Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821. Spain claimed ownership of the region in 1519. Slave raids by Spaniards into what became Texas began in the 16th century and created an atmosphere of antagonism with Native Americans (Indians) which would cause endless difficulties for the Spanish in the future. Spain did not attempt to establish a permanent presence until after France established the colony of Fort Saint Louis in 1685. In 1688, the French colony failed due to internal dissention and attacks by the Karankawa Indians. In 1690, responding to fear of French encroachment, Spanish explorer Alonso de León escorted several Catholic missionaries to east Texas, where they established the first mission in Texas. That attempt to establish a Spanish colony failed due to the hostility of the Caddo Indians.

The Spanish returned to southeastern Texas in 1716, establishing several missions and a presidio to maintain a buffer between Spanish territory and the Louisiana district of New France. San Antonio was founded in 1719 and became the capital and largest settlement of Spanish Tejas. The Lipan Apache menaced the newly founded colony until 1749 when the Spanish and Lipan concluded a peace treaty. Both the Spanish and Lipan were then threatened by Comanche raids until 1785 when the Spanish and Comanche negotiated a peace agreement. In 1803, the United States gained ownership of an indefinite part of Texas with the Louisiana Purchase and subsequently the influence of Anglo Americans increased.

During the Mexican War of Independence from 1810 to 1821 Texas experienced turmoil. Reaching a maximum population of perhaps 5,000 Spanish, mixed blood, and subject Indians in 1810, only 2,500 people remained in Hispanic Texas by the end of the war. Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and Spanish Texas became part of an independent Mexico. Texas became independent of Mexico in 1836 and joined the United States in 1845.

The Spanish never achieved control of most of Texas which was on the far frontier of Spanish colonial ambitions. Despite the meager nature of Spanish colonization, Hispanic influence in Texas is extensive. Spanish architectural concepts still flourish. Many cities and rivers in Texas were named by the Spanish and many counties in southern and western Texas have majority Hispanic populations. The inadvertent introduction of European diseases by the Spanish caused Native American populations to plummet, leaving a population vacuum later filled by Anglo American settlers. Grazing of European livestock caused mesquite to spread inland replacing native grassland while Spanish farmers tilled and irrigated the land and changed the landscape.   Although Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, many Spanish legal practices survived, including the concepts of a homestead exemption and of community property.

Location
Spanish Texas (Tejas) was a colonial province within the northeastern mainland region of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. On its southern edge, Tejas was bordered by the provinces of Coahuila and Nuevo Santander. The boundary between the provinces was set at the line formed by the Medina River and the Nueces River,  northeast of the Rio Grande. On the east, Texas bordered La Louisiane (French Louisiana). Although Spain claimed that the Red River formed the boundary between the two, France insisted that the border was the Sabine River,  to the west.

Initial colonization attempts

Although Alonso Álvarez de Pineda claimed Texas for Spain in 1519, the area was largely ignored by Spain until the late seventeenth century. However Spanish slave raids into what became Texas began in the late 16th century. Among others, Spanish governor Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva captured hundreds of Indians and sold them to owners of silver mines in Mexico. Frequent epidemics of European diseases reduced the Indian population. The first epidemic, possibly of cholera, among the Indians in Texas was recorded in 1528 by Cabeza de Vaca and they continued to impact the Indian population until the end of the 19th century.

In 1685, the Spanish learned that France had established a colony in the area between New Spain and Florida. Believing the French colony was a threat to Spanish mines and shipping routes, Spanish King Carlos II's Council of War recommended that "Spain needed swift action 'to remove this thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America. The greater the delay the greater the difficulty of attainment.'" Having no idea where to find the French colony, the Spanish launched ten expeditions—both land and sea—over the next three years. While unable to fulfill their original goal of locating the French settlement, the expeditions did provide Spain a deeper understanding of the geography of the Gulf Coast region. The last expedition, in 1689, discovered a French deserter living in southern Texas with the Coahuiltecans. In April 1689, the Frenchman helped guide the Spanish, under Alonso de León, to Fort Saint Louis, which had been destroyed by Karankawa Indians. De León's expedition also met representatives of the Caddo people, who lived between the Trinity and the Red Rivers. The Caddo expressed interest in learning about Christianity.

De León sent a report of his findings to Mexico City, where it "created instant optimism and quickened religious fervor". The Spanish government was convinced that the destruction of the French fort was "proof of God's 'divine aid and favor'". In his report de León recommended that presidios be established along the Rio Grande, the Frio River, and the Guadalupe River and that missions be established among the Hasinai Indians, whom the Spanish called the Tejas, in East Texas. In Castilian Spanish, this was often written as the phonetic equivalent Texas, which became the name of the future province.

Missions

The viceroy approved the establishment of a mission but rejected the idea of presidios, primarily because New Spain was chronically short of funds. On March 26, 1690, Alonso de León set out with 110 soldiers and several missionaries. The group stopped first to burn Fort Saint Louis to the ground, and then they proceeded to East Texas. Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in late May, and its first mass was conducted on June 1. The missionaries refused to allow the unruly soldiers to remain near the missions, and when de León returned to Mexico later that year, only 3 of his initial 110 soldiers remained to assist the monks. Father Damián Massanet, the priest in charge of the mission, left on June 2 to meet the tribes north of the mission before returning to Mexico to request an additional 14 priests and 7 lay brothers.

On January 23, 1691, Spain appointed the first governor of Texas, General Domingo Terán de los Ríos. Terán was ordered to help establish seven new missions, including two more among the Tejas Indians, four amongst the Kadohadachos, and one for the tribes near the Guadalupe River. He was only able to recruit 10 friars and 3 lay brothers. His expedition reached the existing mission in August, 1691 and discovered that the priests there had established a second mission, Santísimo Nombre de María,  east of San Francisco de los Tejas. One of the priests had died, leaving two to operate the missions. The Indians regularly stole their cattle and horses and were becoming insolent. With provisions running low, Terán chose not to establish any more missions. When he left Texas later that year, most of the missionaries chose to return with him, leaving only 3 religious people and 9 soldiers at the missions.

The group also left a smallpox epidemic. The Indians had no natural immunity to the disease and at first blamed the outbreak on the baptismal waters. After thousands of natives had succumbed, the survivors rose up against the missions. In 1693, the Caddo warned the Franciscan missionaries to leave the area or be killed. The missionaries buried the church bells and burned the mission, then returned to Mexico. Although this first Spanish attempt to settle Texas failed, it provided Spain an increased awareness of the terrain, rivers, and coastline of Texas and convinced the government that "even the most tractable of Indians" could only be converted "by a combination of coercion and persuasion". For the next 20 years, Spain again ignored Texas.

Conflict with France
During the early eighteenth century France again provided the impetus for Spain's interest in Texas. In 1699, French forts were established at Biloxi Bay and on the Mississippi River, ending Spain's exclusive control of the Gulf Coast. Although Spain "refused to concede France's right to be in Louisiana" and warned King Louis XIV of France that he could be excommunicated for ignoring the 200-year-old papal edict giving the Americas to Spain, they took no further actions to stop France's encroachment or expand the Spanish presence. The two countries became allies during the War of the Spanish Succession and cooperated in the Americas. Despite their friendship, Spain remained unwilling to allow the French to trade within their territory. On hearing rumors of French incursions into Texas in 1707, the viceroy of New Spain ordered all provincial governors to prevent the entry of foreigners and their goods. To dissuade the Tejas Indians from accepting goods from the French, a contingent of soldiers under Pedro de Aguirre traveled into Texas. His expedition reached only as far as the Colorado River and turned around after learning that the Tejas chief was still unhappy with the Spanish. The group did visit the area around the San Antonio River, and was much impressed with the land and availability of water. They believed the river to be unnamed and called it San Antonio de Padua, not realizing that Terán and Massanet had camped nearby years before on the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua and had given the river the same name.

In 1711, Franciscan missionary Francisco Hidalgo, who had served in the earlier Texas missions, wanted to reestablish missions with the Caddos. The Spanish government was unwilling to provide the funding and troops for the project, so Hidalgo approached the French governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac for help. Cadillac was under orders to turn Louisiana into a profitable colony and believed that Spanish settlers closer to Louisiana could provide new trading opportunities. He sent Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, along with brothers Pierre and Robert Talon, who, as children, had been spared at the massacre of Fort Saint Louis, to find Hidalgo and offer assistance. In July 1714, the French delegation reached the Spanish frontier, at that time around the Rio Grande, where Hidalgo was located. Although St. Denis was arrested and questioned, he was ultimately released. The Spanish recognized that the French could become a threat to other Spanish areas, and ordered the reoccupation of Texas as a buffer between French settlements in Louisiana and New Spain.

On April 12, 1716, an expedition led by Domingo Ramón left San Juan Bautista for Texas, intending to establish four missions and a presidio which would be guarded by twenty-five soldiers. The party of 75 people included 3 children, 7 women, 18 soldiers, and 10 missionaries. These were the first recorded female settlers in Spanish Texas. After marrying a Spanish woman, St. Denis also joined the Spanish expedition.

The party reached the land of the Hasinai people in late June 1716 and was greeted warmly. On July 3, mission San Francisco was reestablished as Mission Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas for the Neche Indians. Several days later, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción was established at the main village of the Hainai, the head tribe of the Hasinai Confederacy, along the Angelina River. A third mission, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, was established  east of Purísima Concepción, at the main village of the Nacogdoche tribe, at what is now Nacogdoches. A final mission, San José de los Nazonis, was built among the Nazoni Indians just north of present-day Cushing. A presidio, Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, was built opposite San Francisco de los Tejas.

