Redange is a canton in the northwest of Luxembourg. The capital is Redange, otherwise known as Redange-sur-Attert. It borders the cantons of Wiltz to the north, Diekirch and Mersch to the east, Capellen to the south and Belgium to the west (Province de Luxembourg).

Geography

The canton lies right on the border of the two main landscapes of Luxembourg.

To the north, the landscape is dominated by the Oesling mountain range, which is a part of the greater Ardennes region. This region is characterised by densely forested hills with an average altitude of 400 to 500m above sealevel, with the highest point being Napoléonsgaard standing at 554m.

Furthermore this region shows deep valleys which were carved into the ground by rivers and streams, the Sauer and Wark being the most notable ones. The upper Sûre lake reservoir also lies partly within the Canton of Redange, at the border with the Canton of Wiltz.

The Oesling part of the Canton mainly comprises the communes of Rambrouch and Groussbus-Wal with the communes of Ell, Redange and Préitzerdaul partly being situated in the Oesling region.

To the south, the landscape is dominated by the Gutland plain. This area is characterised by lower altitudes, averaging at around 300m above sealevel.

Wide shallow river valleys dominate the landscape with less forest coverage than in the north. The most important river in this region is the Attert.

The communes lying in the Gutland part of the Canton are Beckerich, Saeul, Useldange, and Vichten.

Urbanisation and Infrastructure
The canton of Redange has a rural character. The only major town with more than 1'000 inhabitants is Redange-sur-Attert, the capital of the canton. Most infrastructure is therefore concentrated around the capital. Here a secondary school, supermarkets and a retirement home can be found.

Furthermore, there is a high concentration of gas stations linked to fuel tourism along the border with Belgium, in towns such as Haut-Martelange and Oberpallen.

Transportation
The canton of Redange is not connected to the national Railway network.

By road, the canton of Redange is linked to various routes nationales, for example the N12 between Luxembourg City and Wiltz, or between Arlon (B) and Ettelbruck. Furthermore, the canton is covered by an extensive public bus network, which is a part of the Régime général des transports routiers (RGTR).

Administrative divisions
Redange Canton consists of the following nine communes:

Mergers
 On 25 July 1846 the former commune of Oberpallen was absorbed into the commune of Beckerich.
 On 1 January 1979 the former communes of Arsdorf, Bigonville, Folschette and Perlé (all from Redange Canton) were merged to create the commune of Rambrouch.  The law creating Rambrouch was passed on 27 July 1978.
 On 27 July 2021 the inhabitants of the communes of Grosbous and Wahl voted in favor of a fusion of the two communes in a referendum. The fusion was implemented on 1 September 2023, creating the new commune of Groussbus-Wal

History
Human civilizations have settled in the canton of Redange since antiquity.

Gallo-roman period
The most important archeological discovery in the canton of Redange from the gallo-roman period is a 10.36 × 5.92m mosaic that was discovered in 1994 in Vichten, in the east of the canton.

The mosaic was part of the floor in the entrance hall of a villa rustica and depicts the nine muses alongside the greek poet Homer. It was most likely created around 240 AD.

Furthermore, numerous other archaeological sites can be fount throughout the canton, for example in Rippweiler, Hovelange and Schandel, among others.

Middle Ages
During the middle ages, the territory of the canton of Redange was part of the Duchy of Luxembourg, and was ruled by numerous lords and counts, who resided in castles dotted all around the canton. Even today, many ruins of castles can be found across the canton, the most notable one being Useldange castle.

French revolution and establishment of the canton
During the French revolution, the Duchy of Luxembourg was incorporated into the French Republic as part of the Département des Forêts. Following multiple territorial reforms, communes were established, and in October 1796 the Département des Forêts was divided into 26 cantons. Among those the canton of Ospern, with most borders identical to the present-day canton of Redange (except the present-day eastern border with Belgium, which was established in 1839 following the 3rd partition of Luxembourg).

On 12 October 1841, the capital of the canton was ordered to be transferred from Ospern to Redange.

Industrialisation
Towards the end of the 17th century, slate mines were excavated near present-day Haut-Martelange and Rombach, in the northwest of the canton.

The importance of this site grew significantly after investments were made by the Rother family from Frankfurt. The connection of Haut-Martelange to the Noerdange-Martelange railway line (Jhangeli) in 1890 provided the possibility for high-volume exports across the whole of Europe.

During this time, the slate mines of Haut-Martelange accounted for a significant amount of Luxembourg's exports and were a major provider of labour in the region. The underground mines grew to become among the most important producers of slate in Europe.

The extraction of slate stopped in 1986 after the death of Christiane Rother in 1985, the last descendant of the Rother family.

Population

References

Cantons of Luxembourg

Canton of Redange


The Boston Reds were a Major League Baseball franchise that played in the Players' League (PL) in 1890, and one season in the American Association (AA) in 1891. In both seasons, the Reds were their league's champion, making them the second team to win back-to-back championships in two different leagues. The first franchise to accomplish this feat was the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, who won the AA championship in 1889 and the National League (NL) championship in 1890. The Reds played their home games at the Congress Street Grounds.

The Reds were an instant success on the field and in the public's opinion.  The team signed several top-level players, and they played in a larger, more comfortable and modern ballpark than the Boston Beaneaters, the popular and well established cross-town rival. Player signings that first year included future Hall of Famers King Kelly, Dan Brouthers, and Charles Radbourn, along with other veterans such as Hardy Richardson, Matt Kilroy, Harry Stovey, and Tom Brown. The PL ended after one season, leaving most of its teams without a league.

After the dissolution of the PL, the AA voted to allow the Reds into the new combined league. This was based on the condition that all players be returned to their former clubs via the reserve clause.  Although the team's on-field captain, Kelly, became the player-manager for a new AA club, the Cincinnati Kelly's Killers, the Reds stayed intact by keeping several of their top players. Of the club's key players from the previous year's team, Brouthers, Richardson, and Brown were retained. To fill the void of the departing players, the team brought in future Hall of Famers Hugh Duffy and Clark Griffith, along with solid veterans Paul Radford, Charlie Buffinton, and George Haddock. When the 1891 season ended, the AA folded as well, leaving the NL as the sole major league, and the Reds were bought out by the surviving NL clubs.

Players

References
General
Foulds, Allen E. 2005. Boston's Ballparks & Arenas. UPNE. .
Nemec, David. Rucker, Mark. 2004. The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association—Baseball's Renegade Major League. Globe Pequot. .
Specific

External links
Franchise index at Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet

Major League Baseball all-time rosters

Boston Reds (1890–1891) all-time roster


Schuttern Abbey (Reichsabtei Schuttern) was a Benedictine monastery in Schuttern (now part of the community of Friesenheim), Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

History

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in 603 by the wandering Irish monk Offo. After some initial difficulties the monastery and the settlement round it, at that time known as Offoniscella ("cell of Offo"), gradually flourished. In the 8th century Saint Pirmin introduced the Rule of St. Benedict and revived the fortunes of the abbey, as demonstrated by the rush of new postulants from the nobility at this period. Schuttern and some others, next only to Bamberg, were reckoned among the most significant Imperial abbeys in the country.

In 817 a Gospel Book (the Schuttern Gospels, now in the British Library in London), commissioned by the then Abbot Bertrich and written by the deacon Luithar witnesses among other works to the existence of a writing school of high quality in the abbey.

In 1016 the Emperor Henry II stopped at the abbey while returning to Frankfurt and visited the tomb of the founder Offo. The grave was covered by a precious mosaic showing Cain murdering Abel, which survives and can be claimed to be the oldest of its kind in Germany. The mosaic, although no longer entire, can now be seen in the church crypt.

Wars, lootings and arson were a frequent occurrence, and the abbey went up in flames on several occasions (938, 1153, 1166, 1169, 1240, 1334, 1520) but was always rebuilt.

On 6 May 1770 the abbey accommodated for a night the Archduchess Maria Antonia, the future Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Empress Maria Theresia, and her numerous retinue, on her way from Schloss Schönbrunn to Kehl, where on 7 May she was to be received by her future court before marrying the future Louis XVI of France.

Secularisation in 1803 meant the end of the abbey, which was dissolved in 1806. The majority of the buildings were torn down or removed: the stones were used by the local population as a cheap building material.

Between 1972 and 1975 the archaeologist Karl List carried out investigations in the basement of the church. The remains of various predecessor buildings were preserved in a part of the church basement after the excavations were concluded and are open to the public.

References
Galioto, Luisa, 2004. Die Abtei Schuttern: vom Stützpunkt zur monastischen Durchdringung der Ortenau zum repräsentativen und kulturellen Zentrum in Die Ortenau 84, 2004, pp. 253-266.
Lacroix, Dr, Emil / Niester, Dr. Heinrich, 1959 edn. Kunstwanderungen in Baden, p. 190. Stuttgart: Chr. Belser Verlag.

External links

  Benedictine Abbey of Schuttern in the Abbeys of Baden-Württemberg database of the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg
  Historischer Verein Schuttern
  Kloster Schuttern at badischewanderungen.de

Benedictine monasteries in Germany
Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg
1806 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Christian monasteries established in the 7th century
Irish monastic foundations in continental Europe
Buildings and structures in Ortenaukreis
Churches completed in 603
7th-century churches in Germany

Schuttern Abbey


The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush of a previous British embassy under Acting Consul General James Phillips, of the Niger Coast Protectorate. Rawson's troops captured and sacked Benin City, bringing to an end the Kingdom of Benin, which was eventually absorbed into colonial Nigeria.

The Expedition freed some people held as slaves by the king.

