan cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Gurganj. Genghis and his youngest son Tolui then laid waste to Khorasan, destroying Herat, Nishapur, and Merv, three of the largest cities in the world. Meanwhile, Muhammed II was forced into flight by the Mongol generals Subutai and Jebe; unable to reach any bastions of support, he died destitute on an island in the Caspian Sea. His son and heir Jalal-al Din managed to mobilize substantial forces, defeating a Mongol general at the Battle of Parwan, but these were crushed by Genghis at the Battle of the Indus a few months later.

After clearing up any remaining resistance, Genghis returned to his war against the Jin dynasty in 1223. The war had been one of the bloodiest in human history, with total casualties estimated to be between two and fifteen million people. The subjugation of the Khwarazmian lands would provide a base for the Mongols' later assaults on Georgia and the rest of Persia; when the empire later divided into separate khanates, the Persian lands formerly ruled by the Khwarazmids would be governed by the Ilkhanate, while the northern cities would be ruled by the Chagatai Khanate. The campaign, which saw the Mongols engage and defeat a non-sinicized state for the first time, was a pivotal moment in the growth of the Mongol Empire.

Background
The dominant force in late twelfth-century Central Asia was the Qara-Khitai khanate, which had been founded by Yelü Dashi in the 1130s. Khwarazm and the Qarakhanids were nominally vassals of the Qara-Khitai, but in practice, due to their large population and extent, they were allowed to operate almost autonomously. Of these two major vassals, the Qarakhanids were by far the more prestigious; they had ruled in the area for two centuries, and controlled many of the richest cities in the region, such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Fergana. By comparison, Khwarazm had only one major city in Urgench, and had only come to prominence after 1150 under Il-Arslan.

However, as the Seljuk Empire slowly fractured after the death of Ahmad Sanjar in 1154, the Khwarazmids were able to take advantage of the chaos due to their geographical proximity; Il-Arslan's son Tekish captured large cities such as Nishapur and Merv in the nearby region of Khorāsān, gaining enough power to declare himself a fully-fledged sovereign in 1189. Allying with the Abbasid caliph Al-Nasir, he overthrew the last Seljuk emperor, Toghrul III, in 1194, and usurped the sultanate of Hamadan. Tekish now ruled a great swathe of territory stretching from Hamadan in the west to Nishapur in the east; drawing on his newfound strength, he threatened war with the caliph, who reluctantly accepted him as Sultan of Iran and Khorasan in 1198. The rapid expansion of what was now the Khwarazmian Empire greatly destabilized the Qara-Khitai, which was nominally the overlord. In the early thirteenth century, the khanate would be destabilized further by refugees fleeing the conquests of Genghis Khan, who had begun to establish hegemony over the Mongol tribes.

Muhammad II became Khwarazmshah after his father Tekish died in 1200. Despite a troubled early start to his reign, which saw conflict with the Ghurids of Afghanistan, he followed his predecessor's expansionist policies by subjugating the Qarakhanids and taking their cities, including Bukhara. In 1211, Kuchlug, a prince of the Naimans, managed to usurp the Qara-Khitai empire from his father-in-law Yelü Zhilugu with Muhammad's help, but alienated both his subjects and the Khwarazmshah with anti-Muslim measures. As a Mongol detachment led by Jebe hunted him down, Kuchlug fled; meanwhile, Muhammad was able to vassalize the territories of Balochistan and Makran, and to gain the allegiance of the Eldiguzids.

Following the defeat of Kuchlug, their shared enemy, relations between the Mongols and the Khwarazmids were initially strong; however, the Shah soon grew apprehensive regarding his new eastern enemy. The chronicler al-Nasawi attributes this change in attitude to the memory of an unintended earlier encounter with Mongol troops, whose speed and mobility frightened the Shah. It is also likely that the Shah had grown in pride — like his father, he was now embroiled in a dispute with Al-Nasir, and even went so far as to march on Baghdad with an army, but was repulsed by a blizzard in the Zagros Mountains. Some historians have speculated that the caliph tried to ally with Genghis Khan, especially after Mongol-Khwarazmid relations deteriorated. Mongol historians are adamant that Genghis at that time had no intention of invading the Khwarazmian Empire, and was only interested in trade and even a potential alliance. They cite the fact he was already bogged down in his war against the Jin in China, and that he had to deal with the Hoi-yin Irgen rebellion in Siberia in 1216.

In 1218, the Khan sent a large caravan of Mongol merchants to Khwarazmia; it seems probable that a large proportion of the Mongol elite had invested in the expedition, and thus had a personal interest in its success. However, Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian city of Otrar, seized the caravan's goods and executed its members on charges of espionage. The validity of the accusations has been debated, as has the Shah's involvement; it is certain, though, that he rejected the Khan's subsequent demands that Inalchuq be punished, going so far as to kill one Mongol envoy and humiliate the other two. This was seen as a grave affront to the Khan himself, who considered ambassadors "as sacred and inviolable" as the Great Khan himself. He abandoned his war against the Jin, leaving only a small army to pursue it, and gathered as many men as possible to invade Khwarazmia.

Opposing forces

The precise sizes of each force have been heavily disputed; the one certainty is that the Mongol army numbered more than the Shah's. The medieval chronicler Rashid al-Din attested that the Mongol army numbered over 600,000 strong, and that they were opposed by 400,000 total Khwarazmians; his contemporary Juzjani gives an even greater estimate of 800,000 for the Khan. These numbers are regarded as greatly inflated by modern historians; the only contemporary source regarded as near-reliable is The Secret History of the Mongols, which gives totals of between 100,000 and 135,000 for the Mongol army, although these totals may have been deflated by a pro-Mongol chronicler.

While Stubbs and Rossabi indicate that the total Mongol invasion force cannot have been more than 200,000, Sverdrup, who hypothesizes that a tumen had often been overestimated in size, gives a minimum figure of 75,000. Most historians have given figures between these two extremes: McLynn estimates the Mongol force at around 120,000; while Smith follows the Secret History with a figure of 130,000. The uncertainty is made worse by the high flexibility and efficiency of the Mongol force's operational structure, allowing it to separate and coalesce at will. As for the Khwarazmians, there is no similarly reliable contemporary source; Sverdrup, taking the proportional exaggeration of the Muslim forces as equal to that of the Mongols, has estimated a total of around 40,000 soldiers, excluding certain town militias. Mclynn however provides a much greater figure of 200,000.

Dispositions
The Khwarazmshah faced many problems. His empire was vast and newly formed, with a still-developing administration. It is known that in 1218 he had overhauled the Seljuk-era administration, replacing it with a streamlined, loyal bureaucracy; the ongoing change may have contributed to disorder during the Mongol invasion. In addition, his mother Terken Khatun still wielded substantial power in the realm; one historian termed the relationship between the Shah and his mother as 'an uneasy diarchy', which often acted to Muhammad's disadvantage.

Additionally, many of the areas that Muhammad charged his troops to defend had been devastated recently by Khwarazmian forces; when later passing through Nishapur, he urged the citizens to repair the fortifications his father had broken down, while Bukhara had been sacked by Muhammed only eight years earlier, in 1212. The Shah also distrusted most of his commanders, with the only exception being his eldest son and heir Jalal al-Din, whose military acumen had been critical on the Irghiz River the previous year. If he had sought open battle, as many of his commanders wished, he would certainly have been greatly outmatched in quantity of troops, let alone quality. The Shah thus made the decision to distribute his forces as garrison troops inside his most important towns, such as Samarkand, Merv and Nishapur.

Genghis' army was commanded by his most able generals, with the exception of Muqali, who was left behind to continue the war against the Jin. Genghis also brought a large body of Chinese siege and construction experts, including several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder. Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons, such as the huochong, to Central Asia.

Campaign

Early movements

The Khwarezm Shah and his advisers assumed that the Mongols would invade through the Dzungarian Gate, the natural mountain pass in between their (now conquered) Khara-Khitai and Khwarezm Empires. One option for the Khwarezm defence was to advance beyond the towns of the Syr Darya and block the Dzungarian Gate with an army, since it would take Genghis many months to gather his army in Mongolia and advance through the pass after winter had passed.  A Mongol force under Chagatai and Ogedei soon descended onto Otrar from either the Altai Mountains to the north or the Dzungarian Gate and immediately started laying siege to it. Rashid Al-Din stated that Otrar had a garrison of 20,000 while Juvayni claimed 60,000 (horsemen and militia), though like the army figures given in most medieval chronicles, these numbers should be treated with caution and are probably exaggerated by an order of magnitude considering the size of the city.

Unlike most of the other cities, Otrar did not surrender after little fighting, nor did its governor march its army out into the field to be destroyed by the numerically superior Mongols. Instead the garrison remained on the walls and resisted stubbornly, holding out against many attacks. The siege proceeded for five months without results, until a traitor within the walls (Qaracha) who felt no loyalty to the Shah or Inalchuq opened the gates to the Mongols; the prince's forces managed to storm the now unsecured gate and slaughter the majority of the garrison. The citadel, holding the remaining one-tenth of the garrison, held out for another month, and was only taken after heavy Mongol casualties. Inalchuq held out until the end, even climbing to the top of the citadel in the last moments of the siege to throw down tiles at the oncoming Mongols and slay many of them in close quarters combat. Genghis killed many of the inhabitants, enslaved the rest, and executed Inalchuq.

