History.

Webley & Scott (P. Webley & Son before merger with W & C Scott in 1897) produced a range of revolvers from the mid 19th to late 20th centuries. As early as 1853 P. Webley and J. Webley began production of their first patented single action cap and ball revolvers. Later under the trade name of P. Webley and Son, manufacturing included their own calibre rim-fire solid frame revolver as well as licensed copies of Smith & Wesson's Tip up break action revolvers. The quintessential hinged frame, centre-fire revolvers for which the Webley name is best known first began production/development in the early 1870s most notably with the Webley-Pryse (1877) and Webley-Kaufman (1881) models. The W.G. or Webley-Government models produced from 1885 through to the early 1900s, (often incorrectly referred to as the Webley-Green) are the most popular of the commercial top break revolvers and many were the private purchase choice of British military officers and target shooters in the period, coming in a.476/.455 calibre. However other short-barrel solid-frame revolvers, including the Webley RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) model and the British Bulldog revolver, designed to be carried in a coat pocket for self-defence were far more commonplace during the period. Today, the best-known are the range of military revolvers, which were in service use across two World Wars and numerous colonial conflicts.  In 1887, the British Army was searching for a revolver to replace the largely unsatisfactory.476 Enfield Mk I & Mk II revolvers, the Enfield having only replaced the solid frame Adams.450 revolver which was a late 1860s conversion of the cap and ball Beaumont–Adams revolver in 1880. Webley & Scott, who were already very well known makers of quality guns and had sold many pistols on a commercial basis to military officers and civilians alike, tendered the.455 calibre Webley Self-Extracting Revolver for trials. The military was suitably impressed with the revolver (it was seen as a vast improvement over the Enfield revolvers then in service, as the American-designed Owen extraction system did not prove particularly satisfactory), and it was adopted on 8 November 1887 as the "Pistol, Webley, Mk I". The initial contract called for 10,000 Webley revolvers, at a price of £3/1/1 each, with at least 2,000 revolvers to be supplied within eight months.  The Webley revolver went through a number of changes, culminating in the Mk VI, which was in production between 1915 and 1923. The large.455 Webley revolvers were retired in 1947, although the Webley Mk IV.38/200 remained in service until 1970 alongside the Enfield No. 2 Mk I revolver. Commercial versions of all Webley service revolvers were also sold on the civilian market, along with a number of similar designs (such as the Webley-Government and Webley-Wilkinson) that were not officially adopted for service, but were nonetheless purchased privately by military officers. Webley's records show the last Mk VI was sold from the factory in 1957, with "Nigeria" noted against the entry.

Webley revolvers in military service.

Boer War.

The Webley Mk IV, chambered in.455 Webley, was introduced in 1899 and soon became known as the "Boer War Model", on account of the large numbers of officers and non-commissioned officers who purchased it on their way to take part in the conflict. The Webley Mk IV served alongside a large number of other handguns, including the Mauser C96 "Broomhandle" (as used by Winston Churchill during the War), earlier Beaumont–Adams cartridge revolvers, and other top-break revolvers manufactured by gunmakers such as William Tranter, and Kynoch.

First World War.

The standard-issue Webley revolver at the outbreak of the First World War was the Webley Mk V (adopted 9 December 1913), but there were considerably more Mk IV revolvers in service in 1914, as the initial order for 20,000 Mk V revolvers had not been completed when hostilities began. On 24 May 1915, the Webley Mk VI was adopted as the standard sidearm for British and Commonwealth troops and remained so for the duration of the First World War, being issued first to officers, pipers and range takers, and later to airmen, naval crews, boarding parties, trench raiders, machine-gun teams, and tank crews. The Mk VI proved to be a very reliable and hardy weapon, well suited to the mud and adverse conditions of trench warfare, and several accessories were developed for the Mk VI, including a bayonet (made from a converted French Gras bayonet), speedloader devices (the "Prideaux Device" and the Watson design), and a stock allowing for the revolver to be converted into a carbine.  Demand exceeded production, which was already behind as the war began. This forced the British government to buy substitute weapons chambered in.455 Webley from neutral countries. America provided the Smith & Wesson 2nd Model "Hand Ejector" and Colt New Service Revolvers. Spanish gunsmiths in Eibar made decent-quality copies of popular guns and were tapped to cheaply close the gap by making a.455 variant of their 11mm "M1884" or ""S&W Model 7 ONÁ"" revolver, a copy of the Smith & Wesson ".44 Double Action First Model". The "Pistol, Revolver, Old Pattern, No. 1 Mk. 1" was by Garate, Anitua y Cia. and the "Pistol, Revolver, Old Pattern, No.2 Mk.1" was by Trocaola, Aranzabal y Cia.. Orbea Hermanos y Cia. made 10,000 pistols. Rexach & Urgoite was tapped for an initial order of 500 revolvers, but they were rejected due to defects.

Second World War.

The official service pistol for the British military during the Second World War was the Enfield No. 2 Mk I.38/200 calibre revolver. Owing to a critical shortage of handguns, a number of other weapons were also adopted (first practically, then officially) to alleviate the shortage. As a result, both the Webley Mk IV in.38/200 and Webley Mk VI in.455 calibre were issued to personnel during the war.

Post-war.

The Webley Mk VI (.455) and Mk IV (.38/200) revolvers were still issued to British and Commonwealth Forces after the Second World War; there were now extensive stockpiles of the revolvers in military stores, yet they suffered from ammunition shortages. This lack of ammunition was instrumental in keeping the Enfield and Webley revolvers in use so long: they were not wearing out because they were not being used. An armourer stationed in West Germany joked by the time they were officially retired in 1963, the ammunition allowance was "two cartridges per man, per year."  The Webley Mk IV.38 revolver was not completely replaced by the Browning Hi-Power until 1963, and saw use in the Korean War, the Suez Crisis, Malayan Emergency and the Rhodesian Bush War. Many Enfield No. 2 Mk I revolvers were still circulating in British Military service as late as 1970.

Police use.

The Hong Kong Police and Singapore Police Force were issued Webley Mk III & Mk IV (38S&W then.38/200 – Never use 38/200 in a Webley Mark III proofed for black powder 38S&W only) revolvers from the 1930s. Singaporean police (and some other "officials") Webleys were equipped with safety catches, a rather unusual feature in a revolver. These were gradually retired in the 1970s as they came in for repair, and were replaced with Smith & Wesson Model 10.38 revolvers. The London Metropolitan Police were also known to use Webley revolvers, as were most colonial police units until just after the Second World War.  The Ordnance Factory Board of India still manufactures.380 Revolver Mk IIz cartridges, as well as a.32 calibre revolver (the IOF.32 Revolver) with barrel which is clearly based on the Webley Mk IV.38 service pistol.

Military service.455 Webley revolver marks and models.

There were six different marks of.455 calibre Webley British Government Model revolvers approved for British military service at various times between 1887 and the end of the First World War:

The Webley Mk IV.38/200 Service Revolver.

At the end of the First World War, the British military decided that the.455 calibre gun and cartridge was too large for modern military use and, after numerous tests and extensive trials, that a pistol in.38 calibre firing a 200-grain (13 g) bullet would be just as effective as the.455 for stopping an enemy.  Webley & Scott immediately tendered the.38/200 calibre Webley Mk IV revolver, which as well as being nearly identical in appearance to the.455 calibre Mk VI revolver (albeit scaled down for the smaller cartridge), was based on their.38 calibre Webley Mk III pistol, designed for the police and civilian markets.  Much to their surprise, the British Government took the design to the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock, which came up with a revolver that was externally very similar looking to the.38/200 calibre Webley Mk IV, but was internally different enough that no parts from the Webley could be used in the Enfield and vice versa.  The Enfield-designed pistol was quickly accepted under the designation "Pistol, Revolver, No. 2 Mk I", and was adopted in 1932, followed in 1938 by the Mk I* (spurless hammer, double action only), and finally the Mk I** (simplified for wartime production) in 1942.  Webley & Scott sued the British Government over the incident, claiming £2250 as "costs involved in the research and design" of the revolver.  This was contested by RSAF Enfield, which quite firmly stated that the Enfield No. 2 Mk I was designed by Captain Boys (the Assistant Superintendent of Design, later of Boys Anti-Tank Rifle fame) with assistance from Webley & Scott, and not the other way around. Accordingly, their claim was denied.  By way of compensation, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors eventually awarded Webley & Scott £1250 for their work.  RSAF Enfield proved unable to manufacture enough No. 2 revolvers to meet the military's wartime demands, and as a result Webley's Mk IV was also widely used within the British Army in World War Two.

Other Webley revolvers.

Whilst the top-break, self-extracting revolvers used by the British and other Commonwealth militaries are the best-known examples of Webley revolvers, the company produced a number of other highly popular revolvers largely intended for the police and civilian markets.

Webley RIC.

The Webley RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) model was Webley's first double-action revolver, and adopted by the RIC in 1868, hence the name. It was a solid frame, gate-loaded revolver, chambered in.442 Webley. General George Armstrong Custer was known to have owned a pair, which he is believed to have used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.  A small number of early examples were produced in the huge.500 Tranter calibre, and later models were available chambered for the.450 Adams and other cartridges. They were also widely copied in Belgium.

British Bull Dog.

The British Bull Dog model was an enormously successful solid-frame design introduced by Webley in 1872. It featured a barrel and was chambered for five.44 Short Rimfire,.442 Webley, or.450 Adams cartridges. (Webley later added smaller scaled five chambered versions in.320 and.380 calibres, but did not mark them British Bull Dog.) A.44 calibre Belgian-made British Bulldog revolver was used to assassinate US President James Garfield on 2 July 1881 by Charles Guiteau.  It was designed to be carried in a coat pocket or kept on a bedside table, and many have survived to the present day in good condition, having seen little actual use. Numerous copies of this design were made during the late 19th century in Belgium, with smaller numbers also produced in Spain, France and the US. They remained reasonably popular until the Second World War, but are now generally sought after only as collectors' pieces, since ammunition for them is for the most part no longer commercially manufactured.

Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver.

