Reigh Count (April 13, 1925–April 8, 1948) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1928 Kentucky Derby and the 1929 Coronation Cup in England.

Reigh Count was bred by Willis Sharpe Kilmer and foaled at Court Manor near New Market, Virginia.

Racing career

1927: two-year-old season
He raced well as a two-year-old, winning four of fourteen races. He was initially trained by Hall of Fame inductee Henry McDaniel but after being sold to Fannie Hertz, by Bert S. Michell. A controversial finish in the Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park (the richest race in the United States at the time) possibly deprived him of another win. Just before the finish line, he held the lead. But due to either misjudgment of the finish line by his jockey or (possibly) intentional instructions by his owner, his stablemate Anita Peabody won by the barest of margins. The next day's New York Times photo captured the jockeys, side-by-side, looking at each other at the wire.

1928: three-year-old season
At age three Reigh Count was the dominant horse in America, winning six races including the 1928 Kentucky Derby. Jockey Chick Lang's victory three years earlier in the Queen's Plate made him the only Canadian jockey in history to win the most prestigious race both in Canada and in the United States. An injury kept Reigh Count out of both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. However, later that summer in the Lawrence Realization, he defeated Preakess winner Victorian. That fall he took on and defeated older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which had a field including Chance Shot, Display, and Diavolo. Reigh Count's performances in 1928 earned him unofficial United States Horse of the Year honors. Although no formal award was made he was recognised in contemporary sources as "the champion racehorse of the year"

1929: four-year-old season
In 1929 Reigh Count was shipped to race in England at age four, with the Ascot Gold Cup as his principal objective and attracted considerable attention in the British press. In an interview in New York, Hertz announced that he believed Reigh Count to be the best horse in the world and that "he is over there to prove it". Reigh Count began his British campaign with disappointing efforts at Lingfield and Newbury where he was apparently unsuited by the cold weather and straight tracks. while his owner's "dazzling" racing silks provoked amusement among British racegoers. In Coronation Cup at Epsom on 5 June however Reigh Count recorded an important victory when he led in the last strides to win the race by a short head from Athford. Later in the month he contested the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and finished second to Invershin. His improving British form led to some regret when he was returned to the United States shortly afterwards. TIME magazine reported on December 16, 1929 that his owner had turned down an offer of $1 million for Reigh Count, saying "I think a fellow who would pay $1,000,000 for a horse ought to have his head examined, and the fellow who turned it down must be absolutely unbalanced". Had the offer been accepted, it would have been by far the largest amount ever paid for a race horse.

Stud record
Retired to stand at stud at his owner's Stoner Creek Stud in Paris, Kentucky, Reigh Count produced 22 graded stakes race winners including:
 Count Arthur (b. 1932) - won the Manhattan Handicap and the Jockey Club Gold Cup
 Count Fleet (b. 1940) - the 1943 U.S. Triple Crown champion, U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee
 Triplicate (b. 1941) - won the Hollywood Gold Cup and the San Juan Capistrano Handicap
 Adonis (b. 1942) - won the Travers Stakes

Pedigree

References

External links
Press photograph of Reigh Count after his Coronation Cup victory

1925 racehorse births
1948 racehorse deaths
Racehorses trained in the United States
Racehorses bred in Virginia
American Champion racehorses
American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
Kentucky Derby winners
Thoroughbred family 2-e

Reigh Count


Free-Staters were those settlers in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas era in the 1850s who opposed the extension of slavery to Kansas. The name came from the term "free state". This meant a U.S. state without slavery.

Some Free-Staters were abolitionists from New England. Other Free-Staters were abolitionists who came to Kansas Territory from Ohio, Iowa, and other midwestern states. However, the majority of Free-Staters, regardless of where they were from, did not claim to be abolitionists at the beginning.  Instead, the official Free-State line supported the idea of excluding all Black people from the state of Kansas. While they didn't have slaves themselves most were prejudiced against black people believing the popular idea they were inferior. Most of the settlers seemed to want free soil for white people only.

Pro-slavery Southerners in Kansas Territory said all Free-Staters were abolitionists. This was in order to motivate the South's opposition. However, Eli Thayer and other New England Company leaders denied that they were seeking to abolish slavery. Also, the failed Topeka Constitution drafted by the Free-Staters in 1855 would have excluded any black person from settling in Kansas. This is whether they were slaves or free. In contrast, abolitionists wanted equal rights for all blacks and to end discrimination against them.

As time passed and the violence in Bleeding Kansas increased, abolitionists became associated with the Free-State movement. In 1858, the Free-Staters proposed a second constitution, the Leavenworth Constitution, which banned slavery and also would have given the right to vote to black men. This constitution also failed because of unresolved conflict between the two sides. Kansas became a state in 1861 after the fourth and final Wyandotte Constitution was agreed on.  Holton, Kansas was named for the Milwaukee, Wisconsin free-stater Edward Dwight Holton.

References

Political movements
1850s in Kansas
Bleeding Kansas

Free-Stater (Kansas)


Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesses from engaging in fraud or specified unfair practices to gain an advantage over competitors or to mislead consumers. They may also provide additional protection for the general public which may be impacted by a product (or its production) even when they are not the direct purchaser or consumer of that product. For example, government regulations may require businesses to disclose detailed information about their products—particularly in areas where public health or safety is an issue, such as with food or automobiles.

Consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights and to the formation of consumer organizations, which help consumers make better choices in the marketplace and pursue complaints against businesses. Entities that promote consumer protection include government organizations (such as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States), self-regulating business organizations (such as the Better Business Bureaus in the US, Canada, England, etc.), and non-governmental organizations that advocate for consumer protection laws and help to ensure their enforcement (such as consumer protection agencies and watchdog groups).

A consumer is defined as someone who acquires goods or services for direct use or ownership rather than for resale or use in production and manufacturing. Consumer interests can also serve consumers, consistent with economic efficiency, but this topic is treated in competition law. Consumer protection can also be asserted via non-government organizations and individuals as consumer activism.

Efforts made for the protection of consumer's rights and interests are:

 The right to satisfaction of basic needs
 The right to safety
 The right to be informed
 The right to choose
 The right to be heard
 The right to redress
 The right to consumer education
 The right to a healthy environment

Consumer law
Consumer protection law or consumer law is considered as an area of law that regulates private law relationships between individual consumers and the businesses that sell those goods and services.
Consumer protection covers a wide range of topics, including but not necessarily limited to product liability, privacy rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other consumer/business interactions. It is a way of preventing frauds and scams from service and sales contracts, eligible fraud, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation, personal loans that may lead to bankruptcy. There have been some arguments that consumer law is also a better way to engage in large-scale redistribution than tax law because it does not necessitate legislation and can be more efficient, given the complexities of tax law.

Australia
In Australia, the corresponding agency is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or the individual State Consumer Affairs agencies. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has responsibility for consumer protection regulation of financial services and products. However, in practice, it does so through privately run EDR schemes such as the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Brazil
In Brazil, consumer protection is regulated by the Consumer's Defense Code (Código de Defesa do Consumidor), as mandated by the 1988 Constitution of Brazil. Brazilian law mandates "The offer and presentation of products or services must ensure correct, clear, accurate and conspicuous information in the Portuguese language about their characteristics, qualities, quantity, composition, price, guarantee, validity and origin, among other data, as well as the risks they pose to the health and safety of consumers." In Brazil, the consumer does not have to bring forward evidence that the defender is guilty. Instead, the defense has to bring forward evidence that they are innocent. In the case of Brazil, they narrowly  are, so that they can protect consumers from international channels trade laws and protect them from negligence and misconduct from international suppliers.

Germany

Germany, as a member state of the European Union, is bound by the consumer protection directives of the European Union; residents may be directly bound by EU regulations.
A minister of the federal cabinet is responsible for consumer rights and protection (Verbraucherschutzminister). In the current cabinet of Olaf Scholz, this is Steffi Lemke.

When issuing public warnings about products and services, the issuing authority has to take into account that this affects the supplier's constitutionally protected economic liberty, see Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) Case 3 C 34.84, 71 BVerwGE 183.

India

In India, consumer protection is specified in The Consumer Protection Act,of  2019. Under this law, Separate Consumer Dispute Redress Forums have been set up throughout India in every district in which a consumer can file their complaint on a simple paper with nominal court fees and their complaint will be decided by the Presiding Officer of the District Level.  The complaint can be filed by both the consumer of a goods as well as of the services. An appeal could be filed to the State Consumer Disputes Redress Commissions and after that to the National Consumer Disputes RedresaRedressalsion (NCDRC).  The procedures in these tribunals are relatively less formal and more people-friendly and they also take less time to decide upon a consumer dispute when compared to the years-long time taken by the traditional Indian judiciary. In recent years, many effective judgments have been passed by some state and National Consumer Forums.

Indian Contract Act, 1872 lays down the conditions in which promises made by parties to a contract will be legally binding on each other. It also lays down the remedies available to the aggregate party if the other party fails to honor their promise.

The Sale of Goods Act of 1930 provides some safeguards to buyers of goods if goods purchased do not fulfill the express or implied conditions and warranties.

The Agriculture Produce Act of 1937 act provides grade standards for agricultural commodities and livestock products. It specifies the conditions which govern the use of standards and lays down the procedure for grading, marking, and packaging of agricultural produce. The quality mark provided under the act is known as AGMARK-Agriculture Marketing.

