Bronze Age Britain

Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture.
During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Must Farm. This has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe".
History.
Early Bronze Age (EBA), c. 2500–1500 BC.
There is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, while others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age", in recognition of the difficulty of exactly defining this boundary. Some archaeologists recognise a British Chalcolithic when copper was used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use was on a small scale.
Late Bronze Age (LBA), 1000–700 BC.
In Ireland the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, but iron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC.
Development.
The Beaker cultures.
Around 2000 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: the Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice of inhumation. People of this period were also responsible for building Seahenge along with the later phases of Stonehenge.
Movement of Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers.
Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows (also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as tumuli), or sometimes in cists covered with cairns. They were often buried with a beaker alongside the body.
There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people who migrated to Britain "en masse" from the continent, or whether a Beaker cultural "package" of goods and behaviour (which eventually spread across most of Western Europe) diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. The former seems incontestable now since a 2017 study showed a major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain, so that more than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the lower-Rhine area.
Bronze.

Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. Part of the Beaker culture brought the skill of refining metal to Great Britain. At first they made items from copper, but from around 2150 BC smiths had discovered how to make bronze (which is much harder than copper) by mixing copper with a small amount of tin. With this discovery, the Bronze Age began in Great Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making.
The bronze axehead, made by casting, was at first similar to its stone predecessors but then developed a socket for the wooden handle to fit into, and a small loop or ring to make lashing the two together easier. Groups of unused axes are often found together, suggesting ritual deposits to some, though many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items, perhaps restricting their use among the wider population. Bronze swords of a graceful "leaf" shape, swelling gently from the handle before coming to a tip, have been found in considerable numbers, along with spear heads and arrow points.
Great Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon in what is now Southwest England, and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC, the southwest of the island was experiencing a trade boom as British tin was exported across Europe.
Bronze-age Britons were also skilled at making jewellery from gold, as well as occasional objects like the Rillaton Cup and Mold Cape. Many examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of Southern Britain, though they are not as frequent as Irish finds.
The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what is now England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces).
The earliest known metalworking building was found at Sigwells, Somerset, England. Several casting mould fragments were fitted to a Wilburton type sword held in Somerset County Museum. They were found in association with cereal grain dated to the 12th century BC by carbon dating.
The Wessex culture.
The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Great Britain at this time. The weather, previously warm and dry, became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys. Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances.
The Deverel-Rimbury culture.
The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge in the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit the wetter conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in Northern Wales. Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent.
Disruption of cultural patterns.
There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural patterns which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least a migration) into Southern Great Britain around the 12th century BC. This disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties) and the Sea Peoples harried the entire Mediterranean basin around this time. Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in the archaeological record. According to John T. Koch and others, the Celtic languages developed during this Late Bronze Age period in an intensely trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that included Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, but this stands in contrast to the more generally accepted view that Celtic origins lie with the Hallstatt culture.


Cerro del Bu

The Cerro del Bu is an archaeological site in the Bu hill of the Spanish municipality of Toledo, located on a promontory next to the Tagus river.
Description.
The site is located on the hill that gives it its name, which stands on the left bank of the Tagus, south of the city of Toledo. On the surface, the hill had construction stones with ostensible foundations on a ground that, at first glance, was seen to be unnatural.
Its location, isolation and steep relief gives the place a strategic nature and privileged natural defense, suitable for settlement of human groups. The research campaigns that regularly carried out on the site, since 1980, revealed a series of consecutive phases in the occupation of the hill. The first phase of settlement would be characterized by the existence of a large quantity of flint carving remains and few ceramic fragments. Its chronology would be doubtful. The second, best documented corresponds to the main time of habitat use, in full development of the Bronze Age in the Meseta Central. The third marks the final phase of the habitat of the aforementioned Bronze Age. In these last two phases, from which habitation structures and cottages and even homes "in situ" have been discovered, an eminently pastoral economy was developed, with the primacy of cattle sheep and bovine. Later there was a medieval settlement, Arab, small and provisional, that responded to a strategic and military conception. From this stage remains are preserved on the top of the hill. The end of this Arabs settlement could be interpreted as an intentional destruction, since although levels of ash are found, the walls would have collapsed before any sign of fire.
Patrimonial status.
Cerro del Bu was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural by the autonous community with the category of archaeological zone on April 28, 1992, by means of a decree published on May 20 of that same year in the "Official Gazette of Castile-La Mancha".


2004 in Northern Ireland

Events during the year 2004 in Northern Ireland.


Venray sheep companies

The Venray sheep companies were a group of Dutch livestock merchant companies who dominated the European trade in sheep in the 19th century.
Background.
With an area of almost 150 square kilometres, Venray, a municipality in the north of Limburg, is one of the largest municipalities in the Netherlands. More than half of the land used to be part of the Peel, an area of vital importance for the local farmers. The presence of wide areas of moorland led to the development of sheep farming and related cottage industries, such as the production of yarn, cloth and hats. Sheep produced an average of 2,5 kilograms of wool each per annum, and were therefore a welcome source of secondary income, quite apart from the droppings that they left on the land. At that time sheep were not reared for their meat.
However, the French soldiers who were stationed in Venray from 1794 to 1814 were enthusiastic mutton eaters, and this gave the farmers cause to take another look at the economic value of their animals.
Foundation of the Venray sheep companies.
Around 1809 some of the sheep farmers had the idea of driving their sheep to Paris, at that time the capital city of the empire to which they belonged, and offering them for sale. When it became known that this trade was profitable, others soon followed in the pioneers' footsteps. Five farmers pooled their interests and founded a partnership, "De Grote Compagnie" (The big company), which set up an organized trade route between Venray and Paris, with fixed staging posts along the way.
The drive on foot to the markets of Paris took two weeks on average, and ran south of the Peel to Antwerp, and then through the lush pastures along the Schelde to northern France. The herds were collected together in the border village of Warcoing before undertaking the last stage of their journey to Paris.
Expansion of the Venray sheep companies.
Initially the partners only drove their own sheep, but within a few years there was a network of buyers in The Netherlands, and Venray became the focus of a trade which saw tens of thousands of sheep being sent to France each year, not only by "De Grote Compagnie", but also by five smaller enterprises.
Under the Raets, Poels, Camps, Trynes and Vorstermans families the business flourished to such a degree that in 1845 a second outlet market, London, was opened up, to which the sheep were transported from ports such as Harlingen, Medemblik, Rotterdam, and Vlissingen.
Dutch sheep farmers were meanwhile unable to cope with the demand, so that ever increasing numbers of German sheep were being bought, and when even this source proved inadequate, representatives of the company travelled to the Ukraine, Denmark and Iceland in circa 1875, and in 1891 a trading office was opened in Buenos Aires, which arranged for the transport of not just live sheep, but also deep-frozen meat to Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century, the meat trade in the slaughterhouses of Paris, London and Antwerp was dominated by Venray businesses, and until the outbreak of World War II they were the most important producers of bacon and tinned ham in Poland, Hungary, and Canada.
Although the smaller sheep companies folded one by one after 1900, "De Grote Compagnie" remained in existence until 1951, when representatives of the eleven participating families from a number of different countries held their final annual gathering in the high-class Swan Hotel in Venray, at the card table of which, 150 years earlier, their joint company had been founded. In the intervening time this initiative had given rise to a host of independent companies. At this gathering the final collective bank balance, a sum of 5,000 guilders, was presented to the parochial church of Venray to finance a new choir stall, which since then serves as a reminder of a unique example of Limburg enterprise.


Necropolis of Carenque

The Necropolis of Carenque () is an archaeological site consisting of three well-preserved late Neolithic collective sepulchres or tombs, dating back to about 3000 BCE, which are dug into smooth limestone outcrops. It is situated in the municipality of Amadora in the Lisbon District of Portugal.
History.
The site was discovered and excavated in 1932 and was classified as a National Monument in 1936. The short time between discovery in 1932 and this classification owed much to the important role played at the time by the archaeologist responsible for the caves' discovery, Manuel Heleno, who was acting-Director of what is now the National Archaeology Museum of Portugal.
Tombs such as these are usually designated as 'artificial caves' or hypogea because they were excavated in the rock. They are part of a Mediterranean funeral tradition that was widely practised in the area of what is now known as Portugal. Other examples include the Artificial caves of Casal do Pardo and the Artificial caves of Alapraia, and there are also many examples of megalithic dolmen, where burials were made inside structures made of large stones.
The first depositions of corpses in the Necropolis of Carenque go back to the end of the Neolithic period (around 3000 BCE), when there was already an agro-pastoral economy in the area, as opposed to hunting and gathering. There is also evidence for its later use in the Chalcolithic during the Copper Age until around 2000 BCE. Dug into Albian-Cenomanian limestone, the three caves each have an access corridor that communicates with the funeral chamber through a small portal. The chamber has a hole, or skylight, in its roof and this and the corridor were closed with limestone slabs. In his field notebooks Heleno refers to a small fourth cave, which was already almost entirely destroyed.
Little is known of the dead buried there, such as whether they all came from the same village. It appears the first corpses may have been placed against the walls, in a fetal position, and surrounded by votive offerings. The later use of the Necropolis in the Copper Age disturbed the original arrangement of the bones and artifacts, making it difficult to reconstitute the arrangements inside the tomb. Items found during the excavation included numerous human bones as well as ceramics, including those from the beaker culture, and lithic and metallic materials, such as arrowheads and daggers. Votive offerings identified included limestone idols, such as smooth or decorated cylinders, as well as adzes, bone pins and miscellaneous beads. Most of the artifacts and human remains are on deposit at the National Archaeology Museum in Lisbon and have been extensively studied.
The necropolis is one of the best-preserved of its kind. The similarity between the design of the three caves clearly indicates that the builders were following a clear plan. Cave 1, to the east, has a circular chamber with a diameter of about 4.5 metres. The skylight was 1.30 metres high, while the entrance to the chamber was 0.83 metres high. The narrow entrance corridor was around 5 metres long and was probably originally covered with limestone slabs. The entrance to this cave faces approximately northeast, while the entrances to the other two face approximately southeast. Cave 2 has a circular chamber also with a diameter of approximately 4.5 metres and a corridor of 5.5 metres. The chamber is about 1.75 metres high and the skylight has a diameter of 1.60 metres. Cave 3, the smallest, has a chamber with a diameter of just under 4 metres. The skylight appears to be larger than those of the other caves but this is because it has eroded over the years.