Background

At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin had managed to retain its independence during the Scramble for Africa, and the Oba of Benin exercised a monopoly over trade in Benin's territories which the Royal Niger Company considered a threat. In 1892, Deputy Commissioner and Vice-Consul Captain Henry Lionel Galway (1859–1949) tried to negotiate a trade agreement with Oba Ovọnramwẹn Nọgbaisi (1888–1914) to allow for the free passage of goods through his territory and the development of the palm oil industry. Captain Gallwey (as his name was then spelled) would push for British interests in the region, especially of the palm oil industry, by attempting to negotiate a free trade agreement with the Oba at the time. Later on, Moor would urge the Foreign office to use whatever means to secure the signed treaty, up to and including force. Gallwey signed the treaty with the Oba and his chiefs which gave Britain legal justification for exerting greater influence in the region. While the treaty itself contained clauses which suggested that the Oba had sought British protection, this was not corroborated by either him or Gallwey. According to Gallwey's own account, the Oba was hesitant to sign the treaty. After the British consul Richard Burton visited Benin in 1862 he described it a place of "gratuitous barbarity which stinks of death", a narrative which was publicized in Britain and increased pressure for the territory's incorporation into the British Empire. The treaty itself does not explicitly mention anything about the "bloody customs" that Burton had written about, and instead includes a vague clause about ensuring "the general progress of civilization". While the treaty granted free trade to British merchants operating in the Kingdom of Benin, the Oba persisted in requiring customs duties. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the treaty legal and binding, he deemed the Oba's requirements a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

Although some historians have suggested that humanitarian motivations were driving British foreign policy in the region, other historians, such as Philip Igbafe, consider that the annexation of Benin was driven largely by economic designs. The treaty itself did not mention any goal that removed the "bloody customs" that Burton had written about.

In 1894, after the capture of Ebrohimi, the trading town of the chief Nana Olomu (the leading Itsekiri trader in the Benin River District) by a combined Royal Navy and Niger Coast Protectorate force, the Kingdom of Benin increased the military presence on its own southern borders. These developments combined with the Colonial Office's refusal to grant approval for an invasion of Benin City scuttled an expedition the Protectorate had planned for early 1895. Even so, between September 1895 and mid-1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey Treaty of 1892: firstly by Major P. Copland-Crawford, Vice-Consul of the Benin District; secondly by Ralph Frederick Locke, the Vice-Consul Assistant; and thirdly by Captain Arthur Maling, Commandant of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force detachment based in Sapele.

In March 1896, following price fixing and refusals by Itsekiri middle men to pay the required tributes, the Oba of Benin ordered a cessation of the supply of oil palm produce to them. The trade embargo brought trade in the Benin River region to a standstill, and the British merchants in the region appealed to the Protectorate's Consul-General to "open up" Benin territories and to send the Oba (whom they claimed was an obstruction to their trading activities) into exile. In October 1896 the Acting Consul-General, James Robert Phillips, visited the Benin River District and met with the agents and traders, who convinced him that "there is a future on the Benin River if Benin territories were opened".

The "Benin Massacre" (January 1897)

In November 1896, Phillips, the Vice Consul of a trading post on the African coast, decided to meet with the Oba in Benin City in regards to the trade agreement that the Oba had made with the British but was not keeping. He formally asked his superiors in London for permission to visit Benin City, claiming that the costs of such an expedition would be recouped by trading for ivory. In late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval, Phillips embarked on an expedition comprising:
 James Robert Phillips, Acting Consul-General, Niger Coast Protectorate.
 Maj. Copland Crawford, Vice-Council of the Benin and Warri districts.
 Alan Boisragon, Commandant of the Constabulary of the Niger Coast Protectorate.
 Cap. Malling, Niger Coast Protectorate force.
 Dr. Elliot, Medical Officer for Sapele and Benin districts.
 Mr. Ralph Locke, District Commissioner of Warri.
 Mr. Kenneth Campbell, District Commissioner at Sapele.
 Mr. Gordon, trader, Africa Association.
 Mr. Swainson, trader, of Mr. Pinnock's firm.
 Mr. Powis, agent for Millers Brothers palm oil, at Old Calabar.
 Mr. Lyon, Assistant District commissioner at Sapele (waited Gwatto).
 Mr. Baddoo (of Accara, Gold Coast), Consul-General's Chief clerk and Photographer.
 Mr. Jumbo, Consul-General's orderly, and Civil Policeman.
 Mr. , Vice-Council's orderly, and Civil Policeman.
 Mr. Towey, local interpreter.
 Mr. Herbert Clarke, local interpreter.
 Mr. Basilli, local Benin guide.
 Jim, Boisragon's, Kru, manservant.
 180 Jakri porters to carry their supplies, food, trade goods, presents, cameras, and tents.
 60 Kru labourers.

Phillips had sent a message to the Oba, claiming that his present mission was to discuss trade and peace and demanding admission to the territory. Ahead of Phillips, he had sent an envoy bearing numerous gifts for trade. It was during this time that the Oba was celebrating Igue festival, and he sent word that he did not wish to see the British at the time, and he would send word in a month or two, when he was ready to receive just Phillips and one Jakri chief.

On 4 January 1897, Phillips and his entire party was ambushed along their journey to Benin City, at Ugbine village near Gwato.  British officers and African porters were both slaughtered.  Only two British survived their wounds, Alan Boisragon and Ralph Locke. Within the week, news had made it to London of the massacre.  This event led to the mounting of the Punitive Expedition.

As a result of this attack, the Foreign Office of Britain authorized military action, leading to the "punitive expedition", the purported intention by Moor: »It is imperative that a most severe lesson be given the Kings, Chiefs, and JuJu men of all surrounding countries, that white men cannot be killed with impunity, and that human sacrifices, with the oppression of the weak and poor, must cease.« According to historian Philip Igbafe, the humanitarian and punitive justifications given by Moor ran counter to the economic justifications for military action that he and other members of the Protectorate administration promoted in the months and years before the events of February 1897.

The two British that survived the annihilation of Phillips' expedition, which became known as the 'Benin Massacre', were Captain Alan Maxwell Boisragon, Commandant of the Constabulary of the Niger Coast Protectorate, who had been shot in the right arm and knee, and Ralph Locke, District Commissioner of Warri, who had been shot four times in the arm, and once in the hip.

The punitive expedition (February 1897)

On 12 January 1897, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, commander of the Royal Navy forces at the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, was appointed by the Admiralty to lead a force to invade the Kingdom of Benin and capture the Benin Oba. The operation was named the Benin Punitive Expedition.

On 9 February 1897, the invasion of the Kingdom of Benin began. The British invasion force of about 1,200 Royal Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorate Forces was organised into three columns: the 'Sapoba', 'Gwato' and 'Main' columns. Flotillas of warships (including HMS Philomel and Phoebe) and gunboats approached Benin City from the east and west. The 'Sapoba' and 'Main' columns reached Benin City after ten days of fighting. The 'Gwato' column (under Captain Gallwey) took the same route as that taken by the previous mission and came on the scene of the massacre, finding headless bodies of the victims.

Elspeth Huxley spent some time researching in Benin in 1954, and wrote:" ... to hear an account of the Benin massacre of 1897 and its sequel from one who had taken part. It is a story that still has power to amaze and horrify, as well as to remind us that the British had motives for pushing into Africa other than the intention to exploit the natives and glorify themselves. Here, for instance, are some extracts from the diary of a surgeon who took part in the expedition.:-

'As we neared Benin City we passed several human sacrifices, live women slaves gagged and pegged on their backs to the ground, the abdominal wall being cut in the form of a cross, and the uninjured gut hanging out. These poor women were allowed to die like this in the sun. Men slaves, with their hands tied at the back and feet lashed together, also gagged, were lying about. As we neared the city, sacrificed human beings were lying in the path and bush—even in the king's compound the sight and stench of them was awful. Dead and mutilated bodies were everywhere – by God! May I never see such sights again! . . .'"Herbert Walker, a soldier serving in the punitive expedition, believed that the human sacrifices he saw were an attempt by Benin City residents to appease the Gods as they tried to defend themselves from the expedition.

According to professor of African studies, Robin Law, the issue of human sacrifices is an extremely sensitive one and prone to bias. Law suggests that the reported extent of the practice in Benin was exaggerated by the British in order to establish the need for military intervention.

Historian Dan Hicks has described the punitive expedition's actions during their push to Benin City as democidal, claiming that it involved: "massacres of towns and villages from the air and thus women and children across the whole of the Benin Kingdom, scorching the earth with rockets, fire and mines. Primary among the war crimes was the scale of the killing and bombings of civilian targets." On 18 February Benin City was captured by the expedition, in spite of its defensive iya. The city was set ablaze, although it has been claimed that this was accidental.

Eight members of the punitive force were recorded as being killed in action during the Benin Expedition; the number of military and civilian casualties amongst the Benin people was not estimated but is thought to have been very high.

The Benin Expedition was described as such:
"In twenty-nine days a force of 1,200 men, coming from three places between 3000 and 4500 m. from the Benin river, was landed, organized, equipped and provided with transport. Five days later the city of Benin was taken, and in twelve days more the men were re-embarked, and the ships coaled and ready for any further service."

All-in-all, around 5,000 men were mobilised for the expedition, which took place over three weeks.

Aftermath

After the capture of Benin City, houses, sacred sites, ceremonial buildings and palaces of many high-ranking chiefs were looted and many buildings were burned down, including the Palace building itself on Sunday 21 February. There was evidence of previous human sacrifice found by members of the expedition, with journalists from Reuters and the Illustrated London News reporting that the town 'reeked of human blood.' Inside the abandoned palace, a terrible sight was revealed to the British.  The Oba in panic of what he had done and in fear of a retaliatory attack, had embarked in a great mass of human sacrifice in order to stave off full disaster.  Bodies of those sacrificed by the Oba laid in pits and many hung crucified in trees.

The Oba was eventually captured by the British consul-general, Ralph Moor. He was deposed and exiled, with two of his eighty wives, to Calabar. A British Resident was appointed, and six chiefs were hanged in Benin City's marketplace.

Most of the plunder from the city was retained by the expedition with some 2,500 (official figures) religious artefacts, Benin visual history, mnemonics and artworks being sent to Britain. They include over a thousand metal plaques and sculptures collectively known as the Benin Bronzes. The Admiralty confiscated and auctioned off the war booty to defray the costs of the expedition.

