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2362 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody | Antibody | An antibody (Ab) is the secreted form of a B cell receptor; the term immunoglobulin (Ig) can refer to either the membrane-bound form or the secreted form of the B cell receptor, but they are, broadly speaking, the same protein, and so the terms are often treated as synonymous. Antibodies are large, Y-shaped proteins belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that cause disease. Antibodies can recognize virtually any size antigen with diverse chemical compositions from molecules. Each antibody recognizes one or more specific antigens. Antigen literally means "antibody generator", as it is the presence of an antigen that drives the formation of an antigen-specific antibody. Each tip of the "Y" of an antibody contains a paratope that specifically binds to one particular epitope on an antigen, allowing the two molecules to bind together with precision. Using this mechanism, antibodies can effectively "tag" a microbe or an infected cell for attack by other parts of the immune system, or can neutralize it directly (for example, by blocking a part of a virus that is essential for its invasion).
To allow the immune system to recognize millions of different antigens, the antigen-binding sites at both tips of the antibody come in an equally wide variety. The rest of the antibody structure is relatively generic. In humans, antibodies occur in five classes, sometimes called isotypes: IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, and IgM. Human IgG and IgA antibodies are also divided into discrete subclasses (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4; IgA1 and IgA2). The class refers to the functions triggered by the antibody (also known as effector functions), in addition to some other structural features. Antibodies from different classes also differ in where they are released in the body and at what stage of an immune response. Importantly, while classes and subclasses of antibodies may be shared between species (at least in name), their functions and distribution throughout the body may be different. For example, mouse IgG1 is closer to human IgG2 than human IgG1 in terms of its function.
The term humoral immunity is often treated as synonymous with the antibody response, describing the function of the immune system that exists in the body's humors (fluids) in the form of soluble proteins, as distinct from cell-mediated immunity, which generally describes the responses of T cells (especially cytotoxic T cells). In general, antibodies are considered part of the adaptive immune system, though this classification can become complicated. For example, natural IgM, which are made by B-1 lineage cells that have properties more similar to innate immune cells than adaptive, refers to IgM antibodies made independently of an immune response that demonstrate polyreactivity- they recognize multiple distinct (unrelated) antigens. These can work with the complement system in the earliest phases of an immune response to help facilitate clearance of the offending antigen and delivery of the resulting immune complexes to the lymph nodes or spleen for initiation of an immune response. Hence in this capacity, the function of antibodies is more akin to that of innate immunity than adaptive. Nonetheless, in general antibodies are regarded as part of the adaptive immune system because they demonstrate exceptional specificity (with some exception), are produced through genetic rearrangements (rather than being encoded directly in germline), and are a manifestation of immunological memory.
In the course of an immune response, B cells can progressively differentiate into antibody-secreting cells (B cells themselves do not secrete antibody; B cells do, however, express B cell receptors, the membrane-bound form of the antibody, on their surface) or memory B cells. Antibody-secreting cells comprise plasmablasts and plasma cells, which differ mainly in the degree to which they secrete antibody, their lifespan, metabolic adaptations, and surface markers. Plasmablasts are rapidly proliferating, short-lived cells produced in the early phases of the immune response (classically described as arising extrafollicularly rather than from the germinal center) which have the potential to differentiate further into plasma cells. The literature is sloppy at times and often describes plasmablasts as just short-lived plasma cells- formally this is incorrect. Plasma cells, in contrast, do not divide (they are terminally differentiated), and rely on survival niches comprising specific cell types and cytokines to persist. Plasma cells will secrete huge quantities of antibody regardless of whether or not their cognate antigen is present, ensuring that antibody levels to the antigen in question do not fall to 0, provided the plasma cell stays alive. The rate of antibody secretion, however, can be regulated, for example, by the presence of adjuvant molecules that stimulate the immune response such as TLR ligands. Long-lived plasma cells can live for potentially the entire lifetime of the organism. Classically, the survival niches that house long-lived plasma cells reside in the bone marrow, though it cannot be assumed that any given plasma cell in the bone marrow will be long-lived. However, other work indicates that survival niches can readily be established within the mucosal tissues- though the classes of antibodies involved show a different hierarchy from those in the bone marrow. B cells can also differentiate into memory B cells which can persist for decades similarly to long-lived plasma cells. These cells can be rapidly recalled in a secondary immune response, undergoing class switching, affinity maturation, and differentiating into antibody-secreting cells.
Antibodies are central to the immune protection elicited by most vaccines and infections (although other components of the immune system certainly participate and for some diseases are considerably more important than antibodies in generating an immune response, e.g. herpes zoster). Durable protection from infections caused by a given microbe – that is, the ability of the microbe to enter the body and begin to replicate (not necessarily to cause disease) – depends on sustained production of large quantities of antibodies, meaning that effective vaccines ideally elicit persistent high levels of antibody, which relies on long-lived plasma cells. At the same time, many microbes of medical importance have the ability to mutate to escape antibodies elicited by prior infections, and long-lived plasma cells cannot undergo affinity maturation or class switching. This is compensated for through memory B cells: novel variants of a microbe that still retain structural features of previously encountered antigens can elicit memory B cell responses that adapt to those changes. It has been suggested that long-lived plasma cells secrete B cell receptors with higher affinity than those on the surfaces of memory B cells, but findings are not entirely consistent on this point.
Structure
Antibodies are heavy (~150 kDa) proteins of about 10 nm in size,
arranged in three globular regions that roughly form a Y shape.
In humans and most other mammals, an antibody unit consists of four polypeptide chains; two identical heavy chains and two identical light chains connected by disulfide bonds.
Each chain is a series of domains: somewhat similar sequences of about 110 amino acids each.
These domains are usually represented in simplified schematics as rectangles.
Light chains consist of one variable domain VL and one constant domain CL, while heavy chains contain one variable domain VH and three to four constant domains CH1, CH2, ...
Structurally an antibody is also partitioned into two antigen-binding fragments (Fab), containing one VL, VH, CL, and CH1 domain each, as well as the crystallisable fragment (Fc), forming the trunk of the Y shape.
In between them is a hinge region of the heavy chains, whose flexibility allows antibodies to bind to pairs of epitopes at various distances, to form complexes (dimers, trimers, etc.), and to bind effector molecules more easily.
In an electrophoresis test of blood proteins, antibodies mostly migrate to the last, gamma globulin fraction.
Conversely, most gamma-globulins are antibodies, which is why the two terms were historically used as synonyms, as were the symbols Ig and γ.
This variant terminology fell out of use due to the correspondence being inexact and due to confusion with γ (gamma) heavy chains which characterize the IgG class of antibodies.
Antigen-binding site
The variable domains can also be referred to as the FV region. It is the subregion of Fab that binds to an antigen.
More specifically, each variable domain contains three hypervariable regions – the amino acids seen there vary the most from antibody to antibody.
When the protein folds, these regions give rise to three loops of β-strands, localized near one another on the surface of the antibody.
These loops are referred to as the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs), since their shape complements that of an antigen.
Three CDRs from each of the heavy and light chains together form an antibody-binding site whose shape can be anything from a pocket to which a smaller antigen binds, to a larger surface, to a protrusion that sticks out into a groove in an antigen.
Typically however only a few residues contribute to most of the binding energy.
The existence of two identical antibody-binding sites allows antibody molecules to bind strongly to multivalent antigen (repeating sites such as polysaccharides in bacterial cell walls, or other sites at some distance apart), as well as to form antibody complexes and larger antigen-antibody complexes. The resulting cross-linking plays a role in activating other parts of the immune system.
The structures of CDRs have been clustered and classified by Chothia et al.
and more recently by North et al.
and Nikoloudis et al. However, describing an antibody's binding site using only one single static structure limits the understanding and characterization of the antibody's function and properties. To improve antibody structure prediction and to take the strongly correlated CDR loop and interface movements into account, antibody paratopes should be described as interconverting states in solution with varying probabilities.
In the framework of the immune network theory, CDRs are also called idiotypes. According to immune network theory, the adaptive immune system is regulated by interactions between idiotypes.
Fc region
The Fc region (the trunk of the Y shape) is composed of constant domains from the heavy chains. Its role is in modulating immune cell activity: it is where effector molecules bind to, triggering various effects after the antibody Fab region binds to an antigen.
Effector cells (such as macrophages or natural killer cells) bind via their Fc receptors (FcR) to the Fc region of an antibody, while the complement system is activated by binding the C1q protein complex. IgG or IgM can bind to C1q, but IgA cannot, therefore IgA does not activate the classical complement pathway.
Another role of the Fc region is to selectively distribute different antibody classes across the body. In particular, the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) binds to the Fc region of IgG antibodies to transport it across the placenta, from the mother to the fetus. In addition to this, binding to FcRn endows IgG with an exceptionally long half-life relative to other plasma proteins of 3-4 weeks. IgG3 in most cases (depending on allotype) has mutations at the FcRn binding site which lower affinity for FcRn, which are thought to have evolved to limit the highly inflammatory effects of this subclass.
Antibodies are glycoproteins, that is, they have carbohydrates (glycans) added to conserved amino acid residues.
These conserved glycosylation sites occur in the Fc region and influence interactions with effector molecules.
Protein structure
The N-terminus of each chain is situated at the tip.
Each immunoglobulin domain has a similar structure, characteristic of all the members of the immunoglobulin superfamily:
it is composed of between 7 (for constant domains) and 9 (for variable domains) β-strands, forming two beta sheets in a Greek key motif.
The sheets create a "sandwich" shape, the immunoglobulin fold, held together by a disulfide bond.
Antibody complexes
Secreted antibodies can occur as a single Y-shaped unit, a monomer.
However, some antibody classes also form dimers with two Ig units (as with IgA), tetramers with four Ig units (like teleost fish IgM), or pentamers with five Ig units (like shark IgW or mammalian IgM, which occasionally forms hexamers as well, with six units). IgG can also form hexamers, though no J chain is required. IgA tetramers and pentamers have also been reported.
Antibodies also form complexes by binding to antigen: this is called an antigen-antibody complex or immune complex.
Small antigens can cross-link two antibodies, also leading to the formation of antibody dimers, trimers, tetramers, etc.
Multivalent antigens (e.g., cells with multiple epitopes) can form larger complexes with antibodies.
An extreme example is the clumping, or agglutination, of red blood cells with antibodies in the Coombs test to determine blood groups: the large clumps become insoluble, leading to visually apparent precipitation.
B cell receptors
The membrane-bound form of an antibody may be called a surface immunoglobulin (sIg) or a membrane immunoglobulin (mIg). It is part of the B cell receptor (BCR), which allows a B cell to detect when a specific antigen is present in the body and triggers B cell activation. The BCR is composed of surface-bound IgD or IgM antibodies and associated Ig-α and Ig-β heterodimers, which are capable of signal transduction. A typical human B cell will have 50,000 to 100,000 antibodies bound to its surface. Upon antigen binding, they cluster in large patches, which can exceed 1 micrometer in diameter, on lipid rafts that isolate the BCRs from most other cell signaling receptors.
These patches may improve the efficiency of the cellular immune response. In humans, the cell surface is bare around the B cell receptors for several hundred nanometers, which further isolates the BCRs from competing influences.
Classes
Antibodies can come in different varieties known as isotypes or classes. In humans there are five antibody classes known as IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, and IgM, which are further subdivided into subclasses such as IgA1, IgA2.
The prefix "Ig" stands for immunoglobulin, while the suffix denotes the type of heavy chain the antibody contains: the heavy chain types α (alpha), γ (gamma), δ (delta), ε (epsilon), μ (mu) give rise to IgA, IgG, IgD, IgE, IgM, respectively.
The distinctive features of each class are determined by the part of the heavy chain within the hinge and Fc region.
The classes differ in their biological properties, functional locations and ability to deal with different antigens, as depicted in the table.
For example, IgE antibodies are responsible for an allergic response consisting of histamine release from mast cells, often a sole contributor to asthma (though other pathways exist as do exist symptoms very similar to yet not technically asthma). The antibody's variable region binds to allergic antigen, for example house dust mite particles, while its Fc region (in the ε heavy chains) binds to Fc receptor ε on a mast cell, triggering its degranulation: the release of molecules stored in its granules.
The antibody isotype of a B cell changes during cell development and activation. Immature B cells, which have never been exposed to an antigen, express only the IgM isotype in a cell surface bound form. The B lymphocyte, in this ready-to-respond form, is known as a "naive B lymphocyte." The naive B lymphocyte expresses both surface IgM and IgD. The co-expression of both of these immunoglobulin isotypes renders the B cell ready to respond to antigen. B cell activation follows engagement of the cell-bound antibody molecule with an antigen, causing the cell to divide and differentiate into an antibody-producing cell called a plasma cell. In this activated form, the B cell starts to produce antibody in a secreted form rather than a membrane-bound form. Some daughter cells of the activated B cells undergo isotype switching, a mechanism that causes the production of antibodies to change from IgM or IgD to the other antibody isotypes, IgE, IgA, or IgG, that have defined roles in the immune system.
Light chain types
In mammals there are two types of immunoglobulin light chain, which are called lambda (λ) and kappa (κ). However, there is no known functional difference between them, and both can occur with any of the five major types of heavy chains. Each antibody contains two identical light chains: both κ or both λ. Proportions of κ and λ types vary by species and can be used to detect abnormal proliferation of B cell clones. Other types of light chains, such as the iota (ι) chain, are found in other vertebrates like sharks (Chondrichthyes) and bony fishes (Teleostei).
In non-mammalian animals
In most placental mammals, the structure of antibodies is generally the same.
Jawed fish appear to be the most primitive animals that are able to make antibodies similar to those of mammals, although many features of their adaptive immunity appeared somewhat earlier.
Cartilaginous fish (such as sharks) produce heavy-chain-only antibodies (i.e., lacking light chains) which moreover feature longer chain pentamers (with five constant units per molecule). Camelids (such as camels, llamas, alpacas) are also notable for producing heavy-chain-only antibodies.
Antibody–antigen interactions
The antibody's paratope interacts with the antigen's epitope. An antigen usually contains different epitopes along its surface arranged discontinuously, and dominant epitopes on a given antigen are called determinants.
Antibody and antigen interact by spatial complementarity (lock and key). The molecular forces involved in the Fab-epitope interaction are weak and non-specific – for example electrostatic forces, hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and van der Waals forces. This means binding between antibody and antigen is reversible, and the antibody's affinity towards an antigen is relative rather than absolute. Relatively weak binding also means it is possible for an antibody to cross-react with different antigens of different relative affinities.
Function
The main categories of antibody action include the following:
Neutralisation, in which neutralizing antibodies block parts of the surface of a bacterial cell or virion to render its attack ineffective
Agglutination, in which antibodies "glue together" foreign cells into clumps that are attractive targets for phagocytosis
Precipitation, in which antibodies "glue together" serum-soluble antigens, forcing them to precipitate out of solution in clumps that are attractive targets for phagocytosis
Complement activation (fixation), in which antibodies that are latched onto a foreign cell encourage complement to attack it with a membrane attack complex, which leads to the following:
Lysis of the foreign cell
Encouragement of inflammation by chemotactically attracting inflammatory cells
More indirectly, an antibody can signal immune cells to present antibody fragments to T cells, or downregulate other immune cells to avoid autoimmunity.
Activated B cells differentiate into either antibody-producing cells called plasma cells that secrete soluble antibody or memory cells that survive in the body for years afterward in order to allow the immune system to remember an antigen and respond faster upon future exposures.
At the prenatal and neonatal stages of life, the presence of antibodies is provided by passive immunization from the mother. Early endogenous antibody production varies for different kinds of antibodies, and usually appear within the first years of life. Since antibodies exist freely in the bloodstream, they are said to be part of the humoral immune system. Circulating antibodies are produced by clonal B cells that specifically respond to only one antigen (an example is a virus capsid protein fragment). Antibodies contribute to immunity in three ways: They prevent pathogens from entering or damaging cells by binding to them; they stimulate removal of pathogens by macrophages and other cells by coating the pathogen; and they trigger destruction of pathogens by stimulating other immune responses such as the complement pathway. Antibodies will also trigger vasoactive amine degranulation to contribute to immunity against certain types of antigens (helminths, allergens).
Activation of complement
Antibodies that bind to surface antigens (for example, on bacteria) will attract the first component of the complement cascade with their Fc region and initiate activation of the "classical" complement system. This results in the killing of bacteria in two ways. First, the binding of the antibody and complement molecules marks the microbe for ingestion by phagocytes in a process called opsonization; these phagocytes are attracted by certain complement molecules generated in the complement cascade. Second, some complement system components form a membrane attack complex to assist antibodies to kill the bacterium directly (bacteriolysis).
Activation of effector cells
To combat pathogens that replicate outside cells, antibodies bind to pathogens to link them together, causing them to agglutinate. Since an antibody has at least two paratopes, it can bind more than one antigen by binding identical epitopes carried on the surfaces of these antigens. By coating the pathogen, antibodies stimulate effector functions against the pathogen in cells that recognize their Fc region.
Those cells that recognize coated pathogens have Fc receptors, which, as the name suggests, interact with the Fc region of IgA, IgG, and IgE antibodies. The engagement of a particular antibody with the Fc receptor on a particular cell triggers an effector function of that cell; phagocytes will phagocytose, mast cells and neutrophils will degranulate, natural killer cells will release cytokines and cytotoxic molecules; that will ultimately result in destruction of the invading microbe. The activation of natural killer cells by antibodies initiates a cytotoxic mechanism known as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) – this process may explain the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies used in biological therapies against cancer. The Fc receptors are isotype-specific, which gives greater flexibility to the immune system, invoking only the appropriate immune mechanisms for distinct pathogens.
Natural antibodies
Humans and higher primates also produce "natural antibodies" that are present in serum before viral infection. Natural antibodies have been defined as antibodies that are produced without any previous infection, vaccination, other foreign antigen exposure or passive immunization. These antibodies can activate the classical complement pathway leading to lysis of enveloped virus particles long before the adaptive immune response is activated. Many natural antibodies are directed against the disaccharide galactose α(1,3)-galactose (α-Gal), which is found as a terminal sugar on glycosylated cell surface proteins, and generated in response to production of this sugar by bacteria contained in the human gut. Rejection of xenotransplantated organs is thought to be, in part, the result of natural antibodies circulating in the serum of the recipient binding to α-Gal antigens expressed on the donor tissue.
Immunoglobulin diversity
Virtually all microbes can trigger an antibody response. Successful recognition and eradication of many different types of microbes requires diversity among antibodies; their amino acid composition varies allowing them to interact with many different antigens. It has been estimated that humans generate about 10 billion different antibodies, each capable of binding a distinct epitope of an antigen. Although a huge repertoire of different antibodies is generated in a single individual, the number of genes available to make these proteins is limited by the size of the human genome. Several complex genetic mechanisms have evolved that allow vertebrate B cells to generate a diverse pool of antibodies from a relatively small number of antibody genes.
Domain variability
The chromosomal region that encodes an antibody is large and contains several distinct gene loci for each domain of the antibody—the chromosome region containing heavy chain genes (IGH@) is found on chromosome 14, and the loci containing lambda and kappa light chain genes (IGL@ and IGK@) are found on chromosomes 22 and 2 in humans. One of these domains is called the variable domain, which is present in each heavy and light chain of every antibody, but can differ in different antibodies generated from distinct B cells. Differences between the variable domains are located on three loops known as hypervariable regions (HV-1, HV-2 and HV-3) or complementarity-determining regions (CDR1, CDR2 and CDR3). CDRs are supported within the variable domains by conserved framework regions. The heavy chain locus contains about 65 different variable domain genes that all differ in their CDRs. Combining these genes with an array of genes for other domains of the antibody generates a large cavalry of antibodies with a high degree of variability. This combination is called V(D)J recombination discussed below.
V(D)J recombination
Somatic recombination of immunoglobulins, also known as V(D)J recombination, involves the generation of a unique immunoglobulin variable region. The variable region of each immunoglobulin heavy or light chain is encoded in several pieces—known as gene segments (subgenes). These segments are called variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) segments. V, D and J segments are found in Ig heavy chains, but only V and J segments are found in Ig light chains. Multiple copies of the V, D and J gene segments exist, and are tandemly arranged in the genomes of mammals. In the bone marrow, each developing B cell will assemble an immunoglobulin variable region by randomly selecting and combining one V, one D and one J gene segment (or one V and one J segment in the light chain). As there are multiple copies of each type of gene segment, and different combinations of gene segments can be used to generate each immunoglobulin variable region, this process generates a huge number of antibodies, each with different paratopes, and thus different antigen specificities. The rearrangement of several subgenes (i.e. V2 family) for lambda light chain immunoglobulin is coupled with the activation of microRNA miR-650, which further influences biology of B-cells.
RAG proteins play an important role with V(D)J recombination in cutting DNA at a particular region. Without the presence of these proteins, V(D)J recombination would not occur.
After a B cell produces a functional immunoglobulin gene during V(D)J recombination, it cannot express any other variable region (a process known as allelic exclusion) thus each B cell can produce antibodies containing only one kind of variable chain.
Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation
Following activation with antigen, B cells begin to proliferate rapidly. In these rapidly dividing cells, the genes encoding the variable domains of the heavy and light chains undergo a high rate of point mutation, by a process called somatic hypermutation (SHM). SHM results in approximately one nucleotide change per variable gene, per cell division. As a consequence, any daughter B cells will acquire slight amino acid differences in the variable domains of their antibody chains.
This serves to increase the diversity of the antibody pool and impacts the antibody's antigen-binding affinity. Some point mutations will result in the production of antibodies that have a weaker interaction (low affinity) with their antigen than the original antibody, and some mutations will generate antibodies with a stronger interaction (high affinity). B cells that express high affinity antibodies on their surface will receive a strong survival signal during interactions with other cells, whereas those with low affinity antibodies will not, and will die by apoptosis. Thus, B cells expressing antibodies with a higher affinity for the antigen will outcompete those with weaker affinities for function and survival allowing the average affinity of antibodies to increase over time. The process of generating antibodies with increased binding affinities is called affinity maturation. Affinity maturation occurs in mature B cells after V(D)J recombination, and is dependent on help from helper T cells.
Class switching
Isotype or class switching is a biological process occurring after activation of the B cell, which allows the cell to produce different classes of antibody (IgA, IgE, or IgG). The different classes of antibody, and thus effector functions, are defined by the constant (C) regions of the immunoglobulin heavy chain. Initially, naive B cells express only cell-surface IgM and IgD with identical antigen binding regions. Each isotype is adapted for a distinct function; therefore, after activation, an antibody with an IgG, IgA, or IgE effector function might be required to effectively eliminate an antigen. Class switching allows different daughter cells from the same activated B cell to produce antibodies of different isotypes. Only the constant region of the antibody heavy chain changes during class switching; the variable regions, and therefore antigen specificity, remain unchanged. Thus the progeny of a single B cell can produce antibodies, all specific for the same antigen, but with the ability to produce the effector function appropriate for each antigenic challenge. Class switching is triggered by cytokines; the isotype generated depends on which cytokines are present in the B cell environment.
Class switching occurs in the heavy chain gene locus by a mechanism called class switch recombination (CSR). This mechanism relies on conserved nucleotide motifs, called switch (S) regions, found in DNA upstream of each constant region gene (except in the δ-chain). The DNA strand is broken by the activity of a series of enzymes at two selected S-regions. The variable domain exon is rejoined through a process called non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) to the desired constant region (γ, α or ε). This process results in an immunoglobulin gene that encodes an antibody of a different isotype.
Specificity designations
An antibody can be called monospecific if it has specificity for a single antigen or epitope, or bispecific if it has affinity for two different antigens or two different epitopes on the same antigen. A group of antibodies can be called polyvalent (or unspecific) if they have affinity for various antigens or microorganisms. Intravenous immunoglobulin, if not otherwise noted, consists of a variety of different IgG (polyclonal IgG). In contrast, monoclonal antibodies are identical antibodies produced by a single B cell.
Asymmetrical antibodies
Heterodimeric antibodies, which are also asymmetrical antibodies, allow for greater flexibility and new formats for attaching a variety of drugs to the antibody arms. One of the general formats for a heterodimeric antibody is the "knobs-into-holes" format. This format is specific to the heavy chain part of the constant region in antibodies. The "knobs" part is engineered by replacing a small amino acid with a larger one. It fits into the "hole", which is engineered by replacing a large amino acid with a smaller one. What connects the "knobs" to the "holes" are the disulfide bonds between each chain. The "knobs-into-holes" shape facilitates antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity. Single-chain variable fragments (scFv) are connected to the variable domain of the heavy and light chain via a short linker peptide. The linker is rich in glycine, which gives it more flexibility, and serine/threonine, which gives it specificity. Two different scFv fragments can be connected together, via a hinge region, to the constant domain of the heavy chain or the constant domain of the light chain. This gives the antibody bispecificity, allowing for the binding specificities of two different antigens. The "knobs-into-holes" format enhances heterodimer formation but does not suppress homodimer formation.
To further improve the function of heterodimeric antibodies, many scientists are looking towards artificial constructs. Artificial antibodies are largely diverse protein motifs that use the functional strategy of the antibody molecule, but are not limited by the loop and framework structural constraints of the natural antibody. Being able to control the combinational design of the sequence and three-dimensional space could transcend the natural design and allow for the attachment of different combinations of drugs to the arms.
Heterodimeric antibodies have a greater range in shapes they can take and the drugs that are attached to the arms do not have to be the same on each arm, allowing for different combinations of drugs to be used in cancer treatment. Pharmaceuticals are able to produce highly functional bispecific, and even multispecific, antibodies. The degree to which they can function is impressive given that such a change of shape from the natural form should lead to decreased functionality.
Interchromosomal DNA Transposition
Antibody diversification typically occurs through somatic hypermutation, class switching, and affinity maturation targeting the BCR gene loci, but on occasion more unconventional forms of diversification have been documented. For example, in the case of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum, some antibodies from those who had been infected demonstrated an insertion from chromosome 19 containing a 98-amino acid stretch from leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor 1, LAIR1, in the elbow joint. This represents a form of interchromosomal transposition. LAIR1 normally binds collagen, but can recognize repetitive interspersed families of polypeptides (RIFIN) family members that are highly expressed on the surface of P. falciparum-infected red blood cells. In fact, these antibodies underwent affinity maturation that enhanced affinity for RIFIN but abolished affinity for collagen. These "LAIR1-containing" antibodies have been found in 5-10% of donors from Tanzania and Mali, though not in European donors. European donors did show 100-1000 nucleotide stretches inside the elbow joints as well, however. This particular phenomenon may be specific to malaria, as infection is known to induce genomic instability.
History
The first use of the term "antibody" occurred in a text by Paul Ehrlich. The term Antikörper (the German word for antibody) appears in the conclusion of his article "Experimental Studies on Immunity", published in October 1891, which states that, "if two substances give rise to two different Antikörper, then they themselves must be different". However, the term was not accepted immediately and several other terms for antibody were proposed; these included Immunkörper, Amboceptor, Zwischenkörper, substance sensibilisatrice, copula, Desmon, philocytase, fixateur, and Immunisin. The word antibody has formal analogy to the word antitoxin and a similar concept to Immunkörper (immune body in English). As such, the original construction of the word contains a logical flaw; the antitoxin is something directed against a toxin, while the antibody is a body directed against something.
The study of antibodies began in 1890 when Emil von Behring and Kitasato Shibasaburō described antibody activity against diphtheria and tetanus toxins. Von Behring and Kitasato put forward the theory of humoral immunity, proposing that a mediator in serum could react with a foreign antigen. His idea prompted Paul Ehrlich to propose the side-chain theory for antibody and antigen interaction in 1897, when he hypothesized that receptors (described as "side-chains") on the surface of cells could bind specifically to toxins – in a "lock-and-key" interaction – and that this binding reaction is the trigger for the production of antibodies. Other researchers believed that antibodies existed freely in the blood and, in 1904, Almroth Wright suggested that soluble antibodies coated bacteria to label them for phagocytosis and killing; a process that he named opsoninization.
In the 1920s, Michael Heidelberger and Oswald Avery observed that antigens could be precipitated by antibodies and went on to show that antibodies are made of protein. The biochemical properties of antigen-antibody-binding interactions were examined in more detail in the late 1930s by John Marrack. The next major advance was in the 1940s, when Linus Pauling confirmed the lock-and-key theory proposed by Ehrlich by showing that the interactions between antibodies and antigens depend more on their shape than their chemical composition. In 1948, Astrid Fagraeus discovered that B cells, in the form of plasma cells, were responsible for generating antibodies.
Further work concentrated on characterizing the structures of the antibody proteins. A major advance in these structural studies was the discovery in the early 1960s by Gerald Edelman and Joseph Gally of the antibody light chain, and their realization that this protein is the same as the Bence-Jones protein described in 1845 by Henry Bence Jones. Edelman went on to discover that antibodies are composed of disulfide bond-linked heavy and light chains. Around the same time, antibody-binding (Fab) and antibody tail (Fc) regions of IgG were characterized by Rodney Porter. Together, these scientists deduced the structure and complete amino acid sequence of IgG, a feat for which they were jointly awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Fv fragment was prepared and characterized by David Givol. While most of these early studies focused on IgM and IgG, other immunoglobulin isotypes were identified in the 1960s: Thomas Tomasi discovered secretory antibody (IgA); David S. Rowe and John L. Fahey discovered IgD; and Kimishige Ishizaka and Teruko Ishizaka discovered IgE and showed it was a class of antibodies involved in allergic reactions. In a landmark series of experiments beginning in 1976, Susumu Tonegawa showed that genetic material can rearrange itself to form the vast array of available antibodies.
Medical applications
Disease diagnosis
Detection of particular antibodies is a very common form of medical diagnostics, and applications such as serology depend on these methods. For example, in biochemical assays for disease diagnosis, a titer of antibodies directed against Epstein-Barr virus or Lyme disease is estimated from the blood. If those antibodies are not present, either the person is not infected or the infection occurred a very long time ago, and the B cells generating these specific antibodies have naturally decayed.
In clinical immunology, levels of individual classes of immunoglobulins are measured by nephelometry (or turbidimetry) to characterize the antibody profile of patient. Elevations in different classes of immunoglobulins are sometimes useful in determining the cause of liver damage in patients for whom the diagnosis is unclear. For example, elevated IgA indicates alcoholic cirrhosis, elevated IgM indicates viral hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis, while IgG is elevated in viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis and cirrhosis.
Autoimmune disorders can often be traced to antibodies that bind the body's own epitopes; many can be detected through blood tests. Antibodies directed against red blood cell surface antigens in immune mediated hemolytic anemia are detected with the Coombs test. The Coombs test is also used for antibody screening in blood transfusion preparation and also for antibody screening in antenatal women.
Practically, several immunodiagnostic methods based on detection of complex antigen-antibody are used to diagnose infectious diseases, for example ELISA, immunofluorescence, Western blot, immunodiffusion, immunoelectrophoresis, and magnetic immunoassay. Antibodies raised against human chorionic gonadotropin are used in over the counter pregnancy tests.
New dioxaborolane chemistry enables radioactive fluoride (18F) labeling of antibodies, which allows for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of cancer.
Disease therapy
Targeted monoclonal antibody therapy is employed to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and many forms of cancer including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer and breast cancer.
Some immune deficiencies, such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia and hypogammaglobulinemia, result in partial or complete lack of antibodies. These diseases are often treated by inducing a short-term form of immunity called passive immunity. Passive immunity is achieved through the transfer of ready-made antibodies in the form of human or animal serum, pooled immunoglobulin or monoclonal antibodies, into the affected individual.
Prenatal therapy
Rh factor, also known as Rh D antigen, is an antigen found on red blood cells; individuals that are Rh-positive (Rh+) have this antigen on their red blood cells and individuals that are Rh-negative (Rh–) do not. During normal childbirth, delivery trauma or complications during pregnancy, blood from a fetus can enter the mother's system. In the case of an Rh-incompatible mother and child, consequential blood mixing may sensitize an Rh- mother to the Rh antigen on the blood cells of the Rh+ child, putting the remainder of the pregnancy, and any subsequent pregnancies, at risk for hemolytic disease of the newborn.
Rho(D) immune globulin antibodies are specific for human RhD antigen. Anti-RhD antibodies are administered as part of a prenatal treatment regimen to prevent sensitization that may occur when a Rh-negative mother has a Rh-positive fetus. Treatment of a mother with Anti-RhD antibodies prior to and immediately after trauma and delivery destroys Rh antigen in the mother's system from the fetus. This occurs before the antigen can stimulate maternal B cells to "remember" Rh antigen by generating memory B cells. Therefore, her humoral immune system will not make anti-Rh antibodies, and will not attack the Rh antigens of the current or subsequent babies. Rho(D) Immune Globulin treatment prevents sensitization that can lead to Rh disease, but does not prevent or treat the underlying disease itself.