During this period, the area was named the New Philippines by the missionaries in the twin hopes of gaining royal patronage, and that the Spanish efforts would be as successful as in the Philippines a century and a half earlier. The alternate name became official and remained in use for several decades, but had virtually disappeared from use (in favor of 'Texas') by the end of the century. The name however persisted in documents, especially in land grants

At the same time, the French were building a fort in Natchitoches to establish a more westward presence. The Spanish countered by founding two more missions just west of Natchitoches, San Miguel de los Adaes and Dolores de los Ais. The missions were located in a disputed area; France claimed the Sabine River to be the western boundary of Louisiana, while Spain claimed the Red River was the eastern boundary of Texas, leaving an overlap of .

The new missions were over  from the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista. It was difficult to reprovision the missions, and by 1718 the missionaries were in dire straits. Martín de Alarcón, who had been appointed governor of Texas in late 1716, wished to establish a way station between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas. The Coahuiltecans had built a thriving community near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, in the area the Spanish had admired in 1707. Alarcón led a group of 72 people, including 10 families, into Texas on April 9, 1718. They brought with them 548 horses, 6 droves of mules, and other livestock. On May 1, the group created a temporary mud, brush and straw structure to serve as a mission, San Antonio de Valero, whose chapel was later known as the Alamo. The mission was initially populated with three to five Indians that one of the missionaries had raised since childhood. Alarcon built a presidio, San Antonio de Béxar  north of the mission,. Alarcón also chartered the municipality of Béjar, now San Antonio. Given a status higher than a village (pueblo) but lower than a city (ciudad), San Antonio became the only villa in Texas, and the colonists who settled there relied on farming and ranching to survive. With the new settlement established, Alarcón continued on to the East Texas missions, where he found evidence of much illicit trade with France.

The following year, the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out, aligning Spain against France, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Austria. The war was fought primarily over Italy, but Great Britain and France launched several attempts to capture Spanish colonies in North America. In June 1719, 7 Frenchmen from Natchitoches took control of Mission San Miguel de los Adaes from its sole defender, who did not know that the countries were at war. The French soldiers explained that 100 additional soldiers were coming, and the Spanish colonists, missionaries, and remaining soldiers abandoned the area and fled to San Antonio.

The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo volunteered to reconquer Texas and raised an army of 500 soldiers. Aguayo was named the governor of Coahuila and Texas and the responsibilities of his office delayed his trip to Texas by a year, until late 1720. Just before he departed, the fighting in Europe halted, and King Felipe V of Spain ordered them not to invade Louisiana, but instead find a way to retake Eastern Texas without using force. The expedition brought with them over 2,800 horses, 6,400 sheep and many goats; this constituted the first large "cattle drive" in Texas. This greatly increased the number of domesticated animals in Texas and marked the beginning of Spanish ranching in Texas.

In July 1721, while approaching the Neches River, Aguayo's expedition met St. Denis, who had returned to the French and was leading a raid on San Antonio. Realizing that he was badly outnumbered, St. Denis agreed to abandon East Texas and return to Louisiana. Aguayo then ordered the building of a new Spanish fort Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes, located near present-day Robeline, Louisiana, only  from Natchitoches. The new fort became the first capital of Texas, and was guarded by 6 cannon and 100 soldiers. The six East Texas missions were reopened, and Presidio Dolores, now known as Presidio de los Tejas, was moved from the Neches River to a site near mission Purísima Concepción near the Angelina River. The Spaniards then built another fort, Presidio La Bahía del Espíritu Santo, known as La Bahía, on the site of the former French Fort St. Louis. Nearby they established a mission, Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga (also known as La Bahía), for the Coco, Karankawa, and Cujane Indians. Ninety men were left at the garrison. Aguayo returned to Mexico City in 1722 and resigned his governorship. At the beginning of his expedition, Texas had consisted only of San Antonio and about 60 soldiers; at his resignation, the province had grown to consist of 4 presidios, over 250 soldiers, 10 missions, and the small civilian town of San Antonio.

Settlement difficulties
Shortly after Aguayo returned to Mexico, the new viceroy of New Spain, Juan de Acuña, marqués de Casafuerte, was ordered to cut costs accrued for the defense of the northern part of the territory. Acuña appointed Colonel Pedro de Rivera y Villalón to inspect the entire northern frontier. Beginning in what is now California in November 1724, Rivera spent the next three years inspecting the northern frontier, reaching San Antonio in August 1727. His reports of Los Adaes, Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto, and the presidio at San Antonio were favorable, but he was unimpressed with Presidio de los Tejas, whose 25 soldiers were guarding empty missions. The native population had refused to congregate into communities around the missions and refused baptism unless they were on the brink of death. Because the Indians were well-armed, the Franciscans were unable to compel them to join the missions. The frustrated missionaries finally petitioned the Spanish government for 50 soldiers to burn the Indians' houses of worship and force them to build homes near the missions. No troops were forthcoming.

Rivera recommended closing Presidio de los Tejas and reducing the number of soldiers at the other presidios. His suggestions were approved in 1729, and 125 troops were removed from Texas, leaving only 144 soldiers divided between Los Adaes, La Bahía, and San Antonio. The three East Texas missions which had depended on Presidio de los Tejas were relocated along the San Antonio River in May 1731, increasing the number of missions in the San Antonio area to five. The San Antonio missions usually contained fewer than 300 Indians. Many of those who lived at the mission had nowhere else to go, and belonged to small tribes that have since become extinct.

The Spanish government believed that settlers would defend their property, alleviating the need for some of the presidios. Texas was an unappealing prospect for most settlers, however, due to the armed nomadic tribes, high costs, and lack of precious metals. In 1731, the Spanish government resettled
55 people, mostly women and children, from the Canary Islands to San Antonio. At that time, only 300 Hispanic settlers lived in San Antonio, with 200 others dispersed throughout the rest of the colony. The new immigrants began farming and renamed the town San Fernando de Béxar, establishing the first municipal, and only civilian, government in Texas. Juan Leal Goraz, the oldest of the settlers, was appointed the first councilman.

As the first settlers of the municipality, the Islanders and their descendants were designated hidalgos. The established settlers resented the Islanders for their new titles and exclusive privileges within the city government. The newcomers did not know how to handle horses, rendering them useless in mounted warfare against the Apaches. Unlike the established settlers, who relied on ranching, the Islanders were primarily farmers, and their refusal to build fences led to many disagreements when livestock trampled the fields. By the early 1740s, however, intermarriage and the need for closer economic ties had helped to alleviate some of the infighting, and the original settlers were given permission to serve as magistrates and council members.

Spain discouraged manufacturing in its colonies and limited trade to Spanish goods handled by Spanish merchants and carried on Spanish vessels. Most of the ports, including all of those in Texas, were closed to commercial vessels in the hopes of dissuading smugglers. By law, all goods bound for Texas had to be shipped to Veracruz and then transported over the mountains to Mexico City before being sent to Texas. This caused the goods to be very expensive in the Texas settlements. Settlers were often forced to turn to the French for supplies, as the fort at Natchitoches was well-stocked and goods did not have to travel as far. Without many goods to trade, however, the remaining Spanish missionaries and colonists had little to offer the Indians, who remained loyal to the French traders.

Peace with France

Indians confirmed in 1746 that French traders periodically arrived by sea to trade with tribes in the lower Trinity River region. Eight years later, the Spanish learned of rumors that the French had opened a trading post at the mouth of the Trinity River. In September 1754, the governor, Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui sent soldiers to investigate, and they captured five Frenchmen who had been living at an Indian village. To dissuade the French from returning, Spain built the presidio of San Agustín de Ahumada and the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz de Orcoquisac near the mouth of the Trinity at Galveston Bay. Conditions were awful at the new location, and both the presidio and the mission were closed in 1770.

The Presidio La Bahía was moved from the Guadalupe River to Goliad on the San Antonio River in 1749. Within five years, a new mission for the Karankawa tribes, Nuestra Señora del Rosario de los Cuhanes, was built upstream of the presidio. This mission survived for many years. Despite the new missions and presidios, Texas was one of the least populated provinces on the northern frontier of New Spain. By 1760, almost 1,200 Hispanic people lived in Texas, with half in San Antonio, 350 at Los Adaes, and 260 at La Bahía. Other Spaniards lived in what is now the El Paso area, but that was considered part of New Mexico and not part of Texas.

On November 3, 1762, as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, France ceded the portion of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain. Spain had assisted France against Britain in the Seven Years' War, and lost both Manila and Havana to the British. Although the Louisiana colony was a financial liability, King Carlos III of Spain reluctantly accepted it, as that meant France was finally ceding its claim to Texas. At the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, Great Britain recognized Spain's right to the lands west of the Mississippi. Great Britain received the remainder of France's North American territories, and Spain exchanged some of their holdings in Florida for Havana.

With France no longer a threat to Spain's North American interests, the Spanish monarchy commissioned the Marquis of Rubí to inspect all of the presidios on the northern frontier of New Spain and make recommendations for the future. Rubí's two-year journey, beginning in early 1766, covered  from the Gulf of California to East Texas. This was the first comprehensive look at the New Spain frontier since the 1720s, when Pedro de Rivera conducted his expedition. Rubí was unimpressed with the presidio at San Saba, which he declared to be the worst in the kingdom of New Spain. He recommended that only the presidios at San Antonio and La Bahía be maintained, and that East Texas be totally abandoned, with all population moving to San Antonio. With Louisiana in Spanish control, there was no need for Los Adaes to reside so closely to Natchitoches, especially after the missions had relocated to San Antonio. In August 1768, the acting governor, Juan María Vicencio, Baron of Ripperdà, moved his headquarters and the garrison to San Antonio, and in 1772 San Antonio became the new Texas capital. Los Adaes was abandoned completely. The new governor also augmented the garrison at San Antonio to protect the town from recurring Indian attacks. A new presidio, Fuerte de Santa Cruz de Cibolo, was also established  southeast of San Antonio to protect farmers and ranchers from attacks.

As a result of Rubí's recommendations, Presidio de San Agustín de Ahumada was closed in 1771, leaving the Texas coast unoccupied except for La Bahía. In July 1772, however, the governor of Texas heard rumors that English traders were building a settlement in the area of the Texas coast that had been abandoned. The commander of La Bahía was sent to find the settlement, but saw no sign of other Europeans. His expedition did, however, traced the San Jacinto River to its mouth where it emptied into Galveston Bay.

