Ancroft is a village and civil parish (which includes the village of Scremerston) in Northumberland, England. Prior to 1844, Ancroft lay within the Islandshire exclave of County Durham. It is south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and has a population of 885, rising slightly to 895 at the 2011 census.

There are several suggestions as to how Ancroft got its name. It might be an abridged version of "Aidan's-croft" - the croft of St Aidan who was the first Bishop of Lindisfarne (Holy Island). Alternatively, it might be that as the church is dedicated to Saint Anne, the village took its name from the church - "St Anne's croft". A third suggestion is simply that it means one croft or solitary croft - "ane croft".

There was surely more than one croft here when the church was built, probably towards the end of the 11th century; but in common with most of this region, the community declined in the latter part of the 13th century because of the continual border raids by the Scots. This turbulent history is reflected in the number of castles and peel towers in the vicinity, besides the fortified tower that was added to the church in the thirteenth century.

Because of the repeated incursions by Scots, this northern part of what we now call Northumberland was placed in the charge of the prince-bishops of Durham. They were powerful and wealthy men who had the resources to defend the border. That is why this area was still part of County Durham until the mid 1800s.

After the accession of James I (James VI of Scotland) to the throne of England in 1603 there seems to have been a return of people to the village. But in 1667 the plague struck Ancroft, The victims were carried out into the fields where they were covered with shelters made from branches of broom. After death both bodies and shelters were burned in a rudimentary and fruitless attempt to control the spread of the disease. To this day a field to the south of the village is called "Broomie Huts". In desperation the authorities of the day ordered that the plague-affected cottages should be burned to the ground. The mounds where the cottages stood, and the former village street, can still be seen in the field between the main road and the burn.

By the time of Queen Anne (1702–1714) the village was flourishing once more, with a population of over one thousand. The main industry, other than farming, was shoe and clog making. Sailors of the Royal Navy wore shoes or slippers from Ancroft. The naval specification required footwear with no metal parts - an obvious precaution to avoid sparks in a wooden ship loaded with gunpowder and tarred rope! Boots were also made for the British army - the Duke of Marlborough's troops marched to victory shod in Ancroft boots. A village tradition claims that each of the one hundred trees on the southern skyline represents a cobbler.

Several of the local settlements originated around coal mines, an industry which is being redeveloped in today's open cast sites.

Landmarks
The Devil's Causeway passes the village less than  to the east. The causeway is a Roman road which starts at Port Gate on Hadrian's Wall, north of Corbridge, and extends  northwards across Northumberland to the mouth of the River Tweed at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

References

External links

GENUKI (Accessed: 19 November 2008)
Northumberland Communities (Accessed: 19 November 2008)

Villages in Northumberland
Civil parishes in Northumberland

Ancroft


Samara (), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 million residents, up to 1.22 million residents in the urban agglomeration, not including Novokuybyshevsk, which is not conurbated. The city covers an area of , and is the eighth-largest city in Russia and tenth agglomeration, the third-most populous city on the Volga, as well as the Volga Federal District.

Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial, and cultural centre in Russia and hosted the European Union—Russia Summit in May 2007. It has a continental climate characterised by hot summers and cold winters. The life of Samara's citizens has always been intrinsically linked to the Volga River, which has not only served as the main commercial thoroughfare of Russia throughout several centuries, but also has great visual appeal. Samara's riverfront is one of the main recreation sites for both local citizens and tourists.

Etymology
Samara is named after the Samara River, which probably means "summer water" (signifying that it froze in winter) in the Indo-Iranian language which was spoken there around the third millennium BC. The Samara city gives its name to the Samara culture, a neolithic culture of the fifth millennium BC, and the Kurgan hypothesis associates the region with the original homeland (urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European language.

History

Early history

Samara, together with its northern neighbour Kazan, is at the centre of the Idel-Ural historical region. Ahmad ibn Fadlan visited the area that is now Samara around 921 while on his journey to the Volga Bulgars who then controlled the region from their capital Bolghar.

Legend has it that Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow, later Patron Saint of Samara, visited the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected there, and that the town would never be ravaged. The Volga port of Samara appears on Italian maps of the 14th century. Before 1586, the Samara Bend was a pirate nest. Lookouts would spot an oncoming boat and quickly cross to the other side of the peninsula whenever the pirates organized an attack. Officially, Samara started with a fortress built in 1586 at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. This fortress was a frontier post protecting the then easternmost boundaries of Russia from forays of nomads. A local customs office was established in 1600.

As more and more ships pulled into Samara's port, the town turned into a centre for diplomatic and economic links between Russia and the East. Samara also opened its gates to peasant war rebels headed by Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov, welcoming them with traditional bread and salt. The town was visited by Peter the Great and later Tsars.

In 1780, Samara was turned into an uyezd town of Simbirsk Governorate overseen by the local Governor-General, and Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice and a Board of Treasury were established. On January 1, 1851, Samara became the centre of Samara Governorate with an estimated population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to the development of the economic, political and cultural life of the community. Samara was outside of the Pale of Settlement and as such did not have any significant Jewish population until the late 19th century. In 1877, during the Russian-Turkish War, a mission from the Samara city government Duma led by Petr Alabin, as a symbol of spiritual solidarity, brought a banner tailored in Samara pierced with bullets and saturated with the blood of both Russians and Bulgarians, to Bulgaria, which has become a symbol of Russian-Bulgarian friendship.

Soviet period

In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in honour of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev.

During World War II, Kuybyshev was chosen to be the alternative capital of the Soviet Union should Moscow fall to the invading Germans, until the summer of 1943, when everything was moved back to Moscow. In October 1941, the Communist Party and governmental organisations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city. A dugout for Joseph Stalin known as "Stalin's Bunker" was constructed but never used. To mark its role as wartime national capital a special Revolution Day parade was held at the city's Kuybyshev Square on November 7, 1941, and since 2011 has been remembered in an annual military parade organised by the city government.

As a leading industrial centre, Kuybyshev played a major role in arming the country. From the very first months of World War II the city supplied the front with aircraft, firearms, and ammunition. Health centres and most of the city's hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovakian military units were formed on the territory of the Volga Military District. Samara's citizens also fought at the front, many of them volunteers.

After the war the defence industry developed rapidly in Kuybyshev; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built, leading to Kuybyshev becoming a closed city. In 1960, Kuybyshev became the missile shield centre for the country. The launch vehicle Vostok, which delivered the first crewed spaceship to orbit, was built at the Samara Progress Plant. Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space on April 12, 1961, took a rest in Kuybyshev after returning to Earth. While there, he spoke to an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Kuybyshev enterprises played a leading role in the development of Soviet domestic aviation and the implementation of the Soviet space program. There is also an unusual monument situated in Samara commemorating an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft assembled by Kuybyshev workers in late 1942. This particular plane was shot down in 1943 over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot, K. Kotlyarovsky, managed to crash-land the plane near Lake Oriyarvi. The aircraft was returned to Kuybyshev in 1975, and was placed on display at the intersection of two major roads as a symbol of the deeds of home front servicemen and air-force pilots during the Great Patriotic War.

Post-Soviet period

In January 1991, the historical name of Samara was given back to the city. Samara is one of the major industrial cities of Russia and has a multiethnic population. The city retains its leading positions in the region, mainly due to a number of oil and petrochemical enterprises. In September 2016, Samara was awarded the title "City of Labor and Combat Glory".

In 2018, Samara became one of the host cities of the FIFA World Cup, the matches of which were held at the Samara Arena stadium.

On July 2, 2020, the title "City of Labor Valor" was awarded to Samara. On December 10, 2021 the Memorial Complex was installed on the Alley of Labor Glory on the Young Pioneers Avenue. The central element of the memorial complex was a glass and metal stele about 26 meters high.

Geography

Urban layout
The development of the territory of modern Samara began in the 16th century with the foundation of the Samara fortress. Prior to the founding of the fortress, this area was home to piers for Volga ships. The official date of foundation of the settlement was the decree of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich of 1586. The location of the town was predetermined by several factors: strategic placement in order to ensure security from the raids of nomadic tribes; expansion of the Russian state in the Middle and Lower Volga regions; convenient location in the steppe landscape, at the intersection of the Volga and Samarka rivers.

The fortress was wooden with 11 towers, surrounded by a rampart and a moat, and occupied 5.2 hectares. Gradually, the population of the fortress increased, and the surrounding territories were developed. Simultaneously with the fortress in 1586, Boldyrskaya Sloboda arose on the Volga slope, and around 1645, upstream the Volga, Voznesenskaya Sloboda. During the 17th century, the settlements merged into a single whole.

In 1688, the settlement received the status of a city, which required the development of the first boundary plan. It is known that by the beginning of the 18th century the city stretched in a narrow strip along the Volga slope. From 1703 to 1706, a new earthen, diamond-shaped form was built to the east of the old fortress. The layout was unsystematic, with small blocks of bizarre shapes. Almost the entire territory was occupied by residential buildings and administrative, commercial and military buildings were concentrated only in the fortress. The territories along the banks of the Volga and Samarka were occupied by marinas and barns. By 1717, there were 210 philistine houses and 17 houses of yasak peasants in Samara. The settlement grew slowly due to its border position and by the end of the 18th century it occupied 61.2 hectares of territory, compactly stretching along the banks of the Volga.

