Victoria Trofimenko is a Ukrainian filmmaker, scriptwriter and producer, currently based in Texas, US. She is a member of the European Film Academy, the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Film Academy. She is also one of the initiators of the creation of the Directors Guild of Ukraine.

According to Forbes magazine, in 2015, she was listed among the top 6 film directors in Ukraine.

Professional activity

She was born in 1979 in Novosibirsk and moved to Ukraine when she was one year old.

Trofimenko graduated from the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts with a specialization in international tourism management. MA-qualification. She then studied at the Ivan Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema and Television, majoring in directing; MA-qualification; Diploma with honor.

Her first documentary film, "Back Home" (2005), was made in collaboration with the British company FIMP Ltd. It was screened at theaters: in London (Soho), and Cardiff (Chapter Cinema). She also co-directed the film "Mothersland" (2006). From 2006 to 2007, she worked as a director and journalist on the TV program "Parallel World" at Pilot Studio, which aired on STB. From 2008 to 2009, she worked as a director on STB's program "In Search of Truth" and created documentary telefilms such as "Professor Viktor Petrov"(2008), "Nine Lives of Terrorist Yakiv Blumkin" (2008) and "Nestor Makhno" (2009).

In 2008, she read the book "Sweetness" by the iconic Swedish writer Torgny Lindgren. Since then, she started looking for an opportunity to turn it into a film. She independently worked on the film's development, establishing the company ALBA FILM, to acquire the option for adapting the book. In 2011, she joined collaboration with Pronto Film. In 2011, her project "Brothers. The Final Confession" ranked first at the Ukrainian State Film Agency's first pitching event. The production process was launched.

In 2013, her film "Brothers. The Final Confession" became her debut feature film. The film was successful and received numerous awards at international film festivals. The film was the first Ukrainian movie since Ukraine's independence to be selected for three "class A" film festivals: the International Film Festival of India in Goa, the Shanghai International Film Festival, and the Moscow International Film Festival. Most of the actors, except for Viktor Demertash (the only experienced actor in full lengths), made their debut in cinema with this film. "Brothers. The Final Confession" was also the first Ukrainian film in which the actors spoke in the Hutsul dialect. This film marked the beginning of a new wave in Ukrainian auteur cinema.

When presenting the film at the Moscow Film Festival in 2014, the team undertook a mission of cultural diplomacy, giving interviews to the Russian press and calling for an end to the war. The film's representatives did not participate in the festival's parties and openings. After the screening, press conferences, and a series of interviews, they left Russia. Receiving the prizes on behalf of the team Serhiy Trymbach (the head of the Union of Ukrainian Cinematographers at the time) called from the stage for the release of Oleg Sentsov. At that moment, Nikita Mikhalkov, the head of the Union of Russian Filmmakers at that time, joined Serhiy Trymbach on stage. Unfortunately, the filmmakers' appeal did not yield positive results.

In 2016, the film "My Grandmother Fanni Kaplan" directed by Olena Demyanenko was released, in which Victoria Trofimenko played the role of a political convict.

In the same year, at the 9th pitching of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, Victoria Trofimenko advanced to the second round with the feature film project "Downshifting. It was the first Ukrainian project to be selected for the annual Screen + program (Andrzej Wajda's studio and school) in Warsaw to develop the screenplay. The script was co-written with Roman Horbyk, inspired by the book "Diary of Satan" by Leonid Andreyev.

During the pitching event, a discussion arose about supporting the project because the film was planned to be shot in English with foreign actors in the United Kingdom and India. This became the sole obstacle, leading to the lack of support for the project.

In 2017, at the tenth pitching of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, Victoria Trofimenko, along with Pronto Film company and producer Maxim Asadchy, presented the feature film project "Yakiv," based on the original script written by Victoria Trofimenko about the real life of Yakiv Drobot,a person who saved 2800 people from starvation in his village in Cherkasy region during the Holodomor. Despite "Yakiv" securing the second place in the initial round based on expert votes among all submitted projects, falling just a few fractions behind Agnieszka Holland's project "Mr. Jones," it was not supported due to the character of the main hero, who couldn't be a Communist collaborator. The same reason led to its rejection in 2018 during the Patriotic Cinema pitching at the Ministry of Culture.

In 2019, the film "Yakiv" won the Ukrainian State Film Agency's pitching competition. However, the new Minister of Culture, Borodyansky, compelled the board overseeing the State Film Agency's support to reduce the number of funded projects due to the agency exceeding its annual budget. As a result, because of its high budget, "Yakiv" was excluded from the list of films eligible for support. Later on, the director released an online teaser for the movie "Yakiv", which triggered a storm of reactions from the press and the public, astonished by the absence of support.

In 2018, it was revealed that Victoria Trofimenko start producing development of the project The Road - joint collaboration of woman filmmakers: Victoria Trofimenko (segment "Virka»), Belgium director Delphine Noels (segment "The Love Supreme") and Indian director of Ukrainian origin Daria Gaikalova (segment "Two Roti") to work on a three-part anthology film where the main characters would be women who have endured tragedies. In July 2018, the project participated in the Odesa International Film Festival's pitching competition, and within three years, Afghan director Sahraa Karimi joined the team. Thus, it grown to a co-production involving the Belgium, India, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Since July 2022, Victoria Trofimenko has been working on a book (stage play) based on the "Yakiv" screenplay, she started to compose theater adaptation at Ingmar Bergman's residence at Faro Island (Sweden) and continue at the University of Texas at Austin (USA). The director continues working over fundrising for this project and other projects she has been developing over the past years.

Filmography

Director

 2013 - Brothers. The Final Confession
 TBA - The Road
 TBA - Yakiv
 "Professor Viktor Petrov" (2008)
 "Nine Lives of Terrorist Yakiv Blumkin" (2008)
 "Nestor Makhno" (2009)

Actress

 2016 - My Grandmother Fani Kaplan

References

1979 births
Living people

Victoria Trofimenko


Margaret Anne Hickey (born 16 October 1946) is a former Australian politician. She represented the electoral division of Barkly for the Labor Party in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2001. She was Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 1999.

Hickey was born in Surrey, England and emigrated to Australia with her husband in 1975. She was a librarian prior to entering politics. In the 1980s, Hickey was a strident campaigner against a proposed toxic waste incinerator in Tennant Creek that was supported by local MLA and Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth from 1984 onwards. She was a member of the Labor Party up until her resignation about six months before the 1987 election, having become disillusioned with a number of stances of the local party branch. At the 1987 election, she challenged Tuxworth, who by this stage had been ousted as Chief Minister and left the governing Country Liberal Party for the rival Northern Territory Nationals, as an independent candidate. She was defeated by only nineteen votes, and overturned the result in the Court of Disputed Returns, which found that the Labor candidate had been unqualified to stand. Hickey contested the ensuing by-election as the Labor candidate, but was again defeated by Tuxworth.

|}
She contested Barkly again at the 1990 election.  A redistribution ahead of that election made Barkly notionally Labor.  Tuxworth believed this made Barkly unwinnable, and unsuccessfully tried to switch to the seat of Goyder.  This allowed Hickey to take the seat on a large swing. On 16 April 1996, Opposition Leader Brian Ede resigned as territory Labor leader, and Hickey, who had been Ede's deputy, was elected the new leader. Her term as leader saw her deal with Labor's response to the government's controversial mandatory sentencing laws, largely cited as a factor in the CLP's landslide win at the 1997 election, disputes over native title, and the 1998 statehood referendum. In August 1998, she defeated a leadership challenge by Syd Stirling with a margin of six votes to one. She ardently opposed federal Labor's restrictions on expanding uranium mining, condemning both the "three mines" and "no new mines" policies.

On 2 February 1999, Hickey announced that she was resigning as Labor leader and Opposition Leader in order to spend more time with her husband who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. She stated that she would remain as the member for Barkly in the Assembly until the next election, and Clare Martin was elected to succeed her as party leader the next day. Asked about her resignation in 2002, following her successor Martin's landmark 2001 election victory, Hickey stated that she had no regrets about the decision.

After retiring from parliament in 2001, Hickey moved to Adelaide, where she studied visual arts at the University of South Australia.

References

1946 births
Living people
Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
English emigrants to Australia
Leaders of the Opposition in the Northern Territory
21st-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian women politicians

Maggie Hickey


is a Japanese former adult video performer and a multi-media personality. Her role as a media counselor expressing outspoken views on sex and society have drawn comparisons to Cicciolina, sex therapist Dr. Ruth, and actress Linda Lovelace.

Life and career

Early life
Kaoru Kuroki (whose stage name translates to "Fragrant Blacktree") was born to a conservative, comfortably middle-class family. The daughter of an engineer, Kuroki was a naturally gifted child and showed artistic talent from an early age. She left public school at the age of 15 to attend art college, and later studied Renaissance art history at Yokohama National University.

While still attending Yokohama National University, Kuroki began appearing in adult videos  (AVs), at first considering this to be another form of art. "I wanted to approach it purely as a performance art form, but it turned out to be a lot crazier than that. In fact, if I'd continued to see porno video as art without also acknowledging it as just a fuck film, I wouldn't have gone this far."

She expresses admiration for the films of Nagisa Oshima, Ingmar Bergman, and Bernardo Bertolucci, but, while she continues to view her AV performances as a social mission, she contrasts the AV with film. She says the AV "has a different atmosphere. It's not very sophisticated, in fact it's primitive. It's a bit like eating and menus in restaurants: you're hungry and you have a sudden craving for noodles, so you go and eat noodles. Your appetite is towards a porno video, so you go and rent whatever turns you on. And as with food, viewers can use basic ingredients to 'cook' the desired stimulation from the video themselves."

AV debut
Kuroki's adult video debut was , released in October 1986 by the major AV company Crystal-Eizou, under the innovative AV director and former porn actor, Toru Muranishi. Muranishi is credited as one of the creators of the documentary style often emulated in Japanese AVs. Kuroki, sharing Muranishi's opinion that the AV should have a documentary quality, continued to work with him when he left Crystal-Eizou to found his own company, Diamond Visual. Her videos for Muranishi usually began with her seated, sharply dressed, and addressing the camera in an improvised talk on a subject like sexual liberation. This would typically be followed by a modeling segment, either nude or in a swimsuit. The remaining video footage would be taken up with various sexual performances, often involving S&M.

Regarding the sex scenes, Bornoff states, "the peripherals in a Kuroki video are fairly violent stuff. She oscillates between abused sexual slave and the epitome of self-assertion with schizophrenic rapidity. To some, the documentary makes for a jarring experience; the feedback she gets from viewers can be surprising. Some say they almost find her frightening; that they can't get a hard-on."