About 40% of the art was accessioned to the British Museum, while other works were given to individual members of the armed forces as spoils of war, and the remainder was sold at auction by the Admiralty to pay for the expedition as early as May 1897 (Stevens Auction Rooms, 38 King Street, London, 25 May 1897; followed by several sales by the ethnographic dealer William Downing Webster, Bicester, between 1898 and 1900). Most of the Benin Bronzes sold at auction were purchased by museums, mainly in Germany. The dispersal of Benin artworks to museums around the world catalysed the beginnings of a long and slow European reassessment of the value of West African art. The Benin art was copied and the style integrated into the art of many European artists and thus had a strong influence on the early formation of modernism in Europe.

The British occupied Benin, which was absorbed into the British Niger Coast Protectorate and eventually into British colonial Nigeria. A general emancipation of slaves followed in the wake of British occupation, and with it came an end to human sacrifice.<ref>Igbafe, Philip A., "Slavery and Emancipation in Benin, 1897–1945, The Journal of African History Vol. 16, No. 3 (1975), pp. 418.</ref> However, the British instituted a system of drafting locals to work as forced labourers in often poor conditions that were not much better than had been during the previous Benin Empire.

 Controversy
There has much debate of why James Phillips set out on the mission to Benin without much weaponry. Some have argued he was going on a peaceful mission. Such commentators argue that the message from the Oba that his festival would not permit him to receive European visitors touched the humanitarian side of Phillips's character because of an incorrect assumption that the festival included human sacrifice. According to Igbafe, this does not explain why Phillips set out before he had received a reply from the Foreign Office to his request where he stated that: F.O. 2/I02, Phillips to F.O. no. 105 of i6 Nov 1896. 'there is nothing in the shape of a standing army. ... and the inhabitants appear to be if not a peace-loving at any rate a most unwarlike people whose only exploits during many generations had been an occasional quarrel with their neighbours about trade or slave raiding and it appears at least improbable that they have any arms to speak of except the usual number of trade guns... When Captain Gallwey visited the city the only canon he saw were half a dozen old Portuguese guns. They were lying on the grass unmounted'. Compare this with the opinion of his immediate predecessor, Ralph Moor, who was convinced that 'the people in all the villages are no doubt possessed of arms' (F.O. 2/84, Moor to F.O. no. 39 of I2 Sept. 1895).

Igbafe also points to Phillips' November 1896 advocacy of military force regarding Benin, arguing that this is inconsistent with the perception of Phillips as a man of peace in January 1897. Igbafe posits that Phillips was going on a reconnaissance mission and that Phillips' haste to Benin can be explained by a belief that nothing bad would happen to him or his party.

Phillips's journey was has been described by Mona Zutshi Opubor as a period of lull before the outbreak of a violent storm which had been gathering for years with the pressure of traders, consuls and a few visits of armed Europeans to the Benin Empire. The suspicion among the Oba of Benin, therefore, only deepened with Phillips's mission. The previous deportations of the Jaja of Opobo in 1887 and Nana Olomu in 1894 in neighboring British controlled territories may have made the Benin Empire anxious about safety of their Oba and the true intentions of the British. According to Igbafe, evidence at the Oba's trial in September 1897, showed that the people of Benin Empire did not believe that Phillips' party had peaceful intentions, since the capture of Nana, there had been a long expectation of war in Benin.

 Movement for repatriation of objects taken as war booty
In 2017 a cockerel statue or okukor looted during the 1897 Benin Expedition was removed from the hall of Jesus College, Cambridge, following protests by students of the university. Jesus College's student union passed a motion declaring that the sculpture should be returned. A spokesperson from the university stated that "Jesus College acknowledges the contribution made by students in raising the important but complex question of the rightful location of its Benin bronze, in response to which it has removed the okukor from its hall" and that the university is willing "to discuss and determine the best future for the okukor, including the question of repatriation. On 27 October 2021, the okukor was received by Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments in a Benin Bronze Restitution Ceremony held and livestreamed by Jesus College.

The University of Aberdeen became the first institution to agree to the full repatriation of a Benin Bronze from a museum in March 2021 and handed back a bronze sculpture, depicting the head of an Oba, to the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments on 28 October 2021. It had been purchased by the university at an auction in 1957 and was identified as a Benin bronze in a recent collections review.

Current day policy of the Nigerian government see all repatriated Benin Bronzes turned over to the ownership of Ewuare II, the current Oba of Benin and direct descendant of the ruler of Benin overthrown by the British in 1897. Many descendants of the freed slaves still remain in the Benin area today and thus returning the Benin Bronzes to the descendant of the ruler enriched by their slave trading and human sacrifice has caused much controversy nationally and internationally.

 Cultural representations

 Plays relating to the events include Ovonramwen N' Ogbaisi, written by Ola Rotimi (1971); and The Trials of Oba Ovonramwen, written by Ahmed Yerima (1997);
 Visual artists' responses include Tony Phillips' series of prints titled History of the Benin Bronzes (1984); Kerry James Marshall's graphic novel titled Rythm Mastr; and Peju Layiwola's travelling exhibition and edited book called Benin1897.com: Art and the Restitution Question.
 Films covering aspects of the expedition include The Mask (1979), starring Eddie Ugbomah; and Invasion 1897 (2014), directed by Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen.

 See also
 Akure–Benin War
 History of Nigeria
 Izevbokun Oshodin

 References
 Notes

 Sources

 European traders in Benin to Major Copland Crawford. Reporting the stoppage of trade by the Benin King 1896 Apr 13, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
 Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Reporting on the abortive Expedition into Benin. 1895 Sept.12 Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu
 J. R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King. 17 Nov 1896. Despatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
 Akenzua, Edun (2000). "The Case of Benin". Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix 21, House of Commons, The United Kingdom Parliament, March 2000.
 Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick (1999). Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Indiana University Press, 1999. .

 Further reading

 External links
 The British Museum (2000). Stories of royalty in brass. Collections Multimedia Public Access System, The British Museum, 2000. Retrieved 6 September 2006
 Gott, Richard (1997). The Looting of Benin. The Independent, 22 Feb.1997. Republished at ARM Press Cutting. (See also related GIF image of the article Battle royal for Benin relics). Retrieved 9 October 2006.
 Soni, Darshana (1997). The British and the Benin Bronzes. ARM Information Sheet 4'', Campaign for the Return of the Benin Bronzes, 1997. Retrieved 9 October 2006.
 An account of an engagement during the conflict by Reginald Bacon RN

History of Nigeria
19th-century military history of the United Kingdom
British Empire
Conflicts in 1897
Benin City
Human sacrifice
Punitive expeditions of the United Kingdom
1897 in Africa
1897 in Nigeria
Looting in Africa

Benin Expedition of 1897


Kranti Trivedi (28 September 1930 – 26 October 2009) was one of the most prolific Hindi language writers of the 20th century.

Biography
Smt. Kranti Trivedi was born on 28 September 1930 in Raipur (Chhattisgarh), in the family of Pt. Ravishankar Shukla, the first Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. She exhibited her writing skills in different forms of literature through simple language and interesting subject matter in order to arouse spontaneous interest as well as to inspire the readers to read more of Hindi literature.

Simplicity of language, easy flow and contextual relevance of the subject matter in her writings were evident in stories published in popular Hindi magazines such as Saptahik Hindustan, Dharmyug, Kadambani, Navneet, Sarika, etc. Her most successful and popular story titled 'Phoolon Ko Kya Ho Gaya' has established its separate identity as being one of the first ones to be included in the manifestation programme of the internet. Propagation of Hindi and issues relating to women were the two cornerstones of all her writings.

The first six novels of Smt. Kranti Trivedi have proved to be milestones in creating interest in Hindi and as well as propagating Hindi literature. Later in mythological novels, she highlighted the varied emotions of a woman. Shagun Pakshi, Krishna Paksha, Amrit Ghat, Mohbhang, Bun Bund Amrit, and Aathvan Janma are her powerful social novels in which the problems of women have been raised with great empathy. During her lifetime, she brought out more than 40 books and left behind five unpublished manuscripts. One such unpublished manuscript, 'Lata aur Vriksha,' was recently published and released by Chief Minister of Delhi on 29 October 2010. Prior to that, another unpublished manuscript, 'Muskarati Ladki,' was published and released in Lucknow by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.

The story Phoolon Ka Sapna is a story of redressal of the issues related to caste discrimination. In the novel 'Ashesh,' the role of Zamindars in the freedom movement has been adduced. In 'Agam' clashes between eastern and western cultures have been described emphasizing harmony being established between these two cultures. The novel 'Main ur Mera Samay' is a biography of her father Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla told in first person. 'Atishikshan' is a compilation of poems infused with spontaneous feelings. 'Patte ki Nav,' 'Mithee Boli,' 'Peeli Haveli,' and 'Kut KutChuha,' Nanhe Jasoos' are her popular stories for the children. While being natural, simple, interesting and touching, all her works contain valuable message for humanity.

Smt. Kranti Trivedi has received many awards like Hindi Sevi Samman for the year 2002 and she was conferred "Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Puruskar" for 2002 by Uttar Pradesh Sansthan of the Government of Uttar Pradesh. She was also awarded 'Rashtriya Hindi Sewa Millennium Samman' by UNESCO and 'Nari Lekhan Puruskar' by Rashtra Bhasha Prachar Samiti of the Government of Madhya Pradesh. In 2010 the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp in her honor.

Noted novels
 Anokha Arohi Kasrawad (2003)
 Bhoomija (1996)
 Gangadutt (1998)
 Aathvaa Janam (1998)
 Agam
 Chir Kalyani (1994)
 Atithi Kshan (1985)
 Bahe Sau Ganga
 Uttaraadhikari
 Raghavpriy Radhika Mohbhang
 Krishnapaksh
 Amritghat
 Sagunpanchi
 Pholon ka Sapna
 Tapasvini

References

1930 births
2009 deaths
Novelists from Madhya Pradesh
Hindi-language writers
People from Raipur, Chhattisgarh
20th-century Indian novelists

Kranti Trivedi


Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof is the largest station in the city of Eschweiler in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on a slight curve on the Cologne–Aachen high-speed line. Regional services of the Regional-Express lines RE 1 (NRW-Express) and RE 9 (Rhein-Sieg-Express) stop at the station every half hour in both directions.