Founding of Nacogdoches
The 500 Hispanic settlers who had lived near Los Adaes had to resettle in San Antonio in 1773. In the six years between the inspection and the removal of the settlers, the immigrant population of East Texas had increased from 200 Europeans to 500, a mixture of Spanish, French, Indians, and a few blacks. The settlers were given only five days to prepare to relocate to San Antonio. Many of them perished during the three-month trek and others died soon after arriving.

After protesting, they were permitted in the following year to return to East Texas, but only as far as the Trinity River,  from Natchitoches. Led by Antonio Gil Y'Barbo, the settlers founded the town of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Bucareli "where the trail from San Antonio to Los Adaes crossed the Trinity." The settlers helped smuggle contraband goods from Louisiana to San Antonio, and also helped the soldiers with coastal reconnaissance.

In May 1776, King Carlos III created a new position, the Commandancy General of the Internal Provinces of the North (Provincias Internas), to control frontier areas across northern New Spain, including Spanish Texas. The first appointee, Teodoro de Croix, served as governor and commander-in-chief of the area from 1776 until 1783. As de Croix prepared to take office, his predecessor, Baron of Ripperdà, wrote a detailed report, dated April 27, 1777, of the settlements in Texas. One-third of the report detailed the village of Bucareli, which he labeled as "'of the greatest importance as a means of acquiring reports of a coast as extensive as it is uninhabited.'" The Bucareli settlers regularly performed coastal explorations and developed a friendship with the Bidai tribe, who reported any signs of foreigners along the coast. In the summer of 1777, Gil Ybarbo discovered that a group of Englishmen had come from the sea and stayed long enough to plant a crop near the Neches River. He led an expedition to find the Englishmen, but, although they discovered the fields, the expedition did not find any of the settlers.

In 1779, the Comanches began raiding the Bucareli area, and the settlers chose to move further east to the old mission of Nacogdoches, where they founded the town of the same name. The new town quickly became a waystation for contraband. The settlers did not have authorization to move, and no troops were assigned to protect the new location until 1795.

Conflict with the Native Americans

Apache raids

The tribes traded freely, and soon many had acquired French guns, while others had traded for Spanish horses. Tribes without access to either resource were left at a disadvantage. The Lipan Apache, who had been seasonal farmers, were soon pressed by the Comanche, who had horses, and the Wichita, who had guns. The Apaches were bitter enemies of the Tejas of East Texas and had transferred their enmity to the Spanish as friends of the Tejas. After discovering San Antonio in 1720, the Apache mounted small-scale raids on the area to steal livestock, especially horses. The Hispanic population of San Antonio was only about 300 and all of Texas about 500 and the Apache killed an average of 3 Spaniards each year and stole approximately 100 animals from the beleaguered colony. In retaliation, the Spanish launched multiple attacks on the Apaches, capturing horses and mules, hides and other plunder, and taking Apache captives, whom the Spanish used as household slaves. By 1731, however, the San Antonio garrison was begging the government for help in negotiating a peace with the tribes.

The threat of Apache raids led to a constant state of unease in San Antonio, and some families left the area, while others refused to leave the safety of the town to tend their livestock. The problems culminated with a late-night raid on San Antonio by 350 Apache on June 30, 1745, retaliation for a Spanish military campaign several months before. The attackers were repelled with the assistance of 100 Indians from nearby Mission Valero. The Apache also preyed on other tribes, including the Deadose and Tonkawa. In the 1740s, these weaker tribes requested missions along the San Gabriel River in the hopes that the Spanish could protect them from attack. Mission San Francisco Xavier was established at the confluence of the San Gabriel River and Bushy Creek in January 1746 to serve the Deadose, Mayeye, and Coco Indians. In 1748 alone, the Apaches raided the mission four times, killing three soldiers and four of the Indian residents. Many of the resident Indians fled the mission due to the threat of attacks. This did not deter the missionaries, who founded two more missions, San Ildefonso and Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, in the area the following year. Within six months, all of the potential converts at San Ildefonso had left. By 1755, the missions were transferred to a new location on the San Marcos River.

The Apache were coming under increased pressure from the Comanche advancing from the north and sought peace with the Spanish. A peace was declared in August 1749, when a group of Apache chiefs and Spanish officials "symbolically [buried] the trouble between the two parties" by burying weapons in the plaza at San Antonio. The Spanish also promised to provide military assistance to the Apache. The Lipan Apache had asked for missions several times, and in 1757 all property of the former San Gabriel missions, as well as the military garrison which briefly protected them, was transferred to new Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá along the San Saba River northwest of San Antonio. A log stockade was constructed  from the mission, on the other side of the river, so that the soldiers would not corrupt the Indians. The stockade could hold up to 400 including the 237 women and children who accompanied the soldiers.

Apaches shunned the mission, and on March 16, 1758, a band of Comanche, Tonkawa, and Hasinai warriors, angry that the Spaniards were assisting their Apache enemies, pillaged and burned the mission, killing eight people. The San Sabá mission was the only Spanish mission in Texas to be completely destroyed by Indians, and it was never rebuilt. Although the Indian force had 2000 members, they chose not to attack the fort.

The Spanish government refused to abandon the area completely out of fear that such an action would make them appear weak. While they planned a response, Indians raided the San Saba horse herd, stealing all of the horses and pack mules and killing 20 soldiers. In October 1759, Spain sent the San Sabá commander, Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla, on an expedition north to the Red River to avenge the attack. The tribes were forewarned and led Parrilla's army to a fortified Wichita village, surrounded by a stockade and a moat, where natives brandished French guns and waved a French flag. After a skirmish in which 52 Spaniards were killed, wounded, or deserted, the Spanish retreated. The San Sabá presidio was replaced with a limestone fortress and a moat, but the Comanches and their allies remained close and killed any soldiers who ventured out. By 1769, Spain abandoned the fort.

In 1762, missionaries established two unauthorized missions south of San Sabá, in the Nueces River valley. For several years the Apache lived in the missions most of the year, but left in winter to hunt buffalo. One of the missions closed in 1763, when the Apache never returned from their hunt. The surviving mission closed in January 1766, after a force of 400 natives from the northern tribes attacked, killing 6 Apaches and taking 25 captives as well as all the livestock in the valley. Forty-one Spanish troops and their small cannon ambushed the northern tribes as they returned to East Texas. Before the Spanish were forced to retreat, over 200 Indians and 12 Spanish soldiers died. After the battle, the Apache refused to return to the mission and returned to raiding near San Antonio. Raids by the northern tribes decreased, however.

Comanche

The first recorded contact between the Comanche and the Spanish in Texas was in 1743 when a small band of Comanche visited San Antonio. The
Comanche were expanding southward from Colorado and pushing the Apache off the Great Plains. About 1750 they became the dominant power in the northwestern one-half of Texas, called the Comanchería (Spanish for "Comanche lands"), and maintained their dominance for 100 years. Through a combination of diplomacy and war, the Comanche established an extensive long-distance trade network and spread their language and culture among allied Indian tribes. Initially, the Spanish in Texas called them the norteños (northerners) a collective term for the Wichita and other Indian tribes in northern Texas.

The Comanche were divided into the western bands which primarily raided and traded in New Mexico and the eastern banks which primarily raided and traded in Texas. For much of the 1770s, the Comanche raided in New Mexico. The Comanche were defeated in a battle in Colorado in 1779 by a Spanish army led by New Mexico governor Juan Bautista de Anza and redirected their activities to the weakly defended Texas. During the same time period the Apaches, who had been stockpiling guns received from the Karankawas, returned to raiding settlements in Texas, violating their peace treaty. The Comanche promptly declared war on the Apache.

Gálvez became the viceroy of New Spain in 1785. Gálvez ordered that the Native Americans be encouraged to use alcohol, which they could only get through trading, and that the firearms they were traded be poorly made so that they would be awkward to use and easy to break. His policies were never implemented, as Spain did not have the money to provide gifts such as those to the tribes. Instead, the Spanish negotiated a treaty with the Comanche in late 1785. The treaty promised annual gifts to the Comanches, and the peace it brought lasted for the next 30 years. By late 1786, northern and western Texas were secure enough that Pedro Vial and a single companion safely "pioneered a trail from San Antonio to Santa Fe," a distance of .

The Comanches were willing to fight the enemies of their new friends, and soon attacked the Karankawa. Over the next several years, the Comanches killed many of the Karankawa in the area and drove the others into Mexico. By 1804, very few natives lived on the barrier islands, where the Karankawa had made their home. In January 1790, the Comanche also helped the Spanish fight a large battle against the Mescalero and Lipan Apaches at Soledad Creek west of San Antonio. Over 1,000 Comanche warriors participated in raids against the Apache in 1791 and 1792, and the Apache were forced to scatter into the mountains in Mexico. In 1796, Spanish officials began an attempt to have the Apache and Comanche coexist in peace, and over the next ten years the intertribal fighting declined.

Karankawa difficulties

In 1776, Native Americans at the Bahia missions told the soldiers that the Karankawas had massacred a group of Europeans who had been shipwrecked near the mouth of the Guadalupe River. After finding the remains of an English commercial frigate, the soldiers warned the Karankawa to refrain from attacking seamen. The soldiers continued to explore the coast, and reported that foreign powers could easily build a small settlement on the barrier islands, which were difficult to access from the mainland, and then ascend the Trinity or San Jacinto Rivers into the heart of Texas. Captain Luis Cazorla, the commander of the La Bahía presidio, recommended that Spain build a small fort on the barrier islands and provide a shallow-draft vessel to continually reconnoiter the coast. The fort would be both a deterrent to the more bloodthirsty tribes and to the English. The Spanish government, fearful of smuggling, declined to give permission for a port or a boat on the Texas coast.

