This article covers the period of the history of Sudan between 1985 and 2019 when the Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab seized power from Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry in the 1985 Sudanese coup d'état. Not long after, Lieutenant General Omar al-Bashir, backed by an Islamist political party, the National Islamic Front, overthrew the short lived government in a coup in 1989 where he ruled as President until his fall in April 2019. During Bashir's rule, also referred to as Bashirist Sudan, he was re-elected three times while overseeing the independence of South Sudan in 2011. His regime was criticized for human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide in Darfur and allegations of harboring and supporting terrorist groups (most notably during the residency of Osama bin Laden from 1992 to 1996) in the region while being subjected to United Nations sanctions beginning in 1995, resulting in Sudan's isolation as an international pariah.

First coalition
In June 1986, Sadiq al-Mahdi formed a coalition government with the National Umma Party (NUP), the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the National Islamic Front (NIF), and four southern parties. Party factionalism, corruption, personal rivalries, scandals, and political instability characterized the Sadiq regime. After less than a year in office, Sadiq dismissed the government because it had failed to draft a new penal code to replace Sharia law, reach an agreement with the IMF, end the civil war in the south, or devise a scheme to attract remittances from Sudanese expatriates. To retain the support of the DUP and the southern political parties, Sadiq formed another ineffective coalition government.

Second coalition
Instead of removing the ministers who had been associated with the failures of the first coalition government, Sadiq retained thirteen of them, of whom eleven kept their previous portfolios. As a result, many Sudanese rejected the second coalition government as being a replica of the first. To make matters worse, Sadiq and DUP leader Ahmed al-Mirghani signed an inadequate memorandum of understanding that fixed the new government's priorities as affirming the application of the Sharia to Muslims, consolidating the Islamic banking system, and changing the national flag and national emblem. Furthermore, the memorandum directed the government to remove former leader Nimeiry's name from all institutions and dismiss all officials appointed by Nimeiry to serve in international and regional organizations. As expected, anti-government elements criticized the memorandum for not mentioning the civil war, famine, or the country's disintegrating social and economic conditions.

In August 1987, the DUP brought down the government because Sadiq opposed the appointment of a DUP member, Ahmad as Sayid, to the Supreme Commission. For the next nine months, Sadiq and al-Mirghani failed to agree on the composition of another coalition government. During this period, Sadiq moved closer to the NIF. However, the NIF refused to join a coalition government that included leftist elements. Moreover, Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the NIF indicated that the formation of a coalition government would depend on numerous factors, the most important of which were the resignation or dismissal of those serving in senior positions in the central and regional governments, the lifting of the state of emergency reimposed in July 1987, and the continuation of the Constituent Assembly.

Third coalition
Because of the endless debate over these issues, it was not until May 15, 1988, that a new coalition government emerged headed by Sadiq al Mahdi. Members of this coalition included the Umma, the DUP, the NIF, and some southern parties. As in the past, however, the coalition quickly disintegrated because of political bickering among its members. Major disagreements included the NIF's demand that it be given the post of commissioner of Khartoum, the inability to establish criteria for the selection of regional governors, and the NIF's opposition to the replacement of senior military officers and the chief of staff of the executive branch.

In August 1988, severe flooding occurred in Khartoum.

In November 1988, another more explosive political issue emerged when Mirghani and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed an agreement in Addis Ababa that included provisions for a cease-fire, the freezing of Sharia law, the lifting of the state of emergency, and the abolition of all foreign political and military pacts. The two sides also proposed to convene a constitutional conference to decide Sudan's political future. The NIF opposed this agreement because of its stand on Sharia. When the government refused to support the agreement, the DUP withdrew from the coalition. Shortly thereafter armed forces commander in chief Lieutenant General Fathi Ahmad Ali presented an ultimatum, signed by 150 senior military officers, to Sadiq al-Mahdi demanding that he make the coalition government more representative and that he announce terms for ending the civil war.

Fall of al-Mahdi and brief NIF regime
On March 11, 1989, Sadiq al-Mahdi responded to this pressure by dissolving the government. The new coalition had included the Umma, the DUP, and representatives of southern parties and the trade unions. The NIF refused to join the coalition because the coalition was not committed to enforcing Sharia law. Sadiq claimed his new government was committed to ending the southern civil war by implementing the November 1988 DUP-SPLM agreement. He also promised to mobilize government resources to bring food relief to famine areas, reduce the government's international debt, and build a national political consensus.

Sadiq's inability to live up to these promises eventually caused his downfall. On June 30, 1989, Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir overthrew Sadiq and established the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation to rule Sudan. Bashir's commitment to imposing the Sharia on the non-Muslim south and to seeking a military victory over the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), however, seemed likely to keep the country divided for the foreseeable future and hamper resolution of the same problems faced by Sadiq al-Mahdi. Moreover, the emergence of the NIF as a political force made compromise with the south more unlikely.

The Revolutionary Command Council dissolved itself in October 1993. Its powers were devolved to the President (al-Bashir declared himself the President) and the Transitional National Assembly.

Conflict in the south, Darfur conflict and conflict with Chad
The civil war in the south had displaced more than 4 million southerners. Some fled into southern cities, such as Juba; others trekked as far north as Khartoum and even into Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, and other neighboring countries. These people were unable to grow food or earn money to feed themselves, and malnutrition and starvation became widespread. The lack of investment in the south resulted in what international humanitarian organizations call a "lost generation" who lack educational opportunities, access to basic health care services, and little prospects for productive employment in the small and weak economies of the south or the north.

In early 2003 a new rebellion of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in the western region of Darfur began. The rebels accused the central government of neglecting the Darfur region, although there is uncertainty regarding the objectives of the rebels and whether they merely seek an improved position for Darfur within Sudan or outright secession. Both the government and the rebels have been accused of atrocities in this war, although most of the blame has fallen on Arab militias (Janjaweed) allied with the government. The rebels have alleged that these militias have been engaging in ethnic cleansing in Darfur, and the fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of them seeking refuge in neighboring Chad. There are various estimates on the number of human casualties, ranging from under twenty thousand to several hundred thousand dead, from either direct combat or starvation and disease inflicted by the conflict.

In 2004 Chad brokered negotiations in N'Djamena, leading to the April 8 Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement between the Sudanese government, the JEM, and the SLA. However, the conflict continued despite the ceasefire, and the African Union (AU) formed a Ceasefire Commission (CFC) to monitor its observance. In August 2004, the African Union sent 150 Rwandan troops in, to protect the ceasefire monitors. It, however, soon became apparent that 150 troops would not be enough, so they were joined by 150 Nigerian troops.

On September 18, 2004 United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1564 declaring that the government of Sudan had not met its commitments, expressing concern at helicopter attacks and assaults by the Janjaweed militia against villages in Darfur. It welcomed the intention of the African Union to enhance its monitoring mission in Darfur and urged all member states to support such efforts. During 2005 the African Union Mission in Sudan force was increased to about 7,000.

The Chadian-Sudanese conflict officially started on December 23, 2005, when the government of Chad declared a state of war with Sudan and called for the citizens of Chad to mobilize themselves against Rally for Democracy and Liberty (RDL) militants (Chadian rebels backed by the Sudanese government) and Sudanese militiamen who attacked villages and towns in eastern Chad, stealing cattle, murdering citizens, and burning houses.

Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004, although skirmishes in parts of the south have reportedly continued. The two sides have agreed that, following a final peace treaty, southern Sudan will enjoy autonomy for six years, and after the expiration of that period, the people of southern Sudan will be able to vote in a referendum on independence. Furthermore, oil revenues will be divided equally between the government and rebels during the six-year interim period. The ability or willingness of the government to fulfill these promises has been questioned by some observers, however, and the status of three central and eastern provinces was a point of contention in the negotiations. Some observers wondered whether hard line elements in the north would allow the treaty to proceed.

A final peace treaty was signed on 9 January 2005 in Nairobi. The terms of the peace treaty are as follows:
The south will have autonomy for six years, followed by a referendum on secession.
Both sides of the conflict will merge their armed forces into a 39,000-strong force after six years, if the secession referendum should turn out negative.
Income from oilfields is to be shared evenly between north and south.
Jobs are to be split according to varying ratios (central administration: 70 to 30, Abyei/Blue Nile State/Nuba mountains: 55 to 45, both in favour of the government).
Islamic law is to remain in the north, while continued use of the Sharia in the south is to be decided by the elected assembly.

On 31 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 to send a new peacekeeping force of 17,300 to Darfur. In the following months, however, UNMIS was not able to deploy to Darfur due to the Government of Sudan's steadfast opposition to a peacekeeping operation undertaken solely by the United Nations. The UN then embarked on an alternative, innovative approach to try to begin stabilize the region through the phased strengthening of AMIS, before transfer of authority to a joint African Union/United Nations peacekeeping operation. Following prolonged and intensive negotiations with the Government of Sudan and significant international pressure, the Government of Sudan finally accepted the peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

In 2009 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In 2009 and 2010 a series of conflicts between rival nomadic tribes in South Kordofan caused a large number of casualties and displaced thousands.

An agreement for the restoration of harmony between Chad and Sudan, signed January 15, 2010, marked the end of a five-year war between them.

The Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement ending the Darfur conflict in February, 2010.

In January 2011 a South Sudanese independence referendum was held, and the south voted overwhelmingly to secede later that year as the Republic of South Sudan, with its capital at Juba and Salva Kiir Mayardit as its first president. Al-Bashir announced that he accepted the result, but violence soon erupted in the disputed region of Abyei, claimed by both the north and the south.