The station is located about  from the city centre in the district of Röthgen. The station is less than  from the Ichenberg Tunnel. About  away is Eschweiler-West station on the remaining section of the Mönchengladbach–Stolberg railway, which is now served by euregiobahn trains.

On 24 March 1987, the former station toilets block, together with the former petroleum facility, was added to the heritage list of the town of Eschweiler.

History

On 1 April 1841, a mail service was established between Eschweiler and Stolberg with ran at 7 am and 7 pm daily. Eschweiler was at the beginning of an expansion of its coal mining industry, stimulated by industrial growth. In 1835 the Eschweiler Mining Association had been founded and the population nearly tripled from 1800 to 1850. In due course, the Aachen, Inde and Wurm mining districts were connected by railway.

In mid-1841, a railway tunnel was built through the Ichenberg ridge in the course of building the railway and on 22 August, after the Rhenish Railway Company (, RHE) completed construction of its trunk line between Cologne and Aachen, the first test train ran from Cologne to Aachen through the Eschweiler area. The line officially opened on 1 September as a single track to Eschweiler station. There were two daily trains in each direction and seven horse bus trips ran daily to carry postal traffic between the station and the town—which was essentially only the old town north of the Inde—these also carried passengers. The bus operations closed in 1878. Freight operations started on 2 November 1841. In 1844, the line was duplicated.

Expansion and change of name
The station building was extended in 1858 and 1860. A new station building was opened in 1872, which is still used. On 1 October 1873, the second railway to Eschweiler was opened. The Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME ) opened the Hochneukirch–Stolberg line (known as the Eschweiler Talbahn, "Eschweiler Valley Railway")—part of which is now served by euregiobahn trains—from Eschweiler-Aue via Eschweiler-Tal (now: Eschweiler-Talbahnhof/Raiffeisenplatz), Weisweiler (now: Eschweiler-Weisweiler), Frenz, Jülich und Hochneukirch to Rheydt-Odenkirchen. This second line runs through Eschweiler about 500 m north of and parallel with the main line and passes under it at the Dreibogenbrücke ("three-arch bridge") in the district of Aue. None of the current stations in Eschweiler is on both lines.

In 1897 the Aachen Tramway opened a tram line between Eschweiler Rathaus (town hall) and the main station. In 1911, the station was renamed Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof.

During the occupation
Following the signing of the armistice at the end of the First World War on 11 November 1918 railway services were closed from 1 to 19 December and French and Belgian troops occupied Eschweiler.

On 22 January 1923 the line was closed again, after the French occupation forces took over the operation of the railway. In October there was a coup attempt by separatists, who wanted to establish a Rhenish Republic. On 16 November 1924 management of the railway was returned to Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Second World War
On 21 November 1944 the Sticher Berg railway bridge, the "three-arch bridge" and the Ichenberg tunnel were blown up by retreating German troops. In March 1945, American pioneers made temporary repairs to the three-arch bridge and rail traffic was resumed.

Post-war period
The tram line to the Hauptbahnhof was reopened in 1948 following the rebuilding of the destroyed bridge over the Inde and was operated as line 22 (Vaals–Eilendorf–Atsch–Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof) by Aachener Straßenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG (the Aachen public transport operator). But in 1954 the tramway was closed and replaced by buses.

On 1 July 1958 the German army took full control of the Donnerberg barracks from the Belgian army, and Eschweiler became a garrison town, providing extra traffic for Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof. In August 1962 work started on the removal of the roof of the Ichenberg Tunnel for 255 m of its length for the electrification of the main line and the construction of a new tunnel with a length of 90 m. Since 18 May 1966 the line has been fully electrified from Cologne to Aachen.

In the 1970s, the extension of the main hall was demolished.

On 4 May 1985 a  ceremony was held at the town hall establishing a partnership with the English local government district of Reigate and Banstead and on 26 September 1989 the redesigned station forecourt, which then had 147 parking places, was renamed Reigate-Banstead-Platz.

After the purchase of the station building by the town of Eschweiler, it was rebuilt in 2007 and 2008: it now includes a newspaper stand, toilets, a ticket office, a dental practice and other offices. The ticket office was re-opened on 16 June 2008 and at the same time the parking lot was expanded by about 40 places.

Tracks
The Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof has four tracks:
track 1 is served by trains to Aachen
track 2 is a main through track (usually running towards Aachen) without a platform
track 3 is used by stopping and non-stopping trains towards Cologne
track 4 is used in both directions, usually by freight trains so that they can be overtaken and sometimes by passenger trains.

Current operations
The Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof is served by following passenger services:

The station is served by steam excursions of Dampfbahn Rur-Wurm-Inde e. V. Thalys services between Paris and Cologne and Intercity-Express services between Frankfurt and Brussels pass through without stopping.

References

External links

Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1841
Eschweiler

Eschweiler Hauptbahnhof


The M Street Bridge, also known as the M Street Overpass, carries M Street across Rock Creek and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. It lies between the neighborhoods of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom in Northwest Washington, D.C. The non-arched design of the bridge contrasts with that of all the other bridges rising over the parkway.

History
The original wooden bridge at the site was the first in the current District of Columbia, constructed in 1788 by the City of Georgetown two years before it was incorporated into the District. The bridge reportedly collapsed during a severe storm, leading to a legend that the ghosts of a stagecoach driver and his horses that drowned in the collapse could be seen thereafter, still attempting to cross the bridge.

It was replaced by a heavy wooden drawbridge in 1800, as Rock Creek was wide and deep enough that sailing ships needed to transit the bridge at that time. However, the creek became unnavigable by the 1830s due to silt from upstream construction and agricultural uses, as well as the construction of a quay obstructing the mouth of the creek. A covered wooden bridge replaced the drawbridge in 1839, followed by a steel-truss bridge in 1871, which was closed in 1925 because it had become structurally unsound. Remnants of the western abutment of the 1871 bridge still exist adjacent to that of the current bridge.

Design
The current bridge was initially contemplated as a steel-girder bridge for cost reasons and the belief that an arch bridge could not be built large enough to accommodate the parkway, then planned to run underneath it. The bridge was one of the few to be designed solely by the office of the District of Columbia Engineer of Bridges without input from an outside private firm. The United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), the agency tasked with reviewing architectural projects in the capital, under Charles Moore opposed the design because it did not conform with the other park bridges, which were designed to harmonize with their surroundings. The designers attempted to compromise by encasing the bridge in concrete and adding ornamentation. Still, Moore was not appeased, calling the new design "a brutal bridge, entirely inconsistent with any other parkway treatment" and stating that "the design is fundamentally bad. A bridge constructed along such lines would be a perpetual eyesore."  Moore also objected that adding ornamentation would not satisfy the bridge's fundamental design principles perceived as lacking.

The D.C. Board of Commissioners decided to proceed with the design despite the formal disapproval of the CFA since the legislation authorizing the bridge specified a steel-girder design and only mandated consultation with the CFA but did not require that their recommendations be followed. This situation led to the passage of the Shipstead-Luce Act in 1930, which gave the commission legal authority to enforce their decisions.  The bridge was constructed in 1929 and 1930.

See also

List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Washington, D.C.

References

Bridges over Rock Creek (Potomac River tributary)
Bridges completed in 1930
Foggy Bottom
Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)
Historic American Engineering Record in Washington, D.C.
Road bridges in Washington, D.C.
Steel bridges in the United States

M Street Bridge (Washington, D.C.)


António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo GCTE KGF (; Lisbon, 8 September 1819 – 22 January 1887) was a Portuguese statesman and engineer. He was a leading parliamentarian and political figure of his time. Among other posts held, he was six times minister of finance and minister of public works. From 1871 to 1886, he served three times as prime minister of Portugal, for a total of 11 years.

Fontes Pereira de Melo is mostly remembered for implementing dynamic industrial and public infrastructure policy, which became known as Fontismo (after his name). He also implemented educational reforms in accordance with the industrialization process he initiated (see Instituto Industrial de Lisboa and Escola Industrial do Porto).

Early life
Born on 8 September 1819 in Lisbon, António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo was the son of João de Fontes Pereira de Melo, a Portuguese Navy officer, later governor of Cape Verde and minister of state, and his wife Jacinta Venância Rosa da Cunha Matos. He was the fourth child of six.

Having not yet reached the age of 14, Fontes joined the Portuguese Royal Naval Academy in the midst of the civil war between absolutists and liberals. Two months later, in October 1833, during the siege of Lisbon by absolutist forces, the young cadet took part in the successful defence of the city led by Napier. In the following three years, he pursued his midshipman training, excelling in mathematics. He graduated in 1837, receiving a prize for students of exceptional merit that had only been awarded twice in twenty years.

In 1836, wishing to pursue more advanced studies, Fontes enrolled in the three-year course of military engineering at the School of the Army. He graduated as lieutenant of the Royal Corps of Engineers in 1839.

In the same year, an appointed aide to his father, then governor of Cape Verde, Fontes moved to the territory, where he resided until 1842, producing reports and maps and working on various projects. At the age of 21, Fontes married Maria Josefa de Sousa, daughter of an influent merchant of Cape Verde. On his return to Lisbon, he attended the astronomy course at the Polytechnic School, but his studies were interrupted by a personal tragedy, the death of his wife and, soon after, of his only daughter. He would not marry again.

After the end of the civil war and the triumph of the liberals, the country remained mired in political and military instability. In December 1846, during the Patuleia revolt, the Duke of Saldanha decided to confront the advancing revolutionary troops in Torres Vedras. Saldanha commissioned Fontes, an engineering officer on his staff, to conduct the reconnaissance of the battlefield. After the victory of the government troops, the mission earned Fontes the Tower and Sword cross and the recognition as the marshal-duke.

In 1848, while Saldanha was head of government, and after his father had a short stint as navy and overseas minister, Fontes ran for parliament for the constituency of Cape Verde. The constituency had a very small electorate and was controlled by the family to which he had become connected through marriage. His election was initially rejected by a parliamentary committee dominated by opposition members, but after much dispute finally approved.

