Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities and later Wikia) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e., video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). The privately held, for-profit Delaware company was founded in October 2004 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. Fandom was acquired in 2018 by TPG Inc. and Jon Miller through Integrated Media Co.

Fandom uses MediaWiki, the open-source wiki software used by Wikipedia. Unlike Wikimedia, Fandom, Inc. operates as a for-profit company and derives its income from advertising and sold content, publishing most user-provided text under copyleft licenses. The company also runs the associated Fandom editorial project, offering pop-culture and gaming news. Fandom wikis are hosted under the domain fandom.com, which has become one of the top 50 most visited websites in the world, ranking the 47th most visited website in the world as of April 2023, according to Similarweb.

History

2004–2009: Early days and growth
Fandom was launched on October 18, 2004, at 23:50:49 (UTC) under the name Wikicities (which invited comparisons to Yahoo's GeoCities), by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, and Angela Beesley Starling—respectively chairman emeritus and advisory board member of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wales' original idea was to use his Wikipedia idea for a place where people from the same city or other geographical place could come together.

The name of the project was changed to Wikia on March 27, 2006. In the month before the move, Wikia announced a US$4 million venture capital investment from Bessemer Venture Partners and First Round Capital. Nine months later, Amazon.com invested $10 million in Series B funding. By September 2006, Wikia had approximately 1,500 wikis in 48 languages. Over time, Wikia has incorporated formerly independent wikis such as LyricWiki, Nukapedia, Uncyclopedia, and WoWWiki. Gil Penchina described Wikia early on as "the rest of the library and magazine rack" to Wikipedia's encyclopedia. The material has also been described as informal, and often bordering on entertainment, allowing the importing of maps, YouTube videos, and other non-traditional wiki material.

2010–2015: New management
By 2010, wikis could be created in 188 different languages. In October 2011, Craig Palmer, the former CEO of Gracenote, replaced Penchina as CEO. In February 2012, co-founder Beesley Starling left Wikia to launch a startup called ChalkDrop.com. At the end of November 2012, Wikia raised $10.8 million in Series C funding from Institutional Venture Partners and previous investors Bessemer Ventures Partners and Amazon.com. Another $15 million was raised in August 2014 for Series D funding, with investors Digital Garage, Amazon, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Institutional Venture Partners. The total raised at this point was $39.8 million.

On March 4, 2015, Wikia appointed Walker Jacobs, former executive vice-president of Turner Broadcasting System, to the new position of chief operating officer. In December 2015, Wikia launched the Fan Contributor Program.

2016–2018: Fandom brand

On January 25, 2016, Wikia launched a new entertainment news site named Fandom.

On October 4, 2016, Wikia itself was rebranded as "Fandom powered by Wikia", to better associate itself with the Fandom website. The parent company Wikia, Inc. remained under its then-current name until 2019, and the homepage of Wikia was moved to wikia.com/fandom and later to fandom.com.

In December 2016, Wikia appointed Dorth Raphaely, former general manager of Bleacher Report, as chief content officer.

On May 18, 2017, Fandom updated their branding with a refreshed logo, all-uppercase lettering and a flat design instead of the previous green-blue gradients.

2018–present: Further acquisitions and inclusivity
In February 2018, former AOL CEO Jon Miller, backed by private equity firm TPG Capital, acquired Fandom. Miller was named co-chairman of Wikia, Inc., alongside Jimmy Wales, and TPG Capital director Andrew Doyle assumed the role of interim CEO.

In July 2018, Fandom purchased Screen Junkies from Defy Media, and in December of that year, they had acquired Curse Media which included wiki farm Gamepedia and websites part of the Curse Network such as D&D Beyond, Futhead, Muthead, and StrawPoll.me.

In February 2019, former StubHub CEO Perkins Miller took over as CEO, and Wikia fully changed its domain name to fandom.com. Various wikis had been tested with the new domain during 2018, with some wikis that focused on "more serious topics" having their domains changed to wikia.org instead.

In June 2019, Fandom began an effort to rewrite its core platform, which was written based on MediaWiki version 1.19, to base it on a newer version of the software. On March 11, 2020, Fandom released the Unified Community Platform (UCP), based on MediaWiki 1.33, for newly created wikis.

In 2020, Fandom sold Curse Network properties to Magic Find which includes communities and news websites.

In November 2020, Fandom began to migrate Gamepedia wikis to a fandom.com domain as part of their search engine optimization strategy, with migrations continuing into 2021.

In February 2021, Fandom acquired Focus Multimedia, the retailer behind Fanatical, an e-commerce platform that sells digital games, ebooks and other products related to gaming.

In late March 2021, Fandom updated its terms of use policy to prohibit deadnaming transgender individuals across their websites. This policy was in response to a referendum on the Star Wars wiki Wookieepedia to ban deadnaming, which triggered a debate around an article about the non-binary artist Robin Pronovost. In response to the deadnaming controversy, Fandom also introduced new LGBT guidelines across its websites in late June 2021 which include links to queer-inclusive and trans support resources.

In June 2021, Fandom began to roll out FandomDesktop, a redesigned theme for desktop devices, with plans to retire its legacy Oasis and Hydra skins once the rollout was complete. Two months later on August 3, Fandom rolled out a new look, new colors, new logo, and introduced a new tagline, "For the love of fans."

In late November/early December 2021, all remaining wikis under the wikia.org domain migrated to the fandom.com domain.

On April 13, 2022, Hasbro announced that it would acquire D&D Beyond from Fandom.

Fandom shut down StrawPoll.me in August 2022.

On October 3, 2022, Fandom acquired GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures.

Services and features

Present

Wikis
The main purpose of articles in a Fandom community is to cover information and discussion on a particular topic in a much greater and more comprehensive detail level than what can be found on Wikipedia articles.

Other examples of content that is generally considered beyond the scope of information of Wikipedia articles includes Fandom information about video games and related video game topics, detailed instructions, gameplay details, plot details, and so forth. Gameplay concepts can also have their own articles. Fandom also allows wikis to have a point of view, rather than the neutral POV that is required by Wikipedia (although NPOV is a local policy on many Fandom communities).

The image policies of Fandom communities tend to be more lenient than those of Wikimedia Foundation projects, allowing articles with much more illustration. Fandom requires all user text content to be published under a free license; most use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, although a few wikis use a licence with a noncommercial clause (for instance Memory Alpha, Uncyclopedia and others) and some use the GNU Free Documentation License. Fandom's terms of use forbid hate speech, libel, pornography, or copyright infringement. Other material is allowed, as long as the added material does not duplicate existing wikis.

Wikis are also not owned by their founders, nor does the founder's opinion carry more weight in disagreements than any other user's opinion. Consensus and cooperation are the primary means for organizing a community on Fandom. However, Fandom may take decisions affecting the community even if there is no consensus at all.

Technology
 Fandom uses a heavily modified version of MediaWiki software, based on the version 1.37.6 of MediaWiki. It has more than 200 extensions installed, most of them created by their staff of developers, to add social features like blogs, chat, badges, forums, and multimedia, but also remove features like advanced user options or skins. The personal choice of using the Monobook skin instead of the default custom skin was removed on May 25, 2018, alluding GDPR compliance.

In August 2016, Fandom announced it would switch to a service-oriented architecture. It has also removed many custom extensions and functionality for specific wiki, has created certain features to fill those needs.

Entertainment news
In 2016, Wikia launched Fandom, an online entertainment media website. The program utilizes volunteer contributors called "Fandom Contributors" to produce articles, working alongside an editorial team employed by Wikia. In contrast to the blogging feature of individual wiki communities, Fandom focuses on pop culture and fan topics such as video games, movies, and television shows. The project features fan opinions, interviews with property creators, reviews, and how-to guides. Fandom also includes videos and specific news coverage sponsored or paid for by a property creator to promote their property.

In the same year, it was also announced that the entire Wikia platform would be rebranded under the Fandom name on October 4, 2016. A leak from Fandom's Community Council was posted to Reddit's /r/Wikia subreddit in August 2018, confirming that Fandom would be migrating all wikis from the wikia.com domain, to fandom.com in early 2019, as part of a push for greater adoption of Fandom's wiki-specific applications on both iOS and Android's app ecosystems. The post was later deleted.

Wiki partnerships
Fandom has created several official partnerships to create wikis, vetted by the corporation as being the "official" encyclopedia or wiki of a property. In 2012, Fandom partnered with Sony Online Entertainment to create the first "Wikia Official Community" for PlanetSide 2, with the game's wiki slated to receive exclusive content and support. In 2014, Fandom partnered with Roddenberry Enterprises to create the Trek Initiative, a Fandom hosted wiki community site that features video interviews, promotions, and other material about Star Trek to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Fandom made similar partnerships with 2K Games during the launch of Civilization: Beyond Earth and Warner Bros Interactive for Shadow of Mordor. Fandom also has partnerships with Lionsgate Media to promote Starz and Film franchises through wiki content, fandom articles, and advertisements.

Esports
In 2021 the United States Navy hired Fandom to manage and promote esports tournaments and streams on Twitch.

Fandom Games (YouTube channel)
With Fandom's acquisition of Curse Media, the Curse Entertainment YouTube channel was renamed to Fandom Games. Fandom Games publishes Honest Game Trailers, which was previously published on the Smosh Games YouTube channel until Screen Junkies was acquired by Fandom.

Past services

OpenServing
OpenServing was a short-lived Web publishing project owned by Fandom, founded on December 12, 2006, and abandoned, unannounced, in January 2008. Like Fandom, OpenServing was to offer free wiki hosting, but it would differ in that each wiki's founder would retain any revenue gained from advertising on the site. OpenServing used a modified version of the Wikimedia Foundation's MediaWiki software created by ArmchairGM, but was intended to branch out to other open source packages.

According to Fandom co-founder and chairman Jimmy Wales, the OpenServing site received several thousand applications in January 2007. However, after a year, no sites had been launched under the OpenServing banner.

Armchair GM
ArmchairGM was a sports forum and wiki site created by Aaron Wright, Dan Lewis, Robert Lefkowitz and developer David Pean. Launched in early 2006, the site was initially US-based, but sought to improve its links to sports associated with Britain over its first year. Its MediaWiki-based software included a Digg-style article-voting mechanism, blog-like comment forms with "thumbs up/down" user feedback, and the ability to write multiple types of posts (news, opinions, or "locker room" discussion entries).