De Croix was unimpressed with his new province, complaining that,

Despite his distaste for the area, he increased the number of troops in the interior provinces by 50% and created units of "light troops" which did not carry all of the heavy gear and could fight on foot. His administration also attempted to build alliances with native troops, and planned to work with the Comanche and the Wichita to wipe out the Apache raiders. The plan was shelved when Spain entered the American Revolution as an ally of the French and the American revolutionaries and money and troops were diverted to attacking Florida instead of exterminating the Apaches. After soldiers in Coahuila aligned with the Mescaleros against the Lipan Apaches, however, Spain was able to sign a peace treaty with the Lipans. The Comanches were also becoming more brazen, attacking Presidio La Bahía in 1781, where they were repulsed.

After hearing that Englishman George Gauld had surveyed the Gulf Coast all the way to Galveston Bay in 1777, Bernardo de Gálvez appointed a French engineer, Luis Antonio Andry, to conduct a similar survey for Spain. Andry finished his survey in March 1778, and anchored off Matagorda Bay after running dangerously low on provisions. Over a period of days, the Karankawa lured a few men at a time from the ship with offers of assistance and killed all but one, a Mayan sailor named Tomás de la Cruz. The Karankawa also burned the ship and the newly created map, possibly the first detailed Spanish map of the Texas-Louisiana coast. Several months later, the Native Americans living at Mission Rosario, near La Bahía, escaped to join the Karankawa, and together they began raiding livestock and harassing settlers. The governor pardoned many of the fugitives, and most of them returned to the mission. The Karankawa continued to cause difficulties for the Spanish, and in 1785 the interim commandant-general, Joseph Antonio Rengel, noted that they were unable to explore in the Matagorda Bay region as long as the Karankawa held it.

The Spanish again arranged for their coastline to be mapped, and in September 1783, José de Evia left Havana to chart the coastline between Key West and Matagorda Bay. During his journey, Evia gave Galveston Bay its name, in honor of his sponsor, De Gálvez. Evia later mapped the Nuevo Santander coast between Matagorda Bay and Tampico, part of which later belonged to Texas.

In 1791 and 1792, Fray José Francisco Garza befriended some of the Karankawa and other native peoples. Their friendship allowed Garza to explore much of the coastal areas that had been too dangerous to visit. The Native Americans requested that Garza build a mission at the junction of the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers, and in February 1793 Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio opened near Mission Lake at the head of San Antonio Bay. Over 230 Native Americans lived at the mission initially, but within two years they were forced to move to a less flood-prone site, which became known as Refugio. By the end of the eighteenth century, only a small number of the hunting and gathering tribes within Texas had not been Christianized.

Conflict with the United States
The Second Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the American Revolution and established the United States of America. The treaty extended the new country's western boundary to the Mississippi River and within the first year after it was signed 50,000 American settlers crossed the Appalachian Mountains. As it was difficult to return east across the mountains, the settlers began looking toward the Spanish colonies of Louisiana and Texas to find places to sell their crops. Spain closed the mouth of the Mississippi to foreigners from 1784 until 1795 despite Thomas Jefferson's 1790 threat to begin an Anglo-Spanish war over the matter. Americans risked arrest to come to Texas, many of them desiring to capture wild mustangs in West Texas and trade with the Indians. In 1791, Philip Nolan became the first Anglo-American known to pursue horse-trading in Texas, and he was arrested several times for being within Spain's borders. The Spanish feared that Nolan was a spy, and in 1801 they sent 150 troops to capture Nolan and his party of 6 men; Nolan was killed during the ensuing battle. By 1810, many Americans were trading guns and ammunition to the Texas Indians, especially the Comanche, in return for livestock. Although some chiefs refused to trade with them and reported their movements to Spanish authorities, other bands welcomed the newcomers. A drought made rangeland scarce and stopped the Comanche's herds from increasing. To meet the American demand for livestock, the Comanche turned to raiding the area around San Antonio.

The Spanish government believed that security would come with a larger population, but was unable to attract colonists from Spain or from other New World colonies. By the late 18th century, Texas was one of the least populated regions of New Spain, with fewer than two inhabitants per square league. The population was relatively stagnant, having grown only to 3,169 individuals in 1790 from 3,103 in 1777. Over half of the population was classified as Spaniards, with settled Indians making up the next largest category. Blacks, mostly slaves, made up less than 1% of the population in 1777, and only 2.2% of the 1793 census. Over two-thirds of the adults in Texas were married, and single men outnumbered single women, although there was a high percentage of widows. Intermarriage was fairly common, mostly between white men and women of mixed origin. Children from these unions often passed as whites. Illegitimate births increased steadily throughout the century, reaching 20% of all births in 1799. Despite the small population, however, Spain actively discouraged immigration to Texas, and a permanent garrison was placed in Nacogdoches in 1790 to keep foreigners from settling in the area. Immigrants from the United States were allowed to settle in Louisiana and Florida after taking an oath of allegiance, but were not required to convert to Roman Catholicism.

In 1799, Spain gave Louisiana back to France in exchange for the promise of a throne in central Italy. Although the agreement was signed on October 1, 1800, it did not go into effect until 1802. The following year, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States. Many of the Spaniards who had moved to the colony left for Texas, Florida, or other Spanish-held lands. The original agreement between Spain and France had not explicitly specified the borders of Louisiana, and the descriptions in the documents were ambiguous and contradictory. Even when both territories had been under Spanish control, there was disagreement on where the border should be. In 1793, the King of Spain decided that there was no need to move the boundary from Natchitoches to the Sabine River, as had been recommended by some Frenchmen.

The United States insisted that its purchase also included most of West Florida and all of Texas. Thomas Jefferson claimed that Louisiana stretched west to the Rocky Mountains and included the entire watershed of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries, and that the southern border was the Rio Grande. Spain maintained that Louisiana extended only as far as Natchitoches, and that it did not include West Florida or the Illinois Territory.

Texas was again considered a buffer province, this time between New Spain and the United States. In 1804, Spain planned to send thousands of colonists to increase the number of residents in Texas (then at 4,000 Hispanic inhabitants). The plan was cancelled as the government did not have the money to relocate the settlers. The responsibility for defending Texas now rested with Nemesio Salcedo, who held the newly reopened position of Commandant General of the Internal Provinces. Salcedo promoted immigration to Texas, and a new town, Trinidad de Salcedo, was founded where the Trinity River intersected the road from San Antonio to Nacogdoches. For a brief time, Salcedo also allowed former Spanish subjects from Louisiana to come to Texas. A few Americans who had become naturalized Spaniards settled in Texas during that time. Salcedo warned, however, that "'the foreigners are not and will not be anything but crows to pick out our eyes.'"

King Charles IV of Spain ordered data compiled to determine the true boundary. Before the border was settled, both sides led armed excursions into the disputed areas, and Spain began increasing the number of troops stationed in Texas. By 1806, the number had doubled, with over 883 stationed in and around Nacogdoches. At the end of 1806, local commanders negotiated a temporary agreement in which neither the Spanish nor the Americans would venture into the area between the Sabine River and Arroyo Hondo. This neutral ground quickly became a haven for lawlessness and it did not stop individuals from crossing the boundary. While on a mission for the United States Army to explore some of the disputed areas of the Louisiana Purchase Zebulon Pike was arrested by the Spanish while camping on the Rio Grande and escorted back to Natchitoches. Although his maps and notes were confiscated, Pike was able to recreate most of it from memory. His glowing comments about Texas lands and animals made many Americans yearn to control the territory.

End of Spanish period
In May 1808, Napoleon forced King Ferdinand VII to abdicate the Spanish throne. His replacement, Napoleon's elder brother Joseph Bonaparte (Joseph I), was appointed King of Spain, to violent protests from the Spanish citizens. The uprisings continued for the next six years, until his abdication in 1814 and the return of Ferdinand VII. During the time, there was little oversight of the New World colonies. A shadow government operated out Cádiz during Joseph's reign, operating under the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The constitutional government included representatives from the colonies, including Texas and New Mexico in New Spain. When King Ferdinand VII resumed his throne, he refused to recognize the new constitution or the representative government. He was forced to change his mind in 1820 as the only way to avert a military coup.

During this time of turmoil, it was unclear who actually governed the colonies: Joseph I, the shadow government representing Ferdinand VII, the colonial officials, or revolutionaries in each province. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 at the instigation of Miguel Hidalgo. Fearing that the revolution would reach colonial Texas, governor Manuel María de Salcedo ordered the Texas borders closed to all foreigners. He was soon reversed by his uncle, the Commandant General. Revolutionaries soon overthrew and imprisoned Salcedo, and a new government was established in Texas. Salcedo persuaded Ignacio Elizondo (his jailer) to return to the royalist cause and the two organized a counter-coup. Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811.

Although officially neutral during the Mexican War of Independence, the United States allowed rebels to trade at American ports and much of the weaponry and ammunition used by the rebels came from the United States. Americans also provided manpower for the conflict, with Natchitoches serving as a launching point for several expeditions into Texas. In 1812, Mexican insurgent Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara led a small force of Americans into Texas. Indians from the eastern part of Texas quickly joined the insurgency. Calling themselves the Republican Army of the North, the group captured San Antonio in 1813, assassinated the governor, Manuel María de Salcedo, and proclaimed Texas independent from Spain. The death of the governor caused many of the Anglo-Americans to desert the cause, but on April 17, 1813, the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition members composed Texas's first constitution, which provided for a centralized form of government. Spanish forces recaptured the province later that year at the Battle of Medina, and killed 1300 and executed any Tejanos accused of having Republican tendencies. Within 2 weeks almost 400 rebels were executed and their wives and daughters were imprisoned for 2 months. Royalist soldiers even chased many of the women and children who had fled San Antonio, killing 200–300. Captured Americans were given an opportunity to take an oath of loyalty to Spain, and those who refused were escorted back to the United States. Fearing that the Comanche would still constitute a threat, Spanish general Arredondo ordered all ranchers to move temporarily to San Antonio to help defend the city. When they returned to their ranches several months later, they found that the Comanche had slaughtered all of the livestock, leaving most of the carcasses where they fell. The Spanish army looted the rest of Texas too, and by 1820 fewer than 2000 Hispanic citizens remained in Texas. "Spanish Texas, or what remained of it, had become a desolate, unprotected land that could not feed itself."