President of the Council of Ministers

He ran for the Regenerator Party starting in 1850. He later became prime minister for the first term on 13 September 1871. The government reconstituted the country after the January Revolution and a few governments, entirely disorganized. He succeeded and was later succeeded by Marquess of Ávila He left in 1877 after the banking crisis in 1876. A year later after the 1878 elections, he was again prime minister after his electoral victory. A year later, he asked to be dismissed from the cabinet and he left office and Anselmo José Braamcamp organized that cabinet.

In 1880, he was president of the Central Commission of 1 December 1640 In 1881, he was given the presidency of the Chamber of Peers after the death of the Duke of Ávila and Bolama. Later, on 11 November, Fontes was preparing to create a new government. That new government had a principal mission: modify the state's constitution for the new Additional Act to the Constitutional Chart which was promulgated in 1885, which transformed the Chamber of Peers of hereditary in life. The organization of military reforms made by himself included new regiments in the infantry, two in the cavalry and artillery, later he started to buy more torpedo boats. He left the government on 16 February 1886. After finishing his third and last term, he was succeeded by José Luciano de Castro.

Death
In 1887, he was preparing for a new opposition campaign over the cabinet and actively directed the electoral works, Pereira de Melo suffered an illness and died on 22 January 1887 at the palace at 6 Páteo do Tijolo in Mercês, Lisbon where he lived.

Family
His younger sister, Maria Henriqueta de Fontes Pereira de Melo, wife of Vicente Rodrigues Ganhado, was granted the noble title of 1st Marchioness of Fontes Pereira de Melo.

Legacy
The Fontes Pereira de Melo Lighthouse in the easternmost point of the island of Santo Antão in northwestern Cape Verde was named for him, it was first constructed when he was prime minister in his later years and was completed in the year that he was no longer prime minister. Now it is called the Ponta do Tumbo Lighthouse.

See also
 History of Portugal
 Portugal

References

Further reading

1819 births
1887 deaths
Politicians from Lisbon
Regenerator Party politicians
Prime Ministers of Portugal
Finance ministers of Portugal
Government ministers of Portugal
Colonial heads of Cape Verde
19th-century Portuguese politicians
Portuguese engineers
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint-Charles
Naval ministers of Portugal

Fontes Pereira de Melo


Hatton Ferry is a poled cable ferry located 5.5 miles west of Scottsville, Virginia  on the James River. It is the last poled ferry in the United States. The ferry crosses the river upstream of Scottsville between Albemarle County and Buckingham County.

A seasonal service, the Hatton Ferry operates on a weekend schedule from April to October. In 2009 the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) ended funding and operation of the weekend. Ownership was then transferred to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society (ACHS) as the result of a campaign led by ACHS President Steven G. Meeks. The ferry is now managed by the "Hatton Ferry" a non-profit organization established by the ACHS to oversee the operation of the ferry.

How it works

The Hatton Ferry is a flat-bottomed boat with its deck only a few inches above the waterline.  Two cables are attached to each of the boat's ends and guided by an overhead wire connecting the two river banks about 700 feet away. The cables control the ferry in its passage, allowing the stern to swing downstream while stabilizing the prow.

The boat is caught at an angle by the regular current and floats across the river. As the ferry approaches the riverbank, the ferryman cranks a hand winch to retract the cable at the boat's stern. With a few jabs of the ferryman's pole at the trip's end, the ferry slips onto its landing.

History
James A. Brown began operating a store and ferry at this site in the late 1870s. A few years later, he bought the land and the store became a stop on the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad which was built along the towpath of the James River and Kanawha Canal in the 1880s.

In 1914, James B. Tindall purchased the store, ferry, and ferry rights. He operated the ferry until 1940 when it was taken over by the Virginia Department of Highways. A new ferry was built by the Virginia Department of Transportation, and it was rededicated in September 1973. The dedication ceremonies included actor Richard Thomas, who played the character John-Boy Walton on the TV series, The Waltons, and Mrs. Doris Hamner, the mother of Waltons creator and writer Earl Hamner, Jr., who lived at nearby Schuyler provided the basis for the fictional stories.

The Hatton Ferry is the last poled ferry in the United States.

Current operations and schedule

With most regular traffic crossing the river nearby using the highway bridge at Scottsville located five miles downstream, the Hatton Ferry operates on a weekend schedule from early April to the end of October (river levels permitting) and beginning with 2010 is now owned and managed by the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society.

VDOT ceases operation
Amid budget cuts VDOT ceased funding for the ferry as part of its 2009 service reductions. Albemarle County appropriated $9,300 to keep the ferry running through October 1, 2009, although the funding may be made up from donations to the ACHS. In early 2010, VDOT transferred title to the Hatton Ferry to the non-profit 501 (c) 3 Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. The Society will continue operation. Operations will be funded from donations.

References

External links
 Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society website
 Scottsville Museum
 http://www.historicbuckingham.org website

Crossings of the James River (Virginia)
Transportation in Albemarle County, Virginia
Ferries of Virginia
Cable ferries in the United States

Hatton Ferry


Karl Barry Sharpless (born April 28, 1941) is an American chemist. He is a two-time Nobel laureate in Chemistry known for his work on stereoselective reactions and click chemistry.

Sharpless was awarded half of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions", and one third of the 2022 prize, jointly with Carolyn R. Bertozzi and Morten P. Meldal, "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry". Sharpless is the fifth person (in addition to two organizations), to have twice been awarded a Nobel prize, along with Marie Curie, John Bardeen, Linus Pauling and Frederick Sanger, and the third to have been awarded two prizes in the same discipline (after Bardeen and Sanger).

Early life and education
Sharpless was born April 28, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His childhood was filled with summers at his family cottage on the Manasquan River in New Jersey. This is where Sharpless developed a love for fishing that he would continue throughout his life, spending summers in college working on fishing boats. He graduated from Friends' Central School in 1959, and continued his studies at Dartmouth College, earning an A.B. in 1963. Sharpless originally planned to attend medical school after his undergraduate degree, but his research professor convinced him to continue his education in chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University in 1968 under Eugene van Tamelen.  He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University (1968–1969) with James P. Collman, working on organometallic chemistry. Sharpless then moved to Harvard University (1969–1970), studying enzymology in Konrad E. Bloch's lab.

Academic career
Sharpless was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970–1977, 1980–1990) and Stanford University (1977–1980). While at Stanford, Sharpless discovered Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation, which was used to make (+)-disparlure.

Research
Sharpless developed stereoselective oxidation reactions, and showed that the formation of an inhibitor with femtomolar potency can be catalyzed by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, beginning with an azide and an alkyne. He discovered several chemical reactions which have transformed asymmetric synthesis from science fiction to the relatively routine, including aminohydroxylation, dihydroxylation, and the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation.

In 2001 he was awarded a half-share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation, Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation, Sharpless oxyamination). The other half of the year's Prize was shared between William S. Knowles and Ryōji Noyori (for their work on stereoselective hydrogenation).

The term "click chemistry" was coined by Sharpless in 1998, and was first fully described by Sharpless, Hartmuth Kolb, and M.G. Finn at The Scripps Research Institute in 2001. This involves a set of highly selective, exothermic reactions which occur under mild conditions; the most successful example is the azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition to form 1,2,3-triazoles.

, Sharpless has an h-index of 180 according to Google Scholar and of 124 according to Scopus.

Awards and honors
Sharpless is a two-time Nobel Laureate. He is a recipient of the 2001 and 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on "chirally catalysed oxidation reactions", and "click chemistry", respectively.

In 2019, Sharpless was awarded the Priestley medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor, for "the invention of catalytic, asymmetric oxidation methods, the concept of click chemistry and development of the copper-catalyzed version of the azide-acetylene cycloaddition reaction.". He received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Chemists in 2023.

He is Distinguished University Professor at Kyushu University. He holds honorary degrees from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (1995), Technical University of Munich (1995), Catholic University of Louvain (1996) and Wesleyan University (1999).

Personal life
Sharpless married Jan Dueser in 1965 and they have three children. He was blinded in one eye during a lab accident in 1970 where an NMR tube exploded, shortly after he arrived at MIT as an assistant professor. After this accident, Sharpless stresses "there's simply never an adequate excuse for not wearing safety glasses in the laboratory at all times."

References

External links

 K. Barry Sharpless at The Scripps Research Institute
  including the Nobel Lecture December 8, 2001 The Search for New Chemical Reactivity and the award 2022

1941 births
Living people
20th-century American chemists
21st-century American chemists
American Nobel laureates
Dartmouth College alumni
Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Friends' Central School alumni
Harvard University alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Nobel laureates in Chemistry
Nobel laureates with multiple Nobel awards
Organic chemists
Scientists from Philadelphia
Scripps Research faculty
Stanford University alumni
Stereochemists
Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates
Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates

Karl Barry Sharpless


Karl Bogislaus Reichert (20 December 1811 – 21 December 1883) was a German anatomist, embryologist and histologist.

Biography
Reichert was born in Rastenburg (Kętrzyn), East Prussia. From 1831 he studied at the University of Konigsberg, where he was a student of embryologist Karl Ernst Baer, then continued his education in Berlin under Friedrich Schlemm and Johannes Peter Müller. In 1836 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the gill arches of vertebrate embryos. Afterwards, he worked as an intern at the Charité, and from 1839 to 1843, served as an assistant and prosector at the University of Berlin.

In 1843 he attained the chair of anatomy at the University of Dorpat, and ten years later, succeeded Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold as professor of physiology at the University of Breslau. In 1858 he returned to Berlin as chair of anatomy, where he succeeded his former mentor, Johannes Peter Müller.

Reichert is remembered for his work in embryology, and for his pioneer research in cell theory. With Ernst Gaupp, he was co-architect of the Reichert–Gaupp theory concerning the origin of mammalian ossicles of the ear. His name is lent to the eponymous "Reichert's cartilage", described as a cartilaginous structure in the second branchial arch from which develop the temporal styloid processes, the stylohyoid ligaments, and the lesser cornu of the hyoid bone.