Research applications
Specific antibodies are produced by injecting an antigen into a mammal, such as a mouse, rat, rabbit, goat, sheep, or horse for large quantities of antibody. Blood isolated from these animals contains polyclonal antibodies—multiple antibodies that bind to the same antigen—in the serum, which can now be called antiserum. Antigens are also injected into chickens for generation of polyclonal antibodies in egg yolk. To obtain antibody that is specific for a single epitope of an antigen, antibody-secreting lymphocytes are isolated from the animal and immortalized by fusing them with a cancer cell line. The fused cells are called hybridomas, and will continually grow and secrete antibody in culture. Single hybridoma cells are isolated by dilution cloning to generate cell clones that all produce the same antibody; these antibodies are called monoclonal antibodies. Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are often purified using Protein A/G or antigen-affinity chromatography.
In research, purified antibodies are used in many applications. Antibodies for research applications can be found directly from antibody suppliers, or through use of a specialist search engine. Research antibodies are most commonly used to identify and locate intracellular and extracellular proteins. Antibodies are used in flow cytometry to differentiate cell types by the proteins they express; different types of cells express different combinations of cluster of differentiation molecules on their surface, and produce different intracellular and secretable proteins. They are also used in immunoprecipitation to separate proteins and anything bound to them (co-immunoprecipitation) from other molecules in a cell lysate, in Western blot analyses to identify proteins separated by electrophoresis, and in immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence to examine protein expression in tissue sections or to locate proteins within cells with the assistance of a microscope. Proteins can also be detected and quantified with antibodies, using ELISA and ELISpot techniques.
Antibodies used in research are some of the most powerful, yet most problematic reagents with a tremendous number of factors that must be controlled in any experiment including cross reactivity, or the antibody recognizing multiple epitopes and affinity, which can vary widely depending on experimental conditions such as pH, solvent, state of tissue etc. Multiple attempts have been made to improve both the way that researchers validate antibodies and ways in which they report on antibodies. Researchers using antibodies in their work need to record them correctly in order to allow their research to be reproducible (and therefore tested, and qualified by other researchers). Less than half of research antibodies referenced in academic papers can be easily identified. Papers published in F1000 in 2014 and 2015 provide researchers with a guide for reporting research antibody use. The RRID paper, is co-published in 4 journals that implemented the RRIDs Standard for research resource citation, which draws data from the antibodyregistry.org as the source of antibody identifiers (see also group at Force11).
Antibody regions can be used to further biomedical research by acting as a guide for drugs to reach their target. Several application involve using bacterial plasmids to tag plasmids with the Fc region of the antibody such as pFUSE-Fc plasmid.
Regulations
Production and testing
There are several ways to obtain antibodies, including in vivo techniques like animal immunization and various in vitro approaches, such as the phage display method. Traditionally, most antibodies are produced by hybridoma cell lines through immortalization of antibody-producing cells by chemically induced fusion with myeloma cells. In some cases, additional fusions with other lines have created "triomas" and "quadromas". The manufacturing process should be appropriately described and validated. Validation studies should at least include:
The demonstration that the process is able to produce in good quality (the process should be validated)
The efficiency of the antibody purification (all impurities and virus must be eliminated)
The characterization of purified antibody (physicochemical characterization, immunological properties, biological activities, contaminants, ...)
Determination of the virus clearance studies
Before clinical trials
Product safety testing: Sterility (bacteria and fungi), in vitro and in vivo testing for adventitious viruses, murine retrovirus testing..., product safety data needed before the initiation of feasibility trials in serious or immediately life-threatening conditions, it serves to evaluate dangerous potential of the product.
Feasibility testing: These are pilot studies whose objectives include, among others, early characterization of safety and initial proof of concept in a small specific patient population (in vitro or in vivo testing).
Preclinical studies
Testing cross-reactivity of antibody: to highlight unwanted interactions (toxicity) of antibodies with previously characterized tissues. This study can be performed in vitro (reactivity of the antibody or immunoconjugate should be determined with a quick-frozen adult tissues) or in vivo (with appropriates animal models).
Preclinical pharmacology and toxicity testing: preclinical safety testing of antibody is designed to identify possible toxicity in humans, to estimate the likelihood and severity of potential adverse events in humans, and to identify a safe starting dose and dose escalation, when possible.
Animal toxicity studies: Acute toxicity testing, repeat-dose toxicity testing, long-term toxicity testing
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics testing: Use for determinate clinical dosages, antibody activities, evaluation of the potential clinical effects
Structure prediction and computational antibody design
The importance of antibodies in health care and the biotechnology industry demands knowledge of their structures at high resolution. This information is used for protein engineering, modifying the antigen binding affinity, and identifying an epitope, of a given antibody. X-ray crystallography is one commonly used method for determining antibody structures. However, crystallizing an antibody is often laborious and time-consuming. Computational approaches provide a cheaper and faster alternative to crystallography, but their results are more equivocal, since they do not produce empirical structures. Online web servers such as Web Antibody Modeling (WAM) and Prediction of Immunoglobulin Structure (PIGS) enable computational modeling of antibody variable regions. Rosetta Antibody is a novel antibody FV region structure prediction server, which incorporates sophisticated techniques to minimize CDR loops and optimize the relative orientation of the light and heavy chains, as well as homology models that predict successful docking of antibodies with their unique antigen. However, describing an antibody's binding site using only one single static structure limits the understanding and characterization of the antibody's function and properties. To improve antibody structure prediction and to take the strongly correlated CDR loop and interface movements into account, antibody paratopes should be described as interconverting states in solution with varying probabilities.
The ability to describe the antibody through binding affinity to the antigen is supplemented by information on antibody structure and amino acid sequences for the purpose of patent claims. Several methods have been presented for computational design of antibodies based on the structural bioinformatics studies of antibody CDRs.
There are a variety of methods used to sequence an antibody including Edman degradation, cDNA, etc.; albeit one of the most common modern uses for peptide/protein identification is liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). High volume antibody sequencing methods require computational approaches for the data analysis, including de novo sequencing directly from tandem mass spectra and database search methods that use existing protein sequence databases. Many versions of shotgun protein sequencing are able to increase the coverage by utilizing CID/HCD/ETD fragmentation methods and other techniques, and they have achieved substantial progress in attempt to fully sequence proteins, especially antibodies. Other methods have assumed the existence of similar proteins, a known genome sequence, or combined top-down and bottom up approaches. Current technologies have the ability to assemble protein sequences with high accuracy by integrating de novo sequencing peptides, intensity, and positional confidence scores from database and homology searches.
Antibody mimetic
Antibody mimetics are organic compounds, like antibodies, that can specifically bind antigens. They consist of artificial peptides or proteins, or aptamer-based nucleic acid molecules with a molar mass of about 3 to 20 kDa. Antibody fragments, such as Fab and nanobodies are not considered as antibody mimetics. Common advantages over antibodies are better solubility, tissue penetration, stability towards heat and enzymes, and comparatively low production costs. Antibody mimetics have being developed and commercialized as research, diagnostic and therapeutic agents.
Binding antibody unit
BAU (binding antibody unit, often as BAU/mL) is a measurement unit defined by the WHO for the comparison of assays detecting the same class of immunoglobulins with the same specificity.
See also
Affimer
Anti-mitochondrial antibodies
Anti-nuclear antibodies
Antibody mimetic
Aptamer
Colostrum
ELISA
Humoral immunity
Immunology
Immunosuppressive drug
Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg)
Magnetic immunoassay
Microantibody
Monoclonal antibody
Neutralizing antibody
Optimer Ligand
Secondary antibodies
Single-domain antibody
Slope spectroscopy
Surrobody
Synthetic antibody
Western blot normalization
References
External links
Mike's Immunoglobulin Structure/Function Page at University of Cambridge
Antibodies as the PDB molecule of the month Discussion of the structure of antibodies at RCSB Protein Data Bank
A hundred years of antibody therapy History and applications of antibodies in the treatment of disease at University of Oxford
How Lymphocytes Produce Antibody from Cells Alive!
Glycoproteins
Immunology
Reagents for biochemistry |
2363 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro%20Scarlatti | Alessandro Scarlatti | Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 22 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the most important representative of the Neapolitan school of opera.
Nicknamed by his contemporaries "the Italian Orpheus", he divided his career between Naples and Rome, where he received his training; a significant part of his works was composed for the papal city. He is often considered the founder of the Neapolitan school, although he has only been its most illustrious representative: his contribution, his originality and his influence were essential, as well as lasting, both in Italy and in Europe.
Particularly known for his operas, he brought the Italian dramatic tradition to its maximum development, begun by Monteverdi at the beginning of 17th century and continued by Cesti, Cavalli, Carissimi, Legrenzi and Stradella, designing the final form of the Da capo aria, imitated throughout Europe. He was also the inventor of the Italian overture in three movements (which was of the highest importance in the development of the symphony), of the four-part sonata (progenitor of the modern string quartet), and of the technique of motivic development. He was a model for the musical theater of his time, as evoked by Händel's Italian works, deeply influenced by his theatrical music. Eclectic, Scarlatti also worked on all the other common genres of his time, from the sonata to the concerto grosso, from the motet to the mass, from the oratorio to the cantata, the latter being a genre in which he was an undisputed master.
He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.
Life
Scarlatti was born in Palermo (or in Trapani), then part of the Kingdom of Sicily.
He is generally said to have been a pupil of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome, and some theorize that he had some connection with northern Italy because his early works seem to show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi. The production at Rome of his opera Gli equivoci nel sembiante (1679) gained him the support of Queen Christina of Sweden (who at the time was living in Rome), and he became her maestro di cappella. In February 1684 he became maestro di cappella to the viceroy of Naples, perhaps through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who might have been the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness, as well as other music for state occasions.
In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinando de' Medici, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.
After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti took up his duties in Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. By this time Naples seems to have become tired of his music; the Romans, however, appreciated it better, and it was at the Teatro Capranica in Rome that he produced some of his finest operas (Telemaco, 1718; Marco Attilio Regolò, 1719; La Griselda, 1721), as well as some noble specimens of church music, including a Messa di Santa Cecilia for chorus and orchestra, composed in honor of Saint Cecilia for Cardinal Francesco Acquaviva in 1721. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished Erminia serenata for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723. He died in Naples in 1725 and is entombed there at the church of Santa Maria di Montesanto.
Music
Scarlatti's music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice and Rome, and the classical school of the 18th century. Scarlatti's style, however, is more than a transitional element in Western music; like most of his Naples colleagues he shows an almost modern understanding of the psychology of modulation and also frequently makes use of the ever-changing phrase lengths so typical of the Napoli school.
His early operas—Gli equivoci nel sembiante 1679; L'honestà negli amori 1680, containing the famous aria "Già il sole dal Gange"; Il Pompeo 1683, containing the well-known airs "O cessate di piagarmi" and "Toglietemi la vita ancor," and others down to about 1685—retain the older cadences in their recitatives, and a considerable variety of neatly constructed forms in their charming little arias, accompanied sometimes by the string quartet, treated with careful elaboration, sometimes with the continuo alone. By 1686, he had definitely established the "Italian overture" form (second edition of Dal male il bene), and had abandoned the ground bass and the binary form air in two stanzas in favour of the ternary form or da capo type of air. His best operas of this period are La Rosaura (1690, printed by the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung), and Pirro e Demetrio (1694), in which occur the arias "Le Violette", and "Ben ti sta, traditor".
From about 1697 onwards (La caduta del Decemviri), influenced partly perhaps by the style of Giovanni Bononcini and probably more by the taste of the viceregal court, his opera arias become more conventional and commonplace in rhythm, while his scoring is hasty and crude, yet not without brilliance (L'Eraclea, 1700), the oboes and trumpets being frequently used, and the violins often playing in unison. The operas composed for Ferdinando de' Medici are lost; they might have given a more favourable idea of his style as his correspondence with the prince shows that they were composed with a very sincere sense of inspiration.
Mitridate Eupatore, accounted his masterpiece, composed for Venice in 1707, contains music far in advance of anything that Scarlatti had written for Naples, both in technique and in intellectual power. The later Neapolitan operas (L'amor volubile e tiranno 1709; La principessa fedele 1710; Tigrane, 1714, &c.) are showy and effective rather than profoundly emotional; the instrumentation marks a great advance on previous work, since the main duty of accompanying the voice is thrown upon the string quartet, the harpsichord being reserved exclusively for the noisy instrumental ritornelli. In his opera Teodora (1697) he originated the use of the orchestral ritornello.
His last group of operas, composed for Rome, exhibit a deeper poetic feeling, a broad and dignified style of melody, a strong dramatic sense, especially in accompanied recitatives, a device which he himself had been the first to use as early as 1686 (Olimpia vendicata) and a much more modern style of orchestration, the horns appearing for the first time, and being treated with striking effect.
Besides the operas, oratorios (Agar et Ismaele esiliati, 1684; La Maddalena, 1685; La Giuditta, 1693; Humanita e Lucifero, 1704; Christmas Oratorio, c. 1705; Cain, 1707; S. Filippo Neri, 1714; and others) and serenatas, which all exhibit a similar style, Scarlatti composed upwards of five hundred chamber-cantatas for solo voice. These represent the most intellectual type of chamber-music of their period, and it is to be regretted that they have remained almost entirely in manuscript, since a careful study of them is indispensable to anyone who wishes to form an adequate idea of Scarlatti's development.
His few remaining Masses (the story of his having composed two hundred is hardly credible) and church music in general are comparatively unimportant, except the great Saint Cecilia Mass (1721), which is one of the first attempts at the style which reached its height in the great Masses of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. His instrumental music, though not without interest, is curiously antiquated as compared with his vocal works.
Operas
Recordings
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan. (2016). La Gloria di Primavera. Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Diana Moore, Suzana Ograjensek, Nicholas Phan, Clint van der Linde, Douglas Williams, Philharmonia Chorale.
Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. (2007). Griselda. Harmonia Mundi HMC 901805.07. Dorothea Röschmann, Lawrence Zazzo, Veronica Cangemi, Bernarda Fink, Silvia Tro Santafé, Kobie van Rensburg.
Le Consert de l'Hostel Dieu. (2006). Il martirio di Sant'Orsola. Ligia digital: 0202176-07
Le parlement de musique. (2005). La Giuditta. Ambronay editions: AMY004
Ensemble Europa Galante. (2004). Oratorio per la Santissima Trinità. Virgin Classics: 5 45666 2
Academia Bizantina. (2004). Il Giardino di Rose. Decca: 470 650-2 DSA.
Orqestra barocca di Sevilla . (2003). Colpa, Pentimento e Grazia. Harmonia Mundi: HMI 987045.46
Seattle Baroque. (2001). Agar et Ismaele Esiliati. Centaur: CRC 2664
Sedecia, re di Gerusalemme. 2000 . Gérard Lesne, Philippe Jaroussky, Virginie Pouchon, Mark Padmore, Peter Harvey, Il Seminario musicale. Virgin veritas, Erato
Capella Palatina. (2000). Davidis pugna et victoria. Agora: AG 249.1
Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, René Jacobs. (1998). Il Primo Omicidio. Harmonia Mundi Fr. Dorothea Röschmann, Graciela Oddone, Richard Croft, René Jacobs, Bernarda Fink, Antonio Abete
Ensemble Europa Galante. (1995). Humanita e Lucifero. Opus 111: OPS 30–129
Ensemble Europa Galante. (1993). La Maddalena. Opus 111: OPS 30–96
Allesandro Stradella Consort. (1992). Cantata natalizia Abramo, il tuo sembiante. Nuova era: 7117
I Musici. (1991). Concerto Grosso. Philips Classics Productions: 434 160-2
I Musici. William Bennett (Flute), Lenore Smith (Flute), Bernard Soustrot (Trumpet), Hans Elhorst (Oboe). (1961). 12 Sinfonie di concerto grosso Philips Box 6769 066 [9500 959 & 9500 960 – 2 vinyl discs]
Emma Kirkby, soprano and Daniel Taylor, countertenor, with the Theatre of Early Music. (2005). Stabat Mater. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2237
Francis Colpron, recorder, with Les Boréades. (2007). Concertos for flute. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2521
Nederlands Kamerkoor, with Harry van der Kamp, conductor. (2008). Vespro della Beata Vergine for 5 voices and continuo. ATMA Classique: ACD2 2533
See also
Messa di Santa Cecilia
Il Martirio di Santa Cecilia
References
External links
Associazione Domenico Scarlatti. Italian language (some material in English).
Free scores by Alessandro Scarlatti at the International Music Score Library Project
The Madrigals of Alessandro Scarlatti: A lecture/recital by Garrick Comeaux and Consortium Carissimi, with Kelley Harness, 12 February 2009. University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Studies. Audio and video available.
The partimenti of Alessandro Scarlatti (D-Hs M/A 251)
1660 births
1725 deaths
17th-century Italian educators
18th-century Italian educators
18th-century Italian male musicians
Catholic liturgical composers
Italian classical composers of church music
Italian Baroque composers
Italian opera composers
Italian classical musicians
Italian male opera composers
Neapolitan school composers
Italian string quartet composers
17th-century Italian composers
18th-century Italian composers
Composers from Sicily
Musicians from Palermo
01
17th-century male musicians |
2369 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston%20Martin | Aston Martin | Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Their grand tourers and sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon.
Aston Martin has held a Royal Warrant as purveyor of motorcars to Charles III since 1982, and has over 160 car dealerships in 53 countries, making it a global automobile brand. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. In 2003 it received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. The company has survived seven bankruptcies throughout its history.
The headquarters and main production of its sports cars and grand tourers are in a facility in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England, on the former site of RAF Gaydon, adjacent to the Jaguar Land Rover Gaydon Centre. The old facility in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire is the present home of the Aston Martin Works classic car department, which focuses on heritage sales, service, spares and restoration operations. The factory in St Athan, Wales features three converted 'super-hangars' from MOD St Athan, and serves as the production site of Aston Martin's first-ever SUV, the DBX.
Aston Martin has been involved in motorsport at various points in its history, mainly in sports car racing, and also in Formula One. The Aston Martin brand is increasingly being used, mostly through licensing, on other products including a submarine, real estate development, and aircraft.
History
Founding
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martin was created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta Fraschini.
They acquired premises at Henniker Mews in Kensington and produced their first car in March 1915. Production could not start because of the outbreak of the First World War, when Martin joined the Admiralty and Bamford joined the Army Service Corps.
1918–1939: Interwar years
After the war they found new premises at Abingdon Road, Kensington and designed a new car. Bamford left in 1920 and Bamford & Martin was revitalised with funding from Louis Zborowski. In 1922, Bamford & Martin produced cars to compete in the French Grand Prix, which went on to set world speed and endurance records at Brooklands. Three works Team Cars with 16-valve twin cam engines were built for racing and record-breaking: chassis number 1914, later developed as the Green Pea; chassis number 1915, the Razor Blade record car; and chassis number 1916, later developed as the Halford Special.
Approximately 55 cars were built for sale in two configurations; long chassis and short chassis. Bamford & Martin went bankrupt in 1924 and was bought by Dorothea, Lady Charnwood, who put her son John Benson on the board. Bamford & Martin got into financial difficulty again in 1925 and Martin was forced to sell the company (Bamford had already left it in 1920).
Later that year, Bill Renwick, Augustus (Bert) Bertelli and investors including Lady Charnwood took control of the business. They renamed it Aston Martin Motors and moved it to the former Whitehead Aircraft Limited Hanworth works in Feltham. Renwick and Bertelli had been in partnership some years and had developed an overhead-cam four-cylinder engine using Renwick's patented combustion chamber design, which they had tested in an Enfield-Allday chassis. The only "Renwick and Bertelli" motor car made, it was known as "Buzzbox" and still survives.
The pair had planned to sell their engine to motor manufacturers, but having heard that Aston Martin was no longer in production realised they could capitalise on its reputation to jump-start the production of a completely new car.
Between 1926 and 1937 Bertelli was both technical director and designer of all new Aston Martins, since known as "Bertelli cars". They included the 1½-litre "T-type", "International", "Le Mans", "MKII" and its racing derivative, the "Ulster", and the 2-litre 15/98 and its racing derivative, the "Speed Model". Most were open two-seater sports cars bodied by Bert Bertelli's brother Enrico (Harry), with a small number of long-chassis four-seater tourers, dropheads and saloons also produced.
Bertelli was a competent driver keen to race his cars, one of few owner/manufacturer/drivers. The "LM" team cars were very successful in national and international motor racing including at Le Mans.
Financial problems reappeared in 1932. Aston Martin was rescued for a year by Lance Prideaux Brune before passing it on to Sir Arthur Sutherland. In 1936, Aston Martin decided to concentrate on road cars, producing just 700 until World War II halted work. Production shifted to aircraft components during the war.
1947–1972: David Brown
In 1947, old-established (1860) privately owned Huddersfield gear and machine tools manufacturer David Brown Limited bought Aston Martin, putting it under control of its Tractor Group. David Brown became Aston Martin's latest saviour. He also acquired Lagonda, without its factory, for its 2.6-litre W. O. Bentley-designed engine. Lagonda moved operations to Newport Pagnell and shared engines, resources and workshops. Aston Martin began to build the classic "DB" series of cars.
In April 1950, they announced planned production of their Le Mans prototype to be called the DB2, followed by the DB2/4 in 1953, the DB2/4 MkII in 1955, the DB Mark III in 1957 and the Italian-styled 3.7 L DB4 in 1958.
While these models helped Aston Martin establish a good racing pedigree, the DB4 stood out and yielded the famous DB5 in 1963. Aston stayed true to its grand touring style with the DB6 (1965–70), and DBS (1967–1972).
The six-cylinder engines of these cars from 1954 up to 1965 were designed by Tadek Marek.
1972–1975: William Willson
Aston Martin was often financially troubled. In 1972, David Brown paid off all its debts, said to be £5 million or more, and handed it for £101 to Company Developments, a Birmingham-based investment bank consortium chaired by accountant William Willson. More detail on this period may be read at Willson's biography. The worldwide recession, lack of working capital and the difficulties of developing an engine to meet California's exhaust emission requirements – it stopped the company's US sales – again pulled Aston Martin into receivership at the end of 1974. The company had employed 460 workers when the manufacturing plant closed.
1975–1981: Sprague and Curtis
The receiver sold the business in April 1975 for £1.05 million to North American businessman Peter Sprague of National Semiconductor, Toronto hotelier George Minden, and Jeremy Turner, a London businessman, who insisted to reporters that Aston Martin remained a British controlled business. Sprague later claimed he had fallen in love with the factory, not the cars, the workforce's craftsmanship dedication and intelligence. At this point, he and Minden had brought in investor Alan Curtis, a British office property developer, together with George Flather, a retired Sheffield steel magnate.
Six months later, in September 1975, the factory – shut down the previous December – re-opened under its new owner as Aston Martin Lagonda Limited with 100 employees, and planned to lift staff to 250 by the end of 1975. In January 1976, AML revealed that it now held orders for 150 cars for the US, 100 for other markets and another 80 from a Japanese importing agency. At the Geneva Motor Show, Fred Hartley, managing director and sales director for 13 years before that, announced he had resigned over "differences in marketing policy".
The new owners pushed Aston Martin into modernising its line, introducing the V8 Vantage in 1977, the convertible Volante in 1978, and the one-off Bulldog styled by William Towns in 1980. Towns also styled the futuristic new Lagonda saloon, based on the V8 model.
Curtis, who had a 42% stake in Aston Martin, also brought about a change in direction from the usual customers who were Aston Martin fans, to successful young married businessmen. Prices had been increased by 25%. There was speculation that AML was about to buy Italian automobile manufacturer Lamborghini. At the end of the 1970s, there was widespread debate about running MG into the Aston Martin consortium. 85 Conservative MPs formed themselves into a pressure group to get British Leyland to release their grip and hand it over. CH Industrials plc (car components) bought a 10% share in AML. But in July 1980, blaming a recession, AML cut back their workforce of 450 by more than 20%, making those people redundant.
1981–1987: Victor Gauntlett
In January 1981, there having been no satisfactory revival partners, Alan Curtis and Peter Sprague announced they had never intended to maintain a long-term financial stake in Aston Martin Lagonda and it was to be sold to Pace Petroleum's Victor Gauntlett. Sprague and Curtis pointed out that under their ownership AML finances had improved to where an offer for MG might have been feasible.
Gauntlett bought a 12.5% stake in Aston Martin for £500,000 via Pace Petroleum in 1980, with Tim Hearley of CH Industrials taking a similar share. Pace and CHI took over as joint 50/50 owners at the beginning of 1981, with Gauntlett as executive chairman. Gauntlett also led the sales team, and after some development and publicity when the Lagonda became the world's fastest four-seater production car, was able to sell the car in Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar. In 1982, Aston Martin was granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment by the Prince of Wales.
Understanding that it would take some time to develop new Aston Martin products, they created an engineering service subsidiary to develop automotive products for other companies. It was decided to use a trade name of Salmons & Son, their in-house coachbuilder, Tickford, which Aston Martin had bought in 1955. Tickford's name had been long associated with expensive high-quality carriages and cars along with their folding roofs. New products included a Tickford Austin Metro, a Tickford Ford Capri and even Tickford train interiors, particularly on the Jaguar XJS. Pace continued sponsoring racing events, and now sponsored all Aston Martin Owners Club events, taking a Tickford-engined Nimrod Group C car owned by AMOC President Viscount Downe, which came third in the Manufacturers Championship in both 1982 and 1983. It also finished seventh in the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans race. However, sales of production cars were now at an all-time low of 30 cars produced in 1982.
As trading became tighter in the petroleum market, and Aston Martin was requiring more time and money, Gauntlett agreed to sell Hays/Pace to the Kuwait Investment Office in September 1983. As Aston Martin required greater investment, he also agreed to sell his share holding to American importer and Greek shipping tycoon Peter Livanos, who invested via his joint venture with Nick and John Papanicolaou, ALL Inc. Gauntlett remained chairman of AML, 55% of the stake was owned by ALL, with Tickford a 50/50 venture between ALL and CHI. The uneasy relationship was ended when ALL exercised options to buy a larger share in AML; CHI's residual shares were exchanged for CHI's complete ownership of Tickford, which retained the development of existing Aston Martin projects. In 1984, Papanicolaou's Titan shipping business was in trouble so Livanos's father George bought out the Papanicolaou's shares in ALL, while Gauntlett again became a shareholder with a 25% holding in AML. The deal valued Aston Martin/AML at £2 million, the year it built its 10,000th car.
Although as a result Aston Martin had to make 60 members of the workforce redundant, Gauntlett bought a stake in Italian styling house Zagato, and resurrected its collaboration with Aston Martin. In 1986, Gauntlett negotiated the return of the fictional British secret agent James Bond to Aston Martin. Cubby Broccoli had chosen to recast the character using actor Timothy Dalton, in an attempt to re-root the Bond-brand back to a more Sean Connery-like feel. Gauntlett supplied his personal pre-production Vantage for use in the filming of The Living Daylights, and sold a Volante to Broccoli for use at his home in America. Gauntlett turned down the role of a KGB colonel in the film, however: "I would have loved to have done it but really could not afford the time."
1987–2007: Ford Motor Company
As Aston Martin needed funds to survive in the long term, Ford bought a 75% stake in the company in 1987, and bought the rest later. In May of that year, Victor Gauntlett and Prince Michael of Kent were staying at the home of Contessa Maggi, the wife of the founder of the original Mille Miglia, while watching the revival event. Another house guest was Walter Hayes, vice-president of Ford of Europe. Despite problems over the previous acquisition of AC Cars, Hayes saw the potential of the brand and the discussion resulted in Ford taking a share holding in September 1987. In 1988, having produced some 5,000 cars in 20 years, a revived economy and successful sales of limited edition Vantage, and 52 Volante Zagato coupés at £86,000 each; Aston Martin finally retired the ancient V8 and introduced the Virage range.
Although Gauntlett was contractually to stay as chairman for two years, his racing interests took the company back into sports car racing in 1989 with limited European success. However, with engine rule changes for the 1990 season and the launch of the new Volante model, Ford provided the limited supply of Cosworth engines to the Jaguar cars racing team. As the entry-level DB7 would require a large engineering input, Ford agreed to take full control of Aston Martin, and Gauntlett handed over Aston Martin's chairmanship to Hayes in 1991. In 1992, the high-performance variant of the Virage called the Vantage was announced, and the following year Aston Martin renewed the DB range by announcing the DB7.
By 1993, Ford had fully acquired the company after having built a stake in 1987. Ford placed Aston Martin in the Premier Automotive Group, invested in new manufacturing and ramped up production. In 1994, Ford opened a new factory at Banbury Road in Bloxham to manufacture the DB7. In 1995, Aston Martin produced a record 700 cars. Until the Ford era, cars had been produced by hand coachbuilding craft methods, such as the English wheel. During the mid 1990s, the Special Projects Group, a secretive unit with Works Service at Newport Pagnell, created an array of special coach-built vehicles for the Brunei royal family. In 1998, the 2,000th DB7 was built, and in 2002, the 6,000th, exceeding production of all of the previous DB series models. The DB7 range was revamped by the addition of more powerful V12 Vantage models in 1999, and in 2001, Aston Martin introduced the V12-engined flagship model called the Vanquish which succeeded the aging Virage (now called the V8 Coupé).
At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan in 2003, Aston Martin introduced the V8 Vantage concept car. Expected to have few changes before its introduction in 2005, the Vantage brought back the classic V8 engine to allow Aston Martin to compete in a larger market. 2003 also saw the opening of the Gaydon factory, the first purpose-built factory in Aston Martin's history. The facility is situated on a site of a former RAF V Bomber airbase, with an front building for offices, meeting rooms and customer reception, and a production building. Also introduced in 2003 was the DB9 coupé, which replaced the ten-year-old DB7. A convertible version of the DB9, the DB9 Volante, was introduced at the 2004 Detroit auto show.
In October 2004, Aston Martin set up the dedicated Aston Martin Engine Plant (AMEP) within the Ford Germany Niehl, Cologne plant. With the capacity to produce up to 5,000 engines a year by 100 specially trained personnel, like traditional Aston Martin engine production from Newport Pagnell, assembly of each unit was entrusted to a single technician from a pool of 30, with V8 and V12 variants assembled in under 20 hours. By bringing engine production back to within Aston Martin, the promise was that Aston Martin would be able to produce small runs of higher performance variants' engines. This expanded engine capacity allowed the entry-level V8 Vantage sports car to enter production at the Gaydon factory in 2006, joining the DB9 and DB9 Volante.
In December 2003, Aston Martin announced it would return to motor racing in 2005. A new division was created, called Aston Martin Racing, which became responsible, together with Prodrive, for the design, development, and management of the DBR9 program. The DBR9 competes in the GT class in sports car races, including the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 2006, an internal audit led Ford to consider divesting itself of parts of its Premier Automotive Group. After suggestions of selling Jaguar Cars, Land Rover, or Volvo Cars were weighed, Ford announced in August 2006 it had engaged UBS AG to sell all or part of Aston Martin at auction.
2007–2018: Private Limited Company
On 12 March 2007, a consortium led by Prodrive chairman David Richards purchased Aston Martin for £475 million (US$848 million). The group included American investment banker John Sinders and two Kuwaiti companies namely Investment Dar and Adeem Investment. Prodrive had no financial involvement in the deal. Ford kept a stake in Aston Martin valued at £40 million (US$70 million).
To demonstrate the V8 Vantage's durability across hazardous terrain and promote the car in China, the first east–west crossing of the Asian Highway was undertaken between June and August 2007. A pair of Britons drove from Tokyo to Istanbul before joining the European motorway network for another to London. The promotion was so successful Aston Martin opened dealerships in Shanghai and Beijing within three months.
On 19 July 2007, the Newport Pagnell plant rolled out the last of nearly 13,000 cars made there since 1955, a Vanquish S. The Tickford Street facility was converted and became the home of the Aston Martin Works classic car department which focuses on heritage sales, service, spares and restoration operations. UK production was subsequently concentrated on the facility in Gaydon on the former RAF V Bomber airbase. In March 2008, Aston Martin announced a partnership with Magna Steyr to outsource manufacture of over 2,000 cars annually to Graz, Austria, reassuringly stating: "The continuing growth and success of Aston Martin is based upon Gaydon as the focal point and heart of the business, with the design and engineering of all Aston Martin products continuing to be carried out there."
More dealers in Europe and the new pair in China brought the total to 120 in 28 countries. On 1 September 2008, Aston Martin announced the revival of the Lagonda marque, proposing a concept car to be shown in 2009 to coincide with the brand's 100th anniversary. The first production cars were slated for production in 2012. In December 2008, Aston Martin announced it would cut its workforce from 1,850 to 1,250 due to the economic recession.
The first four-door Rapide grand tourers rolled out of the Magna Steyr factory in Graz, Austria in 2010. The contract manufacturer provides dedicated facilities to ensure compliance with the exacting standards of Aston Martin and other marques, including Mercedes-Benz. Then CEO of the company, Ulrich Bez had publicly speculated about outsourcing all of Aston Martin's operations with the exception of marketing. In September 2011, it was announced that production of the Rapide would be returned to Gaydon in the second half of 2012, restoring all of the company's automobile manufacture there.
Italian private equity fund Investindustrial signed a deal on 6 December 2012 to buy a 37.5% stake in Aston Martin, investing £150 million as a capital increase. This was confirmed by Aston Martin in a press release on 7 December 2012. David Richards left Aston Martin in 2013, returning to concentrate on Prodrive.