A highly unusual example of an "automatic revolver", the Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was produced between 1900 and 1915, and available in both a six-shot.455 Webley version, and an eight-shot.38 ACP (not to be confused with.380 ACP) version. Unusually for a revolver, the Webley-Fosbery had a safety catch, and the light trigger pull and reputation for accuracy ensured that the Webley-Fosbery remained popular with target shooters long after production had finished.

The Webley Revolver (also known as the Webley Top-Break Revolver or Webley Self-Extracting Revolver) was, in various marks, a standard issue service pistol for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and the British Empire and Commonwealth, from 1887 until 1963.

Revolvery Webley vyráběné od poloviny 19. století v mnoha modifikacích u birminghamské firmy Webley & Scott si získaly velkou oblibu u svých uživatelů. Používaly se jako policejní, civilní i vojenské zbraně a byly rovněž napodobovány četnými evropskými zbrojovkami.


Mission highlights.

Soyuz 7K-T No.39 was intended to be the second mission to take cosmonauts to the Soviet Salyut 4 space station for a 60-day mission. Both cosmonauts were on their second mission and had flown their first mission together, Soyuz 12, in September 1973 to test a new type of Soyuz spacecraft after the fatal accident of Soyuz 11.  The launch proceeded according to plan until T+288.6 seconds at an altitude of, when the second and third stages of the booster began separation. Only three of the six locks holding the stages together released and the third stage's engine ignited with the second stage still attached below it. The third stage's thrust broke the remaining locks, throwing the second stage free but putting the booster under unexpected strain that caused it to deviate from the proper trajectory. At T+295 seconds, the deviation was detected by the Soyuz's guidance system, which activated an automatic abort program. As the escape tower was long gone by this point, the abort had to be performed with the Soyuz's own engines. This separated the spacecraft from the third-stage booster and then separated the orbital and service modules of the Soyuz from the re-entry capsule.  At the time when the safety system initiated separation the spacecraft was already pointed downward toward Earth, which accelerated its descent significantly. Instead of the expected acceleration in such an emergency situation of 15 "g" (147 m/s2), the cosmonauts experienced up to 21.3 g (209 m/s2). Despite very high overloading, the capsule's parachutes opened properly and slowed the craft to a successful landing after a flight of only 21 minutes.  The capsule landed southwest of Gorno-Altaisk at a point north of the Chinese border. The capsule landed on a snow-covered slope and began rolling downhill towards a sheer drop before it was stopped by the parachutes becoming snagged on vegetation.  Having landed in chest-deep powder snow and a local temperature of, the cosmonauts donned their cold-weather survival clothing. The cosmonauts were uncertain if they had landed in China, at a time when Sino-Soviet relations were extremely hostile, so they quickly destroyed documents relating to a military experiment planned for the flight. Soon, the crew was in radio contact with a rescue team in an approaching helicopter, who confirmed they were in the Soviet Union, near the town of Aleysk. The deep snow, the high altitude, and the terrain meant the rescuers had great difficulty in making contact with the cosmonauts. It was the next day before they were safely airlifted out. The crew were returned to Star City; the capsule was recovered some time later.  Initial Soviet reports stated the men had suffered no ill effects from their flight. However, subsequent reports claimed that Lazarev was injured by the high acceleration of re-entry. Makarov went on to take part in Soyuz 26, Soyuz 27, and Soyuz T-3 missions.  In Brezhnev's time, it was rare to disclose anything about Soviet failures, and so the first (Soviet) publication about the realities of the flight was made only a month later (May 8, 1975). The Americans were informed on April 7 after the crew had been rescued. However, as the failure occurred during preparations for the joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the US requested that a more detailed report of the accident be provided. (There was even a US congressional inquiry regarding this failure and several others.) In the report the Soviets made to the Americans, the abort was referred to as "the April 5th anomaly" and, as this was the only term the Soviets ever used for the incident, that became the 'official' designation for years afterwards. It was also disclosed that the booster used in the launch was an older model and not the same model that would be used for Soyuz 19. The mission is referred to in some literature as Soyuz 18-1 or Soyuz 18a, since the following Soyuz mission in May 1975 received the name Soyuz 18 (the Soviets only gave numbers to successful launches).  The exact landing site of the capsule had been a subject of debate amongst space historians in subsequent years. A Russian source quoted by James Oberg has stated that the landing occurred in Mongolia.  The failed Soyuz mission was the only case of a crewed booster accident at high altitude until the accident with Soyuz MS-10 on October 11, 2018.

Soyuz 7K-T No.39, (also named Soyuz 18a or Soyuz 18-1 by some sources and also known as the April 5 Anomaly) was an unsuccessful launch of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft by the Soviet Union in 1975. The mission was expected to dock with the orbiting Salyut 4 space station, but due to a failure of the Soyuz launch vehicle the crew failed to make orbit. The crew consisted of commander Vasily Lazarev, and flight engineer Oleg Makarov, a civilian. Although the mission was aborted and did not accomplish its objective, the craft exceeded the Karman line altitude of 100 kilometers and therefore reached a suborbital spaceflight, which the crew survived. The crew, who initially feared they had landed in China, were successfully recovered.

Sojuz 18a, či Sojuz 18-1 byla kosmická loď SSSR z roku 1975, která se svou posádkou absolvovala start s cílem dopravit kosmonauty na Saljut 4, sovětskou orbitální stanici na oběžné dráze Země. Kosmonauti měli být druhou posádkou na stanici a sloužit zde dva měsíce. Let se však nezdařil.


History.

Formation and origins.

Box Car Racer was conceived by former Blink-182 guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge and formed during a break from touring. A European tour for Blink-182 in winter 2001 was delayed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and rescheduled dates in early 2002 were also canceled due to DeLonge's back problems. The roots for Box Car Racer began with DeLonge playing acoustic guitar during recording sessions for Blink-182's 2001 album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" and grew from there. Feeling "bummed out" in the studio during the recording of "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket", DeLonge felt an "itch to do something where he didn't feel locked in to what Blink was." In a 2012 interview, DeLonge likened the creative state of Blink-182 to the art of painting, in which one has several different colors but, in the case of Blink-182's previous efforts, only employs one.  According to DeLonge, the project wasn't "meant to be a real band," but rather "something to do in some spare time that was really only expected to be on the low list of the totem pole of priorities in my life, and just to have an experimental creative outlet." The unnamed project went through other names, such as The Kill, and the record was initially titled "Et tu, Brute?". He eventually settled on Box Car Racer, which was actually the name of a band Barker was in just after high school with schoolmates Alex Barreto and James Lopez, that DeLonge liked. Although Barker felt the name was meaningless, DeLonge related it to similarities between the Book of Revelation and World War II. Whilst reading about the war, DeLonge was "freaked out" to learn that Fat Man, the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, was dropped from the B-29 bomber "Bockscar" (commonly misspelled Boxcar). The record was originally conceived as a "Violent Femmes-esque acoustic record" that allowed DeLonge to explore his dark songwriting abilities away from Blink-182, but the project quickly became louder and more plugged in when Barker joined the project. To complete the project he invited fellow guitarist David Kennedy, whom DeLonge had met in the San Diego music circuit years prior.  Kennedy had cut his teeth in San Diego straight edge hardcore group Over My Dead Body, and had become good friends with DeLonge the summer prior to recording. The two had chatted about bands, gigs and the underground scene, which sparked off more interest from DeLonge in exploring his more traditionally hardcore punk leanings. "We had been hanging out a lot last summer or whatever... it came about that we were talking about a type of music [with which] we were gonna experiment and do... Blink had some openings [in their schedule] and he said if we were gonna do it, that we had to do it now," said Kennedy. "And that's really how things evolved in the band. Just hanging around really." Despite this, DeLonge was in control of the material "to an incredibly hands-on level," and the material recorded on the album was formulated over the fall and when the musicians entered the studio, very little would be changed aside from certain lyrics. The sessions were particularly difficult for DeLonge, who suffered chronic back pain, the result of a herniated disc. "When your back is killing you and you have to have surgery and all this stuff, it's just kind of hard to keep a focus on the happier times in your life," he said in an interview with MTV News. "You end up writing all these songs about feeling sad and confused."

Debut album.

"Box Car Racer" was recorded over the course of six weeks beginning in December 2001, primarily at Signature Sound in San Diego, California. Rather than spend "months and months refining and polishing everything for a major label and international pop market," Box Car Racer followed a closer DIY spirit. Sessions for the album commenced quickly, with the "ever-resourceful" Jerry Finn having sent one whole load of equipment to Signature ahead of his arrival. Barker recorded his drums in one day at two recording separate facilities in Los Angeles prior to the Signature sessions. MCA representatives dropped in on the recording sessions and were pleased with what they heard. According to journalist Joe Shooman, while Box Car Racer was "essentially an outlet for DeLonge's more esoteric leanings, it very quickly became obvious that this was an album destined for release," largely due to Blink-182's explosive popularity at the time. "Any musical project with which any member was involved was very likely to fly off the shelves." "I don't think there was ever a doubt it was gonna be released — you have a project with two members of Blink-182 on it, it's pretty hard not to turn a profit on that," said engineer Sam Boukas. "I guess if the record company wasn't going to foot the bill, they were quite prepared to foot it themselves for "Box Car Racer"."  The creation of the Box Car Racer side project would cause great division in Blink-182, mostly between DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus. Hoppus was very interested in being a part of the project, but DeLonge did not want the record to turn into another Blink-182 album. DeLonge contended that the invitation of Barker was to refrain from having to pay a studio drummer. Regardless, Hoppus felt betrayed on the side project and it would become an unresolved tension that followed the band for the following few years. "At the end of 2001 it felt like Blink-182 had broken up. It wasn't spoken about, but it felt over," he said later. Despite tensions between the two, Hoppus lent vocals to the track "Elevator" and shared early ideas for the next Blink-182 album.

Touring.