2000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


2000 in Estonia

This article lists events that occurred during 2000 in Estonia.


Laigin

The Laigin, modern spelling Laighin (), were a population group of early Ireland. They gave their name to the province of Leinster, which in the medieval era was known in Irish as "Cóiced Laigen", meaning "province of the Leinstermen" (Modern Irish Cúige Laighean). Their territory, located in south-east Ireland, is thought to have once extended from the River Shannon to the River Boyne.
Etymology.
Laigin is a plural noun, indicating an ethnonym rather than a geographic term, but the Irish system of naming territories meant that an area tended to be named after an apical ancestor-figure even when the ruling dynasty had no links to that figure. The origin of their name is uncertain; however, it is traditionally assumed to derive from the Irish word "", meaning 'a spear'. Early texts use names "Laigen" and "Gaileoin" interchangeably.
Origins.
The Laigin are claimed as being descended from Labraid Loingsech. Modern historians suggest, on the basis of Irish traditions and related place names, that the Laigin were a group of invaders from Gaul or Britain, who arrived no later than the 6th century BC, and were later incorporated into the medieval genealogical scheme which made all the ruling groups of early Ireland descend from Míl Espáine. Placenames also suggest they once had a presence in north Munster and in Connacht.
Related peoples and dynasties.
Archaic poems found in medieval genealogical texts distinguish three groups making up the Laigin: the Laigin proper, the Gaileóin, and the Fir Domnann. The latter are suggested to be related to the British Dumnonii.
Amongst others, some of the dynasties that claimed to belong to the Laigin include: Uí Failge, Uí Biarrche, Uí Dúnlainge, Uí Ceinnselaig, Uí Garrchon, and the Uí Máil.
In medieval literature.
In the legendary tales of the Ulster Cycle, the king of the Connachta, Ailill mac Máta, is said to belong to the Laigin. This is thought by Byrne (2001) to be related to a possible early domination of the province of Connacht by peoples related to the Laigin, the Fir Domnann and the Gamanrad.


Trento Cathedral

Trento Cathedral (, "Duomo di Trento") is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Trento, northern Italy. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Trento, and until 1802, was the seat of the Bishopric of Trent. It was built over a pre-existing 4th-century church devoted to Saint Vigilius (), patron saint of the city.
History.
Trento Cathedral is the largest church in the city. It is named after Saint Vigilius, who was the first Bishop of Trento and is buried in the Cathedral. It was built over the site of the early Christian Basilica of Saint Vigilius, a small church dating to the fourth century. This ancient basilica was built by Vigilius outside the walls to commemorate the martyrdom of the three clerics, Sisinio, Martirio, and Alessandro, by pagans. Upon his death, Vigilius was buried in the church. Prince-Bishop Uldaric II (1022 - 1055) began the construction of the bishop's palace and a second cathedral. Prince-Bishop Altemanno (1124-1149) completed the construction.
In 1212 Prince-Bishop Federico Wanga razed the previous cathedral to the ground and commissioned the architect Adamo d'Arogno to rebuild the cathedral in the Lombard-Romanesque style. This is the basis of the current structure, and its form has been mostly retained from the 1212 structure.
Construction of the church was interrupted by Wanga's death in the Holy Land, and continued for centuries. Between 1305 and 1307, the gothic south face of the cathedral was built by Egidio de Campione. De Campione's son, Bonino, created the monumental rose window of the cathedral, depicting the Wheel of Fortune, in 1321. The transept also is decorated with 14th-century frescoes depicting the legend of Saint Julian.
Modifications continued into the next centuries, including the addition of a niche containing a statue of the "Madonna degli Annegati" (Madonna of the Drowned) in the 14th century and the restoration of the monumental romanesque portal by Prince-Bishop Bernardo Clesio in the 15th century.
In 1508, Emperor Maximilian I was crowned in the cathedral.
Between 1545 and 1563 the cathedral hosted the solemn sessions of the Council of Trent.
In 1682, the baroque Chapel of the Crucifix was built in the cathedral by sculptor Giuseppe Alberti around a wood crucifix which was used during the Council of Trent. In 1739 a baroque altar and baldachin based on the work of Bernini was built, leading to the demolition of the preexisting presbytery.
In March 1913, Pope Pius X elevated the cathedral to the rank of minor basilica.
Many of the artworks previously housed in the church are now in the Tridentine Diocesan Museum , a museum housed in the adjacent Bishop's Palace.
Bells.
On the bell tower of the Cathedral there is a concert of eight bells in Lab2 which covers the entire octave of the diatonic major scale. Six of these were cast in 1920 by the Luigi Colbacchini foundry of Trento and donated by the city of Mantua, and these are the current first, second, third, fifth, sixth and eighth bells (Lab2-Sib2-Do3-Mib3-Fa3-Lab3).
In 1955, two bells were added, cast by the foundry of Luigi Cavadini in Verona, which were made to insert the fourth and seventh degree missing for the completion of the major diatonic scale.
The ringing of these bells are reserved for solemnities.
On the bell tower of St. Romedius, adjacent to the Cathedral, there is a bell dating back to 1862 built by the Chiappani di Trento foundry.


2000 in Monaco

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Monaco.


2007 European heat wave

The 2007 European heat wave affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans. The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on 17 June and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans, Hungary and Ukraine on 18 June. The costs of the heat wave were estimated at 2 billion euros.
April 2007.
Mainz, Germany recorded an average high of for April, the strongest deviation (+) from the 1989-2018 average of any month. It was also the first calendar month without any measured precipitation since February 1959. A high of was reached on 14 April.
June 2007.
Up until 21 June, temperatures generally hovered around in most of the aforementioned countries; however, starting on 22 June, temperatures skyrocketed in this entire region. From this point on Greece, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Turkey experienced record-breaking temperatures in a situation unprecedented even for these nations, typically used to conditions of extreme heat.
During the weekend of 23–24 June and on 25 June, temperatures soared to . By 26 June, however, Greece seemed to bear the brunt of the heatwave with temperatures in Athens reaching . The same day, Greece's national power consumption set a new record. Parts of Greece, including neighbourhoods in Athens, suffered from power outages due to high electricity demand and heat damage to the grid. Explosions from overheating transmission towers were implicated in the forest fires ravaging the country. The discomfort was exacerbated by high night-time temperatures, which exceeded averages by up to , and remained at very high levels for more than half of the 2007 summer.
More than 200 people were hospitalized for heat-related treatment and 18 people died from heat exhaustion. By 28 June northerly winds started blowing from the northwest and temperatures finally began falling, reaching a cooler . Nonetheless, at a time when everyone believed that the worst part was over, more than 100 fires erupted across the country. Two people perished in the village of Aghia, near the city of Larissa. In the evening of that same day a major wildfire broke out in Mount Parnitha near Athens. By the dawn of 29 June, a significant part of the popular Parnitha National Park had turned into ashes. Temperatures fell by as much as and the worst heatwave since records began came to an end leaving Greece reeling upon its disastrous effects.
July 2007.
By late July, temperatures again rose to more than in Southern Europe, impacting agriculture, electricity supply, forestry and human health. From 21 to 25 July, temperatures reached or exceeded . Over 500 deaths in Hungary were attributed to the heatwave. Major wildfires destroyed large forested areas across the region. Six people (including two Canadair pilots) lost their lives while trying to extinguish the flames in Greece. The country's electricity grid nearly collapsed due to exceptional demand for air conditioning. Hundreds of tourists were stranded on the beaches of Apulia, in Southeastern Italy, and had to be rescued by boats.
In Bulgaria, six people were killed in the fires that started on 22 July. An estimated 1,530 fires broke out between 20 and 24 July, three times the yearly average. During the largest fire near Stara Zagora, of pine forest burned for three days, as firefighters were unable to control the fire by conventional means. Strong winds and the extremely dry air quickly sparked new fires. The government requested help from Russia, and Be-200 amphibious water bombers finally managed to contain the blaze near Stara Zagora.
August 2007.
In the beginning of August, the Dalmatian coast in Croatia was hit by severe fires, especially in the surroundings of Dubrovnik.