Written works
 De embryonum arcubus sic dictis branchialibus. Berlin, 1836 – On the so-called branchial arches of embryos.
 "Ueber die Visceralbogen der Wirbelthiere im Allgemeinen und deren Metamorphosen bei den Vögeln und Säugethieren". Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin: 120–222, 1837 – On the visceral arch of vertebrates in general and its metamorphosis in birds and mammals.
 Das Entwicklungsleben im Wirbelthierreiche. 1840, Berlin – Development of life in vertebrates.
 Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Zustandes der heutigen Entwicklungsgeschichte. 1843, Berlin – Contributions to the knowledge on the state of present-day developmental history.
 Der Bau des menschlichen Gehirns. 1859–1861, Leipzig – Construction of the human brain.

See also
 Emil du Bois-Reymond

References

External links
 OCLC WorldCat (published works)

1811 births
1883 deaths
People from Kętrzyn
People from East Prussia
German anatomists
19th-century German biologists
German histologists
German embryologists
University of Königsberg alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Academic staff of the University of Tartu
Academic staff of the University of Breslau

Karl Bogislaus Reichert


The Lomas Rishi Cave, also called the Grotto of Lomas Rishi, is one of the man-made Barabar Caves in the Barabar and Nagarjuni hills of Jehanabad district in the Indian state of Bihar. This rock-cut cave was carved out as a sanctuary. It was built during the Ashokan period of the Maurya Empire in the 3rd century BC, as part of the sacred architecture of the Ajivikas, an ancient religious and philosophical group of India that competed with Jainism and became extinct over time. Ājīvikas were atheists and rejected ritualism of the Puranic karma Kāṇḍa as well as Buddhist ideas. They were ascetic communities and meditated in the Barabar caves. Still, the Lomas Rishi cave lacks an explicit epigraphical dedication to the Ajivikas, contrary to most other Barabar Caves, and may rather have been built by Ashoka for the Buddhists.

The hut-style facade at the entrance to the cave is the earliest survival of the ogee shaped "chaitya arch" or chandrashala that was to be an important feature of Indian rock-cut architecture and sculptural decoration for centuries. The form was clearly a reproduction in stone of buildings in wood and other vegetable materials.

According to Pia Brancaccio, the Lomas Rishi cave, along with nearby Sudama cave, is considered by many scholars to be "the prototype for the Buddhist caves of the western Deccan, particularly the chaitya hall type structure built between 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD.

First is a large hall, entered at the side and rectangular in shape measuring 9.86x5.18m, which functioned as an assembly hall. Further inside is a second hall, smaller in size, which is a semi-hemispherical room, 5m in diameter, with a roof in the form of a dome, and which is accessed from the rectangular room by a narrow rectangular passage. The interior surfaces of the chambers are very finely finished.

Location

Lomas Rishi Cave is carved into the hard monolithic granite rock face of Barabar hills, flanked to its left by the smaller Sudama cave. The site is close to the Falgu River, and Barabar Caves Information Centre is close by. The Cave is  north of Gaya in Bihar, an eastern state in India and about  from Ajanta Caves. It is distant from other major archaeological sites related to art and architecture; for example, it is about  from Mathura and about  from Gandhara.

History
During the reign of Mauryan emperor Ashoka, Lomas Rishi Cave was excavated and gifted to the Ajivikas monks. It is dated to the 3rd century BC. Additional caves followed in the same granite hills, all in the 3rd century BC, based on the inscriptions found in the caves. The other six caves are (i) Karna Chaupar, (ii) Sudama Cave, (iii) Vishmitra Cave, (iv) Gopi Cave, (v) Vapiyaka Cave, and (vi) Vadathika Cave. The last three are on the Nagarjuni Hill east of the Barabar Hill.

Burgess, in his cave temple survey of 19th-century, considered the Ajivika Lomas Rishi cave to an anchor milestone for cave chronology. According to Pia Brancaccio, the Lomas Rishi cave, along with nearby Sudama cave, is considered by many scholars to be "the prototype for the Buddhist caves of the western Deccan, particularly the chaitya hall type structure built between 2nd century BC and 2nd-century AD. According to Vidya Dehejia, the Kondvite chaitya hall is a direct descendant of the Lomas Rishi cave, and other Buddhist cave-based vihara monasteries followed. The Lomas Rishi doorway, states James Harle, the "earliest example of the caitya arch", later to develop into the gavaska (ogee arch in European Gothic architecture), a feature that later became "the most ubiquitous of all Indian architectural motifs".

According to Arthur Basham, the elephant and other motifs carved at the entrance caitya arch and the walls of the Lomas Rishi cave are those of Ajivika, and this taken with the inscription of Ashoka giving nearby caves to them, suggests they were the original inhabitants. They abandoned the caves at some point, then Buddhists used it because there are the Bodhimula and Klesa-kantara inscriptions in this cave's door jamb. Thereafter a Hindu king named Anantavarman, of Maukhari dynasty, dedicated a Krishna murti to the cave, states Basham, in the 5th or 6th century. This is evidenced by the Sanskrit inscription found on the arch.

E. M. Forster based the important scene in the "Marabar Caves" in his novel A Passage to India (1924) on these caves, which he had visited.

Features

This cave has an arched facade that probably imitates contemporary wooden architecture. On the periphery of the door, along the curve of the architrave, a line of elephants advances in the direction of stupas emblems. This is the characteristic form of the "Chaitya arch" or chandrashala, to be an important feature of architecture and sculpture in the rock for many centuries. It is clearly a stone reproduction of wooden buildings and other plant materials. According to Gupta, Lomas Rishi's immediate successors are the Kondivite and Guntupalli caves. The facade of the rock-cut cave is in the form of a thatched hut supported by timber struts and has a doorway that is intricately carved to replicate timber architecture. Its eaves are curved and the finial is in the shape of a pot. The ornamentation on the "curved architrave" consists of carvings of elephants on their way to a stupa-like structure.

Inscriptions
Lomas Rishi has no Ashoka inscription, perhaps because it has never been completed due to structural rock slide problems. It is generally considered, however, that it was also created around 250 BC, like the other caves, because of the similarity of the internal structure and the degree of finish of the rock, the walls being perfectly polished, with the exception of the vault whose digging was interrupted. On the other hand, it has a much later inscription of Anantavarman above the entrance, from the 5th century of our era.

Terminal event
According to Gupta, the theory that Lomas Rishi would not have received Ashoka's inscription because it was in a state of incompleteness, is undermined by the fact that the cave of Vivaskarma, another cave of Barabar, although it is not finished, was nevertheless consecrated by Ashoka. The consecration of a cave could therefore be done in the course of work. This could imply that Lomas Rishi, with its bas-reliefs, actually post-dates Ashoka's reign.

Gupta actually believes that Lomas Rishi post-dates both Ashoka and his grandson Dasaratha, and would have been built at the end of the Maurya Empire, under the reign of its last Emperor Brihadratha, and abruptly halted in 185 BC with the assassination of Brihadratha and the coup d'état of Pushyamitra Sunga, founder of the Sunga dynasty. Pushyamitra Sunga is also known to have persecuted Buddhists and Ajivikas, which would explain the immediate cessation of work. According to Gupta, the abrupt interruption of the works is suggested by the lack of finishing, even approximate, of the ground, with for example the abandonment in the state of some bumps of rocks on the floor which would have required only a few minutes of chipping to be removed in order to obtain a fairly regular floor.

Inscription of Anantavarman (5-6th century CE)
Several Hindu inscriptions of the Maukhari king Anantavarman of the 5-6th century CE also appear in the Barabar Caves: an inscription of Anantavarman above the cave entrance of Lomas Rishi, and the Gopika Cave Inscription and the Vadathika Cave Inscription in the caves of the Nagarjuni group, in the same caves where the dedicatory inscriptions of the grandson of Ashoka, Dasaratha, are also located.

Notes

References

  originally published by Luzac & Company Ltd., London, 1951.

Harle, J.C., The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, p. 24, 2nd edn. 1994, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art,
Michell, George, The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India, Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, pp. 217–218, 1989, Penguin Books,

Caves of Bihar
Mauryan art
History of Bihar
Indian rock-cut architecture
Jehanabad district
Archaeological sites in Bihar
3rd century BC in India
3rd-century BC establishments in India
Tourist attractions in Bihar
Hindu cave temples
Buddhist sites in Bihar

Lomas Rishi Cave


Irving Saraf (1932 – December 26, 2012) was a Polish-born American film producer, film editor, film director and academic. Saraf won an Oscar for producing the 1991 documentary film, In the Shadow of the Stars. In total, Saraf had more than one hundred fifty film and television production credits. His resume included Poland, Communism's New Look, a 1965 television film; USA Poetry: Twelve Films About Modern Poets in 1966; and the 2009 documentary Empress Hotel following the residents of a low-income hotel in Tenderloin, San Francisco.

Life and career
Saraf was born in Poland and raised in Israel. He emigrated to the United States in 1952, settling in San Francisco. He was married to his second wife, producer Allie Light, for 38 years. Light and Saraf formed a professional production partnership beginning in 1981. Saraf received a Bachelor of Arts in motion pictures from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In addition to producing, Saraf taught film production at San Francisco State University.

Saraf founded the film division of KQED, a PBS channel in San Francisco. He also worked as the manager of the production company, Fantasy Films, owned by film producer, Saul Zaentz. Saraf produced many films with Zaentz, including as the post-production supervisor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

In 1995, Light and Saraf were jointly nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy for their work on the PBS show, Dialogues with Madwomen.

Irving Saraf died of complications from three years of Lou Gehrig's disease at his home in San Francisco on December 26, 2012, at the age of 80. He was survived by his second wife of 38 years, Allie Light; six children – Peter, Michal, Ilana, Alexis, Charles and Julia; and eight grandchildren. Peter Saraf is an Academy Award nominated producer whose credits include Adaptation (2002), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and Our Idiot Brother (2011).

References

External links

 Irving Saraf at Women Make Movies

1932 births
2012 deaths
Film producers from California
Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
San Francisco State University faculty
UCLA Film School alumni
Polish emigrants to the United States
Israeli emigrants to the United States
Businesspeople from San Francisco
Place of birth missing
20th-century Polish Jews
Film directors from San Francisco
American film editors
20th-century American businesspeople

Irving Saraf


Henriette Guizot de Witt (August 6, 1829 in Paris – 1908 in Paris) was a French writer who wrote under the name Mme de Witt, née Guizot.