While DeLonge played bass on the group's debut album, a bassist went unannounced until the band made their live debut with touring bassist Anthony Celestino on April 1, 2002. They continued with a string of live shows in California until Blink-182 set out on tour with Green Day and Jimmy Eat World for the Pop Disaster Tour on April 17. DeLonge did not announce song titles at the band's debut performance at San Diego's Mira Mesa Epicentre, as they were unfinished ("Letters to God" was listed on the setlist as "Maybe I Don't"). In a review of the performance, MTV News writer Brian Wallace remarked that "For the most part, Kennedy and bassist Anthony Celestino were careful not to do anything — physically or musically — that would distract attention away from the band's pop-punk marquee players."  "Box Car Racer" was issued by MCA Records on May 21, 2002, and debuted at a "surprising" number 12 on the "Billboard" 200 the following week. The band regrouped later in the year for 22 headlining North American tour dates with supporting act The Used. While on the road, the group wrote and performed one new song, as well as a cover of Barry Manilow's "Mandy". In addition, Barker planned to remix several Box Car Racer songs for an EP and bolster the record with the two new tracks. The band played their final show in Detroit, Michigan on December 17, 2002, with DeLonge remarking that he would like to experiment more with Box Car Racer one day, "an every-other-year type thing."

Breakup.

Despite this, DeLonge shelved the project in mid-2003, feeling it as a whole had run its course. "There are a lot of emotions between Mark and I and that's why there's never going to be another Box Car Racer album," he explained. The sound of "Box Car Racer" inspired the change in tone and experimental nature the band approached "Blink-182" with. "Once the door was opened by Tom and Travis with "Box Car Racer", Mark started to be more on board with that concept. He was also more flexible and the next Blink album was able to be a pretty big departure from the previous two," said assistant engineer Sam Boukas. ""Box Car Racer" opened the door in that sense and I think the three of them wanted to be more creative and have more creative liberty on that next album."  "It sucked," Hoppus said in 2003. "It really sucked. I took it very personally. It was really hard and a weird time for our band. When Tom and Travis started Box Car Racer I felt like the odd man out, the forgotten bassist." Tom Bryant of "Kerrang!", who interviewed the duo shortly before the release of "Blink-182" (2003), noted that "this is clearly an uncomfortable topic for the two of them. Though they say they have had hundreds of discussions about it, there's an awkward charge to the air as Hoppus explains his feelings... While everything in the Blink-182 camp now seems rosy—it seems like these [apologies] still need to be reiterated." Unresolved tensions came to a head in late 2004 and Blink-182 broke up in February 2005.  In an interview with MTV News in September 2005, DeLonge spoke at length about the impact Box Car Racer had on the group as a whole:  Unfinished material from Box Car Racer eventually became part of DeLonge's next band, Angels & Airwaves, and their debut studio album, "We Don't Need to Whisper" (2006). Angels & Airwaves covered Box Car Racer's "There Is" at their very first live performance, and has performed various Box Car Racer songs live since. A sequel to a song found on "Box Car Racer", "Letters to God Part II" can be found on Angels & Airwaves' 2010 album "Love".  In early 2017, DeLonge said in a tweet that he had a pleasant conversation with Barker. This stirred rumors that Box Car Racer was reuniting. The rumors grew when on May 8, 2017, DeLonge made a tweet asking fans who should guest feature on an album if one were to be made. However, no announcement has been made regarding a reunion since then.

Musical style and influences.

Box Car Racer was inspired by and is partly a tribute to bands DeLonge credits as an influence: Jawbox, Quicksand, Fugazi and Refused.

Band members.

Former members  Touring musicians

Discography.

Singles.

Notes

Box Car Racer was an American punk rock band formed in San Diego, California in 2001. The group consisted of guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182, formerly alongside guitarist David Kennedy of Hazen Street. Anthony Celestino later joined the band on tour as a bassist. DeLonge created the project to pursue darker ideas he felt unsuited to his work with Blink-182. Box Car Racer was partly inspired and viewed as a tribute to Jawbox, Quicksand, Fugazi and Refused.

Skupina Box Car Racer byla pop-punková skupina, kterou založili Tom DeLonge a Travis Barker jako vedlejší projekt skupiny Blink 182.


Biography.

Cochrane was "a member of a distinguished Scottish family of which the Earl of Dundonald was the head". He was probably the son of John Cochrane, an army paymaster and merchant and the son of Thomas Cochrane, 8th Earl of Dundonald. As a youth Cochrane was a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and is said to have served aboard HMS "Bellerophon" when the ship transported Napoleon Bonaparte to Britain in 1815. The down-sizing of the Navy after the end of the Napoleonic Wars made promotion prospects poor, and Cochrane switched to a career as a barrister, apparently joining the Middle Temple without first attending a university. While he was a student he first came to notice as a chess player. The first records of John Cochrane as a chess-player are five games (−3 =1 +1) played receiving the "pawn and move" from "The Turk" (operated, at the time, by Mouret) in 1819. In 1822 published "A Treatise on the Game of Chess", of which the section on odds was based on the "Traité des Amateurs", written by Verdoni, Bernard, Carlier and Leger. However Cochrane's book contained significant amounts of his own analysis, including the Cochrane variation of the Salvio Gambit, a line in the King's Gambit. It is known that Cochrane played against Deschapelles and Labourdonnais, who were acknowledged to be Europe's strongest players from 1800 to 1820 and from 1820 to 1840 respectively; his games against them may have been played between 1822 and 1824, but by the time of Cochrane's death commentators were unsure of the dates.  Soon after qualifying as a barrister, Cochrane decided to make his career in India. Before he left, however, he took a leading part for the London team in the early stages of a correspondence match against an Edinburgh team, which lasted from 1824 to 1828, and which the Edinburgh team won. The best-known game of this match was the second, in which, according to Howard Staunton, the London team obtained a winning position by following Cochrane's plan, but blundered after his departure. In India Cochrane became a successful and respected barrister, and also lost no opportunity to play chess with other expatriates and with Indians.  By the early 1840s Cochrane had accumulated a lot of leave, and he spent 1841 to 1843 in the UK. Naturally he spent a lot of time at the top London chess clubs, where he beat almost everyone – including Pierre de Saint-Amant, who was France's strongest player. However the rising star of British chess was Howard Staunton, who had been a schoolboy when Cochrane published his book. Staunton and Cochrane played at least 120 games on level terms, of which Staunton won about twice as many as Cochrane. Just before Cochrane's return to India, Staunton began to give him the odds of Pawn and move, and in these games their scores were equal. Although Cochrane was annoyed with Staunton for under-representing Cochrane's wins in his chess articles, he helped Staunton to prepare for his second match against Saint-Amant, which Staunton won and therefore was for several years regarded as the world's strongest player. Even after Cochrane returned to India, later in 1843, Staunton's articles and books continued to publish Cochrane's games, and contain most of the games by Cochrane that are still known about, whether played in England or India. It was Staunton who made British chess aware of how strong Cochrane was at his peak, and described him as "Father of the English Chess School". During the second part of Cochrane's career in India his main opponents were the Indian players Moheschunder Bannerjee and Saumchurn Guttack. Cochrane's first recorded use of the Cochrane Gambit against Petrov's Defence was in a game against Bannerjee in 1848. Bannerjee's fondness for fianchettoed openings, as reported by Cochrane, eventually led to the Indian defence class of openings. Another game, published in William Norwood Potter's "City of London Chess Magazine" shows Bannerjee playing with the black pieces and beating Cochrane in a game that opened with the King's Indian Four Pawns Attack. When Staunton organised the world's first international chess tournament, the Calcutta Chess Club as a group made one of the largest donations to the tournament's funds, and in addition its principal officers Cochrane and T.C. Morton made two of the largest personal contributions. During his second period in India Cochrane became known as the Father of the Calcutta Bar (local association of barristers). Staunton also published an incident in which Cochrane gave the whole of his fee for a case to a group of famine-stricken Indians When Cochrane returned to the UK for good, he continued to work part-time as a barrister, arguing several Indian appeals before the UK's Privy Council and writing legal treatises. His most important law book, the "Defence of the Daya Bhaga" (1872), was written in support of the native law of inheritance in Bengal. At the time of his death he was working on another law book. His enthusiasm for chess remained equally strong, although he restricted himself to casual games that typically lasted about 15 minutes – many of them with the veteran master Johann Löwenthal (1810–1876). He was a keen spectator at more serious contests and, as he was going deaf by this time, his comments on the play were often loud enough to be heard by players and amuse bystanders. He became known for his entertaining but always amiable conversation, and for the encouragement he gave to young players.  Cochrane was one of the earliest notable British chess masters, his playing career beginning during those of Jacob Henry Sarratt (1772–1819) and William Lewis (1787–1870). He played against Labourdonnais before anyone had heard of the Frenchman's great opponent Alexander McDonnell, and was a successful writer about the game in 1822, when Howard Staunton was a schoolboy. In 1844 George Walker described Cochrane's approach to the game:"Mr. Cochrane is the most brilliant player I have ever had the honour to look over or confront; not even excepting De la Bourdonnais; and pity it is that his very brilliancy so often mars success." Cochrane was also a well-known chess theoretician, although his innovations in the openings were generally unsound, and only he could get away with playing them. However the Cochrane Gambit still appears occasionally as a surprise weapon in serious competition, for example Veselin Topalov drew with it against Vladimir Kramnik at Linares in 1999. The Cochrane Defense is the method most often chosen by top-class players to draw in the endgame with a rook versus a rook and bishop.

John Cochrane (4 February 1798 – 2 March 1878) was a Scottish chess master and lawyer. After serving in the Royal Navy Cochrane chose to become a barrister. While studying law, he became a very strong chess player and published a book on the game, which included the Cochrane variation of the Salvio Gambit, a main line of the King's Gambit. Around this time he played against the Frenchmen Deschapelles and Labourdonnais, who were acknowledged to be Europe's strongest players at the time.

John Cochrane (1798 – 2. března 1878) byl skotský právník a šachový mistr. Po službě v Britském královském námořnictvu se stal právníkem. Byl poměrně silným šachistou a na počátku 19. století byl považován za nejsilnějšího londýnského hráče. Roku 1821 odjel do Francie, aby se zde střetl v Saint-Cloud střetl s Alexandrem Deschapellesem a jeho žákem La Bourdonnaisem. Oba zápasy však prohrál, s Deschapellesem 6:1 (=1) (přestože měl výhodu pěšce na sloupci f a dvou tahů) a La Bourdonnaisem 7:0.