War of the Maidens

The War of the Maidens () was a rebellion that took place in the French department of Ariège from 1829 to 1832, and continued in a less intense fashion until 1872. It was the most well-known struggle among those that developed in the Pyrenees in the 19th century.
A "demoiselle" is a young woman. The name "guerre des demoiselles" comes from the fact that the countrymen disguised themselves as women, with long white shirts or sheep skins, scarves or wigs, and blacked or concealed faces. This disguise was for attacking—mostly at night—large property owners, forest guards and gendarmes, ironmasters, and charcoal burners.
Cause.
The rebellion was due to the passing, on 27 May 1827, of a new forestry code, which was applied from 1829 onwards. This new code imposed "new regulations of forest usage, in particular concerning gathering of wood, wood cutting, and above all pasturing (forbidden from now on), the rights of maronnage, hunting, fishing, and gathering." These regulations prohibited what the local people saw as their traditional right to use the forest for pasturing their animals and gathering food. This led to a campaign of civil disobedience in which men dressed as women to hide their identities and which came to be known as the War of the Maidens ("la guerre des demoiselles").
Unfolding.
Castillonnais and the Massat valley (1829–1830).
Between spring 1829 and spring 1830, the revolts were very numerous (between 300–400 individuals, according to the procès-verbal) and the Maidens came out very frequently. The troubles were concentrated in 2 regions: first the Castillonnais to the south-west of Saint-Girons, until December 1829; and afterwards the valley of Massat, in January 1830. From spring 1830, the revolt extended to the entirety of the department. During this period, the Maidens did not make any claims of a social character. They took issue with everyone who prevented their free use of the forest—guards, gendarmes, and charcoal burners. Resistance to livestock seizures (in guarded areas of the forest) was the first large scale activity of the Maidens.
Despite the efforts of Castillonnais municipal councils to defend the peasants' rights through the legal process, on May 22, 1829, the Maidens chased forest guards out of their homes with shouting and gunfire. They appeared again during a seizure operation, in the forest of Saint-Lary, between May 25–30, 1829. Twenty forest guards, having surprised six trespassing shepherds with their flocks, wanted to seize the livestock; but they quickly found themselves facing a crowd of a hundred disguised and armed countrymen who insulted them, threw stones at them, and even shot at them. Terrified and powerless, the guards retreated.
In July 1829, incidents of this type multiplied and gendarme reinforcements—four brigades, two patrolling Castillonnais and Bellongue, two patrolling Saint-Gironnais—did not prevent the insurrection from spreading. The revolts used guerilla tactics consisting of avoiding direct engagement with the enemy in favor of skirmishes with forest guards.
In mid-August 1829, a new attempt to seize livestock in Bellongue, close to the small village of Buzan, caused one of the largest confrontations of the year. On the 16th of this month, an inspector, two surveyors, and many guards and forest agents coming to mark out an area in the Buzan forest, discovered two flocks of sheep trespassing. Their shepherds refused to give their identity and were tied up to be sent to jail. Soon, many inhabitants of neighboring villages and communities, who were present during the altercation, aggressively demonstrated their discontent. Church bells were rung, alerting neighboring inhabitants. A furious army of Maidens, armed with batons, scythes and guns, intervened and freed the prisoners. A few days later, when the gendarmes arrived to arrest the two shepherds, a new and more menacing rebel army forced them back.
During spring 1829, the Maidens also confronted charcoal burners, accused of exploiting trees. In June, charcoal burners were the target of violence in Sentein, in the Biros valley; and afterwards in July in Ustou, in the south of Saint-Gironnais. Charcoal burner lodges were burned, their cabins and their objects destroyed, and they suffered multiple gunshots. In the night of August 29, the Maidens invaded the forest of Augirein, in Bellelongue, used by charcoal burners of the Engomer forge. In November, a sign warned Buzan charcoal burners to leave the forest or face the consequences. The hostility of the Maidens continued until spring 1830, when in the April of that year some 30 charcoal burners were injured and forced to flee in the forest of Saint-Lary.
Forest guards, insulted, abused, and terrorized, were equally the target of Maidens. On December 17, 1829, guards of the Autrech valley, in the Saint-Lary commune, decided to cease their service after being threatened by 15 Maidens armed with axes. On January 21, 1830, a guard from the Lafont de Sentenac family was injured by a blow to the head with an axe, and threats against forest guards increased in intensity. The revolt started to spread from Massat to the massif of Arize. Also, a band of Maidens surrounded the house of Delpla-Roquemaurel and chased their private guards out. From January to May 1830, their actions multiplied. On January 27, the Maidens plundered the Laffon tower, at Boussenac, that served as a shelter for guards. On February 17, they wrecked the home of one of them at Bernède. On March 29, 200 Maidens summoned the mayor of Rivèrenert to deliver the guards to them. At last, in the night of May 10–11, a hundred Maidens shot at the house of a guard at Saleich, 10 km south of Sailes-du-Salat, in Haute-Garonne. The guard shot and killed a 20 year old attacker. These simple and direct actions, brought against all who infringed on their free use of the forest, became popular very quickly, and the movement was not slow to spread to the neighboring regions in the Ariège department.
Propagation of the revolt (1830–1832).
Encouraged by the success of the first guerilla actions, the revolt propagated in the Arbas valley (in Haute-Garonne), and in Ariège (in the Cabannes canton and the Ax region). From the beginning of January 1830, a good part of the Ariège department was in unrest, and the Maidens carried out many shows of force. On January 24, at Balaguères (Castillonnais), the day of the local festival, they paraded in the streets armed with axes and guns to the sound of an oboe and a drum. Three days later, 400–500 Maidens paraded at Massat while crying "Down with forest guards!" On February 17, their numbers nearly doubled and the mayor barely avoided a confrontation.
These demonstrations show the support that the Maidens had among the population and local authorities, such as mayors. Troops sent to suppress them were ineffective, because the guerilla actions were sporadic and occurred in mountainous, poorly known territory. In 1829 and 1830, the authorities were barely alarmed by this revolt, because the Maidens’ demands did not seem exorbitant. From summer 1830, the Maidens’ actions became more violent and extended to the entirety of Ariège. They were directed mainly at ironmasters.
On September 27, a departmental forest commission was put in place. The troubles ceased. They restarted in November and continued until March 1831. In May 1832, new violence erupted in Ustou.
Sporadic troubles (1833–1872).
The troubles continued in a sporadic manner in the following years, until 1872.
Studies.
Many studies have been done on this subject. The earliest was that of Prosper Barousse, published in 1839. More poet than historian, Barousse described the legends that surrounded the Maidens’ exploits from an early date. Due to their widespread use of horns and their communication by smoke signals, the Ariège rebels were described as truly organized and disciplined forces obeying warlords. Barousse contributed to popularizing the myth of Jean Vidalou, the poor shepherd who became the great general of the Maidens. The Maidens supposedly received their instructions from a mysterious person with whom they met during the night. Barousse, who took serious liberties with history, thus forged an image of a leader who was out of the ordinary. However, he was not the first to exploit the Ariège revolt for literary ends.
The first truly historic study on this subject was that of Michel Dubedat, in 1900. Short and incomplete, little different from the spirit of its predecessor, it nevertheless brought a global perspective of the events.
Around 1930, René Dupont took up the subject again with the goal of doing a rigorously historic study by scrutinizing the departmental archives of Ariège. He succeeded in reconstructing in great detail the chronology of the troubles and in presenting an interpretation for them. His work was abundantly reused in the studies which followed. Also, a doctoral thesis titled "Délits forestiers et troubles politiques dans les Pyrénées centrales de 1827 à 1851" ("Forestry offences and political troubles in the central Pyrenees from 1827 to 1851"), relying on new evidence from the National Archives, was written by Louis Clarenc at the University of Toulouse.
In 1969, François Baby studied one aspect of this revolt: the role of folklore. The result of his study was a memoir published in 1972.
Jean-François Soulet placed the War of the Maidens in a popular protest movement of the Pyrenees world. He cast the revolt in new light by considering it as one of the protests, already ancient, of civil society against the centralizing enterprise of the state. His work showed that the War of the Maidens should be considered as "one link in a long chain of revolts starting well before 1829, continuing well after 1831, and engaging at one moment or another almost all of the Pyrenean valleys."
Theater and cinema.
This rebellion inspired, in 1830, the play "Le Drame des Demoiselles", which played in the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris.
In 1983, Jacques Nichet directed a 90-minute feature film entitled "La Guerre des Demoiselles".
In 1976, Gerard Guillaume and Jeanne Labrune directed a feature film (two episodes) entitled "La Guerre des Demoiselles", set in Massat with professional actors and local contributors. It was at once an essay on collective memory and an activist voice against the Haute-Ariège national park bill. The film was only broadcast once, but it was enthusiastically received among locals during private screenings following animated debates. The thesis of Francois Baby was the historic thread establishing a parallel between the revolt of countrymen in the 19th century and the current trend of protest, dominated by occitanistes, with its epicenter in Larzac. The film is available in the archives of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel.


Herbert Niiler

Herbert Niiler (27 April 1905 – 13 April 1982) was an Estonian American basketball player and coach.
Niiler coached the Estonia men's national basketball team in the 1936 Summer Olympics, where the team placed 9th. He also led Estonia to EuroBasket 1937 and EuroBasket 1939, finishing both in 5th place.
In 1944, he fled from the Soviet occupation with his family to the United States, where they resided in Pittsburgh since 1948.
Personal.
Oceanographer Pearn P. Niiler is his son.