In April 2013, it was reported that Bez would be leaving his role as the chief executive officer to take up a more ambassadorial position. On 2 September 2014, Aston Martin announced it had appointed the Nissan executive Andy Palmer as the new CEO with Bez retaining a position as non-executive chairman. As sales had been declining from 2015, Aston Martin sought new customers (particularly wealthy female buyers) with introducing concept cars like the DBX SUV along with track focused cars like the Vulcan. According to Palmer, the troubles started when sales of the DB9 failed to generate sufficient fund to develop next-generation models which led to a downward spiral of declining sales and profitability.
Palmer outlined that the company plans to develop two new platforms, add a crossover, refresh its supercar lineup and leverage its technology alliance with Daimler as part of its six-year plan to make the 100-year-old British brand consistently profitable. He stated, "In the first century we went bankrupt seven times. The second century is about making sure that is not the case." In preparation for its next-generation of sports cars, the company invested £20 million ($33.4 million) to expand its manufacturing plant in Gaydon. The expansion at the Gaydon plant includes a new chassis and pilot build facility, as well as an extension of the parts and logistics storage area, and new offices. In total, Aston Martin will add approximately to the plant.
In 2014, Aston Martin suffered a pre-tax loss of £72 million, almost triple of the amount of 2013 selling 3,500 cars during the year, well below the 7,300 cars sold in 2007 and 4,200 sold in 2013 respectively. In March 2014, Aston Martin issued "payment in kind" notes of US$165 million, at 10.25% interest, in addition to the £304 million of senior secured notes at 9.25% issued in 2011. Aston Martin also had to secure an additional investment of £200 million from its shareholders to fund development of new models. It was reported that Aston Martin's pre-tax losses for 2016 increased by 27% to £162.8 million, the sixth year it continued to suffer a loss.
In 2016, the company selected a site in St Athan, South Wales for its new factory. The Welsh facility was unanimously chosen by Aston's board despite fierce competition from other locations as far afield as the Americas, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Europe, as well as two other sites in the UK, believed to be Bridgend and Birmingham. The facility featured three existing 'super-hangars' of MOD St Athan. Construction work of converting the hangars commenced in April 2017. Aston Martin returned to profit in 2017 after selling over 5,000 cars. The company made a pre-tax profit of £87 million compared with a £163 million loss in 2016. 2017 also marked the return of production of the Newport Pagnell facility ten years after it originally ceased.
2013–present: Partnership with Mercedes-Benz Group
In December 2013, Aston Martin signed a deal with Mercedes-Benz Group (at the time known as Daimler) to supply the next generation of Aston Martin cars with Mercedes-AMG engines. Mercedes-AMG also was to supply Aston Martin with electrical systems. This technical partnership was intended to support Aston Martin's launch of a new generation of models that would incorporate new technology and engines. In exchange, Mercedes will get as much as 5% equity in Aston Martin and a non-voting seat on its board. The first model to sport the Mercedes-Benz technology was the DB11, announced at the 86th Geneva Motor Show in March 2016. It featured Mercedes-Benz electronics for the entertainment, navigation and other systems. It was also the first model to use Mercedes-AMG V8 engines. In October 2020, Mercedes confirmed it will increase its holding "in stages" from 5% to 20%. In return, Aston Martin will have access to Mercedes-Benz hybrid and electric drivetrain technologies for its future models.
2018–present: Listed on the London Stock Exchange
After "completing a turnaround for the once perennially loss-making company that could now be valued at up to 5 billion pounds ($6.4 billion)," and now reporting a full-year pre-tax profit of £87 million (compared with a £163 million loss in 2016) Aston Martin in August 2018 announced plans to float the company at the London Stock Exchange as Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc. The company was the subject of an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on 3 October 2018. In the same year, Aston Martin opened a new vehicle dynamics test and development centre at Silverstone's Stowe Circuit alongside a new HQ in London. In June 2019, the company opened its new factory in St Athan for the production of its first-ever SUV the DBX. The factory was finally completed and officially opened on 6 December 2019. When full production begins in the second quarter of 2020, around 600 people will be employed at the factory, rising to 750 when peak production is reached.
On 31 January 2020 it was announced that Canadian billionaire and investor Lawrence Stroll was leading a consortium, Yew Tree Overseas Limited, who will pay £182 million in return for 16.7% stake in the company. The re-structuring includes a £318 million cash infusion through a new rights issue, generating a total of £500 million for the company. Stroll will also be named as chairman, replacing Penny Hughes. Swiss pharmaceutical magnate Ernesto Bertarelli and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team principal and CEO Toto Wolff have also joined the consortium, acquiring 3.4% and 4.8% stakes, respectively. In March 2020, Stroll increased his stake in the company to 25%.
On 26 May 2020, Aston Martin announced that Andy Palmer had stepped down as CEO. Tobias Moers of Mercedes-AMG will succeed him starting 1 August, with Keith Stanton as interim chief operating officer. In June 2020, the company announced that it cut out 500 jobs as a result of the poor sales, an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. In March 2021, executive chairman Lawrence Stroll stated that the company plans on building electric vehicles by 2025. In May 2022, Aston Martin named 76-year old Amedeo Felisa as the new chief executive officer, replacing Tobias Moers. Roberto Fedeli was also announced as the new chief technical officer.
In November 2020, a communications agency called Clarendon Communications published a report comparing the environmental impact of various powertrain options for cars. After the report received coverage from The Sunday Times and other publications, it emerged that the company had been set up in February that year and was registered under the name of Rebecca Stephens – the wife of James Stephens, who is the government affairs director of Aston Martin Lagonda. Citing a study by Polestar, the report stated that electric vehicles would need to be driven before they would have lower overall emissions than a petrol car. This statement was disputed by electric vehicle researcher Auke Hoekstra, who argued that the report underestimated the emissions from combustion engine vehicles and did not consider the emissions from creating petrol. According to him, a typical EV would need to drive 16,000–18,000 miles (25,700–30,000 km) in order to offset the emissions from manufacture. Bosch and a number of other companies were also involved with the report.
In July 2022, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) will take a stake in the company through a £78 million equity placing as well as a £575 million separate rights issue, giving it two board seats in the company. After the rights issue, the Saudi fund will have a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin, behind the 18.3% holding by Stroll's Yew Tree consortium while the Mercedes-Benz Group will own 9.7%. In September 2022, Chinese automaker Geely acquired a 7.6% stake in the company. In December 2022, Stroll and the Yew Tree consortium increased their stake in the company to 28.29%. In May 2023, Geely increased its stake to 17%, becoming the third-largest shareholder after the Yew Tree consortium and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
In June 2023, Aston Martin signed an agreement with Lucid Motors after selecting it to help supply electric motors, powertrains, and battery systems for its upcoming range of fully electric cars. In return, Aston Martin will make cash payments and issue a 3.7percent stake in its company to Lucid, worth $232million in total. In September 2023, the Yew Tree consortium increased their stake by 3.27% to 26.23%. In October 2023, Aston Martin announced that it would compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2025. In February 2024, the company announced it would push back production of its first electric vehicle to 2026. In March 2024, Aston Martin announced Adrian Hallmark as its new CEO beginning 1 October 2024, replacing Amedeo Felisa.
Notable events
In August 2017, a 1956 Aston Martin DBR1/1 sold at a Sotheby's auction at the Pebble Beach, California Concours d'Elegance for US$22,550,000, which made it the most expensive British car ever sold at an auction, according to Sotheby's. The car had previously been driven by Carroll Shelby and Stirling Moss.
Other notable Aston Martin models sold at an auction include a 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato for US$14,300,000 in New York in 2015, and a 1963 Aston Martin DP215 for US$21,455,000 in August 2018.
Models
Pre-war cars
1921–1925 Aston Martin Standard Sports
1927–1932 Aston Martin First Series
1929–1932 Aston Martin International
1932–1932 Aston Martin International Le Mans
1932–1934 Aston Martin Le Mans
1933–1934 Aston Martin 12/50 Standard
1934–1936 Aston Martin Mk II
1934–1936 Aston Martin Ulster
1936–1940 Aston Martin 2-litre Speed Models (23 built; the last 8 were fitted with C-type bodywork)
1937–1939 Aston Martin 15/98
Post-war cars
1948–1950 Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports (DB1)
1950–1953 Aston Martin DB2
1953–1957 Aston Martin DB2/4
1957–1959 Aston Martin DB Mark III
1958–1963 Aston Martin DB4
1961–1963 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato
1963–1965 Aston Martin DB5
1965–1966 Aston Martin Short Chassis Volante
1965–1969 Aston Martin DB6
1967–1972 Aston Martin DBS
1969–1989 Aston Martin V8
1977–1989 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
1986–1990 Aston Martin V8 Zagato
1989–1996 Aston Martin Virage/Virage Volante
1989–2000 Aston Martin Virage
1993–2000 Aston Martin Vantage
1996–2000 Aston Martin V8 Coupe/V8 Volante
1993–2003 Aston Martin DB7/DB7 Vantage
2001–2007 Aston Martin V12 Vanquish/Vanquish S
2002–2003 Aston Martin DB7 Zagato
2002–2004 Aston Martin DB AR1
2004–2016 Aston Martin DB9
2005–2018 Aston Martin V8 and V12 Vantage
2007–2012 Aston Martin DBS V12
2009–2012 Aston Martin One-77
2010–2020 Aston Martin Rapide/Rapide S
2011–2012 Aston Martin Virage/Virage Volante
2011–2013 Aston Martin Cygnet (based on the Toyota iQ)
2012–2013 Aston Martin V12 Zagato
2012–2018 Aston Martin Vanquish/Vanquish Volante
2015–2016 Aston Martin Vulcan
2016–2023 Aston Martin DB11
2018–present Aston Martin Vantage
2018–present Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
2020–present Aston Martin DBX
2023–present Aston Martin DB12
Other
1944 Aston Martin Atom (concept)
1961–1964 Lagonda Rapide
1976–1989 Aston Martin Lagonda
1980 Aston Martin Bulldog (concept)
1993 Lagonda Vignale (concept)
2001 Aston Martin Twenty Twenty (Italdesign concept)
2007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS (concept)
2007–2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage N400
2009 Aston Martin Lagonda SUV (concept)
2010 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black Edition
2010 Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black Edition
2013 Aston Martin Rapide Bertone Jet 2+2 (concept)
2013 Aston Martin CC100 Speedster (concept)
2015 Aston Martin DB10 (concept)
2015–2016 Lagonda Taraf
2019 Aston Martin Lagonda All-Terrain (concept)
2019 Aston Martin Vanquish Vision (concept)
2019 Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato
2020 Aston Martin V12 Speedster
2021 Aston Martin Victor
2022 Aston Martin DBR22
2023 Aston Martin Valour
Current models
Aston Martin DB12
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Aston Martin DBX
Aston Martin Vantage
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Upcoming models
Aston Martin Valhalla
Gallery
Brand expansion
Since 2015, Aston Martin has sought to increase its appeal to women as a luxury lifestyle brand. A female advisory panel was established to adapt the design of the cars to the taste of women. In September 2016, a 37-foot-long Aston Martin speedboat was unveiled called the Aston Martin AM37 powerboat. In September 2017, Aston Martin announced that they had partnered with submarine building company Triton Submarines to build a submarine called Project Neptune. Aston Martin has collaborated with the luxury clothing company Hackett London to deliver items of clothing. In November 2017, Aston Martin unveiled a special limited edition bicycle after collaborating with bicycle manufacturer Storck.
Aston Martin and global property developer G&G Business Developments are currently building a 66-storey luxury condominium tower called Aston Martin Residences at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way in Miami, Florida, which is set for completion in 2021.
In July 2018, Aston Martin unveiled the Volante Vision Concept, a luxury concept aircraft with vertical take-off and landing capabilities. Also in July, a Lego version of James Bond's DB5 car was put on sale and an Aston Martin-branded watch was released in collaboration with TAG Heuer.
In October 2018, Aston Martin announced it was opening a design and brand studio in Shanghai.
Motorsport
Aston Martin is currently associated with two different racing organisations. The Aston Martin Formula One team which competes in the Formula One Championship and Aston Martin Racing which currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Both racing organisations use the Aston Martin brand, but are not directly owned by Aston Martin. The Aston Martin Formula One team is owned by major Aston Martin shareholder Lawrence Stroll and operated by his company AMR GP, while Aston Martin Racing is operated by racing company Prodrive as part of a partnership with Aston Martin.
Formula One
Aston Martin participated as a Formula One constructor in and entering six races over the two years but failing to score any points. In January 2020, it was announced that the Racing Point F1 Team is due to be rebranded as Aston Martin for the 2021 season, as a result of a funding investment led by Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll. As part of the rebrand, the team switched their racing colour of BWT pink to a modern iteration of Aston Martin's British racing green. The Aston Martin AMR21 was unveiled in March 2021 and became Aston Martin's first Formula One car after a 61-year absence from the sport.
Racing cars (post-war)
Aston Martin DB3 (1950–1953)
Aston Martin DB3S (1953–1956)
Aston Martin DBR1 (1956–1959)
Aston Martin DBR2 (1957–1958)
Aston Martin DBR3 (1958)
Aston Martin DBR4 (1959)
Aston Martin DBR5 (1960)
Aston Martin DP212 (1962)
Aston Martin DP214 (1963)
Aston Martin DP215 (1963)
Aston Martin RHAM/1 (1976–1979)
Aston Martin AMR1 (1989)
Aston Martin AMR2 (never raced)
Aston Martin DBR9 (2005–2008)
Aston Martin DBRS9 (2005–2008)
Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 (2006–2008)
Aston Martin V8 Vantage Rally GT (2006–2010)
Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 (2008–2017)
Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 (2008–2018)
Aston Martin DBR1-2 (2009)
Aston Martin AMR-One (2011)
Aston Martin Vantage GTE (2018–)
Aston Martin AMR21 (2021)
Aston Martin AMR22 (2022)
Aston Martin AMR23 (2023)
Aston Martin AMR24 (2024)
Aston Martin-powered racing cars
Cooper-Aston Martin (1963)
Lola T70-Aston Martin (1967)
Aston Martin DPLM (1980–1982)
Nimrod NRA/C2-Aston Martin (1982–1984)
Aston Martin EMKA C83/1 and C84/1 (1983–1985)
Cheetah G604-Aston Martin
Lola B08/60-Aston Martin (2008–2011)
24 Hours of Le Mans finishes
Sponsorships
Aston Martin sponsors 2. Bundesliga club 1860 Munich.
See also
Aston Martin Heritage Trust Museum
Aston Martin Owners Club
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
References
External links
1913 establishments in England
2018 initial public offerings
Automotive companies of England
British racecar constructors
British royal warrant holders
Car brands
Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Warwickshire
Companies in the FTSE 250 Index
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
English brands
Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers
Motor vehicle manufacturers of England
Premier Automotive Group
Sports car manufacturers
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1913 |
2380 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated%20Graphics%20Port | Accelerated Graphics Port | Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a parallel expansion card standard, designed for attaching a video card to a computer system to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. It was originally designed as a successor to PCI-type connections for video cards. Since 2004, AGP was progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express (PCIe), which is serial, as opposed to parallel; by mid-2008, PCI Express cards dominated the market and only a few AGP models were available, with GPU manufacturers and add-in board partners eventually dropping support for the interface in favor of PCI Express.
Advantages over PCI
AGP is a superset of the PCI standard, designed to overcome PCI's limitations in serving the requirements of the era's high-performance graphics cards.
The primary advantage of AGP is that it doesn't share the PCI bus, providing a dedicated, point-to-point pathway between the expansion slot(s) and the motherboard chipset. The direct connection also allows higher clock speeds.
The second major change is the use of split transactions, wherein the address and data phases are separated. The card may send many address phases, so the host can process them in order, avoiding any long delays caused by the bus being idle during read operations.
Third, PCI bus handshaking is simplified. Unlike PCI bus transactions, whose length is negotiated on a cycle-by-cycle basis using the FRAME# and STOP# signals, AGP transfers are always a multiple of 8 bytes long, with the total length included in the request. Further, rather than using the IRDY# and TRDY# signals for each word, data is transferred in blocks of 4 clock cycles (32 words at AGP 8× speed), and pauses are allowed only between blocks.
Finally, AGP allows (mandatory only in AGP 3.0) sideband addressing, meaning that the address and data buses are separated, so the address phase does not use the main address/data (AD) lines at all. This is done by adding an extra 8-bit "SideBand Address" bus, over which the graphics controller can issue new AGP requests while other AGP data is flowing over the main 32 address/data (AD) lines. This results in improved overall AGP data throughput.
This great improvement in memory read performance makes it practical for an AGP card to read textures directly from system RAM, while a PCI graphics card must copy it from system RAM to the card's video memory. System memory is made available using the graphics address remapping table (GART), which apportions main memory as needed for texture storage. The maximum amount of system memory available to AGP is defined as the AGP aperture.
History
The AGP slot first appeared on x86-compatible system boards based on Socket 7 Intel P5 Pentium and Slot 1 P6 Pentium II processors. Intel introduced AGP support with the i440LX Slot 1 chipset on August 26, 1997, and a flood of products followed from all the major system board vendors.
The first Socket 7 chipsets to support AGP were the VIA Apollo VP3, SiS 5591/5592, and the ALI Aladdin V. Intel never released an AGP-equipped Socket 7 chipset. FIC demonstrated the first Socket 7 AGP system board in November 1997 as the FIC PA-2012 based on the VIA Apollo VP3 chipset, followed very quickly by the EPoX P55-VP3 also based on the VIA VP3 chipset which was first to market.
Early video chipsets featuring AGP support included the Rendition Vérité V2200, 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Nvidia RIVA 128, 3Dlabs PERMEDIA 2, Intel i740, ATI Rage series, Matrox Millennium II, and S3 ViRGE GX/2. Some early AGP boards used graphics processors built around PCI and were simply bridged to AGP. This resulted in the cards benefiting little from the new bus, with the only improvement used being the 66 MHz bus clock, with its resulting doubled bandwidth over PCI, and bus exclusivity. Intel's i740 was explicitly designed to exploit the new AGP feature set; in fact it was designed to texture only from AGP memory, making PCI versions of the board difficult to implement (local board RAM had to emulate AGP memory.)
Microsoft first introduced AGP support into Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2 version 1111 or 950B) via the USB SUPPLEMENT to OSR2 patch. After applying the patch the Windows 95 system became Windows 95 version 4.00.950 B. The first Windows NT-based operating system to receive AGP support was Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3, introduced in 1997. Linux support for AGP enhanced fast data transfers was first added in 1999 with the implementation of the AGPgart kernel module.
Later use
With the increasing adoption of PCIe, graphics cards manufacturers continued to produce AGP cards as the standard became obsolete. As GPUs began to be designed to connect to PCIe, an additional PCIe-to-AGP bridge-chip was required to create an AGP-compatible graphics card. The inclusion of a bridge, and the need for a separate AGP card design, incurred additional board costs.
The GeForce 6600 and ATI Radeon X800 XL, released during 2004–2005, were the first bridged cards. In 2009 AGP cards from Nvidia had a ceiling of the GeForce 7 series. In 2011 DirectX 10-capable AGP cards from AMD vendors (Club 3D, HIS, Sapphire, Jaton, Visiontek, Diamond, etc.) included the Radeon HD 2400, 3450, 3650, 3850, 4350, 4650, and 4670. The HD 5000 AGP series mentioned in the AMD Catalyst software was never available. There were many problems with the AMD Catalyst 11.2 - 11.6 AGP hotfix drivers under Windows 7 with the HD 4000 series AGP video cards; use of 10.12 or 11.1 AGP hotfix drivers is a possible workaround. Several of the vendors listed above make available past versions of the AGP drivers.
By 2010, no new motherboard chipsets supported AGP and few new motherboards had AGP slots, however some continued to be produced with older AGP-supporting chipsets.
In 2016, Windows 10 version 1607 dropped support for AGP. Possible future removal of support for AGP from open-source Linux kernel drivers was considered in 2020.
Versions
Intel released "AGP specification 1.0" in 1997. It specified 3.3 V signals and 1× and 2× speeds. Specification 2.0 documented 1.5 V signaling, which could be used at 1×, 2× and the additional 4× speed and 3.0 added 0.8 V signaling, which could be operated at 4× and 8× speeds. (1× and 2× speeds are physically possible, but were not specified.)
Available versions are listed in the adjacent table.
AGP version 3.5 is only publicly mentioned by Microsoft under Universal Accelerated Graphics Port (UAGP), which specifies mandatory supports of extra registers once marked optional under AGP 3.0. Upgraded registers include PCISTS, CAPPTR, NCAPID, AGPSTAT, AGPCMD, NISTAT, NICMD. New required registers include APBASELO, APBASEHI, AGPCTRL, APSIZE, NEPG, GARTLO, GARTHI.
There are various physical interfaces (connectors); see the Compatibility section.
Official extensions
AGP Pro
An official extension for cards that required more electrical power, with a longer slot with additional pins for that purpose. AGP Pro cards were usually workstation-class cards used to accelerate professional computer-aided design applications employed in the fields of architecture, machining, engineering, simulations, and similar fields.
64-bit AGP
A 64-bit channel was once proposed as an optional standard for AGP 3.0 in draft documents, but it was dropped in the final version of the standard.
The standard allows 64-bit transfer for AGP8× reads, writes, and fast writes; 32-bit transfer for PCI operations.
Unofficial variations
A number of non-standard variations of the AGP interface have been produced by manufacturers.
Internal AGP interface
Ultra-AGP, Ultra-AGPII It is an internal AGP interface standard used by SiS for the north bridge controllers with integrated graphics. The original version supports same bandwidth as AGP 8×, while Ultra-AGPII has maximum 3.2 GB/s bandwidth.
PCI-based AGP ports
AGP Express Not a true AGP interface, but allows an AGP card to be connected over the legacy PCI bus on a PCI Express motherboard. It is a technology used on motherboards made by ECS, intended to allow an existing AGP card to be used in a new motherboard instead of requiring a PCIe card to be obtained (since the introduction of PCIe graphics cards few motherboards provide AGP slots). An "AGP Express" slot is basically a PCI slot (with twice the electrical power) with an AGP connector. It offers backward compatibility with AGP cards, but provides incomplete support (some AGP cards do not work with AGP Express) and reduced performance—the card is forced to use the shared PCI bus at its lower bandwidth, rather than having exclusive use of the faster AGP.
AGI The ASRock Graphics Interface (AGI) is a proprietary variant of the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) standard. Its purpose is to provide AGP-support for ASRock motherboards that use chipsets lacking native AGP support. However, it is not fully compatible with AGP, and several video card chipsets are known not to be supported.
AGX The EPoX Advanced Graphics eXtended (AGX) is another proprietary AGP variant with the same advantages and disadvantages as AGI. User manuals recommend not using AGP 8× ATI cards with AGX slots.
XGP The Biostar Xtreme Graphics Port is another AGP variant, also with the same advantages and disadvantages as AGI and AGX.
PCIe based AGP ports
AGR The Advanced Graphics Riser is a variation of the AGP port used in some PCIe motherboards made by MSI to offer limited backward compatibility with AGP. It is, effectively, a modified PCIe slot allowing for performance comparable to an AGP 4×/8× slot, but does not support all AGP cards; the manufacturer published a list of some cards and chipsets that work with the modified slot.
Compatibility
AGP cards are backward and forward compatible within limits. 1.5 V-only keyed cards will not go into 3.3 V slots and vice versa, though "Universal" cards exist which will fit into either type of slot. There are also unkeyed "Universal" slots that will accept either type of card. When an AGP Universal card is plugged-into an AGP Universal slot, only the 1.5 V portion of the card is used. Some cards, like Nvidia's GeForce 6 series (except the 6200) or ATI's Radeon X800 series, only have keys for 1.5 V to prevent them from being installed in older mainboards without 1.5 V support. Some of the last modern cards with 3.3 V support were:
the Nvidia GeForce FX series (FX 5200, FX 5500, FX 5700, some FX 5800, FX 5900 and some FX 5950)
certain GeForce 6 series and 7 series (few cards were made with 3.3v support except for 6200 where 3.3v support was common)
some GeForce 6200/6600/6800 and GeForce 7300/7600/7800/7900/7950 cards (really uncommon compared to their AGP 1.5v only versions)
the ATI Radeon 9500/9700/9800 (R300/R350) (but not 9600/9800 (R360/RV360)).
AGP Pro cards will not fit into standard slots, but standard AGP cards will work in a Pro slot. Motherboards equipped with a Universal AGP Pro slot will accept a 1.5 V or 3.3 V card in either the AGP Pro or standard AGP configuration, a Universal AGP card, or a Universal AGP Pro card.
Some cards incorrectly have dual notches, and some motherboards incorrectly have fully open slots, allowing a card to be plugged into a slot that does not support the correct signaling voltage, which may damage card or motherboard. Some incorrectly designed older 3.3 V cards have the 1.5 V key.
There are some proprietary systems incompatible with standard AGP; for example, Apple Power Macintosh computers with the Apple Display Connector (ADC) have an extra connector which delivers power to the attached display. Some cards designed to work with a specific CPU architecture (e.g., PC, Apple) may not work with others due to firmware issues.
Mark Allen of Playtools.com made the following comments regarding Practical AGP Compatibility for AGP 3.0 and AGP 2.0:
Power consumption
Actual power supplied by an AGP slot depends upon the card used. The maximum current drawn from the various rails is given in the specifications for the various versions. For example, if maximum current is drawn from all supplies and all voltages are at their specified upper limits, an AGP 3.0 slot can supply up to 48.25 watts; this figure can be used to specify a power supply conservatively, but in practice a card is unlikely ever to draw more than 40 W from the slot, with many using less. AGP Pro provides additional power up to 110 W. Many AGP cards had additional power connectors to supply them with more power than the slot could provide.
Protocol
An AGP bus is a superset of a 66 MHz conventional PCI bus and, immediately after reset, follows the same protocol. The card must act as a PCI target, and optionally may act as a PCI master. (AGP 2.0 added a "fast writes" extension which allows PCI writes from the motherboard to the card to transfer data at higher speed.)
After the card is initialized using PCI transactions, AGP transactions are permitted. For these, the card is always the AGP master and the motherboard is always the AGP target. The card queues multiple requests which correspond to the PCI address phase, and the motherboard schedules the corresponding data phases later. An important part of initialization is telling the card the maximum number of outstanding AGP requests which may be queued at a given time.
AGP requests are similar to PCI memory read and write requests, but use a different encoding on command lines C/BE[3:0] and are always 8-byte aligned; their starting address and length are always multiples of 8 bytes (64 bits). The three low-order bits of the address are used instead to communicate the length of the request.
Whenever the PCI GNT# signal is asserted, granting the bus to the card, three additional status bits ST[2:0] indicate the type of transfer to be performed next. If the bits are 0xx, a previously queued AGP transaction's data is to be transferred; if the three bits are 111, the card may begin a PCI transaction or (if sideband addressing is not in use) queue a request in-band using PIPE#.
AGP command codes
Like PCI, each AGP transaction begins with an address phase, communicating an address and 4-bit command code. The possible commands are different from PCI, however:
000p Read
Read 8×(AD[2:0]+1) = 8, 16, 24, ..., 64 bytes. The least significant bit p is 0 for low-priority, 1 for high.
001x (reserved):
010p Write
Write 8×(AD[2:0]+1) = 8–64 bytes.
011x (reserved):
100p Long read
Read 32×(AD[2:0]+1) = 32, 64, 96, ..., 256 bytes. This is the same as a read request, but the length is multiplied by four.
1010 Flush
Force previously written data to memory, for synchronization. This acts as a low-priority read, taking a queue slot and returning 8 bytes of random data to indicate completion. The address and length supplied with this command are ignored.
1011 (reserved):
1100 Fence
This acts as a memory fence, requiring that all earlier AGP requests complete before any following requests. Ordinarily, for increased performance, AGP uses a very weak consistency model, and allows a later write to pass an earlier read. (E.g. after sending "write 1, write 2, read, write 3, write 4" requests, all to the same address, the read may return any value from 2 to 4. Only returning 1 is forbidden, as writes must complete before following reads.) This operation does not require any queue slots.
1101 Dual address cycle
When making a request to an address above 232, this is used to indicate that a second address cycle will follow with additional address bits. This operates like a regular PCI dual address cycle; it is accompanied by the low-order 32 bits of the address (and the length), and the following cycle includes the high 32 address bits and the desired command. The two cycles make one request, and take only one slot in the request queue. This request code is not used with side-band addressing.
111x (reserved):
AGP 3.0 dropped high-priority requests and the long read commands, as they were little used. It also mandated side-band addressing, thus dropping the dual address cycle, leaving only four request types: low-priority read (0000), low-priority write (0100), flush (1010) and fence (1100).
In-band AGP requests using PIPE#
To queue a request in-band, the card must request the bus using the standard PCI REQ# signal, and receive GNT# plus bus status ST[2:0] equal to 111. Then, instead of asserting FRAME# to begin a PCI transaction, the card asserts the PIPE# signal while driving the AGP command, address, and length on the C/BE[3:0], AD[31:3] and AD[2:0] lines, respectively. (If the address is 64 bits, a dual address cycle similar to PCI is used.) For every cycle that PIPE# is asserted, the card sends another request without waiting for acknowledgement from the motherboard, up to the configured maximum queue depth. The last cycle is marked by deasserting REQ#, and PIPE# is deasserted on the following idle cycle.
Side-band AGP requests using SBA[7:0]
If side-band addressing is supported and configured, the PIPE# signal is not used. (And the signal is re-used for another purpose in the AGP 3.0 protocol, which requires side-band addressing.) Instead, requests are broken into 16-bit pieces which are sent as two bytes across the SBA bus. There is no need for the card to ask permission from the motherboard; a new request may be sent at any time as long as the number of outstanding requests is within the configured maximum queue depth. The possible values are:
0aaa aaaa aaaa alll
Queue a request with the given low-order address bits A[14:3] and length 8×(L[2:0]+1). The command and high-order bits are as previously specified. Any number of requests may be queued by sending only this pattern, as long as the command and higher address bits remain the same.
10cc ccra aaaa aaaa
Use command C[3:0] and address bits A[23:15] for future requests. (Bit R is reserved.) This does not queue a request, but sets values that will be used in all future queued requests.
110r aaaa aaaa aaaa
Use address bits A[35:24] for future requests.
1110 aaaa aaaa aaaa
Use address bits A[47:36] for future requests.
1111 0xxx, 1111 10xx, 1111 110x
Reserved, do not use.
1111 1110
Synchronization pattern used when starting the SBA bus after an idle period.
1111 1111
No operation; no request. At AGP 1× speed, this may be sent as a single byte and a following 16-bit side-band request started one cycle later. At AGP 2× and higher speeds, all side-band requests, including this NOP, are 16 bits long.
Sideband address bytes are sent at the same rate as data transfers, up to 8× the 66 MHz basic bus clock. Sideband addressing has the advantage that it mostly eliminates the need for turnaround cycles on the AD bus between transfers, in the usual case when read operations greatly outnumber writes.
AGP responses
While asserting GNT#, the motherboard may instead indicate via the ST bits that a data phase for a queued request will be performed next. There are four queues: two priorities (low- and high-priority) for each of reads and writes, and each is processed in order. Obviously, the motherboard will attempt to complete high-priority requests first, but there is no limit on the number of low-priority responses which may be delivered while the high-priority request is processed.
For each cycle when the GNT# is asserted and the status bits have the value 00p, a read response of the indicated priority is scheduled to be returned. At the next available opportunity (typically the next clock cycle), the motherboard will assert TRDY# (target ready) and begin transferring the response to the oldest request in the indicated read queue. (Other PCI bus signals like FRAME#, DEVSEL# and IRDY# remain deasserted.) Up to four clock cycles worth of data (16 bytes at AGP 1× or 128 bytes at AGP 8×) are transferred without waiting for acknowledgement from the card. If the response is longer than that, both the card and motherboard must indicate their ability to continue on the third cycle by asserting IRDY# (initiator ready) and TRDY#, respectively. If either one does not, wait states will be inserted until two cycles after they both do. (The value of IRDY# and TRDY# at other times is irrelevant and they are usually deasserted.)
The C/BE# byte enable lines may be ignored during read responses, but are held asserted (all bytes valid) by the motherboard.
The card may also assert the RBF# (read buffer full) signal to indicate that it is temporarily unable to receive more low-priority read responses. The motherboard will refrain from scheduling any more low-priority read responses. The card must still be able to receive the end of the current response, and the first four-cycle block of the following one if scheduled, plus any high-priority responses it has requested.
For each cycle when GNT# is asserted and the status bits have the value 01p, write data is scheduled to be sent across the bus. At the next available opportunity (typically the next clock cycle), the card will assert IRDY# (initiator ready) and begin transferring the data portion of the oldest request in the indicated write queue. If the data is longer than four clock cycles, the motherboard will indicate its ability to continue by asserting TRDY# on the third cycle. Unlike reads, there is no provision for the card to delay the write; if it didn't have the data ready to send, it shouldn't have queued the request.
The C/BE# lines are used with write data, and may be used by the card to select which bytes should be written to memory.