History.

According to tradition, the Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,600 years ago, which would make it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. The story goes that two merchant brothers Tapussa and Bhallika met the Gautama Buddha during his lifetime and received eight strands of the Buddha's hairs. The brothers presented the eight strands of hair to King Okkalapa of Dagon who enshrined the strands along with some relics of the three preceding Buddhas of the Gautama Buddha in a stupa on the Singuttara Hill in present-day Myanmar.  The first mention of the pagoda in the royal chronicles dates only to 1362/63 CE (724 ME) when King Binnya U (r. 1348–1384) raised the pagoda to. Inscriptional evidence, the Shwedagon Pagoda Inscriptions from the reign of King Dhammazedi (r. 1471–1492), shows a list of repairs of the pagoda going back to 1436. In particular, Queen Shin Saw Pu (r. 1454–1471) raised its height to, and gilded the new structure. By the beginning of the 16th century, Shwedagon Pagoda had become the most famous Buddhist pilgrimage site in Burma. A series of earthquakes during the following centuries caused damage. The worst damage was caused by a 1768 earthquake that brought down the top of the stupa, but King Hsinbyushin in 1775 raised it to its current height of (without counting the height of the "hti" (crown umbrella)). A new "hti" was donated by King Mindon Min in 1871 after the annexation of Lower Burma by the British. An earthquake of moderate intensity in October 1970 put the shaft of the crown umbrella visibly out of alignment. A scaffold was erected and extensive repairs were made.  The Shwedagon Pagoda Festival, which is the largest pagoda festival in the country, begins during the new moon of the month of Tabaung in the traditional Burmese calendar and continues until the full moon. The pagoda is on the Yangon City Heritage List.

Design.

The stupa's plinth is made of bricks covered with gold plates. Above the base are terraces that only monks and other males can access. Next is the bell-shaped part of the stupa. Above that is the turban, then the inverted almsbowl, inverted and upright lotus petals, the banana bud and then the umbrella crown. The crown is tipped with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies. Immediately before the diamond bud is a flag-shaped vane. The very top—the diamond bud—is tipped with a 76 carat (15 g) diamond.  The gold seen on the stupa is made of genuine gold plates, covering the brick structure and attached by traditional rivets. People all over the country, as well as monarchs in its history, have donated gold to the pagoda to maintain it. The practice continues to this day after being started in the 15th century by the Queen Shin Sawbu (Binnya Thau), who gave her weight in gold.  There are four entrances, each leading up a flight of steps to the platform on Singuttara Hill. A pair of giant leogryphs guards each entrance. The eastern and southern approaches have vendors selling books, good luck charms, images of the Buddha, candles, gold leaf, incense sticks, prayer flags, streamers, miniature umbrellas and flowers.  It is customary to circumnavigate Buddhist stupas in a clockwise direction. In accordance with this principle, one may begin at the eastern directional shrine, which houses a statue of Kakusandha, the first Buddha of the present kalpa. Next, at the southern directional shrine, is a statue of the second Buddha, Koṇāgamana. Next, at the western directional shrine, is that of the third Buddha, Kassapa. Finally, at the northern directional shrine, is that of the fourth Buddha, Gautama.

Rituals.

Most Burmese people are Theravada Buddhists, and many also follow practices which originated in Hindu astrology. Burmese astrology recognizes the seven planets of astrology — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In addition, it recognizes two other planets, Rahu and Ketu. All the Burmese names of the planets are borrowed from Hindu astrology, but the Burmese Rahu and Ketu are different from the Hindu Rahu and Ketu. The Burmese consider them to be distinct and separate planets, whereas Hindu astrology considers them to be either the Dragon's Head and Tails, or Ascending and Descending Nodes. To the Burmese people, Ketu is the king of all planets. As in many other languages, the Burmese name the seven days of their week after the seven planets, but Burmese astrology recognizes an eight-day week, with Wednesday being divided into two days; until 6 p.m. it is Wednesday, but after 6.pm. until midnight it is Rahu's day.  It is important for Burmese Buddhists to know on which day of the week they were born, as this determines their planetary post. There are eight planetary posts, as Wednesday is split in two (a.m. and p.m.). They are marked by animals that represent the day — garuda for Sunday, tiger for Monday, lion for Tuesday, tusked elephant for Wednesday morning, tuskless elephant for Wednesday afternoon, mouse for Thursday, guinea pig for Friday and nāga for Saturday. Each planetary post has a Buddha image and devotees offer flowers and prayer flags and pour water on the image with a prayer and a wish. At the base of the post behind the image is a guardian angel, and underneath the image is the animal representing that particular day. The plinth of the stupa is octagonal and also surrounded by eight small shrines (one for each planetary post). It is customary to circumnavigate Buddhist stupas in a clockwise direction.  The pilgrim, on his way up the steps of the pagoda, buys flowers, candles, coloured flags and streamers. These are to be placed at the stupa in a symbolic act of giving, which is an important aspect of Buddhist teaching. There are donation boxes located in various places around the pagoda to receive voluntary offerings which may be given to the pagoda for general purposes. As of December 2017 foreigners are charged a 10,000 Kyats (approx. US$7) entrance fee.

Shwedagon in literature.

Rudyard Kipling described his 1889 visit to Shwedagon Pagoda ten years later in "From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel"

War and invasion.

In 1608 the Portuguese adventurer Filipe de Brito e Nicote, known as "Nga Zinka" to the Burmese, plundered the Shwedagon Pagoda. His men took the 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi, donated in 1485 by King Dhammazedi. De Brito's intention was to melt the bell down to make cannons, but it fell into the Bago River when he was carrying it across. To this date, it has not been recovered.  Two centuries later, the British landed on May 11, 1824 during the First Anglo-Burmese War. They immediately seized and occupied the Shwedagon Pagoda and used it as a fortress until they left two years later. There was pillaging and vandalism, and one officer's excuse for digging a tunnel into the depths of the stupa was to find out if it could be used as a gunpowder magazine. The Maha Gandha (lit. great sweet sound) Bell, a 23-ton bronze bell cast in 1779 and donated by King Singu and popularly known as the Singu Min Bell, was carried off with the intention to ship it to Kolkata. It met the same fate as the Dhammazedi Bell and fell into the river. When the British failed in their attempts to recover it, the people offered to help provided it could be restored to the stupa. The British, thinking it would be in vain, agreed, upon which divers went in to tie hundreds of bamboo poles underneath the bell and floated it to the surface. There has been much confusion over this bell and the 42-ton Tharrawaddy Min Bell donated in 1841 by Tharrawaddy Min along with 20 kg of gold plating; this massive ornate bell hangs in its pavilion in the northeast corner of the stupa. A different but less plausible version of the account of the Singu Min Bell was given by Lt. J.E. Alexander in 1827. This bell can be seen hung in another pavilion in the northwest of the pagoda platform.  The Second Anglo-Burmese War saw the British re-occupation of the Shwedagon in April 1852, only this time the stupa was to remain under their military control for 77 years, until 1929, although the people were given access to the Paya.  During the British occupation and fortification of the Pagoda, Lord Maung Htaw Lay, the most prominent Mon-Burmese in British Burma, successfully prevented the British Army from looting of the treasures; he eventually restored the Pagoda to its former glory and status with the financial help from the British rulers. This extract is from the book “A Twentieth Century Burmese Matriarch” written by his great-great-great grand daughter Khin Thida.

Political area.

In 1920, students from Burma's only university met at a pavilion on the southwest corner of the Shwedagon pagoda and planned a protest strike against the new University Act which they believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. This place is now commemorated by a memorial. The result of the ensuing University Boycott was the establishment of "national schools" financed and run by the Burmese people; this day has been commemorated as the Burmese National Day since. During the second university students strike in history of 1936, the terraces of the Shwedagon were again where the student strikers camped out.  In 1938, oilfield workers on strike hiked all the way from the oilfields of Chauk and Yenangyaung in central Burma to Rangoon to establish a strike camp at the Shwedagon Pagoda. This strike, supported by the public as well as students and came to be known as the '1300 Revolution' after the Burmese calendar year, was broken up by the police who, in their boots whereas Burmese would remove their shoes in pagoda precincts, raided the strike camps on the pagoda.  The "shoe question" on the pagoda has always been a sensitive issue to the Burmese people since colonial times. The Burmese people had always removed shoes at all Buddhist pagodas. Hiram Cox, the British envoy to the Burmese Court, in 1796, observed the tradition by not visiting the pagoda rather than take off his shoes. However, after the annexation of lower Burma, European visitors as well as troops posted at the pagoda openly flouted the tradition. U Dhammaloka publicly confronted a police officer over wearing shoes at the pagoda in 1902. It was not until 1919 that the British authorities finally issued a regulation prohibiting footwear in the precincts of the pagoda. However, they put in an exception that employees of the government on official business were allowed footwear. The regulation and its exception clause moved to stir up the people and played a role in the beginnings of the nationalist movement. Today, no footwear or socks are allowed on the pagoda.  In January 1946, General Aung San addressed a mass meeting at the stupa, demanding "independence now" from the British with a thinly veiled threat of a general strike and uprising. Forty-two years later, on August 26, 1988, his daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed another mass meeting of 500,000 people at the stupa, demanding democracy from the military regime and calling the 8888 Uprising the second struggle for independence.

September 2007 protests.