Polish European Constitution referendum

The Polish referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was a referendum expected to be held on in October 2005 to decide whether Poland should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. After the rejection of the constitution by France and the Netherlands the referendum was cancelled.
Most opinion data showed that many Poles were enthusiastic about EU membership. Opinion polls also showed an initial strong support for the Constitution (yes, pl. "tak": 56%, no, pl. "nie": 19%) . The French and Dutch no's however decreased Polish support for the Constitution. A later opinion poll showed an increase in the number of people against the Constitution to 35%. The number of supporters had dropped to 40%.
Some of right wing parties were sceptical about the Constitution due to a feeling that the country had lost out on the issue of Polish voting strength during negotiations.
Former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski had said that a referendum on the Constitution could have been combined with the presidential elections in October 2005. It would have been legally binding in case of a turnout of at least half the electorate. In case of smaller the matter would be up for the Parliament to decide.
The project of a Constitutional Treaty was finally set aside, and replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon.


29th European Film Awards

The 29th European Film Awards were presented on 10 December 2016 in Wrocław, Poland. The ceremony is one of a number of events to take place in Wrocław as the city is a 2016 European Capital of Culture, along with San Sebastián. The nominations and winners were selected by more than 2,500 members of the European Film Academy.
Ceremony.
The ceremony focused on a political message against ongoing nationalism and euroscepticism. The European Film Academy also remarked on Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is imprisoned in Russia.
Awards voted by EFA Members.
Best Film.
The nominees were announced on 6 November 2016 in Seville, Spain at the Seville Festival of European Cinema. Four films nominated for Best Film were premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d’Or winner "I, Daniel Blake", and FIPRESCI Critics Award "Toni Erdmann". One film ("Room") has been already nominated for the Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards. Three films ("Toni Erdmann", "Elle", "Julieta") had been submitted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. Two films ("I, Daniel Blake", "Toni Erdmann") received nominations at the 18th British Independent Film Awards.
"Toni Erdmann" is the first film directed by a woman to win best picture.
Best Comedy.
The nominees were announced on 25 October 2016.
Best Director.
The nominees were announced on 6 November 2016
Best Screenwriter.
The nominees were announced on 6 November 2016
Best Actress.
The nominees were announced on 6 November 2016
Best Actor.
The nominees were announced on 6 November 2016.
Technical awards.
A special seven-member jury convened in Berlin and, based on the selection list. The members of the jury were:
Best Composer.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Cinematographer.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Editor.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Production Designer.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Costume Designer.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Sound Designer.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
The winners were announced on 17 November 2016.
Critics Award.
European Discovery.
The nominees were announced on 19 September 2016. Award given by International Federation of Film Critics - Prix FIPRESCI.
Best Animated Feature Film.
The nominees were announced on 25 October 2016. Two films nominated for Best Animated Feature Film were premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. One film ("My Life as a Courgette") has been submitted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. "My Life as a Courgette" also in official selection for The European Parliament's LUX Prize.
Audience awards.
People's Choice Award.
The nominees were announced on 1 September 2016.
Best Children and Family Film.
The winners were announced on 10 May 2016.
University Award.
The announcement of the five European University Film Award nominations took place during Filmfest Hamburg on 5 October 2016. Films were selected by: Feo Aladag (director/Germany), Dagmar Brunow (academic, Linnaeus University/Sweden), Luis Martinez Lopez (journalist, EL MUNDO/Spain), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (director/Ukraine) and Patrick Sobelman (producer/France). Five nominated films were screened and discussed in the respective classes and each university voted its favourite film.
The following 13 universities from 13 European countries participated:
Best Short Film.
To be considered for a nomination, a short film has to screen in competition at any of the participating festivals:
European Co-Production Award — Prix Eurimages.
The winners were announced on 15 November 2016.
Honorary Awards.
European Achievement in World Cinema.
The winner were announced on 1 November 2016.
Award presented by Susanne Bier.
Lifetime Achievement Award.
The winner were announced on 13 September 2016.
Honorary Award of the EFA President and Board.
Award presented by Wim Wenders.
List of partners.
The European Film Awards 2016 are presented by the European Film Academy and EFA Productions in co-operation with:
and with the support of:


Architecture of Scotland in the Roman era

The architecture of Scotland in the Roman era includes all building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the arrival of the Romans in northern Britain in the first century BCE, until their departure in the fifth century. Although Ptolemy indicated that there were 19 "towns" in Caledonia, north of the Roman province of Britannia, no clear evidence of urban settlements has been found and these were probably hillforts. There is evidence of over 1,000 such forts, most below the Clyde-Forth line, but the majority seem to have been abandoned in the Roman period. There is also evidence of distinctive stone wheelhouses and small underground souterrains.
From about 71 CE the Romans began military expeditions into what is now Scotland, building forts, like that at Trimontium, and probably pushing north as far as the River Tay where they created more fortifications, like those at Inchtuthil. These were soon abandoned, and the Romans settled for the occupation of the Southern Uplands by the end of the first century, below a line drawn between the Tyne and Solway Firth. This resulted in more fortifications and the building of Hadrian's Wall across what is now northern England. Around 141 CE they moved up to construct a new "limes", a sward-covered wall made of turf known as the Antonine Wall, the largest Roman structure in modern Scotland. They soon retreated to Hadrian's Wall, with occasional expeditions that involved the building and reoccupation of forts, until the collapse of Roman power in the early fifth century.
Caledonia.
Caledonia was the name that the Romans gave to the land north of their province of Britannia. In his "Geographia", Ptolemy, possibly drawing on earlier sources of information as well as more contemporary accounts from the Agricolan invasion, identified 19 "towns" in Caledonia. No archaeological evidence of any truly urban places has been found from this time, and the names may have indicated hill forts, temporary markets or meeting places. Most of the names are obscure: "Devana" may be the modern Banchory, "Alauna" (meaning "the rock") in the west is probably Dumbarton Rock and the place of the same name in the east of the Lowlands may be the site of Edinburgh Castle. "Lindon" may be Balloch on Loch Lomond side. There is evidence for about 1,000 Iron Age hillforts in Scotland, most located below the Clyde-Forth line. The majority are circular, with a single palisade around an enclosure. However, they appear to have been largely abandoned in the Roman period. There are also numerous vitrified forts, whose walls have been subjected to fire, which may date to this period, but an accurate chronology has not been created. Extensive studies of this type of fort at Finavon Hill near Forfar in Angus, suggest dates for the destruction of the site in either the last two centuries BCE, or the mid-first millennium CE. Many of these forts would be reoccupied after the Roman departure.
Beyond the area of Roman occupation, in the west and north, there are over 60 sites identified of wheelhouses. Perhaps a development of earlier Atlantic roundhouses, these have a characteristic outer wall surrounding a circle of stone piers (bearing a resemblance to the spokes of a wheel). Over 400 souterrains, small underground constructions, have been discovered in Scotland, many of them in the south-east, and although few have been dated, those that have suggest a construction date in the second or third centuries CE. They are usually found close to settlements (whose timber frames are much less well-preserved) and may have been for storing perishable agricultural products.
Early Roman constructions.
The Romans began military expeditions into what is now Scotland from about 71 CE. In 78 CE Gnaeus Julius Agricola arrived in Britain to take up his appointment as the new governor and began a series of major incursions. Two years later his legions constructed a substantial fort at Trimontium near Melrose. He is said to have pushed his armies to the estuary of the "River Taus" (usually assumed to be the River Tay) and established forts there, including a legionary fortress at Inchtuthil. After his victory over the northern tribes at Mons Graupius in 84 CE, a series of forts and towers were established along the Gask Ridge, which marked the boundary between the Lowland and Highland zones, probably forming the first Roman "limes" or frontier in Scotland.
Agricola's successors were unable or unwilling to further subdue the far north. The fortress at Inchtuthil was dismantled before its completion, and the other fortifications of the Gask Ridge were abandoned within the space of a few years. By CE 87 the occupation was limited to the Southern Uplands, and by the end of the first century the northern limit of Roman expansion was a line drawn between the Tyne and Solway Firth. Elginhaugh fort, in Midlothian, dates to about this period, as may Castle Greg in West Lothian. The Romans eventually withdrew to a line in what is now northern England, building the fortification known as Hadrian's Wall from coast to coast.
The Antonine Wall and later invasions.
Around 141 CE the Romans undertook a reoccupation of southern Scotland, moving up to construct a new "limes" between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. The resulting Antonine Wall is the largest Roman construction inside Scotland. It is a sward-covered wall made of turf, around high, with nineteen forts and extending for . The stone foundations and wing walls of the original forts demonstrate that the intention was to build a stone wall similar to Hadrian's Wall, but this was quickly amended. There is a wide ditch on the north side, and a military way on the south. The Romans initially planned to build forts every , but this was soon revised to every . One of the best preserved forts, but also one of the smallest, is Rough Castle Fort. In addition to the forts, there are at least nine smaller fortlets, probably on Roman mile spacings, which formed part of the original scheme, some of which were later replaced by forts. The most visible fortlet is Kinneil, at the eastern end of the Wall, near Bo'ness. Having taken twelve years to build, the wall was overrun and abandoned soon after CE 160. The Romans retreated to the line of Hadrian's Wall.
Roman troops penetrated far into the north of modern Scotland several more times, with at least four major campaigns. The Antonine Wall was occupied again for a brief period after 197 CE. The most notable invasion was in 209 when the emperor Septimius Severus led a major campaign. A string of forts was constructed in the north-east (some of which may have been begun in the earlier Antonine campaign). These include camps associated with the Elsick Mounth, such as Normandykes, Ythan Wells, Deers Den and Glenmailen. However, only two forts in Scotland, at Cramond and Carpow (in the Tay valley) are definitely known to have been permanently occupied during this incursion. There is evidence that these campaigns are coincident with the wholesale destruction and abandonment of souterrains in southern Scotland. This may have been due either to Roman military aggression or the collapse of local grain markets in the wake of Roman withdrawal. After the death of Severus in 210 the Romans withdrew back to Hadrian's Wall, which would be the frontier until Roman authority in Britain collapsed in the fifth century.