In late 2006, the site was bought by Fandom for $2 million. After the purchase was made, the former owners applied ArmchairGM's architecture to other Fandom sites. However, Wikia had "dropped support" for the custom software innovations by ArmchairGM by January 2010. From September 2010 to February 2011, Fandom absorbed ArmchairGM's encyclopedia articles and blanked all of its old blog entries, effectively discontinuing ArmchairGM in its original form.

The software powering ArmchairGM was incrementally open-sourced starting in February 2008 with the public release of the SocialProfile MediaWiki extension. This process was complete by August 2011, when the original ArmchairGM codebase (internally codenamed wikia-ny) was released in full. Since 2008 the ArmchairGM innovations, nicknamed "social tools", have been developed by volunteer developers of the MediaWiki community and they are available under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later, which is a free and open source software license. The source code is hosted on the Wikimedia Foundation's web servers and mirrored to the popular source code hosting platform GitHub.

Search engines
Wikia, Inc. initially proposed creating a copyleft search engine; the software (but not the site) was named "Wikiasari" by a November 2004 naming contest. The proposal became inactive in 2005. The "public alpha" of the Wikia Search web search engine was launched on January 7, 2008, from the USSHC underground data center. This roll-out version of the search interface was roundly panned by reviewers in technology media.
The project was ended in March 2009. Late in 2009, a new search engine was established to index and display results from all sites hosted on Fandom.

Questions and answers site
In January 2009, the company created a question and answer website named "Wikianswers" (not to be confused with the preexisting WikiAnswers). In March 2010, Fandom re-launched "Answers from Wikia", where users could create topic-specialized knowledge market wikis based upon Fandom's own Wikianswers subdomain.

Controversies

Advertising controversies
Fandom communities have complained of inappropriate advertisements, resource-intensive advertisements, or advertising in the body text area. There is no easy way for individual communities to switch to conventional paid hosting, as Fandom usually owns the relevant domain names. When a community leaves Fandom for new hosting, and thereafter typically continues to operate the abandoned wiki using its original name and content for advertising revenue as long as editing and viewership remains, adversely affecting the new wiki's search rankings, potentially also resulting in outdated or incorrect information being present and viewed more often than the information on the new wiki. Fandom only allows a message directing viewers to the new wiki for two weeks before the message is removed, and any administrators involved in the new wiki will have their rights on the Fandom wiki removed.

McDonalds Grimace Shake promotion
In June 2023, McDonald's paid Fandom an undisclosed amount to temporarily replace the McDonald's Wiki's main page and exhaustive article on Grimace into an advertisement promoting the Grimace Shake and the character's 52nd anniversary. The article's primary contributor, Nathan Steinmetz, complained that the decision undermined his research and efforts and considered Fandom to have set a "really bad precedent" of IP holders' ability to surpress user-generated content with press releases.

Wiki departures
A number of wikis have migrated away from Fandom, citing issues such as intrusive advertising and branding, a non-user-friendly site design, a lack of customizability and company cross-promotion which is often irrelevant to wiki content. Other communities, such as the Zelda Wiki and Minecraft Wiki, have named the increasing "corporate consolidation" of wikis, alleged censorship, Fandom's "degraded" functionality and the Grimace controversy among their reasons for migrating. Covering the Minecraft Wiki's departure for PC Gamer, Rich Stanton thought that most of the migrations began after the 2018 acquisition and Gamepedia's move to Fandom. He noted that the Minecraft Wiki would have to face Fandom's higher search engine optimization (SEO) and the struggle to establish a wider audience after moving. In 2023, Fandom CEO Perkins Miller told The Verge that he takes wiki migration "very seriously".

Some of the more high-profile wikis which have migrated from Fandom include the Fallout, Runescape and Warframe wikis in 2018, the Zelda and Terraria wikis in 2022, and the Minecraft Wiki in 2023. Some wikis have received support from the creators of their topic areas during migration.

Relationship with Wikipedia

 In the 2000s, Fandom, then called Wikia, was accused of unduly profiting from a perceived association with Wikipedia. Although Fandom has been referred to in the media as "the commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia", Wikimedia and Fandom staff call this description inaccurate.

In 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation shared hosting and bandwidth costs with Wikia, and received some donated office space from Wikia during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. At the end of the fiscal year 2007, Wikia owed the foundation $6,000. In June 2007, two members of the foundation's board of directors also served as employees, officers, or directors of Wikia. In January 2009, Wikia subleased two conference rooms to the Wikimedia Foundation for the Wikipedia Usability Initiative. According to a 2009 email by Erik Möller, deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation:
We obtained about a dozen bids... We used averaging as a way to arrive at a fair market rate to neither advantage nor disadvantage Wikia when suggesting a rate. The averaging also resulted in a rate that was roughly equivalent to the most comparable space in the running.

Fandom, Inc.

The overall parent company, Fandom, Inc., is headquartered at the Hallidie Building on 130 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California. The company was incorporated in Florida in December 2004 and re-incorporated in Delaware as Wikia, Inc. on January 10, 2006.

Fandom has technical staff in the US, but also has an office in Poznań, Poland, where the primary engineering functions are performed.

Fandom derives income from advertising. The company initially used Google AdSense but moved on to Federated Media before bringing ad management in-house. Alongside Fandom's in-house advertising, they continue to use AdSense as well as Amazon Ads and several other third-party advertising services. Fandom also gains income from various partnerships oriented around various sweepstake sponsorships on related wikis.

Fandom has several other offices. International operations are based in Germany, and Asian operations and sales are conducted in Tokyo. Other sales offices are located in Chicago, Latin America, Los Angeles (marketing programming and content), New York City, and London.

See also
 Comparison of wiki hosting services

Notes

References

External links

Free-content websites
MediaWiki websites
Wiki farms
Wiki controversies
American companies established in 2004
Internet properties established in 2004
Online publishing companies of the United States
Privately held companies based in California
Knowledge markets
South of Market, San Francisco
Wikis
2004 establishments in California
Jimmy Wales
TPG Capital companies

Fandom (website)


Operation Cactus Lilly, better known as The Meghna Heli Bridge or the Crossing of the Meghna, was an air assault operation conducted between 9 and 12 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. It was conducted by the Indian Army and Indian Air Force to cross the Meghna River, bypass a Pakistani stronghold at Ashuganj/Bhairab Bazar and reach Dhaka. The operation is generally regarded as the brainchild of Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) Sagat Singh. Without it, Indian forces would not have been able to complete the encirclement of Dhaka and it would likely have led to a lengthening of the war.

Background

Advance of 57th Mountain Division

The 57th Mountain Division had been given the task of advancing on Dhaka from the East and North East. On 5 December, the 57th captured its first objective, the Pakistani fortified town of Akhaura. From here, they were supposed to advance to the town of Daudkani and then Feni, however IV Corps redirected the division to attack and seize Brahmanbaria. This was done to cut off the Pakistani 202nd and 313th Infantry Brigades in Sylhet which had come under pressure from the advance of other IV Corps units further north of Sylhet. Then, the objective of the 57th became to secure the eastern bank of the Meghna and capture Bhairab Bazar on the western bank before advancing on Dhaka.

Capture of Brahmanbaria
73 Mountain Brigade, under the 57th, was given the task of capturing Brahmanbaria. 73 Mtn Bde, along with assistance from the maneuver elements of 311 Mtn Bde (namely, 14 Guards) enveloped Brahmanbaria by 7 December. Elements of the Pakistan 27th Infantry Brigade, noting that they had been enveloped, chose to withdraw from Brahmanbaria. This was also due in part to the CO of the 27th, Brigadier Saadullah Khan, ordering a general retreat to the fortified positions at Ashuganj. With Brahmanbaria now captured with no resistance, the next target of the 57th became Ashuganj.

Orders of battle

Indian Army
During the advance from Brahmanbaria to Ashuganj, and the air assault operation that followed, the order of battle was thus:

73 Mountain Brigade

 14th Battalion, Brigade of the Guards
 19th Battalion, Punjab Regiment
 19th Battalion, Rajputana Rifles (Raj Rif) (until 11 Dec)

311 Mountain Brigade

 4th Battalion, Brigade of the Guards
 18th Battalion, Rajput Regiment
 10th Battalion, Bihar Regiment
 19th Battalion, Rajputana Rifles (detached from 73 Mtn Bde and attached to 311 Mtn Bde on 11 Dec)
 15 Engineer Regiment

Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force had attached multiple helicopter units to the various Indian Army offensive corps before the war. The role of these units was to ferry supplies and assist the Corps Commanders in attaining their objective. The 2 helicopter units, under Group Captain Chandan Singh that performed this air assault were as follows:

105 Helicopter Unit

 7 x Mi-4s

110 Helicopter Units

 7 x Mi-4s

Pakistan Army
Defending against Lt. Gen. Sagat Singh's IV Corps was the Pakistan Army's 14th Infantry Division. Defending Ashuganj and Bhairab Bazar would only be the 27th Infantry Brigade. Its order of battle was thus:

27 Infantry Brigade

 6 x M24 Chaffee Light Tanks
 33rd Battalion, Baluch Regiment
 12th Battalion, Frontier Force

313 Infantry Brigade

 22nd Battalion, Baluch Regiment
 30th Battalion, Frontier Force

Objectives

First phase
The objective for the 57th Mountain Division in what became the first phase on their advance across the Meghna were as follows, in the order that follows:

 Capture Ashuganj
 Capture and cross Coronation Bridge
 Capture Bhairab Bazar
 Advance toward Dhaka

Second phase
As the Pakistanis, while withdrawing from Ashuganj demolished Coronation Bridge, rendering it unusable, the objectives - for what became the second phase - were as follows, in the order that follows:

4 Guards, 311 Mtn Bde

 Land at Raipura
 Advance toward Narsingdi
 Capture railway bridge at Narsingdi

73 Mtn Bde

 Use civilian fishing boats to cross Meghna under cover of darkness
 Advance toward Bhairab Bazar and surround it
 19 Rajputana Rifles to link up with 4 Guards at Narsingdi

Following this, the 57th was to begin the advance on Dhaka.

First phase

Battle of Ashuganj
What became, effectively, the "First Phase" of the Meghna Crossing, was the advance to Ashuganj. The advance was spearheaded by 73 Mtn Bde, supported by tanks from 63 Cavalry. However, the Pakistani 27 Infantry Brigade had turned Ashuganj into a fortress. The spearhead of 18th Battalion, Rajput Regiment and 10th Battalion, Bihar Regiment, supported by a squadron of PT-76s from 63 Cavalry reached the outskirts of Ashuganj at 1300hrs on 9 December. They arrived to find that the bridge had already been blown up ahead of the arrival of Indian troops and a significant force of the Pakistani 27 Infantry Brigade was camped at Ashuganj to defend it. In the fighting, 44 Indian soldiers were killed and 4 PT-76s destroyed or damaged, as against 29 Pakistani soldiers. However, by the morning of the 10th, the Pakistanis had retreated from Ashuganj on the last remaining boats to Bhairab Bazar.