Kuroki responds, "The men who find my videos frightening often recognize the wilder, more uninhibited side of their own girlfriends. In order to liberate themselves, they must first take off their armour. If a man recognizes Kuroki in his wife or girlfriend, he is forced to strip it off in order to deal with her. That's how I liberate both sexes."

Mainstream breakthrough
Kuroki was engaged in video and magazine appearances typical to being an AV model when she caught the attention of the mainstream media in 1988. Her decision to stop shaving her under-arm hair, as a symbolic protest against Japan's long-standing censorship of the depiction of pubic hair in print or film, gained Kuroki interviews with the mainstream media. Kuroki concedes that her decision to stop shaving her under-arms worked as a gimmick to help set her apart from the mass of AV girls, but considers it also an expression of femininity and identity. Impressed by her ability to speak intelligently and matter-of-factly about subjects normally considered unmentionable, late-night talk shows began inviting Kuroki as a guest. Soon she had become a popular daytime TV panellist, was appearing in commercials, and served as a large department store's campaign girl. While she was popular with her male audience for her AV appearances, she also appealed to a female audience by expressing feminist view on daytime television. In addition to TV talk shows, Kuroki also had a role in the TV Asahi costume drama  which was broadcast on March 3, 1989.

Reflecting on her popularity, unprecedented for an AV model up to that time, Kuroki points out that there was a social need for someone like her. "I talk about life as a woman, but with my background, obviously the focus is on sex. I seem to have become a spokeswoman for the too many women who are embarrassed to talk about it."

In 1988 Kuroki visited Italy where she met Cicciolina, whom she regards as sensei. She was pleased to find that many of their opinions coincided, but was surprised by Cicciolina's discomfort with Kuroki's masochistic tendencies and preference for the S&M genre. Kuroki attributes this to cultural and personal differences, and does not feel that S&M equates to submissiveness. Indeed, Fornander points out that Kuroki made AVs in general, and S&M in particular a feminist issue in Japan.

In March 1989, Kuroki teamed with Diamond Visual's new AV star, Kimiko Matsuzaka in the adult video . Later in 1989, in two entries of Diamond Visual's How to Sex - Sexual Information series of instructional sex videos, Kuroki served as the instructor/lecturer with Matsuzaka performing the physical demonstrations. Kuroki and Matsuzaka were brought together again in Toru Muranishi's December 1990 pink film, , for Xces.

After Matsuzaka's retirement from AV appearances in 1990, Kuroki also appeared with Matsuzaka at the Akasaka club, "Mirukuhooru" ("Milk Hall").

Retirement and legacy
Kuroki retired from public life in 1994. In a 1994 interview, Kuroki said that she suffered physical violence from Muranishi shortly before her retirement. In the January 2002 issue of the magazine Josei Seven, and the January 2004 issue of Shukan Post, stories and pictures on Kuroki's private life were printed. Kuroki claimed that as an ordinary citizen no longer in the public eye, the magazines needed her permission to print these stories. Kuroki sued the publisher, Shogakukan, for 22 million yen for invasion of privacy. In April, 2007, the presiding judge ruled the articles illegal and awarded Kuroki 1.7 million yen (about $14,000). Shogakukan was reportedly considering appealing the decision.

At the height of her popularity, Kuroki's AVs were averaging 17,000 sales a piece, a huge amount by industry standards, exceeding a million dollars. According to Rosemary Iwamura, "Kaoru changed the image of AV girls; she didn't seem to be making videos because of a lack of options but rather as an informed choice." For bringing the AV industry to the attention of mainstream media in Japan, as well as her polite but frank outspokenness on subjects like sex and censorship, Kjell Fornander calls her "the first high-profile AV actress." She permanently changed the way that the AV industry and AV actresses were viewed by the general public in Japan.

Kuroki's life is portrayed in Netflix's show The Naked Director, where she is portrayed by actress Misato Morita.

References

Sources

  Alt URL

1965 births
Actresses from Tokyo
People from Kanoya, Kagoshima
Japanese female adult models
Japanese pornographic film actresses
Pink film actors
Living people
Japanese media personalities
Yokohama National University alumni

Kaoru Kuroki


Staszów   is a town in southeastern Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (historic province of Lesser Poland), about  southeast of Kielce, and  northeast of Kraków. It is the capital of Staszów County. The population is 15,108 (2010), which makes it the 8th largest urban center of the province. The area of the town is 26,88 km2, and its two rivers are the Desta and the Czarna Staszowska.

Staszów's coat of arms is the Korab, ancient symbol of several noble families of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moreover, Hieronymus Jaroslaw Łaski of Korab coat of arms, founded the town. Staszów remained in private hands until October 1866. It has a rail station, near the town also goes the Broad Gauge Metallurgy Line.

The name of the town comes from given name Stanisław, which in the 13th and 14th centuries was used in diminutive form Stasz. It is probable that the first owner of the town was a man named Stasz Kmiotko. Staszów is home to a sports club Pogoń, founded in 1945.

Location
Staszów is located in southeastern corner of Świętokrzyskie Mountains, in historic Sandomierz Land, which in 1314 turned into Lesser Poland's Sandomierz Voivodeship. The town remained within borders of this voivodeship for hundreds of years, until 1795 (see Partitions of Poland). Between 1796–1809 it belonged to Austrian Empire, and then to Duchy of Warsaw, which after the Congress of Vienna became Congress Poland, a Russian protectorate. In 1844 Staszów County, which had been created in 1809, was disbanded, and its territory merged with Sandomierz County.

In the Second Polish Republic Staszów belonged to Sandomierz County of Kielce Voivodeship, and during World War II, it was part of Radom District of the General Government. After the war, Kielce Voivodeship was re-created, and in 1954, Staszów County returned. Between 1975 and 1998, the town belonged to Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship. Staszów is surrounded by forests, which make 36% of the county. The town is located between the colder climate of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, and the milder temperatures of the Sandomierz Valley. Winters are cold, summers hot, and autumns warm and long. Average January temperature is , July 17–18,, while average annual temperature is .

History
First mention of the town comes from 1241, when, during Mongol invasion of Europe, the village of Staszów was burned, together with its wooden parish church. In 1345, new stone church of St. Bartholomew was built, and in the 1440s, the village of Staszów was mentioned in Jan Długosz's Liber Beneficiorum Dioecesis Cracoviensis. In the early 16th century, Staszów had a market square with a town hall, surrounded by tenement houses. The first Jews settled in Staszów around the time it was awarded city status, in 1526, and a shortly after an organized Jewish community was established there. In 1580 it emerged as one of centers of Protestant Reformation in Lesser Poland, with Polish Brethren active here. The town belonged to several noble families, including the Opaliński and the Tęczyński. In 1610 The Jewish inhabitants were accused of a blood libel of ritual murder. A trial took place, after which they were expelled from the city. Even after the deportation, several Jews remained, who also suffered from blood libels.

The ban on Jews living in Staszow was officially abolished only 80 years after the expulsion of the Jews, in 1690. Then the number of Jews grew quickly
and the Jewish community resumed its presence. In 1709, a few years after an outbreak of black death, Staszów was captured and destroyed by the Swedes (see: Great Northern War). On May 2, 1718, Staszów's-then owner, Elżbieta Sieniawska, played an important role in the development of the Jewish community in Staszow, when she granted them a privilege that included a permit to build a synagogue and cemetery. In 1731, Staszów belonged to the Czartoryski family, and soon afterwards, August Czartoryski completed the construction of a new town hall with a clock tower. In 1795 Staszów was annexed by Austria to the province of West Galicia, then, during Napoleonic Wars, was part of Duchy of Warsaw, later Russian-controlled Congress Poland. In 1815 for the first time ever Staszów became a seat of the county. Its inhabitants participated in both November Uprising and January Uprising, so Russian government decided that a Russian Imperial Army garrison of 800 was stationed there. By 1900, Staszów emerged as a local trade center, with a brewery, several mills, and other enterprises.

During World War I, Staszów was the area of heavy fighting between the Russians and the Austro-Hungarians. The town changed hands several times, and in November 1918 it was free. Soon afterwards, it became part of Sandomierz County of Kielce Voivodeship, and by 1930, its population was 10,000, half of which was Jewish.

In World War II, Staszów was an important center of anti-German resistance, where the Jędrusie and the Home Army units were active.

The Germans occupied Staszów in September 1939 and immediately began to rob and brutalize the Jewish population which then comprised about half of Staszów's 11,000 inhabitants.   Jews from other towns, including from Austria, were brought to Staszów.  Both those Jews and local Jews were obligated to perform forced labor for the Germans, building roads and draining swamps, among other tasks.  The influx of people brought about epidemic diseases, including both typhus and typhoid.  Beginning in January 1942, Jews were forbidden to leave the town.  A two part ghetto with more than 6000 inhabitants was established in June 1942 and more Jews were brought there from around the region.

News had spread about deportations to killing camps of other Jewish communities.  Many Jews fled  Staszów  and others tried to hide with Polish neighbors or in the forest.  Attempts were made to develop an armed resistance, but Polish resistance forces would not arm Jews.  In the evening of November 7, the town was surrounded by Germans, Ukrainian and Latvian auxiliaries, and Polish and Jewish police. The next day, around 6000 Jews were marched to the train station.  Hundreds were killed en route and others were beaten. The train took the rest to Treblinka where they were murdered.    This day is called "Black Sunday" by members of Staszów's Jewish community.

After that, a search of Jewish houses began and those who were hiding were shot.  Some hiding places were revealed by Polish townspeople.  A few Poles hid Jews from the occupiers, including Maria Szczecinka, a widow who hid fourteen until liberation.  Some Jews managed to escape in many ways into the Golieb forest outside of Staszów. These Jews became  Partisans and established camps, bunkers and raided Nazi supplies until the end of the war.  The number of Staszów's Jewish survivors is unknown.

Black Sunday

Obersturmfuehrer Schild ordered the Jewish policemen to instruct all the Jews in town to be present by 8 o'clock in the morning at the marketplace. Anybody who did not obey this order would be shot. By 8 o'clock in the morning about 5,000 Jews, young and old, children and grown-ups, had assembled at the market place in order to begin their march to death. At 10 in the morning, Schild gave the order: "March! And so the people started the march and as soon as they filed into Krakowska Street, the murderers shot into the mass of people, strewing the whole road with innocent victims. Blood ran from the Krakowska street down to the river. The march of the Staszów Jews took more than 1,000 of them through Stopnica to Belzec extermination camp and the majority marched up to Szczucin where they were deported by train to Treblinka extermination camp. On the way, in the village of Niziny,  from Staszów, a mass grave was dug for 740 victims.

Those who had not come at 8 AM to the marketplace were bestially murdered in their homes. All those killed in Staszów itself on the day of slaughter were buried in a single mass grave at the Jewish Cemetery. Many more Jews, who were retained for hard labor or who had hidden in bunkers, were subsequently killed or shipped to a concentration camp.