The multiplier in AGP 2×, 4× and 8× indicates the number of data transfers across the bus during each 66 MHz clock cycle. Such transfers use source synchronous clocking with a "strobe" signal (AD_STB[0], AD_STB[1], and SB_STB) generated by the data source. AGP 4× adds complementary strobe signals.
Because AGP transactions may be as short as two transfers, at AGP 4× and 8× speeds it is possible for a request to complete in the middle of a clock cycle. In such a case, the cycle is padded with dummy data transfers (with the C/BE# byte enable lines held deasserted).
Connector pinout
The AGP connector contains almost all PCI signals, plus several additions. The connector has 66 contacts on each side, although 4 are removed for each keying notch. Pin 1 is closest to the I/O bracket, and the B and A sides are as in the table, looking down at the motherboard connector.
Contacts are spaced at 1 mm intervals, however they are arranged in two staggered vertical rows so that there is 2 mm space between pins in each row. Odd-numbered A-side contacts, and even-numbered B-side contacts are in the lower row (1.0 to 3.5 mm from the card edge). The others are in the upper row (3.7 to 6.0 mm from the card edge).
PCI signals omitted are:
The −12 V supply
The third and fourth interrupt requests (INTC#, INTD#)
The JTAG pins (TRST#, TCK, TMS, TDI, TDO)
The SMBus pins (SMBCLK, SMBDAT)
The IDSEL pin; an AGP card connects AD[16] to IDSEL internally
The 64-bit extension (REQ64#, ACK64#) and 66 MHz (M66EN) pins
The LOCK# pin for locked transaction support
Signals added are:
Data strobes AD_STB[1:0] (and AD_STB[1:0]# in AGP 2.0)
The sideband address bus SBA[7:0] and SB_STB (and SB_STB# in AGP 2.0)
The ST[2:0] status signals
USB+ and USB− (and OVERCNT# in AGP 2.0)
The PIPE# signal (removed in AGP 3.0 for 0.8 V signaling)
The RBF# signal
The TYPEDET#, Vregcg and Vreggc pins (AGP 2.0 for 1.5V signaling)
The DBI_HI and DBI_LO signals (AGP 3.0 for 0.8 V signaling only)
The GC_DET# and MB_DET# pins (AGP 3.0 for 0.8V signaling)
The WBF# signal (AGP 3.0 fast write extension)
See also
List of device bandwidths
Serial Digital Video Out for ADD DVI adapter cards
AGP Inline Memory Module
Notes
References
External links
Archived AGP Implementors Forum
AGP specifications: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, Pro 1.0, Pro 1.1a
AGP Compatibility For Sticklers
AGP pinout
AGP expansion slots
AGP compatibility (with pictures)
Universal Accelerated Graphics Port (UAGP)
How Stuff Works - AGP
A discussion from 2003 of what AGP aperture is, how it works, and how much memory should be allocated to it.
Macintosh internals
IBM PC compatibles
Intel graphics
Motherboard expansion slot
Peripheral Component Interconnect |
2381 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas%20Aagesen | Andreas Aagesen | Andreas Aagesen (5 August 1826 – 26 October 1879) was a Danish jurist.
Biography
Aagesen was educated for the law at Christianshavn and Copenhagen, and interrupted his studies in 1848 to take part in the First Schleswig War, in which he served as the leader of a reserve battalion.
In 1855 Aagesen became a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Copenhagen. In 1870 he was appointed a member of the commission for drawing up a maritime and commercial code, and the navigation law of 1882 is mainly his work. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Landsting (one of two chambers of the Danish Parliament, the Rigsdagen); but it is as a teacher at the university that he won his reputation. Aagesen was Carl Christian Hall's successor as lecturer on Roman law at the university, and in this department his research was epoch-making.
Bibliography
Among his numerous juridical works may be mentioned:
Bidrag til Læren om Overdragelse af Ejendomsret, Bemærkinger om Rettigheder over Ting (Copenhagen, 1866, 1871–1872);
Fortegnelse over Retssamlinger, Retslitteratur i Danmark, Norge, Sverige (Copenhagen, 1876).
Notes
References
Attribution
This source cites:
Johan Henrik Deuntzer, Dansk biografisk leksikon, vol. i. (Copenhagen, 1887) (online);
Samlede Skrifter, edited by F. C. Bornemann (Copenhagen, 1883)
External links
Obituary
1826 births
1879 deaths
Danish jurists
Members of the Landsting (Denmark)
Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen
19th-century Danish military officers
Rectors of the University of Copenhagen |
2382 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aalen | Aalen | Aalen () is a former Free Imperial City located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is also the largest town in the Ostwürttemberg region. Since 1956, Aalen has had the status of Große Kreisstadt (major district town). It is noted for its many half-timbered houses constructed from the 16th century through the 18th century.
With an area of 146.63 km2, Aalen is ranked 7th in Baden-Württemberg and 2nd within the Government Region of Stuttgart, after Stuttgart. With a population of about 66,000, Aalen is the 15th most-populated settlement in Baden-Württemberg.
Geography
Situation
Aalen is situated on the upper reaches of the river Kocher, at the foot of the Swabian Jura which lies to the south and south-east, and close to the hilly landscapes of the Ellwangen Hills to the north and the Welland to the north-west.
The west of Aalen's territory is on the foreland of the eastern Swabian Jura, and the north and north-west is on the Swabian-Franconian Forest, both being part of the Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains. The south-west is part of the Albuch, the east is part of the Härtsfeld, these two both being parts of the Swabian Jura.
The Kocher enters the town's territory from Oberkochen to the south, crosses the district of Unterkochen, then enters the town centre, where the Aal flows into it. The Aal is a small river located only within the town's territory. Next, the Kocher crosses the district of Wasseralfingen, then leaves the town for Hüttlingen. Rivers originating near Aalen are the Rems (near Essingen, west of Aalen) and the Jagst (near Unterschneidheim, east of Aalen), both being tributaries of the Neckar, just like the Kocher.
The elevation in the centre of the market square is relative to Normalhöhennull. The territory's lowest point is at the Lein river near Rodamsdörfle, the highest point is the Grünberg's peak near Unterkochen at .
Geology
Aalen's territory ranges over all lithostratigraphic groups of the South German Jurassic: Aalen's south and the Flexner massif are on top of the White Jurassic, the town centre is on the Brown Jurassic, and a part of Wasseralfingen is on the Black Jurassic. As a result, the town advertises itself as a "Geologist's Mecca".
Most parts of the territory are on the Opalinuston-Formation (Opalinum Clay Formation) of the Aalenian subdivision of the Jurassic Period, which is named after Aalen. On the Sandberg, the Schnaitberg and the Schradenberg hills, all in the west of Aalen, the Eisensandstein (Iron Sandstone) formation emerges to the surface. On the other hills of the city, sands (Goldshöfer Sande), gravel and residual rubble prevail.
The historic centre of Aalen and the other areas in the Kocher valley are founded completely on holocenic floodplain loam (Auelehm) and riverbed gravel that have filled in the valley.
Most parts of Dewangen and Fachsenfeld are founded on formations of Jurensismergel (Jurensis Marl), Posidonienschiefer (cf. Posidonia Shale), Amaltheenton (Amalthean Clay), Numismalismergel (Numismalis Marl) and Obtususton (Obtusus Clay, named after Asteroceras obtusum ammonites) moving from south to north, all belonging to the Jurassic and being rich in fossils. They are at last followed by the Trossingen Formation already belonging to the Late Triassic.
Until 1939 iron ore was mined on the Braunenberg hill. (see Tiefer Stollen section).
Extent of the borough
The maximum extent of the town's territory amounts to in a north–south dimension and in an east–west dimension. The area is , which includes 42.2% agriculturally used area and 37.7% of forest. 11.5% are built up or vacant, 6.4% is used by traffic infrastructure. Sporting and recreation grounds and parks comprise 1% , other areas 1.1% .
Boroughs
Aalen's territory consists of the town centre (Kernstadt) and the municipalities
merged from between 1938 (Unterrombach) and 1975 (Wasseralfingen, see mergings section).
The municipalities merged in the course of the latest municipal reform of the 1970s are also called Stadtbezirke (quarters or districts), and are Ortschaften ("settlements") in terms of Baden-Württemberg's Gemeindeordnung (municipal code), which means, each of them has its own council elected by its respective residents (Ortschaftsrat) and is presided by a spokesperson (Ortsvorsteher).
The town centre itself and the merged former municipalities consist of numerous villages (Teilorte), mostly separated by open ground from each other and having their own independent and long-standing history. Some however have been created as planned communities, which were given proper names, but no well-defined borders.
List of villages:
Spatial planning
Aalen forms a Mittelzentrum ("medium-level centre") within the Ostwürttemberg region. Its designated catchment area includes the following municipalities of the central and eastern Ostalbkreis district: Abtsgmünd, Bopfingen, Essingen, Hüttlingen, Kirchheim am Ries, Lauchheim, Neresheim, Oberkochen, Riesbürg and Westhausen, and is interwoven with the catchment area of Nördlingen, situated in Bavaria, east of Aalen.
Climate
As Aalen's territory sprawls on escarpments of the Swabian Jura, on the Albuch and the Härtsfeld landscapes, and its elevation has a range of , the climate varies from district to district.
The weather station the following data originate from is located between the town centre and Wasseralfingen at about and has been in operation since 1991.
The sunshine duration is about 1800 hours per year, which averages 4.93 hours per day. So Aalen is above the German average of 1550 hours per year. However, with 167 days of precipitation, Aalen's region also ranks above the German average of 138. The annual rainfall is , about the average within Baden-Württemberg.
The annual mean temperature is . Here Aalen ranks above the German average of and the Baden-Württemberg average of .
History
Civic history
First settlements
Numerous remains of early civilization have been found in the area. Tools made of flint and traces of Mesolithic human settlement dated between the 8th and 5th millennium BC were found on several sites on the margins of the Kocher and Jagst valleys. On the Schloßbaufeld plateau (appr. ), situated behind Kocherburg castle near Unterkochen, a hill-top settlement was found, with the core being dated to the Bronze Age. In the Appenwang forest near Wasseralfingen, in Goldshöfe, and in Ebnat, tumuli of the Hallstatt culture were found. In Aalen and Wasseralfingen, gold and silver coins left by the Celts were found. The Celts were responsible for the fortifications in the Schloßbaufeld settlement consisting of sectional embankments and a stone wall. Also, Near Heisenberg (Wasseralfingen), a Celtic nemeton has been identified; however, it is no longer readily apparent.
Roman era
After abandoning the Alb Limes (a limes generally following the ridgeline of the Swabian Jura) around 150 AD, Aalen's territory became part of the Roman Empire, in direct vicinity of the then newly erected Rhaetian Limes. The Romans erected a castrum to house the cavalry unit Ala II Flavia milliaria; its remains are known today as Kastell Aalen ("Aalen Roman fort"). The site is west of today's town centre at the bottom of the Schillerhöhe hill. With about 1,000 horsemen and nearly as many grooms, it was the largest fort of auxiliaries along the Rhaetian Limes. There were Civilian settlements adjacent along the south and the east. Around 260 AD, the Romans gave up the fort as they withdrew their presence in unoccupied Germania back to the Rhine and Danube rivers, and the Alamanni took over the region. Based on 3rd- and 4th-century coins found, the civilian settlement continued to exist for the time being. However, there is no evidence of continued civilization between the Roman era and the Middle Ages.
Foundation
Based on discovery of alamannic graves, archaeologists have established the 7th century as the origination of Aalen. In the northern and western walls of St. John's church, which is located directly adjacent to the eastern gate of the Roman fort, Roman stones were incorporated. The building that exists today probably dates to the 9th century.
The first mention of Aalen was in 839, when emperor Louis the Pious reportedly permitted the Fulda monastery to exchange land with the Hammerstadt village, then known as Hamarstat.
Aalen itself was first mentioned in an inventory list of Ellwangen Abbey, dated ca. 1136, as the village Alon, along with a lower nobleman named Conrad of Aalen. This nobleman probably had his ancestral castle at a site south of today's town centre and was subject first to Ellwangen abbey, later to the House of Hohenstaufen, and eventually to the House of Oettingen. 1426 was the last time a member of that house was mentioned in connection with Aalen.
Documents, from the Middle Ages, indicate that the town of Aalen was founded by the Hohenstaufen some time between 1241 and 1246, but at a different location than the earlier village, which was supposedly destroyed in 1388 during the war between the Alliance of Swabian Cities and the Dukes of Bavaria.
Later, it is documented that the counts of Oettingen ruled the town in 1340. They are reported to have pawned the town to Count Eberhard II and subsequently to the House of Württemberg in 1358 or 1359 in exchange for an amount of money.
Imperial City
Designation as Imperial City
During the war against Württemberg, Emperor Charles IV took the town without a fight after a siege. On 3 December 1360, he declared Aalen an Imperial City, that is, a city or town responsible only to the emperor, a status that made it a quasi-sovereign city-state and that it kept until 1803. In 1377, Aalen joined the Alliance of Swabian Cities, and in 1385, the term civitas appears in the town's seal for the first time. In 1398, Aalen was granted the right to hold markets, and in 1401 Aalen obtained proper jurisdiction.
The oldest artistic representation of Aalen was made in 1528. It was made as the basis of a lawsuit between the town and the Counts of Oettingen at the Reichskammergericht in Speyer. It shows Aalen surrounded by walls, towers, and double moats. The layout of the moats, which had an embankment built between them, is recognizable by the present streets named Nördlicher, Östlicher, Südlicher and Westlicher Stadtgraben (Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Moat respectively). The wall was about tall, 1518 single paces () long and enclosed an area of . During its early years, the town had two town gates: The Upper or Ellwangen Gate in the east, and St. Martin's gate in the south; however due to frequent floods, St. Martin's gate was bricked up in the 14th century and replaced by the Lower or Gmünd Gate built in the west before 1400. Later, several minor side gates were added. The central street market took place on the Wettegasse (today called Marktplatz, "market square") and the Reichsstädter Straße. So the market district stretched from one gate to the other, however in Aalen it was not straight, but with a 90-degree curve between southern (St. Martin's) gate and eastern (Ellwangen) gate.
Around 1500, the civic graveyard was relocated from the town church to St. John's Church, and in 1514, the Vierundzwanziger ("Group of 24") was the first assembly constituted by the citizens.
Reformation
Delegated by Württemberg's Duke Louis III, on 28 June 1575, nearly 30 years after Martin Luther's death, Jakob Andreae, professor and chancellor of the University of Tübingen, arrived in Aalen. The sermon he gave the following day convinced the mayor, the council, and the citizens to adopt the Reformation in the town. Andreae stayed in Aalen for four weeks to help with the change. This brought along enormous changes, as the council forbade the Roman Catholic priests to celebrate masses and give sermons. However, after victories of the imperial armies at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen, which still held the right of patronage in Aalen, were able to temporarily bring Catholicism back to Aalen; however after the military successes of the Protestant Union, Protestant church practices were instituted again.
Fire of 1634
On the night of 5 September 1634, two ensigns of the army of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar who were fighting with the Swedes and retreating after the Battle of Nördlingen set fire to two powder carriages, to prevent the war material to fall into Croatian hands and to prevent their advance. The result was a conflagration, that some say destroyed portions of the town. There are differing stories regarding this fire. According to 17th-century accounts, the church and all the buildings, except of the Schwörturm tower, were casualties of the fire, and only nine families survived. 19th century research by Hermann Bauer, Lutheran pastor and local historian, discovered that the 17th-century account is exaggerated, but he does agree that the town church and buildings in a "rather large" semicircle around it were destroyed. The fire also destroyed the town archive housed in an addition to the church, with all of its documents. After the fire, soldiers of both armies went through the town looting. It took nearly 100 years for the town to reach its population of 2,000.
French troops marched through Aalen in 1688 during the Nine Years' War; however, unlike other places, they left without leaving severe damages. The French came through again in 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession and in 1741 during the War of the Austrian Succession, the latter also caused imperial troops to move through in 1743.
The town church's tower collapsed in 1765, presumably because proper building techniques were not utilized during the reconstruction after the fire of 1634. The collapsing tower struck two children of the tower watchman who died of their injuries, and destroyed the nave, leaving only the altar cross intact. The remaining walls had to be knocked down due to the damage. Reconstruction began the same year, creating the building that exists today.
On 22 November 1749, the so-called Aalen protocol regulating the cohabitation of Lutherans and Roman Catholics in the jointly ruled territory of Oberkochen was signed in Aalen by the Duchy of Württemberg and the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen. Aalen had been chosen because of its neutral status as a Free Imperial City.
Napoleonic era and end of the Imperial City of Aalen
During the War of the First Coalition (1796), Aalen was looted. The War of the Second Coalition concluded in 1801 with the signing of the Treaty of Lunéville, which led to the German Mediatisation of 1803 that assigned most Imperial Cities to the neighbouring principalities. Aalen was assigned to the Electorate of Württemberg, which later became the Kingdom of Württemberg, and became seat of the District ("Oberamt") of Aalen. During the War of the Third Coalition, on 6 October 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Aalen, with an army of 40,000. This event, along with Bavarian and Austrian troops moving in some days later, caused miseries that according to the town clerk "no feather could describe".
In 1811, the municipality of Unterrombach was formed out of some villages previously belonging to Aalen, some to the Barons of Wöllwarth, and the eastern villages were assigned to the municipality of Unterkochen.
In the age of the Napoleonic wars, the town walls were no longer of use, and in the 18th century, with the maintenance of walls, gates and towers becoming more neglected Finally, due to the fact that the funds were lacking, starting in 1800, most towers were demolished, the other buildings followed soon.
Industrial revolution
Before the industrial revolution, Aalen's economy was shaped by its rural setting. Many citizens were pursuing farming besides their craft, such as tanning. In the mid 19th century, there were twelve tanneries in Aalen, due to the proximity of Ulm, an important sales market. Other crafts that added to the economy were weaving mills, which produced linen and woolen goods, and baking of sweet pastry and gingerbread.
In Aalen, industrialisation was a slow process. The first major increase was in the 1840s, when three factories for nails and some other factories emerged. It was the link with the railway network, by the opening of the Rems Railway from Cannstatt to Wasseralfingen in 1861, that brought more industry to Aalen, along with the royal steel mill (later Schwäbische Hüttenwerke) in Wasseralfingen. The Rems Railway's extension to Nördlingen in 1863, the opening of the Brenz Railway in 1864 and of the Upper Jagst Railway in 1866 turned Aalen into a railway hub. Furthermore, between 1901 and its shutdown in 1972, the Härtsfeld Railway connected Aalen with Dillingen an der Donau via Neresheim. Part of becoming a rail hub entailed more jobs based on the rail industry. These included, a maintenance facility, a roundhouse, an administrative office, two track maintenance shops, and a freight station with an industrial branch line. This helped shape Aalen into what today's historians call a "railwayman's town". Starting in 1866, the utilities in town all began to be upgraded. Starting with the Aalen gasworks which were opened and gas lighting was introduced. Then in 1870, a modern water supply system was started and in 1912 the mains electricity. Finally, in 1935, the first electrically powered street lights were installed.
To fight housing shortage during and immediately after World War I, the town set up barracks settlement areas at the Schlauch and Alter Turnplatz grounds. In spite of the industry being crippled by the Great Depression of 1929, the public baths at the Hirschbach creek where modernized, extended and re-opened in 1931.
Nazi era
In the federal election of 1932, the Nazi Party performed below average in Aalen with 25.8% of votes compared to 33.1% on the national level, thus finishing second to the Centre Party which had 26.6% (11.9% nationwide) of the votes, and ahead of the Social Democratic Party of Germany with 19.8% (20.4%). However, the March 1933 federal elections showed that the sentiment had changed as the Nazi Party received 34.1% (still below German average 43.9% nationwide), but by far the leading vote-getter in Aalen, followed by the Centre party at 26.6% (11.3% nationwide) and the Social Democrats 18.6% (18.3% nationwide).
The democratically elected mayor Friedrich Schwarz remained in office until the Nazis removed him from office, in 1934, and replaced him by chairman of the Nazi Party town council head and brewery owner Karl Barth. Karl Barth was a provisional mayor until the more permanent solution of Karl Schübel. In August 1934, the Nazi consumer fair Braune Messe ("brown fair") was held in Aalen.
During Nazi rule in Germany, there were many military offices constructed in Aalen, starting with, in 1936, a military district riding and driving school for Wehrkreis V. The Nazis also built an army replenishment office (Heeresverpflegungsamt), a branch arsenal office (Heeresnebenzeugamt) and a branch army ammunitions institute (Heeresnebenmunitionsanstalt).
Starting in 1935, mergers of neighbouring towns began. In 1938, the Oberamt was transformed into the Landkreis of Aalen and the municipality of Unterrombach was disbanded. Its territory was mostly added to Aalen, with the exception of Hammerstadt, which was added to the municipality of Dewangen. Forst, Rauental and Vogelsang were added to Essingen (in 1952 the entire former municipality of Unterrombach was merged into Aalen, with the exception of Forst, which is part of Essingen until present).
In September 1944, the Wiesendorf concentration camp, a subcamp of Natzweiler-Struthof, was constructed nearby. It was designated for between 200 and 300 prisoners who were utilized for forced labor in industrial businesses nearby. Until the camp's dissolution in February 1945, 60 prisoners died. Between 1946 and 1957, the camp buildings were torn down; however, its foundations are still in place in house Moltkestraße 44/46. Also, there were several other labour camps which existed where prisoners of war along with women and men from occupied countries occupied by Germany were pooled. The prisoners at these other camps had to work for the arms industry in major businesses like Schwäbische Hüttenwerke and the Alfing Keßler machine factory.
In the civic hospital, the deaconesses on duty were gradually replaced by National Socialist People's Welfare nurses. Nazi eugenics led to compulsory sterilization of some 200 persons there.
Fortunately, Aalen avoided most of the combat activity during World War II. It was only during the last weeks of the war that Aalen became a target of air warfare, which led to the destruction and severe damage of parts of the town, the train station, and other railway installations. A series of air attacks lasting for more than three weeks reached its peak on 17 April 1945, when United States Army Air Forces planes bombed the branch arsenal office and the train station. During this raid, 59 people were killed, more than half of them buried by debris, and more than 500 lost their homes. Also, 33 residential buildings, 12 other buildings and 2 bridges were destroyed, and 163 buildings, including 2 churches, were damaged. Five days later, the Nazi rulers of Aalen were unseated by the US forces.
Post-war era
Aalen became part of the State of Baden-Württemberg, upon its creation in 1952. Then, with the Baden-Württemberg territorial reform of 1973, the District of Aalen was merged into the Ostalbkreis district. Subsequently, Aalen became seat of that district, and in 1975, the town's borough attained its present size (see below).
The population of Aalen exceeded the limit of 20,000, which was the requirement for to gain the status of Große Kreisstadt ("major district town") in 1946. On 1 August 1947, Aalen was declared Unmittelbare Kreisstadt ("immediate district town"), and with the creation of the Gemeindeordnung (municipal code) of Baden-Württemberg on 1 April 1956, it was declared Große Kreisstadt.
Religions
On 31 December 2008, 51.1 percent of Aalen were members of the Catholic Church, 23.9 percent were members of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. About 25 percent belong to other or no religious community or gave no information. The district of Waldhausen was the district with the highest percentage of Roman Catholic inhabitants at 75.6 percent, and the central district was the one with the highest percentage of Evangelical-Lutheran inhabitants at 25.6 percent, as well as those claiming no religious preference at 32.5 percent.
Protestantism
Aalen's population originally was subject to the jus patronatus of Ellwangen Abbey, and thus subject to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Augsburg.
With the assistance of the Duke of Württemberg, in 1575, the reformation was implemented in Aalen. Subsequently, Aalen has been a predominantly Protestant town for centuries, with the exception of the years from 1628 until 1632 (see reformation section). Being an Imperial City, Aalen could govern its clerical matters on its own, so Clerics, organists and choir masters were direct subjects to the council, which thus exerted bishop-like power. There was even a proper hymn book for Aalen. After the transition to Württemberg, in 1803, Aalen became seat of a deanery, with the dean church being the Town Church (with the building constructed from 1765 to 1767 and existing until present). Another popular church is St. John's Church, located on the cemetery and refurbished in 1561.
As Aalen's population grew in the 20th century, more parishes were founded: St. Mark's parish with its church building of 1967 and St. Martin's parish with its church of 1974. In the borough of Unterrombach, Aalen had implemented the reformation as well, but the community remained a chapel-of-ease of Aalen. A proper church, the Christ Church, was erected in 1912 and a proper parish was established in 1947. In Fachsenfeld, the ruling family of Woellwarth resp. of Leinroden implemented the reformation. A parish church was built in 1591, however with an influx of Catholics in the 18th century, a Catholic majority was established. The other districts of present-day Aalen remained mostly catholic after the reformation, however Wasseralfingen established a Lutheran parish in 1891 and a church, St. Magdalene's Church, in 1893. In Unterkochen, after World War II, a parish was established and a church was built in 1960. All four parishes belong to the deanery of Aalen within the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg. Furthermore, in Aalen there are Old Pietistic communities.
Catholicism
The few Catholics of today's central district were covered by the parish of Unterkochen until the 19th century, a situation which continued for some years even after completion of St. Mary's Church in 1868, which was constructed by Georg Morlok. However, in 1872 Aalen got its proper parish again, and in 1913, a second Catholic church, Salvator's Church, was completed, and in 1969 the Holy Cross Church was also finished. In 1963, a second parish was set up, and in 1972 it got a new Church, the new St. Mary's Church, which has been erected in place of the old St. Mary's church, which had been torn down in 1968. Another church of the second parish was St. Augustine's Church, which was completed in 1970. Finally, in 1976 and 1988, St. Elizabeth's Church and St. Thomas' Church were completed. Furthermore, in 1963, the St. Michael pastoral care office was built.
Hofherrnweiler has its own Catholic church, St. Boniface's, since 1904. The villages of Dewangen, Ebnat, Hofen, Waldhausen and Wasseralfingen had remained Catholic after reformation, so old parishes and churches persist there. The Assumption of Mary Church in Dewangen has an early Gothic tower and a newly built nave (1875). Mary's Immaculate Conception Church in Ebnat was constructed in 1723; however the church was first mentioned in 1298.
Hofen's Saint George's Church is a fortified church, whose current nave was built between 1762 and 1775. Alongside the church, the Late Gothic St. Odile's Chapel is standing, whose entrance has the year 1462 engraved upon it. Foundations of prior buildings have been dated to the 11th and 13th century.
St. Mary's Church of Unterkochen was first mentioned in 1248, and has served the Catholics of Aalen for a long time. Waldhausen's parish church of St. Nicholas was built between 1699 and 1716. Wasseralfingen at first was a chapel of ease for Hofen, but has since had its own chapel, St. Stephen, built. It was presumably built in 1353 and remodeled in 1832. In 1834, a proper parish was established, which built a new St. Stephen's Church. This new building utilized the Romanesque Revival architecture style and was built between 1881 and 1883, and has since remained the parish's landmark. Also, Fachsenfeld received its own church, named Sacred Heart in 1895. All Catholic parishes within Aalen are today incorporated into four pastoral care units within the Ostalb Deanery of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart; however these units also comprise some parishes outside of Aalen. Pastoral Care Unit two comprises the parishes of Essingen, Dewangen and Fachsenfeld, unit four comprises Hofen and Wasseralfingen, unit five comprises both parishes of Aalen's centre and Hofherrnweiler, unit five comprises Waldhausen, Ebnat, Oberkochen and Unterkochen.
Other Christian communities
In addition to the two major religions within Aalen, there are also free churches and other communities, including the United Methodist Church, the Baptists, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the New Apostolic Church.
Other religions
Until the late 19th century, no Jews were documented within Aalen. In 1886 there were four Jews were living in Aalen, a number that rose to ten in 1900, fell to seven in 1905, and remained so until 1925. Upon the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, seven Jews, including two children, lived in Aalen. During the Kristallnacht in 1938, the vitrines of the three Jewish shops in the town were smashed and their proprietors imprisoned for several weeks. After their release, most Aalen Jews emigrated. The last Jews of Aalen, Fanny Kahn, was forcibly resettled to Oberdorf am Ipf, which had a large Jewish community. Today, a street of Aalen is named after her. The Jew Max Pfeffer returned from Brussels to Aalen in 1948 to continue his shop, but emigrated to Italy in 1967.
In Aalen, there is an Islamic Ditib community, which maintains the D.I.T.I.B. Mosque of Aalen (Central Mosque) located at Ulmer Straße. The mosque's construction started on 30 August 2008. The Islamist Millî Görüş organisation maintains the Fatih Mosque, as well at Ulmer Straße.
Mergings
The present-day make up of Aalen was created on 21 June 1975 by the unification of the cities of Aalen and Wasseralfingen, with the initial name of Aalen-Wasseralfingen. This annexation made Aalen's territory one third larger than its prior size. On 1 July 1975, the name Aalen was revived. Prior to this merger, the town of Aalen had already annexed the following municipalities:
1938: Unterrombach
1 January 1970: Waldhausen
1 July 1972: Ebnat
1 January 1973: Dewangen, Fachsenfeld (including the village of Hangendenbach, which was transferred from Abtsgmünd in 1954) and Unterkochen. The merging of Dewangen nearly doubled the territory of Aalen.
Population's progression and structure
During the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Aalen was just a small town with a few hundred inhabitants. The population grew slowly due to numerous wars, famines and epidemics. It was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century where Aalen's growth accelerated. Whereas in 1803, only 1,932 people inhabited the town, in 1905 it had already increased to 10,442. The number continued to rise and reached 15,890 in 1939.
The influx of refugees and ethnic Germans from Germany's former eastern territories after World War II pushed the population to 31,814 in 1961. The merger with Wasseralfingen on 21 June 1975 added 14,597 persons and resulted in a total population of 65,165 people. On 30 June 2005, the population, which was officially determined by the Statistical Office of Baden-Württemberg, was 67,125.
The following overview shows how the population figures of the borough were ascertained. Until 1823, the figures are mostly estimates, thereafter census results or official updates by the state statistical office. Starting in 1871, the figures were determined by non-uniform method of tabulation using extrapolation.
¹ Census result
On 31 December 2008, Aalen had precisely 66,058 inhabitants, of which 33,579 were female and 32,479 were male. The average age of Aalen's inhabitants rose from 40.5 years in 2000 to 42.4 in 2008. Within the borough, 6,312 foreigners resided, which is 9.56 percent. Of them, the largest percentage are from Turkey (38 percent of all foreigners), the second largest group are from Italy (13 percent), followed by Croatians (6 percent) and Serbs (5 percent).
The number of married residents fell from 32,948 in 1996 to 31,357 in 2007, while the number of divorced residents rose in the same period from 2,625 to 3,859. The number of single residents slightly increased between 1996 and 2004 from 25,902 to 26,268 and fell slightly until 2007 to 26,147. The number of widowed residents fell from 5,036 in 1996 to 4,783 in 2007.
Politics
Aalen has arranged a municipal association with Essingen and Hüttlingen.
Council
Since the local election of 25 May 2014, the town council consists of 51 representatives having a term of five years. The seats are distributed as follows on parties and groups (changes refer to the second last election of 2004):
Mayors
Since 1374, the mayor and the council maintain the government of the town. In the 16th century, the town had two, sometimes three mayors, and in 1552, the council had 13 members. Later, the head of the administration was reorganized several times. In the Württemberg era, the mayor's title was initially called Bürgermeister, then from 1819 it was Schultheiß, and since 1947 it is Oberbürgermeister. The mayor is elected for a term of eight years, and he is chairman and a voting member of the council. He has one deputy with the official title of Erster Bürgermeister ("first mayor") and one with the official title of Bürgermeister ("mayor").
Heads of town in Aalen since 1802
1802–: Theodor Betzler
1812–1819: Ludwig Hölder
1819–1829: Theodor Betzler
1829: Palm
1829–1848: Philipp Ehmann
1848–1873: Gustav Oesterlein
1873–1900: Julius Bausch
1900–1902: Paul Maier
1903–1934: Friedrich Schwarz
1935–1945: Karl Schübel (NSDAP)
1945–1950: Otto Balluff
1950–1975: Karl Schübel (independent)
1976–2005: Ulrich Pfeifle (SPD)
2005–2013: Martin Gerlach (independent)
2013–2021: Thilo Rentschler (SPD)
2021–: Frederick Brütting (SPD)
Coat of arms and flag
Aalen's coat of arms depicts a black eagle with a red tongue on golden background, having a red shield on its breast with a bent silver eel on it. Eagle and eel were first acknowledged as Aalen's heraldic animals in the seal of 1385, with the eagle representing the town's imperial immediacy. After the territorial reform, it was bestowed again by the Administrative District of Stuttgart on 16 November 1976.
The coat of arms' blazon reads: "In gold, the black imperial eagle, with a red breast shield applied to it, therein a bent silver eel" (In Gold der schwarze Reichsadler, belegt mit einem roten Brustschild, darin ein gekrümmter silberner Aal).
Aalen's flag is striped in red and white and contains the coat of arms.