In 1763, Empress Catherine II signed an order "On the making of all cities, their buildings and streets of special plans for each province especially." In the 70s, extensive activities were launched by the "Commission on the Stone Buildings of St. Petersburg and Moscow" to rebuild provincial cities. At the same time, the development of the first master plan for Samara began. In 1764, the settlement changed its administrative status, becoming a settlement. In 1780 it again received the status of a county town. In 1765 and 1772 it was badly damaged by fires. Despite these obstacles, in 1782 Samara received the first master plan with a rectangular grid of streets.
According to the plan, the territory of the city was subject to a complete redevelopment: all buildings were liquidated, with the exception of several churches, houses and a fortress. In 1796, a second reconstruction plan was drawn up, identical to the first. As a result of its implementation, by 1804 the territory of Samara had increased to 70.4 hectares. The basis for the planning of the northern part of the city was a rectangular quarter measuring 130 × 260 m. The southern part of the settlement retained its irregular character. The main type of building of this period is a low-rise estate. The directions of the streets were determined by the direction of the channel, the so-called Samara break. The city was divided into functional zones: residential areas with trade facilities, administrative and religious buildings. Community centers were located around churches and at the ship's pier. Forges were located on the outskirts of the city. The fortress occupied 3.6 hectares, divided into a residential zone, an administrative zone (offices, a prison, a storehouse), a public one (a court, a thought), a commercial, an industrial one (warehouses, piers, forges, barns).
In 1804, a new plan for the reconstruction and expansion of Samara was drawn up, following the model of the previous ones. The old buildings in the south of the city were demolished, and a regular layout appeared in its place. In 1839, the plan was almost completely implemented. The territory of Samara has increased by 3.5 times (246.4 ha). The city occupied the entire territory along the watershed of the Volga and Samara rivers, the banks of which were built up with marinas, grain barns, warehouses, and small-scale industries. The Samara fortress was still preserved, but had already lost its significance.

In 1840, a new development plan was approved, according to which the territory of the city expanded further along the watershed, while maintaining the planning structure. The new plan reflected the nature of the prevailing wooden buildings (stone houses accounted for only 10% of the total). The size of the quarters remained the same, the city grew at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a major trading center, with a railroad, Samara in 1851 received the status of a provincial city. The general plan of 1853 regulated only building within the city limits, however, the settlement began to grow chaotically, numerous industrial facilities appeared: tanneries, oil mills, brick factories and mills. The development of navigation along the Volga led to the fact that piers, warehouses, sawmills and other factories occupied the entire Volga coast of the city. From 1875 to 1877, a private railway to Orenburg was built through Samara, laid along the banks of the Samara River. The residential part of the city was cut off from the banks of the industrial rivers, with the exception of a small section of the Strukovsky Garden, overlooking the Volga. By the end of the 19th century, Samara was a single planning space with a regular plan (with the exception of the Zasamarskaya settlement, which arose no later than the end of the 18th century).

1937 General plan - Greater Kuybyshev
The rapid growth of Kuybyshev required the development of a new master plan "Big Kuibyshev" in 1937, which was designed for the future, until 1956. It provided for a significant expansion of the city, turning it into a major industrial center. The main compositional axes arose along the watershed of the Volga and Samara rivers, and the second axis - Novo-Sadovaya Street. The structure highlights the main urban centers - Samara Square and the area of the Botanical Garden. The existing historical buildings were renovated and redeveloped, old cemeteries and churches were demolished to accommodate new public and cultural facilities.
The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War prevented the full implementation of the plan. In the 1940s, large defense factories were evacuated to Kuibyshev, in connection with which the area of the city during the war and the first post-war years increased by 50%, amounting to 6651.3 hectares by the end of the 40s. Factories and factories were located along the railway, east of the old city, in empty areas. Between them and the old city, new residential areas arose. New construction also unfolded in other immediate outskirts and further in the periphery.

In 1949, a new general plan of Samara was adopted, according to which the transport system developed (the emergence of new highways), a new industrial and residential area of Bezymyanka was built, new territories were developed, new planning units appeared - microdistricts. The development of the city proceeded at an intensive pace: the Kirovsky district, the village of Kryazh, the mouth of the Dry Samarka were built up. Landscaping work was underway, the reconstruction of squares (Kuibyshev and Chapaev squares), the laying of the TsPKiO. A new urban framework was formed by community centers and main highways connecting remote areas with the historical center.
However, until the end of the 1950s, the city was a conglomeration of scattered workers' settlements, located around the largest industrial enterprises. In such a system, two centers were key: the Old City (historical merchant) and the new Bezymyanka industrial district (social city). Bezymyanka was connected with the Old Town by a railway line and bus routes. This two-part structure of the city lasted until the end of the 20th century.
In the 1950s, during the construction process, the local architectural school was able to form outstanding architectural ensembles that connected the workers' settlements into a single urban system - these are the buildings of Revolution Square, Kuibyshev, Samarskaya, Chapaev, Agriculture, Kirov, Pobeda Street, Kirov, Metallurgists, Yunykh Pioneers, Kuibyshev, Novo-Sadovaya, Maslennikov, the Soviet Army and the Volga embankment.

Climate
Samara experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb, borders on Dfa). Samara's humidity levels are higher in the summer than many Russian cities thanks to the precipitation levels and the close proximity to the Volga. The humidity levels usually range from 29% to 98% humidity over the period of a year. There was a record high of  during a severe heat wave. Being far inland, summers are very warm and winters very cold for its latitude among European cities.

Governance

Administrative and municipal status

Samara is the administrative center of the oblast and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Volzhsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated separately as the city of oblast significance of Samara—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Samara is incorporated as Samara Urban Okrug. In April 2015, Samara's nine city districts were granted municipal status.

Demographics

The population of Samara was 1,173,393 in 2021, up from 1,164,685 in 2010.

In the 2021 Census, the following ethnic groups were listed:

Religion

Samara is a multi-confessional city with various religious groups, including an Orthodox Christian majority and minorities of Armenian Apostolic Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and Jews.

However, since 2009, a Russian "anti-extremism" law has led to an increase in repression of religious minorities. Local authorities and courts in Samara have targeted Jehovah's Witnesses by liquidating the group's legal entity ("Local Religious Organization" or "LRO") and designating it as an "extremist" organization. In November 2016, "the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decision of the Samara Regional Court to recognize the Samara branch of Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist organization and to ban its activities."

Economy

Samara is a leading industrial center in the Volga region and is among the top ten Russian cities in terms of national income and industrial production volume. Samara is known for the production of aerospace launch vehicles, satellites and various space services (Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center), engines (Kuznetsov Design Bureau) and cables (Volgacable, Samara Cable Company), aircraft (Aviakor) and rolled aluminum, block-module power stations; refining, chemical and cryogenic products; gas-pumping units; bearings of different sizes, drilling bits; automated electrical equipment; airfield equipment (Start plant); truck-mounted cranes; construction materials; chocolates made by the Russia Chocolate Factory; Rodnik vodka; Vektor vodka; Zhiguli beer; food processing and light industrial products.

Culture

Samara has an opera and ballet theater, a philharmonic orchestra hall, and five drama theaters. There is a museum of natural history and local history studies, a city art museum, and a number of movie theaters. As a dedication to the city's contribution to the development of aerospace industry, there is a space museum (called Cosmic Samara) and an exhibition of aerospace history in Samara State Aerospace University. In the 2000s, a large number of contemporary art galleries have also been built.

There are a zoo and a circus in the city.

Samara Regional Museum of Local History named after Pyotr Vladimirovich Alabin is one of the oldest museums of the Volga region, founded on November 13, 1886. The museum offers 2,500 square meters of exposition and exhibition areas, a 270-seat cinema/lecture hall, and a library with a reading hall. Museum's funds contain around 230,000 items, including abundant archaeological and scientific collections (paleontological, mineralogical, zoological, botanical), and folklore and ethnographical collections. Visitors are offered a wide choice of expositions: paleoecological – "Natural communities of Samara region", archaeological – "Priceless heritage of the times gone by", ethnographic – "Circle of life, reflected in traditions and rituals of the Volga region indigenous peoples", historical – "The Crossroads of Samara history", and other exhibition projects.

The Alabin Museum has three branches:

House-Museum of Vladimir Lenin in Samara is an object of cultural heritage of federal significance. Museum is located on the site of a former city merchant's mansion, dating to the last quarter of the 19th century. The Ulyanov family rented a second floor apartment of the house of Samara merchant Ilya Rytikov from May 1890 to August 1893. During this time Vladimir Ulyanov graduated from St. Petersburg University law school as a non-resident student, and started employment at Samara Regional Court. House-Museum of Vladimir Lenin in Samara opened on January 3, 1940. At present the museum's second floor houses a permanent memorial/household exhibition "Ulyanov family's apartment in Samara, 1890–1893", recreating the living conditions and household atmosphere of Ulyanov family. The ground floor contains a specialised display area, including a fragment of historical/artistic reconstruction of Ilya Rytikov's merchant shop.

Exposition of Russia's first Museum of Art Nouveau is dedicated to art and culture of late 19th – early 20th centuries. Museum of Art Nouveau opened at the end of 2012 and in just a few years became a local tourist brand. Mansion of Alexandra Kurlina, a merchant's wife and philanthropist, where the museum is located, is considered to be an architectural gem of Samara's Art Nouveau. Original façade and interior survive to this day, representing the works of outstanding European and Russian art nouveau masters. The museum is an exhibition space, which hosts major Russian museums' projects (The Pushkin Museum, Abramtsevo Museum-Reserve, Moscow Multimedia Art Museum, etc.), and organises exhibitions of its own collections. Museum of Art Nouveau is one of Samara's most popular social and cultural entities. Weekly events take place here, giving visitors a taste of late 19th – early 20th centuries' culture, as well as current cultural trends. Every year the museum hosts the "Night at the Museum" and "Night of the Arts" events, attended by more than a thousand visitors.