List of years in Spain

This is a list of years in Spain.


March of Lusatia

The March or Margraviate of Lusatia () was as an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast "Marca Geronis". Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was finally incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367.
Geography.
The territory of the margraviate roughly corresponded with the present-day region of Lower Lusatia. It originally stretched from the border of the Saxon stem duchy along the Saale River in the west to the border with Poland on the Bober (Bóbr) River in the east. From about 1138, the adjacent territory beyond the river was part of the Duchy of Silesia (Lower Silesia). In the north, the March of Lusatia bordered on the Northern March, which was following the Great Slav Rising of 983 established as the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear in 1157, as well as on Land Lebus, nucleus of the Brandenburg "Neumark" territory from 1248 onwards. In the south, the Margraviate of Meissen likewise arose from the former "Marca Geronis", its western part merged with the later Electorate of Saxony, while the eastern Milceni lands emerged as Upper Lusatia.
Over the centuries, the margravial territory diminished in favour of the Ascanian County of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. Further territories in the west were split off by means of distribution, like the Osterland ruled by the Margraves of Landsberg or the County of Brehna.
History.
The area east of the former "limes Sorabicus" of East Francia, settled by the Slavic Veleti and Milcenian tribes, was gradually conquered until 963 by the Saxon count Gero of Merseburg. He added the territory between the Saale and Bober rivers to his "Marca Geronis", which the Saxon duke and German King Otto I had established in 937. After Gero's death in 965 and the loss of the Northern March in the course of the 983 Slavic uprising, Lusatia became the heartland of the remaining Saxon Eastern March ("Ostmark") under Margrave Odo I.
Margraviate.
While the term stayed in use for centuries, the Lusatian March appeared as a separate administrative unit from at least as early as 965 with the concurrent establishments of the Marches of Meissen, Merseburg and Zeitz. The division between Lower Lusatia and the adjacent Milceni lands around Bautzen and Görlitz (later Upper Lusatia), then part of Meissen, was also apparent even that early.
In 1002, the Marches of Lusatia and Meissen were conquered by Polish ruler Boleslaus the Brave during King Henry II's campaign against revolting Henry of Schweinfurt. This sparked a German–Polish War, which ended by the 1018 Peace of Bautzen. Henry's successor Conrad II waged two campaigns, in 1031 and 1032, which reconquered both Lower and Upper Lusatia from Mieszko II of Poland.
By the reign of King Henry IV from 1056, Lusatia had been reincorporated into the Holy Roman Empire and it formed one of the four divisions of Upper Saxony along with Meissen, the , and Zeitz. These regions were not always ruled by separate margraves, but were mainly administrative divisions. Lusatia and the were ruled together and eventually the was reduced to little more than Lower Lusatia. Under Henry IV, Upper Lusatia was detached from the Lusatian march and granted as a fief to Bolesław II of Poland.
Imperial state.
The first "Margrave of Lusatia" is only known from 1046. Under Emperor Lothair III, Upper and Lower Lusatia were once again reunited in 1136. The terms "Ostmark" and "Lusatia" were interchangeable into the 12th century, though in 1128 Count Henry of Groitzsch is recorded as Margrave of the Ostmark, but as not receiving the Lusatian march until 1131. While in 1156 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa invested Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia with Upper Lusatia, the territory of the Margraviate of (Lower) Lusatia was further reduced by the establishment of the Margraviate of Landsberg (Osterland), the Principality of Anhalt and the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg.
From 1210 on the remaining March of Lower Lusatia was held by the Meissen margraves from the Saxon House of Wettin. Upon the death of Margrave Henry III of Meissen in 1288, his lands were divided: while the Meissen territory passed to his eldest son Albert II, the Lusatian lands fell to his grandson Frederick Tuta, son of the late Margrave Theodoric of Landsberg. A fierce inheritance quarrel arose, whereupon Albert's son Theodoric IV (Diezmann) campaigned Lusatia and took it in possession after Frederick Tuta's death (presumably poisoned) in 1291.
In 1303 Theodoric IV sold the Lusatian march to the Ascanian margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg. The Brandenburg Ascanians had already acquired neighbouring the adjacent "Upper Lusatian" estates around Bautzen and Görlitz, as well as the Margraviate of Landsberg in 1291; nevertheless, when the dynasty became extinct in 1319, the territorial complex again disintegrated. The Lower Lusatian lands were seized by the Wittelsbach king Louis the Bavarian and with Brandenburg ceded to his son Louis V. His brother Otto finally sold Lower Lusatia to the Luxembourg emperor Charles IV in 1367 whereafter it was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Centuries later, both crown lands of Lower and Upper Lusatia passed to the Wettin Electors of Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague.


Progempylus

Progempylus is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the lower Eocene.


Matthias Schmidt

Matthias Schmidt (born 1952) is a German historian and author who first revealed in a university dissertation and then in the book, "Albert Speer: The End of a Myth", the role that Albert Speer had played in the Holocaust.
History.
Schmidt earned his doctorate at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute for Historical Research at the Free University of Berlin. In 1980 he was given privileged access to the personal chronicle (diary) of Albert Speer that had hitherto been held privately by Rudolf Wolters, the long time friend and collaborator of Speer. After Speer's death Schmidt published a dissertation and then a book that for the first time detailed Speer's expulsion of the Jews from their Berlin homes and accused Speer of lying about his involvement in the Holocaust.
"Albert Speer: The End of a Myth".
Schmidt wrote "Albert Speer: The End of a Myth". The book was reviewed by Henry A. Turner Jr. in "The New York Times". Turner wrote "By demolishing Speer's carefully tailored image of himself, Matthias Schmidt has contributed to setting the record straight" and "Through some resourceful research, he has compiled an impressive catalogue of discrepancies between Speer's postwar versions of his career and the documented record, which Mr. Schmidt has augmented with some hitherto unused materials". A review in Kirkus said "from records in the possession of Speer's closest associate, and other researches, German historian Schmidt (Free Univ. of Berlin) sets forth Speer's verifiable role in the Nazi hierarchy and his literary strategems to conceal it. The documentation is damning, the account stinging."


2004 in Albania

The following lists events that happened during 2004 in Republic of Albania.