Family
Henriette Guizot de Witt was the daughter of the historian and politician François Guizot and the wife of Conrad de Witt. She was the sister of Guillaume Guizot. Her younger sister Pauline married Cornélis Henri de Witt, Conrad de Witt's brother. One of Henriette's daughters was the pronatalist and feminist activist Marguerite de Witt-Schlumberger.

Works
In order to support family finances, Henriette Guizot de Witt composed some one hundred novels and educational texts of moralized history, such as Légendes et récits pour la jeunesse (1876), Scènes historiques (five series, 1875–85), Les chroniques de l'histoire de France jusqu'au XIVe siècle (4 volumes 1882-85). She also translated Shakespeare and Charles Dickens into French.

References

External links

French non-fiction writers
Writers from Paris
1829 births
1908 deaths
19th-century French women writers
19th-century French novelists
19th-century French translators

Henriette Guizot de Witt


James Ford Robinson (also billed as J. F. Robinson and JFRobinson) (born December 2, 1955) is an American filmmaker whose independently produced 1997 romantic comedy-drama Still Breathing was nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques (Grand Prize of the Americas) at the Montreal World Film Festival.

A Texan, whose birthplace, San Benito, is located near the Mexican border, Robinson began his career in the state's second-largest city, San Antonio, in 1980 by making short films and documentaries for his production company, White Lion Pictograph. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he created television fare, both dramatic and documentary, along with corporate films, commercials and music videos. Still Breathing, his first dramatic theatrical feature, which he wrote, directed, and produced was filmed on location in San Antonio and San Marcos Springs, 46 miles northeast of the city, as well as in Hollywood. The film starred Canadian Brendan Fraser as an impractical, daydreaming San Antonio puppeteer, and Joanna Going as a cynical Los Angeles con artist, The film, which featured Lou Rawls, Ann Magnuson and Celeste Holm as Brendan Fraser's grandmother, was distributed theatrically in the U.S. by October Films and internationally via Lakeshore Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, and The Walt Disney Company. In addition to the film's generally enthusiastic notices, Brendan Fraser was honored with the "Golden Space Needle award" for "Best Actor" at the Seattle Film Festival. The film was also chosen by Blockbuster Video as its first "Only at Blockbuster" exclusive release.

In 1999, Robinson pioneered a new form of media when he founded CinemaElectric, a new media entertainment company to create "PocketCinema" for mobile phones. He became known as an innovator in this arena. He left CinemaElectric in 2006 to resume his film career.

External links

 Production Company website

American male screenwriters
Film producers from Texas
American documentary filmmakers
American television writers
People from San Benito, Texas
1955 births
Living people
Film directors from Texas
American male television writers
Screenwriters from Texas

James F. Robinson (filmmaker)


The hajdúk (singular hajdú) were irregular or mercenary soldiers of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Etymology

The Hungarian term hajdú (hajdúk is the plural) may derive from hajtó which meant (cattle) drover. In 16th century Hungary, cattle driving was an important and dangerous occupation and drovers traveled armed. Some of them ended up as bandits or retainers in the service of local landowners and many may have become soldiers.  In any case, the term hajduk came to be used in the 16th century to describe irregular soldiers. There is probably an etymological link between hajdú and the Turkish word haydut which was used by the Ottomans to describe Hungarian infantry soldiers, though it is not clear whether the word traveled from Hungarian to Turkish or vice versa.

History
In 1604-1606, István Bocskay, Lord of Bihar, led an insurrection against the Habsburg Emperor, whose army had recently occupied Transylvania and begun a reign of terror. The bulk of Bocskay's army was composed of serfs who had either fled from the war and the Habsburg drive toward Catholic conversion, or been discharged from the Imperial Army. These peasants were known as the hajduk, a term associated in the Hungarian language with the cattle drovers of the Great Plains. As a reward for their service, Bocskay emancipated the hajduk from the jurisdiction of their lords, granted them land, and guaranteed them rights to own property and to personal freedom. The emancipated hajduk constituted a new "warrior estate" within Hungarian feudal society. Many of the settlements created at this time still bear the prefix Hajdú.

See also
Hajduk (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth)

References

Military history of Hungary
Mercenary units and formations of the Early Modern era
Serbian mercenaries
16th- and 17th-century warrior types

Hajduk (Kingdom of Hungary)


GoldSim is dynamic, probabilistic simulation software developed by GoldSim Technology Group.
This general-purpose simulator is a hybrid of several simulation approaches, combining an extension of system dynamics with some aspects of discrete event simulation, and embedding the dynamic simulation engine within a Monte Carlo simulation framework.

While it is a general-purpose simulator, GoldSim has been most extensively used for environmental and engineering risk analysis, with applications in the areas of water resource management
, mining
, radioactive waste management
, geological carbon sequestration
, aerospace mission risk analysis

 and energy.

History

In 1990, Golder Associates, an international engineering consulting firm, was asked by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to develop probabilistic simulation software that could be used to help with decision support and management within the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. The results of this effort were two DOS-based programs (RIP and STRIP), which were used to support radioactive waste management projects within the DOE.

In 1996, in an effort funded by Golder Associates, the US DOE, the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (currently the Japan Atomic Energy Agency) and the Spanish National Radioactive Waste Company (ENRESA), the capabilities of RIP and STRIP were incorporated into a general purpose Windows-based simulator called GoldSim. Subsequent funding was also provided by NASA.

Initially only offered to the original funding organizations, GoldSim was released to the public in 2002.   In 2004, GoldSim Technology Group LLC was spun off from Golder Associates and is now a wholly independent company.

Notable applications include providing the simulation framework for: 1) the Yucca Mountain Repository Performance Assessment model developed by Sandia National Laboratories; 2) a comprehensive system-level computational model for performance assessment of geological sequestration of CO2 developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory; 3) a flood operations model to help better understand and fine tune operations of a large dam used for water supply and flood control in Queensland, Australia; and 4) models for simulating risks associated with future crewed space missions by NASA Ames Research Center.

Modeling Environment

GoldSim provides a visual and hierarchical modeling environment, which allows users to construct models by adding "elements" (model objects) that represent data, equations, processes or events, and linking them together into graphical representations that resemble influence diagrams. Influence arrows are automatically drawn as elements are referenced by other elements. Complex systems can be translated into hierarchical GoldSim models by creating layer of "containers" (or sub-models). Visual representations and hierarchical structures help users to build very large, complex models that can still be explained to interested stakeholders (e.g., government regulators, elected officials, and the public).

Though it is primarily a continuous simulator, GoldSim has a number of features typically associated with discrete simulators.  By combining these two simulation methods, systems that are best represented using both continuous and discrete dynamics can often be more accurately simulated.  Examples include tracking the quantity of water in a reservoir that is subject to both continuous inflows and outflows, as well as sudden storm events; and tracking the quantity of fuel in a space vehicle as it is subjected to random perturbations (e.g., component failures, extreme environmental conditions).

Because the software was originally developed for complex environmental applications, in which many inputs are uncertain and/or stochastic, in addition to being a dynamic simulator, GoldSim is a Monte Carlo simulator, such that inputs can be defined as distributions and the entire system simulated a large number of times to provide probabilistic outputs.  As such, the software incorporates a number of computational features to facilitate probabilistic simulation of complex systems, including tools for generating and correlating stochastic time series, advanced sampling capabilities (including latin hypercube sampling, nested Monte Carlo analysis, and importance sampling), and support for distributed processing.

See also
Computer Simulation
Monte Carlo Simulation
List of computer simulation software

References

External links

Simulation software
Risk management software
Scientific simulation software
Mathematical software
Environmental science software
Numerical software
Simulation programming languages
Probabilistic software
Science software for Windows

GoldSim


Rosie and Jim (sometimes written as Rosie & Jim) is a British children's television programme 'produced by Ragdoll Productions. It was aired on ITV from 1990 to the year 2000. The programme continued to be intermittently repeated on CITV until August 2004. Rosie and Jim are two ragdolls who live aboard a narrowboat coincidentally named the Ragdoll, which is from Birmingham. They sit with a concertina on their lap, and come alive when no one is looking, to explore the world that they pass by on their canal. They learn to experience things by following Ragdoll's owner on adventures and secretly join in with them. Usually, they end up causing trouble but they never get caught because no one ever sees them (ever).

English-language television programs
1990 television series debuts
2000 television series endings

Rosie and Jim


"Cliffs of Dover" is an instrumental composition by guitarist Eric Johnson which appeared on his 1990 Ah Via Musicom album although the song had frequently been played live by Johnson as early as 1984. The album version of the song is composed in the key of G major. The song was played with a Gibson ES-335 (as well as a Fender Stratocaster) through a B. K. Butler Tube Driver and an Echoplex plugged into a 100-watt Marshall amplifier. The song takes its name from the White Cliffs of Dover, an extensive and visually stunning chalk outcrop that runs along the southeast coast of England. It is also featured on the video game Guitar Hero III and is available as DLC for the game Rocksmith 2014.

Song structure

"Cliffs of Dover" begins with an ad-libbed electric guitar solo, using techniques such as string skipping and hybrid picking. In the solo intro, Johnson does not adhere to any distinct time signature. Drums are then added as the song settles into a  rhythmic shuffle verse accompanied by a very accessible set of melodies that, throughout the song intro, feature variations (octavations for example) on the main chorus.

The outro or coda then recalls the freestyle mood and timing of the ad-libbed intro.

While he did indeed compose "Cliffs of Dover", Johnson does not take full credit, saying "I don't even know if I can take credit for writing 'Cliffs of Dover' ... it was just there for me one day ... literally wrote in five minutes ... kind of a gift from a higher place that all of us are eligible for. We just have to listen for it and be available to receive it."

Equipment used

Johnson has stated that the guitar he used in the intro before the band kicks in is a 1954 Strat (possibly "Virginia"). When the band comes, the guitar is a stop-tail Gibson ES-335 (either a 1963 or 1964) until the solo. The first part of the solo Johnson recorded with ES-335 was no good, so he cut it out and recorded the Stratocaster with a 1980s Tube Driver in its place. Halfway through the solo, around 3:03, there is a noticeable change in tone when the guitar switches back to the original Gibson lead track. He got playful remarks about it from engineer Richard Mullen, saying "You can't do that!" but it was agreed that it sounded like Johnson simply enabled an effect pedal halfway through the solo.