Bukhara

At this point, the Mongol army was divided into five widely separated groups on opposite ends of the enemy Empire. After the Shah did not mount an active defence of the cities on the Syr Darya, Genghis and Tolui, at the head of an army of roughly 50,000 men, skirted the natural defence barrier of the Syr Darya and its fortified cities, and went westwards to lay siege to the city of Bukhara first. To do this, they traversed 300 miles of the seemingly impassable Kyzyl Kum desert by hopping through the various oases, guided most of the way by captured nomads. The Mongols arrived at the gates of Bukhara virtually unnoticed. Many military tacticians regard this surprise entrance to Bukhara as one of the most successful manoeuvres in warfare.

Bukhara was not heavily fortified, with a moat and a single wall, and the citadel typical of Khwarezmi cities. The Bukharan garrison was made up of Turkic soldiers and led by Turkic generals, who attempted to break out on the third day of the siege. Rashid Al-Din and Ibn Al-Athir state that the city had 20,000 defenders, though Carl Sverdrup contends that it only had a tenth of this number.  A break-out force was annihilated in open battle. The city's leaders opened the gates to the Mongols, though a unit of Turkic defenders held the city's citadel for another twelve days. The Mongols valued artisans' skills highly and artisans were exempted from massacre during the conquests and instead entered into lifelong service as slaves. Thus, when the citadel was taken survivors were executed with the exception of artisans and craftsmen, who were sent back to Mongolia. Young men who had not fought were drafted into the Mongolian army and the rest of the population was sent into slavery. As the Mongol soldiers looted the city, a fire broke out, razing most of the city to the ground.

Samarkand

After the fall of Bukhara, Genghis headed to the Khwarezmian capital of Samarkand and arrived in March 1220. During this period, the Mongols also waged effective psychological warfare and caused divisions within their foe. The Khan's spies told them of the bitter fighting between the Shah and his mother Terken Khatun, who commanded the allegiance of some of his most senior commanders and his elite Turkish cavalry divisions. Since Mongols and Turks were both steppe peoples, Genghis argued that Terken Khatun and her army should join the Mongols against her treacherous son. Meanwhile, he arranged for deserters to bring letters that said Terken Khatun and some of her generals had allied with the Mongols. This further inflamed the existing divisions in the Khwarezm Empire, and probably prevented the senior commanders from unifying their forces. Genghis then compounded the damage by repeatedly issuing bogus decrees in the name of either Terken Khatun or Shah Mohammed, further tangling up the already divided Khwarezm command structure. As a result of the Mongol strategic initiative, speedy manoeuvres, and psychological strategies, all the Khwarezm generals, including the Queen Mother, kept their forces as a garrison and were defeated in turn.

Samarkand possessed significantly better fortifications and a larger garrison compared to Bukhara. Juvayni and Rashid Al-Din (both writing under Mongol auspices) credit the defenders of the city with 100,000–110,000 men, while Ibn Al-Athir states 50,000. A more likely number is perhaps 10,000, considering the city itself had less than 100,000 people total at the time. As Genghis began his siege, his sons Chaghatai and Ögedei joined him after finishing the reduction of Otrar, and the joint Mongol forces launched an assault on the city. The Mongols attacked using prisoners as body shields. On the third day of fighting, the Samarkand garrison launched a counterattack. Feigning retreat, Genghis drew approximately half of the garrison outside the fortifications of Samarkand and slaughtered them in open combat. Shah Muhammad attempted to relieve the city twice, but was driven back. On the fifth day, all but a handful of soldiers surrendered. The remaining soldiers, die-hard supporters of the Shah, held out in the citadel. After the fortress fell, Genghis reneged on his surrender terms and executed every soldier who had taken arms against him at Samarkand. The people of Samarkand were ordered to evacuate and assemble in a plain outside the city, where many were killed.

About the time of the fall of Samarkand, Genghis Khan charged Subutai and Jebe, two of the Khan's top generals, with hunting down the Shah. The Shah had fled west with some of his most loyal soldiers and his son, Jalal al-Din, to a small island in the Caspian Sea. It was there, in December 1220, that the Shah died. Most scholars attribute his death to pneumonia, but others cite the sudden shock of the loss of his empire.

Gurganj

Meanwhile, the wealthy trading city of Gurganj was still in the hands of Khwarezmian forces. Previously, the Shah's mother had ruled Gurganj, but she fled when she learned her son had absconded to the Caspian Sea. She was captured and sent to Mongolia. Khumar Tegin, one of Muhammad's generals, declared himself Sultan of Gurganj. Jochi, who had been on campaign in the north since the invasion, approached the city from that direction, while Genghis, Ögedei, and Chaghatai attacked from the south.

The assault on Gurganj proved to be the most difficult battle of the Mongol invasion. The city was built along the river Amu Darya in a marshy delta area. The soft ground did not lend itself to siege warfare, and there was a lack of large stones for the catapults. The Mongols attacked regardless, and the city fell only after the defenders put up a stout defence, fighting block for block. Mongolian casualties were higher than normal, due to the unaccustomed difficulty of adapting Mongolian tactics to city fighting.

The taking of Gurganj was further complicated by continuing tensions between the Khan and his eldest son, Jochi, who had been promised the city as his prize. Jochi's mother was the same as his three brothers': Genghis Khan's teen bride, and apparent lifelong love, Börte. Only her sons were counted as Genghis's "official" sons and successors, rather than those conceived by the Khan's 500 or so other "wives and consorts". But Jochi had been conceived in controversy; in the early days of the Khan's rise to power, Börte was captured and raped while she was held prisoner. Jochi was born nine months later. While Genghis Khan chose to acknowledge him as his oldest son (primarily due to his love for Börte, whom he would have had to reject had he rejected her child), questions had always existed over Jochi's true parentage.

Such tensions were present as Jochi engaged in negotiations with the defenders, trying to get them to surrender so that as much of the city as possible was undamaged. This angered Chaghatai, and Genghis headed off this fight between siblings by appointing Ögedei the commander of the besieging forces as Gurganj fell. But the removal of Jochi from command, and the sack of a city he considered promised to him, enraged him and estranged him from his father and brothers, and is credited with being a decisive impetus for the later actions of a man who saw his younger brothers promoted over him, despite his own considerable military skills.

As usual, the artisans were sent back to Mongolia, young women and children were given to the Mongol soldiers as slaves, and the rest of the population was massacred. The Persian scholar Juvayni states that 50,000 Mongol soldiers were given the task of executing twenty-four Gurganj citizens each, which would mean that 1.2 million people were killed. While this is almost certainly an exaggeration, the sacking of Gurganj is considered one of the bloodiest massacres in human history.

Then came the complete destruction of the city of Gurganj, south of the Aral Sea. Upon its surrender the Mongols broke the dams and flooded the city, then proceeded to execute the survivors.

Khorasan
As the Mongols battered their way into Urgench, Genghis dispatched his youngest son Tolui, at the head of an army, into the western Khwarezmid province of Khorasan. Khorasan had already felt the strength of Mongol arms. Earlier in the war, the generals Jebe and Subutai had travelled through the province while hunting down the fleeing Shah. However, the region was far from subjugated, many major cities remained free of Mongol rule, and the region was rife with rebellion against the few Mongol forces present in the region, following rumours that the Shah's son Jalal al-Din was gathering an army to fight the Mongols.

Tolui's army consisted of somewhere around 50,000 men, which was composed of a core of Mongol soldiers (some estimates place it at 7,000), supplemented by a large body of foreign soldiers, such as Turks and previously conquered peoples in China and Mongolia. The army also included "3,000 machines flinging heavy incendiary arrows, 300 catapults, 700 mangonels to discharge pots filled with naphtha, 4,000 storming-ladders, and 2,500 sacks of earth for filling up moats". Among the first cities to fall was Termez then Balkh.

The major city to fall to Tolui's army was the city of Merv. Juvayni wrote of Merv: "In extent of territory it excelled among the lands of Khorasan, and the bird of peace and security flew over its confines. The number of its chief men rivaled the drops of April rain, and its earth contended with the heavens." The garrison at Merv was only about 12,000 men, and the city was inundated with refugees from eastern Khwarezmia. For six days, Tolui besieged the city, and on the seventh day, he assaulted the city. However, the garrison beat back the assault and launched their own counter-attack against the Mongols. The garrison force was similarly forced back into the city. The next day, the city's governor surrendered the city on Tolui's promise that the lives of the citizens would be spared. As soon as the city was handed over, however, Tolui slaughtered almost every person who surrendered, in a massacre possibly on a greater scale than that at Urgench.

After finishing off Merv, Tolui headed westwards, attacking the cities of Nishapur and Herat. Nishapur fell after only three days; here, Tokuchar, a son-in-law of Genghis was killed in battle, and Tolui put to the sword every living thing in the city, including the cats and dogs, with Tokuchar's widow presiding over the slaughter. After Nishapur's fall, Herat surrendered without a fight and was spared.

Bamiyan in the Hindu Kush was another scene of carnage, where stiff resistance resulted in the death of a grandson of Genghis. Next was the city of Toos. By spring 1221, the province of Khurasan was under complete Mongol rule. Leaving garrison forces behind him, Tolui headed back east to rejoin his father.

Jalal al-Din

After the Mongol campaign in Khorasan, the Shah's army was broken. Jalal al-Din, who took power after his father's death, began assembling the remnants of the Khwarezmid army in the south, in the area of Afghanistan. Genghis had dispatched forces to hunt down the gathering army under Jalal al-Din, and the two sides met in September 1221 at the town of Parwan. The engagement was a humiliating defeat for the Mongol forces. Enraged, Genghis headed south himself, and defeated Jalal al-Din on the Indus River. Jalal al-Din, defeated, fled to India. Genghis spent some time on the southern shore of the Indus searching for the new Shah, but failed to find him. The Khan returned northwards, content to leave the Shah in India.