Second phase

9 December - air assault
It had become clear to Gen. Sagat Singh by 7 December, that an air assault operation would be required to cross the Meghna. Inspired by the airlift/air assault operations that had surrounded Sylhet between 6 and 9 December, he ordered plans to be drawn up for a similar operation to cross the Meghna. The engineers of 15 Engineer Regiment and Group Captain Chandan began to plan the operation. They identified possible landing grounds and, with the help of the Mukti Bahini, began to mark them with modified torches. Mukti Bahini fighters set up these modified torches in paddy fields at Raipura (the DZ) in the hours before the helicopters landed. At 1300hrs on the 9th, as 18 Rajpur and 10 Bihar entered Ashuganj, 4 Guards was recalled from the lines at Ashuganj to the stadium at Brahmanbaria. Sometime in the evening, they began to board Mi-4 helicopters bound for Raipura. According to Major Chandrakant Singh, an officer in 4 Guards at the time, the 14 Mi-4s were escorted by 2 Folland Gnat figters and landed at their DZ without any issue.

The Mi-4s had had to land, in the pitch dark, on dimly lit fields. As such, upon landing, Flying Officer D. S. Shaheed got out and began to mark the DZ with wheat flour. At the time, there was a fear that the two brigades of the Pakistani 14th Inf Div at Bhairab Bazar would spot the landings and overwhelm 4 Guards before they'd had a chance to regroup. However, no such counterattack materialised. By 4 am, the helicopters had conducted about 50-60 sorties and had moved all ~700 men of 4 Guards, along with an artillery battery from 82 Light Regiment, to Raipura. After the war, it was revealed by Pakistani POW's that - upon hearing the sound of helicopters - it was assumed that an entire Indian brigade had been landed to their rear and as such, they were not allowed to move out of Bhairab Bazar.

9 December - 19 Punjab crosses the Meghna
At the same time as 4 Guard was moving, 19 Punjab had moved further south on the eastern bank of the Meghna to the village of Charlalpur. From here, using commandeered civilian fishing boats, they crossed the Meghna under cover of darkness, with the entire battalion having crossed within a few hours. They immediately moved to surround the Pakistani forces at Bhairab Bazar, as there were fears of an imminent Pakistani attack on 4 Guards.

10-11 December - advance on Narsingdi
4 Guards had reorganised and regrouped by 0400hrs, following the landings at Raipura. After patrols had scouted out Pakistani positions on the road to Narsingdi, 4 Guards began their attack on Narsingdi railway bridge. Their objective was to keep the Pakistani defenders occupied and unable to detonate the explosives on the bridge. By the end of the day, the battalion had secured a river crossing point on the western bank of the Meghna and had captured the railway bridge at Narsingdi. It materialised that the Pakistanis had left behind only 1 platoon of paramilitary to defend Narsingdi, with the Army moving across the Lakhya River to bolster the defence of Dhaka. As such, 4 Guards faced no casualties and wiped out or captured the platoon with ease.

As 4 Guards was fighting in Narsingdi, the Mi-4s were carrying out multiple sorties to land 10 Bihar at Raipura. From there, 10 Bihar (along with a battery of medium artillery which was also landed) moved west to assist in the capture of Narsingdi. Simultaneously, on the 11th, 19 Raj Rif had been crossing the Meghna on boats and linked up with 4 Guards by midday, being transferred into 311 Mountain Brigade.

12 December - advance towards Dhaka
With 27 and 313 Infantry Brigades successfully isolated at Bhairab Bazar, the entirety of 311 Mountain Brigade would be airlifted into Raipura by the 14 Mi-4s which flew over 200 sorties between 9 and 13 December. By 0800hrs, 4 Guards - the forwardmost unit of 311 Mountain Brigade - was only 12 kilometers short of Dhaka. They encountered Pakistani positions on the east of the Lakhya River, but these were quickly overwhelmed. By the end of the 12th, 311 Mountain Brigade was within artillery range of Dhaka.

Aftermath
Operation Cactus Lilly, combined with the success of the Tangail Airdrop and its consequences, meant that the Indian Army had reached the gates of Dhaka by 12 December. As Lt. Gen. A. A.K. Niazi realised that Dhaka was surrounded, he and the then Governor of East Pakistan, began the diplomatic process of organising a ceasefire and then a surrender. Due to this, the Indian Army's forward units received the order to advance on Dhaka slowly, to give the Pakistanis time to surrender. Regardless, the Indian Army's first heavy artillery reached artillery range by 14 December. On the same day, the Indian artillery began a bombardment of Dhaka Cantonment and the Pakistani positions at Dhaka. By the 16th, the war was over and the Pakistani forces would sign an unconditional surrender.

Popular culture
Hindustan Ki Kasam a Hindi war movie directed by Chetan Anand and released in 1973  was based on the incidents of  Operation Cactus Lilly.

See also
 Timeline of the Bangladesh Liberation War
 Military plans of the Bangladesh Liberation War
 Mitro Bahini order of battle
 Pakistan Army order of battle, December 1971
 Evolution of Pakistan Eastern Command plan
 1971 Bangladesh genocide
 Operation Searchlight
 Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts

References

Brahmanbaria District
Narsingdi District
Battles of Indo-Pakistani wars
Battles of the Bangladesh Liberation War
History of the Indian Air Force
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
December 1971 events in Asia

Meghna Heli Bridge


Ngwane V (also known as Mahlokohla, Bhunu, Hhili; 11 May 1876 - 10 December 1899) was the King of Swaziland from 1895 until his death on 10 December 1899. His parents were Mbandzeni and Labotsibeni Mdluli. He ascended to the throne after a short regency of Queen Mother Tibati Nkambule. He was only 16 years old when he became king. His royal capital was at Zombodze while the Queen Mother's residence was at Lobamba.

Ngwane became the king after the Swaziland convention of 1894. This had led to the classification of Swaziland as a protected state of the South African Republic which was then led by President Paul Kruger. During this time Swaziland had a partial Dutch administration in parallel to Ngwane's administration. The Dutch or European for European interests and Ngwane as head and authority of the Swazi nation. An annual payment was made to Ngwane and Labotsibeni while they were in office from taxes collected and from contributions from concessionaires and taxes.

Ngwane's rule was short. In 1899 the Anglo-Boer war began. It brought to an end the Dutch or Boer partial administration of Swaziland and hence gave way to independence. However Mahlokohla died on 10 December of that year while dancing incwala. This was hidden from the nation until the ceremony was over.

Ngwane was succeeded by his four-month-old son Nkhotfotjeni and his wife Lomawa Ndwandwe. His mother Labotsibeni who had been very influential during his reign continued as queen regent until Sobhuza was crowned in 1921. Ngwane's reign gave way to a stable territory surrounded by conflicting states. Today Mahlokohla is named for one of the main streets, Mahlokohla Street in Swaziland's capital Mbabane.
1876 births
1899 deaths
Kings of Swaziland

Ngwane V


The Alheimer is a hill in Hesse, Germany.

The Alheimer is located in the Stölzinger Hills. The nearby village of Alheim is named after the hill. On top of the Alheimer is an observation tower, The Alheimer Tower (Alheimer-Turm). The tower is  high and surrounded by a memorial site to the soldiers forced to fight in the two world wars.
In clear weather visitors on the tower's observation deck can see the Wartburg near Eisenach, the Meißner mountain in the Knüllgebirge range, the Rhön Mountains and the Habichtswald near Kassel.

There is only a narrow footpath to the top of the hill.

Hills of Hesse

Alheimer


Christopher Charles Prowse (born 14 November 1953 in East Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian Roman Catholic bishop. He is currently the archbishop of the Archdiocese of CanberraGoulburn; appointed to the post on 12 September 2013 and installed as archbishop on 19 November 2013. On 12 September 2016, Prowse was named as apostolic administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga following the retirement of Bishop Gerard Hanna. On 26 May 2020, Pope Francis announced Mark Stuart Edwards would become the sixth Bishop of Wagga Wagga, however Prowse remained apostolic administrator until Bishop Edwards' installation on 22 July 2020.

Prowse served as the director of the Catholic Pastoral Formation Centre (1997-2001) and from 1999 was the media spokesman. He has been co-chair of the Australian Anglican and Roman Catholic Dialogue, and a member of the executive committee of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences in Oceania. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree (Monash University 1978), a Bachelor of Theology degree (Melbourne College of Divinity 1979), a Licentiate in Moral Theology (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, 1987) and a Doctorate in Moral Theology (Pontifical Lateran University - Alfonsianum Academy, Rome, 1995).

Early life and career
Christopher Charles Prowse was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, on 14 November 1953. He is the third of six children of Frank Prowse and Marian Atkinson. His early education was at St Francis Xavier's Primary School in Box Hill and St Leo's College also in Box Hill. He was an altar server at St Francis Xavier's Parish, Box Hill. While at St Leo's College he enjoyed drama and public speaking and was the school captain in 1971.

He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College in Werribee (1972) and Clayton (1973–1980). He was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Melbourne by Archbishop Sir Frank Little at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on 16 August 1980.

After serving as a deacon at St John's, Mitcham, in 1979, he was appointed assistant priest of St Mary of the Angels, Geelong (1981–1983), and of St Monica's, Moonee Ponds (1984–1985). He was also vocations director throughout 1984–1985. From 1988 and 2001 he was lecturer in moral theology at the Catholic Theological College and from 1988 priest-in-residence at St Mary's, Thornbury. In 1996, he was appointed parish priest of Holy Spirit Parish, East Thornbury. During this time Prowse was also director of the Catholic Pastoral Formation Centre (1997–2001) and from 1999 he was their media spokesman.

In August 2001 he was named vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, after a short appointment as assistant of the diocesan administrator. At this time he became a member of the College of Consultors of the archdiocese, and of other major committees. On 6 October 2001 he was appointed a Chaplain of His Holiness with the title of Monsignor.