Orbe

Orbe (, ; ; ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the former district of Orbe and is now part of the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.
History.
Orbe is first mentioned about 280 as "Urba". In 1179, it was mentioned as "versus Orbam".
Ancient history.
During the Roman era, Orbe – then known as Urba – was a town of Gallia, in the territory of the Helvetii. In the Antonine Itinerary, it is placed between Lacus Lausonius and Ariolica, xviii m.p. from Lacus Lausonius and xxiiii m.p. from Ariolica. On the Boscéaz hill, a Roman villa was built by an unknown landowner. The mosaics of the villa are still visible.
Middle ages.
By the Middle Ages, Orbe sat on the road over the Jougne Pass and at the crossroads of two major transportation routes. One stretched from the Jura Mountains to the Alps while the other ran from the Rhine River to the Rhone River. The municipality grew up on both sides of the Orbe. On the left side was the villa Tavellis and the parish church of Saint-Germain, while the right side had the villa Tabernis with the church of Saint-Martin. At some point during the Middle Ages, a bridge was built across the river which joined the two settlements. Orbe Castle and the town's market were built on the hill above the river and the bridge.
In 888, the town was owned by the Burgundian king Rudolf I. The next records of the town come from silver coins which the town's mint produced for Conrad the peaceful between 937 and 993. The town remained part of the independent Kingdom of Arles or Burgundy until the death of the last king, Rudolf III in 1032. Before Rudolph's death, the Emperor Conrad II of the Holy Roman Empire had forced him to name Conrad as his successor. With Rudolph's death, the entire kingdom, including Orbe, was incorporated into the empire. In 1076, Emperor Henry IV replaced the Burgundian noble in Orbe with one of his vassals, Count Wilhelm II.
Land and rights in the town passed through several nobles, and in 1168, Amadeus II of Montfaucon, the count of Montbéliard, bought about half of the town of Orbe. In a record from 1183, the town's churches and much of the land were owned by Baulmes and Payerne Priories. Around the end of the 11th century, Romainmôtier Abbey acquired some land in the town, on which they built a hospital. In 1139, they expanded the building into the nearby Notre-Dame chapel.
In addition to the religious land owners, the Counts of Montfaucon-Montbeliard began to live in the town. In 1233, they built a round keep in Orbe Castle. Two years later, Amadeus III of Montfaucon-Montbeliard built the Bourg-Vieux and Bourg-Neuf to help protect the town. By fortifying the town and castle, the counts and the town were able to control the trade routes that passed through the valley.
Early modern and modern Orbe.
In 1352, Orbe became a town with a town charter modeled on Moudon's. After the death of Girard de Montfaucon and of his wife, Orbe was inherited by Count Montbeliard in 1379. In 1410, it passed to Louis de Chalon, the Prince of Orange. The Chalon family held the town until it was captured by the Swiss Confederation in 1475 during the Burgundian Wars. However, the Swiss were unable to hold it and Hugh de Chalon recaptured it in the same year. In the following year, Charles the Bold met with Swiss messengers at Orbe. Due to the Swiss victory in the Burgundian Wars, the confederation acquired much of the old Burgundian land near the Jura Mountains in 1484. The de Chalon lands, including Orbe and nearby Echallens, became a joint condominium or "gemeine Herrschaft" which was administered by Bern and Fribourg. It remained a subject territory until the 1798 French invasion and the creation of the French-backed Helvetic Republic. Under the Helvetic Republic, Orbe became the capital of the District of Orbe. The Helvetic Republic, which espoused the ideals of the French Revolution, was very popular with the urban residents of Orbe. The reforms of the Helvetic Republic were too much for many Swiss to accept, and the republic was overthrown by the Stecklikrieg revolution. As the Helvetic government retreated in September 1802 from Bern to Lausanne, government troops briefly occupied Orbe. Under the Act of Mediation, Orbe remained the capital of its own district.
Geography.
Orbe has an area, , of . Of this area, (73.6%) are used for agricultural purposes, while (3.7%) is forested. Of the rest of the land, (19.6%) are settled (buildings or roads), and (2.9%) is either rivers or lakes.
Of the built-up area, industrial buildings made up 3.0% of the total area, while housing and buildings made up 8.7%, and transportation infrastructure made up 5.7%. Parks, green belts, and sports fields made up 1.7%. Of the forested land, 2.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 60.7% is used for growing crops and 9.2% is pastures, while 3.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality was the capital of the Orbe District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Orbe became part of the new district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.
The municipality is located on a hill partly surrounded by the Orbe River. It consists of the village of Orbe and a number of hamlets, including Granges Saint-Germain, Granges Saint-Martin, Mont Choisi, and Le Puisoir.
Coat of arms.
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Gules, two Sea-daces addorsed Or."
Demographics.
Orbe has a population () of . , 28.6% of the population is resident foreign nationals. Over the years 1999–2009, the population has changed at a rate of 25.8%, 22.1% due to migration and 4.3% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (4,229 or 82.3%), with Portuguese being second-most common (255 or 5.0%) and German being third (161 or 3.1%). There are 128 people who speak Italian and four people who speak Romansh.
The age distribution, , in Orbe is 674 children (11.3%) up to 9 years old and 781 youth (13.1%) between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 862 people (14.5%) are between 20 and 29 years old, 848 people (14.2%) are between 30 and 39, 920 people (15.4%) are between 40 and 49, and 754 people (12.7%) are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 493 people (8.3%) between 60 and 69 years old, 378 people (6.3%) between 70 and 79, 216 people (3.6%) between 80 and 89, and 31 people (0.5%) 90 and older.
, 2,103 people were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,441 married individuals, 304 widows or widowers, and 291 individuals who are divorced.
, 2,073 private households were in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. The 687 households had only one person and 120 households had five or more people. Of a total of 2,108 households that answered this question, 32.6% were households made up of just one person and 16 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, 578 were married couples without children, 642 were married couples with children, and 120 were single parents with a child or children. Thirty households were made up of unrelated people and 35 households were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
, 529 of a total of 968 inhabited buildings were single family homes (54.6%). There were 222 multifamily buildings (22.9%), along with 154 multipurpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (15.9%) and 63 other-use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.5%).
, a total of 1,934 apartments (84.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 208 apartments (9.1%) were seasonally occupied, and 141 apartments (6.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.18%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance.
The Boscéaz (a Gallo-Roman villa), Orbe Castle with its two towers and plaza, the Swiss Reformed Church of Notre-Dame and the City Hall are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire old town of Orbe is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
The Gallo-Roman villa is known for its Roman mosaics, which are composed of several hundreds of pieces on the floor of the original site. The villa was a palace belonging to a rich but unknown landowner. It was built around AD 160 and abandoned about 270. Nowadays, eight mosaics are still visible and can be visited. A ninth mosaic, discovered in 1993, is being restored and it is not open for public visits.
Politics.
In the 2007 federal election, the most popular party was the SP, which received 26.68% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.26%), the FDP (14.52%), and the Green Party (12.92%). In the federal election, a total of 1,107 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 36.2%.
Economy.
The town has a Nestle Research & Development factory with a working force of over 500 employees. The factory is responsible for producing Nescafé, Nespresso and also Nestlé's boxed cereals. The factory accounts for just over 15% of Nestlé's overall turnover per annum.
, Orbe had an unemployment rate of 7.5%. , there were 95 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 1,121 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 48 businesses in this sector. 2,173 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 227 businesses in this sector. There were 2,624 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.5% of the workforce.
 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,996. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 85, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,081 of which 807 or (74.7%) were in manufacturing and 241 (22.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,830. In the tertiary sector; 343 or 18.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 82 or 4.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 58 or 3.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 15 or 0.8% were in the information industry, 36 or 2.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 515 or 28.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 121 or 6.6% were in education and 257 or 14.0% were in health care.
, there were 1,832 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,489 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.2 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 7.1% of the workforce coming into Orbe are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 10.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.2% used a private car.
Since 1894, the town has been served by the Orbe-Chavornay railway - the first electrified railway in Switzerland.
Religion.
From the , 1,774 or 34.5% were Roman Catholic, while 1,993 or 38.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 70 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.36% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 342 individuals (or about 6.65% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who were Jewish, and 201 (or about 3.91% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 10 individuals who were Buddhist, 14 individuals who were Hindu and 10 individuals who belonged to another church. 620 (or about 12.06% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 260 individuals (or about 5.06% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education.
In Orbe about 1,774 or (34.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 433 or (8.4%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 433 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.1% were Swiss men, 25.9% were Swiss women, 11.3% were non-Swiss men and 6.7% were non-Swiss women.
In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 802 students in the Orbe school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 427 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 368 students in those schools. There were also 7 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
Orbe is home to 1 museum, the "Fondation Pro Urba". In 2009 it was visited by 2,900 visitors (the average in previous years was 3,278).
, there were 322 students in Orbe who came from another municipality, while 219 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


2000 in Italy

Events.
Major events in Italy in 2000:
2
2000 in Italian television
C
Coppa Italia 2000–01
G
2000 Giro d'Italia
2000 Italian Grand Prix
I
Italian films of 2000
Incumbents
L
List of Italian films of 2000
List of number-one hits of 2000 (Italy)
O
Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics
S
2000 San Marino Grand Prix
Serie A 1999–2000
Serie B 1999–2000
Serie B 2000–01
U
Umbrian regional election, 2000
V
57th Venice International Film Festival
Venetian regional election, 2000
W
2000 Women's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier
World Youth Day 2000


Nagnata

Nagnata or Magnata (Νάγνατα, Μάγνατα) is a town noted on the co-ordinate map of the 2nd century AD Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy. It is located in northwest Hibernia between the mouths of the rivers Ravius (Ῥαουίος), perhaps the Erne, and Libnius (Λιβνίος), perhaps the Moy. This is the only town noted on the Irish west, southern or northern coast. Surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geography refers to the towns Hibernis (Teamhair'Erann/Tara), Rhaeba (Cruchain/Rathcroghan) and Magnata (Sligo) as "ἐπίσημος", an Ancient Greek word meaning "eminent" or "distinguished". Much of his work was based on the now lost geography of Marinus of Tyre.
As there were no towns in the classical sense in early Ireland and as Ptolemy's information was derived indirectly through traders, it is likely that the places which he calls cities were ancient places of assembly and hence trade. It is the only written evidence for knowledge or contact between the northwest of Ireland and the classical world in the European Iron Age.
That Phoenician and Greek ships had reached Ireland, possibly as early as the 6th century BC, is known from a now-lost merchants' handbook: the Massaliote Periplus, describing the sea routes used by traders from Phoenicia and Tartessus in their journeys from Hispania to Britain and the "Sacred Isle" of Ireland. Evidence for earlier contact may be an Irish lunate spearhead from the 10th century BC which was found in the harbour of Huelva in southern Spain.
Historical opinions.
The majority of early commentators placed Nagnata in modern County Sligo (Camden 1607, James Ware 1654, Samuel Lewis 1837, Martin 1910);
Other opinions include Ballina, County Mayo (William Orpen 1894); Westport, County Mayo (Stempel 2002); Achill Island (Ilkins
1996,2005); Galway (Hardiman 1820, Lewis 1837); on Erris Head Co. Mayo (Mac an Bhaird 1991,93).
Modern research.
Research by R. Darcy and William Flynn in 2008 at Oklahoma State University after correcting for various distortions in Ptolemy's co-ordinate system, identified Nagnata firmly in the vicinity of the modern Sligo town. The river Libnius they associate with the River Moy. The place of assembly known to international traders would therefore seem to be most likely a coastal location somewhere between Ballisodare and Drumcliff, both ancient gathering points within a five-mile radius of the modern Sligo town.


Province of Calatayud

The Province of Calatayud was a province of Spain created in the 1822 territorial division of Spain (27 January 1822), during the "Trienio Liberal" of 1820–1823. It included the Aragonese comarcas of Comunidad de Calatayud, Campo de Daroca, Aranda, the southern part of Valdejalón (now in the province of Zaragoza), the northern part of the Comarca del Jiloca (now in Teruel), as well as some municipalities that now fall in the provinces of Soria and Guadalajara. It had a population of 105,947, which constituted 0.9 percent of the Spanish population at the time. Its capital was Calatayud.
With the restoration of absolutism, this territorial division was revoked 1 October 1823. Although Javier de Burgos's 1833 territorial division of Spain was very close to that of 1833, the province of Calatayud was not recreated; the other two major changes were the omission of the provinces of Villafranca del Bierzo and Játiva.
The question of a province of Calatayud was reopened in 1842, but firm opposition from the provinces of Guadalajara, Soria and Zaragoza led to the defeat of the proposal.