Encouraged by Jalal al-Din's success against the Mongols, the Khwarazmians started an insurgency. Kush Tegin Pahlawan lead a revolt in Merv and seized it successfully. After recapturing Merv, Kush Tegin Pahlawan made a successful attack on Bukhara. People in Herat also rebelled and disposed the Mongol vassal leadership. An insurgency leader named Muhammad the Marghani twice attacked the camp Genghis Khan accommodated at Baghlan and returned with some loot. As a response, Genghis Khan sent a large army Ögedei Khan back to Ghazni. Genghis Khan appointed Yelü Ahai to restore Mongol sovereignty order in Samarqand and Bukhara, Yelu Ahai managed to restore the order in the cities only in 1223. Shikhikhutug dealt with the revolt that dethroned the Pro-Mongol governance of Merv. The Mongol general Genghis Khan appointed to hunt down Jalal al-Din joined the latter's service and converted to Islam after several unsuccessful battles against him.

Aftermath

After the defeat of the Khwarazmian Empire, Genghis Khan gathered his forces in Persia and Armenia to return to the Mongolian steppes. Under the suggestion of Subutai, the Mongol army was split into two forces. Genghis Khan led the main army on a raid through Afghanistan and northern India towards Mongolia, while another 20,000 (two tumen) contingent marched through the Caucasus and into Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan under generals Jebe and Subutai.

The destruction and absorption of the Khwarezmid Empire would prove to be a sign of things to come, for the Islamic world as well as for Eastern Europe.
The new territory proved to be an important stepping stone for the Mongol armies when they invaded Kievan Rus' and Poland during the reign of Genghis' son Ögedei, and future campaigns brought Mongol armies to Hungary and the Baltic Sea. For the Islamic world, the destruction of Khwarezmia left Iraq, Turkey and Syria wide open. All three regions were eventually subjugated by future Khans.

The war with Khwarezmia also brought up the important question of succession. Genghis was not young when the war began, and he had four sons, all of whom were fierce warriors and each of them had their own loyal group of followers. Their sibling rivalry almost came to a head during the siege of Urgench, and Genghis was forced to rely on his third son, Ögedei, who ended the battle. Following the destruction of Urgench, Genghis officially selected Ögedei to be his successor, and he also ruled that future Khans would be the direct descendants of previous rulers. Despite Genghis's establishment of this practice, the four sons would eventually come to blows, and those blows revealed the instability of the Khanate that Genghis had created.

Jochi never forgave his father, and he essentially withdrew from future Mongol wars, he moved to the north, and he refused to come to his father when he was ordered to. Indeed, at the time of his death, the Khan was contemplating a march on his rebellious son. The bitterness that resulted from this event was transmitted to Jochi's sons, especially Batu and Berke Khan (of the Golden Horde), who would conquer Kievan Rus. When the Mamluks of Egypt managed to inflict one of history's most significant defeats on the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, Hulagu Khan, one of Genghis Khan's grandsons by his son Tolui, who had sacked Baghdad in 1258, was unable to avenge that defeat when Berke Khan, his cousin, (who had converted to Islam) attacked him in the Transcaucasus in order to aid the cause of Islam, and Mongol battled Mongol for the first time. The seeds of that battle began in the conflict with Khwarezmia when their fathers struggled for supremacy.

See also
 Feigned retreat (battle of Samarkand, 1250)

References

Citations

Sources

 Chambers, James. The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe, Atheneum, 1979. ()
 Morgan, David. The Mongols, 1986. ()
 Nicolle, David. The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hulegu, Tamerlane, Brockhampton Press, 1998. ()
 Saunders, J.J. The History of the Mongol Conquests, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1971. ()

External links
 A Map of Events mentioned in this article.

Expeditionary warfare
Military history of Uzbekistan
13th-century Islam
Khwarazmian Empire
Conflicts in 1219
Conflicts in 1220
Conflicts in 1221
13th century in Iran
1219 in the Mongol Empire
1220 in the Mongol Empire
1221 in the Mongol Empire
Invasions of Iran
Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire


William Sheridan Allen (October 5, 1932 – March 14, 2013) was an American historian.

Biography
Allen was born in Evanston, Illinois, and studied at the universities of Michigan, Connecticut, and Minnesota, and in Germany at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen. The Nazi Seizure of Power (1965) was his first book. He also wrote The Infancy of Nazism and worked on studies of the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda and of the Social Democratic underground in the Third Reich.  He retired in 2001 as professor of history at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Allen wrote two books on Adolf Hitler debunking the assertion that he came to power through violence. Rather, Allen claims, Hitler's Nazi movement "seized power" in an act akin to democratic tactics.

His most famous book, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1930–1935, was written to explain how one city (Northeim, Germany, in the book with the fictional name of Thalburg) fell into the Nazi trap.  Fed by Nazi propaganda, many people of Thalburg, especially in the middle classes, in the midst of the Great Depression saw the Nazis as a way to get their country back to greatness that Hitler and the Nazis promised they would do. The book was widely reviewed and extremely influential.

References

University of Michigan alumni
University of Connecticut alumni
University of Minnesota alumni
Free University of Berlin alumni
University of Göttingen alumni
University at Buffalo faculty
Historians of Nazism
1932 births
2013 deaths
Historians of Germany
American historians
American expatriates in Germany

William Sheridan Allen


Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier  (6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) were the inventors of a type of hot air balloon. The first manned attempt of flying in a hot air balloon was on 21st November. The balloon was launched from the centre of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth of hot air ballooning was on that date.

References

1740s births
French aviators
Sibling duos
People from Ardèche

Montgolfier brothers


Napoleon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population of the CDP was 1,258 at the 2010 census.  It is located within Napoleon Township.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of which  is land and  (0.76%) is water.

Napoleon is in southeastern Jackson County, in the eastern part of Napoleon Township. State highway M-50 passes through the center of town, leading northwest  to Jackson, the county seat, and south  to Brooklyn.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,254 people, 473 households, and 340 families residing in the CDP.  The population density was .  There were 498 housing units at an average density of .  The racial makeup of the CDP was 96.89% White, 0.24% Black or African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 1.12% from other races, and 1.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.15% of the population.

There were 473 households, out of which 37.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.1% were non-families. 24.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.  The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 30.6% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older.  The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males.  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.1 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $39,737, and the median income for a family was $41,464. Males had a median income of $31,842 versus $23,705 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $14,932.  About 8.5% of families and 9.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.9% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education
The school system in Napoleon is managed by the Napoleon Community Schools. This includes Napoleon High School and Napoleon Middle School, and Ezra Eby Elementary.

Highways

References

External links
 Napoleon Community Schools

Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Michigan
Census-designated places in Michigan
Unincorporated communities in Michigan
Census-designated places in Jackson County, Michigan

Napoleon, Michigan


Ariadne musica is a collection of organ music by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, first published in 1702. The main part of the collection is a cycle of 20 preludes and fugues in different keys, so Ariadne musica is considered an important precursor to Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, which has a similar structure.

The title refers to the Greek myth in which Theseus finds his way out of Minotaur's labyrinth using a ball of thread that Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, gave him. Similarly, the music in the collection can be said to guide the listener through a labyrinth of keys. Fischer also used Greek mythology to name the pieces in another large scale music collection of his, Musikalischer Parnassus.

The first edition of Ariadne musica was made in 1702 in Schlackenwerth. The work was reprinted several times during Fischer's life. The original print mentioned by Johann Gottfried Walther in Musicalisches Lexicon is now lost, but a manuscript copy survives.

Pieces
20 preludes and fugues:
 Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in C-sharp minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in D minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 4 in D major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 5 in E-flat major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 6 in E Phrygian
 Prelude & Fugue No. 7 in E Dorian
 Prelude & Fugue No. 8 in E major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 9 in F minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 10 in F major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 11 in F-sharp minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in G minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 13 in G major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 14 in A-flat major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 15 in A minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 16 in A major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 17 in B-flat major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 18 in B minor
 Prelude & Fugue No. 19 in B major
 Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in C minor

5 ricercars on chorale melodies, each connected with a specific Catholic event:
 Ricercar pro Tempore Adventus, in C major (on Ave Maria klare, for Advent)
 Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys, in C major (on Der Tag der ist so freudenreich, for Christmas)
 Ricercar pro Tempore Quadragesimae, in A minor (on Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund, for Lent)
 Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus, in D minor (on Christ ist erstanden, for Easter)
 Ricercar pro Festis Pentecostalibus, in F major (on Komm, heiliger Geist, for Pentecost)

All pieces are quite short, including a few really brief fugues (the seven bar A minor fugue being the shortest). Most are in common time, with a few exceptions (most notably the E Dorian fugue which is in 12/8). The preludes vary from pieces based on short simplistic toccata-like passages over long sustained chords (as in, for example, the C major and G major ones) to slightly more complex works with brief imitative passages like this one, from the end of the E-flat major prelude:

The fugues are all in four voices, the only exception being the A-flat major with a fifth part doubling the octave in the last chord. Some are loosely connected thematically to the accompanying preludes.

The ricercars all feature themes written in whole and half notes, the C major Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys being one notable exception with the theme composed mostly of quarter and eighth notes. Three are marked alla breve, Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys is in common time and the F major ricercar is in 3/2.

Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus was previously attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and listed in the BWV catalogue as BWV 746, chorale prelude Christ ist erstanden.

Connection with Johann Sebastian Bach
The most obvious connection of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier with Ariadne Musica is Bach's use of Fischer's subject in one of the fugues:

The six-note subject of the E major four-voice fugue by Fischer (opening bars pictured above, subject highlighted) is used by Bach as the subject of the E major fugue from the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV878/2, also in four voices:

Fischer's piece is quite short (although not as short as, for instance, the 8 bar E Phrygian fugue from the same collection) and written predominantly using long note values; Bach's fugue is much more complex, with dense counterpoint and also much longer - although Fischer's subject makes it into one of the few pieces from the WTC that feature a significant amount of whole and half-notes in all voices.

The same six-note subject is found in two 17th century keyboard compositions by the famous Johann Jakob Froberger: Fantasia No. 2 and Ricercar No. 4. The latter's opening bars can be seen below (with the inverted version of the same theme shown in dark pink):

Fischer might have learned the theme from Froberger. Additionally, Fischer's E-flat major fugue and Bach's G minor fugue from Book 1 share a similar structure concerning the use of countersubjects; the subject of Bach's fugue is a slightly modified version of Fischer's. Both Bach's and Fischer's C major fugues are heavily based on stretto and their subjects are somewhat similar rhythmically.

Recordings
Ariadne musica is rarely performed or recorded, although individual preludes and fugues frequently appear on miscellaneous compilations of Baroque organ music. The following recordings feature at least one part of Ariadne musica (preludes and fugues or ricercars) in full:
 Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer: Ariadne musica, Wolfgang Baumgratz, Christophorus 1992 (complete recording)
 German Organ Music vol. 1, Joseph Payne, 1994. Naxos 550964. (on three different organs, ricercars not included)
 Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer: Blumen-Strauss: Complete Organ Works, Serge Schoonbroodt, 2002. AEOLUS AE-10321. (complete recording)
 A Joy Forever: Opus 41 at Goshen College, Bradley Lehman, 2006. LaripS 1002. (complete recording)
 J.K.F. Fischer: Ariadne Musica (20 Preludes & Fugues); works of Caldara, Bach, Beethoven, & Sorge, Franz Haselböck. Musical Heritage Society MHS 1634.

See also
 Music written in all major and/or minor keys

External links

Free PDF scores of the fugues from Ariadne musica:
Bradley Lehman's recording including free samples of all the pieces

Compositions for organ
Baroque compositions
Preludes (music)
Fugues
1702 books
1702 compositions
Ariadne

Ariadne musica


The 1494 Yellow River flood was a natural disaster in China during the Ming dynasty.

Flood relief was directed by the grand eunuch Li Xing, who founded the city of Anping and established temples to the river god there and at Huanglinggan. He shifted the channel of the Yellow River past Xuzhou and Huaian, limiting the severity of the river's floods over the next few decades and establishing the general course of the river until the floods of the 1850s.

References

Disasters in Ming dynasty
Yellow River Flood, 1494
Yellow River Flood, 1494
Yellow River floods
15th-century floods

1494 Yellow River flood


In linear algebra, a Hessenberg matrix is a special kind of square matrix, one that is "almost" triangular. To be exact, an upper Hessenberg matrix has zero entries below the first subdiagonal, and a lower Hessenberg matrix has zero entries above the first superdiagonal. They are named after Karl Hessenberg.

A Hessenberg decomposition is a matrix decomposition of a matrix  into a unitary matrix  and a Hessenberg matrix  such that  where  denotes the conjugate transpose.

Definitions

Upper Hessenberg matrix
A square  matrix  is said to be in upper Hessenberg form or to be an upper Hessenberg matrix if  for all  with .

An upper Hessenberg matrix is called unreduced if all subdiagonal entries are nonzero, i.e. if  for all .

Lower Hessenberg matrix
A square  matrix  is said to be in lower Hessenberg form or to be a lower Hessenberg matrix if its transpose  is an upper Hessenberg matrix or equivalently if  for all  with .

A lower Hessenberg matrix is called unreduced if all superdiagonal entries are nonzero, i.e. if  for all .

Examples
Consider the following matrices.

The matrix  is an upper unreduced Hessenberg matrix,  is a lower unreduced Hessenberg matrix and  is a lower Hessenberg matrix but is not unreduced.

Computer programming
Many linear algebra algorithms require significantly less computational effort when applied to triangular matrices, and this improvement often carries over to Hessenberg matrices as well. If the constraints of a linear algebra problem do not allow a general matrix to be conveniently reduced to a triangular one, reduction to Hessenberg form is often the next best thing. In fact, reduction of any matrix to a Hessenberg form can be achieved in a finite number of steps (for example, through Householder's transformation of unitary similarity transforms). Subsequent reduction of Hessenberg matrix to a triangular matrix can be achieved through iterative procedures, such as shifted QR-factorization. In eigenvalue algorithms, the Hessenberg matrix can be further reduced to a triangular matrix through Shifted QR-factorization combined with deflation steps. Reducing a general matrix to a Hessenberg matrix and then reducing further to a triangular matrix, instead of directly reducing a general matrix to a triangular matrix, often economizes the arithmetic involved in the QR algorithm for eigenvalue problems.

Reduction to Hessenberg matrix
Any  matrix can be transformed into a Hessenberg matrix by a similarity transformation using Householder transformations. The following procedure for such a transformation is adapted from A Second Course In Linear Algebra by Garcia & Roger.

Let  be any real or complex  matrix, then let  be the  submatrix of  constructed by removing the first row in  and let  be the first column of . Construct the  householder matrix  where

This householder matrix will map  to  and as such, the block matrix  will map the matrix  to the matrix  which has only zeros below the second entry of the first column. Now construct  householder matrix  in a similar manner as  such that  maps the first column of  to , where  is the submatrix of  constructed by removing the first row and the first column of , then let  which maps  to the matrix  which has only zeros below the first and second entry of the subdiagonal. Now construct  and then  in a similar manner, but for the matrix  constructed by removing the first row and first column of  and proceed as in the previous steps. Continue like this for a total of  steps.

By construction of , the first  rows of any  matrix are invariant under multiplication by  from the right. Hence, any matrix can be transformed to an upper Hessenberg matrix by a similarity transformation of the form .

Properties
For , it is vacuously true that every  matrix is both upper Hessenberg, and lower Hessenberg.

The product of a Hessenberg matrix with a triangular matrix is again Hessenberg. More precisely, if  is upper Hessenberg and  is upper triangular, then  and  are upper Hessenberg.

A matrix that is both upper Hessenberg and lower Hessenberg is a tridiagonal matrix, of which symmetric or Hermitian Hessenberg matrices are important examples. A Hermitian matrix can be reduced to tri-diagonal real symmetric matrices.

Hessenberg operator
The Hessenberg operator is an infinite dimensional Hessenberg matrix. It commonly occurs as the generalization of the Jacobi operator to a system of orthogonal polynomials for the space of square-integrable holomorphic functions over some domain—that is, a Bergman space. In this case, the Hessenberg operator is  the right-shift operator , given by

The eigenvalues of each principal submatrix of the Hessenberg operator are given by the characteristic polynomial for that submatrix. These polynomials are called the Bergman polynomials, and provide an orthogonal polynomial basis for Bergman space.

See also
Hessenberg variety

Notes

References
 .
 .

External links
 Hessenberg matrix at MathWorld.

 High performance algorithms for reduction to condensed (Hessenberg, tridiagonal, bidiagonal) form
 Algorithm overview

Matrices

Hessenberg matrix


Xi'an ( pinyin:Xī'ān) is the capital city of the Shaanxi Province in China. Its metropolitan area has a population of 6 million people in 2011.  This city is famous for the splendid Terracotta Army was found inside the tomb of Chinese first emperor Qin Shi Huang.

History
In past China, it was the capital of 13 dynasties, including the Zhou Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty. It was the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road and was commercial hub linked to home of silk production city Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Xi'an is regarded as one of the most oldest capitals in the world history together with the other three Athens, Rome and Cairo.

Name
Xi'an was called Chang'an in ancient times. In Classical Chinese it literally means "Perpetual Peace". But from 9 AD-23 AD, during the Xin Dynasty, it was renamed "Constant Peace" (it is said the same way). By the time of the Ming Dynasty it had been named Xi'an (which means "Western Peace"). It was named Xi'an because was in the western part of the Ming Empire.

Political divisions

Xi'an Municipality is divided into 10 districts and 3 counties.
 Beilin District
 Yanta District
 Weiyang District
 Baqiao District
 Xincheng District
 Lianhu District
 Chang'an District
 Yanliang District
 Lintong District
 Gaoling District
 Lantian County
 Zhouzhi County
 Huyi District

Culture
Xian's profound culture is featured by many kind of traditional festivals, handicrafts and more ethnic flavor.
 Yango - Popular rural folk dance
 Qinqiang - Shaanxi  local opera
 Shaanxi Shadow Play
 Fengxiang Clay Figurines

Tourism
As ancient capital, Xian's rich history is reflectey by the relic of Chinese dynasties such as ancient emperor story, imperial tombs, palace legends in the Qin, Han and Tang Dynasty. The following attractions is top among them.
 Banpo Neolithic Village
 Terracotta Army & Warriors
 Xian Ancient City Wall
 Bell & Drum tower
 Big Wild Goose Pagoda
 Hanyangling Mausoleum

References

Cities in China
Shaanxi

Xi'an


The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by English author Anne Brontë, published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Story framed as a letter from Gilbert Markham to his friend and brother-in-law. He writes about events leading to his meeting his wife. It is a classic of English literature.