Another revolutionary, José Manuel Herrera, created a government on Galveston Island in September 1816 which he proclaimed part of a Mexican Republic. A group of French exiles in the United States attempted to create their own colony on the Trinity River, known as Le Champ d'Asile. The exiles planned to use the colony as a base to liberate New Spain and then free Napoleon from St. Helena. They abandoned the colony shortly and returned to Galveston.

On February 22, 1819, Spain and the United States reached agreement on the Transcontinental Treaty, which ceded Florida to the United States in return for the United States relinquishing its claim on Texas. The official boundary of Texas was set at the Sabine River (the current boundary between Texas and Louisiana), then following the Red and Arkansas Rivers to the 42nd parallel (California's current northern border). For the next two years, until early February 1821, Spain delayed ratification of the treaty, using it as leverage to prevent the United States from formally recognizing one of the rebellious Spanish colonies as an independent nation. During this period many Americans spoke out against the treaty and the renunciation of the claim to Texas. An essay in the City of Washington Gazette denounced the treaty, claiming that "'a league'" of the land in Texas was worth more to the United States "'than the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains'".

In 1819, James Long led the Long Expedition to invade Texas. He declared Texas an independent republic, but by the end of the year his rebellion had been quelled by Colonel Juan Ignacio Pérez and his Spanish troops. The following year Long established a new base near Galveston Bay "to free Texas from 'the yoke of Spanish authority... the most atrocious despotism that ever disgraced the annals of Europe.'" His basis for a rebellion was soon gone, however.

On February 24, 1821, Agustín de Iturbide launched a drive for Mexican Independence. Texas became a part of the newly independent nation without a shot being fired.

Spanish Texas population

Legacy

Spanish control of Texas was followed by Mexican control of Texas, and it can be difficult to separate the Spanish and Mexican influences on the future state. The most obvious legacy is that of the language; the state's name comes from the Spanish rendering of an Indian word. Every major river in modern Texas, except the Red River, has a Spanish or Anglicized name, as do 42 of the state's 254 counties and numerous towns also bear Spanish names. Even many of the words that have been incorporated into American English, such as barbecue, canyon, ranch, and plaza, come from Spanish words. An additional obvious legacy is that of Roman Catholicism. At the end of Spain's reign over Texas, virtually all inhabitants practiced the Catholic religion, and it is still practiced in Texas by a large number of people. The Spanish missions built in San Antonio to convert Indians to Catholicism have been restored and are a National Historic Landmark.

The landscape of Texas was changed as a result of some Spanish policies. As early as the 1690s, Spaniards brought European livestock, including cattle, horses, and mules, with them on their expeditions throughout the province. Some of the livestock strayed or stayed behind when the Spanish retreated from the territory in 1693, allowing the Indian tribes to begin loosely managing herds of the animals. These herds grazed heavily on the native grasses, allowing mesquite, which was native to the lower Texas coast, to spread inland. Although the introduced livestock were able to adapt to the changing conditions, the buffalo had a more difficult time grazing among the new vegetation, beginning the decline in their numbers. Spanish farmers also introduced tilling and irrigation to the land, further changing the landscape. Spanish architectural concepts were also adopted by those in Texas, including the addition of patios, tile floors and roofs, arched windows and doorways, carved wooden doors, and wrought iron grillwork.

Although Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, many Spanish legal practices were retained. Among these was the Spanish model of keeping certain personal property safe from creditors. Texas implemented the first homestead exemption in the United States in 1839, and its property exemption laws are now the most liberal state in the United States. Furthermore, Spanish law maintained that both husband and wife should share equally in the profits of marriage, and, like many other former Spanish provinces, Texas retained the idea of community property rather than use the Anglo laws in which all property belonged to the husband. Furthermore, Spanish law allowed an independent executor to be named in probate cases who is not required to gain court permission for each act not explicitly listed in the testament. Texas retained this idea, and it has eventually spread to other states, included Arizona, Washington, and Idaho. In other legal matters, Texas kept the Spanish principle of adoption, becoming the first U.S. state to allow adoption.

See also

List of colonial and Mexican governors of Texas

References

Notes

Sources

Further reading

New Spain
Colonial Mexico
Colonial United States (Spanish)
Pre-statehood history of Texas

States and territories established in 1690
States and territories disestablished in 1821

1690 establishments in New Spain
1821 disestablishments in New Spain
19th-century disestablishments in Texas

Spanish Texas


Trichogenes longipinnis (the long-finned cambeva), is a species of catfish (order Siluriformes) of the family Trichomycteridae.
T. longipinnis is endemic to coastal streams in the Atlantic forest between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo States in southeastern Brazil.

Description
The spotted colour pattern differs consistently between stream populations, indicating genetic differentiation. This fish grows to about 14 cm (5.5 in) standard length (SL) in males and 10.6 cm (4.2 in) SL in females.

Ecology
This catfish dwells in pools beneath small waterfalls in steep hill streams flowing over rocky and sandy substrates. The density of these fish varies from three to 25 individuals/m2. At densities of 18 to 25 individualsm2, these fish aggregate in loose groups of up to 30 individuals. However, the largest ones tend to be solitary and territorial.

Unlike most trichomycterids which are bottom-dwelling and nocturnal, T. longipinnis is nektonic and active both during daytime and at night, with juvenile and small adults being more active at daytime than large adults.

This catfish uses visual, tactile, and chemosensory orientation to feed on bottom-dwelling aquatic and terrestrial insects in the water column or on the surface. Their diet includes immature aquatic insects, crustaceans, adult terrestrial winged insects, whole or fragmented, and carrion. These fish forage mostly by scanning the bottom, the barbels touching the substrate, but visually oriented drift feeding is also used by smaller fish. While foraging, it may bury into sand or plant debris and sift through with its gill openings and mouth.

This species reproduces at the onset of rainy season.

T. longipinnis is restricted to steep hill stream stretches, and is absent in streams on gently sloping terrain dominated by Astyanax characids. The catfish possibly developed, or retained, its characid-like role (diurnal, nektonic, and insectivorous) in separately with this more widespread tetra.

Conservation
Due to restricted distribution, specialized habitat, and differentiated populations, the vulnerable (VU B1+2bc) status in the IUCN List is proposed. However, this species is not yet listed on the IUCN Red List.

References

Trichomycteridae
Fish of South America
Fauna of Brazil
Endemic fauna of Brazil
Taxa named by Heraldo Antonio Britski
Taxa named by Hernán Ortega
Fish described in 1983

Trichogenes longipinnis


Alpinia nutans, the shellflower, or dwarf cardamom, is a Southeast Asian plant of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), and is a medicinal plant used to control hypertension, as diuretic, antifungal, and antiulcer. In Japan it is used as food preservative.

Characteristics
Its flowers have a porcelain look, are shell-like and bloom prolifically on a 30-cm stalk. The flower's single fertile stamen has a massive anther. The globose white stigma of the pistil extends beyond the tip of the anther. The foliage of Alpinia nutans is evergreen in areas that do not have a hard freeze. It has a very distinctive cardamom fragrance when brushed or rubbed, but this is not the plant that produces the spice by that name.

Chemistry

The rhizome oil of Alpinia speciosa contains some fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms, which are less common in nature than fatty acids with even numbers of carbon atoms.  The major one is pentadecanoic acid (C-15, 21.9%) and others are tricosylic acid (C-23, 5.7%), tridecylic acid (C-13, 1.9%), undecylic acid (C-11, 3.1%) and pelargonic acid (C-9, 0.1%). Among the fatty acids containing even number of carbon atoms, the main constituents are linolenic acid (C-18:3, 27.4%) and arachidic acid (C-20, 22.4%). The total saturated fatty acids constitute 65.7% and unsaturated 34.3%. Spectroscopic analysis revealed two new compounds of glucoside esters of ferulic acid. It also contains dihydro-5,6-dehydrokawain.

Medicinal uses

Alpinia nutans is used in traditional medicine as diuretic, antihypertensive, antifungal, and antiulcer. The plant extract was experimentally shown to induce dose-dependent decrease in blood pressure in rats and dogs. However, it was found to have no effect on diuresis. Two new glucoside esters of ferulic acid isolated from the rhizome have higher antioxidant activity than Trolox. Its chemical compound dihydro-5,6-dehydrokawain has an inhibitory effect on lipid peroxide, and has an activity similar to that of beta-carotene.

See also
Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
 List of plants known as lily

References

External links

Tropical Plant Database: Alpinia speciosa
 Alpinia nutans

nutans
Flora of Asia

Alpinia nutans


The American Brewery, located in the Broadway East, Baltimore community, is an historic former brewery located at 1701 North Gay Street in northeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States.  Formerly abandoned and left to decay for four decades, it has been recently repaired, renovated / restored and beautified. It is currently the headquarters of Humanim Inc., a regional social services agency.

History
Built in 1887 by John Frederick Wiessner, a German immigrant, for his Weissner Brewing Company, the Northeast Baltimore brewery was one of the largest breweries in the state of Maryland.  At its peak, the brewery employed 61 workers: 16 in brewery work, 17 drivers, 14 in the bottling house, 8 garage men, and 6 office workers. The central tower of the building housed a 10,000-bushel grain elevator. Prohibition forced the shutdown of the facility in 1920. In 1931 the Wiessner family sold the brewery to the American Malt Company, which modernized the interior equipment and operated the brewery until 1973. The building was listed that year in the National Registry of Historic Sites.

The Brewery has become the new home for Humanim, a Columbia, Maryland, nonprofit organization, secured $22.5 million for renovations of the American Brewery complex into its new headquarters.  The City of Baltimore approved the building permit in early 2004, and work is now complete. The American Brewery is situated in the center of one of East Baltimore's most blighted neighborhoods.