The Germans retreated in January 1945, after the hostilities and aerial bombardment of the town, 80% of it was destroyed.

Points of interest
Staszów managed to keep its medieval shape, with a market square, a town hall in the middle, and perpendicular streets. The town was frequently destroyed and burned, its most notable historic building is St. Bartholomew church, built in 1342 - 1343, in the spot where a wooden church had stood, burned by the Tatars in 1241. The church was renovated several times, and its present shape differs from the original. There are 18th and 19th century tenement houses in the market square, and the town hall was built in 1783, with major changes from 1861.

Jewish Cemetery
Over 175 years old, the Jewish Cemetery was not maintained, and at one point was even replaced without a trace by a playground. The newer Jewish cemetery,  from the center of Staszow, was an empty lot. The gravestones had been carted away by the Nazis for use as paving stones on muddy roads and sold to a construction company by municipal authorities after the war when no Jews returned to claim them. An individual, Jack Goldfarb, living in New York City paid to have the grounds spruced up, to have a 3 m (10-foot) Holocaust memorial constructed, to have some 155 Jewish gravestones he discovered in Staszow homes brought back to the cemetery, and to have a marker set up at a Holocaust-era mass grave.

Demography
According to the 2011 Poland census, there were 15,108 people residing in Staszów town, of whom 48.3% were male and 51.7% were female. In the town, the population was spread out, with 19% under the age of 18, 38.2% from 18 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older.
 Figure 1. Population pyramid of town in 2010 — by age group and sex

Districts
City consists of 10 districts:
Osiedle Oględowska - Złodziejówka (Thief Village)
Osiedle Ogrody (The Gardens)
Osiedle Północ (North town)
Osiedle Wschód - Pipała (East town)
Stare Miasto (Old town alias Downtown)
Staszówek
Golejów
Radzików
Pocieszka
Małopolskie

References

External links

Official town website
Sefer Staszow English Translation Online
 Saving Cemeteries Here And Abroad *A Memorial Grows In Staszow
Website devoted to the memory of Staszow Jews who perished in the Holocaust
A calendar of Jewish history in Staszowie against the background of important events in the history of the city, foundation for the preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland
History of Staszów, Poland and its Jewish Community, Dr. N. M. Gelber, jewishgen.org, an extension of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
History of Staszów, staszow.com
Kosciuszko's Route on Ziemia Staszowska, staszow.com
The Royal Opponent, Report about operations of the 71st Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment from 14.07.44 to 31.08.44, staszow.com
Polish official population figures 2006

Cities and towns in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship
Staszów County
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Radom Governorate
Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Historic Jewish communities in Poland
Holocaust locations in Poland
D.W87

Staszów


Banded iron formations (or BIFs) are a distinctive type of rock often found in Precambrian sedimentary rocks.

They consist of repeated thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite (Fe3O4) or hematite (Fe2O3), alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert.

Some of the oldest known rock formations, formed over 3,700 million years ago (mya), include banded iron layers. The banded layers are a common feature in sediments for much of the Earth's early history.

Relation to atmospheric oxygenation

The formations are abundant around the time of the Great Oxygenation Event, 2,400 mya. They become less common after 1,800 mya.

The total amount of oxygen locked up in the banded iron beds is estimated to be perhaps twenty times the volume of oxygen present in the modern atmosphere of Earth. Banded iron beds are an important commercial source of iron ore, such as the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the Animikie Group in Minnesota and Carajás Mineral Province in Brazil.

Origins
The conventional concept is that the banded iron layers were formed in sea water as the result of oxygen released by photosynthetic cyanobacteria. This combined with dissolved iron in Earth's oceans to form insoluble iron oxides. These precipitated out, forming a thin layer on the substrate, which may have been anoxic mud (forming shale and chert). Each band is similar to a varve: the banding is assumed to result from cyclic variations in available oxygen.

It is assumed that the Earth started out with vast amounts of iron dissolved in the world's acidic seas. Iron is much more soluble than its oxides.

Eventually, as photosynthetic organisms generated oxygen, the available iron in the Earth's oceans was precipitated out as iron oxides.

At the tipping point where the oceans became permanently oxygenated, small variations in oxygen production produced pulses of free oxygen in the surface waters, alternating with pulses of iron oxide deposition.

References

Geological formations
Sedimentary rocks
Iron compounds
Ores

Banded iron formation


Wang Mang () (45E – 6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun (), officially known as the Shijianguo Emperor 始建國天帝, was the founder and the only emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later seized the throne in 9 CE. The Han dynasty was restored after his overthrow, and his rule marked the separation between the Western Han dynasty (before Xin) and Eastern Han dynasty (after Xin). Traditional Chinese historiography viewed Wang as a tyrant and usurper, while more recently, some historians have portrayed him as a visionary and selfless social reformer. During his reign, he abolished slavery and initiated a land redistribution program. Though a learned Confucian scholar who sought to implement the harmonious society he saw in the classics, his efforts ended in chaos.

Wang Mang's late reign saw large-scale peasant rebellions, most notably the revolt of the Red Eyebrows. In October 23 CE, the capital Chang'an was attacked and the imperial palace ransacked. Wang Mang died in the battle. The Han dynasty was re-established in either 23 CE when the Gengshi Emperor took the throne, or in 25 CE when Emperor Guangwu of Han took the throne after defeating the Red Eyebrows who deposed the Gengshi Emperor.

Early life and career

Born in 45 BCE, Wang Mang was a son of Wang Man (王曼), a younger brother of Empress Wang Zhengjun, and his wife Qu (渠, family name unknown).  His lineage can be traced back to the kings of Qi, whose descendants changed their surname to Wang () as Qi locals referred to them as the "royal family". Wang Man died early when Wang Mang was still young, before Emperor Cheng took the throne and his mother Empress Wang became empress dowager. Unlike most of his brothers, Wang Mang did not have the opportunity to become a marquess. Empress Wang took pity on his family, and after she was widowed, she had Qu moved to the imperial palace to live with her.

While Wang Mang was well-connected to the imperial family, he did not have the luxurious life style that his cousins enjoyed. Unlike his relatives who lived luxuriously and competed with each other on who could spend more, Wang Mang was praised for his humility, thriftiness, and his desire to study. He wore not the clothes of young nobles but those of a young Confucian scholar. He was also praised on how filial he was to his mother and how caring he was to his deceased brother Wang Yong (王永)'s wife and son Wang Guang (王光). Wang Mang befriended many capable people and served his uncles conscientiously.

When Wang Mang's powerful uncle, Wang Feng (王鳳, commander of the armed forces (33–22 BCE) grew ill, Wang Mang cared for him day and night and attended to his medical and personal needs. Wang Feng was touched, and before his death, he asked Empress Dowager Wang and Emperor Cheng to take good care of Wang Mang. Wang Mang was therefore given the post of imperial attendant (黃門郎) and later promoted to be one of the subcommanders of the imperial guards (射聲校尉).

In 16 BCE, another of Wang Mang's uncles, Wang Shang (王商) the Marquess of Chengdu, submitted a petition to divide part of his march and to make Wang Mang a marquess. Several well-regarded officials concurred in this request, and Emperor Cheng was impressed with Wang Mang's reputation. He therefore made Wang Mang the Marquess of Xindu and promoted him to the Chamberlain for Attendants (光祿大夫). It was described by historians that the greater the position that Wang was promoted to, the more humble he became. He did not accumulate wealth, but used the money to support scholars and to give gifts to colleagues which gained him much praise.

Wang Mang had only a single wife, Lady Wang, and no concubines. (She had the same family name as Wang Mang which is seen as strong evidence that at this point the taboo against endogamy based on the same family name was not firmly in place in Chinese culture.) However, as later events would show, Wang was not completely faithful to his wife, even at this time.

Emperor Cheng appointed his uncles, one after another, to be the commander of the armed forces (the most powerful court official), and speculation grew as to who would succeed Wang Mang's youngest surviving uncle, Wang Gen (王根, commander 12–8 BCE). Wang Mang was considered one of the possibilities, while another was his cousin Chunyu Zhang (a son of Empress Dowager Wang's sister), who had a much closer personal relationship to Emperor Cheng than Wang Mang. Chunyu also had friendly relations with both Emperor Cheng's wife Empress Zhao Feiyan and his deposed former wife Empress Xu.

To overcome Chunyu's presumptive hold on succeeding Wang Gen, Wang Mang took action. He collected evidence that Chunyu, a frivolous man in his words and deeds, had secretly received bribes from the deposed Empress Xu and had promised to help her become "left empress", and that he had promised his associates important position once he succeeded Wang Gen. In 8 BCE, he informed Wang Gen and Empress Dowager Wang of the evidence, and both Wang Gen and Empress Dowager Wang were greatly displeased with Chunyu. They exiled Chunyu back to his march. Chunyu, before he left the capital, gave his horses and luxurious carriages to his cousin Wang Rong (王融), the son of his uncle Wang Li (王立), with whom he had a running feud. Wang Li, happy with Chunyu's gift, submitted a petition requesting that Chunyu be allowed to remain at the capital.  However, this request was treated with suspicion by Emperor Cheng because he knew of the feud between Wang Li and Chunyu. He ordered Wang Rong to be arrested, and Wang Li knowing this ordered his son to commit suicide in the middle of his panic.  This dramatic action only made Emperor Cheng more suspicious. He therefore had Chunyu arrested and interrogated. Chunyu admitted to deceiving Empress Xu and receiving bribes from her, and he was executed.

On 16 November 8 BCE, Wang Gen, by was then seriously ill, submitted his resignation and requested that Wang Mang succeed him. On 28 November 8 BCE, Emperor Cheng made Wang Mang the commander of the armed forces (大司馬), at the age of 37.

First tenure as the commander of the armed forces
After Wang Mang was promoted to this position, effectively the highest in the imperial government, he became even better known for his self-discipline and promotion of capable individuals than before. As a result, the general perception of the Wang clan as arrogant, wasteful, and petty, began to be reversed.

In 7 BCE, Wang's cousin Emperor Cheng died suddenly, apparently from a stroke (although some historians have suggested the possibility of an overdosage of aphrodisiacs given to him by his favourite, Consort Zhao Hede). Emperor Cheng's nephew Crown Prince Liu Xin (劉欣) (the son of Emperor Cheng's brother, Prince Kang of Dingtao (劉康)) became emperor (as Emperor Ai). For the time being, Wang remained in his post and continued to be powerful in the imperial court, as his aunt became grand empress dowager and was influential.  However, that position soon changed.