Plot
Part One (Chapters 1 to 15)

Gilbert Markham writes about a young widow, Mrs Graham, who arrives at the old mansion, named Wildfell Hall with her small son and a servant. Gilbert is at first interested in Eliza Millward, the vicar's younger daughter. He casually courts her, even though his mother does not like her.

Mrs Graham does not want to talk about her life with her new neighbours, so they decided that she did something wrong in her past. Gilbert then becomes close to her, and falls in love with her. Eliza then spreads rumours about when she realises Gilbert is interested in Mrs Graham. The rumor is that she is having an affair with her landlord, Frederick Lawrence (who is actually her brother). At a chance meeting on a road, Gilbert strikes Lawrence, who was on a horse, with a whip handle, causing him to fall from his horse. Though she is unaware of this attack, Helen Graham still refuses to marry Gilbert, but when he accuses her of loving Lawrence she gives him her diaries.

Part Two (Chapters 16 to 44)

In her diary, Helen writes about a man, Arthur Huntingdon, courting her. Huntingdon is witty and handsome.  She falls in love with him. Despite her aunt warning her of his bad character, she still marries him and plans to reform him.

After Helen is married, she realises Huntingdon is an alcoholic and he spends some of his time away in London. He and his friends drink a lot of alcohol and behave themmselves badly. Before marrying Helen, Huntingdon flirts with Annabella Wilmot. After her marriage, Helen once encounters Huntingdon flirting with Annabella, who is married to Lord Lowborough.

After the birth of their son, also named Arthur, he is jealous of their son's claims on Helen's attentions and affections. Walter Hargrave, the brother of Helen's friend Milicent Hargrave, courts Helen. He is an unwelcome admirer. He informs Helen of Arthur's affair with Lady Lowborough. When his friends depart, Arthur is sad openly for his lover's departure and hates his wife, but will not give her a divorce.

When he begins to make their son drink alcohol,  and teaches him to say bad words, Helen decides to run away from him. She plans to flee to save her son, but her husband learns of her plans from by reading her diary and burns the artist's tools with which she had hoped to support herself. After support from her brother, Frederick  Lawrence, she leaves Grassdale and secretly comes to live at Wildfell Hall.

Part Three (Chapters 45 to 53)

After Gilbert reading the diaries, Helen bids Gilbert to leave her because she is cannot marry. He complies. He learns that Helen had left Wildfell Hall, when she learns that her husband is very sick. She takes care of him, but he still died.

After a year passes, Gilbert hears a rumour of Helen's impending wedding. When he arrived at the wedding, he only found that Mr Lawrence, with whom he has reconciled, is marrying Helen's friend Esther Hargrave. Gilbert goes to Grassdale, and discovers that Helen is now wealthy. He travels there, but is anxious that she is now far above his social position. By chance he sees Helen, her aunt and young Arthur. The two lovers marry. They lead a happy life and have at least two children together.

Characters
Helen Huntingdon (maiden nameː Helen Lawrence, aliasː Helen Graham)

She is the protagonist of the novel and the tenant of the title. Wildfell Hall is the place where she and her brother were born. After their mother's death she goes to live with their aunt and uncle at Staningley Manor, while her brother, Frederick, remains with their father. Helen has maintained an close relationship with her brother and later he helps her to escape from her abusive husband. The character of Helen Graham was probably inspired by Anna Isabella Milbanke, the wife of Lord Byron. Like Anna, Helen firstly believed that reforming her husband's behaviour was her religious duty. Despite disapointment, both women retained their Universalist faith.

Master Arthur Huntingdon

Five years old at the beginning of the book, the son of Arthur Huntingdon and Helen. He looks like his uncle, Frederick, which gives rise to gossip. He is grown up by the time of Gilbert's letter to Jack Halford, and is lives at Grassdale Manor with his wife, Helen Hattersley (the daughter of Milicent Hargrave and Ralph Hattersley).

Margaret "Peggy" Maxwell

Helen's aunt, tries to warn her against marrying Huntingdon. She dies several years after Helen's and Gilbert's marriage.

Frederick Lawrence, Helen's brother, helps her to escape from Huntingdon and lends her money. As he and Helen grew up apart and only met in Staningley or Grassdale, no one guessed that the secretive Mrs Graham is actually Frederick's sister. Eventually he marries Esther Hargrave. Being in mourning for her husband, Helen is forced to miss her brother's wedding.

Arthur Huntingdon

Helen's abusive and alcoholic husband, is a Byronic figure. His abusive behaviour makes Helen to run away from him, but when he becomes ill (after the injury from falling from a horse when drunk), Helen returns to Grassdale to take care of him. When he does not want to stop drinking alcohol, Huntingdon eventually dies.

Annabella Wilmot (later Lady Lowborough)

Arthur Huntingdon's lover, is flirtatious, and beautiful. She has an affair with Arthur Huntingdon for a few years. Helen is forced to cope with the affair, but when Annabella's husband finds out about it, he gets a divorce. Gilbert says he hears that after Annabella moves to Europe, she falls into poverty and dies destitute and alone, but says he cannot be sure if this is true or a rumour.

Lord Lowborough

A friend of Huntingdon's. He is also Annabella's devoted husband. Sad and gloomy, he is in contrast to Huntingdon. He used to gamble and drink too much alcohol and developed an addiction to opium, but gradually improves himself. Lowborough truly loves Annabella, and her infidelity brings him such suffering that only his Christian faith and strong will keep him from suicide. Later he divorces her and after some time marries a plain middle-aged woman, who makes a good wife to him and a stepmother to his children.

Ralph Hattersley

A friend of Huntingdon's, marries Milicent because he wants a quiet wife who will let him do what he likes with no word complaint. He mistreats his wife. "I sometimes think she has no feeling at all; and then I go on until she cries – and that satisfies me," he tells Helen. But after he reforms himself he becomes a loving husband and father.

Gilbert Markham

A twenty-four-year-old farmer, is the main narrator in the novel. He shows jealousy and anger, but during the course of the novel he grows morally and proves to be worthy of Helen.

Fergus Markham

Gilbert's seventeen-year-old brother, often tries but fails to be witty.

Rose Markham

A clever and pretty girl of ninteen, is Gilbert's younger sister and a friend of the Millward sisters. She becomes the wife of Jack Halford, to whom Gilbert is writing in letters what happened 20 years ago in his youth.

Jane Wilson

A friend of Eliza Millward and a scandalmonger, tries to marry Frederick Lawrence, but when Gilbert reveals to him her hatred of Frederick's sister Helen, Frederick breaks off their relationship. As no man she meets fits her high standards, she moves to a nearby country town, friendless and, according to Helen, becomes a spinster.

Eliza Millward

The younger daughter of the vicar and friend of Jane Wilson, loves gossip. Gilbert carries on a half-serious flirtation with her before he first meets Helen.

Walter Hargrave

A friend of Arthur Huntingdon's, is a admirer of Helen while she is still living with her husband. He is a cousin of Annabella Wilmot.

Milicent Hargrave

A quiet woman married to Ralph Hattersley against her will. She is Walter's sister and Helen's close friend. Helen leaves Arthur with her beloved son in tow, while Milicent says that she is "really contented" with her husband and "would not exchange [him] for any man on earth". At length, Ralph finally reforms himself and Milicent finds happiness in marriage.

Esther Hargrave

The younger sister of Milicent and Walter, and Helen's friend, is cheerful and independent. She resists an arranged marriage her family tries to force her into and eventually marries Helen's brother, Frederick Lawrence

Rachel

A servant and friend of Helen and her son, has taken care of Helen since her birth.

Other works by Anne Brontë
Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846)
Agnes Grey (1847)

References

Other websites

 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall  at PublicLiterature.org
 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Free Public Domain Audiobook.

1840s books
English novels

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


This article is a timeline of women appearances in mathematics.

Timeline
350–370 until 415: The lifetime of Hypatia, a Greek Alexandrine Neoplatonist philosopher in Egypt who was the first well-documented woman in mathematics. She was head of the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria, Egypt, from the year 400. Her students were  young men from around the empire.

1678 Elena Cornaro Piscopia  became to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.  She went on to be a lecturer at the University of Padua in mathematics..

19th Century
1827: French mathematician Sophie Germain saw her theorem, known as Germain's Theorem, published in a footnote of a book by the mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre. In this theorem Germain proved that if x, y, and z are integers and if x5 + y5 = z5 then either x, y, or z must be divisible by 5. Germain's theorem was a major step toward proving Fermat's last theorem for the case where n equals 5.

1829: The first public examination of an American girl in geometry was held.

1874: Russian mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya became the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, which she earned from the University of Göttingen in Germany.

1888: The Kovalevskaya top, one of a brief list of known examples of integrable rigid body motion, was discovered by Sofya Kovalevskaya.

1889: Sofya Kovalevskaya was appointed as the first female professor in Northern Europe, at the University of Stockholm.

20th Century
1918: German mathematician Emmy Noether published Noether's (first) theorem.

1927: American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler became the first woman to present a lecture at the American Mathematical Society Colloquium.

1930: Cecilia Krieger became the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics in Canada, at the University of Toronto.