History of Swabian Sicily

Swabian Sicily denotes the period in the history of Sicily during which it was ruled by the Hohenstaufen dynasty, lasting from Frederick II's's accession to the island's throne in 1198 until Manfred of Sicily's defeat by Charles I of Anjou in 1266. It has been particularly researched by German scholars such as Ernst Kantorowicz and Willy Cohn.
History.
Henry VI and Frederick II.
William III of Sicily was deposed in 1194 and was succeeded by his grandaunt Constance of Altaville, who nine years earlier had married Henry VI, son of Frederick Barbarossa. Henry himself died in 1197 - his widow ruled Sicily alone for a year and a few months before her death she had their four-year-old son Frederick II crowned, creating the new Hohenstaufen dynasty on Sicily. She then ruled as regent on his behalf until her death in 1198, upon which pope Innocent III took over as Frederick's guardian, entrusting him to a regency council and recognising him as heir to the throne of Sicily.
From 1201 to 1206 Markward von Annweiler ruled as regent, followed by William of Capparone, with Frederick only reaching his majority at the age of fourteen in 1208. Palermo and its court became the centre of the Empire, comprising Apulia and western Italy, and there was born the Sicilian School, the first distinctly Italian poetic school. Frederick himself became known as the 'stupor mundi' (marvel of the world), argued by Santi Correnti to have been "the forerunner of the Renaissance prince". He wrote the Constitutions of Melfi in 1231 and from 1220 to 1239 expelled and deported the remaining Muslims on Sicily, ending with the final deportations from Lucera.
His whole reign was marked by struggles against the papacy and the towns of mainland Italy, resulting in both victories and compromises. Since 1206 Syracuse had been held by Genoa, and Frederick only managed to take the city in 1221. The nobility of Catania rebelled against him in 1232, with their hostility giving rise to many legends, such as that Frederick built the city's Castello Ursino to keep the city at bay. Frederick made Catania directly part of his domains, ending the total hegemony of its bishop-count. He settled on Castrogiovanni (now Enna) as his summer residence, reinforcing its city walls with twenty towers and building a new palace and bishop’s chapel, where he gathered the Sicilian Parliament. The 'Torre di Federico II' still survives in the town, whilst the remains of Frederick's octagonal tower on the south side of the castle courtyard in Augusta still survive within the later Spanish building.
Frederick built a palace for himself in the Garcia fort and one for his wife Vittoria in the Vittoria fort, both also in Augusta. He also organised the Fourth Crusade and added castles and fortifications to Sicily and southern Italy. According to his wishes, he was entombed in Palermo Cathedral on his sudden death in 1250.
Manfred of Sicily.
In his will, Frederick left his second son Conrad IV almost all his possessions and territories, as well as the thrones of the Empire, Sicily and Jerusalem. To his bastard son Manfred Frederick left the Principality of Taranto and other minor fiefdoms as well as the 'luogotenenza' of the Kingdom of Sicily. In October 1251 Conrad left for the Italian mainland, where he met the Imperial deputies, and in January the following year he landed at Siponto, from which he and Manfred pacified the Kingdom. In 1253 they retook the rebelling counties of Caserta and Acerra and conquered Capua, finally taking Naples that October. Conrad died of malaria on 21 May 1254 (there is no evidence for the rumour that Manfred poisoned his half-brother), making the pope the guardian of his son Conradin.
The pope, however, remained unfavourable to the Swabian dynasty and instead promised the Kingdom of Sicily to Edmund the Hunchback so long as he could occupy it with an army. However, thanks to the diplomatic skills he had inherited from his father, Manfred reached an agreement with the pope, allowing the papal occupation of the army but reserving the rights of Conradin and his family. Despite this, Manfred still did not feel himself safe from the pope and so raised to huge army to oppose the papal forces, meeting them near Foggia. Over the course of 1257 Manfred defeated the papal army as well as putting down internal rebellions, but his army was dispersed in 1258, probably on Manfred's own orders.
On Conradin's death, the Sicilian prelates and barons invited Manfred himself to take the throne and he was crowned at Palermo Cathedral on 10 August. This was not recognised by pope Alexander IV, who regarded Manfred as a usurper. Heading the Ghibelline faction which existed throughout mainland Italy, Manfred's power grew, particularly by marrying his daughter Constance to Peter III of Aragon in 1262. Manfred was ultimately excommunicated and Pope Urban IV offered the Kingdom of Sicily to Charles I of Anjou, brother to Louis IX of France. Charles marched against Manfred, decisively defeating him at the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266. Two years later Conradin himself tried to retake the Kingdom but was defeated at the Battle of Tagliacozzo and beheaded.
Postscript.
Manfred's daughter Constance claimed the Kingdom of Sicily in 1281 and after the Sicilian Vespers became queen of Sicily from 1282 to 1285, uniting it to her husband Peter's domains. Peter was crowned King of Aragon in 1282 and thus remained in Spain from 1283 until his death in 1285, upon which the Kingdom of Sicily passed to his second son James, assisted in his rule of Sicily by his mother. He remained on the island until the death of his elder brother Alfonso III of Aragon in 1291 and his accession to the throne of Aragon, returning to Spain and leaving Peter's third son Frederick behind as lieutenant of the Kingdom of Sicily. James made peace with France and intended to cede the island of Sicily to Charles's son Charles II, but its nobility instead crowned Frederick king, ultimately confirmed by the 1302 Peace of Caltabellotta.
Culture.
Poetry.
The Sicilian School was a literary-philosophical movement which first arose with the accession of William II in 1166 and reached its peak in the first half of the 13th century under Frederick II, himself the author of "De arte venandi cum avibus", a treatise on falconry. Not a school in the institutional or academic sense, it included Giacomo da Lentini, Cielo d'Alcamo and Guido delle Colonne and its lyric poetry in the courtly Sicilian vernacular gave rise to the sonnet. Manfred also favoured art and culture, as did Frederick's other son Enzo of Sardinia, who wrote poetry according to the canons of the school.
Juridicial school.
The Hohenstaufens continued the juridical culture begun by their Norman predecessors with the Assizes of Ariano in 1140, perpetuating them as the Curiae generales. Learned jurists such as Pier della Vigna, Roffredo da Benevento and the bishops Giacomo of Capua and Berardo of Castagna arrived at their court.
The dynasty also renewed the Magna Curia of the Kingdom of Sicily, the central organ of public administration, as the Kingdom's highest court. The Curia produced the Liber Augustalis in 1231 and Constitutionum Regni Siciliarum.
Astronomy.
Theodore of Antioch arrived in Frederick II's court in 1230, where he was made astrologer, fortune-teller, physician and scientific advisor to the king, replacing Michael Scot, who had died.


2000 in Portugal

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Portugal.
Arts and entertainment.
The winner of the Festival da Canção was Liana with the song "Sonhos Mágicos".
Sport.
In association football, for the first-tier league seasons, see 1999–2000 Primeira Liga and 2000–01 Primeira Liga; for the Taça de Portugal seasons, see 1999–2000 Taça de Portugal and 2000–01 Taça de Portugal.
Establishment of the Campeonato Nacional de Rugby Feminino.