Emperor Ai's grandmother, Princess Dowager Fu of Dingtao (concubine of Grand Empress Dowager Wang's husband Emperor Yuan) was a domineering with strong personality woman who was able to control her grandson and guide him as he pleases. She greatly wanted the title of empress dowager as well. Initially, Grand Empress Dowager Wang decreed that Princess Dowager Fu and Emperor Ai's mother, Consort Ding, see him every 10 days. However, Princess Dowager Fu soon began to visit her grandson every day, and she insisted that two things be done: that she receive an empress dowager title, and that her relatives be granted titles, just like the Wangs. Grand Empress Dowager Wang, sympathetic to the difficult situation facing Emperor Ai, first granted Prince Kang the unusual title of "Emperor Gong of Dingtao" (定陶共皇) and then, under the rationale of that title, granted Princess Dowager Fu the title "Empress Dowager Gong of Dingtao" (定陶共皇太后) and Consort Ding the title "Empress Gong of Dingtao" (定陶共皇后). Several members of the Fu and Ding clans were created marquesses. Grand Empress Dowager Wang also ordered Wang Mang to resign and transfer power to the Fu and Ding relatives. Emperor Ai declined to agree to this request and begged Wang Mang to stay in his administration.

Several months later, however, Wang Mang came into direct confrontation with now Empress Dowager Fu. At a major imperial banquet, the official in charge of seating placed Empress Dowager Fu's seat next to Grand Empress Dowager Wang's. When Wang Mang saw this, he rebuked the official and ordered that Empress Dowager Fu's seat be moved to the side, which drew great ire from Empress Dowager Fu, who then refused to attend the banquet. To soothe her anger, Wang Mang resigned, and Emperor Ai approved his resignation. After this event, the Wangs gradually and inexorably lost their power.

Retirement during Emperor Ai's reign
After Wang Mang's resignation, Emperor Ai initially requested him to remain in the capital Chang'an and periodically meet with him to give advice. However, in 5 BCE, Empress Dowager Fu achieved success in her quest for titles.  Emperor Ai removed the qualification "of Dingtao" from his father's posthumous title (thus making him simply "Emperor Gong"), and then gave his grandmother a variation of the grand empress dowager title (ditaitaihou (帝太太后), compared to Grand Empress Dowager Wang's title taihuangtaihou (太皇太后)) and his mother a variation of the empress dowager title (ditaihou (帝太后), compared to Empress Dowager Zhao's title huangtaihou (皇太后)). The prime minister Zhu Bo (朱博) and vice prime minister Zhao Xuan (趙玄), at Empress Dowager Fu's behest, submitted a petition to have Wang demoted to commoner status for having previously opposed Grand Empress Fu . Emperor Ai did not do so, but sent Wang back to his march in Xindu (in modern Nanyang, Henan).

While in Xindu, Wang was careful not to associate with many people (to prevent false accusations that he was planning a rebellion). In 5 BCE, when his son Wang Huo killed a household servant, Wang Mang ordered him to commit suicide. By 2 BCE, there had been several hundred petitions by commoners and officials requesting Wang Mang's return to the capital. Emperor Ai, who also respected Wang Mang, summoned him and his cousin Wang Ren (王仁), the son of Wang Gen, back to the capital to assist Grand Empress Dowager Wang. However, Wang Mang was to have no official post and was to exert little influence on politics.

Regency and building of a personality cult
Emperor Ai died suddenly in 1 BCE, without an heir. Taking decisive action, Grand Empress Dowager Wang seized power back from Emperor Ai's male favourite and likely lover Dong Xian (who was the commander of the armed forces by this point) and summoned Wang Mang back to the imperial government. She put him in charge of the armed forces and the government. They summoned Prince Jizi of Zhongshan (the last surviving male issue of Grand Empress Dowager Wang's husband Emperor Yuan) to the capital to succeed Emperor Ai, and he ascended the throne as Emperor Ping. Wang Mang became his regent.

In 1 BCE, Wang Mang, now back in power, took drastic action to attack actual or perceived political enemies:
 The relations of Emperor Ai, the Fus and the Dings, were demoted and exiled back to their ancestral lands.
 Empress Dowager Zhao Feiyan, the wife of Emperor Cheng (who was friendly with the late Grand Empress Dowager Fu), and Empress Fu, the wife of Emperor Ai (and related to Grand Empress Dowager Fu) were demoted to commoner status and ordered to guard their husbands' tombs. They committed suicide in response.
 Grand Empress Dowager Fu and Empress Dowager Ding were posthumously demoted to the titles of "the mother of Prince Gong of Dingtao" and "Consort Ding" respectively. (In 5 CE, Wang disinterred Consorts Fu and Ding's caskets and stripped their bodies of jade burial shells and then returned the bodies to Dingtao to be buried there. Their tombs were then completely flattened and surrounded with thorns.)
 Dong Xian (who had committed suicide soon after his demotion) was disinterred and reburied within a prison, and his clan was exiled.
 He Wu (何武), the former prime examiner, and his friend Gongsun Lu (公孫祿), who had opposed Wang Mang's regency, were relieved of their posts.
 Wujiang Long (毋將隆), the governor of the Nan Commandery (modern Hubei), who had rejected Wang Mang's advances to serve as a political ally, was charged with having falsely accused the innocent Princess Dowager Feng Yuan of Zhongshan of witchcraft in 6 CE (even though he was not involved). Wujiang Long, along with the actual co-conspirators against Princess Dowager Feng, were exiled.

Wang Mang, having thus consolidated his power, began to further build up his personality cult, encouraging others to submit false prophecies in which he was mentioned as the second coming of Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou and the regent for King Cheng of Zhou, or other great mythical personalities. He also began a regime of modifying the governmental structure to recall the governments of the Zhou dynasty and the even more ancient Shang dynasty. This included numerous changes to officials' titles and even to geographical locations. To prevent Emperor Ping's maternal Wei clan uncles from becoming powerful, he ordered that they, along with Emperor Ping's mother, Consort Wei, not be allowed to visit Emperor Ping in the capital.

In 1 CE, after bribing the distant Yueshang tribes (probably in modern southern Vietnam) to submit offerings of an albino pheasant (considered a rare sign of divine favour), Wang Mang was successful in having his followers persuade Grand Empress Dowager Wang to create him the Duke of Anhan (安漢公).  This was despite the Han nobility system not including dukes and no duke had ever been created in Han history up to that point.  This action gave Wang Mang a title parallel to that of the Duke of Zhou. Believing her nephew to be truly faithful, Grand Empress Dowager Wang transferred more of her authority to him.

In 2 CE, Wang Mang issued a list of regulations to the ally-vassal Xiongnu, which the Xiongnu chanyu Nangzhiyasi (囊知牙斯—later shortened to Zhi in response to Wang Mang's request) obeyed, but Wang Mang's tone of treating Xiongnu as a subordinate state rather than an ally offended Nangzhiyasi, which would foreshadow the eventual breakdown of relationships with the Xiongnu. In the same year, Wang Mang decided to marry his daughter to Emperor Ping to further strengthen his position. Initially, he started a selection process of eligible noble young ladies (after declaring, in accordance with ancient customs, that Emperor Ping would have one wife and 11 concubines). However, in an act of false modesty intended to create the opposite result, he then petitioned Grand Empress Dowager Wang that his daughter not be considered.  Wang Mang then started a petition with the aim of having the Chinese people have his daughter selected as empress. The petitioners stormed the outside of the palace, and Grand Empress Dowager Wang, overwhelmed by the display of affection for Wang Mang, ordered that Wang Mang's daughter be made empress. In 4 CE, Emperor Ping officially married her and made her empress.

Wang Mang's son, Wang Yu (王宇), disagreed with his father's dictatorial regime and program to build up his personality cult, afraid that in the future the Wangs would suffer a popular backlash once Emperor Ping was an adult. In response he formed friendships with Emperor Ping's Wei uncles, and told Consort Wei to offer assurances to Wang Mang that she would not act as Emperor Ai's mother and grandmother did, trying to become an empress dowager. Wang Mang still refused to let her visit the capital.

In 3 CE, Wang Yu formed a conspiracy with his teacher, Wu Zhang (吳章), his brother-in-law, Lü Kuan (呂寬), and the Weis, to try to break Wang Mang's dictatorial hold. They decided that they would create what appeared to be supernatural incidents to make Wang Mang concerned, and then have Wu Zhang try to persuade Wang Mang to transfer power to the Weis. Wang Yu instructed Lü Kuan to toss a bottle of blood onto Wang Mang's mansion door, but Lü was discovered by Wang Mang's guards. Wang Mang then arrested Wang Yu, who committed suicide, and his wife (Lü Kuan's sister) Lü Yan (呂焉) who was then executed. Wang Mang subsequently executed Wu Zhang and the entire Wei clan, except for Consort Wei.  It is not known what happened to Lü Kuan, but it is unlikely he could have escaped death.

Wang Mang took this opportunity to wipe out other potential enemies.  Wang Yu and Lü's co-conspirators were tortured with anyone who they mentioned being arrested, and then either executed or forced to commit suicide. The victims of this purge included Emperor Yuan's sister, Princess Jingwu (敬武長公主), Wang Mang's uncle, Wang Li, and his cousin, Wang Ren. He falsely advised Grand Empress Dowager Wang that they had died of illnesses. Many other officials who were not willing to follow Wang Mang were victimized in this purge. After this, Wang Mang's hold on power became absolute. In 5 CE, Wang Mang revived an ancient ceremony intended for those who had made great contributions to the state, and had himself given the nine bestowments (九錫). (The "nine bestowments" would, after Wang Mang, become a customary step for usurpers to receive before they usurped the throne.)

Around 5 CE, Emperor Ping, appeared to grow out of the heart condition from which he had suffered as a child.  It soon became clear that he resented Wang Mang for killing his uncles and not allowing his mother to visit him in Chang'an. Wang therefore resolved to murder the emperor. In the winter of 5 CE, Wang submitted pepper wine (considered in those days to be capable of chasing away evil spirits) to the 13-year-old emperor, but had the wine spiked with poison. As the emperor was suffering the effects of the poison, Wang wrote a secret petition to the gods, in which he offered to substitute his life for Emperor Ping's, and then had the petition locked away. (Historians generally believed that Wang had two motives in doing this: firstly, in case Emperor Ping recovered from the poisoning, to use the petition to try to absolve himself of involvement in the poisoning and, secondly, to leave for posterity evidence of his faithfulness to the emperor.  After a few days of suffering, Emperor Ping died.

As acting emperor
Because the young Emperor Ping didn't have any children with his wife Empress Wang or any of his concubines, there were no heir. Also, there were now no surviving male issue from Emperor Ping's grandfather, Emperor Yuan. Emperor Ping's great-grandfather's Emperor Xuan progeny were therefore examined for possible successors.