House-Museum of Mikhail Frunze in Samara opened on February 23, 1934. The building was constructed in 1891 and is classed as a monument of residential architecture. On February 23, 2004, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the museum, a new, third exposition was opened, in which new materials, previously classified as top secret, were exhibited. The exposition tells visitors about lesser known chapters of the 1918-1920 Civil War, the confrontation on the Eastern Front between the armies of Mikhail Frunze and Alexander Kolchak, about "The Reds", "The Whites" and "The Greens", about anti-Soviet uprising behind the lines of the Eastern Front – "Chapan war" ("chapan" means rustic sheepskin coat), the defection in the Red and White armies, and many other chapters of the Russian history. Website: Название страницы

Public events

International festivals, scientific congresses and other social events are held on the territory of Samara. Among them are:

 Grushinsky festival () — is an annual Russian bard song festival that was established in 1968. It takes place near the city of Samara, on the Mastryukovo lakes. The festival takes its name from Valeri Grushin, a singer-songwriter who died during a backcountry camping trip trying to save his drowning friends.
 Rock over Volga () — international rock festival, held annually from 2009 to 2013 and timed to Russia Day in Samara. The line-up included bands such as the Ken Hensley, Aquarium, Skunk Anansie, and Rammstein.
 Metafest () — the annual multi-format music festival in the open air, held on the territory of Mastryukovo lakes since 2007. The line-up included bands such as the Ivan Smirnov, Olga Arefieva, Z-Star and Theodor Bastard.

Architecture

Architecture of Samara dates back to 15th and 16th centuries. The city had numerous wooden buildings with elaborate decor and more than 2000 cultural heritage objects. However, after the 1990s many unique ensembles were destroyed by a "concrete tsunami" of modern office and apartment blocks.

Sports

Several sports clubs are active in the city:

Samara is also a popular venue for National and International Ice speedway, and the City won the Russian Ice Speedway Premier League in 2012/13 season, meaning they will now compete in the Super League in the 2013/14 season. Samara is one of eleven cities hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup with 6 matches (4 Group Stage matches, 1 Round of 16 match, 1 Quarter-Final) which will take place in the newly built Cosmos Arena stadium.
The stadium's seating capacity is 45,000.

During the World Cup, the city hosted the FIFA Fan Fest on the Kuibysheva Square. Up to 20,000 fans were able to participate in the event at a time.

Three new training fields have been built in the city for the FIFA World Cup. Two major roads have been repaired before the championship: the airport road and Moskovskoye Highway.

Infrastructure; transportation

Samara is a major transport hub.

Highways
Samara is located on the M5 highway, a major road between Moscow and the Ural region.

Rail
There are rail links to Moscow and other major Russian cities. The new, unusual-looking railway station building was completed in 2001.

River transport
Samara is a major river port, due to its location at the confluence of the Volga and Samara rivers.

Air
The Kurumoch International Airport handles flights throughout Russia and Central Asia and to Frankfurt, Prague, Helsinki and Dubai.  A Soviet Air Force base once existed east of the city at Bobrovka air base.

Public transport
Public transportation includes the Samara Metro, trams, municipal and private bus lines, and trolleybuses. Local trains serve the suburbs.

 is an extensive light rail system covering most of Samara. First opened in 1915 it currently has 25 lines extending  served by 423 tram cars. Most of all Samara trams are Tatra T3SU, modified Tatra T3E and 1 unique Tatra T3RF.

Samara Metro is a single-line underground rapid transit system. Opened in 1987, its only line has been expanded through 2015 and currently has 10 stations.

Gallery

Education

Samara has 188 schools of general education, lyceums, high schools, and the college of continuous education (from primary up to higher education). Samara is a major educational and scientific centre of the Volga area. Twelve public and 13 commercial institutions of higher education as well as 26 colleges.

Samara is the home of Samara State Aerospace University (SSAU), one of Russia's leading engineering and technical institutions. SSAU faculty and graduates have played a significant role in Russia's space program since its conception. Samara is also the hometown of Samara State University, a very respected higher-education institution in European Russia with competitive programs in Law, Sociology, and English Philology. Scientific research is also carried out in Samara. The Samara Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences incorporates the Samara branch of the Physical Institute, Theoretical Engineering Institute and Image Processing Systems Institute. Major research institutions operate in the city.
Samara State Technical University (SamGTU) was founded in 1914. There are 11 faculties with over 20,000 students (2009) and 1,800 faculty members. On campus, there are four dormitory and ten study buildings. Samara State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities was founded in 1911 as Samara Teachers Institute.  Currently, the academy offers 42 various specialisations in its 12 faculties.

Honours
The asteroid 26922 Samara was named in honour of the city and the river on 1 June 2007.

Notable people

 Violetta Khrapina Bida (born 1994), Olympic épée fencer
Mark Feygin (born 1971), lawyer and human rights activist
Mimi Kagan (1918–1999), Russian-born American modern dancer, choreographer; born in Samara.
Ilya Kan (1909–1978), chess player
Boris Kuftin (1892–1953), archaeologist and ethnographer
Maria Kuncewiczowa (1895–1989), Polish writer and novelist
Dmitry Muratov (born 1961), journalist, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (born 1991), professional tennis player and multiple junior Grand Slam champion
Enrico Rastelli (1896–1931), Italian performer and actor
Gregory Ratoff (1893–1960), Russian-born American film director, actor and producer
Pavel Romanov (1964–2014), sociologist and ethnographer
David Rudman (1943– 2022), Russian-American wrestler, Sambo world champion, and judo European champion
Sergei Alexander Schelkunoff (1897–1992), a mathematician and electromagnetism theorist, contributed to  antenna theory
Olga Sharkova-Sidorova (born 1968), foil fencer
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975), composer and pianist, lived in Samara during WWII where he finished his Symphony No. 7
Pavel Sukhov (born 1988), epee fencer
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1882–1945), writer of science fiction and historical novels.
Dmitry Ustinov (1908–1984), Soviet Defence Minister, Marshal of the Soviet Union
Svetlana Vanyo (born 1977), Russian-American swimmer and coach

International relations

Samara is twinned with:

 Hefei, Anhui, China (2015)
 Heihe, Heilongjiang, China (2012)

 Krimml, Salzburg, Austria (2010)
 Palermo, Sicily, Italy (2008)
 Stara Zagora, Stara Zagora Province, Bulgaria (1992)
 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (1992)
 St. Louis, Missouri, United States (1994)
 Tongyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea (2016)
 Zhengzhou, Henan, China (2002)
 Denizli, Aegean Region,  Turkey (2008)

See also
Sacred Heart Church, Samara
Samara flag
Samara culture
Samara Police

References

Notes

Sources

Further reading

External links

Populated places established in 1586
Populated places on the Volga
Samarsky Uyezd

Samara


Giacomo II Crispo (or Jacopo) (d. 1447) was the thirteenth Duke of the Archipelago, etc., from 1433 to 1447.

He was the son of twelfth Duke John II Crispo and Nobil Donna Francesca Morosini, Patrizia Veneta. He was a minor when he succeeded to the throne, and during his minority, he was under the guardianship of his mother Francesca, described as a "masterful woman", who continued to influence in the affairs of state during the reign of her son and grandson until the accession of William II to the throne in 1453, while the Duchy was ruled by his uncles William and Nicholas.

The reign of Giacomo II was reportedly a peaceful and prosperous one, as the Ottomans were occupied in Hungary, and Venice included the Duchy in their protection in their peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1446.

He married in 1444 Ginevra Gattilusio, daughter of Dorino I of Lesbos, and wife Orietta Doria, and had two children:
 Elisabetta Crispo (1445–14??), married in 1454 Dorino II of Ainos, without issue
 Gian Giacomo Crispo

References

1447 deaths
Giacomo 02
Giacomo 02
15th-century Venetian people

Giacomo II Crispo


The Railway Series is a series of fiction books written by the Reverend W. Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry. The books are about the locomotives who work on the Island of Sodor, including Thomas the Tank Engine. The first book, called The Three Railway Engines, came out in 1945, and the last book, called Thomas and His Friends, came out in 2011. The books were made into a TV show in 1984, called Thomas & Friends.

Series of books
Thomas and Friends

The Railway Series


Traveller Deluxe Edition is a 1981 role-playing game supplement published by Game Designers' Workshop, a boxed set edition for Traveller.

Contents
Traveller Deluxe Edition is a boxed set intended to make the Traveller system even easier to play and understand, and was designed more with the new player or beginner in mind than those looking for greater intricacies and complexities.

Reception
William A. Barton reviewed Traveller Deluxe Edition in The Space Gamer No. 44. Barton commented that "Deluxe Traveller is an excellent addition to the Traveller line – especially for the new player and referee.  And even the old-timer Travellers who want the second edition rules wouldn't go far wrong by going the extra price for the deluxe edition."

Andy Slack reviewed Deluxe Edition Traveller for White Dwarf #27, giving it an overall rating of 10 out of 10 for newcomers (but only a 4 for old hands), and stated that "the basics of characters, combat, ships, trade and worlds remain unchanged. While this edition provides more detail than the basic set, it doesn't supersede it ."

Reviews
Different Worlds #14 (Sep 1981)
 Pegasus #9 (Aug 1982)
 1981 Games 100 in Games

References

Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1981
Traveller (role-playing game) supplements

Traveller Deluxe Edition


ARMS is an American indie rock band, formed in New York in 2004. Originally a solo project created by ex-Harlem Shakes' guitarist Todd Goldstein, ARMS has since evolved into a four-piece band, with the inclusion of drummer Tlacael Esparza, bassist Matty Fasano and keyboardist Dave Harrington. Goldstein handles guitar and vocal duties.