On June 6, 2011 armed conflict broke out in South Kordofan between the forces of northern and southern Sudan, ahead of the scheduled independence of the south on July 9. This followed an agreement for both sides to withdraw from Abyei. On June, 20 the parties agreed to demilitarize the contested area of Abyei where Ethiopian peacekeepers will be deployed.

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became an independent country.

Downfall of al-Bashir

The 2018–2021 Arab protests hit Sudan in December 2018 and on 11 April 2019, Bashir was deposed ending the regime and installing the Sovereignty Council of Sudan until the transition to democracy in 2022.

See also
History of Sudan

References

Further reading
 Woodward, Peter, ed. Sudan After Nimeiri (2013); since 1984  excerpt and text search

Sources

Coalition governments
History of Sudan by period
Sudan
Sudan

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019)


SummerSlam (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on August 20, 2017, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was the thirtieth event under the SummerSlam chronology.

Thirteen matches were contested at the event, including three on the pre-show. The event featured eight championship matches, the most for a SummerSlam event, where five of the titles changed hands. In the main event, Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, and Samoa Joe in a fatal four-way match to retain the Universal Championship and in the penultimate match, Jinder Mahal defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to retain the WWE Championship. On the undercard, AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens to retain the United States Championship in a match that featured Shane McMahon as the special guest referee, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the Raw Tag Team Championship, and John Cena defeated Baron Corbin in the opening match.

References

SummerSlam
2017 in sports
2010s in New York (state)
2017 in the United States
August 2017 events

SummerSlam (2017)


The Coalition won the 2013 federal election with 90 of 150 lower house seats on a current 17-seat, 3.65-point two-party swing, defeating the 6-year Labor government. Labor holds 55 seats while crossbenchers hold the remaining five. The Division of Fairfax was the last seat to be declared.

Classification of seats as marginal, fairly safe or safe is applied by the independent Australian Electoral Commission using the following definition: "Where a winning party receives less than 56% of the vote, the seat is classified as 'marginal', 56–60% is classified as 'fairly safe' and more than 60% is considered 'safe'."

Pendulum
The Mackerras pendulum was devised by the Australian psephologist Malcolm Mackerras as a way of predicting the outcome of an election contested between two major parties in a Westminster style lower house legislature such as the Australian House of Representatives, which is composed of single-member electorates and which uses a preferential voting system such as a Condorcet method or IRV.

The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament for the government, the opposition and the cross benches according to the percentage-point margin they are held by on a two party preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.

References

Pendulums for Australian federal elections

Post-election pendulum for the 2013 Australian federal election


Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy PC video game. It is developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. It was released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh. It is the second game in the Age of Empires series. This game is set in the Middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations. This game is usually played with keyboard and mouse.

There are five historically based campaigns, which conscript the player to specialized and story-backed conditions, as well as three additional single-player game modes; local area network and internet multiplayer are also supported. The first major competition was held in Korea in 2001.

Age of Empires II: HD Edition  was an updated high-definition graphics version of the game. It was released in 2013. The HD Edition includes the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as new campaigns, civilizations, and it has an updated graphics for high-resolution displays. A remaster, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, was released in November 2019. This game came to Xbox in early 2023.

Other websites

Windows games
Video game sequels
Real-time strategy video games
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Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings


Frank Samuel Mitchell (c. 1929 – 24 December 1966 [possible]), also known as "The Mad Axeman", was an English criminal and friend of the Kray twins who was later murdered at their behest.

Biography

Early life and prison
Mitchell was one of seven children born into a working-class family from Limehouse, East London. At the age of  nine he stole a bicycle from another child, for which he was taken before a juvenile court and put on probation. As an adult, Mitchell possessed great physical strength and liked to demonstrate it by lifting a grand piano off the floor or picking up two full-grown men, one in each hand. He also had a short temper and, according to Martin Fido, "the mind of a child of 13 or under". From the age of 17 Mitchell was regularly incarcerated in borstals and prisons, mostly for shop-breaking and larceny. During a brief spell of freedom, he fathered a daughter with a girlfriend, but never knew about her.

In prison Mitchell was "a thorn in the flesh of authority". His prison terms were characterised by violence against guards and fellow inmates, and he was punished with the birch and the cat o' nine tails. He was one of the ringleaders in a riot at Rochester borstal. He slashed a guard across the face, and was charged with attempted murder after attacking an inmate he believed had informed on him. He was later acquitted. In 1955 he was diagnosed "mentally defective" and sent to the Rampton psychiatric hospital. Two years later Mitchell escaped with another inmate, and they attacked a man with an iron bar before stealing his clothes and money. When he was recaptured Mitchell attacked police with two meat cleavers, and was sent to Broadmoor. He escaped again, broke into a private home and held a married couple hostage with an axe, for which he was nicknamed "The Mad Axeman" in the press. In October 1958 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery with violence.

Mitchell was sent to Dartmoor prison in 1962, and whilst there his behaviour improved. He kept budgerigars and was transferred to the honour party, a small group of trusties who were allowed to work outside the prison walls with minimal supervision. Mitchell was permitted to roam the moors and feed the wild ponies and even visited nearby pubs. On one occasion he caught a taxi to Okehampton to buy a budgerigar. The governor of the prison promised Mitchell that if he stayed out of trouble he would recommend to the Home Office that he be given a release date. Four years later, Mitchell was aggrieved that he had still not received one.

The Krays and escape from Dartmoor
Mitchell befriended Ronnie Kray when they served a sentence together at Wandsworth prison in the 1950s. During Mitchell's trial for attempted murder, Ron hired a lawyer for him and paid for him to have a new suit fitted. Ron was keen on breaking Mitchell out of prison, thinking it would help him to publicise his grievance and earn a release date, as well as enhance the Krays' standing in the underworld. Reg Kray recalled that he was reluctant, but finally reasoned that "if nothing else it would stick two fingers up to the law". Reg visited Mitchell at Dartmoor in disguise and informed him of the plan. On 12 December 1966, while with a small work party on the moors, Mitchell asked the sole guard for permission to feed some nearby Dartmoor ponies. His request was granted, he walked over to a quiet road where a getaway car containing associates of the Krays – Albert Donoghue, "Mad" Teddy Smith and Billy Exley – were waiting for him, and they drove to London, where the Krays put him up in a flat in Barking Road, East Ham. It was over five hours before Mitchell was reported missing.

Mitchell's escape made national news, led to a political storm over the lax security around a man described in the press as "Britain's most violent convict", and was debated in the House of Commons. A large manhunt ensued, with 200 policemen, 100 Royal Marines and a Royal Air Force helicopter searching the moors. With the aid of Teddy Smith, Mitchell wrote to national newspapers and his plea to be granted a release date was printed in The Times and the Daily Mirror. However, Home Secretary Roy Jenkins was not willing to negotiate with an escaped criminal and would not review his status until he was back in custody.

Mitchell soon became a problem for the Krays. Owing to his physical strength and short temper, he was difficult to control. He was unwilling to give himself up and return to prison, and was not allowed to leave the flat in case he was recognised. The Krays feared releasing him or turning him in as he could implicate them in his escape. Mitchell felt insulted that Ron had not visited him at all and Reg had only visited him once and was particularly upset that he could not visit his parents, despite them living nearby. He grew increasingly agitated and began making threats against the Krays. To placate him, they brought a woman to the flat: Liza Prescott, a blonde night club hostess, who was known by firm member Tommy Cowley. Mitchell soon became enamored with her, further complicating the situation. The Krays decided the only solution was to kill him.

Death
On 24 December 1966 Mitchell was led into the back of a van by Albert Donoghue, thinking he was to be taken to a safe house in the countryside where he would meet up with Ron Kray. There was almost another argument when he realised that Liza would not be coming with him; Donoghue persuaded him that it was safer for her to follow later on. Waiting in the van were several men, among them Freddie Foreman and Alfie Gerrard, who were armed with revolvers. Once the van doors were closed and the engine started, they opened fire on Mitchell, killing him. Donoghue thought that 12 shots were fired before Mitchell died. His body was never recovered. Foreman later revealed that Mitchell's body was bound with chicken wire, weighted down and dumped in the English Channel. Reg Kray cited springing Mitchell from prison as one of his biggest mistakes. In the 1988 book Our Story, written with his brother and Fred Dineage, Ron Kray claimed that Mitchell was never murdered but was successfully smuggled out of Britain with the Krays' help. He says that both Donoghue and Dickson's accounts are fabricated, citing drastic inconsistencies between their stories. He also cites the fact that both he and Reg had admitted to the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie, as well as numerous other crimes, in the same book as reason to support his account of what happened. As Frank Mitchell was never found, alive or dead, neither claim can be definitely be proven true or false.

Aftermath
In 1968, the Krays and various accomplices were arrested and put on trial for an array of offences, including the murders of George Cornell, Jack McVitie and Frank Mitchell. Their attempt to cajole gang member Albert Donoghue into confessing to killing Mitchell led to him becoming a crown witness and testifying against them. Ron, Reg and Charlie Kray and Freddie Foreman were all acquitted of Mitchell's murder, due to lack of evidence and the perceived unreliability of Donoghue's testimony. Reg Kray was found guilty of conspiring to effect Mitchell's escape from Dartmoor, for which he received a five-year sentence to run concurrently with his other sentences. Donoghue and another Firm member, John Dickson, pleaded guilty to harbouring Mitchell and respectively received 18-month and nine-month sentences.