The origin of the town's name is uncertain. Matthäus Merian (1593–1650) presumed the name to originate from its location at the Kocher river, where "frequently eels are caught", while Aal is German for "eel". Other explanations point to Aalen as the garrison of an ala during the Roman empire, respectively to an abridgement of the Roman name "Aquileia" as a potential name of the Roman fort, a name that nearby Heidenheim an der Brenz bore as well. Another interpretation points to a Celtic word aa meaning "water".
Godparenthood
On the occasion of the 1980 Reichsstädter Tage, Aalen took over godparenthood for the more than 3000 ethnic Germans displaced from the Wischau linguistic enclave. 972 of them settled in Aalen in 1946. The "Wischau Linguistic Enclave Society" (Gemeinschaft Wischauer Sprachinsel) regularly organises commemorative meetings in Aalen. Their traditional costumes are stored in the Old Town Hall.
Municipal finances
According to the 2007 municipal poll by the Baden-Württemberg chapter of the German Taxpayers Federation, municipal tax revenues totalling to 54,755 million Euros (2006) resp. 62,148 million Euros (2007) face the following debts:
2006 total: 109.9 million Euros debts (64.639 million of the finance department and 48.508 million of the municipal enterprises and fund assets)
2007 total: 114.5 million Euros debts (69.448 million of the finance department and 45.052 million of the municipal enterprises and fund assets)
Twin towns – sister cities
Aalen is twinned with:
Saint-Lô, France (1978)
Christchurch, United Kingdom (1981)
Tatabánya, Hungary (1987)
Antakya, Turkey (1995); initiated by Ismail Demirtas, who emigrated in 1962 from Turkey to Aalen and was social adviser for foreign employees
Cervia, Italy (2011)
Vilankulo, Mozambique (2018)
The "Twin Towns Society of Aalen" (Städtepartnerschaftsverein Aalen e. V.) promotes friendly relations between Aalen and its twin towns, which comprises mutual exchanges of sports and cultural clubs, schools and other civic institutions. On the occasion of the Reichsstädter Tage, from 11 until 13 September 2009 the first conference of twin towns was held.
Culture and sights
Theatre
The Theater der Stadt Aalen theatre was founded in 1991 and stages 400 to 500 performances a year.
Schubart Literary Award
The town endowed the "Schubart Literary Award" (Schubart-Literaturpreis) in 1955 in tribute to Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, who spent his childhood and youth in Aalen. It is one of the earliest literary awards in Baden-Württemberg and is awarded biennially to German-language writers whose work coincide with Schubart's "liberal and enlightened reasoning". It is compensated with 12,000 Euros.
Music
Founded in 1958, the "Music School of the Town of Aalen" today has about 1,500 students taught by 27 music instructors in 30 subjects. In 1977, a symphony orchestra was founded in Aalen, which today is called Aalener Sinfonieorchester, and consists mostly of instructors and students of the music school. It performs three public concerts annually: The "New Year's Concert" in January, the "Symphony Concert" in July and a "Christmas Concert" in December. Beyond that, music festivals regularly take place in Aalen, like the Aalen Jazzfest.
The Aalen volunteer fire department has had a marching band since 1952, whose roots date back to 1883. In 1959, the band received its first glockenspiel from TV host Peter Frankenfeld on the occasion of a TV appearance.
A famous German rapper, designer and singer, that goes under the name of Cro, was born in Aalen and lived his early years here.
Arts
The Kunstverein Aalen was founded in 1983 as a non-profit art association and today is located in the Old Town Hall.
The institution with more than 400 members focuses on solo and group exhibitions by international artists. It belongs to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Kunstvereine (ADKV), an umbrella organization for non-profit art associations.
Museums and memorial sites
Museums
In the central district of Aalen, there are two museums: The "Aalen Limes Museum" (Limesmuseum Aalen) is located at the place of the largest Roman cavalry fort north of the Alps until about 200 AD. It opened in 1964. The museum exhibits numerous objects from the Roman era. The ruins of the cavalry fort located beside the museum is open to museum visitors. Every other year, a Roman festival is held in the area of the museum (see below).
In the Geological-Paleontological Museum located in the historic town hall, there are more than 1500 fossils from the Swabian Jura, including ammonites, ichthyosaurs and corals, displayed.
In the Waldhausen district the Heimatstüble museum of local history has an exhibition on agriculture and rural living.
In the Wasseralfingen district, there are two more museums: The Museum Wasseralfingen comprises a local history exhibition and an art gallery including works of Hermann Plock, Helmut Schuster and Sieger Köder. Also, the stove plate collection of the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke steel mill is exhibited, with artists, modellers and the production sequence of a cast plate from design to final product being presented.
Memorial sites
There is memorial stone at the Schillerlinde tree above Wasseralfingen's ore pit dedicated to four prisoners of the subcamp of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp killed there. Also in Wasseralfingen, in the cemetery a memorial with the Polish inscription "To the victims of Hitler" which commemorates the deceased forced labourers buried there.
In 1954, on the Schillerhöhe hill the town erected a bell tower as a memorial to Aalen's victims of both world wars and to the displacement of ethnic Germans. The tower was planned by Emil Leo, the bell was endowed by Carl Schneider. The tower is open on request. Every evening at 18:45 (before 2003: at 19:45), the memorial's bell rings.
Buildings
Churches
The town centre is dominated by the Evangelical-Lutheran St. Nicholas' Church in the heart of the pedestrian area. The church, in its present shape being built between 1765 and 1767, is the only major Late Baroque building in Aalen and is the main church of the Evangelical-Lutheran parish of Aalen.
St. John's Church is located inside of St. John's cemetery in the western centre. The building presumably is from the 9th century and thus is one of Württemberg's oldest existing churches. The interior features frescos from the early 13th century.
For other churches in Aalen, see the Religions section.
Historic Town Hall with "Spy"
The Historic Town Hall was originally built in the 14th century. After the fire of 1634, it was re-constructed in 1636. This building received a clock from Lauterburg, and the Imperial City of Nuremberg donated a Carillon. It features a figurine of the "Spy of Aalen" and historically displayed other figurines, however the latter ones were lost by a fire in 1884. Since then, the Spy resides inside the reconstructed tower and has become a symbol of the town. The building was used as the town hall until 1907. Since 1977, the Geological-Paleontological Museum resides in the Historic Town Hall.
According to legend, the citizens of Aalen owe the "Spy of Aalen" (Spion von Aalen) their town having been spared from destruction by the emperor's army:
The Imperial City of Aalen was once in quarrel with the emperor, and his army was shortly before the gates to take the town. The people of Aalen got scared and thus dispatched their "most cunning" one out into the enemy's camp to spy out the strength of their troops. Without any digression, he went straight into the middle of the enemy camp, which inescapably led to him being seized and presented to the emperor. When the emperor asked him what he had lost here, he answered in Swabian German: "Don't frighten, high lords, I just want to peek how many cannons and other war things you've got, since I am the spy of Aalen". The emperor laughed upon such a blatancy and acted naïvety, steered him all through the camp and then sent him back home. Soon the emperor withdrew with his army as he thought a town such wise guys reside in deserved being spared.
Old Town Hall
The earliest record of the Old Town Hall was in 1575. Its outside wall features the oldest known coat of arms, which is of 1664. Until 1851, the building also housed the Krone-Post hotel, which coincided with being a station of the Thurn und Taxis postal company. It has housed many notable persons. Thus the so-called "Napoleon Window" with its "N" painted on reminds of the stay of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805. According to legend, he rammed his head so hard it bled on this window, when he was startled by the noise of his soldiers ridiculing the "Spy of Aalen". The building was used as Aalen's town hall from 1907 until 1975. Today it houses a cabaret café and the stage of the Theatre of the Town of Aalen. The town has adopted the Wischau Linguistic Enclave Society due to their godparenthood and stores their traditional costumes in the building.
Bürgerspital
The Bürgerspital ("Civic Asylum") is a timber-frame house erected on Spritzenhausplatz ("Fire Engine House Square") in 1702. Until 1873, it was used as civic hospital, then, later as a retirement home. After a comprehensive renovation in 1980 it was turned into a senior citizen's community centre.
Limes-Thermen
On a slope of the Langert mountain, south of the town, the Limes-Thermen ("Limes Thermae") hot springs are located. They were built in ancient Roman style and opened in 1985. The health spa is supplied with water about .
Market square
The market square is the historic hub of Aalen and runs along about from the town hall in the south to the Historic Town Hall and the Old Town Hall in the north, where it empties into Radgasse alley. Since 1809, it is site of the weekly market on Wednesday and Saturday. About in front of the Reichsstädter Brunnen fountain at the town hall, the coats of arms of Aalen, its twinned cities and of the Wischau linguistic enclave are paved into the street as mosaic.
Market fountain
In 1705, for the water supply of Aalen a well casing was erected at the northern point of the market square, in front of the Historic Town Hall. It was a present of duke Eberhard Louis. The fountain bore a statue of emperor Joseph I., who was enthroned in 1705 and in 1707 renewed Aalen's Imperial City privileges. The fountain was supplied via a wooden pipe. Excessive water was dissipated through ditches branched from Kocher river. When in the early 1870s Aalen's water network was constructed, the fountain was replaced by a smaller fountain about distant. In 1975, the old market fountain was re-erected in baroque style. It bears a replica of the emperor's statue, with the original statue exhibited in the new town hall's lobby. The cast iron casing plates depict the 1718 coat of arms of the Duchy of Württemberg and the coats of arms of Aalen and of the merged municipalities.
Reichsstädter Brunnen
The Reichsstädter Brunnen fountain ("Imperial Civic Fountain") is located in front of the town hall at the southern point of the market square. It was created by sculptor Fritz Nuss in 1977 to commemorate Aalen's time as an Imperial City (1360–1803). On its circumference is a frieze showing bronze figurines illustrating the town's history.
Radgasse
The Radgasse ("Wheel Alley") features Aalen's oldest façade. Originally a small pond was on its side. The buildings were erected between 1659 and 1662 for peasants with citizenry privileges and renovated in the mid-1980s. The namesake for the alley was the "Wheel" tavern, which was to be found at the site of today's address Radgasse 15.
Tiefer Stollen
The former iron ore pit Wilhelm at Braunenberg hill was converted into the Tiefer Stollen tourist mine in order to remind of the old-day miners' efforts and to maintain it as a memorial of early industrialisation in the Aalen area. It has a mining museum open for visitors, and a mine railway takes visitors deep into the mountain. The Town of Aalen, a sponsorship association, and many citizens volunteered several thousand hours of labour to put the mine into its current state. As far as possible, things were left in the original state. In 1989, a sanitary gallery was established where respiratory diseases are treated within rest cures. Thus the Aalen village of Röthard, where the gallery is located, was awarded the title of "Place with sanitary gallery service" in 2004.
Observatory
The Aalen Observatory was built in 1969 as school observatory for the Schubart Gymnasium. In 2001, it was converted to a public observatory. Since then, it has been managed by the Astronomische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Aalen ("Aalen Astronomical Society"). It is located on Schillerhöhe hill and features two refractive telescopes. They were manufactured by Carl Zeiss AG which has its headquarters in nearby Oberkochen and operates a manufacturing works in Aalen (see below). In the observatory, guided tours and lectures are held regularly.
Windpark Waldhausen
The Windpark Waldhausen wind farm began operations in early 2007. It consists of seven REpower MM92 wind turbines with a nameplate capacity of 2 MW each. The hub height of each wind turbine is , with a rotor diameter of .
Aalbäumle observation tower
The tall Aalbäumle observation tower is built atop Langert mountain. This popular hiking destination was built in 1898 and was remodelled in 1992. It features a good view over Aalen and the Welland region, up to the Rosenstein mountain and Ellwangen. Beneath the tower, an adventure playground and a cabin is located. A flag on the tower signals whether the cabin's restaurant is open.
Natural monuments
The Baden-Württemberg State Institute for Environment, Measurements and Natural Conservation has laid out six protected landscapes in Aalen (the Swabian Jura escarpment between Lautern and Aalen with adjacent territories, the Swabian Jura escarpment between Unterkochen and Baiershofen, the Hilllands around Hofen, the Kugeltal and Ebnater Tal valleys with parts of Heiligental valley and adjacent territories, Laubachtal valley and Lower Lein Valley with side valleys), two sanctuary forests (Glashütte and Kocher Origin), 65 extensive natural monuments, 30 individual natural monuments and the following two protected areas:
The large Dellenhäule protected area between Aalen's Waldhausen district and Neresheim's Elchingen district, created in 1969, is a sheep pasture with juniper and wood pasture of old willow oaks.
The large Goldshöfer Sande protected area was established in 2000 and is situated between Aalen's Hofen district and Hüttlingen. The sands on the hill originated from the Early Pleistocene are of geological importance, and the various grove structures offer habitat to severely endangered bird species.
Sports
The football team, VfR Aalen, was founded in 1921 and played in the 2nd German League between 2012 and 2015, after which they were relegated to 3. Liga. Its playing venue is the Scholz-Arena situated in the west of the town, which bore the name Städtisches Waldstadion Aalen ("Civic Forest Stadium of Aalen") until 2008. From 1939 until 1945, the VfR played in the Gauliga Württemberg, then one of several parallel top-ranking soccer leagues of Germany.
The KSV Aalen wrestles in the Wrestling Federal League. It was German champion in team wrestling in 2010. Its predecessor, the KSV Germania Aalen disbanded in 2005, was German champion eight times and runner-up five times since 1976. Another Aalen club, the TSV Dewangen, wrestled in the Federal League until 2009.
Two American sports, American Football and Baseball, are pursued by the MTV Aalen. Volleyball has been gaining in popularity in Aalen for years. The first men's team of DJK Aalen accomplished qualification for regional league in the season of 2008/09.
The Ostalb ski lifts are located south of the town centre, at the northern slope of the Swabian Jura. The skiing area comprises two platter lifts that have a vertical rise of , with two runs with lengths of and a beginners' run.
Regular events
Reichsstädter Tage
Since 1975, Reichsstädter Tage ("Imperial City days") festival is held annually in the town centre on the second weekend in September. It is deemed the largest festival of the Ostwürttemberg region, and is associated with a shopping Sunday in accordance with the code. The festival is also attended by delegations from the twinned cities. On the town hall square, on Sunday an ecumenical service is held.
Roman Festival
The international Roman Festival (Römertage) are held biannially on the site of the former Roman fort and the modern Limes museum. The festival's ninth event in 2008 was attended by around 11,000 people.
Aalen Jazz Festival
Annually during the second week of November, the Aalen Jazz Festival brings known and unknown artists to Aalen. It has already featured musicians like Miles Davis, B. B. King, Ray Charles, David Murray, McCoy Tyner, Al Jarreau, Esbjörn Svensson and Albert Mangelsdorff. The festival is complemented by individual concerts in spring and summer, and, including the individual concerts, comprises around 25 concerts with a total of about 13,000 visitors.
Economy and infrastructure
In 2008 there were 30,008 employees liable to social insurance living in Aalen. 13,946 (46.5 percent) were employed in the manufacturing sector, 4,715 (15.7 percent) in commerce, catering, hotels and transport, and 11,306 (37.7 percent) in other services. Annually 16,000 employees commute to work, with about 9,000 living in the town and commuting out.
Altogether in Aalen there are about 4,700 business enterprises, 1,100 of them being registered in the trade register. The others comprise 2,865 small enterprises and 701 craft enterprises.
In Aalen, metalworking is the predominant industry, along with machine-building. Other industries include optics, paper, information technology, chemicals, textiles, medical instruments, pharmaceuticals, and food.
Notable enterprises include SHW Automotive (originating from the former Schwäbische Hüttenwerke steel mills and a mill of 1671 in Wasseralfingen), the Alfing Kessler engineering works, the precision tools manufacturer MAPAL Dr. Kress, the snow chain manufacturer RUD Ketten Rieger & Dietz and its subsidiary Erlau, the Gesenkschmiede Schneider forging die smithery, the SDZ Druck und Medien media company, the Papierfabrik Palm paper mill, the alarm system manufacturer Telenot, the laser show provider LOBO electronic and the textile finisher Lindenfarb, which all have their seat in Aalen. A branch in Aalen is maintained by optical systems manufacturer Carl Zeiss headquartered in nearby Oberkochen.
Transport
Rail
Aalen station is a regional railway hub on the Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt–Nördlingen railway from Stuttgart and , the Aalen–Ulm railway from Ulm and the Goldshöfe–Crailsheim railway to Crailsheim. Until 1972, the Härtsfeld Railway connected Aalen with Dillingen an der Donau via Neresheim. Other railway stations within the town limits are Hofen (b Aalen), Unterkochen, Wasseralfingen and Goldshöfe station. The Aalen-Erlau stop situated in the south is no longer operational.
Aalen station is served at two-hour intervals by trains of Intercity line 61 Karlsruhe–Stuttgart–Aalen–Nuremberg. For regional rail travel, Aalen is served by various lines of the Interregio-Express, Regional-Express and Regionalbahn categories. Since the beginning of 2019, the British company Go-Ahead took over the regional railway business of DB Regio in the region surrounding Aalen. The town also operates the Aalen industrial railway (Industriebahn Aalen), which carries about 250 carloads per year.
Bus
Aalen also is a regional hub in the bus network of OstalbMobil, the transport network of the district Aalen is in. The bus lines are operated and serviced by regional companies like OVA and RBS RegioBus Stuttgart.
Street
The junctions of Aalen/Westhausen and Aalen/Oberkochen connect Aalen with the Autobahn A7 (Würzburg–Füssen). Federal roads (Bundesstraßen) connecting with Aalen are B 19 (Würzburg–Ulm), B 29 (Waiblingen–Nördlingen) and B 290 (Tauberbischofsheim–Westhausen). The Schwäbische Dichterstraße ("Swabian Poets' Route") tourist route established in 1977/78 leads through Aalen.
Several bus lines operate within the borough. The Omnibus-Verkehr Aalen company is one of the few in Germany that use double-decker buses, it has done so since 1966. A district-wide fare system, OstalbMobil, has been in effect since 2007.
Air transport
Stuttgart Airport, offering international connections, is about away, the travel time by train is about 100 Minutes. At Aalen-Heidenheim Airport, located south-east of Aalen, small aircraft are permitted. Gliding airfields nearby are in Heubach and Bartholomä.
Bicycle
Bicycle routes stretching through Aalen are the Deutscher Limes-Radweg ("German Limes Bicycle Route") and the Kocher-Jagst Bicycle Route.
Public facilities
Aalen houses an Amtsgericht (local district court), chambers of the Stuttgart Labour Court, a notary's office, a tax office and an employment agency. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district office, of the Aalen Deanery of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church and of the Ostalb deanery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
The Stuttgart administrative court, the Stuttgart Labour Court and the Ulm Social Welfare Court are in charge for Aalen.
Aalen had a civic hospital, which resided in the Bürgerspital building until 1873, then in a building at Alte Heidenheimer Straße. In 1942, the hospital was taken over by the district. The district hospital at the present site of Kälblesrain, known today as Ostalb-Klinikum, was opened in 1955.
Media
The first local newspaper, Der Bote von Aalen ("The Herald of Aalen"), has been published on Wednesdays and Saturdays since 1837.
Currently, local newspapers published in Aalen are the Schwäbische Post, which obtains its supra-regional pages from the Ulm-based Südwestpresse, and the Aalener Nachrichten (erstwhile Aalener Volkszeitung), a local edition of Schwäbische Zeitung in Leutkirch im Allgäu.
Two of Germany's biggest Lesezirkels (magazine rental services) are headquartered in Aalen: Brabandt LZ Plus Media and Lesezirkel Portal.
Regional event magazines are Xaver, åla, ålakultur.
The commercial broadcasters Radio Ton and Radio 7 have studios in Aalen.
Education
A Latin school was first recorded in Aalen in 1447; it was remodeled in 1616 and also later in various buildings that were all situated near the town church, and continued up through the 19th century. In the course of the reformation, a "German school" was established in tandem, being a predecessor of the latter Volksschule school type. In 1860, the Ritterschule was built as a Volksschule for girls; the building today houses the Pestalozzischule. In 1866, a new building was erected for the Latin school and for the Realschule established in 1840. This building, later known as the Alte Gewerbeschule, was torn down in 1975 to free up land for the new town hall. In 1912, the Parkschule building was opened. It was designed by Paul Bonatz and today houses the Schubart-Gymnasium.
The biggest educational institution in the town is the Hochschule Aalen, which was founded in 1962 and focuses on engineering and economics. It is attended by 5000 students on five campuses and employs 129 professors and 130 other lecturers.
The town provides three Gymnasiums, four Realschulen, two Förderschulen (special schools), six combined Grundschulen and Hauptschulen and eight standalone Grundschulen. The Ostalbkreis district provides three vocational schools and three additional special schools. Finally, six non-state schools of various types exist.
The German Esperanto Library (German: Deutsche Esperanto-Bibliothek, Esperanto: Germana Esperanto-Biblioteko) has been located in the building of the town library since 1989.
TV and radio transmission tower
The Südwestrundfunk broadcasting company operates the Aalen transmission tower on the Braunenberg hill. The tower was erected in 1956, it is tall and made of reinforced concrete.
Things named after Aalen
The following vehicles are named "Aalen":
The Lufthansa Boeing 737-500 D-ABJF
The Deutsche Bahn ICE 3 Tz309 (since 2 June 2008)
Notable people
Honorary citizens
Ruland Ayßlinger, composer
Erwin Rommel (1891–1944), Field Marshal of World War II, grew up in Aalen
Paul Edel
Wilhelm Jakob Schweiker (1859–1927), founder of the Aalen Historical Society (Geschichts- und Altertumsverein Aalen) and name giver of the Wilhelm Jakob Schweiker Award
Ulrich Pfeifle, Mayor of Aalen from 1976 until 2005
Persons born in Aalen
Johann Christoph von Westerstetten (1563–1637), Bishop of Eichstätt and counter-reformer
Karl Joseph von Hefele (1809–1893), Roman Catholic theologian, clerical historian and bishop
Karl Wahl (1892–1981), Gauleiter of Swabia, Obergruppenführer
Kurt Jooss (1901–1979), born in Wasseralfingen; dancer, choreographer and dance educator
August Zehender (1903–1945), SS Brigade Commander and Major General of the Waffen-SS
Paul Buck (1911–2006), piano teacher
Bruno Heck (1917–1989), politician of the CDU, former minister of the federal government and CDU secretary general
Hermann Bausinger (1926-2021), cultural scientist
Alfred Bachofer (born 1942), former Lord Mayor of Nürtingen
Walter Adams (born 1945 in Wasseralfingen), middle-distance runner
Ivo Holzinger (born 1948), politician (SPD), Lord Mayor of Memmingen (since 1980)
Werner Sobek (born 1953), architect and structural engineer
Ludwig Leinhos (born 1956), major general of the Bundesluftwaffe
Bernd Hitzler (born 1957), politician, (CDU), Member of Landtag
Martin Gerlach (born 1965), independent politician, mayor of Aalen (2005-2013)
Thomas Zander (born 1967), wrestler, winner of Olympic silver medal and world champion (1994)
Carl-Uwe Steeb (born 1967), retired tennis player
Katrin Bauerfeind (born 1982), radio and TV-presenter
Manuel Fischer (born 1989), footballer
Patrick Funk (born 1990), footballer
Cro (born 1990), Carlo Waibel, singer
Other
Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739–1791), poet, organ player, composer and journalist; lived in Aalen as a child and adolescent
Rudolf Duala Manga Bell (1873–1914), King of Duala and resistance leader in the German colony of Kamerun, lived in Aalen from 1891 until 1896.
Georg Elser (1903–1945), opponent of Nazism, worked in 1923 as an apprentice carpenter in Aalen.
Werner Bickelhaupt (born 1939), football coach, lives in Aalen since 2004.
Gerhard Thiele (born 1953 in Heidenheim), physicist and former astronaut, attended school in Aalen.
Andreas Beck (born 1987 in Kemerovo/Soviet Union), German footballer, grew up in Aalen.
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Town of Aalen's website
Geographical information system of the town of Aalen (in German)
Towns in Baden-Württemberg
Ostalbkreis
150s establishments in the Roman Empire
260s disestablishments in the Roman Empire
Populated places established in the 7th century
7th-century establishments in Germany
States and territories established in 1360
1360s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
1360 establishments in Europe
States and territories disestablished in the 1800s
1803 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Free imperial cities
Württemberg
Holocaust locations in Germany |
2383 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois%20Alzheimer | Alois Alzheimer | Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin would later identify as Alzheimer's disease.
Early life and education
Alzheimer was born in Marktbreit, Bavaria, on 14 June 1864, the son of Anna Johanna Barbara Sabina and Eduard Román Alzheimer. His father served in the office of notary public in the family's hometown. The family was devoutly Catholic.
The Alzheimers moved to Aschaffenburg when Alois was still young in order to give their children an opportunity to attend the Royal Humanistic Gymnasium. After graduating with Abitur in 1883, Alzheimer studied medicine at University of Berlin, University of Tübingen, and University of Würzburg. In his final year at university, he was a member of a fencing fraternity, and even received a fine for disturbing the peace while out with his team. In 1887, Alzheimer graduated from Würzburg as Doctor of Medicine.
Career
In 1888, Alzheimer spent five months assisting mentally ill women before he took an office in the city mental asylum in Frankfurt, the Städtische Anstalt für Irre und Epileptische (Asylum for Lunatics and Epileptics). , a noted psychiatrist, was the dean of the asylum. Another neurologist, Franz Nissl, began to work in the same asylum with Alzheimer. Together, they conducted research on the pathology of the nervous system, specifically the normal and pathological anatomy of the cerebral cortex. Alzheimer was the co-founder and co-publisher of the journal Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, though he never wrote a book that he could call his own.
While at the Frankfurt asylum, Alzheimer also met Emil Kraepelin, one of the best-known German psychiatrists of the time. Kraepelin became a mentor to Alzheimer, and the two worked very closely for the next several years. When Kraepelin moved to Munich to work at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital in 1903, he invited Alzheimer to join him.
At the time, Kraepelin was doing clinical research on psychosis in senile patients; Alzheimer, on the other hand, was more interested in the lab work of senile illnesses. The two men would face many challenges involving the politics of the psychiatric community. For example, both formal and informal arrangements would be made among psychiatrists at asylums and universities to receive cadavers.
Among the doctors trained by Alois Alzheimer and Emil Kraepelin at Munich in the beginning of the 20th century were the Spanish neuropathologists Nicolás Achúcarro and Gonzalo Rodríguez Lafora, two distinguished disciples of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and members of the Spanish Neurological School. Alzheimer recommended the young and brilliant Nicolás Achúcarro to organize the neuropathological service at the Government Hospital for the Insane, at Washington D.C. (current, NIH), and after two years of work, he was substituted by Gonzalo Rodríguez Lafora.
In 1904, Alzheimer completed his habilitation at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he was appointed as a professor in 1908. Afterwards, he left Munich for the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau in 1912, where he accepted a post as professor of psychiatry and director of the Neurologic and Psychiatric Institute. His health deteriorated shortly after his arrival so that he was hospitalized. Alzheimer died three years later.
Alzheimer was known for having a variety of medical interests including vascular diseases of the brain, early dementia, brain tumors, forensic psychiatry and epilepsy.
Auguste Deter
In 1901, Alzheimer observed a patient at the Frankfurt asylum named Auguste Deter. The 51-year-old patient had strange behavioral symptoms, including a loss of short-term memory; she became his obsession over the coming years. Auguste Deter was a victim of the politics of the time in the psychiatric community; the Frankfurt asylum was too expensive for her husband. Herr Deter made several requests to have his wife moved to a less expensive facility, but Alzheimer intervened in these requests. Frau Deter, as she was known, remained at the Frankfurt asylum, where Alzheimer had made a deal to receive her records and brain upon her death, paying for the remainder of her stay in return.
On 8 April 1906, Frau Deter died, and Alzheimer had her medical records and brain brought to Munich where he was working in Kraepelin's laboratory. With two Italian physicians, he used the newly developed Bielschowsky stain to identify amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These brain anomalies would become identifiers of what later became known as Alzheimer's disease.
On 3November 1906 Alzheimer discussed his findings on the brain pathology and symptoms of presenile dementia publicly, at the Tübingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists. The attendees at this lecture seemed uninterested in what he had to say. The lecturer that followed Alzheimer was to speak on the topic of "compulsive masturbation", which the audience of 88 individuals was so eagerly awaiting that they sent Alzheimer away without any questions or comments on his discovery of the pathology of a type of senile dementia.
Following his presentation, Alzheimer published a short paper summarizing his presentation; in 1907 he wrote a longer paper detailing the disease and his findings. The disease would not become known as Alzheimer's disease until 1910, when Kraepelin named it so in the chapter on "Presenile and Senile Dementia" in the 8th edition of his Handbook of Psychiatry. By 1911, his description of the disease was being used by European physicians to diagnose patients in the US.
Personal life and death
In 1894, Alzheimer married Cecilie Simonette Nathalie Geisenheimer, with whom he had three children. Geisenheimer died in 1901.
In August 1912, Alzheimer fell ill on the train on his way to the University of Breslau, where he had been appointed professor of psychiatry in July 1912. Most probably he had a streptococcal infection and subsequent rheumatic fever leading to valvular heart disease, heart failure and kidney failure. He did not recover completely from this illness.
He died of heart failure on 19 December 1915 at age 51, in Breslau, Silesia (present-day Wrocław, Poland). He was buried on 23 December 1915 next to his wife at the Frankfurt Main Cemetery.
Contemporaries
American Solomon Carter Fuller gave a report similar to that of Alzheimer at a lecture five months before Alzheimer. Oskar Fischer was a fellow German psychiatrist, 12 years Alzheimer's junior, who reported 12 cases of senile dementia in 1907 around the time that Alzheimer published his short paper summarizing his presentation.
Alzheimer and Fischer had different interpretations of the disease, but owing to Alzheimer's short life, they never had the opportunity to meet and discuss their ideas.
Critics and rediscovery
In the early 1990s, critics began to question Alzheimer's findings and form their own hypotheses based on Alzheimer's notes and papers. Amaducci and colleagues hypothesized that Auguste Deter had metachromatic leukodystrophy, a rare condition in which accumulations of fats affect the cells that produce myelin. Claire O'Brien, meanwhile, hypothesized that Auguste Deter actually had a vascular dementing disease.
See also
Gaetano Perusini
German inventors and discoverers
References
External links
Alzheimer's: 100 years on
Alois Alzheimer's Biography, International Brain Research Organization
Bibliography of secondary sources on Alois Alzheimer and Alzheimer's disease, selected from peer-reviewed journals
Graeber Manuel B. "Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915)", International Brain Research Organization
1864 births
1915 deaths
People from Marktbreit
Physicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German neuroscientists
German Roman Catholics
Alzheimer's disease
German psychiatrists
Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery
Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Academic staff of the University of Breslau
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
University of Tübingen alumni
University of Würzburg alumni |
2384 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedile | Aedile | Aedile ( , , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order and duties to ensure the city of Rome was well supplied and its civil infrastructure well maintained, akin to modern local government.
There were two pairs of aediles: the first were the "plebeian aediles" (Latin: aediles plebis) and possession of this office was limited to plebeians; the other two were "curule aediles" (Latin: aediles curules), open to both plebeians and patricians, in alternating years. An aedilis curulis was classified as a magister curulis.
The office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the cursus honorum to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a compulsory part of the cursus, and hence a former quaestor could be elected to the praetorship without having held the position of aedile. However, it was an advantageous position to hold because it demonstrated the aspiring politician's commitment to public service, as well as giving him the opportunity to hold public festivals and games, an excellent way to increase his name recognition and popularity.
History of the office
Plebeian aediles
The plebeian aediles were created in the same year as the tribune of the plebs (494 BC). Originally intended as assistants to the tribunes, they guarded the rights of the plebeians with respect to their headquarters, the Temple of Ceres. Subsequently, they assumed responsibility for maintenance of the city's buildings as a whole. Their duties at first were simply ministerial. They were the assistants to the tribunes in whatever matters that the tribunes might entrust to them, although most matters with which they were entrusted were of minimal importance.
Around 446 BC, they were given the authority to care for the decrees of the Senate. When a senatus consultum was passed, it would be transcribed into a document and deposited in the public treasury, the Aerarium. They were given this power because the consuls, who had held this power before, arbitrarily suppressed and altered the documents. They also maintained the acts of the Plebeian Council (People's Assembly), the "plebiscites". Plebiscites, once passed, were also transcribed into a physical document for storage. While their powers grew over time, it is not always easy to distinguish the difference between their powers, and those of the censors. Occasionally, if a censor was unable to carry out one of his tasks, an aedile would perform the task instead.
Curule aediles
According to Livy (vi. 42), after the passing of the Licinian rogations in 367 BC, an extra day was added to the Roman games; the plebeian aediles refused to bear the additional expense, whereupon the patricians offered to undertake it, on condition that they were admitted to the aedileship. The plebeians accepted the offer, and accordingly two curule aediles were appointed—at first from the patricians alone, then from patricians and plebeians in turn, lastly, from either—at the Tribal Assembly under the presidency of the consul. Curule aediles, as formal magistrates, held certain honors that plebeian aediles (who were not technically magistrates), did not hold.