There were 53 great-grandsons of Emperor Xuan then still living but at the time and they were all adults. Wang Mang disliked the fact that they were all adults as he wanted a child whom he could control. Therefore, he declared that it was inappropriate for members of the same generation to succeed each other (even though Emperor Ping had succeeded his cousin Emperor Ai several years earlier). He then examined the 23 great-great-grandsons of Emperor Xuan—all of whom were infants or children.

While the examination process was proceeding, the mayor of South Chang'an submitted a rock with mysterious red writing on it.  The message on the rock was "Wang Mang, the Duke of Anhan, should be emperor."  In May, Wang had his political allies force Grand Empress Dowager Wang to issue an edict granting him the title of "Acting Emperor" (假皇帝), with a commission to rule as emperor until one of Emperor Xuan's great-great-grandson could be selected as the new Emperor. To further bolster his claims, Wang also created a false genealogy, declaring himself a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, a legendary emperor revered in Chinese culture.

In the spring of 6 CE, acting Emperor Wang selected the child Ying, then just one year old, as the designated successor to Emperor Ping, claiming that soothsayers told him that Ying was the candidate most favoured by the gods. He gave Ying the epithet Ruzi, the same epithet that King Cheng of Zhou had when he was in his minority and under the regency of the Duke of Zhou.  This was intended to support Wang Mang's claim that he was as faithful as the Duke of Zhou before him. However, Emperor Ruzi did not ascend the throne, but was given the title of crown prince. Empress Wang was given the title empress dowager.

As acting emperor, Wang reinstituted the Zhou system of five grades of nobility—duke (公, gong), marquess (侯, hou), earl (伯, bo), viscount (子, zi), and baron (男, nan).

Several members of the imperial Liu clan were naturally suspicious of acting Emperor Wang's intentions. They started or were involved in several failed rebellions against Wang:

 In 6 CE, Liu Chong (劉崇), the Marquess of Anzhong, launched an attack against Wan (宛, in modern Nanyang, Henan). His attack failed.  It is not known what happened to him, other than that as a punishment, Wang had his house filled with dirty water.
 In 7 CE, Zhai Yi (翟義), the governor of Dong Commandery and Liu Xin (劉信), the Marquess of Yanxiang (and the father of Liu Kuang (劉匡), the Prince of Dongping (modern Tai'an, Shandong)) started the largest rebellions of all.  They were joined by agrarian rebellion leaders Zhao Peng (趙朋) and Huo Hong (霍鴻) from the area immediately west of the capital Chang'an. They declared Liu Xin emperor. Wang responded by sending messengers all around the nation to pledge that he would in fact pass on the throne to Emperor Ruzi once he was an adult. Wang's armies defeated Zhai and Liu's armies in the winter, and Zhai was captured and executed.  Liu fled and was never captured. Zhao and Huo were also eventually defeated and executed.
 In 9 CE (after Wang Mang had usurped the imperial throne), Liu Kuai (劉快), the Marquess of Xuxiang, attacked the Duchy of Fuchong, of his brother Liu Ying (劉殷), the former Prince of Jiaodong. He was defeated and died while fleeing from the battle.

After Zhai and Liu Xin were defeated, Wang was satisfied that the empire was entirely under his control.  So he decided to finally seize the throne and start a new dynasty. In the winter of 8 CE, after receiving a false prophecy written by a criminal named Ai Zhang (哀章) which pretended to be a divine decree from Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang) stating that the throne should be given to Wang, and that Grand Empress Dowager Wang should follow this divine will, Wang issued a decree accepting the position of emperor, establishing the Xin dynasty.

Early reign

Early in his reign, Emperor Wang Mang confidently sought to implement his ideals of restoring the legendary golden age of the early Zhou dynasty as theorised in the Book of Rites. To that end, he modified the governmental structure to better conform with standards attributed to the Zhou. He also continued the regime of modifying geographical names to fit with ancient names (or more euphemistic names). This meant that even imperial edicts discussing the locations by their new names were forced to include notes on the old names so that the recipients of the edicts could tell what locations he was referring to. As part of this regime, the name of the capital was changed. Chang'an  was redesignated Chang'an . The characters are now homophones in Standard Mandarin, but had distinct pronunciations at the time.

In 9 CE, Wang Mang promoted his wife Lady Wang to the position of empress. By this point, only two of her four sons were still alive. The older Wang An () was described as lacking in talent, so Wang Mang made the younger Wang Lin () crown prince, and made Wang An the Lord of Xinjia (). Wang Mang selected many Confucian scholars to serve as advisors for Crown Prince Lin.

Wang, grateful to his aunt Grand Empress Dowager Wang (who, however, resented him for deceiving her and usurping the throne), continued to honour her as empress dowager, but also gave her an additional title of Wangmu (王母), the same title carried by the mother of King Wen of Zhou, implying that she was also his mother and had helped establish a new dynasty. She died in 13 CE.

Economic policies

In 9 CE, Wang Mang instituted a revolutionary land redistribution system, ordering that all land in the empire legally become the empire's property, known as wangtian (王田) (meaning Wang's land or the king's land), a system that bore similarity to the well-field system attributed to the Zhou dynasty. Any further real estate transactions were banned, although property owners were allowed to continue possessing their properties. If a household had less than eight members but had one "well" or larger property (about ), then they were required to distribute the excess land to fellow clan members, neighbours, or other members of the same village. Criticism of the wangtian system was punishable by exile. The existing aristocracy were not too fond of having their land stripped from them, so they start bribing local officials to keep their lands, and local officials who were landlords themselves also started resisting the wangtian system. Some local officials took this opportunity to take free land from the people and redistribute it amongst their clan members. Farmers who were at first thrilled at the idea of getting free land but found that not only were they not getting free land – because Wang Mang didn't do anything to ensure that local officials were doing their jobs right – in addition to corrupt local officials who were taking the opportunity to take what little land they had left in the name of the law, both found themselves opposing the new system. Eventually, faced with resistance for both of these policies, Wang was forced to repeal both of them just three years later in 12 CE.

In 10 CE, Wang set up a state economic adjustment agency, seeking to control fluctuations in the prices of food and textiles by purchasing excess goods and then selling them when the price went up. The same agency also became responsible for loaning money to entrepreneurs, at the rate of three percent per month. Six offices were set up: in Chang'an, Luoyang, Handan, Linzi (modern Zibo, Shandong), Wancheng (modern Nanyang, Henan), and Chengdu.

In the same year, Wang Mang instituted a "sloth tax": if landowners left their land uncultivated, city dwellers left their houses without trees, or citizens refused to work, they would pay penalties in the form of textile tributes. Those unable to pay the penalties would be required to perform work for the state. The new emperor had not accounted for people unable to find work, nor those living in mountainous areas with little work, already struggling to survive. Many old people who wanted to live a quiet life in the mountains were forced to move back in with their children to avoid taxation.

In addition, Wang also instituted an unprecedented tax, an income tax at a rate of 10 percent of profits, for professionals and skilled labor. Previously, all Chinese taxes were either head taxes or property taxes, in addition to corvée labour. Wang also instituted a state monopoly on liquor and weapons.

Another economic change instituted by Wang – which turned out to be disastrous – was to issue 28 types of coins: made of gold, silver, tortoise shells, cowrie shells, or copper. Because there were so many kinds of coins in comparison to the one kind that the Han used, people were unable to work out which coins were genuine or counterfeit, and the money-based economy came to a halt. Eventually, Wang was forced to abolish all but two kinds of coins: the small coin that had the same value of a Han coin, and the large coin that had the value of 50 small coins. However, despite fairly severe penalties, people lost faith in the Xin dynasty's currency, and continued to use Han coins in an underground trade economy.

In 13 CE, during Emperor Wang Mang's rule, the Heavenly Stems were incorporated to number the years, replacing the previous system which used only the Earthly Branches.

In 17 CE, in an attempt to refill the depleted imperial coffers, Wang instituted six monopolies: on liquor, salt, iron, coinage, forestry, and fishing. However, because of rampant corruption, the imperial treasury received only limited benefit, while the people were greatly burdened. In the same year, Wang abolished slavery to limit the power of the landowning families. Anyone who offended the law will be punished by (paradoxically) being turned a slave. Wang also did not account for the fact that because of the aforementioned "sloth tax" many people would sell themselves into slavery to earn money so they could help their families pay the tax. Following Wang's assassination in 23 CE, slavery was reinstituted.

Deterioration of the relationship with Xiongnu and other vassals

Problems with Xiongnu

The first sign of irritation came sometime before 10 CE when the Xin director of Wuhuan affairs informed the Wuhuan tribes not to pay further tribute to Xiongnu. In response, Xiongnu carried out a punitive military raid against Wuhuan, capturing about 1,000 women and children to serve as hostages. Later, on Wang Mang's orders, the Xiongnu were forced to return the Wuhuan hostages.

Wang sent his ambassadors to the Xiongnu to inform Shanyu Zhi that Wang Mang had become emperor and that Xin had replaced Han. The ambassadors requested that the great seal of the shanyu, which Han had issued, be exchanged for a new seal issued by Xin. The old seal read, "the Great Seal of the Shanyu of Xiongnu" (); the new seal read "the Seal of the Shanyu of Gongnu of Xin" (), changing the meanings "ferocious slave" (; Xiongnu) to "respectful slave" ; "Shanyu"  (the chief of the trives) to "Shanyu" ; and "seal"  to "badge" , implying that the Xiongnu were nothing but a vassal of the Xin.  This contrasted with the Han who had been somewhat ambiguous about whether the Xiongnu were a vassal group. Without examining the new seal, Shanyu Zhi agreed to the exchange. The ambassadors, apprehensive that the Shanyu – once he realized what had happened – would demand the old seal back, destroyed the old seal. Indeed, the next day, Shanyu Zhi realized that the seal text had changed, and requested that the old seal be returned. However, upon being informed that the old seal had been destroyed (which the ambassadors claimed falsely to be an act of the gods), he acquiesced. The Xiongnu leader nevertheless began to prepare for confrontation with Wang Mang's Xin. The Shanyu built defensive bulwarks some distance from the Xin outpost of Shuofang (, modern Ordos, Inner Mongolia). He also began to accept Xiyu ("Western Regions", in modern Xinjiang and central Asia) kingdoms' pledges of allegiance, an action that had been banned by Wang.

Wang, irritated, declared war against Xiongnu. The strategy that he set out was to divide the Xin forces into 12 armies to divide and conquer Xiongnu. Under this scenario, Chanyu Zhi would be attacked and forced to retreat to the Dingling tribes (around Lake Baikal), and Xiongnu would be divided into 15 small kingdoms to be ruled by 15 descendants of Chanyu Huhanye, who had first established friendly relations with Han. Under this plan, 300,000 men would be gathered for the attack.  However, Wang did not follow his generals' recommendations to start the campaign as soon as a critical mass of men were gathered, but wanted to attack with overwhelming force. This placed pressure on the border regions as they strained to accommodate, over what turned about to be a lengthy period, the men who had arrived, while fruitlessly waiting for the full support of 300,000 to be gathered.