Accolades

"Cliffs of Dover" was voted number 17 in Guitar World magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitar Solos, placing it between 16, "Heartbreaker" (by Led Zeppelin) and 18 "Little Wing" (by The Jimi Hendrix Experience).

In 1992, "Cliffs of Dover" won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, beating the Allman Brothers Band ("Kind of Bird"), Danny Gatton ("Elmira Street Boogie"), Rush ("Where's My Thing?"), and Yes ("Masquerade").

References

1990 songs
Eric Johnson songs
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Rock instrumentals
Songs about England
1990s instrumentals

Cliffs of Dover (composition)


Kevin van der Perren (born 6 August 1982) is a Belgian former competitive figure skater. He is the 2007 & 2009 European bronze medalist, a three-time Grand Prix medalist, and an eight-time (2000–2004, 2007, 2011, 2012) Belgian national champion. Van der Perren was the flagbearer for Belgium at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

Personal life
Kevin van der Perren was born on 6 August 1982 in Ninove, Belgium. He married British skater Jenna McCorkell on 17 May 2008. The couple lives in Coleraine, Northern Ireland and have a son named Ben, born in 2019.

Career

Van der Perren became interested in figure skating after a traveling ice show came to his town to perform. Although his parents wanted him to play soccer and he was teased by his classmates at school, he refused to give up his dream of being an elite figure skater.

2001–02 to 2004–05
Making his first Olympic appearance, van der Perren finished 12th at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the 2002 World Junior Championships, he won the silver medal and also became the first skater to land a three jump combination, consisting of a 3S-3T-3L. He included this combination in his free program until the end of the 2003–04 season.

2005–06 season
In November 2005, van der Perren sustained a back injury. He was the flagbearer for Belgium at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, where he finished 9th. He withdrew from the 2006 World Championships due to a hip injury he sustained after the Olympics.

2006–07 season: First European bronze medal
Van der Perren considered not going to the 2007 European Championships, but in the end he participated and finished on the podium, after edging Sergei Davydov by 0.07 for the bronze. This made him the first Belgian singles skater to win a medal at Europeans since 1947. He missed the 2007 World Championships after re-injuring his back a week before the event when he slipped on back crossovers and fell into a barrier. He trained in Belgium and also Coventry, England, due to ice being expensive in his native country.

2007–08 season
In the 2007–08 season, van der Perren was assigned to the 2007 Skate Canada and the 2007 Trophée Eric Bompard as his Grand Prix events. He finished second at Skate Canada, where he won the free skate, and fourth at Trophee Eric Bompard, qualifying him for the Grand Prix Final. He then finished 6th at the Grand Prix Final and 5th at Europeans. At the 2008 Worlds, van der Perren finished 9th in the SP and 3rd in the LP for 6th place overall. He underwent hip surgery shortly afterward.

2008–09 season: Second European bronze medal
Van der Perren returned to competition at the start of the 2008–09 season. After being forced to withdraw from two events, he finished 5th at the 2008 Cup of Russia. Despite skating with a painful hip injury, Van der Perren won the bronze medal at the 2009 European Championships, his second medal at Europeans.

2009–10 season
In the 2009–10 season, van der Perren competed at the Finlandia Trophy where he took a hard fall on his injured hip but completed the competition. He finished 11th at the European Championships. He was the flagbearer for Belgium at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. He finished 17th at his third Olympics. At the 2010 World Championships, he finished 8th after a free skate in which he landed a 4T-3T-3T combination; he was the first skater ever to have performed this in competition. Van der Perren later said that he had never done this combination followed by a 3A in practice, and that he had skated in honor of his grandfather, who died the night before the free skate.

2010–11 season
Although he had considered retirement following the 2009–10 season, van der Perren decided to continue through the 2011 European Championships, where he finished 4th. He decided to change coaches from Yuri Bureiko to Sylvie De Rijcke and continue on. He competed at the 2011 World Championships, where he finished in 17th place.

2011–12 season
Van der Perren won the silver medal at the 2011 Skate America after finishing first in the free skating, equaling his best showing on the Grand Prix circuit. It was the third Grand Prix medal of his career. He stated that the 2012 European Championships would be his final event. He was forced to withdraw from the 2012 Europeans prior to the free skating due to a wrist injury. Van der Perren later announced via his website that the injury was not a fracture but a ligament strain, and that he hoped to be able to compete at the 2012 World Championships in Nice, France. He finished 15th at the World Championships after placing 18th in the short program and 10th in the free skate, for which he received a standing ovation. He then retired from competition.

Post-competitive career
Van der Perren is a full-time coach in Belgium as well as running a skating show, Ice Fantillusion, with his wife. In September 2012, van der Perren said that he was discussing training in pair skating.

In October 2012, van der Perren began training for the 5th edition of Sterren Op De Dansvloer (Belgium's Dancing with the Stars) with partner Charissa van Dipte and debuted on the show in November. In January 2013, they were named as the champions.

Jumping ability
Van der Perren is the first Belgian skater to land a quadruple jump (toe loop) in competition, and the first skater ever to have done a 4T-3T-3T combination in competition. At the 2005 World Championships, he completed a 3F-3T-3Lo combination in his free program, although he touched down with his hand on the final jump. Van der Perren landed the combination again at the 2008 Worlds, this time with no touchdown.

Programs

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

References

External links

1982 births
Living people
People from Ninove
Belgian male single skaters
Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Olympic figure skaters for Belgium
European Figure Skating Championships medalists
World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists
Sportspeople from East Flanders

Kevin van der Perren


The Al Saleel National Park is a wildlife reserve in the Sharqiyah region of Oman.

The park extends over an area of , and is predominantly covered by forests of acacia trees. It is home to a number of rare species such as the Arabian gazelle, the Omani wild cat ("Al Senmar") (Felis silvestris gordoni) and other animals which have made this environment their home, including the red fox, the Egyptian eagle (Neophron percnopterus) and others.

References

External links
Nature reserves in Oman

Protected areas of Oman

Al Saleel National Park


James Preston Cook (October 2, 1921 – November 29, 1983) was a stock car racer who competed in the NASCAR Grand National Series and NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model (PCLM) Series. Born in Illinois, Cook lived in Boston before relocating west across the United States to Norwalk, California.

Biography
Cook began racing in Boston. He moved to the Western United States in the early 1940s. He had a successful short track racing career in Southern California, primarily driving for owner Floyd Johnson. Cook made 39 starts in the Nextel Cup series from 1954 through 1970. Most of Cook's starts were in West Coast races during the time the races counted for both Nextel Cup and PCLM points, though he did compete in the inaugural World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and in the 1964 Daytona 500 and Richmond 250. After this foray, his Nextel Cup series starts were limited to an annual start in the Motor Trend 500, then held each January at Riverside International Raceway. He did compete regularly in the PCLM series, primarily driving for owners Floyd Johnson or Cos Cancilla, finishing in the top ten in points eight times between 1956 and 1969, with a best points finish of 3rd on three occasions (1963, 1967 and 1968). He had five career victories in the PCLM series, the last one coming at Tri-Cities Speedway in West Richland, Washington in July 1969.

Cook scored one career win in the Nextel Cup series at the old California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento, California on September 11, 1960. The 100 mile race took place on the 1 mile dirt oval. Cook, driving Floyd Johnson's Dodge, edged Scotty Cain's T-Bird.

Cook's racing career came to an end when he was severely injured in a crash during the 1970 Motor Trend 500 at Riverside International Raceway on January 18, 1970. His Ford crashed into the end of the turn 9 wall and he suffered head trauma and many broken bones.

After his accident left him using a wheelchair full-time and with large medical and hospital bills, benefit races were held for him at Southern California tracks.

Cook was murdered on November 29, 1983, by a drifter who broke into his Oceanside, California apartment and beat him to death with one of his racing trophies.

In 2006, Jim Cook was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame.

References

External links

1921 births
1983 deaths
Male murder victims
NASCAR drivers
People murdered in California
Racing drivers from California
Racing drivers from Illinois
People from Norwalk, California
Deaths by beating in the United States
Racing drivers from Boston

Jim Cook (racing driver)


Edwin Maysonet (born October 17, 1981) is a former professional baseball infielder. He has played parts of two seasons in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros in 2008–2009 and part of one season for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2012.

Career
Maysonet was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 19th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft out of Delta State University. He played that season for their Class A (Short Season) Tri-City ValleyCats. In 2004, he played for the Class A Lexington Legends. He split the 2005 season between Lexington and the Class A-Advanced Salem Avalanche. He returned to Salem for the entire 2006 season. He played the entire 2007 season with the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks. He played the majority of the 2008 season with the Triple-A Round Rock Express, but was called up by the Astros on Sept. 1. He made his major league debut on September 7. Maysonet played 39 games for Houston in 2009 but played the rest of the season with Round Rock. Besides a brief rehab assignment with the Gulf Coast League Astros in 2010, Maysonet played most of his 2010 season with Round Rock.

He was granted free agency after the 2010 season. On December 20, 2010, the Milwaukee Brewers signed him to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training in 2011.

Maysonet was called up to the Brewers from Triple-A on May 5, 2012.

Maysonet hit a grand slam on May 12, 2012. It was his second career home run and the first grand slam for the Brewers in the 2012 season. It came against the Cubs in the bottom of the sixth inning, giving the Brewers a 6–1 lead.

See also

 List of Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico

References

External links

1981 births
Living people
Houston Astros players
Milwaukee Brewers players
Major League Baseball infielders
Tri-City ValleyCats players
Lexington Legends players
Salem Avalanche players
Corpus Christi Hooks players
Round Rock Express players
Gulf Coast Astros players
Nashville Sounds players
Somerset Patriots players
People from Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Delta State Statesmen baseball players
Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico
Iowa Cubs players
Minor league baseball coaches

Edwin Maysonet