Redevelopment

Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Humanim Inc., and Gotham Development LLC have announced plans to redevelop the Brewhouse building and bottling plant into a social and human services center and a new Baltimore headquarters for Humanim Inc.

The project consists of two phases: the Brewhouse and the Bottle Building. The Brewhouse, a  building that once served as the main brewing facility, will be transformed into Humanim's Baltimore headquarters. Humanim is a 35-year-old Maryland-based social and human services provider that has delivered programs and services in East Baltimore for the last 20 years. The Bottle Building, a  c. 1937 industrial building will be converted into a center for organizations working in community arts, community services and small business development. The Brewhouse is scheduled to start construction in summer 2007 with completion scheduled for the summer 2008. The Bottle Building is scheduled to start construction in 2008 with completion in 2009.

The once-vibrant neighborhood around the brewery building has long been in decline and was largely forgotten by politicians and the media during the latter half of the 20th century. About half of the homes and other buildings in the area have been demolished or are vacant. Basic services such as grocery stores and restaurants have disappeared as well. In 2006, the City of Baltimore moved to acquire 200 abandoned properties in the area for future demolition or rehabilitation.

The rehabilitation of the American Brewery may serve as an impetus for further investment in the East Baltimore neighborhood. Due to its central location in a struggling neighborhood, interior space, and architectural quality, the brewery is seen by urban planners as an anchor for future community and economic development initiatives in the area.  It is hoped that new employment and social services will attract additional investors, improving the quality of life for current and future residents.

References

External links
Baltimore, Maryland, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust

Incredible Old Photo of the Wiessner Brewery - Ghosts of Baltimore blog

Beer in Maryland
Brewery buildings in the United States
Broadway East, Baltimore
Buildings and structures in Baltimore
German-American culture in Baltimore
Historic American Engineering Record in Baltimore
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore
Industrial buildings completed in 1887
Towers in Maryland
1887 establishments in Maryland
Baltimore City Landmarks

American Brewery (building)


Life of Pi is a 2012 American drama movie produced and directed by Ang Lee. It stars Suraj Sharma. It was released to very positive reviews on November 21, 2012. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture - Drama and Best Director, and won for Best Original Score. At the 85th Academy Awards, it had 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won four (the most of the night), including Best Director for Ang Lee.

Release dates

2012 drama movies
2012 adventure movies
American adventure movies
American drama movies
British adventure movies
British drama movies
Taiwanese movies
Canadian adventure movies
Canadian drama movies
Mexican adventure movies
Mexican drama movies
French adventure movies
French drama movies
English-language movies
Survival movies
Movies about tigers
Movies directed by Ang Lee

Life of Pi (movie)


The Helsinki Stock Exchange (formerly OMX Helsinki,  officially NASDAQ OMX Helsinki) is a stock exchange that is in Helsinki, Finland. The Helsinki Stock Exchange was first made in October 7, 1912 when they made their first transaction. After that they had remained a "free form" type of financial association until 1984. Then it changed to a cooperative owned mostly by banks, traders, other companies and associations. The stock exchange lists 141 businesses.

Other websites

Stock exchanges in Europe
1912 establishments in Europe
Helsinki
1910s establishments in Finland

Helsinki Stock Exchange


Captain Timothy Hill House is a historic home located at Chincoteague Island, Accomack County, Virginia. It was built about 1800, and moved to its present location in 1980 when faced with demolition.  It is a -story dwelling that was built using pit sawn and hewn pine planks and measures 17 feet, 4 inches, by 16 feet, 4 inches.  It currently sits on a low brick pier foundation.  It has a modern roof featuring a steep side gable with wood shingles and weatherboard.  The house has a wooden chimney that represents the first period of this house and features carvings of sailing ships of the period on the exterior
log walls.  It is significant as a rare surviving example of log plank construction still existent in Virginia, possibly the oldest remaining house on Chincoteague Island, and one of the few houses remaining in Virginia which at one time had a wood chimney.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Accomack County, Virginia
Houses in Accomack County, Virginia
Chincoteague, Virginia

Captain Timothy Hill House


The 2014 Hong Kong protests, also known as the Umbrella Revolution, are a series of protests in Hong Kong that started on 27 September 2014. They are protesting against the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress' (NPCSC) decision on the proposed electoral reform for the planned 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election. The NPCSC would need a nomination committee to pre-approve up to three electoral candidates before they go on to a vote that involves the general population. After the election, the Chief Executive-elect still has to be formally appointed by the central government before they can officially take their post.

The student groups Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism started protesting outside of the government headquarters on the 22 September, 2014. During the evening of 26 September, there were a group of several hundred demonstrators that broke through a security barrier and had entered the plaza in front of the Central Government Complex. The police then closed off and blockaded it overnight. This caused more protesters to join and surround the police. The standoff between the protesters and police lasted for a day, during which the police started attacking unarmed protesters with shields, batons, and pepper spray. The movement Occupy Central with Love and Peace announced that they would start their civil disobedience campaign with starting immediately.

On 28 September at around noon, the protesters moved onto Harcourt Road and went on to occupy Queensway. After a standoff that lasted for several hours, police started using tear gas and water cannons on the crowds and they also threatened to open fire with rubber bullets if they did not leave.

Further reading
Umbrella Movement
2019–20 Hong Kong protests

References

2014 in China
2010s in Hong Kong
2010s protests

2014 Hong Kong protests


Clare Vanderpool is an American children's author. Her first book, Moon Over Manifest, won the 2011 Newbery Medal. She lives with her husband and four children in Kansas.

Life
Vanderpool was born on November 6, 1964, in Wichita, Kansas. She has a husband, Mark, and four children. Vanderpool still lives in the town that she grew up in. Her children go to the same schools that she went to as a child.

Books
Vanderpool wrote the books Navigating Early, and Moon Over Manifest. Moon Over Manifest won the 2011 Newbery Medal. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl, Abilene Tucker, who finds some secrets that start to put together the story of her father's upbringing.

Vanderpool originally got the idea for Navigating Early (published 2013) from one of her mother's dreams. In the dream, there was a boy who was amazing at piano. Although he never had any lessons, he could hear a difficult piece just once and would be able to play it perfectly. From the dream, she created the book about a boy who had an unexplainable gift, that creates a close friendship with a girl. "Where an author gets her ideas is simple. Ideas come from watching, listening, paying attention, and most of all from the characters themselves." - Clare Vanderpool.

References

1964 births
Writers from Wichita, Kansas
Living people

Clare Vanderpool


Lincoln City Hall is the former seat of the Lincoln, Nebraska city government. The hall was built from 1874-1879 as the U.S. Post Office and Court House, designed by the office of the U.S. Treasury Department's architect, Alfred B. Mullett. A new post office and court house was built in 1906 and the property was transferred to the city. It was superseded as city hall in 1969 when the city government moved into the City-County Building. Although Mullett is officially listed as the architect, much of the design work may have been carried out by his assistant, William Appleton Potter, who specialized in the Gothic style.

Description
City Hall is built of brick faced with rough limestone blocks. It is four stories tall with a basement, measuring  by  in plan. The exterior is detailed in an austere High Victorian Gothic style, capped by a mansard roof. The interior is similarly finished, with Gothic details in the woodwork. The style was influenced by the work of John Ruskin.

Lincoln City Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1969.

References

External links

City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska
Gothic Revival architecture in Nebraska
Government buildings completed in 1874
Buildings and structures in Lincoln, Nebraska
Alfred B. Mullett buildings
William Appleton Potter buildings
Historic American Buildings Survey in Nebraska
National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln, Nebraska
City and town halls in Nebraska

City Hall (Lincoln, Nebraska)


"I'll Be Home for Christmas" is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas time, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.

Theme
The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams". The flip side of the original recording (Decca 18570B) was "Danny Boy."

Writing and copyright
The song was written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent. Songwriter and later producer and manager for The Platters, Buck Ram, who said he previously wrote a poem and song with the same title, was credited as a co-writer of the song following a lawsuit brought by Ram's publisher, Mills Music. Bing Crosby's original 1943 release of the song on Decca Records listed only Walter Kent and Kim Gannon as the songwriters on the record label. Later pressings added the name of Buck Ram to the songwriting credit.

Bing Crosby recording
On October 1, 1943, Crosby recorded the song under the title "I'll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)", with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra for Decca Records;  it was released as a 78 rpm single, Decca 18570A, Matrix #L3203, and reissued in 1946 as Decca 23779. Within a month of release, the song charted for 11 weeks, with a peak at number three. The next year, the song reached number 16 on the charts.

The U.S. War Department also released Bing Crosby's performance of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" from the December 7, 1944, Kraft Music Hall broadcast with the Henderson Choir, J.S.T., on V-Disc, as U.S. Army V-Disc No. 441-B and U.S. Navy V-Disc No. 221B, Matrix #VP1253-D5TC206. The song from the broadcast has appeared in many Bing Crosby compilations.

In the midst of World War II, the song touched the hearts of Americans, both soldiers and civilians, and it earned Crosby his fifth gold record. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O. shows. The GI magazine Yank said Crosby "accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era".

Despite the song's popularity with Americans at the front and at home, in the UK the BBC banned the song from broadcast, as the Corporation's management felt the lyrics might lower morale among British troops.

Seventy-seven years after its original release, Bing Crosby's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (at number 50 on the chart dated January 2, 2021).

Charts

Notable history and cover versions
Elvis Presley recorded the song in September 1957, and was featured on the LP Elvis' Christmas Album.

Singer Johnny Mathis also covered the song on his Merry Christmas album in 1958, which was the #2 Christmas album of 1963 and 1964 as there were no Christmas album rankings prior to 1963. In December 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, while on Gemini 7, requested "I'll Be Home for Christmas" be played for them by the NASA ground crew. Since the incarnation of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1958, cover versions by Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello and American singers Kelly Clarkson and Josh Groban are the only versions of the song to enter the chart.