In the first stage of this plan, one of the local commanders kidnapped one of Chanyu Zhi's brothers, Xian (咸), the Prince of Zuoliwu (左犁汙王), and his sons Deng (登) and Zhu (助), by trickery. Xian and Zhu were made Chanyus, the first two of the planned 15. Chanyu Zhi became enraged and launched massive attacks against Xin border regions, causing the border regions much distress and economic and human loss. Eventually, Xian escaped back to Xiongnu, but his sons were kept as hostages. After Zhu died, Deng succeeded him. However, in 12 CE, after hearing reports that Xian's other son Jiao (角) had been a successful Xiongnu strategist in military actions against the Xin, Wang, in anger, executed Deng and his attendants.

In 13 CE, Chanyu Zhi died. The powerful official Xubu Dang (須卜當) and his wife Yun, the Princess Yimuo (the daughter of Chanyu Huhanye and Wang Zhaojun), who advocated peaceful relations with Xin and who were also friendly with Xian, supported Xian as the new Chanyu.  Even though Xian was unaware that Wang Mang had executed his son Deng, relations between Xiongnu and Xin  remained tense. There was a temporary détente in 14 CE, when Xian returned Xin defectors Chen Liang (陳良) and Zhong Dai (終帶), who, as junior army officers in Xiyu, had killed their superiors and surrendered to Xiongnu (perhaps seeking to have Xiongnu help them re-establish Han) so that Wang could execute them. In response, Wang recalled the forces located in the northern regions which were intended to be used to attack Xiongnu (but were never given the full support that Wang envisioned). However, after Chanyu Xian found out late in 14 CE that Deng had been executed, he resumed raids against the border regions but maintained a façade of peace.

Problems with southwestern tribes
When Wang Mang first became emperor, his ambassadors visited the southwestern tribes (in modern Guizhou, Yunnan, and southwestern Sichuan), whose chieftains Han had largely granted the titles of princes. Wang's new seals demoted them to the titles of marquesses. One of the more powerful chieftains, Han (邯), the Prince of Juting (句町王), responded by angrily cutting off relations with Xin. Wang instructed the local commandery governor, Zhou Xin (周歆), to arrange for the killing of Han. In response, Han's brother Cheng (承) started a rebellion, killing Zhou, and starting a campaign of harassment against Xin borders. By 16 CE, the Commandery of Yizhou (modern northeastern Yunnan) had become corrupt while Juting remained powerful. So Wang commissioned two generals, Lian Dan (廉丹) and Shi Xiong (史熊), to attack Juting.  They were initially successful, but soon became caught in problems with food supply and disease. However, Wang continued to refuse to reinstitute the Han system of using awards to buy the submission of southwestern tribes.

Problems with Goguryeo
When Wang started his campaign against Xiongnu, he requisitioned the forces of Goguryeo within Xin borders. Goguryeo refused to cooperate and marched out of the Xin borders. The Xin army that Wang sent against them was defeated by them. The general Wang sent, Yan You (嚴尤), used humble words to trick their leader, Zou (騶), who was a marquess of Goguryeo, into a meeting with him where he treacherously killed Zou. Wang then changed Gaogouli to the derogatory term "Xiagouli" (gao means "high", while xia means "low"), and reduced their king's rank to marquess, which further enraged Goguryeo, causing them to attack the Xin northeastern regions with great ferocity.

Problems with Xiyu kingdoms
The troubles for Xin with the Xiyu kingdoms started in 10 CE. In that year, Xuzhili (須置離), the King of Rear Cheshi (後車師, now part of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture) became concerned about the great cost of hosting Xin ambassadors and considered abandoning his kingdom and fleeing to Xiongnu. Xin's Xiyu commissioner Dan Qin (但欽) summoned Xuzhili and executed him. Xuzhili's brother Hulanzhi (狐蘭之) fled to Xiongnu and then attacked Dan, inflicting severe casualties, before withdrawing.

In 13 CE, the dual kingdom of Wusun (which, under a system set up by Han, had two kings: the greater king was a descendant of a Han princess and her husband the king of Wusun, while the lesser king was a descendant of her brother-in-law) sent ambassadors to Chang'an to offer tributes. Because Wang Mang knew that the people of Wusun actually had greater affinity for the lesser king, he placed the ambassador of the lesser king in a higher position than the ambassador of the greater king, which greatly insulted the greater king.

In response, the Xiyu kingdoms joined forces and attacked the Xiyu commissioner Dan, and managed to kill him. The Xiyu kingdoms then decided to no longer pledge allegiance to Xin. In 16 CE, Wang made another attempt to intimidate the Xiyu kingdoms back into submission, but the Xin armies were divided and cut off from each other. One army was entirely wiped out. The other was forced to withdraw to Qiuzi (龜茲, in modern Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang) with its way back to Xin proper cut off, and the army settled there and was unable to return for the rest of the Xin dynasty's duration.

Paralysis and corruption of the government
In addition to these wars, a major problem plaguing Wang Mang's administration was that Wang Mang was so committed to implementing the ancient governmental structure, believing that once things were restored to Zhou dynasty standards, the government would be efficient. He and his officials spent inordinate amounts of time carrying out research of legends, but leaving important affairs of the state undecided. A large number of counties lacked magistrates for years. The local officials, without supervision, became highly corrupt and oppressive towards the populace.

Because of the way Wang came to power, he also became suspicious of allowing his subordinates to have too much power. Therefore, he made all important decisions himself and did not delegate. This meant that many important decisions were delayed or never made. Further, he entrusted eunuchs to screen the reports from local governments for him, but those eunuchs would decide to relay or not relay those reports based on their own personal likes and dislikes, and many important petitions went unanswered.

An even more serious problem was that the officials lacked salaries. Han had a well-defined system of official salaries, but when Wang became emperor, he ordered that the salary system be overhauled and recalibrated.  However, because a new system took years to be established, officials went without salaries in the meantime. In response, they became corrupt and demanded bribes from the people, causing much distress. In 16 CE, Wang finally issued the new salary system, which was dependent on how prosperous the state was in determining what the salaries were. However, because the prosperity of the state was a highly subjective matter, officials continued to go without salaries for the rest of the Xin dynasty's existence.

Middle reign

Agrarian rebellions
For a while, despite the failures of Wang's policies, the people were generally obedient, and his reign as Emperor looked to be on a firm footing. However, in 11 CE, the Yellow River overflowed its banks, flooding much of the surrounding land in the process. The ensuing famine led to prophecies that Wang had lost the Mandate of Heaven and that the Han dynasty would be restored.

About 17 CE, as the burdens from the wars and the corruption continued to increase and famines occurred (there was a major famine in Jing Prefecture (modern Hubei, Hunan, and southern Henan)), several agrarian rebellions started and took hold. The more significant rebellion and rebellion leaders included:

 Guatian Yi (瓜田儀), who occupied territory in modern Suzhou, Jiangsu.
Mother Lü, whose son was a minor civil servant who was wrongly killed by the county magistrate. She gathered a group of desperate young men and killed the county magistrate, and then went out to the sea to become pirates, but later returned to land when her forces increased in size.
 Zhang Ba (張霸), who occupied territory in modern Jingzhou, Hubei.
 Yang Mu (羊牧), who occupied territory in modern Xiaogan, Hubei.
 Diao Zidu (刁子都), who roved through what is modern western Shandong and northern Jiangsu.
 The Lülin Mountain (綠林山, in modern Yichang, Hubei) rebels, who were led by Wang Kuang (王匡) and Wang Feng (王鳳, not to be confused with Wang Mang's uncle of the same name). Because both Wang Kuang and Wang Feng were from Xinshi (新市, in modern Jingmen, Hubei), these rebels were also known as Xinshi rebels.
 The Chimei (赤眉, "red eyebrows") rebels, who were led by Fan Chong (樊崇), who roved through large swaths of territory in modern southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

Wang Mang sent messengers issuing pardons with the aim of encouraging these rebels to disband. Once the messengers returned to Chang'an, some honestly reported that the rebels had gathered because the harsh laws made it impossible for them to make a living and therefore they were forced to rebel. Some, in order to flatter Wang Mang, told him that these were simply evil troublemakers who needed to be killed, or that this was a temporary phenomenon. Wang listened to those who flattered him and generally relieved from their posts those who told the truth. Further, Wang made no further attempts to pacify the rebels, but instead decided to suppress them by force.

Problems with Xiongnu relations
Around this time, Wang made another strategic mistake involving Xiongnu. In 18 CE, Chanyu Xian died, and his brother Yu (輿) became chanyu. He wanted to consider peace with Xin, and he sent one of his key officials and a nephew of his to serve as ambassadors to Chang'an. In response, Wang Mang sent Wang Zhaojun's brother, Wang She (王歙), to meet with Princess Yun and her husband, Xuyu Dang. At the meeting, however, Xin forces surprised and kidnapped the princess and her husband and took them to Chang'an. Wang Mang created Xuyu chanyu and envisioned placing him on the Xiongnu throne by force. This ended any hope of peace with Xiongnu.

Change of heir
In 20 CE, Wang Mang made a sudden change to his presumed heir. He deposed Crown Prince Lin based on the rationale that trouble would come from the fact that Crown Prince Lin was younger than his brother Lord An, and thus Lin should not have been crown prince in the first place. He then created Lord An the Prince of Xinqian and Wang Lin the Prince of Tongyiyang.

In 21 CE, Empress Wang died. After her death, Wang Mang discovered that one of Empress Wang's ladies in waiting, Yuan Bi (原碧), with whom he had an affair, had also had an affair with Crown Prince Lin, and that she had conspired with Crown Prince Lin to kill Wang Mang, because of Wang Lin's demotion. Wang Mang ordered Wang Lin to commit suicide by poison, but Wang Lin refused, and killed himself using a sword. Later that year, Wang An died as well. Wang Mang then announced that he had in fact two sons by female servants, whom he then created dukes.

Late reign

Agrarian revolts
In 22 CE, Wang Mang finally realised (as many of his officials had been trying to tell him) that the agrarian rebellions were posing a much greater threat to his rule than the Xiongnu. He commissioned two of his key officials, Wang Kuang (王匡, not to be confused with the Lülin leader of the same name) and Lian Dan to launch attacks against the agrarian rebellions, with the Chimei being their first target. Wang and Lian had some initial successes, but Wang insisted on having them keep fighting without resting, and the fatigued forces eventually collapsed.