Besides having the right to sit on a curule seat (sella curulis) and to wear a toga praetexta, the curule aediles also held the power to issue edicts (jus edicendi). These edicts often pertained to matters such as the regulation of the public markets, or what we might call "economic regulation". Livy suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that both curule as well as plebeian Aediles were sacrosanct. Although the curule aediles always ranked higher than the plebeian, their functions gradually approximated and became practically identical. Within five days after the beginning of their terms, the four aediles (two plebeian, two curule) were required to determine, by lot or by agreement among themselves, what parts of the city each should hold jurisdiction over.
Differences between the two
There was a distinction between the two sets of aediles when it came to public festivals. Some festivals were plebeian in nature, and thus were under the superintendence of plebeian aediles. Other festivals were supervised exclusively by the curule aediles, and it was often with these festivals that the aediles would spend lavishly. This was often done to secure voters' support in future elections. Because aediles were not reimbursed for public expenditures, most individuals seeking the office were independently wealthy. Since this office was a stepping stone to higher office and the Senate, it helped to ensure that only wealthy individuals (mostly landowners) would win election to high office. These extravagant expenditures began shortly after the end of Second Punic War, and increased as the spoils returned from Rome's new eastern conquests. Even the decadence of the emperors rarely surpassed that of the aediles under the Republic, as could have been seen during Julius Caesar's aedileship.
Election to the office
Plebeian aediles and Curule aediles were elected by the Tribal Assembly. Since the plebeian aediles were elected by the plebeians rather than by all of the people of Rome (plebeians as well as patricians), they were not technically magistrates. Before the passage of the Lex Villia Annalis, individuals could run for the aedileship by the time they turned twenty-seven. After the passage of this law in 180 BC, a higher age was set, probably thirty-six. By the 1st century BC, aediles were elected in July, and took office on the first day in January.
Powers of the office
Cicero (Legg. iii. 3, 7) divides these functions under three heads:
(1) Care of the city:
the repair and preservation of temples, sewers and aqueducts; street cleansing and paving; regulations regarding traffic, dangerous animals and dilapidated buildings; precautions against fire; superintendence of baths and taverns; enforcement of sumptuary laws; punishment of gamblers and usurers; the care of public morals generally, including the prevention of foreign superstitions and the registration of meretrices. They also punished those who had too large a share of the ager publicus, or kept too many cattle on the state pastures.
(2) Care of provisions:
investigation of the quality of the articles supplied and the correctness of weights and measures; the purchase of grain for disposal at a low price in case of necessity.
(3) Care of the games:
superintendence and organization of the public games, as well as of those given by themselves and private individuals (e.g., at funerals) at their own expense.
Ambitious persons often spent enormous sums in this manner to win the popular favor with a view to official advancement.
Under the Empire
In 44 BC, Julius Caesar added two plebeian aediles called cereales, whose special duty was the care of the cereal (grain) supply. Under Augustus the office lost much of its importance, its judicial functions and the care of the games being transferred to the praetor, while its city responsibilities were limited by the appointment of an urban prefect. Augustus took for himself its powers over various religious duties. By stripping it of its powers over temples, he effectively destroyed the office, by taking from it its original function. After this point, few people were willing to hold such a powerless office, and Augustus was even known to compel individuals into holding the office. He accomplished this by randomly selecting former tribunes and quaestors for the office. Future emperors would continue to dilute the power of the office by transferring its powers to newly created offices. However, the office did retain some powers over licentiousness and disorder, in particular over the baths and brothels, as well as the registration of prostitutes. In the 3rd century, it disappeared altogether.
Under the Empire, Roman colonies and cities often had officials with powers similar to those of the republican aediles, although their powers widely varied. It seems as though they were usually chosen annually.
Modern day
Today in Portugal the county mayor can still be referred to as edil (e.g. 'O edil de Coimbra', meaning 'the mayor of Coimbra'), a way of reference used also in Brazil and in Romania for any mayors (ex. 'Edil al Bucureștiului', meaning 'mayor of Bucharest'). In Spain (and Latin America) the members of municipal councils are called concejales or ediles.
Shakespeare
In his play Coriolanus, Shakespeare references the aediles. However, they are minor characters, and their chief role is to serve as policemen.
See also
Aetheling
Agoranomi
Constitution of the Roman Republic
Ethel
References
Books
Cursus honorum
Ancient Roman occupations
Ancient Roman titles |
2389 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auger%20effect | Auger effect | The Auger effect (; ) or Auger−Meitner effect is a physical phenomenon in which the filling of an inner-shell vacancy of an atom is accompanied by the emission of an electron from the same atom. When a core electron is removed, leaving a vacancy, an electron from a higher energy level may fall into the vacancy, resulting in a release of energy. For light atoms (Z<12), this energy is most often transferred to a valence electron which is subsequently ejected from the atom. This second ejected electron is called an Auger electron. For heavier atomic nuclei, the release of the energy in the form of an emitted photon becomes gradually more probable.
Effect
Upon ejection, the kinetic energy of the Auger electron corresponds to the difference between the energy of the initial electronic transition into the vacancy and the ionization energy for the electron shell from which the Auger electron was ejected. These energy levels depend on the type of atom and the chemical environment in which the atom was located.
Auger electron spectroscopy involves the emission of Auger electrons by bombarding a sample with either X-rays or energetic electrons and measures the intensity of Auger electrons that result as a function of the Auger electron energy. The resulting spectra can be used to determine the identity of the emitting atoms and some information about their environment.
Auger recombination is a similar Auger effect which occurs in semiconductors. An electron and electron hole (electron-hole pair) can recombine giving up their energy to an electron in the conduction band, increasing its energy. The reverse effect is known as impact ionization.
The Auger effect can impact biological molecules such as DNA. Following the K-shell ionization of the component atoms of DNA, Auger electrons are ejected leading to damage of its sugar-phosphate backbone.
Discovery
The Auger emission process was observed and published in 1922 by Lise Meitner, an Austrian-Swedish physicist, as a side effect in her competitive search for the nuclear beta electrons with the British physicist Charles Drummond Ellis.
The French physicist Pierre Victor Auger independently discovered it in 1923 upon analysis of a Wilson cloud chamber experiment and it became the central part of his PhD work. High-energy X-rays were applied to ionize gas particles and observe photoelectric electrons. The observation of electron tracks that were independent of the frequency of the incident photon suggested a mechanism for electron ionization that was caused from an internal conversion of energy from a radiationless transition. Further investigation, and theoretical work using elementary quantum mechanics and transition rate/transition probability calculations, showed that the effect was a radiationless effect more than an internal conversion effect.
See also
Auger therapy
Charge carrier generation and recombination
Characteristic X-ray
Coster–Kronig transition
Electron capture
Radiative Auger effect
References
Atomic physics
Foundational quantum physics
Electron spectroscopy |
2391 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akio%20Morita | Akio Morita | was a Japanese entrepreneur and co-founder of Sony along with Masaru Ibuka.
Early life
Akio Morita was born in Nagoya. Morita's family was involved in sake, miso and soy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part of Tokoname City) on the western coast of Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665. He was the oldest of four siblings and his father Kyuzaemon trained him as a child to take over the family business. Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics, and in 1944 he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He was later commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and served in World War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partner Masaru Ibuka at a study group for developing infrared-guided bombs (Ke-Go) in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.
Sony
In September 1945, Ibuka founded a radio repair shop in the bombed out Shirokiya Department Store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. Morita saw a newspaper article about Ibuka's new venture and, after some correspondence, chose to join him in Tokyo. With funding from Morita's father, they co-founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of Sony Corporation) in 1946 with about 20 employees and initial capital of ¥190,000.
In 1949, the company developed magnetic recording tape and, in 1950, sold the first tape recorder in Japan. Ibuka was instrumental in securing the licensing of transistor technology from Bell Labs to Sony in the 1950s, thus making Sony one of the first companies to apply transistor technology to non-military uses. In 1957, the company produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized), and in 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony Corporation (derived from "sonus"—Latin for "sound"—and "sonny", a then-common American expression). Morita was an advocate for all the products made by Sony. However, since the radio was slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita made his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a "pocket sized" appearance.
Morita founded Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, currently abbreviated as SCA) in 1960. In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan at that time. When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony. The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same. In 1961, Sony Corporation was the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in the form of American depositary receipts (ADRs).
In March 1968, Morita set up a joint venture in Japan between Sony and CBS Records, with him as president, to manufacture "software" for Sony's hardware.
Morita became president of Sony in 1971, taking over from Ibuka who had served from 1950 to 1971. In 1975, Sony released the first Betamax home videocassette recorder, a year before the VHS format came out.
Ibuka retired in 1976 and Morita was named chairman of the company. In 1979, the Walkman was introduced, making it one of the world's first portable music players and in 1982, Sony launched the world's first compact disc player, the Sony CDP-101, with a compact disc (CD) itself, a new data storage format Sony and Philips co-developed. In that year, a 3.5-inch floppy disk structure was introduced by Sony and it soon became the defacto standard. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products.
Under the vision of Morita, the company aggressively expanded into new businesses. Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence", linking film, music and digital electronics. Twenty years after setting up a joint venture with CBS Records in Japan, Sony bought CBS Records Group which consisted of Columbia Records, Epic Records and other CBS labels. In 1989, they acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and others).
Norio Ohga, who had joined the company in the 1950s after sending Morita a letter denouncing the poor quality of the company's tape recorders, succeeded Morita as chief executive officer in 1989.
Morita suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1993 while playing tennis and on November 25, 1994, stepped down as Sony chairman to be succeeded by Ohga.
Other affiliations
Morita was vice chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations), and was a member of the Japan-U.S. Economic Relations Group, also known as the "Wise Men's Group". He helped General Motors with their acquisition of an interest in Isuzu Motors in 1972. He was the third Japanese chairman of the Trilateral Commission. His amateur radio call sign is JP1DPJ.
Publications
In 1966, Morita wrote a book called Gakureki Muyō Ron (学歴無用論, Never Mind School Records), where he stresses that school records are not important to success or one's business skills. In 1986, Morita wrote an autobiography titled Made in Japan. He co-authored the 1991 book The Japan That Can Say No with politician Shintaro Ishihara, where they criticized American business practices and encouraged Japanese to take a more independent role in business and foreign affairs. (Actually, Morita had no intention to criticize American practices at that time.) The book was translated into English and caused controversy in the United States, and Morita later had his chapters removed from the English version and distanced himself from the book.
Awards and honours
In 1972, Morita received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Morita was awarded the Albert Medal by the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Arts in 1982, the first Japanese to receive the honor. Two years later, he received the prestigious Legion of Honour, and in 1991, was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor of Japan. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1992 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993. That same year, he was awarded an honorary British knighthood (KBE). Morita received the International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from the University of Manitoba in 1987. In 1998, he was the only Asian person on Time magazine's list of the 20 most influential business people of the 20th century as part of their Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1999. In 2003, Anaheim University's Graduate School of Business was renamed the Akio Morita School of Business in his honor. The Morita family's support for the program led to the growth of the Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business in Tokyo, Japan.
Television commercials
American Express (1984)
Death
Morita, who loved to play golf and tennis and to watch movies when rainy, suffered a stroke in 1993, during a game of tennis. The stroke weakened him and left him in a wheelchair. On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as Sony chairman. On October 3, 1999, Morita died of pneumonia at the age of 78 in a Tokyo hospital, where he had been admitted since August 1999.
References
Further reading
Morita, Akio. Made in Japan Dutton, 1986
Morita, Akio. Never Mind School Records (1966) in Japanese
Morita, Akio (Co-Author) and Shintaro Ishihara. The Japan That Can Say No Simon & Schuster, 1991 , in Japanese
External links
Akio Morita Library
Time magazine, AKIO MORITA: Guru Of Gadgets
Time Asia, Time 100: Akio Morita
Sony Biographical notes
PBS notes
Akio Morita Facts
1921 births
1999 deaths
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
20th-century Japanese businesspeople
Japanese company founders
Imperial Japanese Navy personnel of World War II
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
People from Nagoya
Businesspeople from Tokyo
Sony people
Osaka University alumni
International Emmy Directorate Award
Imperial Japanese Navy officers
Japanese industrialists
Deaths from pneumonia in Japan
Members of the American Philosophical Society |
2392 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anode | Anode | An anode is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the device. A common mnemonic is ACID, for "anode current into device". The direction of conventional current (the flow of positive charges) in a circuit is opposite to the direction of electron flow, so (negatively charged) electrons flow from the anode of a galvanic cell, into an outside or external circuit connected to the cell. For example, the end of a household battery marked with a "+" is the cathode (while discharging).
In both a galvanic cell and an electrolytic cell, the anode is the electrode at which the oxidation reaction occurs. In a galvanic cell the anode is the wire or plate having excess negative charge as a result of the oxidation reaction. In an electrolytic cell, the anode is the wire or plate upon which excess positive charge is imposed. As a result of this, anions will tend to move towards the anode where they will undergo oxidation.
Historically, the anode of a galvanic cell was also known as the zincode because it was usually composed of zinc.
Charge flow
The terms anode and cathode are not defined by the voltage polarity of electrodes but the direction of current through the electrode. An anode is an electrode of a device through which conventional current (positive charge) flows into the device from an external circuit, while a cathode is an electrode through which conventional current flows out of the device. If the current through the electrodes reverses direction, as occurs for example in a rechargeable battery when it is being charged, the roles of the electrodes as anode and cathode are reversed.
Conventional current depends not only on the direction the charge carriers move, but also the carriers' electric charge. The currents outside the device are usually carried by electrons in a metal conductor. Since electrons have a negative charge, the direction of electron flow is opposite to the direction of conventional current. Consequently, electrons leave the device through the anode and enter the device through the cathode.
The definition of anode and cathode is different for electrical devices such as diodes and vacuum tubes where the electrode naming is fixed and does not depend on the actual charge flow (current). These devices usually allow substantial current flow in one direction but negligible current in the other direction. Therefore, the electrodes are named based on the direction of this "forward" current. In a diode the anode is the terminal through which current enters and the cathode is the terminal through which current leaves, when the diode is forward biased. The names of the electrodes do not change in cases where reverse current flows through the device. Similarly, in a vacuum tube only one electrode can emit electrons into the evacuated tube due to being heated by a filament, so electrons can only enter the device from the external circuit through the heated electrode. Therefore, this electrode is permanently named the cathode, and the electrode through which the electrons exit the tube is named the anode.
Examples
The polarity of voltage on an anode with respect to an associated cathode varies depending on the device type and on its operating mode. In the following examples, the anode is negative in a device that provides power, and positive in a device that consumes power:
In a discharging battery or galvanic cell (diagram on left), the anode is the negative terminal: it is where conventional current flows into the cell. This inward current is carried externally by electrons moving outwards.
In a recharging battery, or an electrolytic cell, the anode is the positive terminal imposed by an external source of potential difference. The current through a recharging battery is opposite to the direction of current during discharge; in other words, the electrode which was the cathode during battery discharge becomes the anode while the battery is recharging.
In battery engineering, it is common to designate one electrode of a rechargeable battery the anode and the other the cathode according to the roles the electrodes play when the battery is discharged. This is despite the fact that the roles are reversed when the battery is charged. When this is done, "anode" simply designates the negative terminal of the battery and "cathode" designates the positive terminal.
In a diode, the anode is the terminal represented by the tail of the arrow symbol (flat side of the triangle), where conventional current flows into the device. Note the electrode naming for diodes is always based on the direction of the forward current (that of the arrow, in which the current flows "most easily"), even for types such as Zener diodes or solar cells where the current of interest is the reverse current.
In vacuum tubes or gas-filled tubes, the anode is the terminal where current enters the tube.
Etymology
The word was coined in 1834 from the Greek ἄνοδος (anodos), 'ascent', by William Whewell, who had been consulted by Michael Faraday over some new names needed to complete a paper on the recently discovered process of electrolysis. In that paper Faraday explained that when an electrolytic cell is oriented so that electric current traverses the "decomposing body" (electrolyte) in a direction "from East to West, or, which will strengthen this help to the memory, that in which the sun appears to move", the anode is where the current enters the electrolyte, on the East side: "ano upwards, odos a way; the way which the sun rises".
The use of 'East' to mean the 'in' direction (actually 'in' → 'East' → 'sunrise' → 'up') may appear contrived. Previously, as related in the first reference cited above, Faraday had used the more straightforward term "eisode" (the doorway where the current enters). His motivation for changing it to something meaning 'the East electrode' (other candidates had been "eastode", "oriode" and "anatolode") was to make it immune to a possible later change in the direction convention for current, whose exact nature was not known at the time. The reference he used to this effect was the Earth's magnetic field direction, which at that time was believed to be invariant. He fundamentally defined his arbitrary orientation for the cell as being that in which the internal current would run parallel to and in the same direction as a hypothetical magnetizing current loop around the local line of latitude which would induce a magnetic dipole field oriented like the Earth's. This made the internal current East to West as previously mentioned, but in the event of a later convention change it would have become West to East, so that the East electrode would not have been the 'way in' any more. Therefore, "eisode" would have become inappropriate, whereas "anode" meaning 'East electrode' would have remained correct with respect to the unchanged direction of the actual phenomenon underlying the current, then unknown but, he thought, unambiguously defined by the magnetic reference. In retrospect the name change was unfortunate, not only because the Greek roots alone do not reveal the anode's function any more, but more importantly because as we now know, the Earth's magnetic field direction on which the "anode" term is based is subject to reversals whereas the current direction convention on which the "eisode" term was based has no reason to change in the future.
Since the later discovery of the electron, an easier to remember and more durably correct technically although historically false, etymology has been suggested: anode, from the Greek anodos, 'way up', 'the way (up) out of the cell (or other device) for electrons'.
Electrolytic anode
In electrochemistry, the anode is where oxidation occurs and is the positive polarity contact in an electrolytic cell. At the anode, anions (negative ions) are forced by the electrical potential to react chemically and give off electrons (oxidation) which then flow up and into the driving circuit. Mnemonics: LEO Red Cat (Loss of Electrons is Oxidation, Reduction occurs at the Cathode), or AnOx Red Cat (Anode Oxidation, Reduction Cathode), or OIL RIG (Oxidation is Loss, Reduction is Gain of electrons), or Roman Catholic and Orthodox (Reduction – Cathode, anode – Oxidation), or LEO the lion says GER (Losing electrons is Oxidation, Gaining electrons is Reduction).
This process is widely used in metals refining. For example, in copper refining, copper anodes, an intermediate product from the furnaces, are electrolysed in an appropriate solution (such as sulfuric acid) to yield high purity (99.99%) cathodes. Copper cathodes produced using this method are also described as electrolytic copper.
Historically, when non-reactive anodes were desired for electrolysis, graphite (called plumbago in Faraday's time) or platinum were chosen. They were found to be some of the least reactive materials for anodes. Platinum erodes very slowly compared to other materials, and graphite crumbles and can produce carbon dioxide in aqueous solutions but otherwise does not participate in the reaction.
Battery or galvanic cell anode
In a battery or galvanic cell, the anode is the negative electrode from which electrons flow out towards the external part of the circuit. Internally the positively charged cations are flowing away from the anode (even though it is negative and therefore would be expected to attract them, this is due to electrode potential relative to the electrolyte solution being different for the anode and cathode metal/electrolyte systems); but, external to the cell in the circuit, electrons are being pushed out through the negative contact and thus through the circuit by the voltage potential as would be expected.
Battery manufacturers may regard the negative electrode as the anode, particularly in their technical literature. Though from an electrochemical viewpoint incorrect, it does resolve the problem of which electrode is the anode in a secondary (or rechargeable) cell. Using the traditional definition, the anode switches ends between charge and discharge cycles.
Vacuum tube anode
In electronic vacuum devices such as a cathode-ray tube, the anode is the positively charged electron collector. In a tube, the anode is a charged positive plate that collects the electrons emitted by the cathode through electric attraction. It also accelerates the flow of these electrons.
Diode anode
In a semiconductor diode, the anode is the P-doped layer which initially supplies holes to the junction. In the junction region, the holes supplied by the anode combine with electrons supplied from the N-doped region, creating a depleted zone. As the P-doped layer supplies holes to the depleted region, negative dopant ions are left behind in the P-doped layer ('P' for positive charge-carrier ions). This creates a base negative charge on the anode. When a positive voltage is applied to anode of the diode from the circuit, more holes are able to be transferred to the depleted region, and this causes the diode to become conductive, allowing current to flow through the circuit. The terms anode and cathode should not be applied to a Zener diode, since it allows flow in either direction, depending on the polarity of the applied potential (i.e. voltage).
Sacrificial anode
In cathodic protection, a metal anode that is more reactive to the corrosive environment than the metal system to be protected is electrically linked to the protected system. As a result, the metal anode partially corrodes or dissolves instead of the metal system. As an example, an iron or steel ship's hull may be protected by a zinc sacrificial anode, which will dissolve into the seawater and prevent the hull from being corroded. Sacrificial anodes are particularly needed for systems where a static charge is generated by the action of flowing liquids, such as pipelines and watercraft. Sacrificial anodes are also generally used in tank-type water heaters.
In 1824 to reduce the impact of this destructive electrolytic action on ships hulls, their fastenings and underwater equipment, the scientist-engineer Humphry Davy developed the first and still most widely used marine electrolysis protection system. Davy installed sacrificial anodes made from a more electrically reactive (less noble) metal attached to the vessel hull and electrically connected to form a cathodic protection circuit.
A less obvious example of this type of protection is the process of galvanising iron. This process coats iron structures (such as fencing) with a coating of zinc metal. As long as the zinc remains intact, the iron is protected from the effects of corrosion. Inevitably, the zinc coating becomes breached, either by cracking or physical damage. Once this occurs, corrosive elements act as an electrolyte and the zinc/iron combination as electrodes. The resultant current ensures that the zinc coating is sacrificed but that the base iron does not corrode. Such a coating can protect an iron structure for a few decades, but once the protecting coating is consumed, the iron rapidly corrodes.
If, conversely, tin is used to coat steel, when a breach of the coating occurs it actually accelerates oxidation of the iron.
Impressed current anode
Another cathodic protection is used on the impressed current anode. It is made from titanium and covered with mixed metal oxide. Unlike the sacrificial anode rod, the impressed current anode does not sacrifice its structure. This technology uses an external current provided by a DC source to create the cathodic protection. Impressed current anodes are used in larger structures like pipelines, boats, city water tower, water heaters and more.
Related antonym
The opposite of an anode is a cathode. When the current through the device is reversed, the electrodes switch functions, so the anode becomes the cathode and the cathode becomes anode, as long as the reversed current is applied. The exception is diodes where electrode naming is always based on the forward current direction.
See also
Anodizing
Galvanic anode
Gas-filled tube
Primary cell
Redox (reduction–oxidation)
References
External links
The Cathode Ray Tube site
How to define anode and cathode
Valence Technologies Inc. battery education page
Cathodic Protection Technical Library
Electrodes |
2395 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April%2011 | April 11 |
Events
Pre-1600
491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.
1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.
1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferrarese forces led by Gaston de Foix and Alfonso I d'Este win the Battle of Ravenna against the Papal-Spanish forces.
1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, but fails to exploit its victory.
1601–1900
1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain on the same day that the Scottish Parliament concurs with the English decision of 12 February.
1713 – France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Utrecht, bringing an end to the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War). Britain accepts Philip V as King of Spain, while Philip renounces any claim to the French throne.
1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany).
1809 – Battle of the Basque Roads: Admiral Lord Gambier fails to support Captain Lord Cochrane, leading to an incomplete British victory over the French fleet.
1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.
1856 – Second Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaría burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up.
1868 – Former shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.
1876 – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.
1881 – Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.
1901–present
1908 – , the last armored cruiser to be built by the Imperial German Navy, is launched.
1909 – The city of Tel Aviv is founded.
1921 – Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.
1935 – Stresa Front: opening of the conference between the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and the French Minister for Foreign Affairs Pierre Laval to condemn the German violations of the Treaty of Versailles.
1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
1951 – Korean War: President Truman relieves Douglas MacArthur of the command of American forces in Korea and Japan.
1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.
1952 – Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado.
1952 – Pan Am Flight 526A ditches near San Juan-Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after experiencing an engine failure, killing 52 people.
1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
1957 – United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.
1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms.
1964 – Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco is elected president by the National Congress.
1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-five tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states of the United States, killing 266 people.
1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
1968 – A failed assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement, leaves Dutschke suffering from brain damage.
1970 – Apollo Program: Apollo 13 is launched.
1976 – The Apple I is created.
1977 – London Transport's Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched.
1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.
1981 – A massive riot in Brixton, south London results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.
1986 – FBI Miami Shootout: A gun battle in broad daylight in Dade County, Florida between two bank/armored car robbers and pursuing FBI agents. During the firefight, FBI agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan were killed, while five other agents were wounded. As a result, the popular .40 S&W cartridge was developed.
1987 – The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.
1990 – Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, seize what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
1993 – Four hundred fifty prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.
2001 – The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, China after a collision with a J-8 fighter, is released.
2002 – The Ghriba synagogue bombing by al-Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.
2002 – Over two hundred thousand people march in Caracas towards the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Hugo Chávez. Nineteen protesters are killed.
2006 – Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces Iran's claim to have successfully enriched uranium.
2007 – Algiers bombings: Two bombings in Algiers kill 33 people and wound a further 222 others.
2008 – Kata Air Transport Flight 007 crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Chișinău International Airport, killing eight.
2011 – An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others.
2012 – A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake is VII (Very strong). Ten are killed, twelve are injured, and a non-destructive tsunami is observed on the island of Nias.
2018 – An Ilyushin Il-76 which was owned and operated by the Algerian Air Force crashes near Boufarik, Algeria, killing 257.
2021 – Twenty year old Daunte Wright is shot and killed in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota by officer Kimberly Potter, sparking protests in the city, when the officer allegedly mistakes her own gun for her taser.
2023 – During the Pazigyi massacre, an airstrike conducted by the Myanmar Air Force kills at least 100 villagers in Pazigyi, Sagaing Region.