In his 1996 autobiography Respect, Foreman admitted to shooting Mitchell as a favour to the Krays; Donoghue said Foreman was paid £1,000 for it. Foreman was arrested and questioned by police after repeating his confession in a 2000 television documentary, but the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would not be re-opening the case, due to the then extant double jeopardy law.

Mitchell's escape, confinement and subsequent murder were the subject of the 2019 film The Krays' Mad Axeman, in which Mitchell was portrayed by Diarmaid Murtagh.

References

1920s births
1966 deaths
1966 in London
Criminals from London
Deaths by firearm in London
English criminals
English murder victims
People murdered by British organized crime
People murdered in London
Date of birth missing
Year of birth uncertain
1966 murders in the United Kingdom

Frank Mitchell (prisoner)


Henry David Leslie (18 June 1822 – 5 February 1896) was an English composer and conductor.  Leslie was a leader in supporting amateur choral musicians in Britain, founding prize-winning amateur choral societies.  He was also a supporter of musical higher education, helping to found national music schools.

Biography
Leslie was born in London.  His parents were John Leslie, a tailor and enthusiastic amateur viola player, and Mary Taylor Leslie.  He had eight brothers and sisters.  He attended the Palace School in Enfield and worked with his father.  As a teenager, he studied the cello with Charles Lucas and later played that instrument in concerts at the Sacred Harmonic Society for several years.

Early career
Leslie began to compose music, and in 1840 he published his Te Deum and Jubilate in D.  He became honorary secretary of the newly founded Amateur Musical Society in 1847. His symphony in F was performed in 1848 by the Amateur Musical Society under Michael Balfe. The next year, at the Norwich music festival of 1849, his much-admired anthem "Let God Arise" was premiered.  He conducted the Amateur Musical Society from 1853 until it dissolved in 1861.

Leslie's dramatic overture, The Templar (1852), was followed by and his well-regarded oratorios Immanuel (1854) and Judith (1858), and some chamber music.  In 1855, he founded a madrigal society which grew to 200 voices and became known as Henry Leslie's Choir. He was its conductor until 1880.  The choir introduced many important choral works to English audiences, including J. S. Bach's motets.  According to The Times, this choir "held the palm among London societies for finished singing of unaccompanied music, both ancient and modern".

In 1857, Leslie married Mary Betsy, one of his pupils, the daughter of physician William Henry Perry.  The couple moved to Mary's family home, now known as Bryn Tanat Hall, at Llansanffraid, near Oswestry on the Welsh border.  They produced four sons and one daughter.  Their son William became a master of the Musicians' Company, and Charles became a cricketer for Middlesex and England.

Leslie's operetta Romance, or, Bold Dick Turpin, first performed in 1857, was presented at Covent Garden in 1860.  After this, he wrote the cantatas Holyrood (1860) and Daughter of the Isles (1861) and a Jubilate in B (1864).  In 1865, he wrote a romantic opera Ida, or, The Guardian Storks.  He also conducted the amateur Herefordshire Philharmonic Society from 1863. He published over a hundred part songs for the choir.  Some of these became very popular, including the trio "O memory", "The Pilgrims", and "Annabelle Lee" set to a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.  His output also included a quantity of chamber and piano music. He also edited collections of part songs, including Cassell's Choral Music, in 1867.

Later years
In 1864, Leslie established a National College of Music, in Piccadilly, and acted as its principal.  Its professors included Arthur Sullivan, Julius Benedict, and other prominent musicians, but the college survived only two years.  In 1874, he became conductor of the newly formed Guild of Amateur Musicians. In 1878, Leslie and others made another attempt to form a national music school, which was successful and became the predecessor of the Royal College of Music.

Leslie and Sullivan organised the British musical presentations at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.  There Henry Leslie's Choir won the first prize at the international choral competition.  In 1880, after a royal command performance at Windsor Castle, he dissolved the choir.  Later, however, it was re-formed under Alberto Randegger, with Leslie as president, and he resumed conducting it from 1885 to 1887.  Charles Santley and other well-known soloists performed with the choir.

Leslie's only major composition later in life was his second symphony, Chivalry, which premiered in 1881 at The Crystal Palace.  After he retired, he founded the Oswestry School of Music and its Festival of Village Choirs.  At the end of his life, Leslie was ill for several years.

He died in 1896 in Baschurch, Shropshire, and was buried in the churchyard at Llanyblodwel.

Notes

References

The Times, 15 February 1850
Magazine of Music, September 1890
Musical World, 25 March 1848; 24 May 1850; 2 March 1854; 26 June 1858; 31 July 1858; 4 February 1860; 9 February 1861; 11 July 1863; 2 January 1864; 18 November 1865; and 16 February 1867
Musical Gazette, 31 May 1856
Musical Standard, 24 December 1881
Oswestry Advertizer, 5 November 1879

External links

English composers
Oratorio composers
English conductors (music)
British male conductors (music)
Musicians from London
People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan
1822 births
1896 deaths
19th-century British composers
19th-century conductors (music)
19th-century English musicians

Henry David Leslie


Dr. Alexander Thomson (1800
– 1 January 1866) was elected as the first mayor of Geelong and held the position on five occasions from 1850 to 1858. Thomson was the first settler in the area known as Belmont, a suburb of Geelong and called his homestead Kardinia, a property now listed on the Register of the National Estate.

Early life

Thomson was the son of Alexander Thomson, a shipowner of Aberdeen, Scotland, baptised 28 March 1798. He was educated at Dr Todd's school at Tichfield, Aberdeen University, and at London, where he studied under Sir Everard Home and qualified for the medical profession. In March 1824 he married Barbara Dalrymple.

Emigration to colonial Australia
In 1825 Thomson sailed to Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) as a surgeon on a convict ship, the first of several voyages made by him. He was then in comfortable circumstances having been left a sum of £9500 by his mother. In 1831 he decided to settle in Tasmania, and bringing with him his wife and daughter, obtained a grant of 4000 acres (16 km2) of land.

In 1832 Thomson bought two small steamers and established a service between Hobart and Kangaroo Point. He, however, sold both vessels during the next two years. He became interested in the colonisation of Port Phillip District, but did not join the Port Phillip Association, though invited to do so, and in November 1835 he sent across the first cattle to arrive in the new settlement, a draft of 50 Hereford cows. In March 1836 Thomson arrived with his wife and daughter. He came over as medical officer and catechist for the Port Phillip Association, and built a house near the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, Melbourne. In May he acted as one of three arbitrators in connexion with disputes between Henry Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and before his house was completed he was in the habit of holding a service on Sunday in his tent.

Thomson was secretary to the first public meeting held in Melbourne, on 1 June; in October William Lonsdale appointed him medical officer at a salary of £200 a year. He resigned this position in January 1837.

Geelong
Having selected land on the present site of Geelong, Thomson settled there. He did some exploring, acquired more land in several localities, and in 1846 held about 150,000 acres (600 km2). He was a director of the Port Phillip bank, which was a failure, and the Port Phillip Steam Navigation Company, and he was the first to make cash advances on wool. He was foremost in every movement connected with Geelong from the removal of the bar at the mouth of the harbour to the founding of a mechanics' institute. He also took much interest in church affairs and in the well-being of the aborigines. In these matters he gave not only time, he also spent considerable sums of money.

The town was incorporated in 1849, then having 8000 inhabitants, and, as was fitting, Thomson was elected its first mayor. He field this position again in 1851, 1855, 1856 and 1857. He had been elected a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council as one of the representatives of the Electoral district of Port Phillip in 1843, but as it was difficult to attend the meetings at Sydney, soon resigned. He was active in the anti-transportation movement, in 1852 was elected a member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Geelong, and brought in and passed a bill incorporating the "Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company". Thomson presided at the first meeting of shareholders and was one of the directors. The line was completed in 1857. In the meanwhile Thomson had resigned his seat in the council, and visited England where he found he could get no information about the Australian colonies bills. There had been a change of ministers and Lord John Russell, now in charge of the colonial office, had gone to Vienna. Thomson followed him there, obtained an interview, and got a promise that there would be a separate constitution bill for the colony of Victoria. In May 1855 Lord John Russell sent him a copy of the bill which soon afterwards became law.

In 1857 Thomson was elected member for Geelong in the Victorian Legislative Assembly but resigned in April 1859. Thomson was elected member for Geelong East in October 1859, holding this seat until July 1861. His many activities had led to the neglect of his own financial affairs, and towards the end of his life he accepted the position of medical officer to the Sunbury boys' home. He died at Geelong on 1 January 1866 and was buried in the old Geelong cemetery. His wife and a daughter survived him.

The suburb of Thomson was named after Dr. Thomson as well as Thomson Street Belmont, the nucleus of the Belmont Heights Estate which was until the first World War, part of his extensive rural property. A parish of the Uniting Church in Australia and the Alexander Thomson Cricket Club, competing in the Geelong Cricket Association, was also named after him.

References

Additional resources listed by the Australian Dictionary of Biography:
Garryowen (E. Finn), The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, vols 1–2 (Melb, 1888)
T. F. Bride (ed), Letters from Victorian Pioneers (Melb, 1898)
H. G. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria, vols 1–2 (Lond, 1904)
R. H. Croll and R. R. Wettenhall, Dr. Alexander Thomson: A Pioneer of Melbourne and Founder of Geelong (Melb, 1937)
A. D. Gilchrist (ed), John Dunmore Lang, vols 1–2 (Melb, 1951)
P. L. Brown (ed), Clyde Company Papers, vols 2–5 (Lond, 1952–63).

External links
Alexander Thomson Cricket Club

1798 births
1866 deaths
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
19th-century Australian medical doctors
Mayors of Geelong
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Members of the Victorian Legislative Council
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Herbert Hoyle (22 April 1920 – 6 July 2003) was a professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in The Football League for Exeter City and Bristol Rovers.