1956: American mathematician Gladys West began collecting data from satellites at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Her calculations directly impacted the development of accurate GPS systems.

1960 and 1966: Lucy Joan Slater published two books about mathematical functions from the Cambridge University Press, one of the world's largest academic publisher.

1980s
1983: Julia Robinson became the first female president of the American Mathematical Society.

1990s
1995: American mathematician Margaret H. Wright became the first female president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

1998: Melanie Wood became the first female American to make the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. She won silver medals in the 1998 and 1999 International Mathematical Olympiads.

21st Century

2000s
2004: American Alison Miller became the first ever female gold medal winner on the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team.

2010s
2016: The London Mathematical Society's Women in Mathematics Committee was awarded the Royal Society's inaugural Athena Prize.

2019: American mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck became the first woman to win the Abel Prize."

Related pages
 Timeline of women in mathematics in the United States

References

History of mathematics

Timeline of women in mathematics


Charter 77 (Charta 77 in Czech and in Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992. It is named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977.

The founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout and Ladislav Lis. The charter was seen as a political crime by the communist regime.

After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of its members played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics.

References

Charter 77 signatories
Czech human rights activists

Charter 77


The Battle of Chancellorsville  (April 30 to May 6, 1863) was a major battle in the American Civil War. It is generally considered to be Confederate General Robert E. Lee's greatest victory over the Union Army. But the Confederate victory was lessened by the loss of Lieutenant general Stonewall Jackson. Jackson was shot and mortally wounded by his own men who mistook the general and his staff for Union cavalry. For this reason Lee's win at Chancellorsville was considered a pyrrhic victory.

Background
After the Battle of Fredericksburg the Union army was in a state of confusion. The Army of the Potomac was commanded by Major general Ambrose Burnside. But his generals were in near open revolt against Burnside feeling he was unfit to command. Burnside even seemed to agree with them. He had refused command of the Army of the Potomac twice saying he was not up to the job. Finally, President Abraham Lincoln agreed and replaced Burnside with General Joseph Hooker. Hooker managed to restore the health and morale of his army within a few weeks. He proudly called them "the finest army on the planet."

Hooker devised a plan for a spring campaign that would cause Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to fall back from Fredericksburg, Virginia. He hoped it would also destroy Lee's army. His plan was to send his 10,000-man cavalry on a raid against Richmond, Virginia to cut Lee's lines of communication with the Confederate capital. He would send most of his infantry to cross the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers 40 miles north of the Confederates. The rest of his army would cross the river at Fredericksburg to attack Lee from the front. It was devised as a pincer movement that if successful would surround the enemy.

Battle

Opening

Hooker's army crossed the Rappahannock on April 30, 1863. This placed his army on Lee's flank. Hooker's Federal army numbered 97,382 men. This was twice the size of Lee's army at 57,352 men. But rather than retreat, Lee split his forces. He decided to attack Hooker while his army was still in the thick wilderness. Lee sent Jackson with 30,000 Confederate soldiers to attack the Union right flank. He assigned
Major general Jubal A. Early with 10,000 soldiers to defend Fredericksburg. By the afternoon of April 30, 50,000 Union troops with 108 artillery pieces found themselves at an important road junction. There was a tavern at the crossroad named Chancellorsville. Rather than keep going and get clear of the wilderness, Hooker decided to stop and wait for more Union troops to arrive. There had been no Confederate opposition at this point. Even so, Hooker's officers wanted to keep going.

On May 1, Stonewall Jackson found two divisions of Confederates at Zoan Church, fortifying a ridge. He ordered them to drop their shovels and pick up their rifles and move toward the Union soldiers to attack. The Union army had just decided to move forward again and had not expected any Confederate resistance. Hooker ordered his soldiers back and had them form defensive positions in the wilderness. On the morning of May 2, Jackson moved his corps against the Union left flank. There was fighting on and off all day. At 5:20 p.m., Jackson attacked the Union's XI Corps. The Federals counterattacked until darkness ended the fighting. That night, Jackson was making a night reconnaissance with one of his staff officers when he was mistakenly shot by his own soldiers. He died 8 days later from pneumonia after losing his left arm. General J.E.B. Stuart took over temporary command of Jackson's Corps.

Heaviest fighting

On May 3, The Confederates resumed their attacks forcing Hooker's army to defend the river fords. This was the heaviest day of the fighting. Both wings of the Confederates attacked while their artillery concentrated on the Union line at Hazel Grove. The larger Union army held nearly all of the most strategic spots on the battlefield. Of these the key to the battle was Hazel Grove, a high open plateau that overlooked all the Union positions. Stuart realized this and early in the morning Confederates attacked up the slopes of Hazel Grove and captured about 100 men and four artillery pieces. For unknown reasons Hooker had ordered the artillery back from Hazel Grove. At the time of the attack, most of the artillery had already been removed. This was a costly mistake since the Confederate artillery could now fire down on the union positions with great ease. This finally forced the Union line back to a defensive position with his back to the river. Meanwhile, the other Union forces were advancing on Lee from the east. Lee split his army again and met and defeated the Federals near Salem Church (Fredericksburg). This was by far the bloodiest day of fighting. The fighting at Salem Church resulted in more casualties than the entire First Battle of Bull Run.

Aftermath
On May 6, Hooker recrossed the Rappahannock. He lost a total of 17,278 casualties while Lee lost 12,826. It was a tremendous win for Lee. But Lee could not replace Jackson. Hooker was the second general of the Army of the Potomac to be replaced after a single battle. Hooker argued that the cavalry raid failed to cut Lee's supply lines. He complained that the XI Corps, composed mostly of German-Americans and other recent immigrants, ran instead of staying to fight. Oliver O. Howard's XI corps were labeled the "flying Dutchmen" over this incident. But they redeemed themselves at the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Howard would later be promoted over Hooker. But despite laying the blame elsewhere Hooker was replaced by General George G. Meade. In a few weeks, Lee would move north to engage the Union forces again at the Battle of Gettysburg.

References

Other websites
 Annimation of the Battle of Chanellorsville

American Civil War battles
1863 in the United States
1860s in Virginia

Battle of Chancellorsville


Wescott Infant School is a coeducational infant school located in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

The school caters for children from ages four to seven (Reception to Year 2). Children join the school as "Rising Fives" and there is a three-term intake with a maximum of around 150 children on roll each year. Wescott holds the prestigious Artsmark Gold Award from the Arts Council, and in 2003 it was awarded a DFES School Achievement Award. The school has also been awarded Healthy Schools status.

History
The school was founded in 1828 as a National School for boys and girls, and was originally located in Rose Street, Wokingham, behind the existing houses at numbers 9 and 11. By 1901, the population of the town had increased threefold and as there was no room for expansion on the Rose Street site it was decided to build a new school in Goodchild Road. The new school opened on 8 January 1906. It was known as the Wescott Road Council School, and was named after Thomas Manley Wescott, the first Mayor of Wokingham. The school was built by W. Watson, builders of Ascot, at a cost of £6,000. The architect was Edmund Fisher, who was also responsible for the design of a number of other Berkshire schools. The school was intended to accommodate 400 children but the attendance was mixed and averaged 240 pupils a day during its early years. The school originally catered for boys and girls from five through to 14, which was then the school leaving age. The first headmaster was a Mr George Manoah Ebenezer Fryer. There were 11 other teachers and 222 children on the register in the first month. A further building, known as the annexe, was erected in 1911 for woodwork, cookery, and the evening continuation classes. The secondary-age pupils moved out in the 1950s to join the newly built St Crispin's School. In 1974, with the opening of Westende Junior School, Wescott became an infant school, educating children up to the age of seven.

Wescott School was designated as a Grade II listed building on 24 June 1998 by English Heritage, who describe it as a "well-designed and executed early-C20 school in the Arts and Crafts style".  The adjacent school annexe, which was originally the technology block but now houses a nursery school, is also a Grade II listed building.

The school celebrated its centennial in 2006. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne visited the school on 28 March 2006 as part of the centennial celebrations to unveil a commemorative plaque. She was entertained with a short musical performance by the children, followed by the first public performance of The Wescott School song, commissioned by the school from Luke Bedford, a former pupil and winner of the BBC's Young Composer of the Year award (2004).

Previously a community school administered by Wokingham Borough Council, in July 2020 Wescott Infant School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by The Circle Trust.

Facilities

The school has a central hall surrounded by six classrooms, each of which has its own computer facilities. Wescott was selected as one of the pilot sites for the National Grid for Learning. The school hall is used by the local community for a variety of activities including: Rainbows, Brownies, fitness classes and football training. There is a private day nursery located within the playground which has an informal link with the school. Most of the children from Westcott move on to Westende Junior School. The two schools work closely together and have a joint Parent Teachers' Association. Westende School has a heated outdoor swimming pool, and Wescott pupils have swimming lessons at the pool during the summer months. Parents and pupils who belong to the school Swimming Association can also use the swimming pool after school and during the summer holidays.

References

External links
School overview and profile from Schoolsfinder

Primary schools in the Borough of Wokingham
Educational institutions established in 1906
Grade II listed buildings in Berkshire
Grade II listed educational buildings
Academies in the Borough of Wokingham
1906 establishments in England

Wescott Infant School


A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is usually white with red stripes and tastes like peppermint. It is also made in many other flavors and colors.  The candy cane is a traditional candy of the Christmas holiday in the United States, but you can find them during the rest of the year. It is a symbolic figure in the Christmas season.