In September 2007, during nationwide demonstrations against the military regime and its recently enacted price increases, protesting monks were denied access to the pagoda for several days before the government finally relented and permitted them in.  On September 24, 2007, 20,000 bhikkhus and thilashins (the largest protest in 20 years) marched at the Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon. On Monday, 30,000 people led by 15,000 monks marched from Shwedagon Pagoda and past the offices of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Comedian Zarganar and star Kyaw Thu brought food and water to the monks. On Saturday, monks marched to greet Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. On Sunday, about 150 nuns joined the marchers. On September 25, 2007, 2,000 monks and supporters defied threats from Myanmar's junta. They marched to Yangon streets at Shwedagon Pagoda amid army trucks and the warning of Brigadier-General Myint Maung not to violate Buddhist ""rules and regulations"."  On September 26, 2007, clashes between security forces and thousands of protesters led by Buddhist monks in Myanmar have left at least five protesters dead by Myanmar security forces, according to opposition reports, in an anticipated crackdown. Earlier in the day security authorities used tear gas, warning shots and force to break up a peaceful demonstration by scores of monks gathered around the Shwedagon Pagoda.  The web site reports that protesting "monks were beaten and bundled into waiting army trucks," adding about 50 monks were arrested and taken to undisclosed locations. In addition, the opposition said "soldiers with assault rifles have sealed off sacred Buddhist monasteries... as well as other flashpoints of anti-government protests." It reports that the violent crackdown came as about 100 monks defied a ban by venturing into a cordoned-off area around the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest Buddhist shrine.  It says that authorities ordered the crowd to disperse, but witnesses said the monks sat down and began praying, defying the military government's ban on public assembly. Security forces at the pagoda "struck out at demonstrators" and attacked "several hundred other monks and supporters," the opposition web site detailed. Monks were ushered away by authorities and loaded into waiting trucks while several hundred onlookers watched, witnesses said. Some managed to escape and headed towards the Sule Pagoda, a Buddhist monument and landmark located in Yangon's city centre.

Replicas.

Uppatasanti Pagoda—located in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar—is a replica of Shwedagon Pagoda. Completed in 2009, it is similar in many aspects to Shwedagon Pagoda, but its height is less than that of Shwedagon.  Another replica of Shwedagon Pagoda, in height, was constructed at Lumbini Natural Park in Berastagi, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Completed in 2010, the construction materials for this pagoda, were imported from Myanmar.  Global Vipassana Pagoda, high and opened in 2009, located in Mumbai, India

The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ), officially named Shwedagon Zedi Daw (,, ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, is a gilded stupa located in Yangon, Myanmar.

Šweitigoumská pagoda, známá též jako Zlatá pagoda, je stúpa na kopci Singuttara u Královského jezera v Rangúnu. Je nejsvětější buddhistickou stúpou v Myanmaru.


History.

Formation.

The Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia (SSR Abkhazia) had been established in 1921 after the Red Army invaded Georgia. The SSR Abkhazia, which was united with the Georgian SSR later that year as a "treaty republic," existed until 1931. During this time it was granted considerable amounts of autonomy, by virtue of its unique status in relation to Georgia. However this concerned the Soviet and Georgian authorities, and it was reduced to that of other autonomous republics. So on 19 February 1931 the SSR Abkhazia was reformed as the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, wholly under the control of Georgia, which itself was a constituent republic of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR).  The downgrading of Abkhazia was not a popular one amongst the Abkhaz population. The SSR Abkhazia had a considerable degree of autonomy, including its own national symbols (a flag and coat-of-arms), and national army units, a right only given to full republics. It also had its own constitution, another right only granted to full republics. When it was reformed into the Abkhaz SSR protests broke out in the region, the first time large-scale protests against the Soviet authorities had occurred there.

Dissolution.

The advent of perestroika allowed the Abkhaz an outlet to express their dissatisfaction of their status within Georgia. In 1988 a letter, signed by leading Abkhazians, was forwarded to Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet leadership. It outlined the grievances the Abkhaz felt and argued that despite the concessions of 1978, autonomy had largely been ignored in the region. It concluded by asking for Abkhazia to be removed from the Georgian SSR, and it to be restored as a full Soviet republic, akin to the SSR Abkhazia. This was followed in March 1989 with the Lykhny Declaration, which was a document signed by some 37,000 people. This led to protests in Georgia, which culminated into a massive major anti-Soviet and pro-Georgian independence rally in Tbilisi on 9 April 1989, which was violently dispersed by Soviet Interior Ministry troops, resulting in the deaths of twenty, mostly young women, and the injury of hundreds of demonstrators. The 9 April tragedy removed the last vestiges of credibility from the Soviet regime in Georgia and pushed many Georgians into radical opposition to the Soviet Union, and exacerbated ethnic tensions between Georgians and other groups, in particular the Abkhaz and Ossetians. Further riots in Sukhumi opposing the establishment of a branch of the Tbilisi State University exacerbated Abkhaz nationalism.  Tensions remained high in Abkhazia and saw the Abkhaz totally disregard Georgian authority in the region. This was confirmed on 25 August 1990, when the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet passed a declaration, "On Abkhazia's State Sovereignty," which gave supremacy to Abkhaz laws over Georgian ones. The Supreme Soviet also declared Abkhazia to be a full union republic within the Soviet Union.  The victory of a nationalist coalition in October 1990 only further led to increased issues, as the newly elected Chairman of the Georgian Supreme Soviet, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was outspoken in his desire to reduce the autonomy of the non-Georgian population in the country. By this point, however, Georgian authority had effectively ceased in Abkhazia: Abkhazia took part in the Soviet referendum on 17 March 1991, which the rest of Georgia boycotted, while the non-Georgian population of the region (along with South Ossetia, another autonomous region of Georgia), in turn boycotted the referendum on independence on 9 April 1991.  A power-sharing deal was agreed upon in August 1991, dividing electoral districts by ethnicity, with the 1991 elections held under this format, though it did not last. However, with the breakdown of the Gamsakhurida government in Georgia, and efforts by Eduard Shevardnadze to delegitimize Gamsakhurdia by failing to honour agreements he signed, and Abkhaz desires to utilize the ongoing Georgian Civil War, it fell apart. Thus on 23 July 1992, the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet re-instated the 1925 constitution, which had called Abkhazia a sovereign state, albeit one in treaty union with Georgia. Georgia responded militarily on 14 August, starting a war that would last until September 1993, and further lead to the ongoing Abkhaz–Georgian conflict.

Culture.

Language.

The Abkhaz language had seen multiple changes in script during the Soviet era. Under korenizatsiia the Abkhaz were not considered one of the "advanced" peoples in the USSR, and thus saw an increased focus on their national language and cultural development. As part of these policies, Abkhaz was Latinized in 1928, along with many other regional languages in the USSR, moving from the original Cyrillic-based script in the process. This policy was reversed in 1938, with Cyrillic replacing most of the Latin alphabets. Abkhaz was one of the few exceptions; along with Ossetian in the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (also of the Georgian SSR), it adopted a Georgian script, which lasted until 1953 when it reverted to Cyrillic (Ossetian did the same).

The Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (; ; ), abbreviated as Abkhaz ASSR (; ; ), was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Georgian SSR. It came into existence in February 1931, when the Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia (SSR Abkhazia or SSRA), originally created in March 1921, was transformed to the status of Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian SSR.

Abchazská autonomní sovětská socialistická republika (Abchazská ASSR) (rusky: "Абхазкая Aвтономная Советская Социалистическая Республика"; abchazsky: "Аҧснытәи Автономтә Советтә Социалисттә Республика"; gruzínsky: "აფხაზეთის ავტონომიური საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა (abchazetis avtonomiuri sabčoti socialisturi respublika)") byla autonomní republika, která byla zřízena v rámci Gruzínské SSR, která byla součástí Sovětského svazu.


Mission highlights.

Soyuz 34 had been intended to have been launched around 6 June 1979 with a two-man Hungarian/Soviet crew. That crew would have presumably returned in Soyuz 33 which had been planned to be docked at the Salyut 6 space station. Suspicions this was originally to be a Hungarian/Soviet flight were confirmed in 1980 when press releases for an upcoming joint mission were still dated June 1979.  However, the engine failure during Soyuz 33's flight in April necessitated a shuffling of planned missions. Because the engine used in that flight was the same model already docked at the space station on Soyuz 32 and the resident crew of Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin needed a reliable craft to return to Earth in, it was decided that the engine needed to be modified and a fresh return vehicle sent to the station - vacant.  Soyuz 34 was launched uncrewed on 6 June, and docked at the aft port of the space station on 9 June. The flight itself was a test of the new engine and its success meant the crew had a reliable return craft. Since the craft was uncrewed, some biological samples for experiments were included on the flight.  Soyuz 32 was loaded with 130 kg of replaced instruments, processed materials, exposed film and other items with a total weight equal to that of the two cosmonauts. On 13 June, it undocked and returned to Earth uncrewed 295 km northwest of Dzhezkazgan. The craft was found to be in good condition. The next day, the crew redocked Soyuz 34 at the forward port to clear the aft port for Progress 7, a supply tanker.  On 19 August, the resident crew returned to earth in Soyuz 34, establishing a new space-endurance record of 175 days, surpassing the 139-day mission by the Soyuz 29 crew in 1978.

Soyuz 34 (, "Union 34") was a 1979 Soviet uncrewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was sent to supply the resident crew a reliable return vehicle after the previous flight, Soyuz 33, suffered an engine failure.

Sojuz 34 byla kosmická loď SSSR z roku 1979, která bez posádky odletěla na sovětskou orbitální stanici Saljut 6. Podle katalogu COSPAR dostala označení 1979-049A a byl to 69. registrovaný let kosmické lodě ze Země. Loď byla využita pro návrat posádky stanice na Zem.


History.

The Lausanne-Ouchy railway, the precursor to the M2 Line of the Lausanne Métro, was inaugurated in 1877 as a funicular. In 1959 the first overhaul took place by transforming the funicular into a rack railway under the name "métro". At that time, Flon and Gare CFF stations were demolished and replaced by concrete underground equivalents. The line was however always nicknamed "La Ficelle" (literal translation: "The String") by its users due to its funicular past and circulation above ground in the greenery for more than half of its run.  Connected to the Flon facilities, the freight trains from the main station to the storage area of the harbour (in Flon) travelled on this line until the construction of a direct connection between the freight station of Sébeillon and the Flon Valley in 1954.  The line was finally closed to all traffic on 21 January 2006. The rolling stock was originally sold to the French city of Villard-de-Lans which planned the construction in 2008 of its own rack railway, "La Patache", to ensure a link between the centre of Villard and Le Balcon de Villard.  A bus service was put into operation to replace the then-closed "La Ficelle" until the opening of the new metro M2 Line. This service was called Métrobus (MB): the south loop linked Ouchy to the CFF station and the north loop linked the station to Montbenon (which is located right above the Flon area).