Hoyle was born in Baildon, West Yorkshire, and began his career with local side Bradford Park Avenue, joining them in 1936 at the age of sixteen, but left to join the armed forces without having made his League debut. During the Second World War, he continued to play football in the services while serving in Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece.

On the conclusion of the war, he returned to professional football by joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in May 1946. However, as with Bradford, he did not play any League games for them and he left after only three months to join Exeter City, with whom he finally made his League debut at the age of 26. During four years with The Grecians, Hoyle made 82 appearances in the Football League, sharing the goalkeeping duties with Barney Singleton.

Bristol Rovers paid Exeter a transfer fee of £350 for his services in 1953, and he became a fans' favourite at Eastville Stadium due to his outgoing and likeable personality. He became known for chatting with the fans behind the goal before, during and after matches. He also won acclaim after revealing a fondness for oranges (he always placed one in the back of the net as a lucky charm). He was inundated with gifts of the fruit at every home game – usually thrown by the spectators behind the goals (not an easy feat at Eastville Stadium where a greyhound track lengthened the distance to the goal line). He played in the 105 League games for Rovers in just over two and a half seasons, but his career was brought to a premature end when he was involved in a car crash while driving home to Exeter following an away game against Bristol City in February 1953. He later returned to playing however with non-League side Exmouth Town.

Hoyle played in an era when many footballers had to take second jobs during the summer, and Hoyle worked on local farms during the close-season throughout his career. After retiring, he ran The Ship Inn, a pub in Cockwood, Devon. He died in Dawlish on 6 July 2003, aged 83.

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Bert Hoyle


In modern Chinese politics, a leadership core or core leader () refers to a person who is recognized as central to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Four individuals so far have been given this designation: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Xi Jinping. The leader of the fourth generation, Hu Jintao, has never been referred to as core throughout his term as General Secretary. The designation is not a formal title and does not hold legal weight, but its use in official party documentation gives its holder a precisely defined place in theory on their relative standing to the rest of the CCP leadership. The leadership core operates as part of the Leninist concept of democratic centralism, and is intended to represent a vital center rather than a hierarchical peak, which differentiates it from the role of paramount leader. Although all core leaders have also been paramount leaders, not all paramount leaders are or have been designated 'leadership core'.

History
From the pivotal Zunyi Conference forward, Mao Zedong was the undisputed leader of the CCP, though he did not formally become CCP chairman until 1943. However, much of Mao's authority was informal, earned after years of building clout through the civil war and intra-party struggles. After Mao died in 1976, his successor as party chairman, Hua Guofeng, was unable to build a strong coalition of support in spite of having a wide range of official titles. Deng Xiaoping emerged as the pre-eminent leader of China in 1978, and was indisputably the highest authority in the country throughout the 1980s even though he held only one formal government post, that of chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Zhao Ziyang, the party's General Secretary and widely recognized as Deng's successor at the time, was sidelined due to his sympathy to student protesters. In his place, party elders brought in then Shanghai party secretary Jiang Zemin to take over the position of general secretary. However, Jiang, who had spent much of his career in Shanghai, was a compromise candidate who had no prior experience in the party's central organization. Consolidating his power and raising his stature in the party required the backing of Deng and other party elders, but also a recognition from other members of the party leadership that Jiang was now the dominant leadership figure.

To strengthen Jiang's position in spite of his relatively thin political resume, Deng advanced the idea of the "leadership core", referencing Mao as the core of the party during the revolution in the early years of the People's Republic, and declaring himself the core of the party since the beginning of economic reforms. The term "core", which invoked a concentric, non-hierarchical image, was a clever political innovation that avoided designating any individual as "supreme" and "above the rest". It implicitly recognized the political ills of the personality cult during the Mao era while also allowing for the embodiment of unity around a single leadership figure.

In June 1989, shortly following the military's advance on Beijing to quell the protests, Deng said to other party leaders, "every leadership collective must have a core; a leading collective without a core is unreliable." Ostensibly, Deng was making a reference to the diffusion of power after the death of Mao. In response, Deng declared, Jiang Zemin would become the core of the "third generation" of Communist Party leaders. Jiang was referred to as a "core" in official documentation for the first time on November 9, 1989, at the closing of the Fifth Plenum of the 13th Central Committee. Deng called for the party leaders to "closely rally around the party center with Jiang Zemin as its core." The phrase was then oft-repeated as a familiar slogan in official party documentation thereafter, until the succession of Hu Jintao as party leader in 2002.

Upon Hu's taking on the titles of the party and the state, Jiang refused to relinquish the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission until 2005, in a move that paralleled Deng holding the title in the 1980s, when the party was nominally run by other people. However, Jiang lacked Deng's clout, and was criticized by some members of the party for overstaying his term and meddling in the affairs of his successor. Jiang had stacked the Politburo Standing Committee, which made decisions based on consensus, with his own allies, constraining Hu's authority. Hu was therefore largely seen as a "first-among-equals" figure with his Standing Committee colleagues. Not only could he not rule by fiat, but that he never earned recognition as "core" was also a signal that he possibly even lacked the power of arbitration that was normally accorded to a "core" figure. In this leadership collective, Hu was never referred to explicitly as the new "core" of the party. Instead, the party documents used the phrase, "united around the party center with Comrade Hu Jintao as General Secretary."

Xi Jinping succeeded Hu as General Secretary in 2012. He embarked on a series of bold programs to eliminate corruption and reform the economy. By 2016, his pre-eminent status became widely understood and many provincial party chiefs began declaring fealty to him and again invoking the term "leadership core". Xi's official status as the "core" was announced at a gathering of the Central Committee later that year.

References

Positions of authority
Chinese Communist Party
Politics of China
Xi Jinping

Leadership core


Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale,  (25 January 1857–13 April 1944) was an English peer and sportsman.

Early life

Born in 1857, he was the second son of Emily Susan (), daughter of St George Francis Caulfeild of Donamon Castle of Roscommon, Ireland and Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale.

In 1882, he succeeded his brother, St George Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale, and was succeeded in turn by his brother, Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale upon his death in 1944.

Career
Lonsdale inherited enormous wealth derived from his father's Cumberland coalmines, and owned  of land. He had residences at Lowther Castle, at Whitehaven Castle, Barleythorpe and Carlton House Terrace, London.

He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry on 3 March 1897 and from February 1900 to 1901, he was Assistant Adjutant-General for the Imperial Yeomanry during the first part of the Second Boer War. He became Honorary Colonel of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry on 16 November 1908, shortly after it had transferred to the Territorial Force. During World War I his chief role was as a recruitment officer of both men and horses. He formed his own pals battalion, the Lonsdales (11th Battalion, Border Regiment). He helped found Our Dumb Friends League (now The Blue Cross) and was its chairman during the war.

Lonsdale was known as the Yellow Earl for his penchant for the colour. He was a founder and first president of the Automobile Association (AA) which adopted his livery.

In 1907, Lonsdale was part of the famous wager with John Pierpont Morgan over whether a man could circumnavigate the globe and remain unidentified.

In August 1895 the German Emperor Wilhelm II visited Lowther Castle for some grouse shooting. The kings of Italy and Portugal later came to stay, and the Kaiser a second time in 1902. The Kaiser conferred upon the Earl a knighthood of the first class of the Order of the Prussian Crown.

Although he was a Peer, he was rarely seen in the House of Lords. Because of his extravagance he was forced to sell some of his inherited properties. In 1921 Whitehaven Castle was sold, and in 1926 Barleythorpe. The same year the west Cumberland coalmines closed. In 1935 he moved from Lowther Castle because he could no longer afford to live there and moved to much smaller accommodation.

His free-spending had largely wrecked the estate, and his heir, his brother Lancelot, the 6th Earl was forced to auction off the contents of Lowther Castle in 1947. This proved to be the largest English country house sale of the 20th century.

Personal life
In 1878, before obtaining his inheritance, Lonsdale married Lady Grace Cecilie Gordon, third daughter of Maria Antoinetta Pegus (c. 1821–1893) and Charles Gordon, 10th Marquess of Huntly. Her family opposed the marriage as Lonsdale was not then wealthy and seemed irresponsible. This proved to be correct as the following year he invested in cattle in America; the venture collapsed and the Lowther family was forced to save him.

The couple then lived at Barleythorpe Hall near Oakham. Grace became pregnant but had a miscarriage after a fall while hunting. After this she was unable to bear children and remained a partial invalid for the rest of her life. She died in 1941.

After an affair with the actress Violet Cameron caused a scandal, Lonsdale set out in 1888 to explore the Arctic regions of Canada as far north as Melville Island, nearly dying before reaching Kodiak, Alaska in 1889 and returning to England. His collection of Inuit artefacts that he assembled during his explorations in Alaska and north-west Canada at this time is now in the British Museum.

Lonsdale died in 1944 at Stud House, Barleythorpe, aged 87.

Sports
Lonsdale was a founding member and first president of the National Sporting Club, and donated the original Lonsdale Belts in 1909 for the boxing championship trophy. His name was later given to the Lonsdale clothing brand of boxing garments and the Lonsdale cigar size.

He enjoyed foxhunting, serving as Master of the Quorn from 1893 to 1898 and of the Cottesmore Hunt for long periods. He was also a director of Arsenal Football Club and served as chairman for a brief period in 1936, and later became the club's honorary president.