Kelly Clarkson version

Michael Bublé version

Brian McKnight version

Pentatonix version

Seth MacFarlane version

Josh Groban version

Reba McEntire version

Rascal Flatts version

Sara Evans version

Elvis Presley and Carrie Underwood version

Camila Cabello version

Certifications and sales

Michael Bublé

References

Sources

  Call number: ML128 .N3 E9.
  Call number: ML156.4 .P6 W495 1994.

American Christmas songs
Songs about soldiers
Songs about the military
1943 songs
1943 singles
Bing Crosby songs
Songs of World War II
Songs with lyrics by Kim Gannon
Songs written by Buck Ram
Decca Records singles
Songs with music by Walter Kent
Songs banned by the BBC

I'll Be Home for Christmas


Christianity is the predominant religion in the Federated States of Micronesia and represents an integral part of the nation's identity.

The country is secular and its constitution guarantees the freedom of religion. Before the arrival of European missionaries, the various ethnic groups residing in the territory of modern day Federated States of Micronesia practised a variety of faiths.

Demographics
The Roman Catholic Church, as well as several Protestant denominations, were active in every Micronesian state in 2007; most Protestant groups trace their roots to American Congregationalist missionaries.

On the island of Kosrae, the population is approximately 7,800; (95% Protestant). On Pohnpei, the population of 35,000 is evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants (50% catholic & 50% Protestant). On Chuuk and Yap, (an estimated 60% Catholic & 40% Protestant).

Religious groups with small followings include Baptists, Assemblies of God, Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as Jews, Hindus and the Bahá'í Faith.

There is a small group of Buddhists on Pohnpei (0.43% of the population as of 2020). Attendance at religious services was high in 2007; churches were well supported by their congregations and played a significant role in civil society.

The Ahmadiyya Muslims were registered in Kosrae in July 2015, despite strong public resistance against Islam in the country.
There were 35 Ahmadiyya Muslims as of 2022; there is an Ahmadi community centre in Pohnpei State although some followers also live in Kosrae.

Most immigrants are Filipino Catholics who have joined local Catholic churches. The Filipino Iglesia ni Cristo also has a church in Pohnpei. In the 1890s, on the island of Pohnpei, intermissionary conflicts and the conversion of clan leaders resulted in religious divisions along clan lines which persist today. Protestants are the majority on the western side of the island, while Catholics are the majority on the eastern side.

Religious freedom
The constitution of Micronesia states that laws establishing a state religion or impeding the freedom of religion may not be passed.

There are no registration requirements for religious groups. There is no religious education in public schools, but private religious schools are allowed so long as they also teach the curriculum established by the Department of Education.

In 2023, the country was scored 4 out of 4 for religious freedom.

See also
Religion in Yap
Roman Catholic Diocese of Caroline Islands
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Federated States of Micronesia
Adelyn Noda

References

Further reading

Francis X. Hezel in
 Francis X. Hezel. The Catholic Church in Micronesia: Historical Essays on the Catholic Church in the Caroline-Marshall Islands (1991)

Religion in the Federated States of Micronesia


Uranos is the sky in Greek mythology. It is also spelt Ouranos, and in Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός - "sky" or "heaven".  He is the son and husband of the primordial goddess Gaia and father of the Titans, Hekatonkheires, and Elder Cyclopes.
His Roman equivalent was Caelus, the husband of Terra, as Gaia was known to the Romans.

The planet Uranus is named after Uranos. So is the radioactive chemical element uranium.

Related pages
 Hesiod
 Theogony

Greek gods and goddesses

Uranos


Malcolm Luria Diamond (November 6, 1924 – December 27, 1997) was William H. Danforth Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Princeton University.

Career
Diamond was born November 6, 1924 in New York City. During World War II, Diamond served in the U.S. Navy and was deployed to the South Pacific. He received a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from Yale University in 1945 and a Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from Columbia University in 1956. He also studied at the Yale Divinity School in 1946-47 and at Trinity College, Cambridge, during 1947-48. He later earned an Ed.S. in family therapy from Seton Hall University in 1985.

A known civil rights activist, Diamond was among those to join the Freedom Riders in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. He was also an outspoken critic of war and participated in several anti-war demonstrations in the Northeast. Before being appointed to the Danforth chair at Princeton, Diamond had taught at several colleges including Sarah Lawrence College and New York University. Diamond also served on the executive committee of the American Academy of Religion. Professor Diamond died at the age of 73 after a long struggle with multiple myeloma.

Works
After joining the Princeton faculty in 1953, Professor Diamond was the author of several books on philosophy and religion including Contemporary Philosophy and Religious Thought, Martin Buber: Jewish Existentialist, and The Logic of God: Theology and Verification.

Sources
 Princeton University Obituary
 TIME on Civil Rights

1924 births
1997 deaths
Columbia University alumni
Seton Hall University alumni
Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni
Yale Divinity School alumni
Sarah Lawrence College faculty
New York University faculty
Princeton University faculty
Deaths from multiple myeloma
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Freedom Riders

Malcolm Diamond


The Island on Bird Street (; The Island on Birds Street) is a 1981 semi-autobiographical children's book by Israeli author Uri Orlev (אורי אורלב), which tells the story of a young boy, Alex, and his struggle to survive alone in a ghetto during World War II. The author won the 1996 Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's literature, largely for this book, which was translated into numerous languages and adapted into a play and a film. The English translation, by Hillel Halkin, was published in 1984.

Plot summary
Alex (the main character) is an 11-year-old Jewish boy living in a Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II with his father and their friend, Boruch. German soldiers come into the Ghetto and send people into trains to be taken away (most likely to death camps). Alex and his father get separated, and soon Alex has to learn how to kill time in the empty ghetto by himself. As it turns out the ghetto is not entirely empty, and that is where he comes across various people, from neighbors to robbers, some of whom even try to help him. He finds himself in an abandoned, bombed out building on Bird Street (Ptasia street) where he seeks refuge. The only thing he has to pass the time away with is his pet mouse Snow, the novel Robinson Crusoe and other books, and a small air vent grate overlooking the town. He has to hunt for food on his own and still stay hidden from soldiers. It is a great test for Alex to see if he can make it through tough conditions, and also wait for the arrival of his father.

Adaptation to feature film

In 1997, the book was made into a feature film starring Jordan Kiziuk, Patrick Bergin and Jack Warden.

See also

 Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw

1981 novels
1981 children's books
20th-century Israeli novels
Children's historical novels
Young adult novels
Autobiographical novels
Children's books about the Holocaust
Children's books set in Poland
Children's books set in the 1940s
Israeli novels adapted into films

The Island on Bird Street


Thomas Boys (1792–1880) was an Anglican priest and theologian.

Life
His father was Rear-admiral Thomas Boys of Kent. He was born at Sandwich, Kent, and educated at Tonbridge Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. The failure of his health from over-study prevented his taking more than the ordinary degrees (B.A. 1813, M.A. 1817), and, finding an active life necessary to him, he entered the army with a view to becoming a military chaplain, was attached to the military chest in the Peninsula under Wellington in 1813, and was wounded at the battle of Toulouse in three places, gaining the Peninsular Medal. He was ordained deacon in 1816, and priest in 1822.

He established a reputation as a Hebrew scholar, being teacher of Hebrew to Jews at the college, Hackney, from 1830 to 1832, and professor of Hebrew at the Missionary College, Islington, in 1836. While holding this last post, he revised Deodati's Italian Bible, and also the Arabic Bible.

Boys also made a translation of the Bible into Portuguese. He began by making a critical revision of João Ferreira de Almeida's version: according to The Bible of every Land, published by Samuel Bagster in 1848, Boys  "appears to have completed the revision of the New Testament, and to have published small editions of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and of the Psalms". Then, in 1837, the Trinitarian Bible Society decided to publish a new Portuguese translation from the Greek and Hebrew texts, and appointed Boys to carry out the work. He was instructed to use Almeida's version as a basis, but carry out a careful comparison with the Hebrew, and to  make his version comprehensible to contemporary readers. The New Testament was published in 1843, and the Old Testament in 1847.

In 1848 he was appointed incumbent of Holy Trinity, Hoxton. He died 2 September 1880, aged 88.

Other writings
Boys was a prolific writer. In 1825 he published a key to the Psalms, and in 1827 a Plain Exposition of the New Testament. Already in 1821 he had issued a volume of sermons, and in 1824 a book entitled Tactica Sacra, expounding a theory that in the arrangement of the New Testament writings a parallelism could be detected similar to that used in the writings of the Jewish prophets. In 1832 he published The Suppressed Evidence, or Proofs of the Miraculous Faith and Experience of the Church of Christ in all ages, from authentic records of the Fathers, Waldenses, Hussites.., . The same year produced a plea for verbal inspiration under the title A Word for the Bible, and 1834 A Help to Hebrew.

He was a frequent contributor of sketches and papers to Blackwood's Magazine, mostly descriptive of his experiences during the Peninsular War. The most important of these was "My Peninsular Medal", which ran from November 1849 to July 1850. His acquaintance with the literature and antiquities of the Jews was very thorough, but perhaps the best proofs of his extensive learning are to be found in the numerous letters and papers, sometimes under his own name, and sometimes under the assumed name of "Vedette", contributed to the second series of Notes and Queries. Of these the twelve papers on Chaucer difficulties are a most valuable contribution to the study of early English literature.

References

Attribution

External links

 , engraving of a painting by William Purser for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

1792 births
1880 deaths
English antiquarians
19th-century English writers
People educated at Tonbridge Grammar School
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
19th-century English Anglican priests
Christian Hebraists
English religious writers
Napoleonic Wars chaplains
British military chaplains

Thomas Boys


Saint Nicholas Cathedral (, Nikolo-Dvorishchensky Cathedral, Saint Nicholas Cathedral on Yaroslav's Court), founded by Mstislav the Great in 1113 and consecrated in 1136, is the oldest surviving building in the central part of Veliky Novgorod after the Saint Sophia Cathedral.