In the 17th century, white sticks of candy were popular, but they were not colorful. According to legend, a choir leader in Germany asked the people that made the candy to bend the sticks so that they looked like shepherd's staffs. He then gave the candy canes to the children to keep them quiet during church services. The colors are also said to be symbolic. The white part represents purity, and the red represents the blood of Jesus.

References

Candy
Christmas

Candy cane


Anselmo Viviani (born 1915, date of death unknown) was an Italian cross-country skier who competed in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1937, in the rank of an Alpino (Soldier E-1), together in team with Tenente Giuseppe Fabre and Sergente Luigi Perenni he won Gold at the Trofeo Mezzalama race. In the same year, he finished second in the 40 km event of the Italian men's championships of cross-country skiing.

A photograph showing Viviani during his participation at the Giro delle Dolomiti in Cortina d'Ampezzo demonstrates that he served in the IV Legione / Milizia Forestale in Turin in 1940. The Milizia Forestale was an arm of the Blackshirts devoted to forestry. Together with three friends, he founded the central school for excursion cross-country skiing () of the Club Alpino Italiano. At the age of 92 years, and 30 years after his success, he spoke at the press conference of the 16th Trofeo Mezzalama in April 2007.

References

1915 births
Year of death missing
Italian military patrol (sport) runners
Italian male cross-country skiers
Italian soldiers
Place of birth missing

Anselmo Viviani


Max Andreas Blunck (20 December 1871 – 12 April 1933) was a German politician of the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP). He served as Minister of Justice in the government of Hermann Müller from March to June 1920.

Biography
Blunck was born on 20 December 1871 in Krempe in the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein.

After attending the Gymnasium in Glückstadt, Blunck studied law and the Chinese language in Berlin. In 1894, he started working as a public servant in Hamburg. After being awarded a Dr.jur. in Jena in 1898, he began working as a lawyer in Hamburg. From 1904 to 1918, Blunck was a member of the Hamburg Bürgerschaft (the local parliament) for a rural area.

In 1912, he was elected as the Reichstag delegate for the Tondern–Husum–Eiderstedt constituency for the Freisinnige Volkspartei.

In the German Revolution, he was arrested by the local radical Workers' council on 8 December 1918.

He was a DDP member of the Weimar National Assembly in 1919 to 1920 and a DDP member of the Reichstag from 1920 to 1924.

After the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch of March 1920, Blunck became justice minister in the government of Hermann Müller (SPD). The government resigned in June 1920 after the Reichstag elections.

He died in Aumühle on 12 April 1933.

References

1871 births
1933 deaths
People from Steinburg
People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein
German Lutherans
Progressive People's Party (Germany) politicians
German Democratic Party politicians
Justice ministers of Germany
Members of the 13th Reichstag of the German Empire
Members of the Weimar National Assembly
Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic

Andreas Blunck


Ramón Alberto Webster (born August 31, 1942) is a Panamanian former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Chicago Cubs.

Webster came on strong in his rookie season for the Athletics, and handily won the starting first base job over Ken Harrelson after hit .256 with 11 home runs and 51 RBI in 360 at-bats. Since the 1968 Opening Day, Webster batted cleanup in the order behind Bert Campaneris, Reggie Jackson and Sal Bando. Unfortunately, a leg injury suffered in early May limited his playing time for the rest of the season, dropping off to .214 with three homers and 23 RBI in 66 games, and never recovered his previous form. Eventually, he finished his career as a left-handed pinch-hitter producing unsatisfactory results.

In a five-season career, Webster was a .244 hitter (190-for-778) with 17 home runs and 98 RBI in 380 games, including 76 runs, 31 doubles, six triples, and nine stolen bases.

See also
Players from Panama in Major League Baseball

External links

Retrosheet
Venezuelan Professional Baseball League

1942 births
Living people
Boston Red Sox scouts
Cardenales de Lara players
Chicago Cubs players
Daytona Beach Islanders players
Florida Instructional League Athletics players
Iowa Oaks players
Kansas City Athletics players
Leones del Caracas players
Panamanian expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
Lewiston Broncs players
Major League Baseball first basemen
Major League Baseball players from Panama
Oakland Athletics players
Panama Banqueros players
Sportspeople from Colón, Panama
San Diego Padres players
Saraperos de Saltillo players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Toronto Blue Jays scouts
Tucson Toros players
Vancouver Mounties players
Panamanian expatriate baseball players in Canada

Ray Webster (first baseman)


The 2009 American science fiction movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, is set on the fictional world of Pandora, which is a tropical Earth-like moon of the fictional planet Polyphemus, in the Alpha Centauri system.

List of fauna
Direhorse is (Pa'li in Na'vi language) a hexapodal equine-like creature.  The Direhorse was conceived and designed by Cameron and Stan Winston Studios.  Cameron described the creature as a "six-legged alien Clydesdale with moth-like antennae".
Great Leonopteryx (Toruk in Na'vi language) is an airborne predator native to Pandora. The fierce beauty and nobility of the leonopteryx gave the species a place in central Na'vi lore and culture. It is celebrated in dance, song, and with elaborate totems that symbolizes both the fear and respect accorded to the creature. The leonopteryx is considered crucial to the Na'vi sense of destiny and interconnectedness. Prior to the events of the movie, it had only been tamed five times, and Neytiri tells Jake that the riders (Toruk Makto) brought peace among the Pandoran tribes. The Great Leonopteryx and the Banshee were designed with bright colors.  Page based the colors on Earth's birds, poison dart frogs, and Monarch butterflies, though he altered the patterns so they would not obviously come from Earth's animals.
Hammerhead Titanothere (Angtsìk in Na'vi language) is a large herbivore with a head shaped like a hammer.  The creature, which resembles a cross between a rhinoceros and a hammerhead shark, is angered easily.
Hexapede (Yerik in Na'vi language) are hexapodal deerlike creatures.
Mountain Banshee (Ikran in Na'vi language) is an airborne predator who lives in mountainous territory on Pandora.  Na'vi warriors attempt to bond with a Banshee, a dangerous and required rite of passage.  A Banshee bonds to a Na'vi warrior for life.  Page spent the most time designing the Banshee for the movie so it would be convincing when it flew or perched.  The designer said, "The hardest thing of all was having a Na'vi on top of it and flying it. You had to backwards engineer it. It was like designing and engineering an aircraft."  Barlowe, who contributed to the Banshee's design, was influenced by manta rays and skates as well as relatively little-known pterosaurs and plesiosaurs that had "many, unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic" characteristics. Like the color scheme for the Great Leonopteryx, color schemes based on Earth animals were used for various Banshees, though Page was inspired by Art Nouveau prints to warp the schemes so they would not look familiar to movie audiences.
Thanator (Palulukan in Na'vi language) is a large hexapodal land predator.  Cameron personally designed the creature.  Its appearance is similar to a panther; Cameron describes the Thanator as "a panther from hell".  The director explained how the Thanator is the most fearsome creature on Pandora, "The Thanator could eat a T-Rex and have the Alien Queen for dessert."
Viperwolf (Nantang in Na'vi language) is a hexapodal nocturnal carnivore. Cameron described the Viperwolves, "[They are] hairless with shiny skin that looks like overlapped armor. Most disturbing are its paws, which are like leathery hands."

List of flora

Helicoradian is a carnivorous plant that has red spiral-leaves. The plants are up to 3-4m tall and, when touched, they curl and collapse into themselves instantly.
Obesus rotundus is a tree that looks like a puffball tree.
Pseudocycas altissima is a plant that looks like a tall Earth cycad.
The Hometrees (Kelutrel in Na'vi language) are great enough to house hundreds of clan members. The trees are honeycombed with natural hollows and alcoves in which the Na'vi sleep, eat, weave, dance, and celebrate their connection to Eywa. Adult Hometrees are more than 150 meters tall, roughly thirty meters in diameter.
The Omaticaya inhabit a Giant Hometree, standing roughly 460 meters tall. A distinguishable feature of the movie landscape, the tree itself is central to the movie story arc. Like many sacred sites on Pandora, the Giant Hometree sits above a large deposit of unobtanium. It is destroyed by the humans using rockets, which leads to the Na'vi clans' alliance against the humans.
The Tree of Souls (Vitraya Ramunon in Na'vi language) is a tree where the Na'vi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora.  Cameron described the Tree of Souls as "a big input-output station" and was inspired to design it by bioluminescence that he encountered during night diving.
The Tree of Voices (Utraya Mokri in Na'vi language) is the most important tree to the Na'vi after the Tree of Souls. It is smaller but its appearance is similar and it too is illuminated. Neytiri tells Jake that it allows the Na'vi to hear the voices of their ancestors. It is destroyed in the bulldozer attack by the humans.
Woodsprites (Atokirina in Na'vi language) are seeds of the "holy tree", appearing similar to airborne jellyfish.
Various plants and trees that look like Earth's ferns, palm trees and grasses.

References

Related pages
Na'vi language

Fictional universes
Science fiction

Fictional universe in Avatar


Peter James Maloway (born November 10, 1952) is a Canadian politician, who has served as a member of both the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.

He originally served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1986 to 2008, representing Elmwood for the New Democratic Party of Manitoba. He was then elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the Winnipeg division of Elmwood—Transcona in the 2008 federal election as a member of the New Democratic Party, but was defeated by Conservative candidate Lawrence Toet in the 2011 federal election. He subsequently ran in the 2011 provincial election in his former provincial riding of Elmwood, winning re-election to the provincial legislature.