After the First World War, Hugh gave up hunting and became more involved with race horses. He became a senior steward of the Jockey Club. He had two major wins with his colt Royal Lancer in 1922, the St Leger and the Irish St Leger. He was also the first president of the International Horse Show at Olympia.

From 1929 Lonsdale was the joint editor of the Lonsdale Library of Sports, Games and Pastimes, a book series published by Seeley, Service and Co.

In popular culture
Lonsdale was the subject of a biography by Douglas Sutherland.

References

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Kemal Reis (c. 1451 – 1511) was an Ottoman privateer and admiral. He was also the paternal uncle of the famous Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, who accompanied him in most of his important naval expeditions.

Background and early career
Kemal Reis was born in Manisa on the Aegean coast of the Ottoman Empire in circa 1451. His full name was Ahmed Kemaleddin (Ahmet Kemalettin) and his father was a Turk named Ali from the city of Kayseri in central Anatolia. He became known in Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain, with names like Camali and Camalicchio.

Naval mission to Spain

Kemal Reis started his career as the commander of the naval fleet belonging to the Sanjak Bey (Provincial Governor) of Eğriboz (present-day Euboea) which was under Ottoman control. In 1487 the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II appointed Kemal Reis with the task of defending the lands of Emir Abu Abdullah, the ruler of Granada, which was then one of the final Muslim strongholds in Spain. Kemal Reis sailed to Spain and landed an expeditionary force of Ottoman troops at Málaga, capturing the city and the surrounding villages and taking many prisoners (see Granada War). From there he sailed to the Balearic Islands and Corsica, where he raided the coastal settlements, before landing his troops near Pisa in Italy. From Pisa he once again went to Andalucia and in several occasions between 1490 and 1492 transported the Muslims and Jews who wished to escape Spain to the provinces of the Ottoman Empire which welcomed them. The Muslims and Jews of Spain contributed much to the rising power of the Ottoman Empire by introducing new ideas, methods and craftsmanship. Kemal Reis continued to land his troops in Andalucia and tried to stop the Spanish advance by bombarding the ports of Elche, Almeria and Málaga.

Admiral of the Ottoman Navy
In 1495 Kemal Reis was made an admiral of the Ottoman Navy by Sultan Bayezid II who ordered the construction of his large flagship, Göke, which could carry 700 soldiers and was armed with the strongest cannons of that period. Two large galleys of this type were built, one for Kemal Reis and the other for Burak Reis. In October 1496, with a force of 5 galleys, 5 fustas, a barque and a smaller ship, Kemal Reis set sail from Constantinople and raided the Gulf of Taranto. In January 1497 he landed at Modon and later captured several Venetian ships at the Ionian Sea and transported them, along with their cargo, to Euboea. In March 1497 Sultan Bayezid II appointed him with the task of protecting the ships which carried valuable goods belonging to the religious foundations of Mecca and Medina from the frequent raids of the Knights of St. John who were based in the island of Rhodes at that time (in 1522 the Ottomans captured Rhodes and allowed the Knights of St. John to peacefully leave the island, who first relocated their base to Sicily and later to Malta in 1530.) Kemal Reis set sail towards Rhodes with a force of 2 barques and 3 fustas, and captured a barque of the knights near Montestrato. He later landed at Stalimene (Lemnos) and from there sailed towards Tenedos (Bozcaada) and returned to Constantinople. In June 1497 he was given two more large galleys and in July 1497 he made the island of Chios his base for operations in the Aegean Sea against the Venetians and the Knights of St. John. In April 1498, commanding a fleet of 6 galleys, 12 fustas with large cannons, 4 barques and 4 smaller types of ships, he set sail from the Dardanelles and headed south towards the Aegean islands that were controlled by the Republic of Venice. In June 1498 he appeared in the island of Paros and later sailed towards Crete where he landed his troops at Sitia and captured the town along with the nearby villages before sending his Scout forces to examine the characteristics of the nearby Venetian castle. In July 1498 he sailed to Rosetta (Rashid) in Egypt with a force of 5 galleys, 6 fustas and 2 barques for transporting 300 Muslim pilgrims heading for Mecca, who also had with them 400,000 gold ducats which were sent to the Mamluk sultan by Bayezid II. Near the port of Abu Kabir he captured 2 Portuguese ships (one galleon and one barque) after fierce fighting which lasted 2 days. From there Kemal Reis sailed towards Santorini and captured a Venetian barque, before capturing another Portuguese ship in the Aegean Sea.

Ottoman-Venetian Wars

In January 1499 Kemal Reis set sail from Constantinople with a force of 10 galleys and 4 other types of ships, and in July 1499 met with the huge Ottoman fleet which was sent to him by Davud Pasha and took over its command in order to wage a large scale war against the Republic of Venice. The Ottoman fleet consisted of 67 galleys, 20 galliots and circa 200 smaller vessels.
In August 1499 Kemal Reis defeated the Venetian fleet under the command of Antonio Grimani at the Battle of Zonchio which is also known as the Battle of Sapienza of 1499 or the First Battle of Lepanto and was a part of the Ottoman-Venetian Wars of 1499–1503. It was the first naval battle in history with cannons used on ships, and took place on four separate days: on August 12, 20, 22 and 25, 1499. After reaching the Ionian Sea with the large Ottoman fleet, Kemal Reis encountered the Venetian fleet of 47 galleys, 17 galliots and circa 100 smaller vessels under the command of Antonio Grimani near Cape Zonchio and won an important victory. During the battle Kemal Reis sank the galley of Andrea Loredan, a member of the influential Loredan family of Venice. Antonio Grimani was arrested on September 29 but was eventually released. Grimani later became the Doge of Venice in 1521. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II gifted 10 of the captured Venetian galleys to Kemal Reis, who stationed his fleet at the island of Cefalonia between October and December, 1499.

In December 1499 the Venetians attacked Lepanto with the hope of regaining their lost territories in the Ionian Sea. Kemal Reis set sail from Cefalonia and retook Lepanto from the Venetians. He stayed in Lepanto between April and May 1500, where his ships were repaired by an army of 15,000 Ottoman craftsmen brought from the area. From there Kemal Reis set sail and bombarded the Venetian ports on the island of Corfu, and in August 1500 he once again defeated the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Modon which is also known as the Second Battle of Lepanto. Kemal Reis bombarded the fortress of Modon from the sea and captured the town. He later engaged with the Venetian fleet off the coast of Coron and captured the town along with a Venetian brigantine. From there Kemal Reis sailed towards the Island of Sapientza (Sapienza) and sank the Venetian galley "Lezza". In September 1500 Kemal Reis assaulted Voiussa and in October he appeared at Cape Santa Maria on the Island of Lefkada before ending the campaign and returning to Istanbul in November. With the Battle of Modon, the Ottoman fleet and army quickly overwhelmed most of the Venetian possessions in Greece. Modon and Coron, the "two eyes of the Republic", were lost. Ottoman cavalry raids reached Venetian territory in northern Italy, and, in 1503, Venice again had to seek peace, recognizing the Ottoman's gains.

In January 1501 Kemal Reis set sail from Constantinople with a fleet of 36 galleys and fustas. In February 1501 he landed at the Island of Euboea and at Nafplion before heading towards Corfu in March and from there to the Tyrrhenian Sea where he captured the Island of Pianosa along with many prisoners. In April 1501 with a fleet of 60 ships he landed at Nafplion and Monemvasia, causing the Venetian regional commander based at Corfu to call back the Venetian ships heading towards Lebanon and the Levant in order to strengthen the defenses of the Repubblica Serenissima's remaining strongholds on Morea. In May 1501, with a force of 8 galliots and 13 fustas, he escorted the cargo ships carrying construction material for strengthening the Ottoman fortresses on the islands of Chios and Tinos, where he captured the galley of Girolamo Pisani, the local Venetian commander, including the official standard of San Marco (St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice) along with another Venetian galley named "Basadonna". From there he sailed to the port of Zonchio, near Navarino, with a force of 5 galliots and 14 fustas. The Ottoman forces landed there and captured the Venetian castle and the nearby settlements after a siege which lasted less than 10 hours. Kemal Reis also captured 3 Venetian galleys, a Venetian caravelle and several other local ships which were docked at the port of Zonchio. He took these ships first to Modon and later to the Island of Aegina, before sailing towards Euboea. He later captured Navarino from the Venetians, adding another important port to the Ottoman Empire. In June 1501 Kemal Reis sailed to the Adriatic Sea and strengthened the Ottoman defenses at Voiussa and Vlorë.

Operations in the West Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean
In July 1501 Kemal Reis, accompanied by his nephew Piri Reis, set sail from the port of Modon with a force of 3 galleys and 16 fustas and went to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he took advantage of the war between Jacopo d'Appiano, ruler of Piombino, and the Papal forces under the command of Cesare Borgia. The Ottoman troops  landed at the Island of Pianosa and quickly captured it, taking many prisoners. From there Kemal Reis sailed to the Channel of Piombino and the Ottomans raided the coastal settlements in that area. In August 1501 Kemal Reis and his troops landed at Sardinia and captured several coastal settlements while taking around 1,050 prisoners during fights against the local forces. He engaged several Genoese warships off the coast of Sardinia, which later escaped northwards after being damaged by cannon fire. Still in August 1501 Kemal Reis sailed to the Balearic Islands and the Ottomans landed at Majorca, where bitter fighting against the local Spanish forces took place. From there Kemal Reis sailed to Spain and captured 7 Spanish ships off the coast of Valencia. Aboard these ships he found a strange feather headdress and an unfamiliar black stone. He was told by one of his prisoners that both came from newly discovered lands to the west, beyond the Atlantic Ocean. The prisoner claimed to have visited these lands three times, under the command of a man named Colombo, and that he had in his possession a chart, drawn by this Colombo himself, which showed the newly discovered lands beyond the Sea of Darkness. This map was to become one of the main source charts of the famous Piri Reis map of 1513 which was drawn by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis who was the nephew of Kemal Reis.