The Saint Nicholas Cathedral is on the World Heritage list as a part of object 604 Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings. The cathedral was designated by the Russian government as an architectural monument of federal significance (#5310046007).

History
The cathedral is located outside of the kremlin walls, on the right bank of the Volkhov River at the Yaroslav's Court. It was founded by Mstislav, the prince of Novgorod, in 1113, however, the construction took over twenty years, and the cathedral was consecrated in 1136, when Novgorod was already a republic. Presumably, the cathedral was supposed to serve the residence of the prince located at the Yaroslav's Court and was connected to the residence. Mstislav was the Prince of Novgorod between 1097 and 1117, and during his tenure he founded a big number of churches. The completion date for the cathedral is not known precisely,  however the cathedral was completed and consecrated by 1136. Chronicles mention that in this year Prince Sviatoslav Olgovich was betrothed in the cathedral. Since the 13th century, the cathedral belonged to the city of Novgorod rather than to the prince, and veche was held near the cathedral. It was mentioned as cathedral in the 17th century. The cathedral was renovated several times in the 18th and the 19th centuries, as well as in 1913. Since 1933 it was open both as a church and as a museum. During the German occupation of Novgorod in World War II, it served as a barrack and was badly damaged. In 1945 the cathedral was returned to Russian Orthodox Church, however, since 1962 it was functioning only as a museum. In 1994–1999 the cathedral was extensively restored.

Architecture
The cathedral is roughly squared in cross-section and has one dome. The roof is supported by four pillars. It is known that in the middle of the 17th century the cathedral had five domes. Apparently, the roof was considerably altered during one of the restorations in the end of the 17th century. Additional volumes were built at the northern (in 1822) and the western (1809) sides of the cathedral.

Frescoes
Fragments of original frescoes from the 12th century have survived. The best preserved fragment depicts Job.

References

External links

Buildings and structures completed in 1136
12th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings
Russian Orthodox churches in Veliky Novgorod
Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Russia
Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings
Medieval Eastern Orthodox church buildings in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Novgorod Oblast

Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Novgorod


Curtis Raymond Dickey (born November 27, 1956) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 7 seasons, spending most of his career with the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts.

College
Dickey was a two-sport athlete at Texas A&M University where he was an outstanding running back in football. As a world-class sprinter, Dickey also excelled in track and field, winning the NCAA championship in the 60 yard dash three times (1978–1980). His 10.11 in the 100 meters was the sixth fastest time in the world in 1978. He also posted a personal best of 6.10 seconds in the 55 meters.

At the 1980 Southwest Texas Indoor Track and Field Championship, Dickey finished second behind Herkie Walls in the 60-yard dash (55 meters).

Professional football
Dickey was selected by the Baltimore Colts in the 1st round (5th overall) of the 1980 NFL Draft. Dickey played seven NFL seasons from 1980–1986. In 1980, he was a rookie sensation for Baltimore when he rushed for 11 touchdowns. His best year as a pro came during the 1983 season for the Colts when he rushed for 1,122 yards and four touchdowns. Plagued with injuries throughout his career, Dickey retired after the 1986 season with the Cleveland Browns.

References

1956 births
Living people
American football running backs
Texas A&M Aggies football players
Baltimore Colts players
Indianapolis Colts players
Cleveland Browns players
People from Madisonville, Texas
Players of American football from Texas
USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners

Curtis Dickey


The Utopian Society is a 2003 film directed by John P. Aguirre and starring Sam Doumit, Austin Nichols, Malin Åkerman, Mat Hostetler, Kelvin Yu, and Kirsten Ariza. It was re-released by Warner Brothers in 2008.

Plot
The Utopian Society is about a group of college students who are put together by their professor to complete a final project: create a utopian society. Like most college students, they've waited until the night before it is due to start working on it.  They each come from different backgrounds and have pre-existing assumptions about the others, causing them to want to spend as little time working with each other as possible.  But since they have waited until the last minute to start working, they are forced to cram an entire semester's work into one night, whether they like it or not.

Cast
 Sam Doumit as Nera
 Austin Nichols as Justin Mathers
 Malin Åkerman as Tanci
 Mat Hostetler as Caleb
 Kelvin Yu as Ken
 Kristen Ariza as Aaliyah
 Robert Romanus as Barry

Awards
DV Awards (UT):WINNER - Best Long Form Drama
RAD Digital Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA):WINNER - Best Feature Drama/Comedy
Independents Film Festival (Tampa, FL):WINNER - Best Feature
Texas Film Festival (College Station, Texas):WINNER - Audience Award
Fargo Film Festival (Fargo, ND):WINNER - Audience Award
DIY Awards (Los Angeles, CA):WINNER - Best Cinematography
The Honolulu Film Festival (Honolulu, HI):WINNER - Best Direction
Back East Picture Show (Hoboken, NJ):WINNER - Best Screenplay
Wine Country Film Festival (Napa/Sonoma, CA):WINNER - Best First Feature
Great Lakes Film Festival (Erie, Pennsylvania):WINNER - Founder's Vision Award

Nominated
Ashland Film Festival (Ashland, OR):NOMINATED - Best Acting Ensemble & Best Cinematography
Phoenix Film Festival (Phoenix, AZ):NOMINATED - Best Acting Ensemble

References

External links
Official website

2003 films
American independent films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films

The Utopian Society


The Christopher Columbus House in Genoa, Italy, is an 18th-century reconstruction of the house in which Christopher Columbus grew up.

Description
The house is located outside Genoa's 14th-century walls. During the Renaissance, the area became subject to intense building, mainly consisting of public housing.

Columbus was born in 1451, and historical documents indicated that Columbus lived here between approximately 1455 and 1470. At this time, the house had two or maybe three stories, with a shop on the ground floor, and the front door to the left of the shop.

According to historian Marcello Staglieno, the original house was most likely destroyed in the French Bombardment of Genoa in 1684. It was rebuilt in the early 18th century on the basis of the original ruins. The rebuilt structure had a height of five stories. However, the upper stories were built by placing their beams on the neighboring buildings. When the neighboring buildings were demolished around 1900, as part of the construction of  Via XX Settembre, the upper stories of this building were removed, and it was reduced to its current height of two stories.

Currently the building operates as a museum, under the management of the "Porta Soprana" Genovese cultural association. Its central location and nearby parking make it a popular meeting place for the Genovese.

See also
 List of monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus

Museums in Genoa
Christopher Columbus
Monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus House


Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include Port of Shadows (1938), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), The Devil's Envoys (1942) and Children of Paradise (1945), the last of which has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time.

Biography
Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in silent film as a camera assistant with director Jacques Feyder. By age 25, Carné had already directed his first short film, Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929). He assisted Feyder (and René Clair) on several films through to La kermesse héroïque (1935).

Feyder accepted an invitation to work in England for Alexander Korda, for whom he made Knight Without Armour (1937), but made it possible for Carné to take over his project, Jenny (1936), as its director. The film marked the beginning of a successful collaboration with surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. This collaborative relationship lasted for more than a dozen years, during which Carné and Prévert created their best remembered films. Together, they were involved in the poetic realism film movement of fatalistic tragedies; Ginette Vincendeau said that "the movement's greatest classics are probably Marcel Carné's Le Quai des brumes in 1938 and Le Jour Se Lève in 1939."

Under the German occupation of France during World War II, Carné worked in the Vichy zone where he subverted the regime's attempts to control art; several of his team were Jewish, including Joseph Kosma and set designer Alexandre Trauner. Under difficult conditions they made Carné's most highly regarded film  (Children of Paradise, 1945) released after the Liberation of France. In the late 1990s, the film was voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals. Post-war, he and Prévert followed this triumph with what at the time was the most expensive production ever undertaken in the history of French film. But the result, titled Les Portes de la nuit, was panned by the critics and a box office failure and was their last completed film.

By the 1950s, Carné's reputation was in eclipse. The critics of Cahiers du cinéma, who became the film makers of the New Wave, dismissed him and placed his films' merits solely with Prévert. Other than his 1958 hit Les Tricheurs, Carné's postwar films met with only uneven success and many were greeted by an almost unrelenting negative criticism from the press and within members of the film industry. In 1958, Carné was the Head of the Jury at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1971 film Law Breakers was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. Carné made his last film in 1976.

Carné was openly homosexual. Several of his later films contain references to male homosexuality or bisexuality. His one-time partner was Roland Lesaffre who appeared in many of his films.

Edward Baron Turk has published a biography of Carné entitled Child of Paradise: Marcel Carné and the Golden Age of French Cinema.

Marcel Carné died in 1996 in Clamart, Hauts-de-Seine, and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre.

Filmography as director
Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929, documentary short)
Jenny (1936)
Drôle de drame (1937)
Le Quai des brumes (1938)
Hôtel du Nord (1938)
Le jour se lève (1939)
Les Visiteurs du soir (1942)
  (1945)
Les Portes de la nuit (1946)
La Fleur de l'âge (1947)
La Marie du port (1950)
Juliette ou La clef des songes (1951)
Thérèse Raquin (1953)
L'Air de Paris (1954)
Le Pays d'où je viens (1956)
Les tricheurs (1958)
Terrain vague (1960)
Du mouron pour les petits oiseaux (1963)
Trois chambres à Manhattan (1965)
 The Young Wolves (1968)
Les Assassins de l'ordre (1971)
La Merveilleuse visite (1974)
La Bible (1977, documentary)

References

External links

 They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
 Marcel Carne a tribute website
 Marcel Carne Bibliography (via UC Berkeley

1906 births
1996 deaths
European Film Awards winners (people)
French LGBT film directors
French gay writers
Film directors from Paris
Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
César Honorary Award recipients
French LGBT screenwriters
French screenwriters
20th-century French LGBT people
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients

Marcel Carné