Early life and career
Maloway was born in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Manitoba (1975).  He later worked for the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission as a liquor inspector,<ref>Paul Wiecek, "More than alcohol in some bottles", Winnipeg Free Press', 24 April 1997, A4.</ref> and was executive assistant to the Minister of Colleges and Universities and Tourism.  He has owned the Maloway & Eliason Insurance & Travel Centre since 1978, operating it for many years with the late Magnus Eliason.

Maloway was the Returning Officer for the Winnipeg division of Wolseley in the 1973 provincial election.  Official results on election night showed a tie between Manitoba Liberal Party leader Izzy Asper and New Democratic Party candidate Murdoch MacKay.  Maloway initially cast a tiebreaking vote for MacKay, although a subsequent recount showed Asper elected by four votes.

Maloway joined the New Democratic Party in 1971.  He was a candidate for the Winnipeg City Council in 1974 and 1983, and unsuccessfully sought the federal NDP nomination for Winnipeg North Centre in 1984.

Member of the Legislative Assembly
Maloway was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1986 provincial election over incumbent Russell Doern, a former New Democrat who had left the party two years earlier.  The NDP won a narrow majority government under Howard Pawley, and Maloway served as a government backbencher.

The Pawley government was unexpectedly defeated in the legislature in early 1988, when disgruntled backbencher Jim Walding voted with the opposition on a motion of non-confidence.  Pawley resigned as party leader, but remained premier in a caretaker administration until a new provincial election could be held.  Maloway supported Maureen Hemphill's bid to succeed Pawley in the leadership contest that followed; she finished fourth against Gary Doer.

The NDP entered the 1988 provincial election very low in the public opinion polls, and some insiders privately worried that the party could lose all of its seats.  Maloway narrowly retained the Elmwood division against a strong challenge from the Liberal Party.  The Progressive Conservatives under Gary Filmon won a minority government, while the NDP fell to third-party status.  In opposition, Maloway served as his party's critic for Consumer and Corporate Affairs, and deputy critic for Finance.

Maloway was an opponent of the Meech Lake Accord, an unsuccessful attempt at constitutional reform that would have delegated powers from the federal government to the provinces and recognized Quebec as a distinct society within Canada.  The accord required approval from all ten of Canada's provincial legislatures to be passed into law; Maloway supported the decision of fellow NDP MLA Elijah Harper to block the accord's passage through procedural tactics, and indicated that he considered taking a similar approach himself.

He was re-elected in the 1990 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Vic Toews.  In 1991, he argued that Manitoba should adopt Quebec's system of no-fault auto insurance.  He also argued that the Public Utilities Board should be given the power to regulate gas prices, in order to prevent price gouging.

Maloway was re-elected by an increased margin in 1995.  He criticized the state of Manitoba's real estate sector later in the same year, arguing that it was being run in a haphazard manner.  He later expressed concern that parts of Manitoba's Autopac system would be sold off to the private sector, and accused the Filmon government of privatizing the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission by stealth.

After eleven years in opposition, the New Democratic Party was returned to government in the 1999 provincial election.  Maloway was returned in Elmwood without difficulty, and was re-elected again in 2003 and 2007 by significant margins.  He sat as a backbench supporter of Gary Doer's government, and was described in a 2007 newspaper report as a left-leaning maverick.

Maloway criticized Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray's "New Deal for Winnipeg" in the early 2000s, arguing that the city should correct its own finances instead of appealing for aid from other levels of government.  In 2007, he criticized his party's decision to abandon its "one member, one vote" method of leadership selection and return to its former model of delegated conventions.  He argued that the change would take power away from ordinary party members.

In May 2008, Maloway called on the provincial government to ensure that municipal repairs to the Disraeli Bridge in northeast Winnipeg would be carried out in a way that benefited the public interest.  He expressed concern that traffic bottlenecks would occur if the bridge was completely blocked for several months, and called for the bridge to be expanded from four to six lanes.  Some municipal politicians criticized this plan, and accused him of opportunism. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz launched into a personal attack on Maloway during a council debate, for which he was criticized by the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper.

Federal politics
Maloway was among a group of Manitoba MLAs who sought to persuade former Manitoba Premier Edward Schreyer to run for the federal NDP leadership in 1989.  He supported Lorne Nystrom's bid to become NDP leader in 1995, and endorsed Bill Blaikie in 2003.

After Blaikie announced his retirement from the House of Commons of Canada in 2007, Maloway indicated he would seek the NDP nomination to succeed him in the federal Elmwood—Transcona riding.  He won the nomination over rival candidates Lorene Mahoney and Kevin Rebeck on September 7, 2008.  Maloway made the Disraeli bridge his main issue in the 2008 federal election, and was elected over former Winnipeg Jets player Thomas Steen, who had been recruited as a star candidate by the Conservatives.  The Conservatives won a minority government nationally, and Maloway was appointed as the NDP Critic for Science and Technology.

Maloway introduced a Private Member's Bill known as the "Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights" in February 2009.  The bill would require airlines to include hidden fees and taxes in their advertised ticket prices, reimburse passengers who are bumped from overbooked flights by up to $1,200, and provide compensation for passengers who are left stranded on airport tarmacs for long periods of time.  It has won the support of consumer advocacy groups, and Maloway has said that it will force airlines to act more responsibly.  The National Airlines Council of Canada has opposed the measure, and has said that it will strengthen protection for travelers under an existing federal initiative.  Maloway's bill narrowly passed second reading in the House of Commons in May 2009.  On May 29, 2009, Maloway wrote a guest editorial defending the bill in the National Post'' newspaper.

Maloway has spoken against proposed free trade deals between Canada and the governments of Peru and Colombia.

Maloway was defeated by Conservative candidate Lawrence Toet in the 2011 federal election.

Return to provincial politics
Following his defeat in the federal election, Maloway was nominated by the Manitoba NDP in his former seat of Elmwood, to succeed the retiring Bill Blaikie, and is the party's candidate in the October 4, 2011 provincial election. He was re-elected in the 2016 and 2019 provincial elections.

Electoral record

Elmwood—Transcona

Source: Elections Canada

Note: All provincial electoral information is taken from Elections Manitoba. Municipal results are taken from the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper, 24 October 1974 and 27 October 1983. The final official results were not significantly different.

References

External links

Party biography

1952 births
Living people
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba
New Democratic Party MPs
New Democratic Party of Manitoba MLAs
University of Manitoba alumni
People from Sioux Lookout
Politicians from Winnipeg
21st-century Canadian politicians

Jim Maloway


Mengen is a town in the district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 9 km southeast of Sigmaringen.

History

The area has been inhabited since prehistoric and early historical times. Two late Bronze Age graves were found in Mengen, both including many metal artifacts. It was around the first Century after Christ Birth, when Romans built a castle on the hills in Ennetach. By this, the Romans strengthened their influence along the Danube River, before they were later driven out by the invading Alemanni. These settled in the area and founded many places with the endings "-ingen", which is thought to be the origins for the city Name of "Me-ingen (now Mengen).

In 1876 it was found on the site of a former Roman villa rustica so far the only preserved in Upper Swabia color mosaic of the Roman period. It shows in a medallion the head of Medusa (known as "Medusa of Mengen") and legendary figure remains plait, to which was joined by other original medallions. The remaining parts of the mosaic floor are not preserved. Since the Second World War they have been lost. After the discovery in 2002 in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, it has been restored and has been on display in the Roman Museum Mengen-Ennetach (which closed in 2015).

Was first mentioned in a document the area, bequeathed as Emperor Louis the Pious in 819 areas of the Ablach to the monastery Buchau. 1170 is held Frederick I Barbarossa on in the city and held a court day. 1257 is documented for the first time a free Mengen ("Vrie Mengen"). The new Mengen (where it is today), built around 1150–1250, was created next to the old settlement Mengen (today Ennetach). The old and the new Mengen were separated by the river Ablach, therefore, in order to distinguish between the two places, the old Mengen "beyond the river" (Ennet Aach) called.

On March 4, 1276 Mengen acquires the municipal law, issued in Augsburg by King Rudolf von Habsburg.

Mengen was 1276 to 1805 as one of the so-called five Danube cities Vorderösterreich (together with Ehingen, Munderkingen, Riedlingen and Bad Saulgau). In 1806, Mengen fell by Napoleon and the Peace of Pressburg to the Kingdom of Württemberg.

To 18 May 1632 during the Thirty Years' War  Mengen was hard pressed by Swedish troops, but has not been taken. The inhabitants had intensively called the Mother of God, to stand next to them and therefore wrote this also the salvation of the city from the attacking soldiers, which is why the May Day is celebrated annually in Mengen today. [4]
In 1774 there were in total 23 Restaurants in Mengen, of which 21 were brewing their beer itself. [5]
On October 7, 1819 broke in Mengen from a fire in the old town. Then the "Great Fire of Mengen', which was fought by comparatively simple means fell, many buildings victim.

Between 1870 and 1872 Mengen was connected to the Württemberg and Baden railway network. 1895/1896 it was thanks to an own investment in the city's first electricity, Mengen received in 1900 flowing water.

On the airfield of Mengen-Hohentengen the Dornier Do 335, one of the fastest fighter of World War II, was tested.

Transport

There is a regular public railway transportation between Ulm and Donaueschingen via Sigmaringen.

References

Mengen Haber24

Sigmaringen (district)
Württemberg
Populated places on the Danube

Mengen, Germany