History
Goldstein originally started ARMS as a musical outlet for himself when he first moved to Brooklyn. When he joined Harlem Shakes in 2006, ARMS became his side-project, put on the back burner so he could focus on guitar and songwriting duties for his new band. However, he continued to write and record ARMS music in his bedroom during the band's downtime, handling all instrumentation duties himself. Over the course of three years, these single microphone and laptop recording sessions ultimately became ARMS' full-length debut, Kids Aflame. After its release, with Goldstein going into the studio with his bandmates to work on what would become Harlem Shakes' full-length debut and the promotional tour that followed the release of that record, there was little opportunity to promote Kids Aflame. But, despite the lack of promotion, the record still garnered a fair amount of positive attention from critics. It was featured on Paste's list of Eight Criminally Underrated Albums From 2009 and praised for "perfectly encapsulating the daunting search for identity and authenticity."

When Harlem Shakes broke up in the summer of 2009, Goldstein shifted his focus back to his side-project, recruited a band of musicians and, for the first time, ARMS became a collaborative endeavor. This new incarnation of ARMS began writing music together immediately and, in March 2010, released their first EP (aptly titled 'EP') free in digital format online. One of the tracks from the EP, Heat & Hot Water, was remixed by Electropop group, Passion Pit.

ARMS has also opened for Passion Pit in addition to The Walkmen, Japandroids, and White Rabbits. Members of the band performed with LCD Soundsystem at their final concert at Madison Square Garden on April 2, 2011.
The band's full-length studio album, 'Summer Skills', is scheduled for release in November 2011.

Goldstein was also one-half of the now seemingly defunct folk duo, The Sea & The Gulls, which he formed with his friend, Leah Beeferman. Together, they released one album, Things That Fly.

Discography

Albums
 Kids Aflame (Melodic UK, 2008; later re-released on Gigantic, 2009)
 Summer Skills (released November 8, 2011)
 Patterns (Paper Garden Records, released June 3, 2016)

Singles & EPs
 Shitty Little Disco EP (self-released, 2006)
 Whirring 7-inch (Melodic, 2007)
 EP (self-released, 2010)
 "EP 2" (Paper Garden Records, 2013)

References

External links
 ARMS on Bandcamp (official site)
 ARMS on MySpace

Indie rock musical groups from New York (state)
Musical groups established in 2004
Musical groups from New York City

ARMS (band)


The National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NLRK) is the national library of Kazakhstan. It acquires free legal copies of books, Republic and regional information, district journals, newspapers and other printed productions issued in Kazakhstan. In 2009, architect Bjarke Ingels designed the new National Library of Kazakhstan, located to the south of the State Auditorium in Astana, which is said to resemble a "giant metallic doughnut".

History
December 31, 1910, is considered to be the NLRK's birthday. On this day the Verny Municipal Duma decided to open the municipal library with the help of ardent supporters in Verny city. Verny was later renamed to Alma-Ata province. In 1931 it was renamed into State Public Library of Kazakhstan SSR. Since that time the library functions as the state national book storage in the republic. The first director was Uraz Djandosov. He considered the storage of 'all printed output in Kazakh and all literature about Kazakhstan' to be the most important task among the library activities. In 1937 the library was named after A.S. Pushkin.

In 1991 the library changed its name into the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the NLRK), and was given special state and public significance as a particularly valuable cultural object of the Republic. The NLRK collections include 5.5 million publications in 100 languages of the world. Researchers are attracted by the collection of rare books and manuscripts. These number about 25 thousand volumes in the Kazak, Russian, Oriental and Western European languages from the eleventh to the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries.

In 2020, according to the decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kasym Zhomart Tokayev "On assigning the status of "National" to some cultural organizations" from November 20, 2020, the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan was assigned the status "National". At the moment, the book fund of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan has over 7 million books. The annual attendance of readers is over 1 million people, and the loan is about 2 million.

At the beginning of 2020, the Abai Literary Center was opened in the library, where loud readings of Abai's poems, literature reviews, and various events take place. Also, in order to facilitate familiarization and in-depth study of the scientific works of the thinker and the holding of events in the library. Al Farabi Scientific Center, dedicated to the 1150th anniversary of the great philosopher and thinker. The center is a permanent open access exhibition of al Farabi's works and publications about him.

Management

 Dzhandosov O. K.
 Shmeleva E. Н.
 Dauletova N. K.
 Berdigalieva Roza Amangalievna (1987-2003)
 Murat Mukhtarovich Auezov (2003-2007)
 Isakhov Orynbasar (2007-2011).
 Balabekova Gulisa Kabarovna (2011-2014)
 Askar Alibek (2014-2016)
 Seidumanov Zhanat Turarovich (since 2016)
 Ospanova Bakytjamal Kairbekovna (since 2019)

Departments
The library work is defined by its long-term programs: 'Memory of the People,' 'The Preservation and Conservation of Book and Manuscript Monuments,' 'The Republican Automated Library and Information System'. Annually the library acquires more than 36 thousand books, periodicals and machine- read documents. Constant supplements to collections with editions in Kazak is a main trend of the National Library work.

The NLRK pays great attention to the development of new links and support of traditional cultural connections with foreign countries. For many years the NLRK has maintained book exchanges with 200 CIS libraries and 80 cultural organizations from 40 countries. In this respect the Library of Congress, the Harvard University Library, countries such as India, Spain, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Norway, Austria, Germany, Iran, Turkey, China, Korea are our permanent partners. The NLRK is a member of the IFLA – International Federation of Library Associations.

As a result of the transfer of the capital from Almaty to Astana, the NLRK has created a branch based on the S. Seifullin Regional Universal Scientific Library. Within the library is located the headquarters of the Library Association of the Republic of Kazakhstan (LARK), created on the initiative of the NLRK.

References

External links
 Official site
 Research Guide to the National Bibliography of Kazakhstan

Libraries established in 1910
Kazakhstan
Libraries in Kazakhstan
Government of Kazakhstan
Library
1910 establishments in the Russian Empire

National Library of Kazakhstan


Electoral fraud, or vote rigging, is any alteration or change of the vote count in an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result. That can be by increasing the vote share of one candidate or by lowering the vote count of another. It can also be a person casting more than one vote if only one vote is permitted, which is called ballot-box stuffing. What defines electoral fraud under law varies from country to country.

Many kinds of election fraud are outlawed in specific electoral laws. Other kinds violate general laws, such as those banning assault, harassment or libel. Technically, the term "electoral fraud" covers only acts that are illegal. Generally, the term is sometimes used to describe acts that are legal but are considered morally unacceptable, outside the spirit of electoral laws, or in violation of the principles of democracy.

In national elections, successful electoral fraud can have the effect of a coup d'état or corruption of democracy. In a narrow election, a small amount of fraud may be enough to change the result. Even if the outcome is not affected, fraud can still have a damaging effect if not punished. For example, it can reduce voters' confidence in democracy.

Even the perception of fraud can be damaging. Fraudulent elections can lead to the breakdown of democracy and to the establishment or ratification of a dictatorship.

Fraud in elections is not limited to those for public office. Elections, such as for a corporation's directors, labor union officials, or student council members are subject to similar fraud, as are sports judging, and the awarding of merit to works of art and literature.

Related pages
 Corruption

References

Elections
Types of crime

Electoral fraud


Weather Station Kurt (Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26) was an automatic weather station, erected by a German U-boat crew of the Kriegsmarine in northern Labrador, Dominion of Newfoundland, in October 1943. Installing the equipment for the station was the only known armed German military operation on land in North America during the Second World War. After the war it was forgotten until its rediscovery in 1977.

Background
In the northern hemisphere, weather systems in temperate climates predominantly move from west to east. This gave the Allies an important advantage. The Allied network of weather stations in North America, Greenland, and Iceland allowed the Allies to make more accurate weather forecasts than the Germans.

German meteorologists used weather reports sent by U-boats and weather ships, such as Lauenburg, operating in the North Atlantic. They also had reports from clandestine weather stations in remote parts of the Arctic and readings collected over the Atlantic by specially equipped weather aircraft.

However, the ships and clandestine stations were easily captured by the Allies during the early part of the war. Data from aircraft was incomplete as they were limited in range and susceptible to Allied attack. Regular weather reporting by U-boats put them at risk as it broke radio silence, allowing the Allies to locate them and track their movements by radio triangulation.

Development and deployment

To gather more weather information, the Germans developed the Wetter-Funkgerät Land (WFL) automatic weather station. It was designed by Dr. Ernst Ploetze and Edwin Stoebe. Twenty-six were manufactured by Siemens. The WFL had an array of measuring instruments, a telemetry system and a 150 watt, Lorenz 150 FK-type transmitter. It consisted of ten cylindrical canisters, each  by c.47 cm diameter ( circumference) and weighing around . One canister contained the instruments and was attached to a  antenna mast. A second, shorter mast carried an anemometer and wind vane. The other canisters contained the nickel-cadmium batteries that powered the system. The WFL would send weather readings every three hours during a two-minute transmission on 3940 kHz. The system could work for up to six months, depending on the number of battery canisters.
Fourteen stations were deployed in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions (Greenland, Bear Island, Spitsbergen, and Franz Josef Land) and five were placed around the Barents Sea. Two were intended for North America. One was deployed in 1943 by the , but the submarine carrying the other, , was sunk with depth charges in September 1944 northwest of Bergen, Norway, by a British air attack.

On September 18, 1943, U-537, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Peter Schrewe, departed from Kiel, Germany on her first combat patrol. She carried WFL-26, codenamed "Kurt", a meteorologist, Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer, and his assistant, Walter Hildebrant. En route, the U-boat was caught in a storm and a large breaker produced significant damage, including leaks in the hull and the loss of the submarine's quadruple anti-aircraft cannon, leaving it both unable to dive and defenceless against Allied aircraft.