Current service.

Line M2.

The Lausanne Métro Line M2 is long and uses the alignment of the former Lausanne-Ouchy railway, plus a new route towards Epalinges, crossing the whole city of Lausanne from north to south. Construction work (including enabling works) took around 4 years, and brought significant rebuilds of all former Métro Lausanne-Ouchy stations, plus involved moving the platforms at Lausanne-Flon station a short distance further north to give Cross-platform interchange from northbound M2 to the Lausanne-Echallens-Bercher railway. The new line opened in autumn 2008.

Technical.

The line is not entirely underground, but the majority (70-90%) of the system is in tunnel. The line is steeply sloped, with an average incline of 5.7% and as steep as 12% in some places. A rubber-tyred metro was selected to counter these, the steepest slopes of any similar adhesion-worked system in the world. The constraints in braking distance and deceleration are such that the M2 can travel faster upwards than downwards. The regular passenger route is in length from Ouchy to Epalinges, including of line that replaces the former Lausanne-Ouchy railway. There are 14 stations on the line, which makes a vertical gain. An additional of track is contained within the depot at Vennes, along with the signalling, security and information facilities.  The line is entirely automated, managed from a central command station. This means that it is cheaper to operate than a traditional system with drivers, and more flexible during peak hours. The stations are equipped with platform screen doors and dedicated station personnel are on hand to assist passengers. In contrast with line 1, trains also run on a totally separate right-of-way, meaning there is no conflict between the surface traffic and the metro, enhancing safety and reliability compared to a tramway. All new sections of the route were built as double track, plus the reused Lausanne-Ouchy alignment was also rebuilt as double-track, with the exception of the tunnel under the CFF station due to high costs. This leads to increased capacity and less potential for knock-on delays.

Performance.

The line opened in 2008 with a designed capacity of 25 million passengers/year, but exceeded this with 27.6 million by 2013, and 28 million in 2014. As of February 2015, overcrowding is now a significant problem, and the state has granted significant funds towards a programme which will improve capacity by running extra trains and building additional tracks. Patronage has continued to rise, with 31.5 million passengers carried in 2018.  Trains travel up to every 3 minutes between the main railway station and La Sallaz, with trains every 6 minutes along the rest of the line. The trains travel with a top service speed of top speed, taking 18 minutes to travel the full length of the line. The line was designed for up to 6,600 passengers/hour in each direction.

Stations.

The underground stations are located as close as possible to the surface. They are equipped with stairs, lifts and facilities for handicapped people. The Lausanne slopes have been used to create multi-level access, make ramp access easier and take advantage of natural light as much as possible.

Rolling stock.

Technical data of the trains.

(1) Calculated with an average of per passenger.

Delivery of the trains.

The first train was delivered to Lausanne on 2 March 2006 and all the other trains were delivered at a rate of two per month. When they arrived, the trains were stored in the CFF storage of Lausanne. Once the métro's depot had been completed, the vehicles were moved to the Vennes facility by the Autumn of 2006.  With the line having been over its design capacity for at least 2 years, the state granted funds for 3 additional metro trainsets in February 2015. The vehicles are being built in Valenciennes by Alstom, who also built the original fleet, and are designed to be identical to the existing rolling stock. The new vehicles, which are due to arrive in Lausanne by mid-2017, are an interim solution to raise capacity on the central section of the line. Capacity between Lausanne-gare and Sallaz stations will rise from 5,600 passengers per hour (each way) to 7,000 passengers per hour (each way) when they enter service in the last 3 months of 2017. The longer-term plan, for which funding is now also in place, involves a new double-track tunnel under the railway station.

Accidents.

On 23 February 2005, part of the tunnel under construction collapsed under the "Saint-Laurent" square in the centre of Lausanne. More than 500 m3 of debris (water and earth) fell into the tunnel, forming a huge fifteen metre gap. The area was completely evacuated for a few days and consolidation and geological analysis work started. A large pocket of water had not been noticed during the initial explorations.  Repair work lasted for a few months. The incident fortunately had no major consequence; nobody was in the area of the collapse which had heavily damaged a shopping mall. Part of the budget had been allocated for such risks and the deadline for the construction in December 2008 was not directly affected.  On 27 October 2006, a construction worker died from injuries. He had fallen a few days before on the construction site at the level of the entrance of the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV).  On 28 July 2008 a high level manager for Alstom who had responsibility for the security system for the new lines was found hanging in the stairwell at the entrance to the Vennes station of the M2. The 45-year-old French man's death appeared to have been a suicide.

Extensions and development.

New Lausanne-Gare section.

The state has granted funds for major development of the Métro system, with plans in place for improvement work until 2025. Development on the M2 line will also provide for the future of a line 3. Capacity improvement is currently limited to the central and northern sections of the line, because the tunnel under the main railway station is only single-track. Funding is now in place to build a new double-track tunnel under the railway station, and relocate the métro station closer to the main-line platforms. This will mean extra capacity is available on the whole line, and will leave the original tunnel and 2006 station available for the planned line 3. As of October 2019, a further public scrutiny project is underway, and work to build the new tunnel and platforms is due to start in 2022, with the new route expected to be operational in 2027.

Northward extension.

The end station Les Croisettes has been designed to allow a future extension of the line to the north towards Epalinges-Village, or even Le Chalet-à-Gobet.

Future service.

Line M3.

A Line M3 is proposed to serve the new development area of La Blécherette and the west of Lausanne (Malley, Renens Bussigny). Line M3 is planned to use metro technology compatible with the M2 and would be in correspondence with M1, M2 and LEB railway at the station Lausanne-Flon. The press theorised that the M3 could take over the M2 line from Ouchy to Lausanne Gare and a new terminus for the M2 would be established. However, this issue has subsequently been clarified: while new platforms will be built at Lausanne Gare, a second tunnel will be constructed from there to Grancy, underneath the main railway station. Under these proposals, both lines 2 and 3 will share the physical track onwards to Ouchy. This additional tunnel would bring the immediate benefit of allowing more frequent métro services to the railway station. The proposals were put to a referendum in February 2014, and having won public approval in the vote, work on the new line was projected to start in 2018, and a managerial position for the project has been advertised.  In 2014, it was reported that the first stage of construction would be between Lausanne-Chauderon station, Lausanne-Gare and Ouchy, as a total of 47 million francs have been given to the project by the Federal Council. It is expected the second phase of work, between Chauderon and La Blécherette, will cost a further 72 million francs. Public inquiries into the first construction project have now opened, covering the initial stretch to reroute line 2 between Grancy and the current Lausanne-Gare platforms.

The Lausanne Métro (French: "Métro de Lausanne") system is a two-line urban rail transport system in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. Around a quarter of the system has been used for urban rail transport since 1877, when the route between the city centre and Ouchy opened as Switzerland's first public funicular railway. The network is owned by two distinct companies and operated by a third.

Metro v Lausanne, hlavním městě kantonu Vaud v západní části Švýcarska, a okolních obcích Epalinge a Renens zahrnuje dvě linky, jejichž vlastníky jsou dvě různé společnosti a provozovatelem je třetí společnost. Je jediným systémem metra ve Švýcarsku.


Crew launch, station activation.

Soyuz 35 was launched 9 April 1980 with Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin aboard for a planned rendezvous with the orbiting Salyut 6 space station. The launch followed increased recent activity with the uncrewed space station. An uncrewed test craft, Soyuz T-1, spent several months docked to the station until it was undocked 23 March and deorbited 25 March. Progress 8, an uncrewed supply tanker, was launched almost immediately afterwards, on 27 March, and it docked with the rear dock port of the two-dock facility. Several manoeuvres were carried out by 2 April using the Progress to adjust the station's orbit.  Valentin Lebedev had been scheduled to be Popov's flight engineer, but he was disqualified from launch after suffering a knee injury in a trampoline accident. As none of the back-up crew had previous flight experience (required since the failure of the Soyuz 25 mission), Ryumin had been given the choice of replacing Lebedev or delaying the mission. This despite having completed a six-month mission only the previous August. Ryumin's family was upset by this turn of events.  The Soyuz 35 crew docked with and entered the space station on 10 April, using the vacant front port. Ryumin read the traditional note left by the previous crew, a note he had written with no expectation he would be the one receiving it. With Salyut 6 now entering its fourth year in orbit, some signs of wear and tear were becoming evident. Ryumin noted that the two viewports in the transfer compartment had lost their transparency. The windows also had many chips in them caused by micrometeoroids and orbital debris. The cosmonauts replaced components of the attitude control system and life support system, installed a new caution and warning system, synchronized the station's clocks with those in the TsUP Mission Control Center, added an storage battery, and used Progress 8 to refill the life support system's oxygen and nitrogen tanks.  On 15 April, Progress 8's mission was completed. The crew loaded it with garbage, after which it was undocked and deorbited three days later. Then Progress 9 was launched, docking with the facility on 29 April. The next day, the first-ever transfer of water between a tanker and a Salyut station was completed. Cargo transfers and refuelling operations were completed by 12 May. With this flight, the resupply of the Salyut was complete for the long-duration crew.  Minor repair work was carried out by the crew and "Lotos" was carried out, an experiment involving using special moulds to make plastic items with a quick-setting material. Additional experiments involved production of polyurethane foam, exploring its utility in assembling structures in orbit.

Soyuz 36 and Soyuz T-2 crews visit.