Episcopate
On 4 April 2003, Pope John Paul II named him Titular Bishop of Bahanana and an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne; he was consecrated at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, by Archbishop Denis Hart on 19 May 2003. From 2007 until 2009 he had pastoral responsibility for the Western Region of Melbourne and Geelong. In 2007 he became the Episcopal Vicar for Justice and Social Services, and in 2008 for health. He was appointed to committees organising Days in the Diocese Melbourne and World Youth Day Sydney.

Prowse was appointed as the Bishop of Sale by Pope Benedict XVI on 18 June 2009.

On 12 September 2013, Pope Francis appointed Prowse as Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn. He was installed on 19 November 2013 at St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra. His appointment followed a period of 16 months in which the post was vacant after the previous archbishop, Mark Coleridge, was appointed as the Archbishop of Brisbane.

On 12 September 2016, Pope Francis appointed Prowse as apostolic administrator of Wagga Wagga.

Within the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Prowse is a member of the Permanent Committee and chairman of the Commission on Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations; he is a member of the Commission for Relations with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

See also

 Roman Catholicism in Australia

References

Living people
1953 births
Roman Catholic archbishops of Canberra and Goulburn
Roman Catholic bishops of Sale
Clergy from Melbourne
Monash University alumni
Pontifical Gregorian University alumni
Pontifical Lateran University alumni
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
Australian Roman Catholic archbishops
People from East Melbourne

Christopher Prowse


Frederick Francis of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (born 1732, died 14 October 1758 at the Battle of Hochkirch) was Frederick the Great's brother-in-law. His name is listed on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great.

Family
Francis was the youngest of 13 children of Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Antoinette Amalie (1696–1762); his sister Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel married Prince Augustus William of Prussia, brother of Frederick the Great.

Death in battle

On 14 October 1758, the Austrians, commanded by Daun, surprised the Prussians with a pre-dawn assault on the sleeping camp.  James Keith, Frederick's friend and an able general, had organized a defense of the village while Frederick could withdraw from Hochkirch.  This successful action initially repulsed the Austrian advance, giving Frederick hope that the situation could be won.  Even after Keith himself was shot and killed, Frederick still thought the battle could be retrieved and returned to the rear echelons to take command.  Finding his infantry milling about in the village after Keith was killed, Frederick ordered the infantry to advance, sending reinforcements commanded by his brother-in-law with them.  As Francis approached the village, Austrian cannon-fire sheared his head off his shoulders. His troops, demoralized by this sight, faltered.

References

1732 births
1758 deaths
Prussian military personnel of the Seven Years' War
Military personnel from Berlin
Frederick Francis
Frederick Francis
German military personnel killed in action
Burials at Brunswick Cathedral
Sons of monarchs


Doctors' Wives is a 1971 American drama film directed by George Schaefer and starring Dyan Cannon, Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman, Carroll O'Connor, Rachel Roberts, Janice Rule, Diana Sands and Cara Williams. It was based on a novel by Frank G. Slaughter.

The theme song, "The Costume Ball", was sung by Mama Cass Elliot.

Plot
While playing cards with her girlfriends, all of whom suspect their doctor husbands of having affairs, Lorrie Dellman volunteers to seduce each of them to find out more.

The plan backfires when Lorrie is caught in bed with Paul McGill by her husband, brain surgeon Dr. Mort Dellman, who shoots them both.

Dr. Pete Brennan is able to save McGill's life, but Lorrie is dead. Brennan is fed up with wife Amy and her migraines. He is having an affair with Helen, a nurse.

Dr. Dave Randolph is a psychiatrist. His wife, Della, is frigid. Randolph discovers that she's had a lesbian relationship with the late Lorrie.

Maggie, an alcoholic, is found face-down in her swimming pool by Dr. Joe Gray, her husband.

With all of their lives in turmoil, they attend Lorrie's funeral, where Helen reveals that her young son needs a brain operation. The doctors agree that Dr. Dellman is the man best suited to do the surgery, but Dellman is in jail for having shot his wife.

The district attorney, Douglas, agrees to release the surgeon for a few hours to perform the surgery, under a police guard. He is unaware that Dellman has made a deal with Lorrie's wealthy father, Jake Porter, to help him flee to Mexico as soon as the operation is done.

Cast

Reception

See also
 List of American films of 1971

References

External links

1971 films
1971 drama films
Adultery in films
American drama films
Columbia Pictures films
1970s English-language films
Films scored by Elmer Bernstein
Films based on American novels
Films directed by George Schaefer
Films set in California
Alcohol abuse in fiction
Female bisexuality in film
1970s American films

Doctors' Wives (1971 film)


A stepper motor is an electric motor that is able to create sharp movements. It is used, for example, in printers. They are also commonly found in robots, automotive devices, and computer hard drives. Like other electric motors, they need an electrical circuit to work. Typically they have more than two wires to control them.  There are several versions of stepper motors and several ways to drive them.

DC motors can be considered using two general categories, stepper motors and servo motors.

Servo motors needs a continuous feedback of position to control the state of the motor in order to give the motor specific or desired speed or position. These types of stepper motor are usually more expensive because they required additional circuitry to acquire this constant positional feedback.

The other type of generalized motor is called a stepper motor. This stepper motor is commonly used for simple experiments because it is inexpensive. It doesn't require the position of the motor to be known, hence it won't require additional circuitry.  A stepper motor turns to a specific positions in using a constant sequence. This sequence can be achieved in multiple ways.

Full stepping, half stepping, and micro stepping are ways to achieve a sequence of steps from the motor.

Full stepping with a two phase motor calls for two coils to be alternated simultaneously. This form of stepping will allow the motor to spin, but the angle of that spin will be based upon the step angle. The step angle is equal to the 360 degrees divided by the steps per revolutions. The steps per revolutions are found by the number phases on the stator times the number of permanent magnets available to the motor.

Applications
 3D printing
 Image scanner

Electronics
Motors

Stepper motor


Mordechai Frizis (; 1 January 1893 – 5 December 1940) was a Hellenic Army officer, who fought in World War I, distinguished himself in World War II, and was killed on 5 December 1940, fighting against the Julia Division.

Biography
Frizis was born in Chalcis, on the island of Euboea, to a Romaniote-Jewish family, one of 12 children born to Jacob and Iopi Frizis. After studying law at Athens University, he enlisted in the Hellenic Army in 1916, and went to officer training school. He fought in World War I on the Macedonian front, and participated in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, and becoming a Second Lieutenant in 1919. In 1922, as a newly promoted First Lieutenant, he took part in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). He was taken prisoner, and as the only non-Christian Greek officer taken prisoner by the Turks during the campaign, was offered his freedom, but refused and elected to remain with his comrades, enduring eleven months of captivity.

After the war, Frizis was promoted to captain, and was sent to Paris to study at École Militaire. Upon his return to Greece, he was promoted to Major and posted to the Third Army Corps based in Thessaloniki.

During World War II, Frizis, now a Colonel, participated in the Greco-Italian War, and succeeded in repelling an Italian attack on the bridge of the Thyamis River, followed up by a Greek counterattack. When the Italians countered with aerial bombing, his men dismounted and took cover in trenches, while he continued riding his horse throughout the battlefield and shouting "courage" to rally his men, but was severely wounded in the stomach, but continued trying to rally his men. When the Italian aircraft withdrew, it was discovered that he had died of his injuries.

Following his death in action, the King of Greece, its then leader, Ioannis Metaxas, and a national newspaper left tributes for the officer. A spokesman for King George II of Greece wrote to Frizis' family: "On the glorious death for his country of your beloved husband, the heroic Colonel Mordechai Frizis, His Majesty the king has instructed me to convey to you and your family his deepest condolences".

Ioannis Metaxas, then Prime Minister of Greece, wrote the following letter to Frizis' wife: "I learnt of the death on the field of honour of your husband, before you knew of it and I did not know how to inform you. You and your family as well as those families, who have lost their protectors, will become the families of this state of ours. Please be assured that the protection of Greece will never leave you or your children. The children of Colonel Frizis will be revered by our nation's youth. With feelings of honour and love".

In 2002, his remains were located in Albania and were transferred to the New Jewish Cemetery of Thessaloniki.

The Greek state has honoured his memory by erecting busts of his at the War Museums of Kalpaki and Athens, in his birth town of Chalcis, and by giving his name to an Athens street.

Gallery

References

External links
 The Greek Lion From Judea: Colonel Mordochai Fritzis

1893 births
1940 deaths
Greek Jews
Romaniote Jews
Jewish Greek history
Hellenic Army officers
Greek military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Greek prisoners of war
Greek military personnel of World War I
People of the Greco-Italian War
Greek military personnel killed in World War II
Greek colonels
Greek people of Jewish descent
People from Chalcis
Jewish military personnel
Deaths by airstrike during World War II
Jews of World War II

Mordechai Frizis


Expecting a Miracle is a Hallmark Channel original movie that premiered Saturday, January 10, 2009.  The movie stars Jason Priestley, Teri Polo, and Cheech Marin.  It is directed by Steve Gomer, and is based on the short story "The Miracle of Dommatina" by Ira Avery.

Plot
Pete (Jason Priestley) and Donna (Teri Polo) Stanhope are a young married couple living in L.A. who are trying to conceive a child.  When they discover they are unable to have children due to medical issues, their marriage begins to crumble.  They decide to go on vacation and wind up stranded in a small village in Mexico (the fictional town of Dommatina) due to car troubles. They meet the charming young boy Pepillo, who was crippled in an accident years before that also killed his parents; Pepillo's adult brother Juan, the village mechanic; Magdalena, Juan's fiancé, who also takes care of the village children; and Father Arturo, the village priest who is helping prepare the "flying machine" for the upcoming fiesta.

Juan tries to fix the car, but the parts he must order are slow to arrive. In the meantime, Pete helps Father Arturo prepare for the annual fiesta, which is to occur in just a few days' time. The main event of the fiesta involves a rickety old lever and pulley system wherein one lucky village child can "fly" around the plaza square. The source of the tradition dates to the village's local saint, who was said to have come to Dommatina many years ago and have been befriended by a young crippled boy when no one else would speak to him. As thanks for his kindness, the saint turned the boy into a dove, who flew around the plaza square three times, and then turned him back into a boy. Upon resuming human form the boy was miraculously cured. It is Pepillo's turn this year to fly, and he confides in Pete his belief that the saint will also cure him after his flight.

Trouble ensues when the flying machine breaks just two days before the event. Pete comes through with his engineering skills and builds a new safer machine. He even sacrifices the car part that had finally arrived so that a crucial central axis part will work. Pepillo gets his chance to fly. Pete and Donna worry about how disappointed Pepillo will be when he is not cured after his flight, and they agree to use their fertility treatment money to pay for a doctor and surgery for Pepillo instead.