On 22 October U-537 arrived at Martin Bay in northern Labrador, at a position 60° 5′ 0.2" N 64° 22′ 50.8" W. This is close to Cape Chidley at the north-eastern tip of the Labrador Peninsula. Schrewe selected a site this far north as he believed this would minimize the risk of the station being discovered by Inuit. Within an hour of dropping anchor, a scouting party had located a suitable site, and soon after Dr. Sommermeyer, his assistant, and ten sailors disembarked to install the station. Armed lookouts were posted on nearby high ground, and other crew members set to repair the submarine's storm damage.
For concealment, the station was camouflaged. Empty American cigarette packets were left around the site to deceive any Allied personnel that chanced upon it. One canister was marked and misspelled "Canadian Meteor Service", in order to simulate "Canadian Weather Service", as a German attempt to avoid suspicion if discovered. No such agency existed in Canada. In addition, the area was part of the Dominion of Newfoundland and was not part of Canada until 1949. The crew worked through the night to install Kurt and repair their U-boat. They finished just 28 hours after dropping anchor and, after confirming the station was working, U-537 departed. The weather station functioned for only a month before it permanently failed under mysterious circumstances, possibly because its radio transmissions were jammed. The U-boat undertook a combat patrol in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, during which she survived three attacks by Canadian aircraft, but sank no ships. The submarine reached port at Lorient, France on December 8, after seventy days at sea. She was sunk with all hands eleven months later on November 11, 1944, by the submarine USS Flounder near the Dutch East Indies.

Rediscovery
The station was forgotten until 1977 when Peter Johnson, a geomorphologist working on an unrelated project, stumbled upon the German weather station. He suspected it was a Canadian military installation, and named it "Martin Bay 7". Around the same time, retired Siemens engineer Franz Selinger, who was writing a history of the company, went through Sommermeyer's papers and learned of the station's existence.

He contacted Canadian Department of National Defence historian W.A.B. Douglas, who went to the site with a team in 1981 and found the station still there, although the canisters had been opened and components strewn about the site. Weather Station Kurt was removed from its site and is now part of the collection of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

See also
 North Atlantic weather war
 Schatzgräber (weather station) in the former Soviet Union

References

External links

 The Nazi weather station in Labrador
 Canadian War Museum artifact description
 German Description of Weather Station Kurt, including a wartime picture of the deployed station
 English Description of Weather Station Kurt

1943 meteorology
Meteorological stations
Siemens products
Buildings and structures in Newfoundland and Labrador
Military installations in Newfoundland and Labrador
Military sensor technology
Naval meteorology
World War II sites in Canada
Science and technology during World War II
World War II sites of Nazi Germany
Collections of museums in Canada
Military history of Canada during World War II
Foreign military bases in Canada

Weather Station Kurt


Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is  south of Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settlers as a town under its original Native American name, Mattabeseck, after the local indigenous people, also known as the Mattabesett. They were among the many tribes along the Atlantic coast who spoke Algonquian languages.  The colonists renamed the settlement in 1653.

When Hartford County was organized on May 10, 1666, Middletown was included within its boundaries. In 1784, the central settlement was incorporated as a city distinct from the town. Both were included within newly formed Middlesex County in May 1785. In 1923, the City of Middletown was consolidated with the Town, making the city limits extensive.

Originally developed as a sailing port and then an industrial center on the Connecticut River, it is now largely residential. Its downtown, based on Main Street, serves as a popular retail, dining, and bar district near Wesleyan University. Middletown was the county seat of Middlesex County from its creation in 1785 until the elimination of county government in 1960. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 47,717. Middletown, Connecticut is considered the southernmost city in the Hartford-Springfield Knowledge Corridor Metropolitan Region, which features a combined metro population of 1.9 million. Middletown is largely a politically progressive city, and is home to one of the largest pride events in all of Connecticut.

History

The land on the western bank of the Connecticut River where Middletown now lies was home to the Mattabesett Native Americans (also spelled Mattabesec, Mattabeseck, and Mattabesek); the area they inhabited—now Middletown and the surrounding area—was named after them. At the time the first European settlers arrived in the region, who were primarily English, the Mattabesett were a part of the group of Algongquian-speaking tribes in the Connecticut Valley, that were under a single chief named Sowheag.

Plans for the colonial settlement were drawn up by the General Court in 1646; the first migrants came from nearby Connecticut colonies in 1650. On September 11, 1651, the General Court of Connecticut established the town of "Mattabesett". A couple of years later in November 1653, the settlement was renamed as Middletown. This name was chosen because the site was approximately halfway between Windsor and Saybrook on the Great River. Life was not easy for these early colonial Puritans; clearing the land and building houses, and tending farms in the rocky soil of New England was a labor-intensive ordeal. They had a strict society; offenses legally punishable by death in the Connecticut colonies included "witchcraft, blasphemy, cursing or smiting of parents, and incorrigible stubbornness of children."

The Pequot Mohegan, at that time traditional allies of the English colonists and enemies of the Mattabesett and other local tribes, arrived in the Middletown area in the latter half of the 17th century; conflict between them and local Native American tribes ensued. The Mattabesett and other tribes referred to the Mohegan as "destroyers of men." Sowheag hoped that the colonists would intervene. They did not. Smallpox epidemics caused high mortality among the Mattabesett, reducing their ability to resist and disrupting their cohesion as a tribe. Records show that, over time, Sowheag was forced to sell off most of the Mattabesett property to the local colonists; by 1676 the Puritans owned all but  of the former Mattabesett territory. Native Americans suffered similar fates of illness and dispossession at other colonial sites in 17th-century New England.

During the 18th century, Middletown became the largest and most prosperous settlement in Connecticut. By the time of the American Revolution, Middletown was a thriving port, where one-third of its residents were involved in merchant and maritime activities. Some settlers held enslaved Africans as workers in the early economy of Middletown; they worked as domestic servants, laborers, and in shipping. African slaves were imported by the English in 1661 from Barbados in the Caribbean. By 1756 Middletown had the third-largest African slave population in the state of Connecticut—218 slaves to 5,446 whites.

Middletown merchant traders pushed for the clearance of the Saybrook Bar at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and later sought the creation of Middlesex County in 1785. The name 'Middlesex' was chosen because the intention was to make Middletown the head of a long river port, much as London was at the head of its long river port on the Thames in Middlesex County, England. The same persons also established the Middlesex Turnpike (now Route 154) to link all the settlements on the western side of the Connecticut, again with the intent of creating one long port.

After the American Revolution, Connecticut and most northern states abolished slavery. The port's decline began in the early 19th century during the period of strained American-British relations and resulting trade restrictions, which led to the War of 1812. The port never recovered from the restrictions of the war. The city's men distinguished themselves in the war effort, as Middletown's Commodore Thomas Macdonough led American forces to the victory on Lake Champlain in 1814 which ended British hopes for an invasion of New York. After the war, migration of New England families continued west to New York and, later, to the Midwest around the Great Lakes, where more land was available.

In the 19th century, Middletown became a major center for firearms manufacturing. Numerous gun manufacturers in the area supplied the majority of pistols to the United States government during the War of 1812. After that war, however, the center of this business shifted to Springfield, Massachusetts; and Hartford, and New Haven, Connecticut. (See also History of Connecticut industry.)

In 1831 Wesleyan College was established. It became one of the United States' leading liberal arts universities. The college replaced an earlier educational institution on the same site, Partridge's American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It had moved to Norwich, Vermont and later developed as Norwich University.

The two main buildings of the original campus were built by the people of Middletown in order to attract an academic institution to the city. In 1841, Middletown established the state's first public high school, which at first enrolled all students from age nine through age sixteen who had previously attended district schools.

During the mid-19th century, manufacturing replaced trade as Middletown's economic mainstay. But industrial growth was limited after railroad operators bypassed Middletown in their construction of a railway between Hartford and New Haven. There had been an ambitious plan to build a railroad suspension bridge in the White Rock, Middletown to Bodkin Rock, Portland vicinity, which was seen as an unpractical solution.

Middletonians played an active role in the American Civil War. General Joseph K. Mansfield was a Union general at the Battle of Antietam, where he died in action in 1862. Another casualty at Antietam was Brigadier General George Taylor, who had been educated at a private military academy in Middletown. The popular Civil War marching song "Marching Through Georgia" was written by Henry Clay Work, a Middletown resident. Some residents were active in the abolitionism movement, and the city was a hub along the underground railway.

In the latter half of the 19th century, manufacturing was the mainstay of the city's economy, especially finely made metal parts, such as marine hardware (Wilcox, Crittendon & Co.) and typewriters (Royal Typewriters). There were also several machine tool & die manufacturers in the city. Middletown was the site of a major unit of Goodyear. In addition, there was the pioneer automobile manufacturer Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company. Other manufacturers included in national expositions and now museum collections include the Middletown Plate Company (silver), Middletown Silver Co. and I. E. Palmer (hammocks).

Middletown also briefly was the home of a major-league baseball team, the Middletown Mansfields of the National Association.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the city underwent a demographic transformation, after having been settled primarily by Protestant people from the British Isles. First the Irish, in response to the Great Famine, and then large numbers of Italian immigrants arrived to work in Middletown's factories and farms. Many of the Italians were immigrants from Melilli, Sicily. Both groups were primarily Roman Catholic.

Polish and German arrivals followed, and many of these immigrants were also Catholic. By 1910 the population had swelled to nearly 21,000. Meanwhile, the number of African Americans dwindled to 53 persons. Employers chose to hire white immigrants. Later in the century, more African Americans from the South migrated to the area for its industrial jobs and better social conditions. They were part of the Great Migration during the 20th century, up to 1970.

In the early 1980s, two Wesleyan professors arranged to bring a small group of Cambodian refugees to Middletown, who were exiled following the US involvement in Southeast Asia in the Vietnam War. They developed a thriving Cambodian community, as have later migrants from Tibet. Middletown also attracted Hindu immigrants from India and other parts of Southeast Asia, who established the first Hindu temple in Connecticut in Middletown.

Over the decades the new immigrants stimulated the rise of a range of cuisines offered by restaurants. This has become one of the most well-known aspects of the city.