Progress 9 was undocked 20 May, leaving the rear port vacant for the arrival of the next crew. Soyuz 36 was launched 26 May with Valery Kubasov and Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas. The flight was originally scheduled for 5 June 1979, but was cancelled due to the Soyuz 33 failure. The launch was a part of the Soviet Intercosmos program whereby guest cosmonauts from allied nations would visit the space station, typically for about a week. Upon boarding, the visiting crew carried out some Hungarian experiments, including one measuring radiation doses received by the crew and another studying the formation of interferon in human cells under weightless conditions.  Kubasov and Farkas returned to Earth in Soyuz 35, leaving the resident crew with the fresh Soyuz 36, which they then flew around to the front port of Salyut 6, a maneuver taking about 90 minutes. The rapid switch of ferry vehicles, along with the launch of Soyuz 36 at almost the earliest possible date to allow a crew recovery in the nominal window, caused observers to speculate the secretive Soviets were possibly planning a second Intercosmos mission to recoup the time lost after the Soyuz 33 failure. A launch indeed was soon in the offing, but not the predicted mission.  Soyuz T-2 was launched 5 June with Yury Malyshev and Vladimir Aksyonov on what turned out to be the first crewed mission of the new Soyuz T variant. The craft docked at Salyut 6's rear port the next day. As they were merely testing the Soyuz, the mission lasted just two days after which they departed and returned to Earth.  The resident crew carried out repairs of the station's Kaskad attitude control system and performed materials processing experiments. On 1 July, Popov and Ryumin received Progress 10 at the station. Replacement equipment was unloaded from the supply tanker, as were regular crew supplies. Supplies included a Polaroid camera, a color television monitor, and tapes of Soviet pop music. The tanker was undocked from the complex on 17 July after refuelling the station and deorbited 19 July. Also on July 19, Popov and Ryumin sent their greetings from the station to the 1980 Summer Olympics, wishing the athletes happy starts in a live communication between the station and the Central Lenin Stadium where the opening ceremony was held. They appeared on the stadium's scoreboard and their voices were translated via loud speakers.

First Asian and Cuban cosmonauts, end of mission.

Observers anticipated a Cuban Intercosmos mission for the approaching launch window, but were proven wrong when the first Asian cosmonaut, Pham Tuan of Vietnam, was launched aboard Soyuz 37 with Viktor Gorbatko on 23 July. The launch was timed to take advantage of the world's focus on the Soviet Union during the Olympic games. The visiting crew swapped craft and left on the docked Soyuz 36 craft, returning to Earth on 31 July.  Pham Tuan's flight also had political implications as he was a decorated flying ace from the Vietnam War and had shot down several American aircraft, a fact that the Soviet media readily pointed out. The mission was interpreted as a subtle means of retaliation against the United States for boycotting the Olympics.  The following day, Popov and Ryumin boarded Soyuz 37 and redocked it to the front port, suggesting to observers that another crew's launch was coming shortly. That was not to occur, nor was another Progress supply tanker soon launched. The crew performed a joint experiment with scientists on the ground, using their Yelena-F gamma ray telescope. The experiment was designed to compare measurements with another telescope on the ground, but the weather balloon the experiment was using malfunctioned and thieves stole much of the equipment before ground crews could locate it.  The next landing window was now 2–15 October, suggesting the anticipated Cuban launch would be 24 September, but observers were caught off guard once again when Soyuz 38 was launched 18 September, almost a week earlier than anticipated.  Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first space-farer of African descent, was accompanied by Yuri Romanenko into space, the fourth crew to visit the resident crew. The early launch date was intended to allow Cubans to be able to see their countryman overhead. Twenty-seven material processing and medical experiments were carried out by the visiting crew. As the Soyuz 35 crew were returning to Earth soon, the Soyuz 38 crew didn't swap their craft when they returned on 26 September.  The launch, therefore, of Progress 11 on 28 September came as surprise to observers, as it was assumed cosmonauts due to return to Earth would not need fresh supplies. Indeed, by the time the Soyuz 35 crew returned on 11 October, the Progress was only partially unloaded. In fact the real purpose of Progress 11 was to boost Salyut 6 into a higher orbit during the six months between crew residencies, since its defective propulsion system could no longer be used. The crew set a new space endurance mark of 185 days, but the record was not recognized by the IAF as it had not exceeded the previous 175-day record by the required minimum of 10 per cent. Ryumin had become by far the most experienced space-farer to that date, with a total of 352 days spent in space over three missions. Unusually, the crew had gained an average of 2 kg during the flight. This was explained by the crew's strict adherence to exercises and diet. By the day after landing, they were able to walk for half an hour. By 15 October, they were playing tennis. Thousands of Earth resources photographs were taken, as were more than 40,000 spectrograms. The fourth Salyut 6 residency was at last a complete success after the numerous technical malfunctions that dogged the first three crews.

Soyuz 35 (, "Union 35") was a 1980 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the 10th mission to and eighth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 35 crew were the fourth long-duration crew to man the space station.

Sojuz 35 byla kosmická loď SSSR z roku 1980, která dopravila na sovětskou orbitální stanici Saljut 6 čtvrtou základní posádku. Podle katalogu COSPAR dostala označení 1980-027A a byl to 70. registrovaný let kosmické lodě s lidmi na palubě ze Země. Jejím volacím znakem byl DNĚPR.


Uses.

Greek.

Rho is classed as a liquid consonant (together with lambda and sometimes the nasals mu and nu), which has important implications for morphology. In both Ancient and Modern Greek, it represents a trilled or tapped r.  In polytonic orthography, a rho at the beginning of a word is written with a rough breathing, equivalent to "h" ( "rh"), and a double rho within a word is written with a smooth breathing over the first rho and a rough breathing over the second ( "rrh"). That apparently reflected an aspirated or voiceless pronunciation in Ancient Greek, which led to the various Greek-derived English words starting with "rh" or contain "rrh".  The name of the letter is written in Greek as (polytonic) or ρω/ρο (monotonic).

Other alphabets.

Letters that arose from rho include Roman R and Cyrillic Er (Р).

Mathematics and science.

The characters ρ and ρ are also conventionally used outside the Greek alphabetical context in science and mathematics.

Chi Rho.

The letter rho overlaid with chi forms the "Chi Rho" symbol, used to represent Jesus Christ.

Rho with stroke (ϼ).

The rho with a stroke through its tail is used for abbreviations involving rho, most notably in γϼ for γράμμα as a unit of measurement.

Character encodings.

Mathematical rho.

These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.

Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ρ; ) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res. Its uppercase form uses the same glyph, Ρ, as the distinct Latin letter P; the two letters have different Unicode encodings.

Ró nebo rhó (majuskulní podoba Ρ, minuskulní podoba ρ či ρ, řecký název "ῥῶ") je sedmnácté písmeno řecké abecedy. V systému řeckých číslovek reprezentuje hodnotu 100. Čte se jako české 'r'.


Background.

From 1975 to 1990, groups in competing alliances with neighboring countries fought against each other in the Lebanese Civil War. Infighting and massacres between these groups claimed several thousand victims. Examples: the Syrian-backed Karantina massacre (January 1976) by the Kataeb and its allies against Kurds, Syrians and Palestinians in the predominantly Muslim slum district of Beirut; Damour (January 1976) by the PLO against Christian Maronites, including the family and fiancée of the Lebanese Forces intelligence chief Elie Hobeika; and Tel al-Zaatar (August 1976) by Phalangists and their allies against Palestinian refugees living in a camp administered by UNRWA. The total death toll in Lebanon for the whole civil war period was around 150,000 victims.  The PLO had been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon and Israel had been bombing PLO positions in southern Lebanon since the early 1970s till early 1980s.  The casus belli cited by the Israeli side to declare war, however, was an assassination attempt, on 3 June 1982, made upon Israeli Ambassador to Britain Shlomo Argov. The attempt was the work of the Iraq-based Abu Nidal, possibly with Syrian or Iraqi involvement. Historians and observers such as David Hirst and Benny Morris have commented that the PLO could not have been involved in the assault, or even approved of it: Abu Nidal's group was, after all, a bitter rival to Arafat's PLO and even murdered some of its members. The PLO also issued a condemnation of the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador. Nonetheless Israel used the event as a justification to break the ceasefire with the PLO, and as a casus belli for a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. After the war, Israel presented its actions as a response to terrorism being carried out by the PLO from several fronts, including from the border with Lebanon. However, the aforementioned historians have argued that the PLO was respecting the ceasefire agreement then in force with Israel and keeping the border between the Jewish state and Lebanon more stable than it had been for a period of over a decade. During that ceasefire, which lasted 8 months, UNIFIL — the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon — reported that not a single act of provocation against Israel had been launched by the PLO. The Israeli government tried out several justifications to ditch the ceasefire and attack the PLO, at some point even eliciting accusations from the Israeli opposition that "demagogy" from the government threatened to pull Israel into war. All such justifications, before the attempted assassination of the ambassador, had been shot down by its ally, the United States, as insufficient reason to launch a war against the PLO.  On 6 June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon moving northwards to surround

Attack.