Nigeria
The Nigerian government must protect its people from any form of harm to human health through the use and purchase of items to meet daily needs. In light of this, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), whose aim is to protect and enhance consumers' interest through information, education, and enforcement of the rights of consumers was established by an Act of Parliament  o promote and protect the interest of consumers over all products and services. In a nutshell, it is empowered to eliminate hazardous & substandard goods from the market. Provide speedy redress to consumer complaints and petition arisen from fraud, unfair practice, and exploitation of the consumer.

On 5 February 2019, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, assented to the new Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Bill, 2018. Thus, the bill became a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and binding on entities and organizations so specified in the Act.

The long title of the Act reads: "This Act establishes the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal for the promotion of competition in the Nigerian market at all levels by eliminating monopolies, prohibiting abuse of dominant market position and penalizing other restrictive trade and business practices."
The Act further repealed the hitherto Nigerian Consumer Protection Council Act and transferred its core mandate to the new Commission.

Taiwan
Modern Taiwanese law has been heavily influenced by the European civil law systems, particularly German and Swiss law. The Civil Code in Taiwan contains five books: General Principles, Obligations, Rights over Things, Family, and Succession. The second book of the Code, the Book of Obligations, provided the basis from which consumers could bring product liability actions prior to the enactment of the CPL.

The Consumer Protection Law (CPL) in Taiwan, as promulgated on 11 January 1994, and effective on 13 January 1993, specifically protects the interests and safety of customers using the products or services provided by business operators. The Consumer Protection Commission of Executive Yuan serves as an ombudsman supervising, coordinating, reporting any unsafe products/services, and periodically reviewing the legislation.

According to the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Association and the American Chamber of Commerce, in a 1997 critical study, the law has been criticized by stating that "although many agree that the intent of the CPL is fair, the CPL's various problems, such as ambiguous terminology, favoritism towards consumer protection groups, and the compensation liability defense, must be addressed before the CPL becomes a truly effective piece of legislation that will protect consumers"

United Kingdom

ProtectionThe main consumer protection laws in the UK are the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

The United Kingdom has left the European Union, but during the transition period (until end of 2020) the UK was still bound by directives of the European Union. Specifics of the division of roles between the EU and the UK are detailed here. Domestic (UK) laws originated within the ambit of contract and tort but, with the influence of EU law, it is emerging as an independent area of law. In many circumstances, where domestic law is in question, the matter is judicially treated as tort, contract, restitution or even criminal law.

Consumer Protection issues were dealt with by the Office of Fair Trading before 2014. Since then, the Competition and Markets Authority has taken on this role.

United States

In the United States a variety of laws at both the federal and state levels regulate consumer affairs. Among them are the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Billing Act, and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act. Federal consumer protection laws are mainly enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

At the state level, many states have adopted the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act including, but not limited to, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and Nebraska. The deceptive trade practices prohibited by the Uniform Act can be roughly subdivided into conduct involving either a) unfair or fraudulent business practices and b) untrue or misleading advertising. The Uniform Act contains a private remedy with attorneys fees for prevailing parties where the losing party "willfully engaged in the trade practice knowing it to be deceptive". Uniform Act §3(b).
Missouri has a similar statute called the Merchandising Practices Act.  This statute allows local prosecutors or the Attorney General to press charges against people who knowingly use deceptive business practices in a consumer transaction and authorizes consumers to hire a private attorney to bring an action seeking their actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.

Also, the majority of states have a Department of Consumer Affairs devoted to regulating certain industries and protecting consumers who use goods and services from those industries.  For example, in California, the California Department of Consumer Affairs regulates about 2.3 million professionals in over 230 different professions, through its forty regulatory entities. In addition, California encourages its consumers to act as private attorneys general through the liberal provisions of its Consumers Legal Remedies Act.

State and federal laws provide for "cooling off" periods giving consumers the right to cancel contracts within a certain time period for several specified types of transactions, potentially including transactions entered into at home, and warranty and repair services contracts.

Other states have been the leaders in specific aspects of consumer protection. For example, Florida, Delaware, and Minnesota have legislated requirements that contracts be written at reasonable readability levels as a large proportion of contracts cannot be understood by most consumers who sign them.

Considering the state of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law, MGL 93A, clearly highlights the rights and violations of consumer protection law in the state. The chapter explains what actions are considered illegal under the law for which a party can seek monetary damages from the other party at fault. Some examples of practices that constitute a Chapter 93A violation would be when:

 A Business charges a consumer higher rates than the marked price
 The refund policy is not clearly posted where it can be readily noticed and understood
 A business fails to tell you relevant information regarding your product or service misleads you in any way.

The laws under MGL 93A prohibit activities that relate to overpricing to a consumer and the use of "Bait and Switch" techniques. A court will award the plaintiff the damages if they can prove the (1) defendant knowingly and intentionally violated the MGL 93A agreement or (2) the defendant would not "grant relief in bad faith" knowing that the actions violated the MGL 93A agreement. Additionally, failure to disclose refund/ return policy, warranties, and critical information about the product/service are all in violation of the legislation, and can result in triple damages and lawyer fees.

Laws
 Competition law

United Kingdom
 Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000
 Consumer Rights Act 2015
 Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002
 Enterprise Act 2002
 General Product Safety Regulations 2005
 Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002/3045
 Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973
 Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982
 Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977
 Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

United States
 Consumer Product Safety Act – gives the Consumer Product Safety Commission  the power to develop safety standards and pursue recalls for products
 Federal Trade Commission Act – created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prevent unfair competition, deceptive acts, regulate trade, etc.
Privacy laws
 United States National Do Not Call Registry – allows US consumers to limit telemarketing calls they receive.
Food and drug
 Pure Food and Drug Act – led to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate foods, drugs, and more.
Communications
 Communications Act of 1934 – created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate all radio and interstate cable, phone, and satellite communications.
Banking
 Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) – regulates the collection, dissemination, and use of consumer credit information
 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) – eliminates abusive consumer practices, ensures fairness, etc.
 Truth in Lending Act (TILA) – requires clear disclosure of key terms of the lending arrangement and all costs.
Real estate
 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) – prohibits kickbacks and requires lenders to provide a good faith estimate of costs
Health insurance
 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – provides consumer protection for health information
Digital media
 Digital Millennium Copyright Act – prohibits production or sale of devices or services intended to circumvent copyright measures.
 Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (proposed) – would repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Australia
 The Australian Consumer Law
 Division 2 of Part 2 of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 about financial services and products.

See also

Consumer issues

 Airline complaints
 Antitrust
 Better Business Bureau
 Class action
 Competition policy
 Competition regulator
 Consumer complaint
 Consumer organization
 Consumers International
 Cooling-off period
 Credit and debt
 Extended warranty
 Fairtrade labelling
 Federal Trade Commission
 Food safety
 List of food labeling regulations
 Mandatory labelling
 Ombudsman
 Planned obsolescence
 Product recall
 Telephone Consumer Protection Act
 Transparency (market)
 Unfair competition

People
 Florence Kelley
 Ralph Nader
 Phil Radford
 Michael Vernon

References

Further reading

External links

-
 Consumers International
 Role of Regulators in Consumer Protection: Discussion
 Health-EU Portal Consumer Safety in the EU
 OECD Consumer Policy Toolkit Report
 About Econsumer.gov, a portal for consumers to report complaints concerning online and related transactions with foreign companies
 International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) study consumer

Consumer protection law

Consumer protection


Giants of Rome () is a 1964 international co-production sword and sandal set in the Gallic Wars. It was directed by Anthony Dawson and starred Richard Harrison and Wandisa Guida. The film involves a handpicked group of expert soldiers who infiltrate the enemy's stronghold to locate and destroy a secret weapon prior to the Battle of Alesia.

The film is a co-production between Italy's Devon Film and N.C. and France's Radius Productions. Ralph Hudson's only other credited film role was the lead in Tarzak contro gli uomini leopardo/Ape Man of the Jungle also released in 1964.

Plot
In 52 B.C. Julius Caesar is planning to conquer Vercingetorix and Gaul. Prior to the invasion Caesar orders the four "bravest and strongest soldiers in the army" to be sent on an undercover reconnaissance and raiding mission to locate and destroy an unknown but feared secret weapon of the Druids in three days time as Caesar will attack on the dawn of the fourth day.

Centurion Claudius Marcellus leads three other men, Germanicus the strong man, Varus an expert knife thrower and Castor an experienced and highly competent soldier.  The party infiltrates the enemy's lines through the sacrifice of their escort party who launch a suicidal attack on the Druids to attract their attention away from Marcellus' party. Joining the four commandoes is young Valerius; a boy who ran away from a wealthy Roman home to become a Legionary but only became a Gunga Din type labourer.

The party is captured where they are placed next to Livilla, a captured Roman patrician noblewoman and her last surviving member of her Roman Army escort Drusus who has lost his courage and military discipline through constant torture. Called before Vercingetorix, Claudius Marcellus the leader of the group is threatened with torture by heated iron bars but he astounds Vercingetorix by grabbing a hot piece of iron and laying it on his own chest telling the Grand Druid not to waste his time. Taken back to his cell as Vercingetorix schemes better torture, strongman Germanicus is able to bend the bars of the cell so the party can enter the adjoining cell of Livilla and Drusus that makes an escape possible.

Though the Romans now number seven, nearly half their party are not competent soldiers.  Livilla and Valerius have no experience whatsoever, and Drusus is an unknown asset; he has lost all desire to be a Roman soldier and only wishes to return home rather than participate in a suicide mission but during their escape he proves himself highly proficient with a captured bow and quiver of arrows against the enemy.

The group faces further tribulations when Valerius is captured and tortured by the enemy to reveal the mission, location and composition of the party as well as the plans of the main body of Caesar's troops. The Roman party attacks a group of Druids and are burdened with two prisoners; one is a woman who Castor falls in love with.

On the early morning of the day of Caesar's attack, the Romans discovers the secret weapon guarding the mountain pass where Caesar's forces will come through.  The weapon is a catapult that fires flaming pitch into the attack force igniting the terrain and the attacking soldiers.

Cast
 Richard Harrison as Claudius Marcellus
 Wandisa Guida as Livilla
 Ralph Hudson as Germanicus
 Ettore Manni as Castor
 Goffredo Unger as Varus
 Philippe Hersent as Drusus
 Alberto Dell'Acqua as Valerius
 Nicole Tessier as Edua
 Renato Baldini as Vercingetorix
 Piero Lulli as Pompeus
 Alessandro Sperli as Julius Caesar

Release
Giants of Rome was released in Italy on 10 September 1964. It was released in France on 22 December 1965.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

1964 films
1960s historical films
1964 war films
Peplum films
French historical adventure films
1960s Italian-language films
Films directed by Antonio Margheriti
Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli
Gallic Wars films
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Sword and sandal films
Cultural depictions of Pompey
Cultural depictions of Vercingetorix
1960s Italian films

Giants of Rome


The Essex class was a class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. The 20th century's most numerous class of capital ship, the class consisted of 24 vessels, which came in "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two ships were ordered, but as World War II wound down, six were canceled before construction, and two were canceled after construction had begun. Fourteen saw combat during World War II. None were lost to enemy action, though several sustained crippling damage. Essex-class carriers were the backbone of the U.S. Navy from mid-1943 and, with the three  carriers added just after the war, continued to be the heart of U.S. naval strength until supercarriers joined the fleet in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Several of the carriers were rebuilt to handle heavier and faster aircraft of the early jet age, and some served until well after the Vietnam War.

Overview
The preceding s and the designers' list of trade-offs and limitations forced by arms control treaty obligations shaped the development of the Essex class – a design sparked by the Japanese and Italian repudiation of the limitations proposed in the 1936 revision of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (as updated in October 1930 in the London Naval Treaty).  Effectively, this rejection allowed all five signatories to resume the interrupted naval arms race of the 1890s-1910s in early 1937.

At the time of the repudiations, both Italy and Japan had colonial ambitions, intent on or already conducting military conquests.  With the demise of the treaty limitations and the growing tensions in Europe, naval planners were free to apply both the lessons they had learned operating carriers for fifteen years and those of operating the Yorktown-class carriers to the newer design.

Designed to carry a larger air group, and unencumbered by the latest in a succession of pre-war naval treaty limits,  was over sixty feet longer, nearly ten feet wider, and more than a third heavier than Yorktown-class carriers. A longer, wider flight deck and a deck-edge elevator (which had proven successful in the one-off ) facilitated more efficient aviation operations, enhancing the ship's offensive and defensive air power.

Machinery arrangement and armor protection were greatly improved from previous designs. These features, plus the provision of more anti-aircraft guns, gave the ships much enhanced survivability. In fact, during the war, none of the Essex-class carriers were lost and two,  and , came home under their own power and were successfully repaired even after receiving extremely heavy damage.

Debates raged regarding armoring the hangar deck. British designers' comments tended to disparage the use of hangar deck armor, but some historians, such as D.K. Brown in Nelson to Vanguard, see the American arrangement to have been superior. In the late 1930s, locating the strength deck at hangar deck level in the proposed Essex-class ships reduced the weight located high in the ship, resulting in smaller supporting structures and more aircraft capacity for the desired displacement. The  which followed armored both the hangar and flight deck (the latter more heavily).

The larger size of the first supercarriers necessitated a deeper hull and shifted the center of gravity and center of stability lower, enabling moving the strength deck to the flight deck, thus freeing US Naval design architects to move the armor higher and remain within compliance of US Navy stability specifications without imperiling seaworthiness. One of the design studies prepared for the Essex project, "Design 9G", included an armored flight deck but reduced aircraft capacity, and displaced 27,200 tons, or about 1,200 tons more than "Design 9F", which formed the basis of the actual Essex design; 9G became the ancestor of the 45,000-ton Midway class.

Development

After the abrogation of disarmament treaties by Japan in 1936, the U.S. took a realistic look at its naval strength. With the Naval Expansion Act of Congress passed on 17 May 1938, an increase of 40,000 tons in aircraft carriers was authorized. This permitted the building of , which was the third -class carrier, and , which was the lead ship of a new class.

CV-9 was to be the prototype of the 27,000-ton (standard displacement) aircraft carrier, considerably larger than , yet smaller than  (a battlecruiser converted to a carrier). The Navy ordered the first three of the new design, CV-9, CV-10 and CV-11, from Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock on 3 July 1940. These were to become known as Essex-class carriers. Under the terms of the Two-Ocean Navy Act, eight more of these carriers were programmed. Eight were ordered on 9 September, CV-12 through −15 from Newport News, and CV-16 through −19 from Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Shipyard; the last two,  and , were authorized 23 December 1941, with the primary intention of keeping existing slipways busy, and were ordered eight days after Pearl Harbor from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Newport News respectively.

After the US declaration of war, Congress appropriated funds for nineteen more Essex-class carriers. Ten were ordered in August 1942 (CV-31 and 33-35 from Brooklyn, CV-32 from Newport News, CV-36 and -37 from the Philadelphia Navy Yard, CV-38 through -40 from the Norfolk Navy Yard) and three more in June 1943 (CV-45 from Philadelphia, -46 from Newport News and -47 from Fore River). Only two of these were completed in time to see active World War II service. Six ships ordered in 1944 (CV-50 through -55) were canceled before construction was begun.

The Essex-class carriers combined the policy of naming aircraft carriers after historic battles begun with the Lexington class with the policy of naming them for historic navy ships generally followed for the Yorktown class.  The first eight hulls were originally assigned names from historic Navy ships (Essex, Bon Homme Richard, Intrepid, Kearsarge, Franklin, Hancock, Randolph, Cabot).  was originally laid down as Cabot, but was renamed during construction after the previous  was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. , originally to be named Bon Homme Richard, was renamed after the previous  was lost at the Battle of Midway on 7 June 1942. Lexington and Yorktown share the unique distinction of being named after both historic ships and historic battles.

Likewise, 's name was changed from Oriskany after the original  was sunk in September 1942 in the South Pacific near Guadalcanal, and 's name was changed from Kearsarge after the original  was lost in October 1942 in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. The erstwhile Valley Forge was renamed  after  was sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. The names of  and  were swapped while they were under construction: the John Hancock life insurance company had offered to conduct a bond drive to raise money for Hancock if that name was used for the carrier under construction in the company's home state of Massachusetts. USS Shangri-La was named after a facetious remark by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suggesting that the Doolittle Raiders flew from the fictional Himalayan kingdom setting of the novel Lost Horizon.

At the conclusion of the war, the six ships ordered but never laid down (CV-50 through 55) were cancelled. Of the nine still unfinished, six were completed, two (Reprisal and Iwo Jima) were scrapped, and  was taken in hand for modification to an improved design, completing in 1950. In summary, during World War II and until its conclusion, the US Navy ordered 32 aircraft carriers of the Essex class, including the Ticonderoga subgroup, of which 26 were laid down and 24 actually commissioned.

Design

In drawing up the preliminary design for Essex, particular attention was directed at the size of both the flight and hangar decks. Aircraft design had come a long way from the comparatively light planes used in carriers during the 1930s. Flight decks now required more takeoff space for the heavier aircraft being developed. Moreover, US carrier doctrine was premised on the "deck-load strike", launching as rapidly as possible as many aircraft as could be spotted on the flight deck beforehand. Most of the first-line carriers of the pre-war years were equipped with flush deck catapults, but, owing to the speed and size of these ships, very little catapulting was done except for experimental purposes.

With the advent of war, airplane weights began to go up as armor and armament got heavier; aircrew complements also increased. By the war's end in 1945, catapult launches would become more common under these circumstances, with some carrier commanding officers reporting up to 40% of launches by catapult.

The hangar area design came in for many design conferences between the naval bureaus. Not only were the supporting structures to the flight deck required to carry the increased weight of landing and parked aircraft, but they were to have sufficient strength to support the storing of spare fuselages and parts (50% of each operational plane type aboard, hence 33% of carried aircraft) under the flight deck and still provide adequate working space for the men using the area below.

One innovation in Essex was a portside deck-edge elevator in addition to two inboard elevators. The deck-edge elevator was adopted in the design after it proved successful on . Experiments had also been made with hauling aircraft by crane up a ramp between the hangar and flight decks, but this method proved too slow. The Navy's Bureau of Ships and the chief engineer of A.B.C. Elevator Co. designed the engine for the side elevator. It was a standard elevator,  in platform surface, which traveled vertically on the port side of the ship. There would be no large hole in the flight deck when the elevator was in the "down" position, a critical factor if the elevator ever became inoperable during combat operations. Its new position made it easier to continue normal operations on deck, irrespective of the position of the elevator. The elevator also increased the effective deck space when it was in the "up" position by providing additional parking room outside the normal contours of the flight deck, and increased the effective area on the hangar deck by the absence of elevator pits. In addition, its machinery was less complex than the two inboard elevators, requiring about 20% fewer man-hours of maintenance.

Ongoing improvements to the class were made, particularly with regard to the ventilation system, lighting systems, and the trash burner design and implementation.

These carriers had better armor protection than their predecessors, better facilities for handling ammunition, safer and greater fueling capacity, and more effective damage control equipment. Yet, these ships were also designed to limit weight and the complexity of construction, for instance incorporating extensive use of flat and straight metal pieces, and of Special Treatment Steel (STS), a nickel-chrome steel alloy that provided the same protective qualities as Class B armor plate, but which was fully structural rather than deadweight.

The original design for the class assumed a complement of 215 officers and 2,171 enlisted men. However, by the end of World War II, most crews were 50% larger than that.

The tactical employment of U.S. carriers changed as the war progressed. In early operations, through 1942, the doctrine was to operate singly or in pairs, joining together for the offense and separating when on the defense—the theory being that a separation of carriers under attack not only provided a protective screen for each, but also dispersed the targets and divided the enemy's attack. Combat experience in those early operations did not bear out the theory, and new proposals for tactical deployment were the subject of much discussion.

As the new Essex- and -class carriers became available, tactics changed. Experience taught the wisdom of combined strength. Under attack, the combined anti-aircraft fire of a task group's carriers and their screen provided a more effective umbrella of protection against marauding enemy aircraft than was possible when the carriers separated.

When two or more of these task groups supported each other, they constituted a fast carrier task force. Lessons learned from operating the carriers as a single group of six, as two groups of three, and three groups of two, provided the basis for many tactics that later characterized carrier task force operations, with the evolution of the fast carrier task force and its successful employment in future operations.

Armaments

Air group
The original aircraft complement, nicknamed the "Sunday Punch", was the pride of the carrier and consisted of the offensive power of 36 fighters, 36 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo bombers. The Grumman F6F Hellcat would be the standard fighter, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver the standard scout aircraft and dive bomber, and the Grumman TBF Avenger as the torpedo bomber, but also often used in other attack roles. Later in the war some Essexes, such as , also included Vought F4U Corsairs in fighter-bomber squadrons (VBFs), the precursor to modern fighter-attack squadrons (VFAs). In the last year of the Pacific War, all of the carrier-based combat aircraft could mount several 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVARs), which greatly improved their effectiveness against ground targets.

Guns, radar and radios
The defensive plan was to use radio and radar in a combined effort to concentrate anti-aircraft fire.

The class as designed mounted twelve 5 in (127 mm) 38 caliber gun mounts (4 enclosed twin mounts located near the island on the starboard side and 4 single open mounts located on the port side forward and port side aft), these guns had a maximum range of seven miles and a rate of fire of fifteen rounds per minute.  The 5-inch guns could fire VT shells, known as proximity fuzed-shells, that would detonate when they came close to an enemy aircraft. The 5-inch guns could also aim into the water, creating waterspouts which could bring down low flying aircraft such as torpedo planes.

In addition there were seventeen quadruple Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and 65 single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. The Bofors 40 mm guns were a significant improvement over the 1.1 in/75 caliber guns mounted in the earlier  and  classes.

The Essex class also made use of the latest technology and communications equipment. All units were commissioned with SK air-search and SC and SG surface-search radars. Several of the class received SM fighter-direction radar. Two Mark 37 fire control directors fitted with FD Mark 4 tracking radar for the 5"/38 battery were installed; the Mk4 proved inadequate at distinguishing low-level intruders from surface clutter and was quickly replaced with the improved Mark 12/Mark 22 combination. 40mm AA batteries were controlled by Mark 51 optical directors with integrated gyro gun-sight lead-angle calculators. A Plan Position Indicator (PPI) display was used to keep track of ships and enabled a multi-carrier force to maintain a high-speed formation at night or in foul weather. The new navigational tool known as the Dead Reckoning Tracer was also implemented for navigation and tracking of surface ships. Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) was used to identify hostile ships and aircraft, especially at night or in adverse weather. The four-channel Very High Frequency (VHF) radio permitted channel variation in an effort to prevent enemy interception of transmissions. It also allowed for simultaneous radio contact with other ships and planes in the task force.

Essex "long-hull" (Ticonderoga subclass)

Beginning in March 1943, one very visually significant change was authorized for ships then in the early stages of construction. This involved lengthening the bow above the waterline into a "clipper" form. The increased rake and flare provided deck space for an additional quadruple 40 mm mount; these units also had the flight deck slightly shortened forward to provide better arcs of fire. Of the Essex-class ships laid down after 1942, only  followed the original "short bow" design. The later ships have been variously referred to as the "long-bow units", the "long-hull group", or the "Ticonderoga class". However, the U.S. Navy never maintained any institutional distinction between the long-hull and short-hull members of the Essex class, and postwar refits and upgrades were applied to both groups equally. Less immediately visible aspects of the March 1943 design modification included safer ventilation and aviation-fuel systems, moving the combat information center below the armored deck, the addition of a second flight-deck catapult, the elimination of the hangar deck catapult, and a third Mk 37 fire-control director; some of these changes were also made to short-bow ships nearing completion or as they returned to the yards.

Modifications were made throughout the Essex building program. The number of 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns was greatly increased, new and improved radars were added, the original hangar deck catapult was removed, the ventilation system was substantially revised, details of protection were altered, and hundreds of other large and small changes were executed. In the meantime, earlier ships were continually modified as they returned to the yard for repair and overhaul. For example, , one of the first to be commissioned, by the end of the war had received two H-4B flight deck catapults in place of her original single H-4A; three quad 40 mm mounts below the island to starboard, three more on the port side and one additional on both the starboard quarter and the stern; twenty-one additional 20 mm mounts; SM fighter-control radar; FD Mk 4 radar replaced with Mk 12/22; and an enlarged flag bridge. In fact, to the skilled observer, no two ships of the class looked exactly the same.

Post-war rebuilds

The large numbers of new ships, coupled with their larger  contemporaries, sustained the Navy's air power through the rest of the 1940s, the Korean War era, and beyond. While the spacious hangars accommodated the introduction of jets, various modifications significantly improved the capability of fifteen of the ships to handle the jets' increased weight and speed. Among these modification were jet-blast deflectors (JBDs), greater aviation fuel capacity, stronger decks and elevators. Also included were the British innovations of an optical landing system, steam catapults and, ultimately, an angled flight deck.

All of the short-hulls were laid up in 1946–47 along with five of the long-hulls. Eight of the last nine ships completed stayed on active duty to form, with three Midways, the backbone of the post-war Navy's combat strength. Though the Truman administration's defense economies sent three of the active Essexes into "mothballs" in 1949, these soon came back into commission after the Korean War began. Ultimately, all but two short-hulls and all thirteen long-hulls had active Cold War service.

, which had been left unfinished at the end of the war, was completed to an improved design between August 1948 and September 1950, with a much stronger (straight) flight deck and a reconfigured island. Eight earlier ships were thoroughly rebuilt to the Oriskany design under the SCB-27A program in the early 1950s. Six more of the earlier ships were rebuilt to an improved 27C design as the last stage of the SCB-27 program; these ships received steam catapults instead of the less powerful hydraulic units. The otherwise unmodified  received an experimental 10.5-degree angled deck in 1952. An angled flight deck and enclosed hurricane bow became the distinctive features of the SCB-125 program, which was undertaken concurrently with the last three 27C conversions and later applied to all 27A and 27C ships except .  became the first operational United States angled deck aircraft carrier in 1955. Oriskany, the first of the modernized ships but the last angled-deck conversion, received a unique SCB-125A refit which upgraded her to 27C standard, and included steam catapults and an aluminum flight deck.

Korean War and subsequent Cold War needs ensured twenty-two of the twenty-four ships had extensive post–World War II service ( and  had suffered heavy damage and were never recommissioned). All initially carried attack air groups; however by 1955 seven unconverted Essexes were operating under the anti-submarine warfare carrier (CVS) designation established in August 1953. As the  "supercarriers" entered the fleet, the eight 27A conversions were designated CVS to replace the original unconverted ships; the latter began to leave active service in the late 1950s. Two 27C conversions were designated CVS in 1962 (although CVS-11  would operate as an attack carrier off Vietnam) and two more in 1969. The seven angle-deck 27As and one 27C received specialized CVS modifications including bow-mounted SQS-23 sonar under the SCB-144 program in the early 1960s. The updated units remained active until age and the growing number of supercarriers made them obsolete, from the late 1960s into the middle 1970s. However, one of the first of the type, , served until 1991 as a training ship. Four of the modernized ships (Yorktown, Intrepid, Hornet, and Lexington) have been preserved as museums; the remainder were scrapped starting in the 1970s save Oriskany, which the Navy contemplated reactivating in the 1980s and which was eventually scuttled as an artificial reef off the Florida coast in 2006.

Of the unmodernized Essexes, , , and  were redesignated Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) amphibious assault ships for the Marine Corps, and remained in commission with their original straight decks until about 1970. The remainder decommissioned in the late 1950s and early 1960s and were promptly reclassified as aircraft transports (AVT), reflecting their very limited ability to operate modern aircraft safely. An unmodernised Essex was offered to the Royal Australian Navy in 1960 as a replacement for  but the offer was declined due to the expense of modifications required to make it operationally compatible with the RAN's primarily British-designed fleet. All were scrapped, most in the 1970s.

Evolution of the air wing
For a typical attack carrier (CVA) configuration in 1956–57 aboard , the air wing consisted of one squadron each of the following: FJ-3 Furies, F2H Banshees, F9F Cougars, AD-6, AD-5N, and AD-5W Skyraiders, AJ-2 Savages, and F9F-8P photo Cougars.

By the mid-to-late 1960s, the attack air wing had evolved. Oriskany deployed with two squadrons of F-8J Crusaders, three squadrons of A-4E Skyhawks, E-1 Tracers, EKA-3B Skywarriors, and RF-8G photo Crusaders. In 1970, the three A-4 squadrons were replaced by two squadrons of A-7A Corsair IIs. The F-4 Phantom II and A-6 Intruder were considered too heavy to operate from the Essex-class.

Tasked and fitted out as an ASW carrier (CVS), the air wing of an Essex such as Bennington in the 1960s consisted of two squadrons of S2F Trackers and one squadron of SH-34 Seabat ASW helicopters (replaced in 1964 by SH-3A Sea Kings). Airborne early warning was first provided by modified EA-1Es; these were upgraded in 1965 to E-1Bs. A small detachment of A-4Bs or A-4Cs (4 aircraft) were also embarked to provide daylight fighter protection for the ASW aircraft.

Landing platform helicopter–converted ships such as Boxer never had an angled landing deck installed and flew only helicopters such as the UH-34 Seahorse and CH-46 Sea Knight. Four converted Essex-class ships served alongside the purpose built s providing floating helicopter bases for US Marines. The LPHs were sometimes also used as aircraft ferries for all branches of the U.S. armed forces. The AV-8A arrived into Marine Corps inventory too late to see regular fixed wing operations return to these ships. It was possible to launch and recover small aircraft like the OV-10 Bronco without need of catapult or arresting wires, but this was very rarely permitted on these straight-deck ships for safety reasons and to avoid interruption of helicopter operations.

Military contributions
One author called the Essex class "the most significant class of warships in American naval history", citing the large number produced and "their role in making the aircraft carrier the backbone of the U.S. Navy."

Essex-class ships played a central role in the Pacific theater of World War II from 1943 through the end of the war, beginning with raids in the central Pacific and the invasion of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. The ships successfully performed a number of missions, included air superiority, attacking the Japanese fleet, supporting landings, fleet protection, bombing the Japanese home islands, and transporting aircraft and troops. Along the way, the carriers survived bombs, torpedoes, kamikazes, and typhoons without one ship being sunk.

Eleven of the Essex carriers participated in the Korean War. These ships played a major role throughout the entire war. Missions included attacks on all types of ground targets, air superiority, and antisubmarine patrols.

Thirteen of the twenty-four carriers originally built participated in the Vietnam War, including the prelude and follow-up. However, their inability to support the latest aircraft constrained some of those ships to specialized roles as helicopter carriers or antisubmarine platforms. The ships still performing an attack mission generally carried older aircraft types than the supercarriers. Yet, the Essex class still made significant contributions to all aspects of the U.S. war effort. In one notable event, during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, aircraft from Ticonderoga fired at North Vietnamese torpedo boats that had attacked a U.S. destroyer.

The carriers also contributed between the wars, projecting U.S. power around the world and performing antisubmarine patrols. When the Cold War heated up, the Essex carriers were often involved, including Quemoy and the Matsu Islands, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also, from 1957 through 1991 an Essex-class ship served as the Navy's training carrier—Antietam from 1957 through 1962 and Lexington for the remainder of the time.

Space program
Several Essex-class ships played a part in the United States' human spaceflight program, as recovery ships for uncrewed and crewed spaceflights, between 1960 and 1973.

USS Valley Forge was the recovery ship for the uncrewed flight of Mercury-Redstone 1A on 19 December 1960. The first spaceflight by an American was on Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7), recovered by Lake Champlain on 5 May 1961.  recovered the next flight, Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), on 21 July 1961, and she was the primary recovery ship for Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7), the first orbital flight by an American. The next crewed flight, Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7), was picked up by Intrepid on 24 May 1962, and  recovered the last two Mercury spacecraft, Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7), on 3 October 1962, and Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7), on 16 May 1963.

When the Mercury program's successor, Project Gemini, got underway, Essexes were again closely involved. Lake Champlain recovered the second uncrewed flight, Gemini 2, on 19 January 1965; and Intrepid recovered the first crewed flight, Gemini 3. Wasp recovered the crew of Gemini IV on 7 June, and on 29 August, Lake Champlain picked up Gemini 5 after eight days in space. In December 1965, Wasp made history by picking up two spacecraft in just over two days: Gemini VI-A on 16 December, and Gemini 7 on 18 December, after their orbital rendezvous test flight. She also recovered Gemini 9A on 6 June 1966 and the final Gemini spaceflight, Gemini 12 on 15 November.

The successful use of the carriers as recovery ships continued into the Apollo program. On 26 February 1966, Boxer recovered the command module from AS-201, the first uncrewed flight of a production Apollo Command and Service Module. AS-202, another sub-orbital test flight of the command module, was recovered in August by Hornet; the command module from that flight is currently on display aboard Hornet. Bennington recovered the command module of Apollo 4, the first uncrewed flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, on 9 November 1967.

Eleven months later, Essex recovered the astronauts of Apollo 7, the first crewed mission in the Apollo program, after eleven days in orbit. Yorktown recovered the astronauts of Apollo 8, after their historic flight around the Moon in December 1968;  and Princeton recovered the second crew to orbit the Moon, aboard Apollo 10, in May 1969.

Hornet rejoined the program and recovered the astronauts from the first two Moon landing missions, Apollo 11 in July 1969 and Apollo 12 in November. The first steps on Earth of returning astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins, are marked on her hangar deck, as part of her Apollo program exhibit. The three subsequent missions utilized amphibious assault ships as support vessels; however, Ticonderoga recovered the astronauts of the last two moon missions, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 in April and December 1972.

In the post-Apollo era, Ticonderoga again acted as a recovery ship for the astronauts of Skylab 2, the first crewed mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station, in June 1973.

Remaining ships
Four Essex-class ships have been preserved, and opened to the public as museums:
 Yorktown, at Patriot's Point, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
 Intrepid, in New York City
 Hornet, in Alameda, California
 Lexington, at Corpus Christi, Texas.

Until  opened at San Diego, every preserved aircraft carrier in the U.S. was an Essex.

Oriskany was scuttled in 2006 to form an artificial reef off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, and can be visited by experienced divers.

Ships in class

Construction notes:

Hull numbers 22–30 in the aircraft carrier sequence were assigned to the  light carriers (CVL); hull numbers 41–44 were assigned to the large carriers (CVB) of the .

Reprisal, laid down in July 1944 at the New York Navy Yard and launched in 1945, had her construction cancelled on 12 August 1945 due to the cessation of hostilities when the ship was about half complete. She was scrapped incomplete after tests.  was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding yards in January 1945, but was cancelled in August 1945 for the same reasons. She was broken up on the slipway.

Six fiscal-year 1945 ships, none of which received names, were assigned to Fore River (CV-50), Brooklyn Navy Yard (CV-51 and CV-52), Philadelphia Navy Yard (CV-53) and Norfolk Navy Yard (CV-54 and CV-55). Their construction was canceled in March 1945.

 was ordered and laid down as an Essex-class vessel, was completed in 1950 to the much modified SCB-27 design, and from commissioning until her reconstruction 1957–59 was listed as the lead ship of the separate Oriskany class.

Later class assignments
Successive rebuildings and changing roles meant that the original unitary Essex class became divided by the Navy into several classes, which went through many shifts and re-namings. According to the United States Naval Vessel Register the final class assignments were
 CVS-10 Yorktown class (SCB-27A): Essex, Yorktown, Hornet, Randolph, Wasp, Bennington, Kearsarge, Lake Champlain
 CVS-11 Intrepid class (SCB-27C + SCB-144): Intrepid
 CVA-19 Hancock class (SCB-27C): Ticonderoga, Hancock, Bon Homme Richard, Oriskany, Shangri-La
 AVT-8 Franklin class (unreconstructed ships): Franklin, Bunker Hill, Leyte, Antietam, Tarawa, Philippine Sea
 AVT-16 Lexington class (training carrier): Lexington
 LPH-4 Boxer class (helicopter assault conversions): Boxer, Princeton, Valley Forge

See also

 List of ship classes of the Second World War

Notes

References

  .

Aircraft carrier classes

 Essex-class aircraft carriers
 Essex-class aircraft carriers
 Essex-class aircraft carriers
 Essex-class aircraft carriers

Essex-class aircraft carrier


Pierre Belain, sieur d'Esnambuc (; 1585–1636) was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635.

Biography

Youth
Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was the fifth child of Nicholas Belain, lord of Quenouville and of Esnambuc. He was baptized in the Saint-Quentin church in Allouville-Bellefosse, in Normandy, on March 9, 1585.

The domain of Quenouville suffered under the Wars of Religion which laid waste the Pays de Caux. Nicholas Belain had to borrow 2,400 books from the Duke of Cossé-Brissac which was swollen by interest. After his death in 1599, his children had to pay the debt. François, the eldest and heir of the domain of Quenouville, decided to sell the domain of Esnambuc. The other land was sold in 1610. Pierre Belain ought not therefore to have borne this title, which he nonetheless did during later years. In 1603, when he was 18 years old, he embarked as "mathelot" on "le petit Orqui".

Commerce and Freebooting

Belain, commanding a 14-gun brigantine with a crew of 40, practiced artisanal piracy. He also traded between Havre de Grace and the Caribbean, assisted in this by Jean Cavelet de Hertelay, a great shipowner of Havre and director of "the Romaine." With the purchase of the Marquisate of Graville, Hertelay became the agent of Richelieu, purchaser of several maritime domains.

Upon the Peace of Vervins, the French refused to recognize the right of the pope to award sovereignty of the ocean at will. A verbal clause stipulated that below the meridian of El Hierro, called the Line of Friendship, force would decide sovereignty and war could reign without affecting the peace between the nations in Europe. The Twelve Years' Truce signed in 1609 between the Netherlands and Spain, mediated by England and France, allowed the development of navigation to the Caribbean. Navigation being freed, Pierre Belain sought to affiliate himself with Urbain du Roissey, lord of Chardonville, to rebuild his fortune through navigating the ocean, the only risk being to encounter a Spanish ship. For 15 years, he traversed the seas with no great success.

In 1620, he was captain of the Marquise, and in 1623 he was helmsman of the Espérance. In 1623, a race against a Spanish Galleon backfired on the pirate, who found refuge on Saint Kitts where 400 British colonists had just arrived. The English and the French, weakened by their respective voyages, came to an agreement to share the little Caribbean island.

Colonization
In 1626 he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region by convincing him of the opportunity for profitable cultivation of tobacco, sugar cane, achiote, and indigo. It would also be an opportunity to extend the influence of France and Christendom. Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, created to accomplish all this with D'Esnambuc at its head.

In 1627, Esnambuc left Havre to set up on Saint Kitts, in which he had already been preceded by the Huguenots under François Levasseur. Since Saint Kitts had been shared with the English under the explorer Thomas Warner, the English occupied the central portion while the French took the two extremities. The conditions were very difficult for the French colonists who were poorly provisioned by the company. They survived through trade with the Dutch. In 1628 a French pirate ship seized two caravels containing 57 Moriscoes and Mulattoes whom they unloaded at Saint Kitts. This is the first known introduction of slavery in a French colony. Trade with foreign slave ships, though illegal, was tolerated by colonial authorities in the face of the rising demand for labor. In the beginning of 1529, the French colony on Saint Kitts was accounted 500 Frenchmen and 52 Blacks (of which 40 were men and 12 were women).

In September 1629 the Spanish destroyed the French establishments on Saint Kitts and the colonists fled to surrounding islands.

Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique
After the failure of the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, Richelieu granted Belain the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique, created February 12, 1635. The company tasked Jean du Plessis d'Ossonville and Charles Liénard de L'Olive with the colonization of Guadeloupe. Meanwhile, Esnambuc went ashore in Martinique with 150 French colonists from Saint Kitts, then founded the fort of Saint-Pierre on behalf of the French crown and the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. He left Jacques Dupont with command of the fort and regained Saint Kitts. He took possession of Dominica in November 1635 guided by a captain from Dieppe, Pierre Baillardel. Dupont, after having withstood an attack of Caribs, was taken prisoner by the Spanish during a voyage to check on Saint Kitts. Esnambuc subsequently named his nephew, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, as governor of Martinique in September 1636.

Having spent six months on Martinique, D'Esnambuc returned to Saint Christopher, where he soon died of illness, according to Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre.

Parquet inherited D'Esnambuc's authority over the French settlements in the Caribbean. He remained in Martinique and did not concern himself with the other islands. Open warfare led to the French expelling surviving Carib from St Christophe in 1644.

Legacy
Upon hearing of the death of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, Richelieu declared: "The king has lost one of his most valuable servants."

A statue of the adventurer was erected in the Place de la Savane in Fort-de-France in 1935, on the occasion of the tricentennial of his taking of Martinique on behalf of King Louis XIII. In the 1970s, the statue was moved to the southwest corner of the square. As a symbol of French colonialism, it is occasionally the object of graffiti, for example in October 2018 and February 2020. On July 26, 2020, the statue was toppled by anticolonial activists, decapitated, and struck by sledgehammers to the sound of drums and chanting.

There is a "rue Belain d'Esnambuc" in Havre.

A banana boat in the service of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (acquired from Norway) bore his name from 1939 until 1942, when it was commandeered by the Kriegsmarine, repurposed as a minelayer, and rechristened "Pommern". It sank in the Mediterranean in 1943 after striking an Italian mine.

In 1935, for the three hundredth anniversary of the French Antilles, the French postal service released several postage stamps engraved with d'Esnambuc's image by Jules Piel. The 40 centime stamps were grey, the 50 centime stamps were vermillion, and the 1 franc 50 stamps were blue.

In 1946, the Caisse centrale de la France d'outre-mer issued a 50 franc bank note bearing an image of Belain d'Esnambuc.

A long road of his hometown in Allouville-Bellefosse, and the village hall at  20 rue Jacques Anquetil, facing the office of tourism, built in 1945 and completely renovated in 2017, bears his name.

A bas relief, a square about 3 feet on each side, sculpted in slate, has been affixed since 1985 (for the four hundredth anniversary of his birth) in the lower part of the southern wall of the belltower-porch—above the relief is a great clock—on the side of the rue du Doctor Patenotre, facing the Chêne chapelle in Allouville-Bellefosse.

For the Heritage Days of September 17 and 18 2016, the commune of Allouville-Bellefosse organized an exposition dedicated to the navigator in its church Saint-Quentin, as well as a conference on him given by Marie-José Mainot.

See also
History of Saint Kitts and Nevis

References

External links
Catholic Encyclopedia article

History of Martinique
1585 births
1636 deaths
French Governors of Martinique
Governors general of the French Antilles
French governors of Saint Christopher Island
17th-century French businesspeople
17th century in Martinique

Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc


,

The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe. It includes three neighboring monarchies, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. They are in the north western European region between France and Germany. The name is formed from the beginning of each country's name. The Benelux region has a total population of about 27,562,220 and an area of about 74,640 km² (28,819 sq mi).

History
On 25 july 1921, the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union was established, a treaty which is still upheld. Following World War II, the harsh economic climate in Europe led to a further desire for economic cooporation between Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands. The Benelux Customs Convention was signed in London on 5 September 1944, by the three governments-in-exile in London. The treaty officially entered into force in 1948. On 1 November 1960, the customs union was superseded by the Benelux Economic Union treaty, signed in The Hague on 3 February 1958. The treaty contributed to the founding of the European Union (EU), serving as a proving ground for succesful economic cooperation within Europe.

Politics
A Benelux Parliament (originally referred to as Interparliamentary Consultative Council) was created in 1955. This parliamentary assembly is composed of 21 members of the Dutch parliament, 21 members of the Belgian national and regional parliaments, and 7 members of the Luxembourgish parliament. The treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union (Benelux Economische Unie/Union Économique Benelux) was signed 3 February 1958 and came into force in 1960 to promote the free movement of workers, capital, services, and goods in the region. Its secretariat-general is located in Brussels.

Law
In 1965, the treaty establishing a Benelux Court of Justice was signed. It entered into force in 1975. The Court, composed of judges from the highest courts of the three States, has to guarantee the uniform interpretation of common legal rules. This international judicial institution is in Brussels.

The Benelux is particularly active in the field of intellectual property. The three countries established a Benelux Trademarks Office and a Benelux Designs Office, both in The Hague. In 2005, they concluded a treaty establishing a Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property which replaced both offices upon its entry into force on 1 September 2006.

Geography, demographics and languages
Dutch and French are the official languages of the Benelux and its institutions. Out of the total of 27.2 million people living in the member states 22.5 million (83 percent) speak Dutch and 3.9 million (14%) speak French, of whom 3.4 million are Walloons and 0.5 million are Luxembourgians (that speak German and Luxembourgish), whereas 3% is bilingual Dutch-French.

Sports
In 2000, Belgium and the Netherlands jointly hosted the UEFA European Championship. In June 2007, representatives of the three countries announced they would be, as a "single country", bidding for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Future
The treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union expired in 2010. It has been replaced by a new legal framework, also dealing with matters of sustainable development, judiciary and internal affairs.

References

Other websites
 Benelux Economic Union  - Official site
 Benelux Parliament - Official site
 Benelux Court of Justice  - Official site
 Benelux Office for Intellectual Property  - Official site

Benelux


Jacques Flynn,  (August 22, 1915 – September 21, 2000) was a Canadian lawyer and federal politician, serving in both the House of Commons and Senate.

Flynn was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, the grandson of the Premier of Quebec Edmund James Flynn. He both graduated in law from Université Laval and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1939.

A Progressive Conservative, Flynn ran unsuccessfully to represent the riding of Quebec South in the House of Commons in the 1957 election; he came second to the Liberal incumbent, Frank Power. He narrowly defeated Power in a rematch in Quebec South in the 1958 election when John Diefenbaker led the PC Party to a landslide victory.

Flynn became Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada in 1960. In December 1961, Prime Minister Diefenbaker brought Flynn into the Cabinet of Canada as Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys, a position he held until losing his seat to Liberal challenger Jean-Charles Cantin in the 1962 election that reduced the Conservatives to a minority government. Later that year, he was appointed to the Senate.

Flynn served as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1967 until the 1979 election that brought the Tories back to power. Prime Minister Joe Clark brought Flynn into Cabinet as Minister of Justice. It was unusual for a senator to hold such a senior cabinet portfolio, but as the Conservatives were elected with virtually no representation from Quebec, it was necessary to attempt to achieve regional balance in Cabinet by appointing senators to the body.

With the defeat of the Clark government to Pierre Trudeau's Liberals in the 1980 election, Flynn returned to the position of Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. He continued in that role until the PCs, now led by Brian Mulroney, returned to government in 1984. He remained in the Upper House until his retirement in 1990.

In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

References

External links

1915 births
2000 deaths
Canadian legal scholars
Canadian senators from Quebec
Lawyers in Quebec
Members of the 18th Canadian Ministry
Members of the 21st Canadian Ministry
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec
Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Saint-Hyacinthe
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada senators
Quebec people of Irish descent
Université Laval alumni
20th-century Canadian lawyers
Canadian King's Counsel
Academic staff of Université Laval

Jacques Flynn


Horst Krüger (September 17, 1919 Magdeburg – October 21, 1999 Frankfurt am Main) was a German novelist. His autobiographical debut novel, A Crack in the Wall: Growing Up Under Hitler (original title Das Zerbrochene Haus. Eine Jugend in Deutschland or The Broken House: A Youth in Germany) is regarded as an exemplary portrait of youth in Germany in the time of the Third Reich, and received international acclaim. His travel literature on various parts of the world has found a wide audience.

Biography
Horst Krüger grew up in Berlin. He studied philosophy and literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Freiburg. From 1952 to 1967 he ran a literature program on a Baden-Baden radio-station. After 1967 he lived in Frankfurt am Main working as a freelance writer. He wrote travel stories, which often took an ethnographic-perspective and dispensed with the style current in feuilletons. Running themes in Krüger's work were Germany's Nazi past and its aftermath, the partition of Germany and his own youth in Berlin-Eichkamp.

Krüger was a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and PEN.

1919 births
1999 deaths
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
20th-century German novelists
German male novelists
20th-century German male writers

Horst Krüger


John O. Agwunobi is a Scottish-born Nigerian-American former public health official, pediatrician, and the former chief executive officer and executive chairman of Herbalife Nutrition. He was formerly senior vice-president of Walmart and president of the retailer's health and wellness business from 2007 to 2014.

Agwunobi served as assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and was Florida's secretary of health and state health officer from 2000 to 2005.

Early life and education
Agwunobi was born in Dundee, Scotland to a Nigerian father of Igbo descent, who was a British-trained physician, and Scottish mother. As a teen, Agwunobi's family moved to Nigeria, where he attended high school and university. He received his medical training at the University of Jos, where his father was a professor of medicine. His brother, Andrew Agwunobi, is CEO of UConn Health and interim president of the University of Connecticut.

Agwunobi has a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, a master of business administration from Georgetown University, and a certification as a managed care executive from the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP). He completed his pediatric residency at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC, rotating between Children's National Medical Center and the District of Columbia General Hospital.

Public office

Prior to his service in the federal government, Agwunobi served as Florida's secretary of health under Governor Jeb Bush from 2000 to 2005. He led Florida's public health response to four major hurricanes that struck the state in 2004. In addition, Agwunobi led the department's response to the nation's first anthrax attack, subsequently guiding the state's nationally recognized efforts to prepare for, prevent and mitigate the effects of a bioterrorism attack.

Agwunobi served as the 12th assistant secretary for health (ASH) from January 4, 2006, to September 4, 2007. The Senate confirmed him for the position on December 17, 2005. During his term as the ASH, he oversaw the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the office of the U.S. Surgeon General and was a member of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service, and held the rank of four-star admiral. He also served as the U.S. representative on the World Health Organization executive board.

Agwunobi has served as vice-chair of the United States African Development Foundation. He has served as a board adviser to Shopko, a specialty retail store holding corporation and board director for Magellan Health Services.

Corporate career

Walmart
In September 2007, Agwunobi was announced as Walmart's top medical professional working to expand the retailer's growth into the healthcare and wellness business. He led a team of more than 65,000 employees at the company's pharmacies, vision centers and healthcare clinics. Agwunobi later became the senior vice-president of Walmart, where he "drove down prescription medication costs and provided ongoing savings through our pharmacy offerings" before leaving in 2014.

Herbalife Nutrition
In 2016, Agwunobi joined Herbalife Nutrition, a multi-level marketing company based in California, as its chief health and nutrition officer. He became co-president in 2018 and was announced as its next chief executive officer and executive chairman in March 2020. After assuming the role, Agwunobi stated that he would focus the company's investments on weight management and sports performance. Dr. John Agwunobi departed Herbalife Nutrition in October 2022 and former CEO Michael O. Johnson was named Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer.

References

External links
 White House bio of Agwunobi

American chief executives
American people of Scottish descent
American public health doctors
American politicians of Nigerian descent
Florida Republicans
George W. Bush administration personnel
Howard University alumni
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni
Living people
McDonough School of Business alumni
Nigerian emigrants to the United States
Nigerian pediatricians
Nigerian people of Scottish descent
People associated with direct selling
People from Dundee
State cabinet secretaries of Florida
United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps admirals
University of Jos alumni
Walmart people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Scottish emigrants to the United States

John O. Agwunobi


Andì Meriem Matalatta (August 31, 1957 – June 4, 2010) was an Indonesian pop singer known for hits, especially during the 1980s.  She was nicknamed "The Pearl from the South" among Indonesians.

She was born on August 31, 1957, in Makassar, Sulawesi, Indonesia, as the fifth of six children. She had one daughter, Diana, with her first husband, Bambang Hertasning. She later remarried to her second husband, Hendra Pribadi.

Andì Meriem Matalatta died at a hospital in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands, of complications of multiple illnesses, including diabetes, on June 4, 2010, at the age of 53. She had been visiting the Netherlands with her daughter, Diana. She had been suffering from a gangrenous wound on her hand and hypertension.

Her body was flown back to Indonesia for her funeral.

References

External links
Andi Meriem Matalatta Dies at 52 in Netherlands

1957 births
2010 deaths
Bugis people
20th-century Indonesian women singers
Indonesian pop singers
People from Makassar
Deaths from diabetes

Andi Meriem Matalatta


Lip gloss is a cosmetic used primarily to give lips a glossy luster, and sometimes to add a subtle color. It is distributed as a fluid or a soft solid (not to be confused with lip balm, which generally has medical or soothing purposes, or lipstick, which generally is a solid, cream-like substance that gives off a more pigmented color.) The product is available in ranges of opacity from translucent to solid and can have variously frosted, glittery, glossy, and metallic finishes.

Types
Like lipstick, lip gloss comes in a variety of forms and may be applied in different ways. It can be contained in a small cylinder and applied with a rounded or sloped applicator wand (known as a doe foot applicator) or with a built in lip brush. It can come in a small, soft, squeezable plastic tube designed to be passed over the lips or applied with a fingertip or lip brush. Solid or semisolid glosses come in boxes or tubes and sometimes blur the distinction between lip gloss and lip balm.

Basic lip gloss simply adds shine to the lips without color. Colored lip gloss adds a combination of color and shine. Glittery lip gloss has a glitter base, with or without color.

New types of "plumping" lip gloss contain ingredients that make the lips appear softer and plumper. These are a cheap, easy, and usually harmless alternative if compared to collagen, Restylane, Juvederm, or fat injections. Such lip glosses are popularly known as lifter glosses. They are not as effective, however because the effects are temporary. Plumping lip gloss can also leave a burning sensation on the lips when first applied.

Lip gloss is often used when a person wants to have some color on their lips, but does not want an intense, solid lip color effect (i.e., a more "made-up" look), as a lipstick would create. Lip gloss is also often used as an introduction to makeup. You can find light shimmery lip glosses in many introduction to makeup kits. It is often used by preteen and young teenage girls who want to wear some makeup, but are too young to wear more intense lipstick colors. It is also common for young women who do not like to wear makeup but have to attend a formal occasion. It can be applied on top of lipstick to increase the gloss of a color, or to add depth as in the case of glitter gloss.

Ingredients
Like lipstick, lip gloss is a mixture of waxes, oils, and pigments. However, lip gloss contains fewer pigments, and those used are often pale in color or diluted (<3%).  Furthermore, the free-flowing nature of the product requires less wax.  The principal components are lanolin, which feels good on the lips due to its moisturizing qualities and imparts gloss, and polybutene.

History
Lip gloss was invented by Max Factor in 1930. He wanted to create a lip product that would make lips shiny and glossy for films. Factor created makeup for the movie industry. He developed makeup specifically for actresses starring in black and white films. Women were inspired by movie actresses to embrace this makeup trend. This led to the popularity of lip gloss. The first commercially available lip gloss was Max Factor's X-Rated, launched in 1932. The original formula was sold until 2003, when Procter and Gamble retired the product.

In 1973, Bonne Bell introduced the first flavored lip gloss, Lip Smackers. Lip Smackers were, and still are, popular among young teenagers. Initially Lip Smackers came in two sizes: small and big. The small ones could be kept in the pocket and the big ones had a rope to hang around the neck. It was advertised that before a date, a teen girl should choose an appropriate flavor because that would be her date's first taste when his lips kissed hers.

Benefits
Moisturization: Lip gloss formulations often contain emollients and moisturizing agents like shea butter, vitamin E, and hyaluronic acid. These ingredients help keep the lips hydrated, preventing dryness and chapping, especially in dry or cold weather.

Protection: Some lip glosses are enriched with SPF (Sun Protection Factor) to shield the lips from harmful UV rays. This sun protection helps prevent sunburn and reduces the risk of long-term sun damage, such as premature aging and skin cancer.

Nourishment: Certain lip glosses include ingredients like antioxidants and essential oils, such as jojoba oil or coconut oil. These elements provide nourishment to the lips, promoting their overall health and a softer texture.

Plumping: In addition to creating a fuller appearance, plumping lip glosses often contain ingredients like peptides and hyaluronic acid that can stimulate collagen production temporarily, giving the lips a more youthful look.

Ease of Application: Lip glosses are typically more forgiving and easier to apply than lipsticks, making them an excellent choice for those who prefer a low-maintenance makeup routine. Their smooth, glide-on texture requires less precision and often doesn't require a mirror.

Versatility: Lip glosses can be used in various creative ways, such as a highlighter for the cupid's bow or as an eyeshadow to add shimmer and dimension to the eyelids. This versatility makes them a multi-purpose addition to your makeup collection.

Portable: Lip glosses are compact and portable, fitting easily into pockets, purses, or clutch bags. This makes them perfect for on-the-go touch-ups and quick enhancements throughout the day.

Anti-Aging Effects: Some lip glosses contain anti-aging ingredients like peptides and retinol. These ingredients can help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles around the lips, making them appear smoother and more youthful.

Enhanced Lip Volume: Beyond plumping, lip gloss can create the illusion of larger lips by reflecting light and adding depth and dimension. This can help balance the facial features and create a more symmetrical appearance.

Variety of Formulations: Lip gloss comes in various formulations, including clear, tinted, and flavored options. This variety allows individuals to choose a lip gloss that aligns with their personal preferences and mood.

Long-Lasting Shine: Many lip glosses offer a long-lasting shine that can endure for several hours without the need for frequent reapplication, giving you a fresh and polished look throughout the day or evening.

See also
 Lip augmentation
 Lip liner
 Lip stain

References

External links

Cosmetics
Lips

Lip gloss


Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach (3 October 1680 – 2 July 1757), was a Duchess of Württemberg by marriage.

Marriage
Johanna of Baden-Durlach was born in the Karlsberg, Durlach, the third child of Friedrich VII Magnus, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1647–1709) and his wife Auguste Marie of Holstein-Gottorp (1649–1728).

In 1697, she was married in Baden-Wurttemberg in a double-wedding to Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg (1676–1733). His parents were Duke Wilhelm Ludwig of Württemberg and Magdalena Sibylla of Hesse-Darmstadt. The couple tied the two leading Lutheran dynasties of southern Germany together. Joanna's marriage was celebrated in Switzerland, where Baden's court stayed in exile due to repeated French invasions. Two months later in Stuttgart, the marriage of Eberhard Ludwig's sister, Magdalene Wilhelmine and the crown prince and later Margrave Charles III Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach was celebrated. Eberhard paid little attention to his new wife; allegedly he only married her in order to be near one of Joanna's ladies-in-waiting.

Separation
After a son, Crown Prince Friedrich Ludwig (1698–1731), had been born in the first year of marriage, the couple lived largely separated. Through his military career Eberhard Ludwig initially stayed rarely in Stuttgart. In 1704, he took part in the Battle of Blenheim, and was later appointed commander of the Army of the Rhine. In 1707, he became Field Marshal of the Swabian troops in the War of Spanish Succession. It was important for him to command a standing army and a great role model and lead to an absolutist French state with a brilliant court. Johanna Elisabeth clung on to Pietist ideas of morality, with which she had been brought up, and stayed in the old castle in Stuttgart.

The Grävenitz affair
Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg was the first Duke who lived openly with a mistress, Wilhelmine von Grävenitz (1686–1744). His morganatic marriage to her 1707 was considered a scandal. On the application of Johanna Elisabeth to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, the bigamous marriage had to be dissolved and Grävenitz was sent into exile in Switzerland.

Her spouse returned in 1710 when Wilhelmine of Grävenitz, through a sham marriage to Hofmeister Count von Würben, was able to return to Württemberg as well. They lived largely in Ludwigsburg. In 1718, the residence was also officially moved to Ludwigsburg. Johanna Elisabeth, meanwhile, continued to live in the Old Palace in Stuttgart. She refused, however, to file for divorce, and the marriage was not dissolved.

The early death of Prince Friedrich Ludwig in 1731 threatened to move Württemberg to a Catholic secondary line. Because of this danger, Duke Eberhard Ludwig broke his connection to Wilhelmine of Grävenitz and hoped to conceive an heir from his legitimate and long-ignored wife, Johanna Elisabeth. The advanced age of the couple and the imminent death of the Duke on 31 October 1733, however, thwarted these efforts.

Johanna Elizabeth survived her husband by more than twenty years. She lived as a widow at Kirchheim Castle, and died in Schloss Stetten, Stetten in the Rems Valley. She was buried in the Ludwigsburg Castle Church.

Children

 Friedrich Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Württemberg (1698–1731); married, in 1716, Henrietta Maria of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1702–1782).

References

Notes

Sources

1680 births
1757 deaths
Johanna Elisabeth
Daughters of monarchs

Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach


Moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminium silicate ((Na,K)AlSi3O8) of the feldspar group that displays a pearly and opalescent schiller. An alternative name for moonstone is hecatolite.

Etymology

The name moonstone derives from the stone's characteristic visual effect, called adularescence (or schiller), which produces a milky, bluish interior light. This effect is caused by light diffraction through alternating layers of orthoclast and albite within the stone. The diffracted light varies from white to blue, depending on the thinness of the albite layers. More technically, this micro-structure consists of regular exsolution layers (lamellae) of different alkali feldspars (orthoclase and sodium-rich plagioclase).

Polished moonstones often display chatoyancy ("cat's eye" effect), where a luminous streak appears through the stone. Asterism is rare and produces four-legged stars.

Geology

The most common moonstone is of the orthoclase feldspar mineral adularia, named for an early mining site near Mt. Adular in Switzerland, now the town of St. Gotthard. A solid solution of the plagioclase feldspar oligoclase +/− the potassium feldspar orthoclase also produces moonstone specimens.

Deposits of moonstone occur in Armenia (mainly from Lake Sevan), Australia, the Austrian Alps, Mexico, Madagascar, Myanmar, Norway, Poland, India, Sri Lanka,
and the United States. Historically, the most valuable, transparent moonstones with strong blue sheen came from Myanmar. Today, most commercial moonstones come from Sri Lanka.

In culture
Moonstone has been used in jewellery for millennia, including ancient civilizations. The Romans admired moonstone, as they believed it was derived from solidified rays of the Moon. Both the Romans and Greeks associated moonstone with their lunar deities. In more recent history, moonstone became popular during the Art Nouveau period; French goldsmith René Lalique and many others created a large quantity of jewellery using this stone.

The moonstone is the Florida State Gemstone; it was designated as such in 1970 to commemorate the Moon landings, which took off from Kennedy Space Center. However, it does not naturally occur in the state.

References

External links

Feldspar
Gemstones
Symbols of Florida

Moonstone (gemstone)


The 2013 Motorsportwash.com European FIM Speedway Grand Prix will be the second race of the 2013 Speedway Grand Prix season. It took place on 20 April at the Polonia Bydgoszcz Stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Riders

The Speedway Grand Prix Commission nominated Krzysztof Buczkowski as Wild Card, and Szymon Woźniak and Mikołaj Curyło both as Track Reserves. The draw will be made on 19 April.

Standing
Championship standing before the event

References

See also
 motorcycle speedway

Europe
2013
Grand
Speedway Grand Prix of Europe

2013 Speedway Grand Prix of Europe


The Aprilia Shiver 750 is a standard motorcycle manufactured by Italian manufacturer Aprilia. The motorcycle incorporates the first Ride by Wire Technology on a production motorcycle and a 90° V-twin engine.

The Shiver is also available as a partially faired option known as the Shiver 750 GT, which was launched in 2009.
The instrument panel features comprehensive gauges including a gear indicator.  The 'Ride by Wire' electronic throttle has three available power settings, referred to as Sport, Touring and Rain.  Sport mode is normal, with maximum power and torque; Touring mode scales back the responsiveness; Rain mode reduces torque by 25%.

References

External links

SL750
Standard motorcycles
Motorcycles introduced in 2009
Motorcycles powered by V engines

Aprilia SL 750 Shiver