Middletown was hit by floods in 1927 and 1936, and by The Great New England Hurricane in 1938. The Arrigoni Bridge was completed over the Connecticut River in 1938. It replaced an earlier bridge to connect Middletown to Portland and points east.

During the 1950s, as the popularity of the automobile increased, government officials approved the construction of a highway that effectively separated Middletown from the Connecticut River, which had long supported its development. Highway construction demolished historic neighborhoods, including many buildings from the 18th century. New suburban developments were built outside older neighborhoods, attracting the people with money to buy new. In the mid-20th century, Middletown and similar towns lost heavy industry and manufacturing jobs that moved offshore, resulting in a general decline in population. An alternate economy began to develop by the 1990s.

During this period, the city tore down many older buildings in the name of 'urban renewal', but sometimes new development was delayed for years. Downtown area had large flat parking lots, or buildings were abandoned and left empty. With high unemployment and limited opportunities, and increasing problems with drugs, crime increased. During the 1960s, Pratt & Whitney opened a large aircraft engine plant in the Maromas section of Middletown. Concurrently, developers bought much of the city's remaining farms, including most of Oak Grove Dairy, to redevelop as residential suburbs for local workers and commuters to surrounding cities.

During the 1970s, Oddfellows Playhouse was established. The theater attracts hundreds of young people every year from around the state to perform in plays and other performances. The playhouse is one of the few youth theaters in the state of Connecticut. It is located on 128 Washington Street, around the corner from Middletown's Main Street.

During the 1990s, a partnership between the city, the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce, and Wesleyan University invested substantially in Middletown's Main Street, improving urban design and supporting new businesses. Their actions helped the revival of downtown Middletown. Crime decreased, and new restaurants and shops opened.

There are numerous houses, buildings and historic districts in Middletown listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and two are further designated as National Historic Landmarks.  The Samuel Wadsworth Russell House on High Street, built in 1827, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001. The Alsop House, also located on High Street, and built in 1840, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2009. Both buildings are part of the Wesleyan campus.

The saltbox Samuel Harris House, built in 1686 and not listed on the National Register, may be the oldest surviving house in Middletown.

Geography
 Middletown sits on the west bank of the Connecticut River, in the south-central portion of the state. Running alongside the river, Route 9 bisects the city. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 42.3 square miles (109.6 km), of which 40.9 square miles (105.9 km)  is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km)  is water. The total area is 3.36% water. Middletown shares borders with the neighboring towns of Cromwell, Portland, East Hampton, Haddam, Durham, Middlefield, Berlin, and Meriden. Of all the neighboring towns, Portland and East Hampton are the only ones that do not have any land boundaries, as they are located on the eastern side of the Connecticut River.

The west side of Middletown is flanked by the Metacomet Ridge—a mountainous trap rock ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. Notable mountains of the Metacomet Ridge in Middletown include Higby Mountain and the north side of Lamentation Mountain. The  Mattabesett Trail traverses the ridge. The Nature Conservancy manages the summit and ledges of Higby Mountain. Major bodies of water include the Connecticut River along the towns eastern boundary, the Mattabesset River along its northern boundary, Crystal Lake in the southern end of town, and Pameacha Pond along South Main Street. The Mount Higby and Adder reservoirs also fall along its western boundary with Middlefield.

Principal communities
 Highland – The westernmost neighborhood of Middletown. It is the only section of the city that Interstate 91 passes through within its total distance through Middletown.

 Westfield – Formerly a village, now a mostly residential neighborhood located in the northwestern corner of the city, lying just south of the border with Cromwell.
 Miramichi – A mostly residential neighborhood located in the southwest corner of the city, lying just north of the border with Middlefield.
 Newfield Heights – A commercial-neighborhood with many businesses and restaurants located just to the north of the city center.
 Bretton Heights – A mostly residential neighborhood located a few miles west from the city center.
 Lakeridge Heights – A semi-industrial neighborhood located just below the South Farms area, and just above the Durham town-line.
 South Farms – A mostly residential area lying just to the south of the city center.
 Maromas – A largely industrial and mostly-uninhabited neighborhood, located in the southeastern part of the city. Pratt & Whitney has one of its offices located in this area.

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, there were 47,717 people, and 20,089 households residing in the city, with an average household size of 2.14. The population density was . There were 21,549 housing units at an average density of  and a vacancy rate of 7%. Owner occupied housing made up 54% of the units and the average value of owner occupied housing units was $240,700.

The racial makeup of the city was 66.2% White only, not Hispanic or Latino, 15.7% Black or African American, 10.9% Hispanic or Latino, and 5.7% Asian. The foreign born population made up 11.9% of residents.

15.5% of residents were under the age of 18, and 16.2% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.5 years.

The median income for a household in the city was $62,022. Males had a median income of $49,846 versus $37,412 for females. The per capita income for the city was $39,845. 12.3% of the population below the poverty line.

Government and infrastructure
The headquarters of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, previously the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, is located in Middletown.

The United States Postal Service operates the Middletown Post Office.

Benjamin Florsheim has been the mayor of Middletown since 2019.

Politics

Economy

Top employers
Top employers in Middletown according to the town's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

Education
Middletown Public Schools operates public schools, including Middletown High School.

The city has one Roman Catholic elementary school, Saint John Paul II Regional Catholic School, and two Roman Catholic high schools, Xavier High School for boys and Mercy High School for girls.

Middletown also has one technical high school, Vinal Technical High School.

Post-secondary institutions include Wesleyan University and Middlesex Community College.

Russell Library is the public library of Middletown. It has books, newspapers, magazines, informational databases of full-text newspaper and magazine articles, classes, computer training, workshops, concerts, and meeting spaces.

Middletown today
In recent decades, Middletown has focused on balancing the needs and comforts of its residents with the commercial development required to help fund services. These efforts date at least from 1931, when the city was one of the first in America to establish a planning board. Progress continued under the leadership of Democratic mayor, Domenique S. Thornton, who served a record eight years (four terms) as mayor. The city attracted a 12-screen movie theater and numerous restaurants and other businesses to the downtown area, the city provided free Wi-Fi service along Main Street and the historic Inn at Middletown a luxury four and half star boutique hotel transformed the former vacant National Guard Armory. On November 8, 2005, Republican Sebastian Giuliano won the mayor's office, replacing Thornton, whom he criticized for raising taxes and for the awarding of a contract for the construction of a new high school to Tomasso Brothers, Inc., a firm that had been the target of a federal corruption probe. During Giuliano's three terms in office, Middletown's Main Street became a hub for small businesses, and the city began investing heavily in the arts. Democrat Daniel T. Drew defeated Giuliano in 2011. Drew has pushed for increased development in the city's North End, an area that has been plagued by poverty and crime in recent decades. In November 2012, voters approved a $37 (~$ in ) Million initiative to move Middletown's wastewater to the Mattabassett Sewer District treatment plant in nearby Cromwell. Previously, the city had operated its own sewage treatment plant on the banks of the Connecticut River. The city has made plans to tear down this older plant and develop the riverfront property on which it sits. Middletown continues to support manufacturing and small business.

Middletown has remained an important government administrative center. From the creation of Middlesex County in 1798 until the elimination of county government in 1965 Middletown was the county seat. Middletown today retains Middlesex Superior Court, and the Judicial District remains that of the former county court. Other county functions were either centralized to the state or transferred to the towns. The former county building has been removed, but there are other state agency buildings elsewhere in the city, such as the Dept. of Social Services on Main Street Ext. Middletown's Probate Court district includes the towns of Cromwell, Portland, Middlefield and Haddam. The city is also the site of the controversial State Juvenile Training Center.

Culturally and politically, Middletown is in the midst of an effort to revitalize its historically disadvantaged North End. Economic development projects recently completed in the North End include Wharfside Commons, a 96-unit mixed income apartment block, and the new Community Health Center (completed in 2012 at the corner of Main and Grand Streets). The Green Street Arts Center, founded by Wesleyan and a coalition of community groups in 2000, is a pioneering attempt to attract residents and businesses to the neighborhood by promoting arts education and outreach. For decades, the famous O'Rourke's Diner has done much to bring some stability to the North End. A fire on August 31, 2006, gutted much of the historic structure. The Middletown community held many fundraising events to raise money for the diner's rebuilding. Reconstruction began in September 2007, and O'Rourke's Diner re-opened in February 2008. Mayor Daniel Drew (2011–2019) supported citizen-oriented efforts to revitalize the North End, such as the local nonprofit NEAT (North End Action Team). In 2012, the City of Middletown and NEAT partnered to form the "I Heart the North End" initiative, which plans to raise public awareness of the economic and cultural opportunities available in the area.

Middletown is the only location of a well-known youth theater group, Oddfellows Playhouse, which is located on Washington Street and pulls in children of all ages from all over the state to learn theater skills. Oddfellows also runs the Children's Circus of Middletown where children learn circus skills and put on a free show for close to a thousand people.

Middletown is also host to the Kidcity Children's Museum located in a renovated and recently expanded former home of Judge Elmer, which was moved  down Washington Street to its current location.
Kidcity is a hands-on playspace where children ages 1 through 8 come with parents and other significant adults to learn through play.

The Downtown Business District continues to revitalize the downtown area. Pratt and Whitney, Aetna, Middlesex Hospital, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Liberty Bank, and Wesleyan University are major employers. Located on the western border of the city, in an area known as Westlake, is an 84 house community known as The Farms. This architectural award-winning community was developed in 1969 by George Achenbach, and was one of the first communities in Connecticut designed for cluster living, with open areas designated as common land.

There are also many parks and nature trails including the Middletown Nature Gardens, Wadsworth Falls State Park and Smith Park, and  of open property at the Guida Farm Conservation Area for families to enjoy. Harbor Park is a  recreation area on the Connecticut River, featuring a boardwalk, restaurant/nightclub, fishing, seasonal boat excursions, and the Middletown High School and Wesleyan University crew boathouses. July 4 festivities, as well as the head of the Connecticut Regatta event in October are conducted from Harbor Park.