However, during the flight Pepillo urges Father Arturo and a local villager to make the flying machine go faster and higher, straining it beyond its capabilities. Pepillo crashes to the ground and hits his hip on the statue of the saint. When he comes to, his leg is miraculously cured. Pete and Donna vow that they have just witnessed a miracle—and promise to still bring Pepillo to the U.S. to "make sure his miracle stays a miracle." Upon returning home, Pete and Donna have decided to adopt a child and are filling out paperwork. Although initially Pete did not think that he could love another child as his own, knowing Pepillo has changed him. However, Donna experiences heartburn and takes one last pregnancy test and finds out that against all odds she is pregnant.

Cast
 Jason Priestley as Pete Stanhope
 Teri Polo as Donna Stanhope
 Shalim Ortiz as Juan
 Rebeka Montoya as Magdalena
 Cheech Marin as Father Arturo
Kevin Hernandez as Pepillo

Reception
Expecting a Miracle ranked as the #1 cable program of the night, #1 cable movie of the week, and boosted Hallmark Channel to rank #1 in Prime Time for the day.  The movie scored a 2.8 household rating with 2.4 million homes, over 3 million total viewers and more than 4.2 million unduplicated viewers.

Star magazine gave the film one and a half stars, calling it "a goopy feel-good movie," and saying "it's enough to take your mind off how terrible an actor Priestley really is."

References

External links
Expecting a Miracle on Hallmark Channel

2009 television films
2009 films
Hallmark Channel original films
Films directed by Steve Gomer
Films scored by Kevin Kiner
2000s English-language films

Expecting a Miracle


Joel Derouin is a Canadian violinist, concert master, composer and music director. In addition to having worked with many popular musicians, he is also known for his work in film, television and theatre.

Biography
Born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, on July 29, 1956, Derouin began violin lessons at the age of five. He soon became one of the first members of the Riverdale String Ensemble under Canadian violinist Rosemonde Laberge, winning music festivals across Canada. He studied at the Le Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec in Montreal from 1970 to 1975 and at The Juilliard School in New York City from 1975 to 1979.

In 1977, when he was 21 years old, he was invited to tour with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Since then, he has toured with Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Nicks, Barbra Streisand and Rush.

Since the early 1980s, Derouin has worked with Christina Aguilera, Barenaked Ladies, Beck, Mary J. Blige, Michael Buble, Mariah Carey, Vanessa Carlton, Kelly Clarkson, Leonard Cohen, Dido, Aretha Franklin, Ben Harper, Avril Lavigne, Paul McCartney, LeAnn Rimes, Liz Phair, Shakira, Carrie Underwood, and Rufus Wainwright.

He has provided music for many animated movies and television shows, including Cars and Up; Planes; The Simpsons, American Dad! and Family Guy; and Warner Bros. cartoons. His other film credits include acting as concert master for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, Ted, Eragon, and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and playing violin on motion picture soundtracks, much as Epic, Oblivion, Men in Black 3, and Watchmen.

He has played violin on Broadway, the Grammy Awards, the Academy Awards, MTV Unplugged, The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, Dancing with the Stars, The X Factor, America: A Tribute to Heroes, and spent six seasons as concert master for American Idol.

His writing credits include the score to the 1991 movie The Hitman starring Chuck Norris, and the track "Jane" on Stevie Nicks' 1994 Street Angel album.

References

External links
 Official site

1958 births
Living people
People from Cornwall, Ontario
20th-century Canadian composers
21st-century Canadian composers
Canadian male composers
Canadian male violinists and fiddlers
20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers
20th-century Canadian male musicians
21st-century Canadian male musicians

Joel Derouin


The Simca Profissional was a successor to the Simca Alvorada, which was itself a stripped version of the entry level Simca Chambord. Simca do Brasil had responded reluctantly to the demand by the Brazilian government of president Juscelino Kubitschek that every car manufacturer must offer an affordable basic version within their range. The idea was to give as many Brazilians as possible the opportunity to own a car.

New incentive, new version
In 1965, the Brazilian government created a new public financing tool through its publicly owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal that would allow Brazilians to finance their vehicle over four years with a monthly interest rate of 1%. This obviously was to attract a new range of clients and Simca do Brasil looked into how to make the Alvorada even cheaper in order to make it attractive for, for example for taxicab drivers.

Plastic replaces leather
The Simca Profissional appeared in 1965 with three colour options (yellow, green and cream white), no chrome (even the bumpers were painted in dark gray, no trimmings), the already very simple interior of the Alvorada was downscaled further with plastic seat covers and the door covers were dark and naked cardboard screwed onto the metal. But the Profissional was 30% cheaper than its far posher brother, the all chrome and leather Simca Chambord. The production numbers of this version apparently were never documented and, unlike the Simca Alvorada, the Simca Profissional had no distinct range of chassis numbers so that this version is mixed in with  the production figures cited for the Simca Chambord.

Production figures
 1965 - 1966 = number of units produced not documented by Simca do Brasil

References

"Automóveis Brasileiros" by author Enio Brandenburg, FBVA, Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
"The Automobile in South America - The Origins (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay)" by author Álvaro Casal Tatlock, FBVA, Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
"Automóveis de São Paulo" by author Malcom Forest, FBVA, Rio de Janeiro – Brasil

External links
/  Simca Club Brazil

Profissional
Cars introduced in 1965
Cars of Brazil

Simca Profissional


Samogitia National Park or Žemaitija National Park is a national park in Lithuania. It is situated on the Samogitian Highlands, 45 km from the Baltic Sea. Lakes cover more than 7% of its territory. Lake Plateliai (12.05 km2, 47 m depth) is the largest lake. The town of Plateliai, situated on the shore of the lake, is the seat of the park's administration and a popular tourist destination. The Park has Category II in the classification of the IUCN.

Nature
The hilly relief of the Samogitian Park was formed by the melting glacier about 12,000 years ago. The resulting hills are relatively high, about 150–190 meters. Lakes occupies more than 7%. park territories, the largest Samogitia Plateliai Lake is concentrated here, in addition to which there are 25 smaller lakes.

Forests occupy about 45 percent of the park. all areas. The forested wetlands of Plokštinė and Rukundžiai, the hydrographic complexes of Plateliai Lake, Laumalenka and Šilinė, the valleys of the Gardai esker, Babrungas and Mergupis rivers, Paburgė, Siberia, Pakastuva, Užpelkiai, Ertenis and Paparčiai wetlands are especially valuable for science. and Pailgis forests and Juodupis wetlands ecosystems, rare plants and animals. Rare Atlantic salmon and freshwater whitefish Coregonus albula and Coregonus lavaretus breed in Plateliai Lake.

Grows to 7.2 m in volume, 2.1 m in diameter and 34 m in height . Next to the park, in the village of , lies the largest boulder in Lithuania, the Barstyčiai stone. Wolves and lynxes found home here. Nine species of bats fly at night.

See also
 List of national parks in the Baltics

References

National parks of Lithuania
Protected areas established in 1991
1991 establishments in Lithuania
Tourist attractions in Telšiai County
Samogitia

Žemaitija National Park


In pathology and anatomy the penumbra is the area surrounding an ischemic event such as thrombotic or embolic stroke.  Immediately following the event, blood flow and therefore oxygen transport is reduced locally, leading to hypoxia of the cells near the location of the original insult.  This can lead to hypoxic cell death (infarction) and amplify the original damage from the ischemia; however, the penumbra area may remain viable for several hours after an ischemic event due to the collateral arteries that supply the penumbral zone.

As time elapses after the onset of stroke, the extent of the penumbra tends to decrease; therefore, in the emergency department a major concern is to protect the penumbra by increasing oxygen transport and delivery to cells in the danger zone, thereby limiting cell death. The existence of a penumbra implies that salvage of the cells is possible.  There is a high correlation between the extent of spontaneous neurological recovery and the volume of penumbra that escapes infarction; therefore, saving the penumbra should improve the clinical outcome.

Definition
One widely accepted definition for penumbra describes the area as "ischemic tissue potentially destined for infarction but it isn't irreversibly injured and [is therefore] the target of any acute therapies."  The original definition of the penumbra referred to areas of the brain that were damaged but not yet dead, and offered  promise to rescue the brain tissue with the appropriate therapies.

Blood flow
The penumbra region typically occurs when blood flow drops below 20 mL/100 g/min. At this point electrical communication between neurons fails to exist. Cells in this region are alive but metabolic pumps are inhibited, oxidative metabolism is reduced but neurons may begin to depolarize again.  Areas of the brain generally do not become infarcted until blood flow to the region drops below 10 to 12 mL/100 g/min. At this point,  glutamate release becomes unregulated, ion pumps are inhibited and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis also stops which ultimately leads to the disruption of intracellular processes and neuronal death.

Identification by imaging
Positron emission tomography (PET) can quantify the size of the penumbra, but is neither widely available nor rapidly accessible. Magnetic resonance imaging can estimate the size of the penumbra with a combination of two MRI sequences:
Perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) shows decreased blood perfusion in the infarcted core and the penumbra
Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) can estimate the size of the infarcted core.
Both of these sequences somewhat overestimates their volumes of interest, but the size of the penumbra can roughly be estimated by subtracting abnormal volume by DWI from abnormal volume by PWI.

The penumbral area can also be detected based upon an integration of three factors.  These factors include: the site of vessel occlusion, the extent of oligaemia (hypoperfused area surrounding the penumbra, but not at risk of infarction ) at that moment, and the mismatch between this perfusion defect and the area of the brain already infarcted.

Clinical relevance
A higher volume of penumbra around a cerebral infarction means a greater volume of potentially salvageable brain matter by thrombolysis and thrombectomy. Such therapies have a greater effect on regaining functions such as movement after a cerebral infarction.  After the initial ischemic event the penumbra transitions from a tissue remodeling characterized by damage to a remodeling characterized by repair.

In the penumbra, microglia are thought to exert neuroprotective effects via specialized contacts with neuronal somata, termed somatic junctions.  Understanding and supporting these microglial actions could broaden the therapeutic window and lead to higher amount of preserved nervous tissue.

History
The concept of the ischemic penumbra was developed in Lindsay Symons laboratory, The National Hospital, Queens Square, London, in 1976 by combined focal measurements of neurofunction, blood flow and extracellular K+ in the baboon brain following a MCA occlusion. Critical levels of blood flow was observed for function and energy metabolism. These results and the first mentioning of the term ischemic penumbra were published in 1977 in Stroke (1), and further substantiated by an editorial in 1981 (2). The first decade of research focused on physiologic profile of the penumbra tissue after stroke, mapping the cerebral blood flow, and quantifying oxygen and glucose consumption to define these areas. The second decade revealed the mechanism of the neuronal cell death. As the Biochemical pathways were dissected penumbral science became a rapidly evolving area of molecular biology. The third decade of penumbral research found a transitional leap as using positron emission tomography (PET) scanning can identify brain tissue with decreased blood flow and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the ability to detect portions of the ischemic tissue that has not yet died. These images have allowed vision into the brain to see the areas of tissue that may be salvaged, the penumbra.

1. Astrup J, Symon L, Branston NM, Lassen NA. Cortical evoked potential and extracellular K+ and H+ at critical levels of brain ischemia. Stroke. 1977 Jan-Feb;8(1):51-7. doi: 10.1161/01.str.8.1.51. PMID: 13521.
2. Astrup J, Siesjö BK, Symon L. Thresholds in cerebral ischemia - the ischemic penumbra. Stroke. 1981 Nov-Dec;12(6):723-5. doi: 10.1161/01.str.12.6.723. PMID: 6272455.

References

 http://www.neurology.org/content/51/3_Suppl_3/S44.short

Cardiovascular diseases

Penumbra (medicine)


The Blakely Bernardi is an automobile produced in the 1980s by Blakely Auto Works (also called Bernardi Auto Works in some references) of Princeton, Wisconsin, USA. Blakely produced a number of automobile models, including the Bearcat and Bantam. This model is named after Enrico Bernardi, Italian inventor of the gasoline internal-combustion engine and automobile pioneer. The Bernardi was available as a completed car or as a kit of parts to be assembled by the buyer.

Design and construction

The Bernardi is a neo-classic design reminiscent of the 1950s British MG TD. The chassis is front-engine, rear-wheel drive with the engine located behind the front axle. It has a two-seat cab under a removable hardtop or convertible fabric top, flat windshield, three windshield wipers (like the MGB Mark II), working doors, and detachable side curtains of fiberglass and plexiglass.

In keeping with the traditional look of post-WWII British sports cars, the Bernardi's front fenders stand away from the body, and the headlights perch on stalks between the fenders and the hood. There is a functional, though fairly small, trunk in the back and a trunk-mounted external luggage rack. A small bench behind the seats was available as a factory option, with enough room to store small packages or accommodate a stereo system. Cars without the bench are equipped with a two-point chromed roll bar behind the cab, which fits beneath the convertible roof. While the body style and proportions generally mimic the MG-TD, the Bernardi is noticeably larger in body width and has sufficient room under the hood easily to accommodate an American small-block V8 engine.

An overview of the build process for a Bernardi Blakely appeared in Kit Car World and gave significant detail about the Bernardi's general structure and some of its construction options. The basic construction is a Body-on-frame design with a fiberglass body mounted on a pre-fabricated metal chassis. The factory-provided chassis is a custom ladder frame built of  by  rectangular steel tubing with a 5/16th inch wall thickness. The factory attached fuel and brake plumbing, as well the tail-light wiring bundle, to the frame before shipping.

The mechanical components, including engine, suspension, and transmission, could be drawn from the Ford Pinto, Mercury Bobcat, or Ford Mustang II. Based on these donor choices, the suspension is relatively unsophisticated, with a solid rear axle mounted on quarter-elliptical leaf springs. The donor leaf springs are cut approximately in half, with just one of the halves on each side of the differential making up the rear springing. The rear axle is actually mounted above the side rails of the frame, which keeps the frame design simple but limits the axle's vertical range of movement. The front suspension is a somewhat sportier double-wishbone design, built from the donor car's lower A-arm and a custom upper A-arm, with coil-over shocks and the donor's disk brakes.

The car's body was built at the factory and featured an unusual form of fiberglass construction. Instead of a single layer of fiberglass, as is common in other kit cars, the Bernardi body tub (the portion between the passenger compartment and the frame or road) and other body components used a composite sandwich consisting of one layer of fiberglass, one of stiff plastic foam, and finally a second layer of fiberglass. The result is a heavier body than usual for kit cars, but one with reputedly greater stiffness and sound absorption than the single-layer approach. The colors for the visible parts of the body are molded into the fiberglass body parts as Gelcoat and the cars often appear with two-tone color schemes where the body color contrasts with the fenders and running boards.

The factory attached the body's doors, windshield, hood, and trunk lid before shipping the kit to the buyer. Major mounting points between the body and the chassis were also pre-drilled at the factory with the body placed on the chassis, so that these items would line up properly when the buyer began assembling the vehicle. The Bernardi's complete hood tilts forward for easy access to the engine area, and is trimmed at the front with chrome-work from the Oldsmobile Cutlass.

The vehicle's interior upholstery was provided, in the form of pre-cut carpet, door trim, seat covers, a tonneau cover, and dash upholstery. When completed, the Bernardi interior is similar to a commercial automobile's, with upholstery or trim for all interior fiberglass panels. The dash is finished with vinyl fabric, and contains the speedometer, tachometer, and several engine gauges in the center console. The doors are also fabric-trimmed, with elastic-topped map pouches on both sides. Vents are installed in the dash to direct heated air to the windshield and to passenger seating positions. Despite these advanced features, contemporary reports suggest that the buyer's assembly time for the Bernardi was expected to be a relatively low 100 to 120 hours.

The car has options for several types of engine. The smallest recommended powerplants included the 1.6 liter, 2 liter, or 2.3 liter 4-cylinder Ford Pinto / Bobcat engines used by the smaller Blakely Bantam. The Bernardi chassis is also amenable to larger engines like a 2.8 liter Ford or Chevrolet / Pontiac V6, and even the small-block Ford V8. All engine types mount behind the front axle, making the chassis a front-mid-engine design with the attendant benefits in front-rear weight balance and low polar moment of inertia. Although the Bernardi was marketed as comfortable touring car, the car's combination of chassis layout, low weight, and V8 engine option resemble aggressive sports designs like the AC Cobra.

Current status

The Blakely Bernardi was expensive for its time and marketplace. The company's 1984 price list listed the full set of kit parts at $US 8,495. To complete the car, the buyer would have to provide a donor car and optionally an additional engine. Blakely also offered a completed turnkey car for $US 19,900 to $US 22,900 depending on the engine choice. In 1984, driving a base-model Chevrolet Corvette off the dealer's lot cost around $US 22,000  and delivered a sportier suspension, better interior comfort, and a standard V8 engine.

A kit car's value lies not just in the cost of the car or its components, so a comparison with the Corvette's cost may not be fair. The Bernardi competed more directly against other neo-classic sports-car kits. Although the Bernardi offered superior body quality and the authentic front-engine design of the sports cars it resembled, its body and chassis were more complicated and costly than those of kits based on the Volkswagen Beetle, like the Fiberfab Migi MG-TD replica. These VW-based kits are much more common across the United States. Blakely Bernardis, although regularly appearing for sale at specialty dealers, do not have the contemporary high visibility of many other kit models.

References

External links
History of Blakely automobiles
Blakely Car blog
Do-it-yourselfer's dream: The real fun of building a kit car is driving it when it's finished! Article from Popular Mechanics, October 1981

Sports cars
Kit cars

Blakely Bernardi


Mukhu Gimbatovich Aliyev (, ; ; born August 6, 1940) is a Russian politician who served as the 2nd Head of the Republic of Dagestan, a federal subject of Russia. He was born in the village of Tanusi, Khunzakhsky District, Dagestan ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Ethnically, he is Avar. He was the speaker of the Republic's parliament before being accepted as the President by the Dagestan parliament on February 20, 2006, having been nominated by the Russian President Vladimir Putin to replace Dagestan's long-time leader Magomedali Magomedov.

Aliyev was succeeded by Magomedsalam Magomedov on February 20, 2010. In line with the Russian Federation's constitution, Magomedov was nominated by federal President Dmitry Medvedev and approved by the republic's People's Assembly.

Honours and awards
 Order "For Merit to the Fatherland":
2nd class (February 18, 2010) – for services to the state and personal contribution to the socio-economic development of the republic
3rd class (November 14, 2005) – for outstanding contribution to strengthening Russian statehood and the merits of legislative activity
4th class (December 25, 2000) – for his courage and dedication shown during the performance of their civic duty to protect the constitutional order of the Republic of Dagestan, strengthening friendship and cooperation between nations and years of diligent work
 Order of the Red Banner of Labour
 Order of the Badge of Honour

Major achievements
Although reign of Mukhu Aliyev was smooth without any major breakthroughs Mukhu is famous in Dagestan in standing against transfer of two villages located on Russia/Azerbaijan border to Azerbaijan.

References

1940 births
Living people
Party leaders of the Soviet Union
Full Cavaliers of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia)
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Heads of the Republic of Dagestan
Avar people
Members of the Central Committee of the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Mukhu Aliyev


Sydenham Heritage Church, originally known as the Colombo Street Methodist Church or Colombo Street Wesleyan Church or Colombo Road Wesleyan Church was a heritage-listed stone church building located in Sydenham, an inner suburb Christchurch, New Zealand. It was registered as an "Historic Place  – Category II " by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

History

Christchurch was mainly an Anglican settlement. The congregation of Methodists was small, but they had a significant presence. They built the first stone church in Canterbury in 1864, the Durham Street Methodist Church.

The growth of the congregation, mainly in the working class suburb of New Town (now called Sydenham), required another church. St James church was relocated from Montreal Street in the Christchurch Central City to one of the small streets of New Town. When it was decided to constitute Christchurch South as a separate circuit, and that St James was too small and poorly placed, a new site was sought. Land on Colombo Road was purchased, but it was exchanged in October 1876 for a larger section further south at the intersection of Colombo Road (since renamed as Colombo Street) and Pound Road (since renamed as Brougham Street).

The building was designed in the Gothic Revival style in 1877 by the Melbourne architectural firm of Crouch and Wilson who had earlier designed the Durham Street Methodist Church. Construction was supervised by local architect Thomas Lambert and the building was officially opened in February 1878.

With population in Sydenham declining due to industrialisation of the suburb during the 1960s, and with church attendance generally dropping, the church closed in 1971. The Seventh-day Adventist Church leased the building for a time, before it was sold to the Christian Congregational Church of Samoa. The Samoan congregation built a new church in Linwood in 1997 and a property developer applied for a demolition consent, which sparked a public outcry. The Samoan congregation sold the church to another developer in 1999, whose initial plans of conversion into apartments were changed in 2001 to a demolition consent. This was also withdrawn amidst community resentment.

The building was purchased in 2001 by the newly formed Sydenham Heritage Trust with the help of a Christchurch City Council interest free loan. Restoration and earthquake strengthening was an ongoing activity of the trust. The building was damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. It was subsequently demolished by a demolition company without the knowledge or consent of the owners, and without authorisation from the Historic Places Trust, the council archaeologist (who approves demolition applications) or the National Civil Defence Controller (who oversees earthquake responses). A police complaint has been lodged, and an enquiry into the unauthorised demolition is likely. It subsequently emerged that the demolition had been sought and approved by Civil Defence, although approval of demolition was possibly in excess of its legal powers.

Heritage listing
On 24 June 2005, the building was registered as a Category II heritage item, with the registration number being 3137.

References

Gothic Revival church buildings in New Zealand
Religious buildings and structures in Christchurch
Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in Canterbury, New Zealand
Churches completed in 1878
19th-century Methodist church buildings
Buildings and structures demolished as a result of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake
Christianity in Christchurch
1870s architecture in New Zealand
Stone churches in New Zealand

Sydenham Heritage Church


The Division of Bennelong is an Australian electorate in New South Wales. The division was set up in 1949. It is named for Bennelong, an Indigenous Australian man who became a friend of the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Bennelong includes the suburbs of Eastwood, Carlingford, Epping and Ryde.

Electoral history
When the Division of Bennelong was created in 1949, it covered mainly the suburbs of Ryde, Hunters Hill and Lane Cove. These were (and still are) richer areas, and Bennelong was a "safe" Liberal seat.

Over the years Bennelong has changed into a marginal seat for two reasons. Firstly, the electoral boundary of Bennelong has been changed many times, where it has moved west into Labor voting areas.  Rich suburbs like Lane Cove and Hunters Hill in the east are no longer included. The division now includes Eastwood, Epping, Carlingford and working class Ermington in the north and west. Secondly, the type of people living in the division has changed. Since the early 1990s, there has been an increase in migrants from China, Hong Kong, South Korea and India. These are wealthy and conservative people who would support the Liberal Party, but they have not like the Liberal policies on immigration and multiculturalism.

 In the Australian federal 2007 election, the Member for Bennelong, and Prime Minister John Howard, lost the seat to Labor candidate Maxine McKew, after holding it for 33 years. This was only the second time in Australian history that a Prime Minister had lost his own seat in Parliament. The first was Stanley Bruce in 1929.

Members

Bennelong was held by the John Howard, the second longest serving Prime Minister of Australia. In 2010 the seat was won by former tennis star, John Alexander.

Election results

References

Other websites
 Division of Bennelong – Australian Electoral Commission
 John Alexander's website

Electoral divisions of Australia
New South Wales
1949 establishments in Australia

Division of Bennelong


The Atlas Corporation is an American investment firm that was formed in 1928.  Atlas invested in and managed a number of major US companies during the 20th century and has a number of investments in natural resources.

History
Atlas corporation was formed in 1928, in a merger of the United Corporation, an investment firm started in 1923 with $40,000, with Atlas Utilities and Investors Ltd.  The corporation specialized in capital formation and management.  In 1929, Atlas was a $12,550,000 investment trust. The company was able to shrewdly weather the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation was founded by Floyd Odlum and his brother-in-law Boyd Hatch.

With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including Greyhound Lines, Bonwit Teller (acquired 1934) and Franklin Simon & Co. (acquired 1936) ladies' apparel stores, Madison Square Garden, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks.  After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies' apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife, Hortense Odlum, to become involved in the store's operations. She became the first female president of a major department store chain when she became president of Bonwit Teller in 1934.  In 1948, Howard Hughes acquired controlling interest in RKO Pictures from Atlas.  The Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation, the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later Convair) subsidiary, which was used in the Mercury missions to send astronauts into orbit.

Today, the company has ownership in natural resources investments.

References

Financial services companies established in 1928
Investment companies of the United States
Holding companies of the United States
Holding companies established in 1928
American companies established in 1928

Atlas Corporation


Hochwand (2,719 m) is a mountain in the Mieming Range in Tyrol, Austria.

It is most famous for its impressive north face, which tumbles for 1,300 m down into the Gaistal valley below. The normal route to the summit is from the south, where the slopes are less steep. It is a very difficult climb from all sides and much scrambling is required to reach the summit. Climbs usually begin at the village of Wildermieming.

References

Mountains of the Alps
Mountains of Tyrol (state)
Two-thousanders of Austria

Hochwand


Robin Venu Uthappa (born 11 November 1985) is an Indian cricketer from Kodagu. Uthappa plays for the Kerala cricket team.

He is mostly a Batsman who rarely played as a wicket keeper. He is nicknamed "The Walking Assassin". He completed the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy season as the top scorer. He was a part of the 30 men Indian team for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Living people
1985 births
Indian cricketers

Robin Uthappa


Sinosaurosphargis is an extinct genus of basal marine saurosphargid reptile known from the Middle Triassic Guanling Formation of Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, southwestern China. It contains a single species, Sinosaurosphargis yunguiensis.

Discovery
Saurosphargis is known from several individuals, all of which were collected from Member II of the Guanling Formation, dating to the Pelsonian substage of the latest Anisian stage of the early Middle Triassic, about 243 million years ago. The holotype IVPP V 17040 and paratype IVPP V 16076 are housed at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, and represent a nearly complete articulated skeleton and skull, and a partial disarticulated postcranial skeleton including dorsal vertebra, ribs, with osteoderms and gastral rib fragments, respectively. ZMNH M 8797, an incomplete postcranial skeleton showing a very well preserved right forelimb housed at the Zhejiang Museum of Nature History of Hangzhou, was also referred to Saurosphargis in its original description. The holotype and ZMNH M 8797 were collected at Yangmazhai of Luoping County, Yunnan Province, while the paratype came from Yangjian of Pan County, Guizhou Province. An additional uncatalogued LPV specimen was also referred to S. yunguiensis. These specimens all came from the Lagerstätte discovered during a 2007 geological mapping project with a diverse record of marine life called Luoping Biota, that yielded, apart from Sinosaurosphargis, various invertebrates, fish, basal ichthyosaurs, Atopodentatus, the basal saurosphargid Largocephalosaurus, and several species of eosauropterygian, including both pachypleurosaurs and nothosaurids.

Etymology
Sinosaurosphargis was first described and named by Chun Li, Olivier Rieppel, Xiao-Chun Wu, Li-Jun Zhao and Li-Ting Wang in 2011 and the type species is Sinosaurosphargis yunguiensis. The generic name is derived from Greek sino, meaning "China", sauros, meaning "lizard", and sphargis, the old genus name for the leatherback turtle, (in reference to the many similarities Sinosaurosphargis shares with Saurosphargis, a taxon whose holotype was lost and was thus considered a mystery), following the pattern of Sinosauropteryx. Like the name of Saurosphargis itself, it also refers to Sinosaurosphargis''' dorsal osteoderm "body armor" and broadened ribs forming a closed chest rib basket - traits which are seemingly transitional between turtles and other reptiles. The specific name yunguiensis is derived from the names of the neighboring Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, where the fossils were found.

DescriptionSinosaurosphargis was a small reptile, measuring  long without the missing tail. It is a basal marine reptile, closely related to Saurosphargis from the Lower Muschelkalk of southwestern Poland and eastern Netherlands. Sinosaurosphargis possesses retracted external nostrils, and shows closed upper temporal fenestrae, and a ventrally open cheek. Its trunk region is short and rounded, and covered by a shield composed of small osteoderms, just like its neck and the proximal portions of all four limbs. Its back vertebrae show elongated, distally expanded transverse projections. The chest ribs are broadened and flat, contacting one another along their length, and forming a closed chest rib basket. Li et al. (2014) found some of these traits to be shared with all saurosphargids, while others are exclusive to Saurosphargis and Sinosaurosphargis. These genera have broader and flatter rib baskets than basal saurosphargids like Largocephalosaurus, and also transverse projections of back vertebrae and proximal portions of chest ribs that are much more robust, being much wider than the spacing between them.

Phylogeny
The following cladogram is simplified after the phylogenetic analysis of Li et al. (2011) and shows the placement of Sinosaurosphargis within Sauria. Ichthyopterygia was removed from the tree, as it caused a less resolved topology. Saurosphargis was coded solely based on the holotype, as the Netherlands material remains unprepared.

Li et al. (2014) presented an updated version of the analysis above, showing interrelationships of all known Saurosphargidae species. The removal / inclusion of Ichthyopterygia was found to affect the topology the most - switching the positions of the Eusaurosphargis+Helveticosaurus'' and Thalattosauriformes clades, and altering the positions of several taxa within Eosauropterygia, which are not shown.

References

Fossil taxa described in 2011
Middle Triassic reptiles of Asia
Fossils of China
Anisian life
Guanling Formation
Saurians
Prehistoric reptile genera

Sinosaurosphargis


The South Saqqara Stone is a large piece of stone. Written on the stone is a list of the pharaohs of the 6th dynasty of ancient Egypt. The list includes Teti, Userkare, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II. The list finishes with Pepi II which means it was probably written during his rule. The list is a record of the events which took place during each kings rule. However the stone was used later as the lid of sarcophagus.  This was for the burial of the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhenespepi. A lot of the writing can not be read any longer.

Discovery
The South Saqqara Stone was discovered in 1932-33 by Gustave Jéquier. It was in a storeroom, south of the pyramid of Queen Iput II. This is part of the pyramid complex of Pepi II at Saqqara. Saqqara was the main burial area for the city of Memphis.

Description
The stone is a piece of basalt, 2.43 metres by 0.92 metres and 20 centimetres thick. It has writing on both sides, but much of the writing has been removed and is unreadable.

Significance
The writing on the South Saqqara Stone means it is an important object. The list of pharaohs has details about the annual or biannual cattle count. This matches details in other lists such as the Turin King List. This allows archaeologists to work out how long each king ruled. From the information on the stone it can be worked out that  Teti ruled for at least 12 years, Userkare 2-4 years, Pepi I 49-50 years and 11-13 years for Merenre.

The Stone is one of the earliest historical documents in existence. It has the names of all the pharaohs known to the people who made it.

Related pages
 List of pharaohs
 Abydos King List
 Karnak king list
 Saqqara Tablet
 Turin King List

References

Francesco Raffaele: "The South Saqqara Stone"
Michel Baud, Vassil Dobrev, De nouvelles annales de l'Ancien Empire égyptien. Une "Pierre de Palerme" pour la VIe dynastie, BIFAO 95 (1995), pp.23-92

3rd millennium BC in Egypt
3rd millennium BC works

South Saqqara Stone


Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He  established Lutheranism  as the state religion within  his realms as part of the Protestant Reformation, and was the first King of Denmark-Norway.

Childhood

Christian was the eldest son of the future king, Frederick I of Denmark, and Anna of Brandenburg.  He was born at Gottorf Castle in Schleswig which Frederick I had made as a primary residence. In 1514, when he was just ten years old, Christian's mother died. Four years later, his father remarried to Sophie of Pomerania (1498–1568). In 1523, Frederick I was elected King of Denmark in the place of his nephew, Christian II. The young Prince Christian's first public service after his father became king was gaining the submission of Copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive, Christian II. As stadtholder of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig in 1526, and as viceroy of Norway in 1529, Christian III displayed considerable administrative ability.

Religious views

Christian's earliest teacher,  Wolfgang von Utenhof  (ca. 1495–1542) and his Lutheran tutor, the military general Johann Rantzau (1492–1565), were both zealous reformers who had an influence on the young Prince. At their urging, while traveling in Germany in 1521, he made himself present at the Diet of Worms to hear Martin Luther speak. Luther's arguments intrigued him. The Prince made no secret of his Lutheran views. His outspokenness brought him into conflict, not only with the Roman Catholic  dominated State Council (Rigsraad), but also with his cautious and temporizing father. At his own court at Schleswig, he did his best to introduce the Protestant Reformation, despite the opposition of the bishops. He made the Lutheran Church the State Church of Schleswig-Holstein, with the Church Ordinance of 1528.

Reign as king

Early reign as King of Denmark

After his father's death, in 1533, Christian was proclaimed king of Denmark at an assembly in Rye, a town in eastern Jutland, in 1534.  The Rigsraad, dominated by Roman Catholic bishops and nobles, refused to accept Duke Christian as king and turned to Count Christopher of Oldenburg in order to restore Christian II to the Danish throne. Christian II had supported both the Roman Catholics and Protestant Reformers at various times. In opposition to Christian III, Count Christopher was proclaimed regent at the Ringsted Assembly (landsting), and at the Scania Assembly  (landsting) on St Liber's Hill (Sankt Libers hög) near Lund Cathedral. This resulted in a two-year civil war, known as the Count's Feud (Grevens Fejde) from 1534 to 1536, between Protestant and Catholic forces.

Civil War (Count's Feud)

Count Christopher had the support of most of Zealand, Scania, the Hanseatic League, and the small farmers of northern Jutland and Funen.  Christian III found his support among the nobles of Jutland. In 1534, peasants under Skipper Clement  (c. 1484–1536) began an uprising in northern Jutland, pillaging the holdings of Lutheran nobles.  An army of nobles and their vassals assembled at Svendstrup and suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the peasants.  Realizing his hold on the throne was in imminent danger, Christian III negotiated a deal with the Hansa States which allowed him to send his trusted advisor Johan Rantzau north with an army of Protestant German mercenaries. Clement and his army fled north, taking refuge inside the walls of Aalborg. In December, Rantzau's forces breached the walls and stormed the city. Clement managed to escape, but was apprehended a few days later.  He was tried and beheaded in 1535.

With Jutland more or less secure, Christian next focused on gaining control of Scania. He appealed to the Protestant Swedish king Gustav Vasa for help in subduing the rebels. Gustav immediately obliged by sending two armies to ravage central Scania and Halland. The  peasants suffered a bloody defeat at Loshult in Scania. The Swedes moved against Helsingborg Castle, which surrendered in January 1535 and was burned to the ground.

Rantzau moved his army to Funen and defeated Count Christopher's army at  Øksnebjerg on Funen in June 1535. Count Christopher's forces held out in Malmø and Copenhagen until July 1536 when they surrendered after several months of siege by Christian III's forces. With their capitulation, Christian III was firmly placed upon Denmark's throne, and the Roman Catholic forces in Denmark were subdued.

After the war and coup d'état in Norway

A mutual confidence between a king who had conquered his kingdom and a people who had stood in arms against him was not attainable immediately. The circumstances under which Christian III ascended the throne exposed Denmark to the danger of foreign domination. It was with the help of the gentry of the Germanic duchies that Christian had captured Denmark. Holstein and German noblemen had led his armies and directed his diplomacy. The first six years of Christian III's reign were marked by a contest between the Danish Rigsraadet and the German counsellors, both of whom sought to rule through the king. Though the Danish party won a victory at the outset, by obtaining the insertion in the charter of provisions stipulating that only native-born Danes should fill the highest dignities of the state, the king's German counsellors continued paramount during his early reign.

The triumph of Christian III would eventually bring about an end to Catholic Christianity in Denmark, but Catholics still controlled the Council of State. Christian III ordered the arrest of three of the bishops on the State Council by his German mercenaries (12 August 1536). Some Catholic bishops were later executed on his orders.

Christian's debt for the Count's Feud was enormous and confiscating the Church lands (farmed by peasants who had been free from vassalage duties to the nobles) enabled him to pay down the debt to his creditors.

Christian's Protestant policies led Denmark toward the establishment of Lutheranism as the Danish National Church (Folkekirke). This occurred officially on 30 October 1536 when the reconstituted State Council adopted the Lutheran Ordinances designed by  German theologian Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558), which outlined church organization, liturgy, and accepted religious practice. Monasteries, nunneries, and priories, were closed and the property taken by the crown (see Chronicle of the Expulsion of the Grayfriars). Vast tracts of land were handed out to the king's supporters, the royal land was rapidly expanded from one-sixth of the national land before the religious reform to 60% after the religious reform.

In 1537, Christian's coup d'état in Norway made it a hereditary kingdom in a real union with Denmark that would last until 1814. He also made Lutheranism the state religion in Norway, and on 2 September 1537 he appointed Gjeble Pederssøn as its first Lutheran bishop.

Later reign

The dangers threatening Christian III from  Emperor Charles V and other kinsmen of the imprisoned Christian II convinced him of the necessity to lessen the discontent in the land by relying on Danish magnates and nobles. At the High Court (Herredag) of Copenhagen in 1542, the nobility of Denmark voted Christian a twentieth part of all their property to pay off his heavy debt to  German mercenaries. The pivot of the foreign policy of Christian III was his alliance with the German Protestant princes. This provided a counterpoise to the persistent hostility of Charles V, who was determined to support the hereditary claims of his nieces, the daughters of Christian II, to the Scandinavian kingdoms. War was declared against Charles V in 1542, and, though the German Protestant princes proved faithless allies, the closing of the Sound against Dutch shipping proved such an effective weapon in Christian's hand that the Netherlands compelled Charles V to make peace with Denmark-Norway at the diet of Speyer, on 23 May 1544.

Partition of Holstein and Schleswig
Until this peace, Christian III also ruled the entire Duchies of Holstein and of Schleswig in the name of his then still minor half-brothers John the Elder (Hans den Ældre) and Adolf. They determined their youngest brother Frederick for a career as Diocesan  administrator of an ecclesiastical state within the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1544 the elder three brothers partitioned Holstein (a fief of the Holy Roman Empire) and Schleswig (a Danish fief). Following negotiations between the brothers and the Estates of the Realm of the duchies, the revenues of the duchies were divided into three equal shares by assigning the revenues of particular areas and landed estates to each of the three brothers, while other general revenues, such as taxes from towns and customs dues, were levied together but then shared among the brothers. The estates, whose revenues were assigned to the parties, made Holstein and Schleswig look like patchworks, technically inhibiting the emergence of separate new duchies.

Final years

The foreign policy of Christian's later days aimed at preserving the peace established by the Treaty of Speyer (1544). He refused to participate in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546, and mediated between the Emperor and Saxony after the fall of Maurice of Saxony at the Battle of Sievershausen in 1553. In 1549, he began the building of Landskrona Citadel. He also rebuilt Sønderborg Castle, converting it from a fortress into a four-winged castle in the new Renaissance syle, between 1549 and 1557. In February 1555, he interceded successfully on the behalf of the English Bible translator and Bishop of Exeter, Miles Coverdale (1488–1569), who had been imprisoned for two and a half years by the Catholic Mary I.  Coverdale was then released and allowed to leave England.

Christian III died on New Year's Day 1559 at Koldinghus, and was interred in Roskilde Cathedral in a funerary monument designed by Flemish sculptor Cornelis Floris de Vriendt (1514–1575).

Memorials
In 1579, Frederick II commissioned Dutch artists to erect a memorial to Christian III at Roskilde Cathedral.

Christian III received an honorary stone at the Walk of Fame at Landskrona which Sweden's Carl XVI Gustaf inaugurated in 2013.

Children
Christian married Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg on 29 October 1525 at Lauenburg Castle. She was daughter of Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Christian and Dorothea were the parents of five children:
Anna of Denmark (1532–1585), married to Augustus, Elector of Saxony.
Frederick II of Denmark (1534–1588), succeeded as King of Denmark and Norway.
Magnus of Denmark (1540–1583), became Duke of Holstein, and later titular King of Livonia.
Hans of Denmark (John the Younger; 1545–1622), Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg as 'John II'.
Dorothea of Denmark (1546–1617), married to William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and  mother of George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

References

Sources

Grell, Ole Peter (1995)  The Scandinavian Reformation. From evangelical movement to institutionalisation of reform (2 ed. Cambridge University Press)
Lausten, Martin Schwarz (1987) Christian d. 3. og kirken, 1537–1559 (Copenhagen: Akademisk forlag)
Lockhart, Paul Douglas (2007)  Denmark, 1513–1660. The rise and decline of a Renaissance monarchy (Oxford University Press)

Related reading
Øystein Rian (1997) Danmark-Norge 1380–1814  (Universitetsforlaget)

External links

 The Royal Lineage at the website of the Danish Monarchy

1503 births
1559 deaths
16th-century Norwegian monarchs
Leaders who took power by coup
People from Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein
Dukes of Schleswig
Dukes of Holstein
Protestant monarchs
Converts to Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism
People from Denmark–Norway
Burials at Roskilde Cathedral
16th-century monarchs of Denmark
People of the Count's Feud

Christian III of Denmark