On the night of 14/15 September 1982 the IDF chief of staff Raphael Eitan flew to Beirut where he went straight to the Phalangists' headquarters and instructed their leadership to order a general mobilisation of their forces and prepare to take part in the forthcoming Israeli attack on West Beirut. He also ordered them to impose a general curfew on all areas under their control and appoint a liaison officer to be stationed at the IDF forward command post. He told them that the IDF would not enter the refugee camps but that this would be done by the Phalangist forces. The militia leaders responded that the mobilisation would take them 24 hours to organise.  On morning of Wednesday 15 September Israeli Defence Minister, Sharon, who had also travelled to Beirut, held a meeting with Eitan at the IDF's forward command post, on the roof of a five-storey building 200 metres southwest of Shatila camp. Also in attendance were Sharon's aide Avi Duda'i, the Director of Military Intelligence -Yehoshua Saguy, a senior Mossad officer, General Amir Drori, General Amos Yaron, an Intelligence officer, the Head of GSS – Avraham Shalom, the Deputy Chief of Staff – General Moshe Levi and other senior officers. It was agreed that the Phalange should go into the camps. According to the Kahan Commission report throughout Wednesday, R.P.G. and light-weapons fire from the Sabra and Shatilla camps was directed at this forward command post, and continued to a lesser degree on Thursday and Friday (16–17 September). It also added that by Thursday morning, the fighting had ended and all was 'calm and quiet'.  Following the assassination of Lebanese Christian President Bachir Gemayel, the Phalangists sought revenge. By noon on 15 September, Sabra and Shatila had been surrounded by the IDF, which set up checkpoints at the exits and entrances, and used a number of multi-story buildings as observation posts. Amongst them was the seven-story Kuwaiti embassy which, according to TIME magazine, had "an unobstructed and panoramic view" of Sabra and Shatila. Hours later, IDF tanks began shelling Sabra and Shatila.  The following morning, 16 September, the sixth IDF order relating to the attack on West Beirut was issued. It specified: "The refugee camps are not to be entered. Searching and mopping up the camps will be done by the Phalangists/Lebanese Army".  According to Linda Malone of the Jerusalem Fund, Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan met with Phalangist militia units and invited them to enter Sabra and Shatila, claiming that the PLO was responsible for Gemayel's assassination. The meeting concluded at 15:00 on 16 September.  Shatila had previously been one of the PLO's three main training camps for foreign fighters and the main training camp for European fighters. The Israelis maintained that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists remained in the camps, but were unwilling to risk the lives of more of their soldiers after the Lebanese army repeatedly refused to "clear them out." No evidence was offered for this claim. There were only a small number of forces sent into the camps and they suffered minimal casualties. Two Phalangists were wounded, one in the leg and another in the hand. Investigations after the massacre found few weapons in the camps. Thomas Friedman, who entered the camps on Saturday, mostly found groups of young men with their hands and feet bound, who had been then lined up and machine-gunned down gang-land style, not typical he thought of the kind of deaths the reported 2,000 terrorists in the camp would have put up with.  An hour later, 1,500 militiamen assembled at Beirut International Airport, then occupied by Israel. Under the command of Elie Hobeika, they began moving towards the area in IDF-supplied jeeps, some bearing weapons provided by Israel, following Israeli guidance on how to enter it. The forces were mostly Phalangist, though there were some men from Saad Haddad's "Free Lebanon forces". According to Ariel Sharon and Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, the Phalangists were given "harsh and clear" warnings about harming civilians. However, it was by then known that the Phalangists presented a special security risk for Palestinians. It was published in the edition of 1 September of "Bamahane", the IDF newspaper, that a Phalangist told an Israeli official: "[T]he question we are putting to ourselves is — how to begin, by raping or killing?" A US envoy to the Middle East expressed horror after being told of Sharon's plans to send the Phalangists inside the camps, and Israeli officials themselves acknowledged the situation could trigger "relentless slaughter".  The first unit of 150 Phalangists entered Sabra and Shatila at 18:00. A battle ensued that at times Palestinians claim involved lining up Palestinians for execution. During the night, the Israeli forces fired illuminating flares over the area. According to a Dutch nurse, the camp was as bright as "a sports stadium during a football game".  At 19:30, the Israeli Cabinet convened and was informed that the Phalangist commanders had been informed that their men must participate in the operation and fight, and enter the extremity of Sabra, while the IDF would guarantee the success of their operation though not participate in it. The Phalangists were to go in there "with their own methods". After Gemayel's assassination there were two possibilities, either the Phalange would collapse or they would undertake revenge, having killed Druze for that reason earlier that day. With regard to this second possibility, it was noted, 'it will be an eruption the likes of which has never been seen; I can already see in their eyes what they are waiting for.' 'Revenge' was what Bashir Gemayel's brother had called for at the funeral earlier. Levy commented: 'the Phalangists are already entering a certain neighborhood – and I know what the meaning of revenge is for them, what kind of slaughter. Then no one will believe we went in to create order there, and we will bear the blame. Therefore, I think that we are liable here to get into a situation in which we will be blamed, and our explanations will not stand up... " The press release that followed reads:

Foreign reporters' testimonies.

On 17 September, while Sabra and Shatila still were sealed off, a few independent observers managed to enter. Among them were a Norwegian journalist and diplomat Gunnar Flakstad, who observed Phalangists during their cleanup operations, removing dead bodies from destroyed houses in the Shatila camp.  Many of the bodies found had been severely mutilated. Young men had been castrated, some were scalped, and some had the Christian cross carved into their bodies.  Janet Lee Stevens, an American journalist, later wrote to her husband, Dr. Franklin Lamb, "I saw dead women in their houses with their skirts up to their waists and their legs spread apart; dozens of young men shot after being lined up against an alley wall; children with their

Number of victims.

The Lebanese army's chief prosecutor, Assad Germanos, investigated the killings, but following orders from above, did not summon Lebanese witnesses. Also Palestinian survivors from the camps were afraid to testify, and Phalangist fighters were expressly forbidden

Postwar testimonies by Phalange operatives.

Lokhman Slim and Monika Borgman's "Massaker", based on 90 hours of interviews with the LF soldiers who participated in the massacre, gives the participants' memories of how they were drawn into the militia, trained with the Israeli army and unleashed on the camps to take revenge for the murder of Bashir Gemayel. The motivations are varied, from blaming beatings from their fathers in childhood, the effects of the brutalization of war, obedience to one's leaders, a belief that the camp women would breed future terrorists, and the idea three quarters of the residents were terrorists. Others spoke of their violence without traces of repentance.

U.N. condemnation.

On 16 December 1982, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the massacre and declared it to be an act of genocide. The voting record on section D of Resolution 37/123 was: yes: 123; no: 0; abstentions: 22; non-voting: 12.  The delegate for Canada stated: "The term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act". The delegate of Singapore – voting 'yes' – added: "My delegation regrets the use of the term 'an act of genocide'... [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." Canada

MacBride commission.

The independent commission headed by Seán MacBride, however, did find that the concept of genocide applied to the case as it was the intention of those behind the massacre "the deliberate destruction of the national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people". Individual Jews throughout the world also

Israeli Kahan commission.

Israel's own Kahan commission found that only "indirect" responsibility befitted Israel's involvement. For British journalist David Hirst, Israel crafted the concept of indirect responsibility so as to make its involvement and responsibility seem smaller. He said of the Commission's verdict that it was only by means of errors and omissions in the analysis of the massacre that the Commission was able to reach the conclusion of indirect responsibility.

Sharon's "personal responsibility" for massacre.

The Kahan Commission concluded Israeli Defense minister Ariel Sharon bears personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defense Minister was charged, and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defense Minister.

Other conclusions.

The Kahan commission also recommended the dismissal of Director of Military Intelligence Yehoshua Saguy, and the effective promotion freeze of Division Commander Brig. Gen. Amos Yaron for at least three years.

Role of various parties.

The primary responsibility of the massacre is generally attributed to Elie Hobeika. Robert Maroun Hatem, Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, stated in his book "From Israel to Damascus" that Hobeika ordered the massacre of civilians in defiance of Israeli instructions to behave like a "dignified" army.  Hobeika was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut on 24 January 2002. Lebanese and Arab commentators blamed Israel for the murder of Hobeika, with alleged Israeli motive that Hobeika would be 'apparently poised to testify before the Belgian court about Sharon's role in the massacre (see section above). Prior to his assassination, Elie Hobeika had stated "I am very interested that the [Belgian] trial starts because my innocence

Sharon libel suit.

Ariel Sharon sued "Time" magazine for libel in American and Israeli courts in a $50 million libel suit, after "Time" published a story in its 21 February 1983, issue, implying that Sharon had "reportedly discussed with

Relatives of victims sue Sharon.

After Sharon's 2001 election to the post of Prime Minister of Israel, relatives of the victims of the massacre filed

Reprisal operations.

According to Robert Fisk, Osama bin Laden cited the Sabra and Shatila massacre as one of the motivations for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, in which al-Qaeda attacked an American Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre (also known as the Sabra and Chatila massacre) was the killing of between 460 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by a militia close to the Kataeb Party (also called Phalange), a predominantly Christian Lebanese right-wing party, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. From approximately 18:00 on 16 September to 08:00 on 18 September 1982, a widespread massacre was carried out by the militia in plain sight of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), its ally. The Phalanges were ordered by the IDF to clear Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of Sabra and Shatila, as part of the IDF maneuvering into West Beirut. The IDF received reports of some of the Phalange atrocities in Sabra and Shatila but did not take any action to prevent or stop the massacre.

Masakr v Sabře a Šatíle (arabsky: مذبحة صبرا وشاتيلا) byl masakr palestinských Arabů, který se odehrál 16. až 18. září 1982 během občanské války v Libanonu. Sabra a Šatíla jsou dodnes existující palestinské uprchlické tábory v libanonském hlavním městě Bejrútu. Odhady počtu zabitých se různí. Podle některých zdrojů se jednalo o 474 mužů, žen a dětí, podle jiných o 980, některé hovoří o 2300.


Biography.

Born in Velké Meziříčí in what is now the Czech Republic, she first attended secondary school in Prague but completed her schooling in Bratislava. After her studies in the philosophical department of Comenius University in Bratislava, in 1954 she worked as a journalist and freelance writer. In the early 1960s, she became one of the most important contributors to "Mladá Tvorba", a literary journal for young people. She was also a key member of the so-called Generation 56 group of young authors, publishing innovative short stories in "Mladá tvorba", "Kultúrny život" and other journals, written in a colloquial style with ironic overtones. Her successful novella "Nylonový mesiac" (Nylon Moon, 1961), which later formed the basis of a screenplay, is a good example. Her emphasis on the emancipation of her heroines can be seen in her collection of short stories "Jahniatko a grandi" (Lambs and Grandees, 1964). Her novel "Môj skvelý brat Robinson" (My Excellent Brother Robinson, 1968) is aimed at a young-adult readership, telling the story of rivalry between two brothers for the heroine and bringing out the tensions between the older generation and the new approach of youth.  After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, she emigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto. Her books were no longer published in Czechoslovakia but she joined the Slovak service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal, edited "Nový domov" (a magazine for émigrés) and worked for Josef Škvorecký's publishing house 68 Publishers. She lived in Guelph, Ontario, but frequently visited Slovakia where her books have been republished.

Jaroslava Blažková (15 November 1933 – 20 February 2017) was a Slovak novelist, short story writer, children's writer and journalist.

Jaroslava Blažková (15. listopadu 1933 Velké Meziříčí, Československo – 20. února 2017 Kanada) byla slovenská spisovatelka-prozaička, publicistka a autorka knih pro děti a mládež.