After leaving Valencia, still in August 1501, Kemal Reis headed south and bombarded the coastal defenses of Andalucia before landing his troops, where the Ottomans raided several ports and towns. Kemal Reis later sailed westwards and passed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Atlantic Ocean, where he and his men raided the Atlantic coasts of the Iberian peninsula. From there Kemal Reis sailed southwest and landed on several of the Canary Islands, where the Ottomans faced moderate opposition from the Spanish forces. Piri Reis used the occasion, as in other voyages with his uncle, to draw his famous portolan charts which were later to become a part of the renowned Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation). Kemal Reis later turned eastwards, where he followed the Atlantic coastline of Morocco and re-entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, landing on several ports of Morocco and Algeria on the way. From there Kemal Reis headed further east and captured several Genoese ships off the coast of Tripoli in Libya. He also intercepted several Venetian galleys in the area before sailing back to Constantinople.

Return to the East Mediterranean
In May 1502 Kemal Reis set sail from Istanbul with a fleet of 50 ships and headed towards Euboea. In June 1502 he captured the Island of Kos along with the Castle of San Pietro which belonged to the Knights of St. John. From there he sailed to Nafplion and bombarded its port until being called for assisting the defense of Mytilene which was sieged by a joint Venetian-French fleet. In July 1502 he landed his forces on Lesbos and fought against the French soldiers in Mytilene which the Ottomans had earlier taken from the Genoese in 1462. In August 1502 Kemal Reis made the Island of Lefkada his new base for operations in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, where he raided the coastal settlements belonging to the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Ragusa, capturing several of them on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. However, the strategic importance of the Island of Santa Maura (as the Venetians called Lefkada) prompted the Repubblica Serenissima to organize a huge fleet under the command of Benedetto Pesaro, which consisted of 50 galleys and numerous other smaller ships. The Venetians were joined by 13 Papal galleys under the command of Giacomo Pesaro, the brother of Benedetto who was the Bishop of Paphos, as well as 3 galleys belonging to the Knights of St. John in Rhodes and 4 French galleys under the command of the Prégent de Bidoux. Overwhelmed by the size of the enemy fleet, Kemal Reis was forced to abandon Lefkada and sailed back first to Gallipoli and later to Constantinople, where, in October 1502, he ordered the construction of new ships at the Imperial Naval Arsenal of the Golden Horn.

In March 1503 Kemal Reis set sail from Constantinople with his new ships and reached Gallipoli where he took over the command of the Ottoman fleet that was based there. However, he was caught by a severe illness and had to return to Constantinople for treatment, which lasted a long time and caused him to remain inactive between November 1503 and March 1505.

In March 1505 Kemal Reis was appointed with the task of intercepting the Knights of St. John in Rhodes who caused serious damage on Ottoman shipping routes off the coasts of Anatolia, and he set sail from Gallipoli with a force of 3 galleys and 17 fustas, heading first towards the Island of Kos, which he had earlier captured from the Knights, with the aim of organizing an assault on their base in nearby Rhodes. In May 1505 Kemal Reis assaulted the coasts of Rhodes and landed a large number of Ottoman troops on the island, where they bombarded the castle of the Knights from land and took control of several settlements. From there Kemal Reis sailed to the islands of Tilos and Nisyros where he bombarded the fortresses of the Knights from the sea. Still in May 1505 Kemal Reis captured the Island of Lemnos and assaulted the Island of Chios, before returning to Modon in July 1505.

Return to the West Mediterranean and Spain
In September 1505 Kemal Reis assaulted Sicily and captured 3 ships (one from the Republic of Ragusa, the other two from Sicily) off the Sicilian coast.

In January 1506 he made the Island of Djerba his new base and sailed to Spain, where he once again landed at the coasts of Andalucia and bombarded the ports of Almeria and Málaga. He also transported Muslims and Jews and took them to Constantinople.

In May 1506 Kemal Reis, commanding a force of 8 galliots and fustas, returned to the Aegean Sea, and in June 1506 landed at the Island of Leros with a force of 500 janissaries. There he assaulted the Venetian castle under the command of Paolo Simeoni. Throughout June 1506 he raided the Dodecanese Islands before sailing back to the West Mediterranean with a fleet of 22 ships (including 3 large galleys and 11 fustas) where he landed on Sicily and assaulted the coastal settlements. There he was confronted by the forces of the Viceroy of Sicily who was an ally of Spain. In September 1506 Kemal Reis confronted a Spanish fleet for defending Djerba and captured a Spanish galley during combat. In October 1506 he landed at Trapani in Sicily and burned the Genoese ships at the port, whose crewmen were however released because they had no experience of naval warfare and were not deemed useful. He later bombarded the Venetian galley under the command of Benedetto Priuli. He responded to the cannon fire from the fortress of Trapani with the cannons on his ships. He later sailed to the Island of Cerigo in the Ionian Sea with a force of 3 galleys and 2 fustas, and exchanged fire with the Venetian fleet under the command of Girolamo Contarini. He later sailed back to Constantinople.

Later operations in the East Mediterranean
In January 1507 Kemal Reis was appointed by Bayezid II with the task of hunting the Knights of St. John and set sail from Gallipoli with a large fleet of 15 galleys and 25 fustas that were heavily armed with cannons. He engaged with the Knights in several occasions until August 1507, when he returned to Constantinople. In August 1507 he sailed to Alexandria with a cargo of 8,000 sets of oars and 50 cannons that were donated to the Mamluk sultan by Bayezid II for helping him in his fight against the Portuguese fleet which often ventured into the Red Sea and damaged Mameluke interests. Kemal Reis stayed in Egypt until February 1508, and was back in Constantinople in May 1508, where he personally coordinated the reparation and modification of his ships at the Imperial Naval Arsenal of the Golden Horn before setting sail once again towards the Aegean Sea for confronting the Venetians and the Knights of St. John. In August 1508 he arrived at Euboea with 2 galleys, 3 barques and numerous fustas. From there he sailed to Tenedos where he repulsed an attack of the Knights and sank a ship near the port of Sizia. In November 1508 he captured a Genoese galleass from Savona off the island of Tenedos. In January 1509, commanding a force of 13 ships, he assaulted the Castle of Coo near Rhodes which belonged to the Knights of St. John. In February 1509, accompanied by the Ottoman privateer Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis (known as Curtogoli in the West) and commanding a larger fleet of 20 ships (4 galleys, 1 galleass, 2 galliots, 3 barques and 10 fustas) he assaulted the City of Rhodes and landed a large number of janissaries at the port. In only a few days 4 large assaults are made on the Castle of Rhodes as well as the walls of the citadel that surrounds the city. Towards mid February, in command of 3 galleys and 3 fustas, he chased the ships belonging to Knights that were escaping Rhodes for the safety of nearby islands, and captured 3 galleons and 9 other types of ships.

Final missions and death
Still in 1509 Kemal Reis sailed to the Tyrrhenian Sea and landed at the coasts of Liguria. He continued operating in the West Mediterranean for some time, until returning to Gallipoli. In September 1510 he set sail from Gallipoli with 2 galleys, 1 galliot and several fustas, and joined the Ottoman fleet of cargo ships in Constantinople which were heading to Alexandria and carried wood for building ships, sets of oars and cannons that were sent to the Mamluks for their fight against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. The cargo fleet that Kemal Reis was to escort amounted to a total of 40 ships, 8 of which were galleys.

In early 1511, after passing the lands of the Duchy of Naxos and being sighted for the last time in December 1510, 27 ships of the Ottoman cargo fleet were wrecked by a severe storm in the Mediterranean Sea, including the ship of Kemal Reis, who died with his men. According to the Venetian Marino Sanudo (I Diarii, vol. 11, 663), the news of his death reached Edirne on 8 November 1511.

Legacy

Several warships of the Turkish Navy have been named after Kemal Reis.

Piri Reis wrote this poem for his uncle, from whom he learned so much about the Ottoman Navy, in the opening section of his famous Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation):

Good friend, I want you

To remember us in your prayers,

And remember Kemal Reis, our master,

May his soul be content!

He had perfect knowledge of the seas

And knew the science of navigation.

He knew innumerable seas;

No one could stop him...

We sailed the Mediterranean together

And saw all its great cities.

We went to Frankish lands

And defeated the infidel.

One day an order from

Sultan Bayezid arrived.

"Tell Kemal Reis to come to me,"

It said, "and advise me on affairs of the sea."

So in 1495, the year of this command,

We returned to our country.

By the sultan's command we set out

And won many victories...

Kemal Reis sailed hoping to come back,

But was lost at sea.

Everyone once spoke of him;

Now even his name is forgotten...

The angel of death caught him

While he was serving Sultan Bayezid.

May Allah give peace to those

Who remember Kemal Reis with a prayer.

Kemal died and went to the next world

And we found ourselves alone in this.