In the same year, the Lülin forces suffered the effects of a major plague which killed about half of the rebels. This caused them to divide. One branch headed west to the region of modern Jingzhou, Hubei, while the other headed north to the region of the modern Nanyang, Henan.

Liu's revolt merges with Lülin agrarian revolt
Around this time, the most ambitious of the rebels emerged. Liu Yan, a descendant of a distant branch of the Han imperial clan, who lived in his ancestral territory of Chongling (舂陵, in modern Xiangyang, Hubei), had long been disgusted by Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han throne, and had long aspired to start a rebellion.  His brother Liu Xiu, by contrast, was a careful and deliberate man, who was content to be a farmer.  Around this time, there were prophecies being spread in the community that the Lius would return to power, and many men gathered about Liu Yan, requesting that he lead them.  He agreed and joined forces with the branch of the Lülin forces which were in the same area.  Together they began to capture territory rather than just simply roving and raiding.   In 23 CE, under Liu Yan's leadership, the joint forces had a major victory over Zhen Fu (甄阜), the governor of Nanyang Commandery, killing him.  They then besieged the important city of Wan (the capital of Nanyang).

A new imperial pretender
By this point, many other rebel leaders had become jealous of Liu Yan's capabilities, and while a good number of their men admired Liu Yan and wanted him to become the emperor of a newly declared Han dynasty, some of the rebel leaders had other ideas. They found another local rebel leader, also of Han imperial descent, Liu Xuan, who was considered a weak personality, and requested that he be made emperor. Liu Yan initially opposed this move and instead suggested that Liu Xuan carry the title "Prince of Han" first (echoing the founder of the Han dynasty, Emperor Gao). The other rebel leaders refused, and in early 23 CE, Liu Xuan was proclaimed Gengshi Emperor. Liu Yan became prime minister.

The Battle of Kunyang
In the spring of 23 CE, a major military confrontation sealed Wang Mang's fate. He sent his cousin Wang Yi (王邑) and his prime minister, Wang Xun (王尋), with what he considered to be overwhelming force, some 430,000 men, intending to crush the newly reconstituted Han regime. The Han forces were at this point in two groups.  One group was led by Wang Feng, Wang Chang (王常), and Liu Xiu, which, in response to the arrival of the Xin forces, withdrew to the small town of Kunyang (昆陽, in modern Pingdingshan, Henan).  The other group was led by Liu Yan, which was besieging Wancheng. The rebels in Kunyang initially wanted to scatter, but Liu Xiu opposed that strategy.  Rather, he advocated that they guard Kunyang securely, while he would bring together all other available troops from the surrounding areas and attack the Xin forces. After initially rejecting Liu Xiu's idea, the Kunyang rebels eventually agreed.

Liu Xiu carried out his action, and when he returned to Kunyang, he began harassing the besieging Xin forces from the outside. Wang Yi and Wang Xun led 10,000 men to attack Liu Xiu and ordered the rest of their troops not to move from their siege locations. Once they engaged in battle, however, after minor losses, the other units were hesitant to assist them, and Liu Xiu killed Wang Xun in battle. After that, the Han forces inside Kunyang burst out of the city and attacked the other Xin units leading to the much larger Xin forces suffering a total collapse. Many of the Xin soldiers deserted and headed to their homes. Wang Yi had to withdraw with only several thousand men back to Luoyang. This was a major blow to Xin and marked the beginning of the end for the Xin dynasty.

Conquest of the capitals
Gengshi Emperor then established two armies, one led by Wang Kuang, which targeted Luoyang, and the other led by Shentu Jian (申屠建) and Li Song (李松), which targeted Chang'an.  Many of the populace on the way gathered, welcomed and then joined the Han forces. Shentu and Li quickly reached the outskirts of Chang'an. The rebels sacked the capital on 4 October 23. In response, the young men within Chang'an also rose up and stormed Weiyang Palace, the main imperial palace. Wang died in the battle at the palace (by Du Wu (杜吳)), as did his daughter Princess Huanghuang (the former empress of Han). After Wang died, the crowd fought over the right to have the credit for having killed Wang, and tens of soldiers died in the ensuing fight. Wang's body was cut into pieces, and his head was delivered to the provisional Han capital Wancheng, to be hung on the city wall. However, the angry people took it off the wall and kicked it around, and someone cut his tongue off. Eventually, the head was preserved and kept in a court vault, until it was destroyed in a fire during the Jin dynasty.

Personal information
Parents
 Father: Wang Man (王曼), the early-deceased brother of Empress Wang Zhengjun, second son of Wang Jin, Marquess of Yangping and his wife Li Qin
 Mother: Lady Qu (渠氏)
Consort and issue(s):
Empress Xiaomu, of the Wang clan (孝睦皇后 王氏, d. 21)
 Wang Yu (王宇, d. 3 CE), 1st son
 Wang Huo (王獲, d. 2 BCE), 2nd son
 Wang An, Prince of Xinqian (新迁王 王安, d. 21 CE), 3rd son
 Wang Lin, Prince of Tongyiyang (统义阳王 王臨, d. 21 CE), 4th son
Princess Huanghuang (黃皇室主, 8 BCE – 23 CE), 1st daughter
Married Emperor Ping
 Empress Shi, of the Shi clan  (皇后史氏; created 23)
Concubine Zengzhi (侍妾增秩), originally a female servant, family name unknown
 Wang Kuang, Duke of Gongjian (功脩公王匡), 6th son
 Lady of Muxiu (睦脩任), personal name Ye (曄), 2nd daughter
Concubine Huaineng (侍妾懷能), originally a female servant, family name unknown
Wang Xing, Duke of Gongxiu (功脩公 王興), 5th son
Concubine Kaiming (侍妾開明), originally a female servant, family name unknown
 Lady of Mudai (睦逮任), personal name Jie (捷), 3rd daughter
Consort Yuanbi (侍妾原碧), originally a female servant, family name unknown

Wang Mang in popular culture
 Wang Mang is a character in the 2011 historical fantasy novel, The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh, where he is treated admiringly and heroically. He was "the one for whom we'd been waiting," one character says of Wang Mang, after his death, "the one for whom we still wait."
 Wang Mang is one of the main characters of the Chinese television series Love Weaves Through a Millennium. Wang Mang is played by Chen Xiang.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources cited

 Steven S. Drachman, "The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh", Chickadee Prince Books, 2011. .

 Rudi Thomsen, Ambition and confucianism : a biography of Wang Mang, Aarhus University Press, 1988. .
 Yap, Joseph P. "Wars with the Xiongnu, A Translation From Zizhi tongjian" Chapters 13–17, AuthorHouse (2009)

 Book of Han (Full text) – Chinese Text Project
 Book of Han 《漢書》 Chinese text with matching English vocabulary
Book of Later Han 《後漢書》 Chinese text with matching English vocabulary

Further reading

External links

45 BC births
23 deaths
1st-century Chinese monarchs
Ancient rebels
Chinese Confucianists
Chinese emperors
Chinese reformers
Filicides
Founding monarchs
Han dynasty government officials
Posthumous executions
Regents of China
Usurpers
Xin dynasty

Wang Mang


In mathematics (and more specifically geometry), a semicircle is a one-dimensional locus of points that forms half of a circle. It is a circular arc that measures 180° (equivalently,  radians, or a half-turn). It has only one line of symmetry (reflection symmetry).

In non-technical usage, the term "semicircle" is sometimes used to refer to either a closed curve that also includes the diameter segment from one end of the arc to the other or to the half-disk, which is a two-dimensional geometric region that further includes all the interior points.

By Thales' theorem, any triangle inscribed in a semicircle with a vertex at each of the endpoints of the semicircle and the third vertex elsewhere on the semicircle is a right triangle, with a right angle at the third vertex.

All lines intersecting the semicircle perpendicularly are concurrent at the center of the circle containing the given semicircle.

Uses

A semicircle can be used to construct the arithmetic and geometric means of two lengths using straight-edge and compass. For a semicircle with a diameter of a + b, the length of its radius is the arithmetic mean of a and b (since the radius is half of the diameter).

The geometric mean can be found by dividing the diameter into two segments of lengths a and b, and then connecting their common endpoint to the semicircle with a segment perpendicular to the diameter. The length of the resulting segment is the geometric mean. This can be proven by applying the Pythagorean theorem to three similar right triangles, each having as vertices the point where the perpendicular touches the semicircle and two of the three endpoints of the segments of lengths a and b.

The construction of the geometric mean can be used to transform any rectangle into a square of the same area, a problem called the quadrature of a rectangle. The side length of the square is the geometric mean of the side lengths of the rectangle. More generally, it is used as a lemma in a general method for transforming any polygonal shape into a similar copy of itself with the area of any other given polygonal shape.

Equation

The equation of a semicircle with midpoint  on the diameter between its endpoints and which is entirely concave from below is

If it is entirely concave from above, the equation is

Arbelos

An arbelos is a region in the plane bounded by three semicircles connected at the corners, all on the same side of a straight line (the baseline) that contains their diameters.

See also

Amphitheater
Archimedes' twin circles
Archimedes' quadruplets
Salinon
Wigner semicircle distribution

References

External links

Elementary geometry
es:Semicírculo

Semicircle


Carlo Gonzaga (died 21 December 1456), Lord of Sabbioneta, was an Italian nobleman of the Mantuan House of Gonzaga who rose to the position of Captain of the People in the Ambrosian Republic of Milan, and eventually ruled practically as an autocrat.  He was the younger son of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta, as well as a friend of the humanist writer Francesco Filelfo.  His brother was Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and became a rival of his for Mantua and in the field of battle.

Biography
Carlo Gonzaga was born in Mantua.  He married twice, first to Lucia d'Este, daughter of Niccolò III d'Este, who died childless, and then to Ringarda Manfredi, who gave him three daughters and a son.

After the death of his father in 1444 Ludovico became Marquis and removed all authority from Carlo.  He went to Venice and fought in her service against the Ambrosian Republic until he defected with Francesco Sforza in 1447.  He was appointed Captain of the People in November of that year.  He eventually counseled Giovanni Appiano and Giovanni Ossona, the leaders of the Guelphs, in their term in leadership, becoming so powerful that he was raised in all but name to the status of a dictator.  He had a lavish house and started replacing men in government to those in his favor.  A Ghibelline conspiracy rose against him and his government, but he shattered it, and his Guelph underlings massacred many Ghibellines.

Gonzaga made attempts for peace first with Republic of Venice, then with Francesco Sforza, offering the latter the city of Crema.  Gonzaga was thrown into jail at first, but shortly after pardoned with many other Guelphs, and made head of a temporary government until the coronation of Sforza.  Later, furious at Sforza for making an alliance with Ludovico, he plotted with Guglielmo of Montferrat in 1450 and was thrown into the Pavian prison.  He was released when he conceded to give up his war spoils, Alessandria and Tortona.