Births
Pre-1600
145 – Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (probable; d. 211)
1184 – William of Winchester, Lord of Lüneburg (d. 1213)
1348 – Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1385)
1357 – John I of Portugal (d. 1433)
1370 – Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (d. 1428)
1374 – Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the throne of England (d. 1398)
1493 – George I, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1531)
1591 – Bartholomeus Strobel, Silezian painter (d. 1650)
1592 – John Eliot, English lawyer and politician (d. 1632)
1601–1900
1644 – Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, Duchess of Savoy (d. 1724)
1658 – James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish peer (d. 1712)
1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, French composer and conductor (d. 1738)
1715 – John Alcock, English organist and composer (d. 1806)
1721 – David Zeisberger, Czech-American clergyman and missionary (d. 1808)
1722 – Christopher Smart, English actor, playwright, and poet (d. 1771)
1749 – Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, French miniaturist and portrait painter (d. 1803)
1755 – James Parkinson, English surgeon, geologist, and paleontologist (d. 1824)
1770 – George Canning, Irish-English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1827)
1794 – Edward Everett, English-American educator and politician, 15th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1865)
1798 – Macedonio Melloni, Italian physicist and academic (d. 1854)
1819 – Charles Hallé, German-English pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
1825 – Ferdinand Lassalle, German philosopher and jurist (d. 1864)
1827 – Jyotirao Phule, Indian scholar, philosopher, and activist (d. 1890)
1830 – John Douglas, English architect (d. 1911)
1854 – Hugh Massie, Australian cricketer (d. 1938)
1856 – Arthur Shrewsbury, English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1903)
1859 – Stefanos Thomopoulos, Greek historian and author (d. 1939)
1862 – William Wallace Campbell, American astronomer and academic (d. 1938)
1862 – Charles Evans Hughes, American lawyer and politician, 44th United States Secretary of State (d. 1948)
1864 – Johanna Elberskirchen, German author and activist (d. 1943)
1866 – Bernard O'Dowd, Australian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1953)
1867 – Mark Keppel, American educator (d. 1928)
1869 – Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor, designed the Nobel Peace Prize medal (d. 1943)
1871 – Gyula Kellner, Hungarian runner (d. 1940)
1872 – Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, Albanian poet, rilindas and author of national anthem of Albania (d. 1947)
1873 – Edward Lawson, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1955)
1876 – Paul Henry, Irish painter (d. 1958)
1876 – Ivane Javakhishvili, Georgian historian and academic (d. 1940)
1878 – Percy Lane Oliver, British pioneer of volunteer blood donation (d. 1944)
1879 – Bernhard Schmidt, Estonian-German astronomer and optician (d. 1935)
1887 – Jamini Roy, Indian painter (d. 1972)
1893 – Dean Acheson, American lawyer and politician, 51st United States Secretary of State (d. 1971)
1896 – Léo-Paul Desrosiers, Canadian journalist and author (d. 1967)
1899 – Percy Lavon Julian, African-American chemist and academic (d. 1975)
1900 – Sándor Márai, Hungarian journalist and author (d. 1989)
1901–present
1903 – Misuzu Kaneko, Japanese poet (d. 1930)
1904 – K. L. Saigal, Indian singer and actor (d. 1947)
1905 – Attila József, Hungarian poet and educator (d. 1937)
1906 – Dale Messick, American author and illustrator (d. 2005)
1907 – Paul Douglas, American actor (d. 1959)
1908 – Jane Bolin, American lawyer and judge (d. 2007)
1908 – Masaru Ibuka, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (d. 1997)
1908 – Dan Maskell, English tennis player and sportscaster (d. 1992)
1908 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (d. 1997)
1910 – António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician, 14th President of Portugal (d. 1996)
1912 – John Levy, American bassist and businessman (d. 2012)
1913 – Oleg Cassini, French-American fashion designer (d. 2006)
1914 – Norman McLaren, Scottish-Canadian animator, director, and producer (d. 1987)
1914 – Robert Stanfield, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician, 17th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2003)
1914 – Dorothy Lewis Bernstein, American mathematician (d. 1988)
1916 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentinian pianist and composer (d. 1983)
1916 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (d. 2001)
1917 – David Westheimer, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 2005)
1918 – Richard Wainwright, English soldier and politician (d. 2003)
1919 – Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (d. 2015)
1920 – Emilio Colombo, Italian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2013)
1920 – William Royer, American soldier and politician (d. 2013)
1921 – Jim Hearn, American baseball player (d. 1998)
1921 – Jack Rayner, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 2008)
1922 – Arved Viirlaid, Estonian-Canadian soldier and author (d. 2015)
1923 – George J. Maloof, Sr., American businessman (d. 1980)
1924 – Mohammad Naseem, Pakistani-English activist and politician (d. 2014)
1925 – Yuriy Lituyev, Russian hurdler and commander (d. 2000)
1925 – Viola Liuzzo, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
1925 – Viktor Masing, Estonian botanist and ecologist (d. 2001)
1925 – Pierre Péladeau, Canadian businessman, founded Quebecor (d. 1997)
1926 – David Manker Abshire, American commander and diplomat, United States Permanent Representative to NATO (d. 2014)
1926 – Victor Bouchard, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 2011)
1926 – Karl Rebane, Estonian physicist and academic (d. 2007)
1927 – Lokesh Chandra, Indian historian
1928 – Ethel Kennedy, American philanthropist
1928 – Edwin Pope, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
1928 – Tommy Tycho, Hungarian-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2013)
1930 – Nicholas F. Brady, American businessman and politician, 68th United States Secretary of the Treasury
1930 – Walter Krüger, German javelin thrower (d. 2018)
1930 – Anton LaVey, American occultist, founded the Church of Satan (d. 1997)
1931 – Lewis Jones, Welsh rugby player and coach (d. 2024)
1932 – Joel Grey, American actor, singer, and dancer
1933 – Tony Brown, American journalist and academic
1934 – Mark Strand, Canadian-born American poet, essayist, and translator (d. 2014)
1934 – Ron Pember, English actor, director and playwright (d. 2022)
1935 – Richard Berry, American singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
1936 – Brian Noble, English bishop (d. 2019)
1937 – Jill Gascoine, English actress and author (d. 2020)
1938 – Gerry Baker, American soccer player and manager (d. 2013)
1938 – Michael Deaver, American politician, Deputy White House Chief of Staff (d. 2007)
1938 – Reatha King, American chemist and businesswoman
1939 – Luther Johnson, American singer and guitarist (d. 2022)
1939 – Louise Lasser, American actress
1940 – Col Firmin, Australian politician (d. 2013)
1940 – Władysław Komar, Polish shot putter and actor (d. 1998)
1941 – Ellen Goodman, American journalist and author
1941 – Shirley Stelfox, English actress (d. 2015)
1942 – Anatoly Berezovoy, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2014)
1942 – Hattie Gossett, American writer
1942 – James Underwood, English pathologist and academic
1943 – John Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich, English businessman and politician
1943 – Harley Race, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2019)
1944 – Peter Barfuß, German footballer
1944 – John Milius, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1945 – John Krebs, Baron Krebs, English zoologist and academic
1946 – Chris Burden, American sculptor, illustrator, and academic (d. 2015)
1946 – Bob Harris, English journalist and radio host
1947 – Lev Bulat, Ukrainian-Russian physicist and academic (d. 2016)
1947 – Uli Edel, German director and screenwriter
1947 – Frank Mantooth, American pianist and composer (d. 2004)
1947 – Peter Riegert, American actor, screenwriter and film director
1947 – Michael T. Wright, English engineer and academic (d. 2015)
1949 – Bernd Eichinger, German director and producer (d. 2011)
1950 – Bill Irwin, American actor and clown
1951 – Paul Fox, English singer and guitarist (d. 2007)
1952 – Nancy Honeytree, American singer and guitarist
1952 – Indira Samarasekera, Sri Lankan engineer and academic
1952 – Peter Windsor, English-Australian journalist and sportscaster
1953 – Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium
1953 – Andrew Wiles, English mathematician and academic
1954 – Abdullah Atalar, Turkish engineer and academic
1954 – Aleksandr Averin, Azerbaijani cyclist and coach
1954 – Francis Lickerish, English guitarist and composer
1954 – David Perrett, Scottish psychologist and academic
1954 – Ian Redmond, English biologist and conservationist
1954 – Willie Royster, American baseball player (d. 2015)
1955 – Kevin Brady, American lawyer and politician
1955 – Michael Callen, American singer-songwriter and AIDS activist (d. 1993)
1955 – Micheal Ray Richardson, American basketball player and coach
1958 – Stuart Adamson, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
1958 – Lyudmila Kondratyeva, Russian sprinter
1958 – Wayne Wigham, Australian rugby league player
1959 – Pierre Lacroix, Canadian ice hockey player
1959 – Ana María Polo, Cuban-American lawyer and judge
1959 – Zahid Maleque, Bangladeshi politician
1960 – Jeremy Clarkson, English journalist and television presenter
1961 – Vincent Gallo, American actor, director, producer, and musician
1961 – Doug Hopkins, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1993)
1961 – Nobuaki Kakuda, Japanese martial artist
1962 – Franck Ducheix, French fencer
1962 – Mark Lawson, English journalist and author
1963 – Billy Bowden, New Zealand cricketer and umpire
1963 – Waldemar Fornalik, Polish footballer and manager
1963 – Elizabeth Smylie, Australian tennis player
1963 – Eleni Tsaligopoulou, Greek singer
1964 – Steve Azar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – John Cryer, English journalist and politician
1964 – Johann Sebastian Paetsch, American cellist
1964 – Bret Saberhagen, American baseball player and coach
1964 – Patrick Sang, Kenyan runner
1966 – Steve Scarsone, American baseball player and manager
1966 – Shin Seung-hun, South Korean singer-songwriter
1966 – Lisa Stansfield, English singer-songwriter and actress
1968 – Sergei Lukyanenko, Kazakh-Russian journalist and author
1969 – Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer-songwriter
1969 – Dustin Rhodes, American wrestler
1969 – Michael von Grünigen, Swiss skier
1970 – Trevor Linden, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1970 – Whigfield, Danish singer and songwriter
1971 – Oliver Riedel, German bass player
1972 – Balls Mahoney, American wrestler (d. 2016)
1972 – Allan Théo, French singer
1972 – Jason Varitek, American baseball player and manager
1972 – Jennifer Esposito, American actress and writer
1973 – Olivier Magne, French rugby player
1974 – Àlex Corretja, Spanish tennis player and coach
1974 – Ashot Danielyan, Armenian weightlifter
1974 – David Jassy, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
1974 – Tom Thacker, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1974 – Trot Nixon, American baseball player and sportscaster
1976 – Marta Breen, Norwegian journalist, non-fiction writer, and organizational leader
1976 – Kelvim Escobar, Venezuelan baseball player
1976 – Kotomitsuki Keiji, Japanese sumo wrestler
1977 – Ivonne Teichmann, German runner
1978 – Josh Hancock, American baseball player (d. 2007)
1979 – Malcolm Christie, English footballer
1979 – Sebastien Grainger, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1979 – Michel Riesen, Swiss ice hockey player
1979 – Josh Server, American actor
1980 – Keiji Tamada, Japanese footballer
1980 – Mark Teixeira, American baseball player
1981 – Alessandra Ambrosio, Brazilian model
1981 – Alexandre Burrows, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Luis Flores, Dominican basketball player
1981 – Veronica Pyke, Australian cricketer
1982 – Ian Bell, English cricketer
1982 – Peeter Kümmel, Estonian skier
1983 – Jennifer Heil, Canadian skier
1983 – Rubén Palazuelos, Spanish footballer
1983 – Nicky Pastorelli, Dutch race car driver
1984 – Kelli Garner, American actress
1984 – Nikola Karabatić, French handball player
1985 – Pablo Hernández Domínguez, Spanish footballer
1985 – Will Minson, Australian footballer
1986 – Sarodj Bertin, Haitian model and human rights lawyer
1986 – Lena Schöneborn, German pentathlete
1987 – Joss Stone, English singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Lights, Canadian singer-songwriter
1988 – Leland Irving, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Torrin Lawrence, American sprinter (d. 2014)
1990 – Dimitrios Anastasopoulos, Greek footballer
1990 – Thulani Serero, South African footballer
1991 – Thiago Alcântara, Spanish footballer
1991 – Brennan Poole, American racing driver
1994 – Brandon Montour, Canadian ice hockey player
1996 – Dele Alli, English international footballer
2000 – Calen Addison, Canadian ice hockey player
2000 – Milly Alcock, Australian actress
2001 – Manuel Ugarte, Uruguayan footballer
2002 – Jake Fraser-McGurk, Australian cricketer
Deaths
Pre-1600
618 – Yang Guang, Chinese emperor of the Sui Dynasty (b. 569)
678 – Donus, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 610)
924 – Herman I, chancellor and archbishop of Cologne
1034 – Romanos III Argyros, Byzantine emperor (b. 968)
1077 – Anawrahta, king of Burma and founder of the Pagan Empire (b. 1014)
1079 – Stanislaus of Szczepanów, bishop of Kraków (b. 1030)
1165 – Stephen IV, king of Hungary and Croatia
1240 – Llywelyn the Great, Welsh prince (b. 1172)
1349 – Ramadan ibn Alauddin, first known Muslim from Korea
1447 – Henry Beaufort, Cardinal, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1377)
1512 – Gaston de Foix, French military commander (b. 1489)
1554 – Thomas Wyatt the Younger, English rebel leader (b. 1521)
1587 – Thomas Bromley, English lord chancellor (b. 1530)
1601–1900
1609 – John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, English noble (b. 1533)
1612 – Emanuel van Meteren, Flemish historian and author (b. 1535)
1612 – Edward Wightman, English minister and martyr (b. 1566)
1626 – Marino Ghetaldi, Ragusan mathematician and physicist (b. 1568)
1712 – Richard Simon, French priest and critic (b. 1638)
1723 – John Robinson, English bishop and diplomat (b. 1650)
1783 – Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Polish-Russian politician, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1718)
1798 – Karl Wilhelm Ramler, German poet and academic (b. 1725)
1856 – Juan Santamaría, Costa Rican soldier (b. 1831)
1861 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet and composer (b. 1824)
1873 – Edward Canby, American general (b. 1817)
1890 – David de Jahacob Lopez Cardozo, Dutch Talmudist (b. 1808)
1890 – Joseph Merrick, English man with severe deformities (b. 1862)
1894 – Constantin Lipsius, German architect and theorist (b. 1832)
1895 – Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist (b. 1830)
1901–present
1902 – Wade Hampton III, Confederate general and politician, 77th Governor of South Carolina (b. 1818)
1903 – Gemma Galgani, Italian mystic and saint (b. 1878)
1906 – James Anthony Bailey, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (b. 1847)
1906 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American journalist and publisher, co-founded Armed Forces Journal and The Galaxy Magazine (b. 1839)
1908 – Henry Bird, English chess player and author (b. 1829)
1916 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (b. 1864)
1918 – Otto Wagner, Austrian architect and urban planner (b. 1841)
1926 – Luther Burbank, American botanist and academic (b. 1849)
1939 – Kurtdereli Mehmet, Turkish wrestler (b. 1864)
1953 – Kid Nichols, American baseball player and manager (b. 1869)
1954 – Paul Specht, American violinist and bandleader (b. 1895)
1958 – Konstantin Yuon, Russian painter and educator (b. 1875)
1960 – Rosa Grünberg, Swedish actress (b. 1878)
1962 – Ukichiro Nakaya, Japanese physicist and academic (b. 1900)
1962 – George Poage, American hurdler and educator (b. 1880)
1962 – Axel Revold, Norwegian painter (b. 1887)
1967 – Thomas Farrell, American general (b. 1891)
1967 – Donald Sangster, Jamaican lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1911)
1970 – Cathy O'Donnell, American actress (b. 1923)
1970 – John O'Hara, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1905)
1974 – Ernst Ziegler, German actor (b. 1894)
1977 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (b. 1900)
1977 – Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', Indian author and activist (b. 1921)
1980 – Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Turkish journalist and producer (b. 1935)
1981 – Caroline Gordon, American author and critic (b. 1895)
1983 – Dolores del Río, Mexican actress (b. 1904)
1984 – Edgar V. Saks, Estonian historian and politician, Estonian Minister of Education (b. 1910)
1985 – Bunny Ahearne, Irish-born English businessman (b. 1900)
1985 – John Gilroy, English artist and illustrator (b. 1898)
1985 – Enver Hoxha, Albanian educator and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1908)
1987 – Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1903)
1987 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (b. 1919)
1990 – Harold Ballard, Canadian businessman (b. 1903)
1991 – Walker Cooper, American baseball player and manager (b. 1915)
1991 – Bruno Hoffmann. German glass harp player (b. 1913)
1992 – James Brown, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
1992 – Eve Merriam, American author and poet (b. 1916)
1992 – Alejandro Obregón, Colombian painter, sculptor, and engraver (b. 1920)
1996 – Jessica Dubroff, American pilot (b. 1988)
1997 – Muriel McQueen Fergusson, Canadian lawyer and politician, Canadian Speaker of the Senate (b. 1899)
1997 – Wang Xiaobo, contemporary Chinese novelist and essayist (b. 1952)
1999 – William H. Armstrong, American author and educator (b. 1911)
2000 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (b. 1945)
2001 – Harry Secombe, Welsh-English actor (b. 1921)
2003 – Cecil Howard Green, English-American geophysicist and businessman, founded Texas Instruments (b. 1900)
2005 – André François, Romanian-French cartoonist, painter, and sculptor (b. 1915)
2005 – Lucien Laurent, French footballer and coach (b. 1907)
2006 – June Pointer, American singer (b. 1953)
2006 – DeShaun Holton, American rapper and actor (b. 1973)
2007 – Roscoe Lee Browne, American actor and director (b. 1922)
2007 – Loïc Leferme, French diver (b. 1970)
2007 – Janet McDonald, American lawyer and author (b. 1954)
2007 – Ronald Speirs, Scottish-American colonel (b. 1920)
2007 – Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1922)
2008 – Merlin German, American sergeant (b. 1985)
2009 – Gerda Gilboe, Danish actress and singer (b. 1914)
2009 – Vishnu Prabhakar, Indian author and playwright (b. 1912)
2009 – Corín Tellado, Spanish author (b. 1927)
2010 – Julia Tsenova, Bulgarian pianist and composer (b. 1948)
2011 – Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager (b. 1981)
2012 – Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian soldier and politician, 1st President of Algeria (b. 1916)
2012 – Roger Caron, Canadian criminal and author (b. 1938)
2012 – Tippy Dye, American basketball player and coach (b. 1915)
2012 – Hal McKusick, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and flute player (b. 1924)
2012 – Agustin Roman, American bishop (b. 1928)
2013 – Don Blackman, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1953)
2013 – Sue Draheim, American fiddler (b.1949)
2013 – Grady Hatton, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1922)
2013 – Thomas Hemsley, English actor and singer (b. 1927)
2013 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish-American virologist and immunologist (b. 1916)
2013 – Gilles Marchal, French singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
2013 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina (b. 1925)
2013 – Clorindo Testa, Italian-Argentinian architect (b. 1923)
2013 – Jonathan Winters, American comedian, actor and screenwriter (b. 1925)
2014 – Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (b. 1926)
2014 – Edna Doré, English actress (b. 1921)
2014 – Bill Henry, American baseball player (b. 1927)
2014 – Lou Hudson, American basketball player and sportscaster (b. 1944)
2014 – Myer S. Kripke, American rabbi and scholar (b. 1914)
2014 – Sergey Nepobedimy, Russian engineer (b. 1921)
2014 – Jesse Winchester, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1944)
2015 – Jimmy Gunn, American football player (b. 1948)
2015 – Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Bangladeshi journalist and politician (b. 1952)
2015 – François Maspero, French journalist and author (b. 1932)
2015 – Hanut Singh, Indian general (b. 1933)
2015 – Tekena Tamuno, Nigerian historian and academic (b. 1932)
2017 – J. Geils, American singer and guitarist (b. 1946)
2017 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (b. 1945)
2020 – John Horton Conway, English mathematician (b. 1937)
2024 – Park Bo-ram, South Korean singer (b. 1994)
Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Antipas of Pergamum (Greek Orthodox Church)
Barsanuphius
Gemma Galgani
Godeberta
Guthlac of Crowland
George Selwyn (Anglicanism)
Stanislaus of Szczepanów
April 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Juan Santamaría Day, anniversary of his death in the Second Battle of Rivas. (Costa Rica)
International Louie Louie Day
World Parkinson's Day
References
External links
BBC: On This Day
Historical Events on April 11
Days of the year
April |
2396 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhesive | Adhesive | Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation.
The use of adhesives offers certain advantages over other binding techniques such as sewing, mechanical fastenings, and welding. These include the ability to bind different materials together, the more efficient distribution of stress across a joint, the cost-effectiveness of an easily mechanized process, and greater flexibility in design. Disadvantages of adhesive use include decreased stability at high temperatures, relative weakness in bonding large objects with a small bonding surface area, and greater difficulty in separating objects during testing. Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion followed by reactive or non-reactive, a term which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively, they can be organized either by their starting physical phase or whether their raw stock is of natural or synthetic origin.
Adhesives may be found naturally or produced synthetically. The earliest human use of adhesive-like substances was approximately 200,000 years ago, when Neanderthals produced tar from the dry distillation of birch bark for use in binding stone tools to wooden handles. The first references to adhesives in literature appeared approximately 2000 BC. The Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. In Europe, glue was not widely used until the period AD 1500–1700. From then until the 1900s increases in adhesive use and discovery were relatively gradual. Only since the 20th century has the development of synthetic adhesives accelerated rapidly, and innovation in the field continues to the present.
History
The earliest evidence of human adhesive use was discovered in central Italy when three stone implements were discovered with birch bark tar indications. The tools were dated to about 200,000 before present in the Middle Paleolithic. It is the earliest example of tar-hafted stone tools.
An experimental archeology study published in 2019 demonstrated how birch bark tar can be produced in an easier, more discoverable process. It involves directly burning birch bark under an overhanging rock surface in an open-air environment and collecting the tar that builds up on the rock.
Although sticky enough, plant-based, single-component adhesives can be brittle and vulnerable to environmental conditions. The first use of compound adhesives was discovered in Sibudu, South Africa. Here, 70,000-year-old stone segments that were once inserted in axe hafts were discovered covered with an adhesive composed of plant gum and red ochre (natural iron oxide) as adding ochre to plant gum produces a stronger product and protects the gum from disintegrating under wet conditions. The ability to produce stronger adhesives allowed middle Stone Age humans to attach stone segments to sticks in greater variations, which led to the development of new tools. A study of material from Le Moustier indicates that Middle Paleolithic people, possibly Neanderthals, used glue made from a mixture of ocher and bitumen to make hand grips for cutting and scraping stone tools.
More recent examples of adhesive use by prehistoric humans have been found at the burial sites of ancient tribes. Archaeologists studying the sites found that approximately 6,000 years ago the tribesmen had buried their dead together with food found in broken clay pots repaired with tree resins. Another investigation by archaeologists uncovered the use of bituminous cements to fasten ivory eyeballs to statues in Babylonian temples dating to approximately 4000 BC.
In 2000, a paper revealed the discovery of a 5,200-year-old man nicknamed the "Tyrolean Iceman" or "Ötzi", who was preserved in a glacier near the Austria-Italy border. Several of his belongings were found with him including two arrows with flint arrowheads and a copper hatchet, each with evidence of organic glue used to connect the stone or metal parts to the wooden shafts. The glue was analyzed as pitch, which requires the heating of tar during its production. The retrieval of this tar requires a transformation of birch bark by means of heat, in a process known as pyrolysis.
The first references to adhesives in literature appeared in approximately 2000 BC. Further historical records of adhesive use are found from the period spanning 1500–1000 BC. Artifacts from this period include paintings depicting wood gluing operations and a casket made of wood and glue in King Tutankhamun's tomb. Other ancient Egyptian artifacts employ animal glue for bonding or lamination. Such lamination of wood for bows and furniture is thought to have extended their life and was accomplished using casein (milk protein)-based glues. The ancient Egyptians also developed starch-based pastes for the bonding of papyrus to clothing and a plaster of Paris-like material made of calcined gypsum.
From AD 1 to 500 the Greeks and Romans made great contributions to the development of adhesives. Wood veneering and marquetry were developed, the production of animal and fish glues refined, and other materials utilized. Egg-based pastes were used to bond gold leaves, and incorporated various natural ingredients such as blood, bone, hide, milk, cheese, vegetables, and grains. The Greeks began the use of slaked lime as mortar while the Romans furthered mortar development by mixing lime with volcanic ash and sand. This material, known as pozzolanic cement, was used in the construction of the Roman Colosseum and Pantheon. The Romans were also the first people known to have used tar and beeswax as caulk and sealant between the wooden planks of their boats and ships.
In Central Asia, the rise of the Mongols in approximately AD 1000 can be partially attributed to the good range and power of the bows of Genghis Khan's hordes. These bows were made of a bamboo core, with horn on the belly (facing towards the archer) and sinew on the back, bound together with animal glue.
In Europe, glue fell into disuse until the period AD 1500–1700. At this time, world-renowned cabinet and furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale and Duncan Phyfe began to use adhesives to hold their products together. In 1690, the first commercial glue plant was established in The Netherlands. This plant produced glues from animal hides. In 1750, the first British glue patent was issued for fish glue. The following decades of the next century witnessed the manufacture of casein glues in German and Swiss factories. In 1876, the first U.S. patent (number 183,024) was issued to the Ross brothers for the production of casein glue.
The first U.S. postage stamps used starch-based adhesives when issued in 1847. The first US patent (number 61,991) on dextrin (a starch derivative) adhesive was issued in 1867.
Natural rubber was first used as material for adhesives in 1830, which marked the starting point of the modern adhesive. In 1862, a British patent (number 3288) was issued for the plating of metal with brass by electrodeposition to obtain a stronger bond to rubber. The development of the automobile and the need for rubber shock mounts required stronger and more durable bonds of rubber and metal. This spurred the development of cyclized rubber treated in strong acids. By 1927, this process was used to produce solvent-based thermoplastic rubber cements for metal to rubber bonding.
Natural rubber-based sticky adhesives were first used on a backing by Henry Day (US Patent 3,965) in 1845. Later these kinds of adhesives were used in cloth backed surgical and electric tapes. By 1925, the pressure-sensitive tape industry was born.
Today, sticky notes, Scotch Tape, and other tapes are examples of pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA).
A key step in the development of synthetic plastics was the introduction of a thermoset plastic known as Bakelite phenolic in 1910. Within two years, phenolic resin was applied to plywood as a coating varnish. In the early 1930s, phenolics gained importance as adhesive resins.
The 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s witnessed great advances in the development and production of new plastics and resins due to the First and Second World Wars. These advances greatly improved the development of adhesives by allowing the use of newly developed materials that exhibited a variety of properties. With changing needs and ever evolving technology, the development of new synthetic adhesives continues to the present. However, due to their low cost, natural adhesives are still more commonly used.
Types
Adhesives are typically organized by the method of adhesion. These are then organized into reactive and non-reactive adhesives, which refers to whether the adhesive chemically reacts in order to harden. Alternatively they can be organized by whether the raw stock is of natural, or synthetic origin, or by their starting physical phase.
By reactiveness
Non-reactive
Drying
There are two types of adhesives that harden by drying: solvent-based adhesives and polymer dispersion adhesives, also known as emulsion adhesives. Solvent-based adhesives are a mixture of ingredients (typically polymers) dissolved in a solvent. White glue, contact adhesives and rubber cements are members of the drying adhesive family. As the solvent evaporates, the adhesive hardens. Depending on the chemical composition of the adhesive, they will adhere to different materials to greater or lesser degrees.
Polymer dispersion adhesives are milky-white dispersion often based on polyvinyl acetate (PVAc). They are used extensively in the woodworking and packaging industries. They are also used with fabrics and fabric-based components, and in engineered products such as loudspeaker cones.
Pressure-sensitive
Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) form a bond by the application of light pressure to bind the adhesive with the adherend. They are designed to have a balance between flow and resistance to flow. The bond forms because the adhesive is soft enough to flow (i.e., "wet") to the adherend. The bond has strength because the adhesive is hard enough to resist flow when stress is applied to the bond. Once the adhesive and the adherend are in close proximity, molecular interactions, such as van der Waals forces, become involved in the bond, contributing significantly to its ultimate strength.
PSAs are designed for either permanent or removable applications. Examples of permanent applications include safety labels for power equipment, foil tape for HVAC duct work, automotive interior trim assembly, and sound/vibration damping films. Some high performance permanent PSAs exhibit high adhesion values and can support kilograms of weight per square centimeter of contact area, even at elevated temperatures. Permanent PSAs may initially be removable (for example to recover mislabeled goods) and build adhesion to a permanent bond after several hours or days.
Removable adhesives are designed to form a temporary bond, and ideally can be removed after months or years without leaving residue on the adherend. Removable adhesives are used in applications such as surface protection films, masking tapes, bookmark and note papers, barcode labels, price marking labels, promotional graphics materials, and for skin contact (wound care dressings, EKG electrodes, athletic tape, analgesic and trans-dermal drug patches, etc.). Some removable adhesives are designed to repeatedly stick and unstick. They have low adhesion, and generally cannot support much weight. Pressure-sensitive adhesive is used in Post-it notes.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives are manufactured with either a liquid carrier or in 100% solid form. Articles are made from liquid PSAs by coating the adhesive and drying off the solvent or water carrier. They may be further heated to initiate a cross-linking reaction and increase molecular weight. 100% solid PSAs may be low viscosity polymers that are coated and then reacted with radiation to increase molecular weight and form the adhesive, or they may be high viscosity materials that are heated to reduce viscosity enough to allow coating, and then cooled to their final form. Major raw material for PSA's are acrylate-based polymers.
Contact
Contact adhesives form high shear-resistance bonds with a rapid cure time. They are often applied in thin layers for use with laminates, such as bonding Formica to countertops, and in footwear, as in attaching outsoles to uppers. Natural rubber and polychloroprene (Neoprene) are commonly used contact adhesives. Both of these elastomers undergo strain crystallization.
Contact adhesives must be applied to both surfaces and allowed some time to dry before the two surfaces are pushed together. Some contact adhesives require as long as 24 hours to dry completely before the surfaces are to be held together. Once the surfaces are pushed together, the bond forms very quickly. Clamps are typically not needed due to the rapid bond formation.
Hot
Hot adhesives, also known as hot melt adhesives, are thermoplastics applied in molten form (in the 65–180 °C range) which solidify on cooling to form strong bonds between a wide range of materials. Ethylene-vinyl acetate-based hot-melts are particularly popular for crafts because of their ease of use and the wide range of common materials they can join. A glue gun (shown at right) is one method of applying hot adhesives. The glue gun melts the solid adhesive, then allows the liquid to pass through its barrel onto the material, where it solidifies.
Thermoplastic glue may have been invented around 1940 by Procter & Gamble as a solution to the problem that water-based adhesives, commonly used in packaging at that time, failed in humid climates, causing packages to open. However, water-based adhesives are still of strong interest as they typically do not contain volatile solvents.
Reactive
Anaerobic
Anaerobic adhesives cure when in contact with metal, in the absence of oxygen. They work well in a close-fitting space, as when used as a Thread-locking fluid.
Multi-part
Multi-component adhesives harden by mixing two or more components which chemically react. This reaction causes polymers to cross-link into acrylates, urethanes, and epoxies .
There are several commercial combinations of multi-component adhesives in use in industry. Some of these combinations are:
Polyester resin & polyurethane resin
Polyols & polyurethane resin
Acrylic polymers & polyurethane resins
The individual components of a multi-component adhesive are not adhesive by nature. The individual components react with each other after being mixed and show full adhesion only on curing. The multi-component resins can be either solvent-based or solvent-less. The solvents present in the adhesives are a medium for the polyester or the polyurethane resin. The solvent is dried during the curing process.
Pre-mixed and frozen adhesives
Pre-mixed and frozen adhesives (PMFs) are adhesives that are mixed, deaerated, packaged, and frozen. As it is necessary for PMFs to remain frozen before use, once they are frozen at −80 °C they are shipped with dry ice and are required to be stored at or below −40 °C. PMF adhesives eliminate mixing mistakes by the end user and reduce exposure of curing agents that can contain irritants or toxins. PMFs were introduced commercially in the 1960s and are commonly used in aerospace and defense.
One-part
One-part adhesives harden via a chemical reaction with an external energy source, such as radiation, heat, and moisture.
Ultraviolet (UV) light curing adhesives, also known as light curing materials (LCM), have become popular within the manufacturing sector due to their rapid curing time and strong bond strength. Light curing adhesives can cure in as little as one second and many formulations can bond dissimilar substrates (materials) and withstand harsh temperatures. These qualities make UV curing adhesives essential to the manufacturing of items in many industrial markets such as electronics, telecommunications, medical, aerospace, glass, and optical. Unlike traditional adhesives, UV light curing adhesives not only bond materials together but they can also be used to seal and coat products. They are generally acrylic-based.
Heat curing adhesives consist of a pre-made mixture of two or more components. When heat is applied the components react and cross-link. This type of adhesive includes thermoset epoxies, urethanes, and polyimides.
Moisture curing adhesives cure when they react with moisture present on the substrate surface or in the air. This type of adhesive includes cyanoacrylates and urethanes.
By origin
Natural
Natural adhesives are made from organic sources such as vegetable starch (dextrin), natural resins, or animals (e.g. the milk protein casein and hide-based animal glues). These are often referred to as bioadhesives.
One example is a simple paste made by cooking flour in water. Starch-based adhesives are used in corrugated board and paper sack production, paper tube winding, and wallpaper adhesives. Casein glue is mainly used to adhere glass bottle labels. Animal glues have traditionally been used in bookbinding, wood joining, and many other areas but now are largely replaced by synthetic glues except in specialist applications like the production and repair of stringed instruments. Albumen made from the protein component of blood has been used in the plywood industry. Masonite, a wood hardboard, was originally bonded using natural wood lignin, an organic polymer, though most modern particle boards such as MDF use synthetic thermosetting resins.
Synthetic
Synthetic adhesives are made out of organic compounds. Many are based on elastomers, thermoplastics, emulsions, and thermosets. Examples of thermosetting adhesives are: epoxy, polyurethane, cyanoacrylate and acrylic polymers. The first commercially produced synthetic adhesive was Karlsons Klister in the 1920s.
Application
Applicators of different adhesives are designed according to the adhesive being used and the size of the area to which the adhesive will be applied. The adhesive is applied to either one or both of the materials being bonded. The pieces are aligned and pressure is added to aid in adhesion and rid the bond of air bubbles.
Common ways of applying an adhesive include brushes, rollers, using films or pellets, spray guns and applicator guns (e.g., caulk gun). All of these can be used manually or automated as part of a machine.
Mechanisms of adhesion
For an adhesive to be effective it must have three main properties. Firstly, it must be able to wet the base material. Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface. It must also increase in strength after application, and finally it must be able to transmit load between the two surfaces/substrates being adhered.
Adhesion, the attachment between adhesive and substrate may occur either by mechanical means, in which the adhesive works its way into small pores of the substrate, or by one of several chemical mechanisms. The strength of adhesion depends on many factors, including the means by which it occurs.
In some cases, an actual chemical bond occurs between adhesive and substrate. Thiolated polymers, for example, form chemical bonds with endogenous proteins such as mucus glycoproteins, integrins or keratins via disulfide bridges. Because of their comparatively high adhesive properties, these polymers find numerous biomedical applications. In others, electrostatic forces, as in static electricity, hold the substances together. A third mechanism involves the van der Waals forces that develop between molecules. A fourth means involves the moisture-aided diffusion of the glue into the substrate, followed by hardening.
Methods to improve adhesion
The quality of adhesive bonding depends strongly on the ability of the adhesive to efficiently cover (wet) the substrate area. This happens when the surface energy of the substrate is greater than the surface energy of the adhesive. However, high-strength adhesives have high surface energy. Thus, they bond poorly to low-surface-energy polymers or other materials. To solve this problem, surface treatment can be used to increase the surface energy as a preparation step before adhesive bonding. Importantly, surface preparation provides a reproducible surface allowing consistent bonding results. The commonly used surface activation techniques include plasma activation, flame treatment and wet chemistry priming.
Failure
There are several factors that could contribute to the failure of two adhered surfaces. Sunlight and heat may weaken the adhesive. Solvents can deteriorate or dissolve adhesive. Physical stresses may also cause the separation of surfaces. When subjected to loading, debonding may occur at different locations in the adhesive joint. The major fracture types are the following:
Cohesive fracture
Cohesive fracture is obtained if a crack propagates in the bulk polymer which constitutes the adhesive. In this case the surfaces of both adherends after debonding will be covered by fractured adhesive. The crack may propagate in the center of the layer or near an interface. For this last case, the cohesive fracture can be said to be "cohesive near the interface".
Adhesive fracture
Adhesive fracture (sometimes referred to as interfacial fracture) is when debonding occurs between the adhesive and the adherend. In most cases, the occurrence of adhesive fracture for a given adhesive goes along with smaller fracture toughness.
Other types of fracture
Other types of fracture include:
The mixed type, which occurs if the crack propagates at some spots in a cohesive and in others in an interfacial manner. Mixed fracture surfaces can be characterised by a certain percentage of adhesive and cohesive areas.
The alternating crack path type which occurs if the cracks jump from one interface to the other. This type of fracture appears in the presence of tensile pre-stresses in the adhesive layer.
Fracture can also occur in the adherend if the adhesive is tougher than the adherend. In this case, the adhesive remains intact and is still bonded to one substrate and remnants of the other. For example, when one removes a price label, the adhesive usually remains on the label and the surface. This is cohesive failure. If, however, a layer of paper remains stuck to the surface, the adhesive has not failed. Another example is when someone tries to pull apart Oreo cookies and all the filling remains on one side; this is an adhesive failure, rather than a cohesive failure.
Design of adhesive joints
As a general design rule, the material properties of the object need to be greater than the forces anticipated during its use. (i.e. geometry, loads, etc.). The engineering work will consist of having a good model to evaluate the function. For most adhesive joints, this can be achieved using fracture mechanics. Concepts such as the stress concentration factor and the strain energy release rate can be used to predict failure. In such models, the behavior of the adhesive layer itself is neglected and only the adherents are considered.
Failure will also very much depend on the opening mode of the joint.
Mode I is an opening or tensile mode where the loadings are normal to the crack.
Mode II is a sliding or in-plane shear mode where the crack surfaces slide over one another in direction perpendicular to the leading edge of the crack. This is typically the mode for which the adhesive exhibits the highest resistance to fracture.
Mode III is a tearing or antiplane shear mode.
As the loads are usually fixed, an acceptable design will result from combination of a material selection procedure and geometry modifications, if possible. In adhesively bonded structures, the global geometry and loads are fixed by structural considerations and the design procedure focuses on the material properties of the adhesive and on local changes on the geometry.
Increasing the joint resistance is usually obtained by designing its geometry so that:
The bonded zone is large
It is mainly loaded in mode II
Stable crack propagation will follow the appearance of a local failure.
Shelf life
Some glues and adhesives have a limited shelf life. Shelf life is dependent on multiple factors, the foremost of which being temperature. Adhesives may lose their effectiveness at high temperatures, as well as become increasingly stiff. Other factors affecting shelf life include exposure to oxygen or water vapor.
See also
Impact glue
References
Bibliography
Kinloch, Anthony J. (1987). Adhesion and Adhesives: Science and Technology. London: Chapman and Hall.
External links
Educational portal on adhesives and sealants
RoyMech: The theory of adhesive bonding
3M's Adhesive & Tapes Classification
Database of adhesives for attaching different materials
Visual arts materials
1750 introductions
Packaging materials |
2405 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aon%20%28company%29 | Aon (company) | Aon plc () is a British-American professional services and management consulting firm that offers a range of risk-mitigation products. Aon has approximately 50,000 employees across 120 countries.
Founded in Chicago by Patrick Ryan, Aon was created in 1982 when the Ryan Insurance Group merged with the Combined Insurance Company of America. In 1987, that company was renamed Aon from aon, a Gaelic word meaning "one". The company is globally headquartered in London with its North America operations based in Chicago at the Aon Center. Aon is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under AON with a market cap of $65 billion in April 2023.