Middlesex Hospital a major employer in Middletown and throughout Middlesex County, is spending $31 million to build a new emergency department. The new emergency department opened on March 24, 2008. Along with the new department, a helipad will be added along with 70 new parking spaces for patients.

Power plant explosion

At 11:17 a.m. on February 7, 2010, a large explosion occurred at a power plant under construction in Middletown.

Media
Middletown has three regular news outlets.
The Middletown Press is a daily broadsheet which covers news in the Middletown area.
The Hartford Courant is a daily broadsheet which includes a Middletown story in every issue.
Three radio stations are licensed to Middletown: WMRD 1150 AM (variety), WESU 88.1 FM (Wesleyan University) and WIHS 104.9 FM (religious).

Transportation
Middletown Area Transit provides public transportation services throughout Middletown; the New Britain Transportation Company provides connecting service to New Britain and the surrounding area; and Connecticut Transit provides local and express service to Hartford as well as express service to New Haven. The Estuary Transit District provides public transit service between Middletown and Old Saybrook, which, along with New Haven, provides connections to Amtrak intercity trains and Shore Line East commuter rail service.

Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Windsor Locks and Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) in East Haven are the closest commercial airports to Middletown.
Meriden Markham Municipal Airport, in Meriden, and Goodspeed Airport, in East Haddam, each offer general aviation services as well and are open to the public.

In popular culture
Middletown's riverfront and bridges were featured extensively in the music video for Billy Joel's hit song "The River of Dreams". TLC's reality series 90 Day Fiancé (2017–2020) documented Darcey Silva's relationships. On June 29, 2020, Entertainment Weekly announced that Silva and her sister Stacey are getting their own reality show called Darcey & Stacey. Three seasons of Darcey & Stacey have been filmed in Middletown.

Notable organizations

 Artists For World Peace, Nonprofit International Peace Organization

Notable people

This notable people list is divided into three sections: people born in Middletown, people who currently live in Middletown, and people who once lived in or went to school in Middletown at some point in their lives.

The following notable people were born in Middletown:
 Dean Acheson (1893–1971), 51st United States Secretary of State
 Joseph Wright Alsop IV, politician and insurance executive; father of Joseph Alsop
 Jules Dassin, film director
 Reginald De Koven, music critic and composer
 Bill Denehy, Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher
 Samantha Johnson, soccer player
 Joey Logano, NASCAR driver, 2018 and 2022 NASCAR Cup Series champion
 Mark MacDonald, member of the Vermont House of Representatives and Vermont Senate
 Samuel Mattocks, officer in the American Revolution and Vermont State Treasurer
 Peter Parcek, blues rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter
 Tony Pastor, band leader, singer
 Willie Pep, boxer, two-time World Featherweight Champion
 William Ranney, 19th century Western artist
 James Riley, captain of the United States merchant ship Commerce
 Adelaïde Alsop Robineau, American potter
 Maurice Rose, U.S. Army Major General, highest-ranking American killed by enemy fire in Europe during World War II
 Jordan Russolillo, professional soccer player
 Bill Rutan, racing driver
 Darcey Silva, television personality, former beauty queen and businesswoman
 Amari Spievey, professional football player for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL)
 Duke Thomas, professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL
 Alton Tobey, artist
 Nicholas Tucci, actor
 Will Tye, professional football player for the New England Patriots of the NFL
 Edward Burr Van Vleck, mathematician
 John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, physicist and mathematician, co-recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics
 Bill Watrous, jazz musician and band leader
 Allie Wrubel, composer and songwriter

The following notable people were not born in Middletown but lived in or went to school there at some point in their lives:
 Tim Boyle, American professional football player for the New York Jets of the NFL
 Will Levis, American football player
 Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer and actor
 Ryan Preece, NASCAR driver
 Horatio Strother, historian and educator

The following notable people were not born in Middletown but currently live there:
 Jeff Bagwell, Hall of Fame MLB baseball player
 Bill Belichick, head coach/general manager of the New England Patriots of the NFL
 Andre Drummond, American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA
 Anthony Fantano, music critic and YouTuber
 William Raymond Manchester, American author, biographer, and historian

Sister cities
  Melilli, Italy

See also

 Middletown Adult Education
 National Register of Historic Places listings in Middletown, Connecticut

References

Sources
 History of Middlesex County 1635–1885: With Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men. Pratt & Read Co. New York: J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.
 History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, Whittemore, (New York, 1884)
 Middletown Upper Houses: A History of the North Society of Middletown from 1650 to 1800, C.C. Adams, (New York, 1908)

Further reading
 Dyson, Stephen L. "Material culture, social structure, and changing cultural values: the ceramics of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Middletown, Connecticut." in Archaeology of Urban America (Academic Press, 1982) pp. 361–380.
 Hall, Peter Dobkin. Middletown--streets, commerce, and people, 1650–1981 (Sesquicentennial papers, 1981)
 Schatz, Ronald W. "The Barons of Middletown and the Decline of the North-Eastern Anglo-Protestant Elite." Past & Present, no. 219, (2013), pp. 165–200. . WASP loss of control of Middletown in late 1930s.

External links

 Middletown Town History

1643 establishments in Connecticut
Cities in Connecticut
Cities in Middlesex County, Connecticut
Greater Hartford
Populated places established in 1643
Connecticut populated places on the Connecticut River
Populated places on the Underground Railroad
Cities in Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, Connecticut

Middletown, Connecticut


Ernst Engel (; ; 26 March 18218 December 1896) was a German statistician and economist, famous for the Engel curve and Engel's law.

Biography
Ernst was born in Dresden in 1821. He studied at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Saxony, and on completing his curriculum traveled in Germany and France.

Immediately after the revolution of 1848, Engel was attached to the royal commission in Saxony appointed to determine the relations between trade and labor. In 1850, he was directed by the government to assist in the organization of the German Industrial Exhibition of Leipzig (the first of its kind). His efforts were so successful that, in 1854, he was induced to enter the government service, as chief of the newly instituted statistical department. He retired, however, from the office in 1858. He founded at Dresden the first Mortgage Insurance Society (Hypotheken-Versicherungsgesellschaft), and as a result of the success of his work, was summoned in 1860 to Berlin as director of the statistical department, in succession to Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Dieterici. In his new office, he made himself a name of worldwide reputation. Raised to the rank of Geheimer Regierungsrat, he retired in 1882 and lived henceforward in Serkowitz, today part of Radebeul near Dresden, where he died in 1896. His investigations into the social condition of the working classes were much noted.

Works
Engel was a voluminous writer on the subjects with which his name is connected, but his statistical papers are mostly published in the periodicals which he himself established, namely, Preuss. Statistik (in 1861); Zeitschrift des Königlichen Preußischen Statistischen Bureaus, and Zeitschrift des Statistischen Bureaus des Königreichs Sachsen.
Among his works were Die Methoden der Volkszählung ("Census methods," 1861), Die Volkszählungen, ihre Stellung zur Wissenschaft und ihre Aufgabe in der Geschichte ("Censuses, their place in science and role in history," 1862), Land und Leute des Preussischen Staates ("The Prussian land and people," 1863), and Das Zeitalter des Dampfes ("The era of steam," 1881).

References

Further reading
 Heinrich Strecker, Rolf Wiegert (1997) "Engel, (Christian Lorenz) Ernst," pp. 280–3 in Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (ed. N. L. Johnson and S. Kotz) New York: Wiley. Originally published in Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.

External links
Photograph of Engel on Portraits of Statisticians

1821 births
1896 deaths
German economists
German statisticians
Members of the Prussian House of Representatives
Scientists from Dresden
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
Freiberg University of Mining and Technology alumni

Ernst Engel


6-(2-Aminopropyl)-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (6-APDB, 4-Desoxy-MDA, EMA-3) is a stimulant and entactogen drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine classes. It is an analogue of MDA where the heterocyclic 4-position oxygen from the 3,4-methylenedioxy ring has been replaced with a methylene bridge. 5-APDB (3-Desoxy-MDA) is an analogue of 6-APDB where the 3-position oxygen has been replaced with a methylene instead. 6-APDB, along with 5-APDB, was first synthesized by David E. Nichols in the early 1990s while investigating non-neurotoxic MDMA analogues.

In animal studies, 6-APDB fully substitutes for MBDB and MMAI but not for amphetamine or LSD. In vitro, 6-APDB has been shown to inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine with IC50 values of 322 nM, 1,997 nM, and 980 nM, respectively. These values are very similar to those of MDA, but with those for the catecholamines slightly lower in comparison, perhaps more similarly to MDMA. In contrast, 5-APDB is highly selective for serotonin. Though 6-APDB does not substitute for amphetamine in rats at the doses used in referenced study, based on its in vitro profile it can be suggested that it may have amphetamine-like effects at higher doses.

The unsaturated benzofuran derivative 6-APB, or 6-(2-aminopropyl)benzofuran is also known, but the difference in pharmacological effects between 6-APB and 6-APDB is unclear.

6-APDB is a class B drug in the UK since June 10, 2013. It is banned by a blanket law on benzofurans and related compounds.

References

6-Benzofuranethanamines
Designer drugs
Entactogens and empathogens
Serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine releasing agents
Substituted amphetamines

6-APDB


A tropical cyclone forecast model is a computer program that uses meteorological data to forecast where tropical cyclones will go and how strong they will be. Models use powerful supercomputers and mathematical modeling software. There are two general types: statistical and dynamic. There are two main types of forecasts: track and intensity.