Metropolitanate of Gothia

The Metropolitanate of Gothia (also "of Gothia and Caffa"), also known as the Eparchy of Gothia or Metropolitanate of Doros, was a metropolitan diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Middle Ages.
The 9th-century Metropolitanate of Doros was centered in the Crimea, but it seems to have had dioceses further afield, as far east as the Caspian coast, but they were probably short-lived, as the Khazars converted to Judaism.
From the 13th century until the Ottoman conquest in 1475, the Metropolitanate of Gothia was within the Principality of Theodoro (known in Greek as Γοτθία, "Gothia").
In 1779, it was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church and disestablished a few years later.
Early history.
The Goths came into contact with Christianity from the late 3rd century, and were Christianized in the course of the 4th century.
Theophilus, the first known bishop of the Goths, defended the Trinitarian and Orthodox Christological position against the Arians at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea 325, and signed the Nicene Creed. The evidence suggests that Theophilus was the bishop of a territorial see in area of Crimea. The bishops of Crimean Gothia were Nicene (whereas most of the Goths were Arians) and were appointed by the patriarch of Constantinople.
The Crimean Goths themselves were a remnant of the migration-era Gothic population of Oium. The Byzantine Metropolitanate, however, was limited to a remnant of the Roman Crimea (the Bosporan Kingdom), consisting only of the southeastern coastal area of the peninsula. The Crimean Goths from about 370 were thus wedged between the Hunnic Empire (and later Khazaria) to the north and the Roman (Byzantine) territory to the southeast.
The "Archdiocese of the Goths" existed autonomously during the 5th to 9th centuries, but from the 5th century there seems to have been a close relation to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. John Chrysostomos consecrated Unila (d. 404) as bishop of the Archdiocese of the Goths. John Chrysostomos preached to the Goths with aid of interpreter in the Goths' church in Constantinople, which had priests, deacons and readers whom were Goths and read, preached and sang in the Gothic language. It was he who appointed the successor of Bishop Unila to the seat of ruling bishop over the Archdiocese of the Goths, and acted as the protector and benefactor of the Archdiocese at this period.
In its disputed 28th Canon, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 recognized an expansion of the boundaries of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and of its authority over bishops of dioceses "among the barbarians", which has been variously interpreted as referring either to areas outside the Byzantine Empire or to non-Greeks.
Byzantine metropolitanate.
John of Gothia (John of Partenit) was a Metropolitan bishop of Doros. During the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm, John reputedly gathered Orthodox refugees from Constantinople in the Crimea. A bishop of Gothia attended the iconoclastic Council of Hieria in 754, but his flock soon expelled him and elected John in his place. John overthrew and expelled the Khazars from Gothia 787; the Khazars however managed to retake the city in less than a year, and John was imprisoned in Phoulloi. He later managed to escape, and sought refuge in Amastris in the Byzantine Empire, where he died in 791. His remains were brought home to a church on the Ayu-Dag mountain, where a memorial to him has been built. John's "Vita" was composed within a generation or so of his death, in the early 9th century.
The Gothic church was incorporated into the Patriarchate of Constantinople at some point between the late 8th and the late 9th century. It was the first diocese established outside the historical boundaries of the Roman Empire (just before the Metropolitanates of Alania and of Rus'). Its existence is documented in a list of Byzantine dioceses in a Paris manuscript, dated to the 14th century, published by in 1891.
Its continued existence is a matter of doubt, as there are practically no records on it, and it may have been little more than a missionary project with the aim of evangelizing the Khazars, or essentially a diocese "in partibus infidelium".
The archidiocese with its seat at Doros comprised seven dioceses (most of which correspond to unknown or uncertain locations).
The first extant medieval record which confirms that the Gothic language was still spoken in "Gothia" is the "Vita" of Saint Cyril, Apostle to the Slavs (also known as Constantine the Philosopher) who went to Crimea to preach the gospel to the Khazars in c. 850.
He lists "Goths" as people who read and praised the Christian God "in their own language".
Medieval "Gothia" was still far from uniformly Gothic-speaking. Many "Crimean Goths" were Greek speakers and many non-Gothic Byzantine citizens were settled in the region called "Gothia" by the government in Constantinople. The official language of the Principality of Theodoro was Greek, but the Gothic language remained in use in private homes at least until the 18th century (Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq in the 16th century reported having had a conversation with two Goths in Constantinople, and left a Gothic-Latin glossary with about a hundred Gothic words), but it is unknown for how long the Gothic language survived as liturgical language in the Crimean Gothic church.
Historical records grow more reliable only in the 13th century, with the emergence of the Principality of Theodoro, or Gothia. From 1283, the diocese was known as the "Metropolitanate of Gothia and Kaphas (Caffa)", whose direct jurisdiction was at Marcopia (modern Mangup).
Gothia became tributary to the Mongols in the 1220s, but remained nominally independent.
Caffa was established as a trading port by the Genoese, with the consent of the Mongols, in 1266.
The Genoese during the 14th century came to control much of the southwestern coast of the Crimea. From 1287, Genoese arch-rival Venice also established trading posts on the Black Sea coast. Wedged between the Mongols in the steppe and the Italian powers on the coast, the Crimean Goths became limited to the Crimean hinterland and essentially pass out of the historical record.
Timur Lenk devastated Doros in 1395, but Gothia remained nominally independent for another 80 years, until it finally fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1475.
Ottoman conquests and disestablishment.
The Crimea fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1475 as the vassal-state known as the Crimean Khanate.
The Crimean Goths managed to maintain their ethnic identity under Turkic rule during the 16th and 17th centuries, and in marginalized form even until the 18th century. The only surviving report of Gothic Christians in the Crimea is that of Joseph-Juste Scaliger who in 1606 claimed that the Goths of Crimea read both the Old and New Testaments "in the letters of Wulfila's alphabet".
The Metropolitanate of Gothia and Kaphas continued to exist "in partibus infidelium" until 1778.
Archbishop Gedeon resided at Mariampol, a suburb of Bahcesaray, capital of the khanate. For reasons unknown, he was sent by Patriarch Cyril V of Constantinople into exile at Varlaam Monastery for ten years from 1750 to 1760. In 1759, the Ottoman sultan Mustafa III issued a "firman" confirming the metropolitan's authority "over the Christians dwelling in Caffa, Mankup, Balaclava and Azov" in accordance with custom. In June 1778, Metropolitan Ignatios took the initiative to move the Christians of the khanate into Russia. This move had support within Russia, eventually even from Empress Catherine the Great. Ignatios founded the city of Mariupol. He retained his title until his death, but after him no further metropolitans of Gothia were appointed.


Himmerod memorandum

The Himmerod memorandum () was a 40-page document produced after a 1950 secret meeting of former Wehrmacht high-ranking officers invited by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to the Himmerod Abbey to discuss West Germany's "Wiederbewaffnung" (rearmament). The resulting document laid the foundation for the establishment of the new military force (Bundeswehr) of the Federal Republic.
The memorandum, along with the public declaration of Wehrmacht's "honour" by the Allied military commanders and West Germany's politicians, contributed to the creation of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.
Background.
The Potsdam Conference held by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States from 17 July to 2 August 1945, largely determined the occupation policies that the occupied country was to face after its defeat, including demilitarization, denazification, democratization and decentralization. The Allies' often crude and ineffective implementation caused the local population to dismiss the process as "noxious mixture of moralism and 'victors' justice'".
For those in the Western zones of occupation, the advent of the Cold War undermined the demilitarization process by seemingly justifying the key part of Hitler's foreign policies, the "fight against Soviet bolshevism". In 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the Americans felt that a West German army clearly had to be revived to help face off the Soviet Union, and American and West German politicians confronted the prospect of rebuilding the West German armed forces.
Himmerod Abbey conference.
From 5 to 9 October 1950, a group of former senior officers, at the behest of Adenauer, met in secret at the Himmerod Abbey (hence the memorandum's name) to discuss West Germany's rearmament. The participants were divided in several subcommittees, which focused on the political, ethical, operational and logistical aspects of the future armed forces.
The resulting memorandum included a summary of the discussions at the conference and bore the name "Memorandum on the Formation of a German Contingent for the Defense of Western Europe within the framework of an International Fighting Force". It was intended as both a planning document and a basis of negotiations with the Western Allies.
The participants of the conference were convinced that no future German army would be possible without the historical rehabilitation of the Wehrmacht and so the memorandum included these key demands:
The chairman of the conference summarised the foreign policy changes demanded in the memorandum with this comment: "Western nations must take public measures against the 'prejudicial characterization' of the former German soldiers and must distance the former regular armed forces from the 'war crimes issue'". Adenauer accepted the memorandum and began a series of negotiations with the three Western powers to satisfy those demands.
Aftermath.
Adenauer accepted the propositions and, in turn, advised the representatives of the three Western powers that German armed forces would not be possible as long as German soldiers remained in custody. To accommodate the West German government, the Allies commuted a number of war crimes sentences.
A public declaration from Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower followed in January 1951 that attested to the Wehrmacht's "honour". Prior to signing the declaration and discussing it with the press, Eisenhower met with former Wehrmacht Generals Adolf Heusinger and Hans Speidel, both of whom participated in the Himmerod conference, and was impressed by them. The declaration read in part:
I have come to know that there was a real difference between the German soldier and Hitler and his criminal group... For my part, I do not believe that the German soldier as such has lost his honor.
In the same year (1951), some former career officers of the Wehrmacht were granted war pensions under Article 131 of the Common Law. Eisenhower's public statement gave the former Wehrmacht generals the ability to expand on the revisionist work that they had already done for the United States Army Historical Division, thus getting their message beyond the small circle of Allied intelligence officers.
Adenauer made a similar statement in a Bundestag debate on Article 131 of the Basic Law, West Germany's provisional constitution. He stated that the German soldier fought honourably as long as he "had not been guilty of any offense". The declarations laid the foundation of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht, which reshaped the West's perception of the Nazi war effort and led to Wehrmacht's eventual rehabilitation in the eyes of the public and the Allied authorities.


James Bruce (Chief Justice)

James Bruce (1691–1749) was the Chief Justice of Barbados and the son of Alexander Bruce of Gartlet. Through the paternal line James Bruce was a direct descendant of Thomas Bruce 1st Baron of Clackmannan.
Background and ancestry.
Sir James Bruce was born in 1691 in Clackmannan to Alexander and Margaret Bruce Earl of Gartlet. Sir James's grandfather, Robert Bruce, was the esquire of Kennet. James Bruce was also an collateral relative of Robert the Bruce through his paternal great grandfather, Archibald Bruce Lord Balfour of Burleigh and husband to Margaret Bruce. Margaret Bruce was the only daughter of Robert Bruce of Wester Kennet, and she continued his lineage through Archibald. Sir James was a descendant of De Brus through an illegitimate daughter of Robert II.
Death.
James Bruce died on 19 September 1749 and was buried at All Hallows Staining in London, England; his wife Keturah, who died in 1775, was also buried at All Hallows. Keturah was the daughter of Joseph FRENCH Esq. and sister of Elizabeth FRENCH who married Thomas SHARPE.


20th century in Russia

Russia (officially the Russian Federation) became an independent state in the 20th century when it emerged as the successor of the Soviet Union in 1991.


Arnold von Melchtal

Arnold von Melchtal, also spelt Melchthal and otherwise Arnold von der Halden, was one of the three "Eidgenossen", the legendary founding fathers of Switzerland. He represented the Canton of Unterwalden at the Rütlischwur.
Aegidius Tschudi in his Chronicon Helveticum tells Arnold's story as follows: