The M1919 Browning is a .30 caliber medium machine gun that was widely used during the 20th century, especially during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The M1919 saw service as a light infantry, coaxial, mounted, aircraft, and anti-aircraft machine gun by the U.S. and many other countries.

The M1919 was an air-cooled development of the standard US machine gun of World War I, the John M. Browning-designed water-cooled M1917. The emergence of general-purpose machine guns in the 1950s pushed the M1919 into secondary roles in many cases, especially after the arrival of the M60 in US Army service. The United States Navy also converted many to 7.62 mm NATO, and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0; they were commonly used on riverine craft in the 1960s and 1970s in Vietnam. Many NATO countries also converted their examples to 7.62 mm caliber, and these remained in service well into the 1990s, as well as up to the present day in some countries.

Operation

Loading

The M1919 originally fired the .30 cal M1906 (.30-06) ball cartridge, and later the .30 caliber M2 ball cartridge, contained in a woven cloth belt, feeding from left to right. A metal M1 link was later adopted, forming a "disintegrating" belt.

Loading was accomplished by inserting the pull tab on the ammunition belt from the left side of the gun—either metal links or metal tab on cloth belts—until the feeding pawl at the entrance of the feed way engaged the first round in the belt and held it in place. The cocking handle was then pulled back with the right hand, palm facing up (to protect the thumb from injury if the weapon fired unexpectedly, which could happen if the barrel was very hot), and then released. This advanced the first round of the belt in front of the bolt for the extractor/ejector on the bolt to grab the first cartridge. The cocking handle was then pulled and released a second time. This caused the extractor to remove the first cartridge from the belt and chamber it (load it into the barrel ready to fire). As the bolt slid forward into battery, the extractor engaged the next round on the now-advanced belt resting in the feedway, preparing to draw it from the belt in the next firing cycle.

Every time the gun fired a shot, it performed this sequence: the bolt came rearward, extracting the spent round from the chamber and pulling the next round from the belt so that the fresh round ejected the spent one. As the bolt came forward, it chambered the fresh round, advanced the belt, and engaged the following round in preparation for loading. Once the bolt closed, the firing pin dropped and the round was fired.

The sequence was repeated roughly ten cycles per second until the trigger was released or the ammunition belt was exhausted.

The gun's original design was as a water-cooled machine gun (see the M1917 Browning machine gun). When it was decided to try to lighten the gun and make it air-cooled, its design as a closed bolt weapon created a potentially dangerous situation. If the gun was very hot from prolonged firing, the cartridge ready to be fired could be resting in a red-hot barrel, causing the propellant in the cartridge to heat up to the point that it would ignite and fire the cartridge on its own (a cook-off). With each further shot heating the barrel even more, the gun would continue to fire uncontrollably until the ammunition ran out, since depressing the trigger was not what was causing the gun to fire (although rarely as full rate automatic fire; it takes time for heat to soak into a cartridge, so usually it would manifest as a series of unexpected random discharges, the frequency increasing with the temperature of the barrel). Gunners were taught to cock the gun with the palm facing up, so that in the event of a cook-off, their thumb would not be dislocated by the charging handle, and to seize the ammunition belt and pull to prevent it from feeding, if the gun ever started an uncontrollable cycle of cooking off. Gunners were trained to manage the barrel heat by firing in controlled bursts of three to five rounds, to delay heating. Most other air-cooled machine gun designs were fired in the same way, even those featuring quick-change barrels and which fired from an open bolt, two features that make air-cooled machine guns capable of somewhat more sustained fire, both features that the M1919 design lacked.

Firing

When the gun was ready to fire, a round would be in the chamber and the bolt and barrel group would be locked together, with the locking block at the rear of the bolt. When the rear of the trigger was pivoted upwards by the operator, the front of the trigger tipped downward, pulling the sear out of engagement with the spring-loaded firing pin, allowing it to move forward and strike the primer of the cartridge.

As the assembly of bolt, barrel and barrel extension recoiled to the rear of the gun upon firing, the locking block was drawn out of engagement by a cam in the bottom of the gun's receiver. The recoiling barrel extension struck the "accelerator" assembly, a half-moon shaped spring-loaded piece of metal pivoting from the receiver below the bolt and behind the barrel extension. The tips of the accelerator's two curving fingers engaged the bottom of the bolt and caused it to move rapidly to the rear. The extractor-ejector was a mechanism that pivoted over the front of the bolt, with a claw that gripped the base of the next round in the belt. A camming track in the left side of the receiver caused this to move down as the bolt moved back, lowering the next round down on top of the fired case, pushing it straight down out of the extraction grooves of the bolt face through the ejection port. A spring in the feed tray cover pushed the extractor-ejector down onto the next round, so if the feed tray cover was opened, the extractor-ejector would be pulled upwards if the belt needed to be removed.

The belt feed lever was connected to the belt feeding pawl at the front end, had a cam pin at the rear end which ran through a track in the top of the bolt, and a pin in the feed tray cover acted as the pivot between the two ends. The rearward movement of the bolt caused the rear end of the feed lever to pull to the right, causing the feeding pawl at the other end to move left over the belt. The pawl would pull the belt further to the right as the bolt came forward again, also sending the loose M1 link of the previous round to be taken out of the belt to fly out the right side of the receiver. A recoil buffer tube extended from the back of the receiver to make the cycle of the bolt smoother than previous designs, to absorb some of the recoil of the bolt, and formed a place for the pistol grip to be installed.

Except for the M1919A6, all other variants had to be mounted on a tripod or other type of mount to be used effectively. The tripod used by infantry allowed traverse and elevation. To aim the gun along its vertical axis, the adjustment screw needed to be operated. This allowed the point of aim to be moved upwards or downwards, with free traverse to either side, allowing the gunner to set an elevation and sweep a wide band of fire across it by simply moving the gun from side to side. There was no need to control barrel climb or keep careful track of the fall of shots to make sure the fire was falling at the proper range. The gun was aimed using iron sights, a small folding post at the front end of the receiver and a rear aperture sight on a sliding leaf with range graduations from 200 to 1,800 meters in 200 meter increments. When folded down, the aperture formed a notch that could be used to fire the gun immediately without flipping up the leaf. The rear sight also had windage adjustment with a dial on the right side.

Operational use

Infantry

As a company support weapon, the M1919 required a five-man crew: the squad leader; the gunner (who fired the gun and when advancing carried the tripod and box of ammunition); the assistant gunner (who helped feed the gun and carried it, and a box of spare parts and tools);  two ammunition carriers. The original idea of the M1919 was to allow it to be more easily packed for transport, and featured a light barrel and bipod when first introduced as the M1919A1. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the gun was too heavy to be easily moved, while at the same time, too light for sustained fire. This led to the M1919A2, which included a heavier barrel and tripod, and could  sustain fire for longer periods.

The M1919A4 weighed about , and was ordinarily mounted on a "lightweight" (14 lb), low-slung tripod for infantry use (light and low compared to the previous M1917 tripod). Fixed vehicle mounts were also employed. It saw wide use in World War II mounted on jeeps, half-tracks, armored cars, tanks, amphibious vehicles, and landing craft. The M1919A4 played a key role in the firepower of the World War II U.S. Army. Each infantry company normally had a weapons platoon in addition to its other organic units. The presence of M1919A4 weapons in the weapons platoon gave company commanders additional automatic fire support at the company level, whether in the assault or on defense.

The M1919A5 was an adaptation of the M1919A4 with a forward mounting point to allow it to be mounted in tanks and armored cars. This, along with the M37 (another M1919 variant) and the Browning M2 machine gun, was the most common secondary armament during World War II for the Allies. The coaxial M37 variant had the ability to feed from either the left or the right of the weapon, and featured an extended charging handle similar to those on the M1919A4E1 and A5. A trial variant fitted with special sighting equipment was designated M37F.

Another version of the M1919A4, the M1919A6, was an attempt to make the weapon into a true light machine gun by attaching a bipod, buttstock, carrying handle, and lighter barrel (4 lb (1.8 kg) instead of 7 lb (3.2 kg)). The M1919A6, with a wooden buttstock, handle, pistol grip and bipod directly mounted to the body of the weapon was in fact one pound heavier than the M1919A4 without its tripod, at 32 lb (15 kg), though its bipod made for faster deployment and enabled the machine gun team to dispense with one man (the tripod bearer). The A6 version saw increasing service in the latter days of World War II and was used extensively in Korean War. While the modifications were intended to make the weapon more useful as a squad light machine gun, it was a stopgap solution. Even though it was reliable, it proved somewhat impractical for its intended role.

In the late 1950s, an M1919 designed for remote firing via a solenoid trigger was developed for use in the XM1/E1 armament subsystem was designated M37C. The US Navy later converted a number of M1919A4s to 7.62mm NATO chambering and designated them Mk 21 Mod 0; some of these weapons were employed in Vietnam War in riverine warfare patrols.

From the 1960s until the 1990s, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used ground tripod and vehicle-mounted M1919A4 guns converted to 7.62 mm NATO on many of their armored vehicles and M3 personnel carriers. Israel developed a modified link for these guns due to feeding problems with the original US M1 link design. The improved Israeli link worked with .30 caliber, 7.62 mm NATO and 8×57 mm cartridges.

Aircraft

With assistance from firearms engineers at Fabrique Nationale de Herstal, Belgium, the Model 1919 was completely re-engineered into the .30 caliber M2/AN (Army-Navy) aircraft machine gun (not to be confused with the .50 caliber M2/AN or the 20mm AN/M2, the two other primary US aircraft weapons of WWII). The .30 in M2/AN Browning was widely adopted as both a fixed (offensive) and flexible (defensive) weapon on aircraft. Aircraft machine guns required light weight, firepower, and reliability, and achieving all three goals proved a difficult challenge, with the mandate for a closed bolt firing cycle to enable the gun to be safely and properly synchronized for fixed-mount, forward-aimed guns firing through a spinning propeller, a necessity on many single-engined fighter aircraft designs through to nearly the end of World War II. The receiver walls and operating components of the M2 were made thinner and lighter, and with air cooling provided by the speed of the aircraft, designers were able to reduce the barrel's weight and profile. As a result, the M2 weighed two-thirds that of the 1919A4, and the lightened mechanism gave it a rate of fire approaching 1,200 rpm (some variants could achieve 1,500 rpm), a necessity for engaging fast-moving aircraft. The M2's feed mechanism had to lift its own loaded belt out of the ammunition box and feed it into the gun, equivalent to a weight of 11 lb (5 kg). In Ordnance circles, the .30 M2/AN Browning had the reputation of being the most difficult-to-repair weapon in the entire US small arms inventory.

The M2 also appeared in a twin-mount version which paired two M2 guns with opposing feed chutes in one unit for operation by a single gunner, with a combined rate of fire of 2,400 rpm. All of the various .30 M2 models saw service in the early stages of World War II, but were phased out beginning in 1943, as hand-trained rifle-caliber defensive machine guns became obsolete for air warfare (the .50 in/12.7 mm M2/AN Browning and 20 mm AN/M2 automatic cannon had replaced the .30 in as offensive air armament as well). The .30 in M2 aircraft gun was widely distributed to other US allies during and after World War II, and in British and Commonwealth service saw limited use as a vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft or anti-personnel machine gun.

Other calibers
The same basic weapon, albeit modified to fire from an open bolt to prevent cooking off of cordite, was also chambered for the British .303 round, and was used as the United Kingdom's primary offensive (fixed forward firing) aircraft gun in fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane and as fixed armament in bombers like the Bristol Blenheim, the Fairey Battle, Handley Page Hampden and Martin Maryland, until the widespread introduction of the larger 20mm caliber Hispano-Suiza Mk.II cannon, and throughout the war as defensive turret weapons in bombers. British night fighter Mosquitoes used quartets of .303 Brownings in the nose and Beaufighters used six in the wings, supplementing the main armament of four 20mm Hispano cannon in ventral fuselage mounts. Refer to #Browning .303 Mark II for more details.

It's often believed that the British modification to open bolt firing made it impossible to synchronize the guns to fire through the propeller arc, but that's plain wrong: in fact, .303 Brownings were indeed synchronized on Gloster Gladiator and some other early WWII designs.

Similar versions for a variety of European calibers were delivered by the Belgian gun maker Fabrique Nationale (FN), notably German-standard 7.92×57mm Mauser which was widely used in  Eastern Europe; and by Swedish gun maker Carl Gustaf SGF in 6.5×55mm and 8×63mm calibers.

Argentina used Colt-manufactured guns chambered for the standard Argentine 7.65×53mm cartridge.

On Lend-Lease British aircraft provided to the Soviets
The .303 variant equipped the Hawker Hurricanes delivered to Soviet Air Forces, during World War II (in both eight and twelve-gun variants). Soviet airmen compared them to their own, rapid-firing (at up to 1,800 rounds/min) ShKAS machine gun in terms of reliability: "But they often failed due to dust," recalled pilot Nikolai G. Golodnikov. "We tackled the problem gluing percale on all the machine-gun holes, and when you opened fire, bullets went right through. The machine guns became reliable then. They were of low efficiency when fired from distances of 150–300 m."

Production
The M1919 was manufactured during World War II by three different companies in the United States; Buffalo Arms Corporation, Rock Island Arsenal, and the Saginaw Steering Gear division of General Motors. In the UK, production was chiefly by BSA. Originally unit priced at $667 each, mass production lowered the price to $141.44.

Variants and derivatives

M1919 variants

The original M1919 was designed for use with tanks. The water-cooled M1917 was inappropriate due to weight and the vulnerability of the water jacket.  Browning modified the M1917 to be air-cooled by making changes that included dropping the water jacket and using a heavier barrel.

In total, there were six variants of the basic M1919 machine gun.

M1919A1The M1919A1 introduced a newly strengthened bottom plate and some few other changes. It was meant to be used on Mark VII tanks replacing the earlier Marlin M1918 heavy machine guns.

M1919A2
The M1919A2 was another lightweight development specifically for mounted cavalry units, utilizing a shorter 18-inch barrel and a special tripod, though it could be fitted to either the M1917 or M2 tripods. This weapon was designed to allow greater mobility to cavalry units over the existing M1917 machine gun. The M1919A2 was introduced in 1922, and was used for a short period between World War I and World War II after the cavalry had converted from horses to wheeled and tracked vehicles.

M1919A3
The M1919E1, commonly known as the M1919A3, was introduced in 1931 as an improved version of the M1919A2 for the infantry.

M1919A4

The most common variant of the series was the M1919A4. Production blueprints of the new variant were complete in late 1936, and slow-scale production soon followed. The driving force behind the development of this variant was the lack of reliability in the  previous 18-inch barrel versions, which did not produce enough recoil to cycle the action reliably. The gun was given a heavier "bull barrel", much thicker and was lengthened to  like the M1917, for cooling purposes, and a recoil booster to enhance cycling performance, even with the heavier barrel. Various other small adjustments to the design were made, such as moving the front sight from the barrel jacket to the receiver, which made it easier to mount the gun on vehicles. The design of the barrel jacket was changed to include circular holes instead of long slits of earlier models. The recoil buffer assembly was also a new addition to the design between A3 and A4 development, designed to reduce the impact of the bolt hitting the backplate.

The M1919A4 was used in both fixed and flexible mounts, by infantry and on vehicles. It was also widely exported after World War II and continues to be used in small numbers around the world. Two variants were developed specifically for vehicular use, the M1919A5, with an extended charging handle, and the M1919A4E1, a sub-variant of the M1919A4 refitted with an extended charging handle developed in the 1950s.

M1919A6

During the war it became clear to the US military that the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, while portable, was not sufficient as a sustained fire weapon due to its fixed barrel and 20-round magazine. The M1919A4 was faster and cheaper to produce, but did not have the portability of a rifle. Realizing that producing an entirely new replacement machine gun would take time, the military decided that a stop-gap solution would be best and adapted an existing design. The M1919A6 was an attempt at such a solution, to parallel the designs of the German MG 34 and MG 42 machine guns, each of which were portable for a squad weapon and were very effective at sustained fire.

The M1919A6 first saw combat service in the fall of 1943. It had a metal buttstock assembly that clamped to the backplate of the gun, and a front barrel bearing that incorporated both a muzzle booster and a bipod similar to that used on the BAR. A lighter barrel than that of the M1919A4 was fitted, and a carrying handle was attached to the barrel jacket to make it easier to carry. Previous M1919 designs could change the barrel, but it required essentially field stripping the gun to pull the barrel out from the rear the pistol grip back plate, bolt group and the trigger group all had to be removed before the barrel could be replaced, and this put the gun out of action for minutes, and risked losing and damaging parts in the field. The M1919A6 muzzle device allowed the gun crew to replace the barrel from the front; an improvement, but still an awkward procedure compared to other machine guns of the day. The M1919A6 was a heavy () and awkward weapon in comparison with the MG34  () and MG42  () and was eventually replaced in US service by the M60 machine gun () in the 1960s.

T66
The M1919A6 was used by Springfield Armory in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a testbed for an interim general-purpose machine gun. It was rechambered for the experimental T65 series cartridges, culminating in 1951 with the T66 machine gun chambered for the T65E3 cartridge (one of the forerunners to the 7.62mm NATO cartridge). It had a new barrel with a flash-hider attachment, a shorter action, and modified M1 disintegrating belt links to feed the new cartridge. It was deemed still too heavy for field use and was not adopted.

.30 AN/M2
A specific aircraft version of the .30 caliber Model 1919A4 was manufactured by Browning as the .30 AN/M2. It had a thinner barrel and receiver walls to keep down weight. Compared to the M1919A4, the AN/M2 had a substantially higher rate of fire (1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute). It was used on US aircraft early in World War II, but the lighter .30-caliber weapon was increasingly relegated to training duties as the war progressed. A derivative of this weapon was built by Colt as the civilian market MG40.

It was later replaced by the larger caliber – and is not to be confused with – the Browning Machine Gun, Cal. .50, M2, Aircraft, with the smaller-calibre ordance bearing the official designation of "Browning Machine Gun, Cal. .30, M2, Aircraft."  The .50 AN/M2 "light barrel" version, used in the majority of fixed and flexible/turreted mounts on U.S. World War II-era aircraft as the war progressed, lacked the massive "cooling collar" of the heavy barrel M2HB version, which is still in service with the ground forces of the U.S. military in the 21st century.

The AN/M2 was responsible for seriously wounding "one of the best Japanese fighter pilots of the war" flying ace Saburō Sakai when he attacked eight SBD Dauntlesses from behind mistaking them for F4F Wildcat fighters.

The "Stinger" was a field modification by Marines in the Pacific Theater during World War II and used on the ground as a light machine gun.  These were salvaged from crashed and disabled aircraft and fitted with a bipod (spade grips still attached).  Later more extensive modifications led to six being fitted with a custom trigger, M1 Garand buttstock, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle bipod and rear sights to allow for use without a tripod or other mount.  The resulting weapon was a belt-fed,  long,  gun and fired three times as fast as the M1919A6's of the day.  The Stinger was recommended as a replacement for the BAR in squads however the war ended just six months later. Marine Corporal Tony Stein used a "Stinger" during the invasion of Iwo Jima. Stein would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle."

Flygplanskulspruta m/22
Flygplanskulspruta m/22, (fpl)ksp m/22 for short, was a Swedish variant of the .30 AN/M2 aircraft machine gun. The name literally translates to "airplane machine gun model 22". It was originally used by the Swedish army's aviation branch but moved over to the Swedish air force when it was formed in 1926. The first guns delivered were built by Colt but Sweden later got a license to produce the weapon domestically. The ksp m/22 stayed in active service all the way to 1957, although by then only in a gunpod for ground strafing. Originally the ksp m/22 was chambered in 6.5x55 mm but in 1932 almost all guns where re chambered to 8x63 mm.

Browning .303 Mark II

The Browning was adopted by the Royal Air Force as a replacement for the .303  Vickers machine gun and manufactured by Vickers Armstrong and BSA to fire the British .303 inch (7.7 mm) round and named "Browning .303 Mk II" in British Service. It was essentially the 1930 Pattern belt-fed Colt–Browning machine gun with a few modifications for British use, such as firing from an open bolt to avoid cooking off the cordite rounds and a lighter bolt, increasing the rate of fire, much like the US .30 M2/AN aircraft variant. It was designed to fire hydraulically or pneumatically as a wing mounted machine gun but was also adopted as hand-fired mount for use in bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. It had a rate of fire of 1,150 rounds per minute. The licence was issued to BSA by July 1935.

The Browning .303 was used as the RAF and Fleet Air Arm (FAA) primary fixed forward firing aircraft armament before the war, both in synchronized mounts (firing through a spinning propeller) on pre-war biplane fighters (Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Fury) and on the UK's new 'eight-gun fighters' the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire and the naval Fairey Fulmar, and as secondary weapons in mid-war variants of the Spitfire, as well as being fitted in single, double or quadruple mounts as offensive weapons for the Bristol Blenheim, the Fairey Battle, Handley Page Hampden, Martin Maryland/Baltimore, Fairey Swordfish, Lockheed Hudson, Douglas Boston, Blackburn Skua and Bristol Beaufort. It was also used as a turret gun in various Boulton Paul or Nash & Thompson turrets on bombers, and flying boats. Even after the introduction of autocannon as primary fighter armament .303 Brownings were retained as supplementary weapons on many aircraft including later versions of the Spitfire, as well as fighter-bomber and night fighter versions of the de Havilland Mosquito, among others.

For hand-held moveable mount use the Vickers K machine gun was preferred.
There is pictorial evidence of the .303 Browning being placed on improvised bipods for ground use during the early campaigns in Burma and Malaysia.

M37
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the US military was looking for an upgrade to the M1919 that could feed from either side for use as an improved coaxial machine gun. Saco-Lowell developed a model that had the driving spring attached to the back plate (eliminating the need for a mainspring and driving rod protruding out the back of the bolt), a solenoid trigger for remote firing, a feed cover that could open from either side, a bolt with dual tracks that could feed from either side, and a reversible belt feed pawl, ejector, and feed chute. The experimental T151 had a flat backplate, the T152 had spade grips and a "butterfly" trigger like the M2HB, and the T153 had a pistol grip and back-up trigger like the M1919A4 and an extended charging handle similar to those on the M1919A5. The T153 was adopted as the M37 and was produced by SACO-Lowell and Rock Island Arsenal from 1955 to 1957. It was in regular service from 1955 until it was replaced by the M37E1 in the late 1960s and the M73A1 in the early 1970s.

The M37 was used mostly on the M47 and M48 Patton medium tanks. The M37F was a trial variant fitted with special sighting equipment. The M37C was a variant without a sight bracket designed for use in aircraft armament (like the skid-mounted XM1/E1 helicopter armament subsystem).

The M37E1 was a M37 machine gun converted by Rock Island Arsenal and Springfield Armory to chamber the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge and feed the M13 disintegrating belt. They were designed for interim use until the M73 machine gun could be fielded. The M37E1 was to be standardized as the M37A1 but development of the improved M73A1 precluded this.

Mk 21 Mod 0

The increasing American involvement in Vietnam created a demand for small arms, especially the new M60 machine gun. The Navy had surplus machine guns left over from World War 2 and Korea, but they were chambered for the earlier .30-06 Springfield cartridge rather than the new standard 7.62mm NATO cartridge. The Mk 21 Mod 0 was a US Navy conversion of the .30 M1919A4 to fire the 7.62mm NATO cartridge. This was accomplished by replacing the barrel, bolt, and feed cover and adding a chamber bushing, a link-stripper, and a second belt-holding pawl to allow it to feed and fire the new cartridge. Spacer blocks were added to the front and back of the feedway to guide the shorter round and block the use of the longer .30-06 Springfield ammunition. A six-inch flash hider was also added to the barrel to reduce the muzzle flash.

The conversions were performed from 1966 through 1967 at Naval Ordnance Station Louisville. Modified M1919A4s had the designation "Machine Gun, 7.62mm / Mk 21 Mod 0" stamped on the receiver sideplate in 1/4-inch lettering. The replacement barrels had "7.62mm NATO-G" stamped on them in 1/8-inch letters to differentiate them from M1919A4 or M60 barrels; the letter G indicated it used a grooved barrel bushing.

It used the standard 7.62mm NATO M13 link "strip-out" disintegrating link, in which the bolt pushes the round out of the bottom of the two-part link and then forwards into the breech. The old M1 link "pull-out" disintegrating links, which are pulled backwards out of the one-piece link by the extractor towards the bolt and then forwards into the breech, would not feed through the new mechanism. The M1 links, which were designed for the longer and thinner .30-06 Springfield, would also be too narrow to fit the shorter and thicker 7.62mm NATO round. The US Navy, because of their narrower inventory of 7.62mm NATO ammunition, used linked belts of either 7.62mm M80 Ball or a 4:1 ratio mix of 7.62mm M80 Ball and 7.62mm M62 Tracer.

The refurbished feed mechanism was left-hand feed only. It was different from the one in the M60 GPMG in that the open end of the belt had to be on top so it could be stripped out. To prepare the ammo, gunners had to take out both of the 100-round belts from an M19A1 ammo can, had to link them both together, and then loaded the resultant 200-round belt back into the M19A1 can upside-down so it would feed correctly.

International variants and derivatives

The M1919 pattern has been used in countries all over the world in a variety of forms and under a number of different designations.

 The Browning Mk 1 and Mk 2 were older-style Commonwealth designations for the .303 Browning machine guns used on the vast majority of British aircraft of World War II. The difference between the Mk 1 and Mk 2 versions is unknown, but the weapon visually is quite similar to the AN/M2 aircraft gun. Post-war the L3 designation was used by the United Kingdom and Australia to designate the fixed (A1) and flexible (A2) versions of the M1919A4 in .30-06. L3A3 and L3A4 denoted sear hold-open conversion of previous L3A1s and L3A2s. The A3 is the modified version of the A1, and the A4 is the modified version of the A2.
 While the RCAF had used a mix of .303 Browning's and later .30-06 Browning's on aircraft during World War II and the Korean War, the Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Navy had largely used M1919A4s in .30-06 during both conflicts, having them mainly mounted on vehicles/vessels. Canada had also kept the base American name(s) as the designation and had not used Commonwealth designations for them like the United Kingdom and Australia. When the Canadian Forces adopted 7.62×51mm NATO rechambered M1919A4s during the 1950s (same time as the FN FAL and Sterling SMG adoption) they gave the two variants of the GPMG separate designations; for fixed application the 'C1' and for flexible application the 'C1A1'. Not long after entering service they were renamed C5 and C5A1 after being upgraded, being product improvements of the previous C1 and C1A1 respectively. They would be used by infantry and mounted on a variety of vehicles including the Iltis, M38A1, M151A2, CJ-7, M113A1 and M113A2 series, Lynx reconnaissance vehicle, Ferret Armoured Car, Centurion Tank, Husky AVGP and the MLVW among others. The C5 GPMG series was in service till the mid 1990s, when they had been fully replaced by the C6 GPMG and the C9 LMG, with the remaining weapons going into storage.
 The Rhodesian Air Force used twin Browning Mk 2 models, chambered in the British .303 cartridge, mounted on Alouette III G-Car helicopters as well as modified variants fitted with FN MAG bipods, pistol grips and stocks for ground use.
 The Browning was produced by FN-Herstal in Belgium as well, being used in, among others, the Fokker D.XXI and IAR-80/81 fighters.
 MG A4 is the Austrian designation for the M1919A4.
 MG4 is a South African upgrade of the M1919 in current use with the South African National Defence Force. The MG4 upgrade was done by Lyttleton Engineering Works, Pretoria.
 MG m/52-1 and MG m/52-11 were Danish designations for the M1919A4 and M1919A5 respectively.
 The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used vehicle-mounted M1919A4 guns converted to 7.62mm NATO on many of their armored vehicles.
 Ksp m/22 is the Swedish designation for license-built M1919s chambered for 8×63mm patron m/22 cartridges, for aircraft use.
 Ksp m/39 is the Swedish designation for M1919A4 license-built by Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori chambered in 6.5×55mm and 8×63mm patron m/32, and from about 1975 rebarreled in 7.62×51mm NATO. Intended for use in tanks and armoured vehicles, it's available with both left- and right hand feeding, the former is used in CV 90.
 Ksp m/42 was the Swedish designation for license-built M1919A6 used for infantry support, normally chambered in 6.5×55mm but occasionally in 8×63mm patron m/32, and from about 1975, mostly fitted with barrels in 7.62×51mm NATO. The Ksp m/42B was a lighter version with bipod and shoulder stock (used in a similar way as the M1919A6), chambered in 6.5×55mm and later in 7.62×51mm. Even the ksp m/42B proved too heavy, and was replaced by the ksp m/58 (FN MAG). In the late 1980s, most remaining ksp m/42 was rebuilt into ksp m/39 to be installed into the CV 90s.
 The Poles developed a copy of the Browning M1919 chambered for 7.92×57mm Mauser, designated Ckm wz.32, similar to the earlier Ckm wz.30.

Commercial variants and derivatives

Colt MG40
Colt produced a derivative of the M2 aircraft machine gun, the Colt MG40. It shipped in a variety of calibers, including the basic .30-06 Springfield and popular 7mm Spanish Mauser, and was available in left- or right-hand feed. The MG40-2 Light Aircraft Machine Gun could be used in flexible- (pintle-mounted), fixed- (wing-mounted), or synchronized- (through the propeller) models. The Flexible mount machine gun came with grips and a "butterfly" trigger plate like the standard ground model. The Fixed model had a backplate. It used a cable connected to an operating slide connected to a stud on the bolt to fire it; tension in the cable causes the trigger to activate and slack in the cable causes it to stop. The synchronized variant of the Fixed model had a trigger motor for through-propeller, gun synchronizing needs.

FN variants
FN Herstal developed a family of machine guns analogical to Colt's commercial line in 1930s, and those, even though not well-known, were used by many European countries during WWII

Civilian ownership in the US

The Browning M1919 remains popular with civilian enthusiasts in the United States, though changes in 1986 to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (the US Federal law regulating private ownership of machine guns) prohibited the registration of new machine guns for sales to civilians, thus freezing the number of "transferable" machine guns in private ownership. The inflation of prices that followed, and the availability of parts from surplussed and scrapped machine guns, led to the development of semi-automatic versions of the Browning M1919. Typically, these are built using a new right sideplate (the portion legally considered the "firearm" under US law), which has a raised "island" protruding into the interior of the receiver. This requires the use of a modified bolt, barrel extension and lock frame which have been designed to allow only semi-automatic firing. The "island" prevents the insertion of unmodified full-automatic parts. A number of small gun companies have produced these "semi-auto machine guns" for commercial sales. The fairly simple modifications necessary to convert M1919 parts to the semi-automatic version, and the relatively easy process of riveting used in the assembly of the Browning machine gun's receiver, have also made it a popular gun for hobbyists to build at home.

Similar "semi-auto machine guns" have been built using parts from other Browning pattern machine guns, to include the AN/M2 aircraft gun and FN30, and variations that never saw military use such as extremely short (8") barreled guns.

Current and former users

 : 1,605 M1919A4s, known as MG-A4. Used into the 1970s.

 : M1919A4 Browning were used by the X Force and M1919A6 Browning were later supplied by the OSS to American trained Chinese commandos in 1945.

  Brigade 2506
 : 7.62 MG M/52

  Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda

 : Used by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment.

 : used post-war

 : The Armed Forces received 186 M1919A4s and 325 M1919A6s before the Korean War, and 4,402 M1919A4s and 2,675 M1919A6s were in service with the Army by the end of the war.
 : Received M1919A4 and M1919A6 from US Government during Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War.

 : Operated those fitted on Lend-Lease vehicles and planes

  M1919A4/M1919A6 Saw action during 1974 Cyprus War.

See also
Dieudonné Saive
M2 Stinger
Maxim-Tokarev
List of U.S. Army weapons by supply catalog designation SNL A-6
M1917 Browning machine gun
M2 Browning machine gun
Edward Colquhoun Charlton (using an M1919 from his Sherman tank in 1945) was awarded the Victoria Cross

References

Bibliography
 Dolf L. Goldsmith, The Browning Machine Gun, Vol I & II
 Drabkin, Artem. The Red Air Force at War: Barbarossa & the retreat to Moscow – Recollections of Fighter Pilots on the Eastern Front. Barnsley (South Yorkshire), Pen & Sword Military, 2007.

External links

 (1986) C-71-126-000 Parts Identification Lists - Machine Gun, 7.62mm, C5A1
 Gothia Association for Weapon History on the Ksp m/42
 Flygplanskulspruta m/22
 M37: The Ultimate Improved Browning 1919 Forgotten Weapons

7.62×51mm NATO machine guns
.30-06 Springfield machine guns
Aircraft guns
Medium machine guns
Machine guns of the United States
World War II firearms of the United States
Light machine guns
World War II machine guns
Weapons of the Philippine Army
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1919
World War II infantry weapons of Brazil

M1919 Browning machine gun


Josef Svoboda (10 May 1920 – 8 April 2002) was a Czech artist and scenic designer. He was a production designer and director, known for Amadey (1984), Laterna Magika: Puzzles (1996) and Laterna Magika: Trap (1999).

Education
Svoboda was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic). He began his training as an architect at the Central School of Housing in Prague. At the end of World War II, he became interested in theatre and design. He began to study scenography at the Prague Conservatory and architecture at the Academy of Applied Arts.

Career
Svoboda became the principal designer at the Czech National Theatre in 1948 and held that position for more than 30 years. His multimedia installations Laterna Magika and Polyekran, realized together with director Alfréd Radok and his brother Emil on the occasion of the Expo 58 in Brussels, allowed him to be internationally known. These productions introduced the combination of live actors and filmed projections. Svoboda is also responsible for introducing modern technologies and materials such as plastics, hydraulics and lasers into his designs. In 1967, Svoboda created one of his best known special effects, a three-dimensional pillar of light. This was created by the use of an aerosol mixture which revealed low-voltage luminaries.

Josef Svoboda considered himself a scenographer rather than a designer; he chose to show a more holistic, architectural, non-naturalistic approach to design. His 700-plus designs include Insect Comedy (Czech National Theatre, 1946); Rusalka (Teatro La Fenice, Venice, 1958); Carmen (Metropolitan Opera, New York City, 1972); The Firebird (Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, 1972); I Vespri Siliciani (Metropolitan Opera, 1974); Jumpers (Kennedy Center, 1974), many of them realized together with the opera director Václav Kašlík.

He left the Czech National Theatre in 1992. Year later, he became artistic director of the Laterna Magika Theatre.

Awards
Svoboda's honors and awards include honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Arts in London, Denison and Western Michigan universities in the United States, and awards from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT).  He was made Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in Paris in 1976, and received the French Legion of Honor in 1993.

Josef Svoboda died in Prague, where he was buried on 15 April 2002.

References

 Burian, Jarka. The Scenography of Josef Svoboda. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1974,
 Svoboda, Josef. The Secret of Theatrical Space. New York: Applause Theatre Books, 1993,

External links
  Scenography website article on Josef Svoboda
 Lanterna magika website article about Svoboda

1920 births
2002 deaths
Czech scenic designers
Opera designers
People from Čáslav
Prague Conservatory alumni

Josef Svoboda


The Aurora Elks Lodge No. 705 is a Mayan style building on Stolp Island in Aurora, Illinois.  It is included in the Stolp Island Historic District.  The building was built in 1926 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

History
The Aurora, Illinois building for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was built in 1926 by Chicago architectural firm Zimmerman, Saxe & Zimmerman. The building's designs were heavily influenced by the archaeological discoveries being widely reported in the 1920s in Mesoamerica. According to members of the lodge, William Carbys Zimmerman spent some time at some of the Late Classic Mayan sites to gather influence for his designs. Specifically, Carbys' designs reflect the Late Classic and early Postclassic Eras. Details include Mayan deities, symbols, and architectural placements. The building is a rare example of a Mayan motif applied to a Prairie School design. It is uncertain why this type of design was chosen, as Mayan symbols do not have any special significance in the Elks community.

This property was purchased in January 2015 by Karademas Management, who will be developing it into residential property consisting of 29 upscale units scheduled to open in the summer of 2015.  Plans for a first floor restaurant are also in the works.

Architecture
The building consists of two rectangular sections, one that is three stories tall and one that is four stories. The steel-framed, concrete reinforced structure has a flat roof. The main exterior facade, on the south and east, features horizontal bands of twisted red-brown brick and beige terra-cotta with Mayan glyphs. The three-story section was used as the main lobby, dining rooms, meeting rooms, club offices, ballroom, bars, and lounge. The four-story section was the main dining room and also housed the kitchen, a bar, forty-six rooms for traveling members, and a basement bowling alley.

References

Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois
National Register of Historic Places in Kane County, Illinois
Prairie School architecture in Illinois
Buildings and structures completed in 1926
Buildings and structures in Aurora, Illinois
Elks buildings
Historic district contributing properties in Illinois

Aurora Elks Lodge No. 705


Birgitte Grimstad (born 15 December 1935) is a Danish-born Norwegian singer, guitarist, composer and writer.

Personal life
Grimstad was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the daughter of Aksel Schiøtz and Gerd Haugsted. She was married to ambassador Per Øystein Grimstad from 1958 to 1988.

Career
Grimstad studied theatre and mass media at the University of Minnesota, United States. She moved to Norway in 1959, and produced television shows for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), including children's programs and shows with performers such as Alf Prøysen and Lalla Carlsen.

She made her musical debut in 1966 with the single "Det første som jeg ønsker meg", with lyrics by Alf Prøysen, and "Å være barn en sommerdag" (lyrics by André Bjerke). That same year, she issued the album Birgitte Grimstad synger viser. Her first Danish album was Viser er så meget, released in 1968. Her folk album Nordlysun (1972), in cooperation with Geirr Tveitt, earned her a Spellemannprisen. Other albums from the 1970s are Viser i vinden (1972), Ej Blot til Børn (1973), Ord over grind (1977), and Songs of Scandinavia (1978). She published the songbooks Fra Birgitte Grimstads repertoar in 1969 and Menneskeviser in 1972.

She took the initiative in establishing the song quartet Ballade!, which consisted of herself, Åse Kleveland, Lars Klevstrand, and Lillebjørn Nilsen. The group toured Denmark and Norway. Their concert album Ballade på turné, released in 1978, became very popular. The quartet's second album, Ekstranummer from 1980, was awarded a Spellemannprisen. Later in the 1980s she performed Bach's Geistliche Lieder and the medieval ballad Draumkvedet in churches in Denmark and Norway. Her album Pas på de vilde fugle from 1983 included a Danish version of Prøysen's "Vise for gærne jinter", Nordahl Grieg's poem "Til Ungdommen" to Otto Mortensen melody, and a translation of the Elvis Presley hit "Love Me Tender". Later albums are Wondering And Calling from 1986, and Love Is A Flow from 1996.

She was awarded a Musikkritikerprisen in 1972, and a Prøysenprisen in 1999.

References

1935 births
Living people
Musicians from Copenhagen
University of Minnesota alumni
Danish emigrants to Norway
20th-century Norwegian women singers
20th-century Norwegian singers
20th-century Danish women singers
Norwegian composers
Spellemannprisen winners

Birgitte Grimstad


Sky Box Office is Sky's pay-per-view (PPV) system operated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There were three branded divisions of Sky Box Office – Sky Cinema Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding. On 4 January 2017, all Sky Cinema Box Office channels ceased broadcasting, with only Sky Sports Box Office remaining available.

History
Sky Box Office launched on 16 March 1996 on Sky Analogue. At the time it carried mainly sporting events, such as major boxing fights. The first of these was Frank Bruno's WBC World Heavyweight Championship defence against Mike Tyson. Initially events were ordered by telephone, either on the day of broadcast for £14.95 or in advance at a reduced price of £9.99. Ordering an event charged the viewer and then the subscriber's VideoCrypt viewing card would be activated over the air, enabling the viewing of the broadcast. The charge would be levied unless the viewer cancelled prior to broadcast, or returned the viewing card as proof that the event hadn't been watched. On some occasions, Box Office events would be broadcast on other Sky channels, such as Sky Sports 3.

Four dedicated Sky Box Office channels were launched on 1 December 1997 on Sky Analogue. At this time multiple showings of selected movies, shown in advance of their broadcast on Sky's existing subscription movie channels, were added. Initial movies included The Long Kiss Goodnight and Courage Under Fire. However, at least one hour pre-ordering was required, and for most movies one purchase at £2.99 only bought one viewing.

With the move to Sky Digital in 1998, where the Sky Digibox provided a data return path, events and movies – the latter now copy protected – could be bought minutes before or even during the event either by telephone or through an on-screen menu and PIN system.

Sky launched a sister pay-per-view channel in August 2001, Premiership Plus, which shown select football matches from the Premier League live. The service closed in 2007 as Sky were forced by the European Union to break their broadcasting monopoly on the competition.

A range of pay-per-view 3-D films were also screened on Sky 3D.

On 1 February 2011, Sky Box Office was rebranded as Sky Movies Box Office for movies. Later in the year, Sky Sports Box Office branding was added for sports and Sky 3D Box Office for 3D.

On 4 January 2017, all Sky Cinema Box Office channels ceased broadcasting, with only Sky Sports Box Office remaining available.

Content
Although at launch it showed mainly sporting events, since the launch of Sky Digital, movies along with concerts became the predominant content. However, Sky Cinema Box Office's limited movie choices and relatively high prices increasingly left it suffering in comparison to online DVD rental systems. As of 2011, films were first shown on Sky Box Office on the same day as DVD release, prior to that there was a 2 to 3-month window between DVD release and Sky Box Office release. Some films still retained the 2 to 3-month window between DVD and Sky Box Office releases. Since 2017 only sports content is available for purchase.

Content can be purchased directly through a Sky remote control. This can be accomplished by pressing "Box Office", purchase an event, confirm the order and enter the PIN if prompted. They can also be ordered online via Sky Box Office.

Boxing pay-per-view fights

See also
TNT Sports Box Office
ITV Box Office
Primetime (TV channel)
The Big Fight Live
BoxNation

References

External links

Sky Sports Box Office
Sky Movies Box Office at sky.com

Sky television channels
Pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom
Movie channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 1996
1996 establishments in the United Kingdom

Sky Box Office


Jabbeke is a municipality locatit in the Belgian province o Wast Flanders. The municipality comprises the touns o Jabbeke proper, Snellegem, Stalhille, Varsenare an Zerkegem. On 1 Januar 2006 the municipality haed 13,572 inhabitants. The total aurie is 53.76 km2 (20.76 sq mi), givin a population density o 252 inhabitants per km².

Speed records
In the 1940s an '50s it wis renouned for the number o speed records set on a measured kilometer o heich-gate.  No juist absolute speed records, manufacturers wantit each model's maximum speed measured an certifee'd b the Ryal Automobile Club o Belgium. E.g. the Jaguar XK120 achieved an offeecially timed 126 mph (202.78 km/h); the "Jabbeke Speed Record" Triumph TR2 caur wis driven bi Ken Richardson; André Pilette set a Belgian record in the 2 litre class in the Veritas RS 206 km/h (128.00 mph); in 1952 the Rover JET 1 turbine driven bi Spen King set the first speed record for gas turbine caurs at 151.965 mph (244.56 km/h) ower the flyin kilometre; an the exotic Pegaso Z-102 clocked 250 km/h (155.34 mph) tae mak it the 'fastest production caur in the warld'.

Famous inhabitants
 Romain Maes, winner o the Tour de France in 1935, wis born in Zerkegem in 1913.
 Constant Permeke wis a Belgian painter who is considered the leadin figur o Flemish expressionism.

Freemit airtins

Municipalities o Wast Flanders
Land speed record venues

Jabbeke


Pierre Maupertuis stated in 1746 that many processes in nature are either optimal, or they take extreme values. This is known as the principle of stationary action  and is a part of mechanics. It states that physical fields and particles will sometimes take extreme values (which are maximal or minimal). For this reason, it is often called principle of least action.  Maupertuis gives a way to determine equations of motion when looking at the action of a mechanical system.

History
One of the first to formulate this was Pierre de Fermat. In the 1600s, he wrote: "light travels between two given points along the path of shortest time".

Maupertuis wrote: "The laws of movement and of rest deduced from this principle being precisely the same as those observed in nature, we can admire the application of it to all phenomena. The movement of animals, the vegetative growth of plants ... are only its consequences; and the spectacle of the universe becomes so much the grander, so much more beautiful, the worthier of its Author, when one knows that a small number of laws, most wisely established, suffice for all movements."

Related pages
Occam's razor

Mechanics

Principle of stationary action


Amniocentesis is the name of a medical test that is often performed when screening babies. The test consist of taking a little Amniotic fluid, and testing this fluid. This fluid contains tissue of the embryo or fetus, and allows to determine the sex. It also allows to find certain birth defects.

Pregnancy and childbirth

Amniocentesis


Nouakchott () is the capital city of the African county of Mauritania. It is the largest city in that country and one of the largest cities on the Sahara Desert. The city is the administrative and economic centre of Mauritania. The Arabic name is said to mean "The place of winds" in the language of the Berber people.

The city is often a place where the urban Mauritanians and the nomadic people of the area can interact.

The population of Nouakchott is about 881,000 people. It is hard to know exactly how many people live in the city because many of them are nomadic. They find a good place to live, set up their tent for a short time and then move to somewhere else.

Although Islam is the state religion in Mauritania, Nouakchott includes the Cathedral of St. Joseph, a Catholic cathedral.

Nouakchott has a deep-sea port. It was opened in 1986. The port is mainly used for imports. The city also features an international airport. The city is home to the Université de Nouakchott. It is the only university in Mauritania. Things to see in Nouakchott include Nouakchott Museum, several markets including Nouakchott Silver Market, and the beaches.

History
Nouakchott has very little history. It was a tiny fishing town until 1958.  It is possible that the Berber Muslim Almoravids came from the area.  The city was selected as the capital city for its mild climate and its location near the center of the country.

Mauritania was part of the larger French colony of French West Africa. During that time, Saint-Louis, in Senegal was the capital. In 1957, this small port town was chosen to be the capital of the new country. A building program was begun to grow its population to 15,000. In 1962, Nouakchott became the capital of an independent country.

The city has much growth. Because of the north African drought since the beginning of the 1970s many people have moved to the city.

Geography
Nouakchott is located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert. The city is very spread out. It has only a few tall buildings.

Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Abd an-Nasir. This street runs northeast through the city center from the airport. Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian people, or international people of the 1960s: Avenue de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.

Temperatures range between 33°C (92°F) and 13 °C (56 °F). The average rainfall is 178mm (7in) a year.

References

Other websites

 Lexicorient: Nouakchott
 Life in Nouakchott
 NASA Image

National capitals in Africa
Cities in Mauritania

Nouakchott


Peter Oakley (20 August 1927 – 23 March 2014) was a British internet blogger. He was better known by his pseudonym geriatric1927 on the popular video sharing website YouTube.

Early life
Oakley was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

YouTube status
By mid-2006, Oakley was the most subscribed user on YouTube. His rise to the #1 position took place in just over a week. Oakley had 30,000 subscribers as of 25 November 2006 and over 53,000 subscribers as of 24 May 2010.

He ranks as the 52nd most subscribed all time in the United Kingdom, and is the 19th most subscribed "Director" of all time in the United Kingdom.

As of June 2012, Oakley has over 350 videos on YouTube under his channel geriatric1927.

Death
Oakley was later diagnosed with cancer which was too far advanced for treatment and he was not expected to live. He posted his final video on February 12, 2014. He died in Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, aged 86.

References

Other websites
The Official Geriatric1927 Website
Geriatric1927 on YouTube

1927 births
2014 deaths
Cancer deaths in England
British YouTubers
People from Norwich

Peter Oakley


Fuad Hasan oglu Abdurahmanov (; May 11, 1915 in Nukha (Sheki), Azerbaijan, Russian Empire – June 15, 1971 in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR) was a popular Azerbaijani monument sculptor. He received many awards, including: Honored Worker of Arts of the Azerbaijan SSR (1943), People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1955), the first Azerbaijani to become a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1949), and Laureate of the State Stalin Prize two times (1947, 1951).

Biography

Fuad Abdurahmanov was born on May 11, 1915, in Nukha (Sheki). He was born into the family of Hasan Jafar oglu Abdurahmanov, a local civil servant.

In 1929, Abdurahmanov's family moved to Yevlakh and later relocated to Baku. In Baku, the family of the future sculptor rented a two-room apartment in Icheri Sheher, on Mammadyarov street. 1929 became an important year for Fuad. This was the year that he entered the Painting School of Baku. After beginning his studies in Baku, he later studied at the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg (1935–1940) at Matvey Genrikhovich Manizer.

In 1934, twelve-year-old Fuad Abdurahmanov's composition, Shot, was exhibited in an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the poet Ferdowsi. This later became a permanent exhibit in the Azerbaijan State Museum of Art, named after Rustam Mustafayev. In 1938, Fuad Abdurahmanov began to work on Fuzûlî's statue opening a pantheon of eminent Azerbaijani poets and writers established on Nizami Museum's loggia in Baku. A contest for the best pictorial portrait and monument of Nizami Ganjavi declared in connection with 800th anniversary had a great importance at the end of the 1930s. As a result of the contest, the project was awarded to Fuad Abdurahmanov and architects Sadig Dadashov and Mikayil Huseynov.

In 1947, he was awarded the USSR-Stalin State Prize for the first time of his life. In 1949, a monument to Nizami was erected in Baku. This monument is "cultic" not only in Abdurahmanov's creativity, but it also had a great influence on future development of monumental art of Azerbaijan. Both the monument and pedestal had successful proportions of 1:1,5, defining architectural appearance of one of the best squares of Baku. Creative interests of the sculptor were multi-sided, which can be seen in his later works—images of Huseynbala  Aliyev, Khidir Mustafayev (heroes of the USSR, poet Samad Vurgun, composers Uzeyir Hajibeyov and Asaf Zeynally, historical portraits of Koroghlu, Javanshir, Babek). He was awarded (with Tokay Mammadov and Omar Eldarov) on the contest of a monument to Avicenna for Bukhara city. Fuad Abdurahmanov is the first Azerbaijani who became the corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. He was one of the first sculptors of Azerbaijan who worked with hard materials.

Creative achievements

He created monuments to Nizami in Ganja (Stalin State Prize, 1947) and Baku (1949), compositions "Sattar Bahlulzade", "Rustam Mustafayev" (1947), monument "Azad Gadin" (Free woman), monument to Mehdi Huseynzade in Baku, monumental busts of Choibalsan and Sukhbaatar (marble, 1954, burial vault in Ulan Bator), monuments to poet Samad Vurghun in Baku (1961), to poet Rudaki in Dushanbe (Gold medal of Academy of Arts of the USSR, 1964), statues "Liberation" (Baku, 1960), "Chaban" (gypsum, Stalin State Prize, 1951; bronze, 1951, Tretyakov Gallery). He made a portrait bust of V.I.Lenin (marble, 1955, Azerbaijan State Museum of History, Baku) and others.

His works are distinguished for their richness and diversity of creative tendencies. Abdurahmanov began his creative development in the portrait genre, by making bust-portraits of cultural workers of Azerbaijan. His first monumental work-monument to Fuzuli was put up on the balcony of the Azerbaijan State Museum of Literature. Fuad Abdurahmanov is the author of a lot of monuments decorating streets and squares of Baku-Nizami—Samed Vurghun, Mehdi Huseynzade, "To emancipated woman", and the gravestone of General Hazi Aslanov. Abdurahmanov made a great contribution to the formation and development of monumental and easel plastics of Azerbaijan. According to one of the leading art critics of Azerbaijan, Jamila Novruzova, Fuad Abdurakhmanov is founder of monumental sculpture in Azerbaijan. After Fuad Abdurahmanov were named streets in Baku and Sheki, memorial plates were put up on buildings where the sculptor lived. A school in Sheki was also named after him.

Awards
 Stalin State Prize of the second degree (1947) – for the monument to Nizami in Ganja (1946);
 Stalin State Prize of the third degree (1951) – for the sculpture "Chaban";
 Gold medal of Academy of Arts of the USSR (1966);
 Holder of two Orders of the Badge of Honour (1949, 1960).

References

1915 births
1971 deaths
Soviet sculptors
Azerbaijani sculptors
Soviet painters
Azerbaijani painters
Azerbaijani portrait painters
Recipients of the Stalin Prize
People from Shaki, Azerbaijan
20th-century Azerbaijani sculptors
Honored Art Workers of the Azerbaijan SSR
Fuad Abdurahmanov

Fuad Abdurahmanov


Lukla ( ) is a small town in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu rural municipality of the Solukhumbu District in the Province No. 1 of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at , it is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Everest to arrive. Although Lukla means "place with many goats and sheep", few are found in the area nowadays.

Lukla contains a small airport serving the region, and a variety of shops and lodges catering to tourists and trekkers, providing western-style meals and trail supplies. From Lukla, travellers need two days to reach the village of Namche Bazaar, an altitude-acclimatization stop for those continuing on. In August 2014, the Nepalese government announced plans to open the first tarmac road from Kathmandu to Lukla.

Airport

Lukla is served by the Tenzing-Hillary Airport. Weather permitting, twin-engined Dornier 228s and de Havilland Canada Twin Otters make frequent daylight flights between Lukla and Kathmandu. Lukla Airport has a very short and steep airstrip, often compounded by hazardous weather, resulting in several fatal accidents. It has been called the most dangerous airport in the world.

Climate

References

External links

Populated places in Solukhumbu District
Tourism in Nepal
Khumbu Pasanglhamu

Lukla


James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a British left-wing politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party. He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland, he is remembered as one of the leading figures of the Red Clydeside era. He broke with Ramsay MacDonald and the second minority Labour government, and became one of its most bitter critics. As the leader of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), he disaffiliated the ILP from the mainstream party in 1932. Afterwards, he became an independent dissident outside front-line politics.

Biography

Early years

Born in then burgh of Pollokshaws (now part of the city of Glasgow) in 1885, James Maxton was the son of two schoolteachers. He would himself later enter that profession after his education at Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School and the University of Glasgow.

Whilst studying at the University of Glasgow, Maxton had described his political loyalties as lying with the Conservatives. He soon came to socialism, however, and in 1904 he joined the Barrhead branch of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Maxton's move to socialism was heavily influenced by John Maclean, a fellow student at Glasgow University. In addition to Maclean's influence, Maxton was moved towards socialism by a meeting which he attended in Paisley which was addressed by party leader Philip Snowden. He was also influenced by the written word, including books by Robert Blatchford and Peter Kropotkin.

Later in life, Maxton claimed that the biggest influence in his decision to become a socialist was the grinding poverty experienced by many of the children he taught. He subsequently convinced all his siblings to join the ILP, with his sister Annie becoming a prominent figure in the organisation.

From 1906 to 1910, Maxton was active in the Schoolmasters' Union, where he refined his talents as a propagandist and orator.

Personal life
On 24 July 1919, Maxton married teacher Sarah McCallum. They had one child, James, in 1921. Sarah died in 1922. On 14 March 1935, Maxton married Madeline Grace Glasier, who had worked for him as a volunteer researcher and secretary for 11 years.

Political career

Maxton was known as an effective public speaker. Historian Keith Middlemas offers this vivid description:

He was well-known as a platform orator with a thin hatchet face and mane of long black hair which fell across his face giving it a saturnine and piratical appearance, but although he was an established speaker and propagandist for the ILP, his considerable intellect had been somewhat masked by the showman's facility. The genuine hero-worship which grew around him was restricted to his native Barrhead where the ILP branch was his private preserve.

Maxton was a vociferous opponent of World War I. He was a conscientious objector, refusing conscription into the British Armed Forces, and instead being given work on barges. During this time he was involved in organizing strikes in the shipyards as part of the Clyde Workers' Committee. Maxton was arrested in 1916, and charged with sedition. He was subsequently found guilty and imprisoned for a year.

In 1918, Maxton was elected to the National Council of the Labour Party. He and Ramsay MacDonald were responsible for moving the motion at the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party which dictated that Labour members of David Lloyd George's wartime coalition government resign from it in preparation for the 1918 general election. He was also a keen supporter of Scottish Home Rule and was for a while the President of the Scottish Home Rule Association when Ramsay MacDonald was the Secretary of the London Branch.

Maxton stood for parliament in the 1918 general election as a Labour Party candidate but was defeated in this first effort.

In his next electoral attempt, Maxton was successful, winning a seat as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Bridgeton in the 1922 general election. Once in parliament, however, Maxton's forthright views often caused controversy. In 1923, his parliamentary privileges were temporarily removed when he called the Conservative MP Sir Frederick Banbury a "murderer", following the government's decision to withdraw school milk. In 1933, when then-Prime Minister MacDonald made a particularly meandering and incoherent speech to Parliament, it was interrupted by Maxton calling out: "Sit down, man, you're a bloody tragedy."

Maxton was chairman of the ILP from 1926 to 1931, and from 1934 to 1939; he was generally seen as the symbol of the ILP after its break from Labour in 1932. A militant socialist, he was horrified by the perceived class collaborationism of the Trades Union Congress after the defeat of the 1926 General Strike, and was co-author with the left-wing Miners leader, Arthur Cook, of the "Cook-Maxton Manifesto" of 1928 calling for class warfare in the overthrow of capitalism. As chairman of the ILP, he endorsed a "Living Wages" policy demanding high minimum wages for workers and nationalization of all private businesses unable to pay them.

In 1927, Maxton was elected International Chairman of the League against Imperialism at its General Council meeting in Brussels; he was re-elected to the same post at the League's 1929 Conference in Frankfurt.

In 1932, Maxton published a popular biography of Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin. Maxton wrote of him: "We are still too near to [Lenin] in time, too close to the happenings incidental to his work, too much under the influence of partisan antipathies or sympathies to venture final assessments. It is not yet possible to say that Russia has in practice realised the Utopian state of plenty, of liberty and of happiness, nor is it possible to say that other countries may not reach a better state in speedier and less harsh ways. It is possible to say that this man, quiet, unassuming, unimposing, set himself a task of immense size when still a boy, and stuck to it tenaciously to the end of his life."

In 1936, following the abdication of Edward VIII, Maxton proposed a "republican amendment" to the Abdication Bill, which would have turned the UK from a monarchy into a republic. Maxton argued that while the Monarchy had benefited Britain in the past, it had now "outlived its usefulness". The amendment was defeated by 403 votes to five.

In his diary for 3 September 1939, Sir Ralph Glyn reported that "James Maxton, the pacifist, rose, gaunt, a Horseman from the Apocalypse, doom written across his face," and declared, "Don't let's talk of national honour: what do such phrases mean? The plain fact is that war means the slaughter of millions. If the Prime Minister can still maintain the peace, he will have saved those lives, he mustn't be rushed."

During the Second World War, Maxton visited HM Prison Brixton to see Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, who was then being detained under the Defence Regulations.

On 29 January 1942, Maxton was the only one out of 465 members of the House of Commons to vote against a Motion of Confidence in Winston Churchill's wartime government.

Death and legacy
Maxton died of cancer at Largs, Ayrshire, in 1946, still sitting as MP for Bridgeton, and was cremated at Glasgow Crematorium. After his death, the ILP stagnated until it ceased to be a viable independent political party.

Maxton was considered one of the greatest orators of the time, both within and outside the House of Commons. Churchill, whilst holding political opinions wholly inconsistent with those of Maxton, described him as "the greatest parliamentarian of his day". His biographer Graham Walker concludes:
Maxton was one of the most charismatic figures in twentieth-century British public life. He was essentially a Scottish radical whose propagandist skills for the wider British labour movement have earned him folk hero status in socialist circles.

Maxton heavily influenced his family's political opinions, and his mother and all his siblings also joined the ILP. His brother John was also a conscientious objector in the First World War. His son James and his nephew John Maxton were conscientious objectors  to National Service after the Second World War. John went on to become Labour MP for the Cathcart division of Glasgow from 1979 to 2001 and was made a life peer in 2004.

Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister, has published a biography, Maxton, based on his PhD thesis at the University of Edinburgh.

References

Publications by James Maxton

 A Living Wage for All: Dr. Salter's Speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday, March 7, 1923. London: Bermondsey Independent Labour Party, 1923.
 The Left Wing: Its Programme and Activities. London: National Left Wing Provisional Committee, n.d. [c. 1926].
 Twenty Points for Socialism. London: ILP Publication Department, n.d. [c. 1927].
 Our Case for a Socialist Revival. With A.J. Cook. London : Workers' Publications, n.d. [c. 1928].
 The Roads to Socialism: Chairman's Address at the ILP Conference. London: ILP Publication Department, 1929.
 The Case of Benn v. Maxton: Being a Correspondence on Capitalism and Socialism, to which is Appended the Report of a Broadcast Debate. With Ernest John Pickstone Benn. London: E. Benn, 1929.
 Speech on the Government's Unemployment Proposals in the House of Commons 4 November 1929. London: ILP Publication Department, n.d. [1929].
 Where the ILP Stands: Presidential Address of J. Maxton to the ILP Conference, together with the Declaration on the Relation of the ILP to the Labour Party. London: ILP Publication Department, 1930.
 Lenin. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1932.
 Widespread Poverty: "The Existing Social Order Must Go." London: Independent Labour Party, 1933.
 A Clear Lead. With Fenner Brockway. London: Independent Labour Party, 1933.
 Keir Hardie: Prophet and Pioneer. London: F. Johnson, n.d. [c. 1933].
 Dictators and Dictatorship. London: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [c. 1934].
 If I Were Dictator. London: Methuen, 1935.
 The Unity Campaign. With Stafford Cripps and Harry Pollitt. London : National Unity Campaign Committee, 1937.
 Maxton's Great Anti-War Speech. Glasgow : Civic Press, n.d. [1939].
 Why We Oppose Conscription. London: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [1939].
 Break Truce with Tories and Build Labour Unity! A Statement for Consideration by Men and Women of the Labour Movement. With Fenner Brockway. n.c. [London]: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [1943].

Further reading
 Brown, Gordon.  Maxton: A Biography.  Mainstream Publishing Co., 1986.
 Cohen, Gidon. "Myth, History and the Independent Labour Party." in The Foundations of the British Labour Party (Routledge, 2016) pp. 109–126.
 Dawson, Alan. "Red Clydeside: a digital history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932." Dunaskin News 5 (2004) online.
 Dowse, Robert E. Left in the Centre: The Independent Labour Party 1893–1940. London: Longman's, 1966.
 Griffin, Paul. "Diverse political identities within a working class presence: Revisiting Red Clydeside." Political Geography 65 (2018): 123-133.
 Kenefick, William. Red Scotland! The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, c. 1872 to 1932 (Edinburgh University Press, 2007). Pp. 230.
 Middlemas, Robert Keith. The Clydesiders: A Left Wing Struggle for Parliamentary Power. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1965.
 Walker, Graham. "Maxton, James (1885–1946)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 2 Aug 2016

External links

 Strathclyde University Digital Library entry on James Maxton
 Biography of Maxton from Spartacus Educational

1885 births
1946 deaths
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
British anti–World War I activists
Politicians from Glasgow
Scottish conscientious objectors
Scottish socialists
Scottish republicans
Independent Labour Party MPs
Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies
UK MPs 1922–1923
UK MPs 1923–1924
UK MPs 1924–1929
UK MPs 1929–1931
UK MPs 1931–1935
UK MPs 1935–1945
UK MPs 1945–1950
Red Clydeside
People educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School
People from Barrhead
Scottish Labour MPs
People from Pollokshaws

James Maxton


Walnut Grove is a town centre (approx pop. 23,295) located within the Township of Langley, British Columbia.

"Walnut Grove" is located at cross roads north of Highway 1. To the north lie the cities of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, connected by the Golden Ears Bridge. To the south is Langley City and Surrey is on the west. East of Walnut Grove lies the historic community of Fort Langley and other cities such as Abbotsford

Infrastructure

Community Amenities
The Walnut Grove Community Centre hosts an olympic sized swimming pool, gymnasiums, meeting rooms, fitness facility, library and skate park.

To the north of the community centre is a full sized running track, adjacent to the high school.

Fire Hall
There is full-time fire protection provided by the Township of Langley Fire Hall 8

Policing
As with other town centres in Langley, policing is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  A community police station is located in a strip mall in Walnut Grove.

Health Care
There is a BC Ambulance Service station in the community with full-time staffed ambulances.

Transportation

Major roads include the Trans Canada Highway, Golden Ears Bridge, 200 Street and 88th Avenue.  Bus Service is provided by Translink.

Schools
West Langley Elementary School
Alex Hope Elementary School (includes a French Immersion program)
Gordon Greenwood Elementary School
Dorothy Peacock Elementary School
James Kennedy Elementary School (includes a French Immersion program)
Topham Elementary School
École Des Voyageurs (Francophone--belongs to Conseil Scolaire Francophone School District #93)
Walnut Grove Secondary School

Businesses

Walnut Grove is home to many businesses, both independent and chain. There are several shopping plazas and two major grocery stores in the community. The Trans-Mountain Pipeline runs through the middle of the community underground, transporting crude oil from Alberta to the Coast. The community is located next to the North Langley Industrial Area - often referred to as Port Kells.

References

Designated places in British Columbia
Neighbourhoods in Langley, British Columbia
Langley, British Columbia (district municipality)

Walnut Grove, Langley


was a Meiji-period career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was famous as a planner of Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese general Akiyama Yoshifuru was his elder brother and the Japanese politician Hisako Ōishi was his granddaughter.

Biography

Early life and career
Akiyama was born in Matsuyama Domain, Iyo Province, as a son of a poor samurai. As a youth, he studied literature, especially traditional waka poetry. The famous poet Masaoka Shiki was his friend from childhood. Later the two young men went to Tokyo to study literature and Akiyama began to prepare for entry into the Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University. However, Akiyama was forced to abandon his study of letters as his elder brother Yoshifuru ordered him to go to Naval Academy in Tsukiji, Tokyo instead, largely due to the economically severe condition of the Akiyama family.

While Akiyama was a student, the Naval Academy moved to Etajima, in Hiroshima prefecture, and was renamed the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Akiyama was an outstanding student, graduating on 17 July 1890 as a midshipman at the top of the 17th class, out of 88 cadets. He graduated just weeks after the publication of the first and last chapters of Alfred Thayer Mahan's classic study, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 in its Japanese translation in July 1890.

Akiyama served his midshipman tour on the Hiei and cruiser . On commissioning as an ensign on 23 May 1892, he rose through the ranks in a variety of routine shipboard assignments and duties that included deployments throughout the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and European waters. He was assigned to the Ryūjō. He subsequently served on the , ,  (during the Battle of Weihaiwei in the First Sino-Japanese War),  and . Following the hostilities he served a tour at the Imperial Navy's Torpedo school and then was assigned to naval intelligence, where he spent several months posing as a laborer and conducting missions in Manchuria and Korea.

Studies in the United States
After his promotion to lieutenant on 24 October 1896, Akiyama was sent to the United States as a naval attaché from 26 June 1897 to 27 December 1899. It was a time of heightened tension between Japan and the United States, due to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii by American marines and settlers, which nearly led to a rupture of diplomatic relations.

On Akiyama's arrival in New York, he attempted to contact Alfred Thayer Mahan for advice and recommendations on how to study at either the US Naval Academy or Naval War College. Mahan was unwilling to help, aside from giving Akiyama a list of books to read. Akiyama then contacted the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, but his pleas to be allowed to attend the Naval War College were refused.

Akiyama's tour of duty coincided with the start of the Spanish–American War, and he joined the American fleet as a foreign military observer. He was able to watch American forces capture Santiago de Cuba in June 1898, and the blockade of Havana harbor in July. Akiyama submitted a lengthy report back to Japan on his observations, and noting problems in the blockade and landing operations. On conclusion of his tour, he served a short tour as a naval attaché with the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C.

In February 1899, due to the efforts of the Japanese ambassador, Akiyama received permission to serve a six-month tour on board a US Navy warship, the , where he was able to observe American tactics and fleet operations in the North Atlantic and Caribbean firsthand. As a result of his service on board, Akiyama participated in several lectures at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. On completion of his studies in the United States, Akiyama traveled to England from 27 December 1899 to 20 May 1900.

Instructor at the Navy War College
On his return to Japan, Akiyama was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 October 1901 and assigned to various staff posts, and was the senior strategy instructor at Japan's Naval War College from July 1902-November 1903. Akiyama initiated a curriculum reform using hypothetical situations to simulate the formulation of orders and development of realistic contingency plans. He also introduced the concepts of wargaming and tabletop map exercises, and developed theories for a new strategic and tactical doctrines for the Japanese Navy based upon his observations during the Spanish–American War. Akiyama focused on Russia as the primary threat to Japan in his lectures.

Akiyama was 34 years old, and was lecturing to officers who were of the same age, or in some cases his senior. Nonetheless, he achieved the respect of his peers due to his professional knowledge, expertise and personality.

Russo-Japanese War
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War Akiyama was promoted to commander on 1 September 1904. However, he remained on the planning staff and was a close confidant of Japanese Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Togo Heihachiro. Togo insisted that Akiyama accompany him on his battleship  as a staff officer. Akiyama played a central role in the planning for the Battle of Port Arthur, the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the planning for the arrival of the Russian Baltic Fleet and its subsequent destruction in the Battle of Tsushima. The objective of the Japanese navy in the Battle of Tsushima was to destroy the Russian fleet completely, thereby denying Russia any influence in the Sea of Japan. Akiyama devised the tactic of changing the direction of the fleet while in front of the enemy. He had borrowed this tactic from an old book of the late twelfth century, Old Piratical Tactics of the Nojima School, which described the tactics used by Japanese pirates.

Following Japan's victory Akiyama was designated the senior naval representative for the preliminary negotiations for the Treaty of Portsmouth. However, the untimely death of his mother necessitated his replacement.

Postwar activities

Promoted to captain on 25 September 1908, Akiyama received an assignment as executive officer on Mikasa, and subsequently his first command, as captain of Akitsushima. He was subsequently captain of the , , , and battlecruiser .

Akiyama was promoted to rear admiral on 1 December 1913. Soon afterwards, the Siemens-Vickers Naval Armaments Scandal of 1914 shook up the government, forcing the resignations of Yamamoto Gonnohyōe and Ōkuma Shigenobu. Akiyama remained one of the few senior officers completely untouched by suspicion or corruption, and was nominated by Yashiro Rokuro as Director-General of the Navy in an effort to restore public confidence. Akiyama served on the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff until his retirement on 1 December 1917. His major accomplishment during this period was to have the Otowa stationed permanently at Shanghai, from which it helped support a large network of intelligence agents posing as exchange students in all corners of China. At the same time, Akiyama maintained a regular and secret correspondence with Sun Yat-sen, assisting him also materially in his efforts to prevent Yuan Shikai from establishing a new empire.

With the outbreak of World War I, Akiyama traveled to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Finland, and from there to England, where he met with his old acquaintance, former British naval observer Commander William Christopher Pakenham. In June 1916, King George V conferred upon him a Knight Commandership of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. As Sir Saneyuki, K.C.M.G., he was reportedly the first Japanese outside the Imperial family to receive a knighthood from a British sovereign.

He returned to Japan via the United States to assume command of the IJN 2nd Fleet in October 1917, but by this time he was already very ill, and was forced to retire in late 1917 with the rank of vice admiral. In his final years, he became obsessed with religion, especially with the Oomoto movement and Nichiren sect Buddhism and the Heart Sutra. Akiyama died of peritonitis in 1918 at the young age of 49 (In the East Asian age reckoning, it is sometimes described as being 51 years old), His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.

Cultural impact
Akiyama and his brother, Akiyama Yoshifuru, along with their friend Masaoka Shiki, are the main characters in Shiba Ryotaro's popular multi-volume novel, Saka no ue no kumo. The novel is also the basis for a three-year NHK television series, also called Saka no ue no kumo.

The Akiyama birthplace in Matsuyama is now a tourist attraction.

Honors
Translated from the corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article

Decorations
 Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th Class (30 May 1905, for service at the Battle of Tsushima)
 Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class, Gold and Silver Star (7 November 1915; Third Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon: 1 April 1906)

Order of precedence
 Senior eighth rank (5 July 1892)
 Seventh rank (21 December 1896)
 Senior seventh rank (8 March 1898)
 Sixth rank (17 December 1901)
 Senior sixth rank (6 October 1904)
 Fifth rank (11 December 1908)
 Senior fifth rank (30 January 1914)
 Fourth rank (4 February 1918, posthumous)

References

Books

External links

Notes

1868 births
1918 deaths
People from Matsuyama, Ehime
People of Meiji-period Japan
Imperial Japanese Navy admirals
Japanese military personnel of the First Sino-Japanese War
Japanese military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War
Deaths from peritonitis
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun
Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure

Akiyama Saneyuki


Torsten Albig (born 25 May 1963) is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 2012 until 2017 he served as the 13th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein.

Early life and education
Albig grew up in Ostholstein and Bielefeld. After graduating from high school in 1982, he first studied history and social sciences at the University of Bielefeld but later changed to law.

Political career

Lord Mayor of Kiel, 2009–2012
From  2009 to 2012 Albig was the Lord Mayor of Kiel, the state capital of Schleswig-Holstein.

Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein, 2012–2017
Torsten Albig was appointed candidate for Minister-President, representing his party, the SPD, in 2011 after a member's decision. At the election in 2012, the SPD achieved 30.4% of the votes, not enough to beat the ruling CDU that got 30.8% of the popular vote. Both the SPD and CDU achieved 22 seats each, and the election result made it possible for Albig to form a coalition government with the participation of the Green Party and the SSW, which is a regional party representing the Danish and Frisian minorities. The three parties had a narrow majority in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein with 35 of 69 seats. At the appointment in parliament though, he got 37 of 69 possible votes. The new-formed government of Schleswig-Holstein consisting of the SPD, The Green Party and the SSW had never been seen before in German history.

Albig succeeded Peter Harry Carstensen in the position as Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein.

Albig served as an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2012 and 2017. Together with Doris Ahnen, Martin Dulig, Heiko Maas and Manuela Schwesig, he co-chaired the SPD's national convention in Leipzig in 2013.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Albig was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on transport, building and infrastructure, led by Peter Ramsauer and Florian Pronold.

In 2015, Albig – alongside First Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz – negotiated a restructuring deal with the European Commission that allowed the German regional lender HSH Nordbank to offload 6.2 billion euros in troubled assets – mainly non-performing ship loans – onto its government majority owners and avoid being shut down, saving around 2,500 jobs.

Life after politics
Since 2018, Albig has been serving as Vice President Corporate Representation of Deutsche Post in Brussels.

Other activities
 HSH Nordbank Art Foundation, vice chairman of the board of trustees
 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, chairman of the board of trustees (-2017)
 University Medical Center Schleswig Holstein, ex-officio chairman of the board of trustees (-2017)
 Förde Sparkasse, ex-officio member of the supervisory board (2008–2010)

Personal life
Albig is married and has two children.

See also
List of minister-presidents of Schleswig-Holstein

References

External links

 faz.de:Im Porträt Torsten Albig (german)

1963 births
Living people
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Politicians from Bremen (city)
Mayors of places in Schleswig-Holstein
Ministers-President of Schleswig-Holstein
Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein

Torsten Albig


The Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (ETLLD) was a former Scottish Executive department responsible for economic and industrial development, further and higher education, skills, lifelong learning, energy, transport and digital connectivity until 2007.

Philip Rycroft was appointed head of the department in May 2006 following the retirement of Eddie Frizzell. Rycroft was previously Head of Schools Group within the Scottish Executive Education Department.

It was the only Scottish Executive department based in Glasgow.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth (currently John Swinney MSP), assisted by the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure (currently Keith Brown MSP) and the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism (Jim Mather MSP) has responsibility for the Enterprise and Transport elements of the current Directorates. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (currently Mike Russell MSP) has responsibility for the Lifelong Learning portfolio.

ETLLD was formerly the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department but was extended in May 2003 to include responsibility for Transport, in recognition of transport's crucial importance to economic growth.

After the SNP won office in 2007, the Department was scrapped and replaced by the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorates.

See also
Economy of Scotland
Education in Scotland
Transport in Scotland
Renewable energy in Scotland
Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland (FREDS)

External links
Official website
Education and Training in Scotland National Dossier 2004

References

Enterprise
Organisations based in Glasgow
Economy of Scotland
Education in Scotland
Energy in Scotland
Transport in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland
Scotland
Scotland
Electricity policy in Scotland
Defunct transport organisations based in the United Kingdom


Jean-Paul "Picha" Walravens (Brussels, Belgium, 2 July 1942) is a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, animator and film director. He is most famous for his adult animated films, such as Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle.

Biography
Jean-Paul Walravens, quickly fascinated by drawing, studied at the Institute of Fine Arts Saint-Luc. In 1960, he contributed his work as a caricaturist and cartoonist for many newspapers and magazines around the world including National Lampoon and The New York Times. During this period, he adopted the pseudonym Picha. A passion for drawing led Picha to the world of comics. He is the author of several books, as Picha at Club Med (1971) or Persona non grata (1975).

After this period, he went on to animation. In 1975, he co-directed the film Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle, a raunchy parody of the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film was a huge success in its home country Belgium and in France, but ran through troubles with the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate when the estate sued the creators of the film for plagiarism. The estate lost the case when the creators stated that the film was a parody. However, when the film was released in the U.S., the estate demanded that the film title and main character "Tarzoon" be changed due to the film's nature degrading the Tarzan name. In 1979, the now R-rated film was released under the title Shame Of The Jungle, and was rewritten by Saturday Night Live writers Anne Beatts and Michael O'Donoghue and was dubbed by John Belushi, Johnny Weissmuller, Jr., Bill Murray, and several others. Despite these efforts, the film was a critical and financial flop.

Picha's next film was the 1980 film The Missing Link. Though it wasn't as successful as Tarzoon, the film was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. Picha also adapted the film into a comic strip. In 1984, the film was released into the U.S. under the title B.C. Rock. Major changes to the film included newly written dialogue by the comedy duo The Funny Boys (Jim Vallely and Jonathan Schmock), recut footage, different voices, different instrumental score, the absence of the narrator (with the main character telling the story), and nearly all the songs written and performed by Leo Sayer have been replaced by songs by other artists (including Steel Breeze, Hall & Oates, and Rick Wakeman) in order to attract a wider audience. Unfortunately, the film was poorly promoted on video and faded into obscurity. However, this version manages to have a cult following to this day. Picha's future work would never be released in American theaters or any home video format.

Picha's next film was 1987's The Big Bang. After the small success of the film, Picha left the movie industry to concentrate on writing for television. Picha's television works included Zoo Olympics (1990–1991), Zoo Cup (1992–1993), and Buddy Buddy... A Dog's life (1995). In 2007, Picha made a comeback with Snow White: The Sequel, a parody of fairy tales, which most animated films were doing at the time.

Filmography

Films
Cartoon Circus (1972)
Tarzoon, la honte de la jungle (Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle) (1975, directed with Boris Szulzinger)
Le Chainon manquant (The Missing Link) (1980)
Le Big-Bang (The Big Bang) (1987, directed with Boris Szulzinger)
Blanche-Neige, la suite (Snow White: The Sequel) (2007)

Television series
 Zoo Olympics (1992)
 Zoo Cup (1994)
 Buddy Buddy... A Dog's Life (originally titled Les Jules, chienne de vie.. in French) (1997)

References

Notes

Sources consulted
 Mon oncle d'Amérique est belge, documentary film on Picha by Eric Figon and Françoise Walravens (1996)

External links
 Picha at The Internet Movie Database

1942 births
Belgian animators
Belgian caricaturists
Belgian editorial cartoonists
Belgian comics artists
Belgian erotic artists
Belgian film directors
Belgian film producers
Belgian parodists
Parody film directors
Belgian television directors
Living people
Belgian satirists
Belgian animated film directors
Belgian animated film producers
Artists from Brussels

Picha


The Serpentwar Saga is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Raymond E. Feist. The novels revolve around two characters, Erik von Darkmoor and Roo Avery and also includes a host of previous characters from past novels, including Nakor, Pug, Macros the Black, Calis and Jimmy. It tells of the struggles of the Kingdom against a massive army on the distant continent of Novindus.

Works in the series

Shadow of a Dark Queen

A dark queen is gathering armies in remote lands and desperate men are sent on a suicidal mission to confront this evil. Among these men is Nakor the Isalani, a gambler who knows the true nature of the Queen and Miranda whom everyone must wager their lives upon.

Rise of a Merchant Prince

This is the second novel in the series and details the rise of Roo Avery to becoming one of the richest merchants in the Kingdom, and Erik's career at soldiering.

Rage of a Demon King

This is the third novel in the series which finds the armies of Novindus reaching The Kingdom and the intervention of a new player in the war. The book was reviewed as "gripping" but containing "pedestrian use of language".

Shards of a Broken Crown

This is the final novel in the series which finds the Kingdom embroiled in a war against armies intent on taking over the Kingdom.

Characters
Erik Von Darkmoor is the illegitimate son of the local baron and a barmaid.  He grew up as an apprentice blacksmith in the town of Ravensburg with his best friend Rupert "Roo" Avery, a local rogue. After the death of his former master he forms a bond with the new Blacksmith and forms a type of father-son relationship with him.  He is also friendly with the baron's Swordmaster, Owen Greylock, who is impressed with Erik's skill with horses.  Every time the Baron Von Darkmoor comes through Ravensburg, Erik's mother Freida would publicly press the Baron to acknowledge Erik as his son. While never admitting it, the Baron has also never refuted it, therefore Erik could continue to use the Von Darkmoor name.  Erik was the strongest boy in his village and was large for his age.  During one of the Baron's trips, he falls ill and has to stop in Ravensburg with his two sons, Stefan and Manfred.
Ashen-Shugar and Tomas are two of the main characters from the Riftwar Cycle series of books. According to the books, Tomas, a human teenager from the city of Crydee, was gifted a set of gold and white armour. The armor once belonged to Ashen-Shugar, who was a Valheru that was born ages before Tomas. The Valheru, modeled after J. R. R. Tolkien's Valar by Feist, were godly beings that were some of the first to inhabit the universe created by Feist. Ashen-Shugar's powers, memories, and personality were bound to the armor when he faded away. By donning the mystical armor, an amalgam of Tomas and Ashen-Shugar was made, essentially creating a new character. Tomas's personality dominates and the new character is usually still referred to as Tomas.

References

External links
"Shadow of a Dark Queen" US edition at Crydee
"Rise of a Merchant Prince" US edition at Crydee
"Rage of a Demon King" US edition at Crydee
"Shards of a Broken Crown" US edition at Crydee

Fantasy novel series
Works by Raymond E. Feist
HarperCollins books

The Serpentwar Saga