In the spring of 1453 Carlo Gonzaga, allied with the Republic of Venice, raised an army of 4,000 to invade Mantua and overthrow his brother Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantova. Carlo seized the strongpoints of Castelbelforte (then known as Castelbonafisso) and Bigarello, but was defeated by Ludovico's forces and a detachment of Milanese allies at Castellaro Lagusello an outlying hamlet by the village of Monzambano. Forced to retreat across the Adige river at Legnago Carlo and his Venetian allies were pursued and decisively defeated on 14 June 1453 battle at Villabona near Goito. The historian Ludovico Muratori states that in the battle at Villabona Carlo lost 1,000 horses and 200 men-at-arms and was forced to seek shelter with the Este family in Ferrara. The Mantuan Jesuit Antonio Possevino instead states that Carlo was captured in the battle, but released immediately thereafter on request of the Marquis of Este and allowed to proceed to Ferrara.

Nevertheless, with the Treaty of Lodi in 1454 Ludovico was forced to give back all he stole from Carlo. Later Carlo was made Lord of Sabbioneta by Sforza.  He died heirless, his only son presumably having fallen prey to death in years previous, and his lands passed to his brother Ludovico ΙΙΙ Gonzaga.

References

 A History of Milan under the Sforza. Cecilia M. Ady, Edward Armstrong; Methuen & Co., 1907.
  Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330–1550: Ludovico Gonzaga

  Storia di Milano

1476 deaths
Nobility of Mantua
Rulers of Milan
Carlo
15th-century Italian nobility
Year of birth unknown
Lords in Italy

Carlo Gonzaga of Milan


Francis Edgar Stanley (1849 – 1918), was an American inventor, photographer and manufacturer. He and his twin brother Freelan Oscar Stanley invented and manufactured the Stanley Steamer car. They were pioneers in the use of steam engines to power cars.

Early life

Francis E. Stanley and his twin Freelan O. Stanley were born on 1 June 1849 in Kingsfield, Maine. Their parents were Solomon and Apphia (French) Stanley. Solomon Stanley was both a farmer and a teacher. He and his brother graduated from Farmington State Normal School in Farmington, Maine. The school is now the University of Maine at Farmington. Francis became a teacher, and taught at New Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Strong, Maine. In 1870 he met and married Augusta May Walker, another teacher. Together they had three children. In 1875 he left teaching and moved to Auburn, Maine. He became an artist and photographer opening a studio there. He began to do more portrait photography and opened two more studios in Lewiston and Bridgton, Maine. In the early 1880s he started experimenting with the new dry plate way of taking pictures.

In 1885 both brothers left their jobs and started a company to make photographic plates for photographers.  they sold their shop four years later when they moved to Watertown, Massachusetts. They started another photographic plate business, but sold it to Eastman Kodak in 1904. The photographic plate business had made both brothers very wealthy.

The Stanley Steamer

In 1897 the two brothers began experimenting and making steam-powered cars. They were soon making about 200 cars a year. In 1899 they purchased a bicycle factory in Watertown and began building their cars. They then sold their car company to John B. Walker and Amzi L. Barber for $250,000 USD. With it they sold the rights to their car designs. The sale had a clause that the two Stanley brothers could not build and sell cars for two years. The Stanley brothers broke the clause and had to give their new design to the company Walker and Barber formed, the Locomobile Company of America. In 1901 Francis and Freelan Stanley formed a new car company, the Stanley Motor Carriage Company.

The cars they produced, called Stanley Steamers, had many advantages. The cost was $650. That was $300 less than the cost of a Ford Model T. The cars were very quiet and only made hissing sounds from the boiler. They had no transmission because there was no need to change gears as there was with gasoline-powered cars. Their cars began making news. In 1899, Freelan and his wife Flora drove one of these cars to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. The ascent took more than two hours and was notable as being the first time a car had climbed the  long Mount Washington Carriage Road.  In 1906 a Stanley Steamer broke the land speed record at 127 miles per hour on a beach in Florida.

Later years

As other car companies moved from steam to gasoline power, the Stanley Steamer became the most popular steam powered car. As the internal combustion engine designs improved, however, steam and electric cars lost much of their popularity. Finally, the numbers of cars sold went down to less than 600 a year in 1918. That year the Stanley brothers sold the company to Prescott Warren, a Chicago businessman. both brothers retired. A few months later, while he was driving home from a trip to Maine, his car ran off the road. He was driving a new 1918 Model 735 Stanley Steamer. He died in the accident, July 21, 1918. He was 69 years old. His brother Freelan lived to be 91 years old.

References

Other websites
 Stanley; The Most Successful Steam Car of all Time
 June 1, 1849: Stanley Twins Steam Into History

American inventors
1849 births
1918 deaths
American photographers
Businesspeople from Maine

Francis Edgar Stanley


1,2,3,4-Tetraphenylnaphthalene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon commonly prepared in the undergraduate teaching laboratory as an introduction to the Diels-Alder reaction, in this case between benzyne, which acts as the dienophile, (generated in situ) and tetraphenylcyclopentadienone, which acts as the diene. It has two crystalline forms, and therefore has two different melting points.

References

Naphthalenes

1,2,3,4-Tetraphenylnaphthalene


The World Chart Express chart was a show played on MTV Europe every Saturday, repeating then on Sundays and Fridays. It was a top ten chart, consisting of popular songs across the world. It was one of the few charts that actually plays music sung in different languages other than English, representing what's truly popular in each country.

It had an Indian version which was played on a satellite TV network called Tata Sky for 5 weeks.

Music chart television shows
MTV original programming

World Chart Express


The Market House is a historic three-story brick market house in Market Square, in the College Hill, a neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The building was constructed between 1773 and 1775 and designed by prominent local architects, Joseph Brown and Declaration of Independence signer Stephen Hopkins. The bottom floor of the house was used as a market, and the upper level was used for holding meetings. Similar buildings existed in other American cities, such as Faneuil Hall in Boston and the Old Brick Market in Newport. The building housed the Providence City Council in the decades before the completion of City Hall.

Architecture
The primary architect for the Market House was Joseph Brown, then the foremost architect of the city. Brown's previous commissioned work included University Hall at Brown University and the First Baptist Meeting House. Brown was assisted in the design process by Stephen Hopkins.

The building was originally two stories in height, topped by a low gable roof. In 1797, a third floor was added to the house, which housed the first Masonic Lodge in Rhode Island. At this time, a wooden balustrade was added to the roof of the building. The east gable features a large bull's-eye window, while the west gable features a clock, installed in the 20th century.

With the exception of the building's eastern end, the first floor of is surrounded on all sides by a series of large round arches that originally formed an arcade. In the 19th century, the arcade was closed off with the installation of windows.

In 1833, architect James C. Bucklin designed a two-story addition on the east end of the building. This addition provided an entrance to the third story Masonic hall.

History
In August 1771, a petition signed by a number of townspeople was presented to the General Assembly, asking for a market house. The General Assembly raised funds through a lottery to erect a building in a location proposed by David Bucklin. Excavations on Market House began on May 25, 1773 and were completed in 1775.

Almost immediately, Market House became the center of civic life in Providence, Rhode Island, due to its central location at the east end of the Weybosset Bridge. On March 2, 1775, residents gathered there to show their resistance to British taxation by burning British tea.

During the American Revolution, the buildings were used as barracks for French soldiers encamped in Providence.

The building's third floor housed the first Masonic Lodge in Rhode Island. Thomas Smith Webb was a member of the lodge, and in 1802 Webb organized St. John's Encampment Number One, which was the first Knights Templar organization in America.

In 1832, Providence Mayor Samuel W. Bridgham moved Providence City Council to meet in Market House. At first, the City Council, Mayor's Office, and Board of Aldermen were located on the second floor. As the city grew, the city government purchased the third floor from the Masons, and eventually occupied the entire building, which was then renamed the "City Building." By 1845 the city government outgrew the building and drew up plans to build a new City Hall. By 1878 the new City Hall was completed and the city vacated Market House.

In the years after the city left the building, tenants included the Providence Board of Trade (later known as the Chamber of Commerce), the Henry Lippitt Company, several manufacturing companies, a barber, the Rhode Island Poultry Association, and the Rhode Island Electric Light Company. Market Square and Westminster Street were the first parts of Providence to receive electric street lights.

The building underwent some restoration work in the 1930s, and by 1940 the building was restored to its 1833 appearance. In 1948, Mayor Dennis J. Roberts signed a deed to give the building to the Rhode Island School of Design, with the provision that the exterior of the building be maintained. Architect John Hutchins Cady was hired to remodel the interior with classrooms and studios.

A pair of plaques on the exterior wall marks the highest water levels reached during the Great Storm of 1815 and the Hurricane of 1938.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Gallery

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence, Rhode Island

References

External links

Commercial buildings completed in 1775
Providence
Buildings and structures in Providence, Rhode Island
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island
Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island
Rhode Island School of Design
National Register of Historic Places in Providence, Rhode Island
Historic district contributing properties in Rhode Island

Market House (Providence, Rhode Island)


The Apies River is a river that flows through the city of Pretoria, South Africa. Its source is located just south of the city (south of Erasmus Park) and it flows northward until it drains into the Pienaars River.

The word "Apies" is Afrikaans for small monkeys and is a reference to the historical abundance of vervet monkeys on the Apies River banks.

Nguni-speaking people, who became known as the Ndebele, are thought to have  been the first people to recognise the suitability of the Apies River valley as a place to put down roots.  The Ndebele encountered indigenous nomadic Khoisan people, which they called abaTshwa (the People who are Ignored), occupying the area. The Ndebele named the river 'Tshwane' which means 'Place of the abaTshwa'. It is also argued that they named the river after one of their chiefs "Tshwane" who is reputedly buried under the Wonderboom. It is also proposed that 'Tshwane' is a corruption of 'tshwene' which is the Sotho and Tswana word for monkey. However, the river is still recognized under its colonial name "Apies". The greater municipality of Pretoria is now known as Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.  The river is - to a large extent - canalised with little resemblance of the natural river reach of the past.  The river reach between Wonderboom Poort and the Bon Accord Dam is, however, not canalised.

The Mamelodi township draws its name from the name of the river, with the full name being "Mamelodi ya Tshwane", meaning "Whistler of the Apies River", a nickname given to Paul Kruger.

Dams
 Bon Accord Dam
 Leeukraal Dam

See also

 List of rivers of South Africa
 List of reservoirs and dams in South Africa

References

External links
Overview of the Crocodile (West)/Marico Water Management Area

Pretoria
Crocodile River (Limpopo)
Rivers of Gauteng

Apies River