Other websites
 Tropical Cyclone Forecasters Reference Guide, Chapter 5
 Model Analyses and Forecasts from NCEP

Tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclone forecast model


Thomas Cumming Bach (October 10, 1853 – October 29, 1914) was one of the first members of the Supreme Court of the Montana Territory.

His grandfather, Robert Bach (1777–1846), emigrated to New York from Hereford, England, in 1796.  His grandmother was Margaret Cowen (or Cowan) (1783–1865), who emigrated to New York from Newry, Ireland.   Robert Bach and his son, John Casnave Bach (1814–1885), engaged in the wholesale drug business and erected the first brick house in the city of Brooklyn.  Thomas Bach's mother was Elizabeth Brinckhoff Nostrand (1822–1887), a descendant of the 1624 Dutch settlers to New Amsterdam.

Thomas was born to John and Elizabeth Bach in Brooklyn on October 10, 1853, the seventh of 12 children.  In the early 1860s, the family moved to Manhattan, where the Bach family's wealth afforded them an opulent lifestyle.  Young Bach graduated from Columbia College in 1875 with the degree of A.B. and in 1877 he completed his studies in the law department of the School of Arts graduating with the degrees of A.M. and LL.B.  In 1884, after seven years in the private practice of law in New York, Bach moved to the Montana Territory, where his younger brother, Edmund William Bach, had established a successful accounting practice.  On August 9, 1886, President Grover Cleveland appointed Bach as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana to serve in the newly created fourth position on the territorial supreme court.  Bach held the office until 1889, when Montana gained statehood.  In 1892, Bach was elected a member of the Montana State Legislature and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.  He served as a district judge for the First Judicial District from 1907 to 1909.

Bach was married to Kathryn Child (1863–1926), a native of San Francisco, California. They had two children, Dorothy (1891–1968) and Marjorie (1892–1972). Thomas Bach died in Pasadena, California, on October 29, 1914, at the age of 61.

Sources
History of Montana, Joaquin Miller, Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1894
1989 Judicial Report, Supreme Court of Montana

1853 births
1914 deaths
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
Lawyers from Brooklyn
Members of the Montana House of Representatives
Montana state court judges
Montana Territory judges
19th-century American judges
19th-century American lawyers

Thomas C. Bach


Alexander Johan de Voogt or simply Alex de Voogt (Baarn, 3 May 1970) is a Dutch researcher and associate professor at Drew University, who worked as a curator of African Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History and best known for his work on the history and distribution of traditional mancala games. He is also editor of Board Game Studies, the main scientific journal on the history of board games.

De Voogt began studying mancala in the 1990s, while he was in Zanzibar studying Swahili. At the time, he began analyzing the rules and strategies of the Bao mancala game (one of the most complex mancala games) by interviewing acknowledged Zanzibari "Bao masters". In 1995 he published his PhD thesis Limits of the Mind: Towards a Characterization of Bao Mastership where he analyzed the intellectual abilities required to master the Bao game.

The work on Bao set the basis for all subsequent research activities by De Voogt. Among the many mancala games De Voogt has been collecting information on and studying there are Katro (Madagascar), Owela (Namibia), Warri (Barbados), Hawalis (Oman), Ohvalhu (Maldives), Mangaley (Syria) and Olinda Keliya (Sri Lanka).

Selected writings
Limits of the mind: Towards a characterisation of the bao mastership, 1995
New approaches to board games research: asian origins and future perspectives, 1995
Mancala Board Games, British Museum Press, Londra 1997
Seeded players: East African game of Bao, Natural History, New York, 1998.
Distribution of mancala board games: A methodological Inquiry, «Board Games Studies» 2, 1999, pp. 104–114.
(with H. H. L. M. Donkers and J. W. H. M Uiterwijk) Human versus machine problem-solving: Winning openings in Dakon, in «Board Games Studies», 3, pp. 79–88, 2000
(with H. H. L. M. Donkers and J. W. H. M. Uiterwijk) Mancala games: Topics in mathematics and artificial intelligence, in Proceedings of the Colloquium Board Games in Academia IV, Fribourg: Edition Universitaire 2001, pp. 133–146.
(with F. Gobet and J. Retschitzki) Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games. Psychology Press, Hove 2004.
 "A question of excellence, a century of African masters". Africa World Press, Trenton NJ 2005.
 "Mancala games and their suitability for players with visual impairments", Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 104(11):725–731.
 (with W. Crist and A.-E. Dunn-Vaturi) "Ancient Egyptian at Play: Board Games Across Borders", Bloomsbury Academic Press, London, 2016.

External links
 Alex de Voogt at the American Museum of Natural History

1970 births
Living people
Dutch psychologists
Tabletop game writers
Mancala
People from Baarn
Leiden University alumni
Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni

Alexander de Voogt


Convento dell'Incontro is a Franciscan monastery that sits on the highest hill top south west of Florence in Bagno a Ripoli. It was the site of the Battle of Incontro on 8 August 1944 when the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry plus attachments took the position against fierce opposition from a German Panzergrenadier Regiment.

The bell tower described in the battle is now demolished. See also Northern Irish Horse articles (they provided support in their Churchill tanks).

The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry were awarded a Battle Honour, probably the only occasion this has been awarded to a single battalion. It was also describe as "a textbook example of a battalion attack". Ref: Obituary of commanding officer.

After the battle the Germans retreated north of the River Arno.

Monasteries in Tuscany

Convento dell'Incontro


Onyi Papa Jey (real name Bernard Onyango Ranginya, born in 1982 in Kiyembe, Suba District) is an ohangla musician from Kenya

Onyi Papa Jey started playing orutu while at primary school. He dropped from Tonga Secondary School after failing to pay the school fees. He joined Tony Nyadundo's band in 1999 and performed in 2002. Later he performed for a while with Nyamolo traditional dancers. He also led a band called Langasta Stars in Eldoret for one year. He then toured with Jack Nyadundo (elder brother of Tony Nyadundo) in Kenya and Tanzania. While in Tanzania he formed the Super Suba and Koleko Newface, bands. He left Tanzania after three years and rejoined the Nyamolo traditional dancers before going solo.

His career catapulted into national fame with the release of his debut album "Raila ODM" particularly its title track, which was devoted to Raila Odinga, the Orange Democratic Movement's presidential candidate in the 2007 Elections. Onyi Papa Jey is signed to the SoundAfrica label.

He was nominated for three categories at the 2008 Kisima Music Awards: Artist of the Year, Ethnic Fusion Artist, and Song of the Year ("Raila ODM"). However, he did not win any of these categories. He is a renowned musician with prowess in Ohangla, a traditional song native to the Luo community.

Discography
Albums:
Raila ODM
Mapatano

References

1982 births
Kenyan musicians
Living people
People from Homa Bay County

Onyi Papa Jey


The Christmas 1994 nor'easter was a strong cyclone along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. It developed from an area of low pressure in the southeast Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Keys, and moved across the state of Florida.

Meteorological history
A weather system moved towards the southeast from the central Great Plains into the Deep South of the United States. After entering the Gulf of Mexico, the weather system became a cyclone. An approaching trough pushed the system across Florida. A forecaster at the National Hurricane Center, Jack Beven, said that "as it [the storm] moved out into the Bahamas, it appeared to take on the characteristics of a tropical storm." He also noted that because of the uncertainty, the National Hurricane Center did not call the weather system a tropical cyclone.

The cyclone was said to be a "hybrid" storm. The cyclone quickly gained strength in warm waters from the Gulf Stream, and because of cold air over the United States. The system continued to become stronger while moving within the Gulf Stream. The storm developed central atmospheric convection, which is unusual for a storm of its type. Extratropical cyclone. Also, the system developed an eye, which is usually seen in tropical cyclones. Even though the cyclone showed signs of a tropical storm, forecaster Jack Beven stated: "There was no front associated with it [the storm] and it had a warm core, but the radius of maximum winds was more than 150 nautical miles [175 mi, 280 km], so under the standard NHC criteria it didn't qualify as a tropical storm." On December 23 and 24, the nor'easter intensified to attain a barometric pressure of 970|mb. Another low pressure system that developed behind the storm became stronger, and grew to be larger in size than the original storm. Due to the Fujiwhara effect, the large circulation of the secondary low moved the original nor'easter towards the northwest. The nor'easter passed along the south shore of Long Island, and it made landfall near New York City on December 24. Later, it moved over southeastern New York State. On December 25, which is Christmas Day, the system began to lose strength as it moved towards Nova Scotia, before the pair of low pressure systems moved out to sea early on December 26.

Related pages
Storm
Weather
Christmas

References

1994 in New York (state)
1990s in Florida
Christmas
1994 disasters
Natural disasters in the United States
1990s in weather

Christmas 1994 nor'easter


In United States agricultural policy, several measures are used to gauge farm income over a given period of time.
Gross cash income is the sum of all receipts from the sale of crops, livestock, and farm related goods and services as well as all forms of direct payments from the government.
Gross farm income is the same as gross cash income with the addition of nonmoney income, such as the value of home consumption of self-produced food and the imputed gross rental value of farm dwellings.
Net cash income is gross cash income less all cash expenses such as for feed, seed, fertilizer, property taxes, interest on debt, wages to hired labor, contract labor and rent to nonoperator landlords.
Net farm income is gross farm income less cash expenses and noncash expenses, such as capital consumption, perquisites to hired labor, and farm household expenses. It is a longer term measure of the ability of the farm to survive as a viable income-earning business.
Net cash income is a shorter term measure of cash flow.

Farm income and balance sheet

The income statement measures the profitability of a farm business for a particular period of time, usually one year. The balance sheet measures the wealth or financial position of the business at a particular point in time by reporting the farm's assets, debt, and net worth.

The Economic Research Service publishes the income statement and balance sheet of the Nation's farm sector, and the farm sector financial statement for each state.

See also

Off-farm income

References

United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural economics

Farm income