See also

Ottoman Navy

References

Sources
Frederic C. Lane, Venice, A Maritime Republic (Baltimore, 1973)
Paul Lunde, Piri Reis and the Columbus Map (1992)
 E. Hamilton Currey, Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, London, 1910
 Bono, Salvatore: Corsari nel Mediterraneo (Corsairs in the Mediterranean), Oscar Storia Mondadori. Perugia, 1993.
 Corsari nel Mediterraneo: Condottieri di ventura. Online database in Italian, based on Salvatore Bono's book.
 Bradford, Ernle, The Sultan's Admiral: The life of Barbarossa, London, 1968.
 Wolf, John B., The Barbary Coast: Algeria under the Turks, New York, 1979;
 The Ottomans: Comprehensive and detailed online chronology of Ottoman history in English.
 Comprehensive and detailed online chronology of Ottoman history in Turkish.
 Turkish Navy official website: Historic heritage of the Turkish Navy (in Turkish)

Further reading

1450s births
1511 deaths
People from Gelibolu
Privateers
Ottoman Empire admirals
1499 in Europe
1500s in the Republic of Venice
15th-century people from al-Andalus
16th century in Spain
Military history of Spain
Military history of France
Ottoman Greece
Piri Reis
Turks from the Ottoman Empire
15th-century people from the Ottoman Empire
16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman people of the Ottoman–Venetian Wars
15th century in the Republic of Venice
People lost at sea

Kemal Reis


David Kahn (b. February 7, 1930) is an American historian, journalist, and writer. He has written extensively on the history of cryptography and military intelligence.

Kahn's first published book, The Codebreakers - The Story of Secret Writing (1967), has been widely considered to be a definitive account of the history of cryptography.

Biography
David Kahn was born in New York City to Florence Abraham Kahn, a glass manufacturer, and Jesse Kahn, a lawyer.

Kahn has said he traces his interest in cryptography to reading Fletcher Pratt's Secret and Urgent as a boy. Kahn is a founding editor of the Cryptologia journal.  In 1969, Kahn married Susanne Fiedler; they are now divorced. They have two sons, Oliver and Michael.

He attended Bucknell University. After graduation, he worked as a reporter at Newsday.  He also served as an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris in the 1960s.

It was during this period that he wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine about two defectors from the National Security Agency. It was the origin of his monumental book, The Codebreakers.

The Codebreakers

The Codebreakers comprehensively chronicles the history of cryptography from ancient Egypt to the time of its writing. It is widely regarded as the best account of the history of cryptography up to its publication. Most of the editing, German translating, and insider contributions were from American World War II cryptographer Bradford Hardie III. William Crowell, the former deputy director of the National Security Agency, was quoted in Newsday as saying "Before he (Kahn) came along, the best you could do was buy an explanatory book that usually was too technical and terribly dull."

Kahn, then a newspaper journalist, was contracted to write a book on cryptography in 1961. He began writing it part-time, at one point quitting his regular job to work on it full-time. The book was to include information on the National Security Agency (NSA), and according to author James Bamford writing in 1982, the agency attempted to stop its publication and considered publishing a negative review of Kahn's work in the press to discredit him. A committee of the United States Intelligence Board concluded that the book was "a possibly valuable support to foreign COMSEC [communications security] authorities" and recommended "further low-key actions as possible, but short of legal action, to discourage Mr. Kahn or his prospective publishers." Kahn's publisher, the Macmillan company, handed over the manuscript to the federal government for review without Kahn's permission on March 4, 1966. Kahn and Macmillan eventually agreed to remove some material from the manuscript, particularly concerning the relationship between the NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, because Kahn felt pressured by the intelligence community.

The Codebreakers did not cover most of the history concerning the breaking of the German Enigma machine (which became public knowledge only in the 1970s). Nor did it cover the advent of strong cryptography in the public domain, beginning with the invention of public key cryptography and the specification of the Data Encryption Standard in the mid-1970s. An updated edition in 1996 included an additional chapter covering events since the original publication.

The Codebreakers was a finalist for the non-fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1968.

Later career

Kahn was awarded a doctorate (D.Phil) from Oxford University in 1974, in modern German history under the supervision of the then Regius professor of modern history, Hugh Trevor-Roper.

Kahn continued his work as a reporter and op-ed editor for Newsday until 1998 and served as a journalism professor at New York University.

Despite past differences between Kahn and the National Security Agency over the information in The Codebreakers, Kahn was selected in 1995 to become NSA's scholar-in-residence. On October 26, 2010, Kahn attended a ceremony at NSA's National Cryptologic Museum (NCM) to commemorate his donation of his lifetime collection of cryptologic books, memorabilia, and artifacts to the museum and its library. The collection is housed at the NCM library and is non-circulating (that is, items cannot be checked out or loaned out), but photocopying and photography of items in the collection are allowed.

Kahn lives (as of 2012) in New York City. He has lived in Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; Freiburg, Germany; Oxford, England; and Great Neck, New York.

Publications
 Plaintext in the new unabridged: An examination of the definitions on cryptology in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Crypto Press 1963)
 The Codebreakers – The Story of Secret Writing () (1967)
 Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II (Macmillan 1978) ()
 The Codebreakers – The Story of Secret Writing Revised edition () (1996)
 Cryptology goes Public (Council on Foreign Relations 1979)
 Notes & correspondence on the origin of polyalphabetic substitution (1980)
 Codebreaking in World Wars I and II: The major successes and failures, their causes and their effects (Cambridge University Press 1980)
 Kahn on Codes: Secrets of the New Cryptology (Macmillan 1984) ()
 Cryptology: Machines, History and Methods by Cipher Deavours and David Kahn (Artech House 1989) ()
 Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939–1943 (Houghton Mifflin 1991) ()
 The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking (Yale University Press 2004) ()
 How I Discovered World War II's Greatest Spy and Other Stories of Intelligence and Code, Boca Raton : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.

References

Sources

External links

 Kahn's Remarks to the NSA at its 50th Anniversary Celebration
 James Madison Project profile
 New York Review of Books profile
 David Kahn: Historian of Secret Codes by Arnold Abrams, in Newsday 2004-09-19 (via History News Network)
 The Intelligence Failure of Pearl Harbor by David Kahn, from Foreign Affairs (Winter 1991/92)
 Codebreaking and the Battle of the Atlantic by David Kahn. USAFA Harmon Memorial Lecture No. 36 (1994-04-04)
 Decoding the NSA A 1996 interview with Kahn, while he was a visiting historian at the NSA
 The Hebern Code Machine
 The Enigma Machine

1930 births
American science writers
American male journalists
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Living people
American historians of espionage
20th-century American historians
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
International Association for Cryptologic Research fellows
American military historians
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers

David Kahn (writer)


Adam Kuligowski (born 24 December 1955, in Warsaw) is a Polish chess master. He was awarded the GM title in 1980.

Tournaments

In 1973, he won Polish Junior Championship. In 1973/74, he took 3rd in Groningen (EU Junior-ch; Sergey Makarichev won). In 1974, he took 15th in Manila (World Junior-ch; Tony Miles won). In 1975, he took 6th in Tjentište (World Junior-ch; Valery Chekhov won). In 1975, he tied for 6-10th in Poznań (32nd POL-ch). In 1975, he took 2nd in Dresden.

In 1978, he tied for 1st-2nd with Aleksander Sznapik in Krakow (35th POL-ch), drew the playoff match (2 : 2), and took the Polish Champion title on tie-break. In 1978, he won in Warsaw. In 1980, he tied for 3rd-4th in Łódź (37th POL-ch). In 1980, he won in Warsaw. In 1980, he tied for 2nd-4th in Krosno. In 1980, he tied for 1st-2nd in Niš. In 1981, he tied for 4-6th in Warsaw (38th POL-ch). In 1981, he tied for 3rd-4th in Lewisham. In 1983, he took 14th in Wijk aan Zee (Hoogovens; Ulf Andersson won).

Chess Olympiads
Kuligowski played for Poland in three Chess Olympiads.
 In 1978, at second board in 23rd Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (+8 –1 =4);
 In 1980, at third board in 24th Chess Olympiad in La Valletta (+7 –0 =6);
 In 1982, at third board in 25th Chess Olympiad in Lucerne (+7 –3 =2).
He won individual gold medal at Buenos Aires 1978 and silver medal at La Valletta 1980.

By the late 1980s he was inactive as a chess player and has not played competitively since.

References

External links

1955 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Warsaw
Chess grandmasters
Polish chess players

Adam Kuligowski


Utter Madness is a greatest hits album by the British pop band Madness, released on their own Zarjazz label through Virgin Records on 24 November 1986 shortly after the group's original split. It picks up from where the band's first greatest hits album Complete Madness left off, running from "Driving in My Car" (the first single after Complete Madness's release) to the last Madness single before their split, "(Waiting For) The Ghost Train".

Content
As with Complete Madness, the compilation includes a couple of album tracks that were never released as singles, namely "I'll Compete" and "Victoria Gardens". In the liner notes for Utter Madness the group's guitarist Chris Foreman revealed that "Victoria Gardens" was earmarked as a possible single, and it had been remixed and artwork done for the sleeve before "One Better Day" was chosen as the second single from the Keep Moving album instead, using the photograph originally taken for "Victoria Gardens" on its sleeve.

"Seven Year Scratch", only available on the CD version of the album as a bonus track, is a vinyl remix featuring numerous Madness songs.  Although this track features on other Madness compilations in edited form, this full length mix is only available on Utter Madness.

Critical reception

Reviews of Utter Madness in the band's native UK, where they had always been critically and commercially acclaimed, were effusive. Melody Maker said, "Suffice to say, they leave a whole heap of fond memories and a mammoth void. They were a national bloody asset and they spoilt us rotten. Madness. Yesterday's men, tomorrow's inspiration." Record Mirror felt that after the band's split "the release of a  greatest hits album was inevitable, though necessary. Complete [Madness] appeared in what was still an initial burst of fervour. Utter is a far more concise and accurate reflection of their career, encompassing all their elements – the humour, the sadness and the cynicism." Sounds noted that while the front cover depicted the band in their "nutty train" formation, each member was also wearing newspaper print suits with the headline "Soweto Bloodbath" prominently displayed, claiming that this demonstrated that to the end the group were masters of mixing humour with serious social comment: "Utter Madness is ample proof that their heavy heavy monster sound didn't so much dilute over the years as progress... Their particular genius lay in their ability to project their vision of our life and times in Britain through that normally most banal of mediums, pop music."

Track listing
"Our House" (Carl Smyth, Chris Foreman) – 3:25
"Driving in My Car" (Mike Barson) – 3:21
"Michael Caine" (Smyth, Dan Woodgate) – 3:40
"Wings of a Dove" (Smyth, Graham McPherson) – 3:03
"Yesterday's Men" (McPherson, Foreman) – 4:12
"Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" (Smyth, Barson) – 3:12
"I'll Compete" (Lee Thompson, Woodgate) – 3:23
"(Waiting For) The Ghost Train" (McPherson) – 3:46
"Uncle Sam" (Foreman, Thompson) – 3:05
"The Sun and the Rain" (Barson) – 3:31
"Sweetest Girl" (Green Gartside) – 5:48 (4:20 on original 1986 release)
"One Better Day" (McPherson, Mark Bedford) – 4:07
"Victoria Gardens" (Smyth, Barson) – 4:34 (3:51 on original 1986 release)
"Seven Year Scratch" (CD only) (Madness, Cecil Campbell) – 8:38

The timings for each track were a few seconds shorter on the album's original release in 1986 as each track began over the fade-out of the previous one. The 2003 reissue restored each track to its full length with a short interval between tracks. When originally issued in 1986 the single version of "The Sweetest Girl" and the remixed version of "Victoria Gardens" were used: these were replaced with the album versions when Utter Madness was remastered and reissued in 2003.

Chart performance

Certifications and sales

References

External links

1986 greatest hits albums
Madness (band) compilation albums
Madness (band) video albums
Albums produced by Clive Langer
Albums produced by Alan Winstanley
Zarjazz compilation albums

Utter Madness


Christopher Paul Pascoe (born 26 April 1966) is an English author of humorous books.

His first two books 'A Cat Called Birmingham' (Hodder & Stoughton 2005) and 'You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough' (Hodder & Stoughton 2007)  tell the story of a disaster prone cat named Birmingham. A Cat Called Birmingham has since been translated into French and Chinese. In France, the book is titled 'Monsieur Chatastrophe'.  The book caused controversy in Birmingham because it was seen as a slur on the city by a London-based author You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough has also been released in France (October 2009), titled 'Le Journal de Monsieur Chatastrophe' . A Cat Called Birmingham & You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough have featured in Kindle's Top Ten Cat books, and A Cat Called Birmingham is now in its 10th UK edition. You Can Take the Cat Out of Slough was re-released in paperback in 2015.

In 2009, Pascoe signed with Anova, and 'Death Destruction and a Packet of Peanuts', a humorous factual/historical tour of the English Civil War battlefields and their pubs, was released on Anova's Portico imprint in July 2010. Confessions of a Cat Sitter, based on the popular long-running Your Cat Magazine series, was released in January 2016. 'The World's Daftest Rabbit', a collection of his My Weekly magazine columns, was released by My Weekly in September 2017, and 'The World's Craziest Cats' in September 2018.

Chris Pascoe is now a writer with various UK and US magazines, and is a columnist for the UK national magazines My Weekly and Your Cat.

References

External links
Official homepage
 Profile
 Miacis

1966 births
British humorists
Living people

Chris Pascoe


Ikrandraco ("Ikran [a flying creature from Avatar with a crest on the lower jaw] dragon") is a genus of lonchodraconid pterodactyloid pterosaur known from Lower Cretaceous rocks in northeastern China and the Cambridge Greensand of the UK. It is notable for its unusual skull, which features a crest on the lower jaw.

Discovery and naming

The type species, Ikrandraco avatar is based on specimen IVPP V18199, a partial skeleton including the skull and jaws, several neck vertebrae, a partial sternal plate, parts of both wings, and part of a foot. A second specimen, IVPP 18406, has also been assigned to Ikrandraco; it consists of a skull and jaws and the first three neck vertebrae. Both specimens come from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, with an estimated date of 120 million years ago. The type species is I. avatar, a second reference to the movie Avatar. It was described in 2014 by Wang Xiaolin and colleagues, but was not properly named according to ICZN rules until 2020.

In 1869, British paleontologist Harry Govier Seeley assigned remains he found to a new species of pterosaur called Ptenodactylus machaerorhynchus, at the same time disclaiming the name which makes it invalid by modern standards. In 1870, Seeley had realized that the generic name Ptenodactylus had been preoccupied and renamed the species into Ornithocheirus machaerorhynchus. The specific name means "sabre snout" in Greek. In 1914, Hooley renamed it into Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus. Its holotype, CAMSM B54855, was found near Cambridge, in a layer of the Cambridge Greensand dating from the Cenomanian but containing reworked fossils from the Albian. It consists of the rear end of a symphysis of the lower jaws.

Also in 1869, Seeley informally named "Ptenodactylus microdon". In 1870, he formally named it Ornithocheirus microdon, "small tooth", Hooley (1914) transferred this species to Lonchodectes to form the new combination Lonchodectes microdon. Its holotype, CAMSM B54486, has its provenance in the Cambridge Greensand and consists of the front of a snout. The type specimen of the species Ornithocheirus oweni, CAMSM B 54439, initially described by Seeley in 1864 as Pterodactylus oweni, was synonymized with microdon by Unwin in 2001, and later in 2013, Rodrigues & Kellner agreed with this synonymy.

In 2013, paleontologists Taissa Rodrigues and Alexander Kellner made an extensive review of the species of Ornithocheirus, and stated that the generic name Lonchodectes would have been a nomen dubium, and therefore reassigned both Lonchodectes machaerorhynchus and L. microdon into the genus Lonchodraco, creating Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus and L. microdon.

In his review of Lonchodectidae, Alexander Averianov reassigned Lonchodraco machaerorhynchus to Ikrandraco, and also declared Lonchodraco microdon (including O. oweni) a junior synonym of machaerorhynchus.

Description

Ikrandraco avatar is notable for having a very long, low skull (the height of the back of the skull, at the quadrates, is less than 19% the length of the skull), with a prominent blade-like crest on the underside of the lower jaw and no corresponding crest on the tip of the upper jaw, a crest combination not seen in other pterosaurs to date. The posterior edge of the crest also has a hook-like process. Each side of the upper jaw has at least 21 small cylindrical teeth, and each side of the lower jaw has at least 19. The skull of the type specimen is  long, and the skull of the second specimen is at least  long.

Rodrigues & Kellner established four autapomorphies of Ikrandraco machaerorhynchus (then Lonchodraco). A deep crest is present at the underside of the lower jaws. To the rear, the profile of this crest turns upwards. Behind this crest a depression is present at the underside of the jaws. The midline groove at the top of the lower jaws symphysis is deep. Furthermore, there is a density of 4.5 teeth per three centimeters of jaw edge.

Classification
Wang et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis including Ikrandraco and found it to be a basal pteranodontoid, more derived than Pteranodon but not as derived as the istiodactylids, anhanguerids, and other pteranodontoids. The portion of their results dealing with Pteranodontoidea is shown below.

The cladogram below is a topology recovered by Pêgas et al. (2019). In the analyses, they recovered Ikrandraco as a member of the family Lonchodraconidae, and the sister taxon of Lonchodraco.

Paleobiology
Wang et al. interpreted the crest as a possible adaptation for skim fishing, although they did not regard this as the animal's main method of foraging. The hook on the crest may have been an attachment point for a throat pouch for storing food, akin to a pelican. Ikrandraco was an approximate contemporary of the distantly related anhanguerians Liaoningopterus gui and Guidraco venator, and all three are regarded as piscivores, but Ikrandraco differed from them in its much smaller and less robust teeth, indicating it had a different niche.

See also
 List of pterosaur genera
 Timeline of pterosaur research

References

Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia
Pteranodontoids
Fossil taxa described in 2014
Taxa named by Alexander Kellner
Paleontology in Liaoning

Ikrandraco


The Battle of Hampton Roads was a naval battle of the American Civil War. It was fought on March 8 and 9, 1862 near Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was an important battle because it was the first combat between ironclad warships.

The Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia tried to break the Union navy blockade of Hampton Roads. The blockade prevented all commerce with Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia. On March 8, the Virginia sank and damaged several union battleships. On March 8, the Union ironclad USS Monitor arrived and fought the Virginia. The battle lasted for several hours. But neither ship could defeat the other. Both ships left the fight thinking they had won. But the Confederates failed to break the blockade.

Both ironclads were lost soon after the battle.  When Norfolk fell in May 1862, the CSS Virginia was destroyed by its crew so it wouldn't be captured. The USS Monitor was lost in a storm near Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862. Her wreck was found in 1974.

The Battle of Hampton Roads did not make a big difference in the outcome of the Civil War.  But it changed the way people fought wars with ships. The battle proved that ironclad warships were much stronger than wooden ships. After this battle, the U.S. and other countries stopped building wooden ships. They started building iron warships instead.

Notes

References

Other websites
 The Battle of Hampton Roads (2002); YouTube
 The Warrior's Influence Abroad: The American Civil War (why the Monitor was created)

Hampton Roads
1862 in Virginia
March 1862 events

Battle of Hampton Roads