History
W. Clement Stone's mother bought a small Detroit insurance agency, and in 1918 brought her son into the business. Mr. Stone sold low-cost, low-benefit accident insurance, underwriting and issuing policies on-site. The next year he founded his own agency, the Combined Registry Co.
As the Great Depression began, Stone reduced his workforce and improved training. Forced by his son's respiratory illness to winter in the South, Stone moved to Arkansas and Texas. In 1939 he bought American Casualty Insurance Co. of Dallas, Texas. It was consolidated with other purchases as the Combined Insurance Co. of America in 1947. The company continued through the 1950s and 1960s, continuing to sell health and accident policies. In the 1970s, Combined expanded overseas despite being hit hard by the recession.
In 1982, after 10 years of stagnation under Clement Stone Jr., the elder Stone, then 79, resumed control until the completion of a merger with Ryan Insurance Co. allowed him to transfer control to Patrick Ryan. Ryan, the son of a Ford dealer in Wisconsin and a graduate of Northwestern University, had started his company as an auto credit insurer in 1964. In 1976, the company bought the insurance brokerage units of the Esmark conglomerate. Ryan focused on insurance brokering and added more upscale insurance products. He also trimmed staff and took other cost-cutting measures, and in 1987 he changed Combined's name to Aon. In 1992, he bought Dutch insurance broker Hudig-Langeveldt. In 1995, the company sold its remaining direct life insurance holdings to General Electric to focus on consulting.
Aon built a global presence through purchases. In 1997, it bought The Minet Group, as well as insurance brokerage Alexander & Alexander Services, Inc. in a deal that made Aon (temporarily) the largest insurance broker worldwide. The firm made no US buys in 1998, but doubled its employee base with purchases including Spain's largest retail insurance broker, Gil y Carvajal, and the formation of Aon Korea.
Responding to industry demands, Aon announced its new fee disclosure policy in 1999, and the company reorganised to focus on buying personal line insurance firms and to integrate its acquisitions. That year it bought Nikols Sedgwick Group, an Italian insurance firm, and formed RiskAttack (with Zurich US), a risk analysis and financial management concern aimed at technology companies. The cost of integrating its numerous purchases, however, hammered profits in 1999.
Despite its troubles, in 2000 Aon bought Reliance Group's accident and health insurance business, as well as Actuarial Sciences Associates, a compensation and employee benefits consulting company. Later in that year, however, the company decided to cut 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort. In 2003, the company saw revenues increase primarily because of rate hikes in the insurance industry. Also that year, Endurance Specialty, a Bermuda-based underwriting operation that Aon helped to establish in November 2001 along with other investors, went public. The next year Aon sold most of its holdings in Endurance.
In the late 2007, Aon announced the divestiture of its underwriting business. With this move, the firm sold off its two major underwriting subsidiaries: Combined Insurance Company of America (acquired by ACE Limited for $2.4 billion) and Sterling Life Insurance Company (purchased by Munich Re Group for $352 million). The low margin and capital-intensive nature of the underwriting industry was the primary reason for the firm's decision to divest.
This growth strategy manifested in November 2008 when Aon announced it had acquired reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Benfield Group Limited for $1.75 billion. The acquisition amplified the firm's broking capabilities, positioning Aon one of the largest players in the reinsurance brokerage industry.
In 2010, Aon made its most significant acquisition to date with the purchase of Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion. Aside from drastically boosting Aon's human resources consulting capacity and entering the firm into the business process outsourcing industry, the move added 23,000 colleagues and more than $3 billion in revenue.
In January 2012, Aon announced that its headquarters would be moved to London, although North American operations and jobs remained in Chicago.
On 10 February 2017, Aon announced that it was selling its employee benefits outsourcing business to private equity firm The Blackstone Group for US$4.8 billion (£3.8 billion).
In February 2020, Aon named Eric Andersen as president of Aon after co-president Michael O'Connor departed the company to pursue new opportunities. He will be reporting to Greg Case, the firm's CEO.
In June 2020, Aon announced it was planning to repay the temporary 20% pay cut from 70% of employees that was published in a statement in April 2020 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. On 30 June 2020, Aon announced it would repay staff in full, plus 5% of the withheld amount.
In June 2020, Willis Towers Watson called its shareholders to two meetings to discuss its acquisition with Aon for August 26, 2020. It was revealed that the US Department of Justice has requested more information on the deal under antitrust rules.
September 11 attacks
Aon's New York offices were on the 92nd and 98th–105th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center at the time of the September 11 attacks. When the North Tower was struck by American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m., an evacuation of Aon's offices was quickly initiated by executive Eric Eisenberg, and 924 of the estimated 1,100 Aon employees present at the time managed to get below the 77th floor before United Airlines Flight 175 crashed between Floors 77 and 85 at 9:03 a.m.
Many, however, did not manage to get beneath in the 17 minutes they had between the two impacts. As a result, 176 employees of Aon were killed in the crash or died in the eventual collapse of the tower or from smoke inhalation. At 9:59 a.m., the tower finally collapsed, killing any survivors still within, including Eisenberg and Kevin Cosgrove.
Spitzer investigation
In 2004–2005, Aon, along with other brokers including Marsh & McLennan and Willis, fell under regulatory investigation under New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and other state attorneys general. At issue was the practice of insurance companies' payments to brokers (known as contingent commissions). The payments were thought to bring a conflict of interest, swaying broker decisions on behalf of carriers, rather than customers. In the spring of 2005, without acknowledging any wrongdoing, Aon agreed to a $190 million settlement, payable over 30 months.
UK regulatory breach
In January 2009, Aon was fined £5.69 million in the UK by the Financial Services Authority, who stated that the fine related to the company's inadequate bribery and corruption controls, claiming that between 14 January 2005 and 30 September 2007 Aon had failed to properly assess the risks involved in its dealings with overseas firms and individuals. The Authority did not find that any money had actually made its way to illegal organisations. Aon qualified for a 30% discount on the fine as a result of its cooperation with the investigation. Aon said its conduct was not deliberate, adding it had since "significantly strengthened and enhanced its controls around the usage of third parties".
US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations
In December 2011, Aon Corporation paid a $16.26 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice for violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Aon's subsidiaries made improper payments of over $3.6 million to government officials and third-party facilitators in Costa Rica, Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Myanmar and Bangladesh, between 1983 and 2007, to obtain and retain insurance contracts.
Major acquisitions
On 5 January 2007, Aon announced that its Aon Affinity group had acquired the WedSafe Wedding Insurance program.
On 22 August 2008, Aon announced that it had acquired London-based Benfield Group. The acquiring price was US$1.75 billion or £935 million, with US$170 million of debt.
On 5 March 2010, Hewitt Associates announced that it acquired Senior Educators Ltd. The acquisition offers companies a new way to address retiree medical insurance commitments.
On 12 July 2010, Aon announced that it had agreed to buy Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion in cash and stock.
On 7 April 2011, Aon announced that it had acquired Johannesburg, South Africa-based Glenrand MIB. Financial terms were not disclosed.
On 19 July 2011, Aon announced that it bought Westfield Financial Corp., the owner of insurance-industry consulting firm Ward Financial Group, from Ohio Farmers Insurance Co. Financial terms were not disclosed.
On 22 October 2012, Aon announced that it agreed to buy OmniPoint, Inc, a Workday consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
On 16 June 2014, Aon announced that it agreed to buy National Flood Services, Inc., a large processor of flood insurance, from Stoneriver Group, L.P.
On 31 October 2016, Aon's Aon Risk Solutions completed acquisition of Stroz Friedberg LLC, a specialised risk management firm focusing on cybersecurity.
On 14 November 2016, Aon acquired CoCubes an online Indian Assessment firm, facilitating hiring of entry-level engineering graduates.
On 10 February 2017, Aon plc agreed to sell its human resources outsourcing platform for US$4.8 billion (£3.8 billion) to Blackstone Group L.P. (BX.N), creating a new company called Alight Solutions.
In September 2017, Aon announced its intent to purchase real estate investment management firm The Townsend Group from Colony NorthStar for $475 million, expanding Aon's property investment management portfolio.
On 9 March 2020, Aon announced its merger with Willis Towers Watson for nearly $30 billion in an all-stock deal that creates the world's largest insurance broker. As of 21 May 2020, Willis board was under probe over merger agreement with Aon. The deal was called off in July 2021.
In December 2023, Aon agreed to acquire NFP, a middle-market provider of risk, benefits, wealth and retirement plan advisory services company, for $13.4 billion.
In March 2024, Aon plc acquired the technology assets and intellectual property of Humn.ai, an AI-powered platform. This will enhance its commercial fleet proposition.
Operations
Manchester United
On 3 June 2009, it was reported that Aon had signed a four-year shirt sponsorship deal with English football giant Manchester United. On 1 June 2010, Aon replaced American insurance company AIG as the principal sponsor of the club. The Aon logo was prominently displayed on the front of the club's shirts until the 2014/2015 season when Chevrolet replaced them. The deal was said to be worth £80 million over four years, replacing United's deal with AIG as the most lucrative shirt deal in history at the time.
In April 2013, Aon signed a new eight-year deal with Manchester United to rename their training ground as the Aon Training Complex and sponsor the club's training kits, reportedly worth £180 million to the club.
Awards
Aon was awarded Investment Consultancy of the Year and Fiduciary Manager of the Year at the FT's 2014 Pension and Investment Provider Awards
Aon received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's 2013 Corporate Equality Index
Aon was named to Working Mother's list of the 100 Best Companies for 2012
Aon Risk Solutions was the most recommended broker in 2012 for service and expertise by middle market buyers in Business Insurance's Buyers Choice Awards
Aon Risk Solutions was named Broker of the Year and Training Programme of the Year in 2012 by Insurance Times
Aon Benfield was named 2012 European Reinsurance Broker of the Year, Best European Property Reinsurance Broker and Best European Casualty Reinsurance Broker at the European Intelligent Insurer Awards
Aon Benfield was named Best Global Reinsurance Broking Company for Analytics at Reactions Global Awards 2012
Aon Hewitt was named Top Retirement Consultant of 2012 by PLANSPONSOR Magazine2
Aon Hewitt was named Actuarial and Investment Consultant of the Year for 2012 at the Professional Pensions Awards
References
External links
Actuarial firms
Companies based in London
Financial services companies based in the City of London
Financial services companies established in 1982
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Financial services companies of the United States
Consulting firms established in 1982
Tax inversions
Risk management companies
Human resource management consulting firms
Insurance companies of the United Kingdom
International management consulting firms
Management consulting firms of the United Kingdom
Consulting firms of the United States
British brands
Dual-listed companies
1982 establishments in Michigan |
2406 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alban%20Berg | Alban Berg | Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively small oeuvre, he is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century for his expressive style encompassing "entire worlds of emotion and structure".
Berg was born and lived in Vienna. He began to compose at the age of fifteen. He studied counterpoint, music theory and harmony with Arnold Schoenberg between 1904 and 1911, and adopted his principles of developing variation and the twelve-tone technique. Berg's major works include the operas Wozzeck (1924) and Lulu (1935, finished posthumously), the chamber pieces Lyric Suite and Chamber Concerto, as well as a Violin Concerto. He also composed a number of songs (lieder). He is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system; his works are seen as more "emotional" than those of Schoenberg. His music had a surface glamour that won him admirers when Schoenberg himself had few.
Berg died from sepsis in 1935.
Life and career
Early life
Berg was born in Vienna, the third of four children of Johanna and Konrad Berg. His father ran a successful export business, and the family owned several estates in Vienna and the countryside. The family's financial situation turned to the worse after the death of Konrad Berg in 1900, and it particularly affected young Berg, who had to repeat both his sixth and seventh grade to pass the exams. One of his closest lifelong friends and earliest biographer (under the pseudonym Hermann Herrenried), architect Hermann Watznauer, became a father figure (partly at Konrad's request), being ten years Berg's senior. Berg wrote him letters as long as thirty pages, often in florid, dramatic prose with idiosyncratic punctuation. Berg was more interested in literature than music as a child and would consider a career as a writer several times, turning to music slowly and at times unconfidently until the success of Wozzeck. He did not begin to compose until he was fifteen, when he started to teach himself music, although he did take piano lessons from his sister's governess. With Marie Scheuchl, a maid in the family estate of Berghof in Carinthia and fifteen years his senior, he fathered a daughter, Albine, born 4 December 1902.
In 1906 Berg met the singer (1885–1976), daughter of a wealthy family (rumoured to be in fact the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I from his liaison with Anna Nahowski). Despite the outward hostility of her family, the couple married on 3 May 1911, although "her father insisted on a Protestant ceremony to facilitate the divorce he foresaw as inevitable."
Early works (1907–1914)
With little prior music education, Berg began studying counterpoint, music theory, and harmony under Arnold Schoenberg in October 1904. By 1906 he was studying music full-time; by 1907 he began composition lessons. His student compositions included five drafts for piano sonatas. He also wrote songs, including his Seven Early Songs (Sieben frühe Lieder), three of which were Berg's first publicly performed work in a concert that featured the music of Schoenberg's pupils in Vienna that year.
The early sketches eventually culminated in the Piano Sonata, Op. 1, published in 1910 and likely composed 19081909; it has been described as one of the most formidable "first" works ever written. Berg studied with Schoenberg for six years until 1911. Among Schoenberg's teachings was the idea that the unity of a musical composition depends upon all its aspects being derived from a single basic idea; this idea was later known as developing variation. Berg passed this on to his students, one of whom, Theodor W. Adorno, stated: "The main principle he conveyed was that of variation: everything was supposed to develop out of something else and yet be intrinsically different". The Piano Sonata is an example—the whole composition is derived from the work's opening quartal gesture and its opening phrase.
Berg was a part of Vienna's cultural elite during the heady fin de siècle period. His circle included the musicians Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker, the painter Gustav Klimt, the writer and satirist Karl Kraus, the architect Adolf Loos, and the poet Peter Altenberg.
In 1913 two of Berg's Altenberg Lieder (1912) premiered in Vienna, conducted by Schoenberg in the infamous Skandalkonzert. Settings of aphoristic poetic utterances, the songs are accompanied by a very large orchestra. The performance caused a riot, and had to be halted. Berg effectively withdrew the work, and it was not performed in full until 1952. The full score remained unpublished until 1966.
Berg had a particular interest in the number 23, using it to structure several works. Various suggestions have been made as to the reason for this interest: that he took it from the biorhythms theory of Wilhelm Fliess, in which a 23-day cycle is considered significant, or because he first suffered an asthma attack on the 23rd of the month.
Wozzeck (1917–1924) and Lulu (1928–1929)
From 1915 to 1918 Berg served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. During a period of leave in 1917 he accelerated work on his first opera, Wozzeck. After the end of World War I, he settled again in Vienna, where he taught private pupils. He also helped Schoenberg run his Society for Private Musical Performances, which sought to create the ideal environment for the exploration and appreciation of unfamiliar new music by means of open rehearsals, repeat performances, and the exclusion of professional critics.
In 1924 three excerpts from Wozzeck were performed, which brought Berg his first public success. The opera, which Berg completed in 1922, was first performed on 14 December 1925, when Erich Kleiber conducted the first performance in Berlin. Today, Wozzeck is seen as one of the century's most important works. Berg made a start on his second opera, the three-act Lulu, in 1928 but interrupted the work in 1929 for the concert aria Der Wein which he completed that summer. Der Wein presaged Lulu in a number of ways, including vocal style, orchestration, design and text.
Other well-known Berg compositions include the Lyric Suite (1926), which was later shown to employ elaborate cyphers to document a secret love affair; the post-Mahlerian Three Pieces for Orchestra (completed in 1915 but not performed until after Wozzeck); and the Chamber Concerto (Kammerkonzert, 1923–25) for violin, piano, and 13 wind instruments: this latter is written so conscientiously that Pierre Boulez has called it "Berg's strictest composition" and it, too, is permeated by cyphers and posthumously disclosed hidden programs. It was at this time he began exhibiting tone clusters in his works after meeting with American avant-garde composer Henry Cowell, with whom he would eventually form a lifelong friendship.
Final years (1930–1935)
Life for the musical world was becoming increasingly difficult in the 1930s both in Vienna and Germany due to the rising tide of antisemitism and the Nazi cultural ideology that denounced modernity. Even to have an association with someone who was Jewish could lead to denunciation, and Berg's "crime" was to have studied with the Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg. Berg found that opportunities for his work to be performed in Germany were becoming rare, and eventually his music was proscribed and placed on the list of degenerate music.
In 1932 Berg and his wife acquired an isolated lodge, the Waldhaus on the southern shore of the Wörthersee, near Schiefling am See in Carinthia, where he was able to work in seclusion, mainly on Lulu and the Violin Concerto. At the end of 1934, Berg became involved in the political intrigues around finding a replacement for Clemens Krauss as director of the Vienna State Opera.
As more of the performances of his work in Germany were cancelled by the Nazis, who had come to power in early 1933, he needed to ensure the new director would be an advocate for modernist music. Originally, the premiere of Lulu had been planned for the Berlin State Opera, where Erich Kleiber continued to champion his music and had conducted the premiere of Wozzeck in 1925, but now this was looking increasingly uncertain, and Lulu was rejected by the Berlin authorities in the spring of 1934. Kleiber's production of the Lulu symphonic suite on 30 November 1934 in Berlin was also the occasion of his resignation in protest at the extent of conflation of culture with politics. Even in Vienna, the opportunities for the Vienna School of musicians were dwindling.
Berg had interrupted the orchestration of Lulu because of an unexpected (and financially much-needed) commission from the Russian-American violinist Louis Krasner for a Violin Concerto (1935). This profoundly elegiac work, composed at unaccustomed speed and posthumously premiered, has become Berg's best-known and most-beloved composition. Like much of his mature work, it employs an idiosyncratic adaptation of Schoenberg's "dodecaphonic" or twelve-tone technique, that enables the composer to produce passages openly evoking tonality, including quotations from historical tonal music, such as a Bach chorale and a Carinthian folk song. The Violin Concerto was dedicated "to the memory of an Angel", Manon Gropius, the deceased daughter of architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler.
Death
Berg died aged 50 in Vienna, on Christmas Eve 1935, from blood poisoning apparently caused by a furuncle on his back, induced by an insect sting that occurred in November. He was buried at the Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna.
Before he died, Berg had completed the orchestration of only the first two of the three acts of Lulu. The completed acts were successfully premièred in Zürich in 1937. For personal reasons Helene Berg subsequently imposed a ban on any attempt to "complete" the final act, which Berg had in fact completed in short score. An orchestration was therefore commissioned in secret from Friedrich Cerha and premièred in Paris (under Pierre Boulez) only in 1979, soon after Helene Berg's own death.
Legacy
Berg is remembered as one of the most important composers of the 20th century and the most widely performed opera composer among the Second Viennese School. He is said to have brought more "human values" to the twelve-tone system, his works seen as more "emotional" than Schoenberg's. Critically, he is seen as having preserved the Viennese tradition in his music.
Berg scholar Douglas Jarman writes in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that "[as] the 20th century closed, the 'backward-looking' Berg suddenly came as [George] Perle remarked, to look like its most forward-looking composer."
The Alban Berg Foundation, founded by the composer's widow in 1969, cultivates the memory and works of the composer, and awards scholarships. The Alban Berg Monument, situated next to the Vienna State Opera and unveiled in 2016, was funded by the Foundation.
The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet named after him, active from 1971 until 2008.
The asteroid 4528 Berg is named after him (1983).
Major compositions
Piano
Piano Sonata, Op. 1
String Quartet, Op. 3
Lyric Suite, string quartet
Chamber Concerto (1925) for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments
Orchestral
Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Violin Concerto
Vocal
Seven Early Songs
Vier Lieder (Four Songs), Op. 2
Five Orchestral Songs on Postcard Texts of Peter Altenberg, Op. 4
Der Wein
Schließe mir die Augen beide
Operas
Wozzeck, Op. 7 (1925)
Lulu (1937)
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
Adorno, Theodor W. Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link. Trans. Juliane Brand and Christopher Hailey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Brand, Juliane, Christopher Hailey and Donald Harris, eds. The Berg-Schoenberg Correspondence: Selected Letters. New York: Norton, 1987.
Carner, Mosco. Alban Berg: The Man and the Work. London: Duckworth, 1975.
dos Santos, Silvio J. Narratives of Identity in Alban Berg's 'Lulu'''. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 2014.
Floros, Constantin. Trans. by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch. Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Grun, Bernard, ed. Alban Berg: Letters to his Wife. London: Faber and Faber, 1971.
Headlam, Dave. The Music of Alban Berg. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Jarman, Douglas. "Dr. Schon's Five-Strophe Aria: Some Notes on Tonality and Pitch Association in Berg's Lulu". Perspectives of New Music 8/2 (Spring/Summer 1970).
Jarman, Douglas. "Some Rhythmic and Metric Techniques in Alban Berg's Lulu". The Musical Quarterly 56/3 (July 1970).
Jarman, Douglas. "Lulu: The Sketches". International Alban Berg Society Newsletter, 6 (June 1978).
Jarman, Douglas. "Countess Geschwitz's Series: A Controversy Resolved?". Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 107 (1980/81).
Jarman, Douglas. "Some Observations on Rhythm, Meter and Tempo in Lulu". In Alban Berg Studien. Ed. Rudolf Klein. Vienna: Universal Edition, 1981.
Jarman, Douglas. "Lulu: The Musical and Dramatic Structure". Royal Opera House Covent Garden program notes, 1981.
Jarman, Douglas. "The 'Lost' Score of the 'Symphonic Pieces from Lulu". International Alban Berg Society Newsletter 12 (Fall/Winter 1982).
Leibowitz, René. Schoenberg and his school; the contemporary stage of the language of music. Trans. Dika Newlin. New York: Philosophical Library, 1949.
Redlich, Hans Ferdinand. Alban Berg, the Man and His Music. London: John Calder, 1957.
Reich, Willi. The life and work of Alban Berg. Trans. Cornelius Cardew. New York : Da Capo Press, 1982.
Schmalfeldt, Janet. "Berg's Path to Atonality: The Piano Sonata, Op. 1". Alban Berg: Historical and Analytical Perspectives. Eds. David Gable and Robert P. Morgan, pp. 79–110. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Schweizer, Klaus. Die Sonatensatzform im Schaffen Alban Bergs. Stuttgart: Satz und Druck, 1970.
Wilkey, Jay Weldon. Certain Aspects of Form in the Vocal Music of Alban Berg''. Ph.D. thesis. Ann Arbor: Indiana University, 1965.
External links
Alban Berg biography and works on the UE website (publisher)
Vocal texts used by Alban Berg with translations to various languages, LiederNet Archive
Alban Berg at Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music
albanberg.resampled.de The most comprehensive acoustic representation of Alban Bergs Works in digital realisations.
1885 births
1935 deaths
19th-century Austrian people
20th-century Austrian composers
20th-century Austrian musicians
20th-century Austrian male musicians
20th-century Austrian people
20th-century classical composers
Austrian classical composers
Austrian male classical composers
Austrian opera composers
Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
Composers from Vienna
Deaths due to insect bites and stings
Deaths from sepsis
Expressionist music
Austrian male opera composers
Pupils of Arnold Schoenberg
Second Viennese School
Twelve-tone and serial composers |
2408 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical%20chemistry | Analytical chemistry | Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separation isolates analytes. Qualitative analysis identifies analytes, while quantitative analysis determines the numerical amount or concentration.
Analytical chemistry consists of classical, wet chemical methods and modern, instrumental methods. Classical qualitative methods use separations such as precipitation, extraction, and distillation. Identification may be based on differences in color, odor, melting point, boiling point, solubility, radioactivity or reactivity. Classical quantitative analysis uses mass or volume changes to quantify amount. Instrumental methods may be used to separate samples using chromatography, electrophoresis or field flow fractionation. Then qualitative and quantitative analysis can be performed, often with the same instrument and may use light interaction, heat interaction, electric fields or magnetic fields. Often the same instrument can separate, identify and quantify an analyte.
Analytical chemistry is also focused on improvements in experimental design, chemometrics, and the creation of new measurement tools. Analytical chemistry has broad applications to medicine, science, and engineering.
History
Analytical chemistry has been important since the early days of chemistry, providing methods for determining which elements and chemicals are present in the object in question. During this period, significant contributions to analytical chemistry included the development of systematic elemental analysis by Justus von Liebig and systematized organic analysis based on the specific reactions of functional groups.
The first instrumental analysis was flame emissive spectrometry developed by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff who discovered rubidium (Rb) and caesium (Cs) in 1860.
Most of the major developments in analytical chemistry took place after 1900. During this period, instrumental analysis became progressively dominant in the field. In particular, many of the basic spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques were discovered in the early 20th century and refined in the late 20th century.
The separation sciences follow a similar time line of development and also became increasingly transformed into high performance instruments. In the 1970s many of these techniques began to be used together as hybrid techniques to achieve a complete characterization of samples.
Starting in the 1970s, analytical chemistry became progressively more inclusive of biological questions (bioanalytical chemistry), whereas it had previously been largely focused on inorganic or small organic molecules. Lasers have been increasingly used as probes and even to initiate and influence a wide variety of reactions. The late 20th century also saw an expansion of the application of analytical chemistry from somewhat academic chemical questions to forensic, environmental, industrial and medical questions, such as in histology.
Modern analytical chemistry is dominated by instrumental analysis. Many analytical chemists focus on a single type of instrument. Academics tend to either focus on new applications and discoveries or on new methods of analysis. The discovery of a chemical present in blood that increases the risk of cancer would be a discovery that an analytical chemist might be involved in. An effort to develop a new method might involve the use of a tunable laser to increase the specificity and sensitivity of a spectrometric method. Many methods, once developed, are kept purposely static so that data can be compared over long periods of time. This is particularly true in industrial quality assurance (QA), forensic and environmental applications. Analytical chemistry plays an increasingly important role in the pharmaceutical industry where, aside from QA, it is used in the discovery of new drug candidates and in clinical applications where understanding the interactions between the drug and the patient are critical.
Classical methods
Although modern analytical chemistry is dominated by sophisticated instrumentation, the roots of analytical chemistry and some of the principles used in modern instruments are from traditional techniques, many of which are still used today. These techniques also tend to form the backbone of most undergraduate analytical chemistry educational labs.
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative analysis determines the presence or absence of a particular compound, but not the mass or concentration. By definition, qualitative analyses do not measure quantity.
Chemical tests
There are numerous qualitative chemical tests, for example, the acid test for gold and the Kastle-Meyer test for the presence of blood.
Flame test
Inorganic qualitative analysis generally refers to a systematic scheme to confirm the presence of certain aqueous ions or elements by performing a series of reactions that eliminate a range of possibilities and then confirm suspected ions with a confirming test. Sometimes small carbon-containing ions are included in such schemes. With modern instrumentation, these tests are rarely used but can be useful for educational purposes and in fieldwork or other situations where access to state-of-the-art instruments is not available or expedient.
Quantitative analysis
Quantitative analysis is the measurement of the quantities of particular chemical constituents present in a substance. Quantities can be measured by mass (gravimetric analysis) or volume (volumetric analysis).
Gravimetric analysis
The gravimetric analysis involves determining the amount of material present by weighing the sample before and/or after some transformation. A common example used in undergraduate education is the determination of the amount of water in a hydrate by heating the sample to remove the water such that the difference in weight is due to the loss of water.
Volumetric analysis
Titration involves the gradual addition of a measurable reactant to an exact volume of a solution being analyzed until some equivalence point is reached. Titrating accurately to either the half-equivalence point or the endpoint of a titration allows the chemist to determine the amount of moles used, which can then be used to determine a concentration or composition of the titrant. Most familiar to those who have taken chemistry during secondary education is the acid-base titration involving a color-changing indicator, such as phenolphthalein. There are many other types of titrations, for example, potentiometric titrations or precipitation titrations. Chemists might also create titration curves in order by systematically testing the pH every drop in order to understand different properties of the titrant.
Instrumental methods
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy measures the interaction of the molecules with electromagnetic radiation. Spectroscopy consists of many different applications such as atomic absorption spectroscopy, atomic emission spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, dual polarization interferometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, photoemission spectroscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy and so on.
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometry measures mass-to-charge ratio of molecules using electric and magnetic fields. There are several ionization methods: electron ionization, chemical ionization, electrospray ionization, fast atom bombardment, matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization, and others. Also, mass spectrometry is categorized by approaches of mass analyzers: magnetic-sector, quadrupole mass analyzer, quadrupole ion trap, time-of-flight, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance, and so on.
Electrochemical analysis
Electroanalytical methods measure the potential (volts) and/or current (amps) in an electrochemical cell containing the analyte. These methods can be categorized according to which aspects of the cell are controlled and which are measured. The four main categories are potentiometry (the difference in electrode potentials is measured), coulometry (the transferred charge is measured over time), amperometry (the cell's current is measured over time), and voltammetry (the cell's current is measured while actively altering the cell's potential).
Thermal analysis
Calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis measure the interaction of a material and heat.
Separation
Separation processes are used to decrease the complexity of material mixtures. Chromatography, electrophoresis and field flow fractionation are representative of this field.
Chromatographic assays
Chromatography can be used to determine the presence of substances in a sample as different components in a mixture have different tendencies to adsorb onto the stationary phase or dissolve in the mobile phase. Thus, different components of the mixture move at different speed. Different components of a mixture can therefore be identified by their respective Rƒ values, which is the ratio between the migration distance of the substance and the migration distance of the solvent front during chromatography.
In combination with the instrumental methods, chromatography can be used in quantitative determination of the substances.
Hybrid techniques
Combinations of the above techniques produce a "hybrid" or "hyphenated" technique. Several examples are in popular use today and new hybrid techniques are under development. For example, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-infrared spectroscopy, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography-NMR spectroscopy, liquid chromatography-infrared spectroscopy, and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry.
Hyphenated separation techniques refer to a combination of two (or more) techniques to detect and separate chemicals from solutions. Most often the other technique is some form of chromatography. Hyphenated techniques are widely used in chemistry and biochemistry. A slash is sometimes used instead of hyphen, especially if the name of one of the methods contains a hyphen itself.
Microscopy
The visualization of single molecules, single cells, biological tissues, and nanomaterials is an important and attractive approach in analytical science. Also, hybridization with other traditional analytical tools is revolutionizing analytical science. Microscopy can be categorized into three different fields: optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and scanning probe microscopy. Recently, this field is rapidly progressing because of the rapid development of the computer and camera industries.
Lab-on-a-chip
Devices that integrate (multiple) laboratory functions on a single chip of only millimeters to a few square centimeters in size and that are capable of handling extremely small fluid volumes down to less than picoliters.
Errors
Error can be defined as numerical difference between observed value and true value. The experimental error can be divided into two types, systematic error and random error. Systematic error results from a flaw in equipment or the design of an experiment while random error results from uncontrolled or uncontrollable variables in the experiment.
In error the true value and observed value in chemical analysis can be related with each other by the equation
where
is the absolute error.
is the true value.
is the observed value.
An error of a measurement is an inverse measure of accurate measurement, i.e. smaller the error greater the accuracy of the measurement.
Errors can be expressed relatively. Given the relative error():
The percent error can also be calculated:
If we want to use these values in a function, we may also want to calculate the error of the function. Let be a function with variables. Therefore, the propagation of uncertainty must be calculated in order to know the error in :
Standards
Standard curve
A general method for analysis of concentration involves the creation of a calibration curve. This allows for the determination of the amount of a chemical in a material by comparing the results of an unknown sample to those of a series of known standards. If the concentration of element or compound in a sample is too high for the detection range of the technique, it can simply be diluted in a pure solvent. If the amount in the sample is below an instrument's range of measurement, the method of addition can be used. In this method, a known quantity of the element or compound under study is added, and the difference between the concentration added and the concentration observed is the amount actually in the sample.
Internal standards
Sometimes an internal standard is added at a known concentration directly to an analytical sample to aid in quantitation. The amount of analyte present is then determined relative to the internal standard as a calibrant. An ideal internal standard is an isotopically enriched analyte which gives rise to the method of isotope dilution.
Standard addition
The method of standard addition is used in instrumental analysis to determine the concentration of a substance (analyte) in an unknown sample by comparison to a set of samples of known concentration, similar to using a calibration curve. Standard addition can be applied to most analytical techniques and is used instead of a calibration curve to solve the matrix effect problem.
Signals and noise
One of the most important components of analytical chemistry is maximizing the desired signal while minimizing the associated noise. The analytical figure of merit is known as the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N or SNR).
Noise can arise from environmental factors as well as from fundamental physical processes.
Thermal noise
Thermal noise results from the motion of charge carriers (usually electrons) in an electrical circuit generated by their thermal motion. Thermal noise is white noise meaning that the power spectral density is constant throughout the frequency spectrum.
The root mean square value of the thermal noise in a resistor is given by
where kB is Boltzmann's constant, T is the temperature, R is the resistance, and is the bandwidth of the frequency .
Shot noise
Shot noise is a type of electronic noise that occurs when the finite number of particles (such as electrons in an electronic circuit or photons in an optical device) is small enough to give rise to statistical fluctuations in a signal.
Shot noise is a Poisson process, and the charge carriers that make up the current follow a Poisson distribution. The root mean square current fluctuation is given by
where e is the elementary charge and I is the average current. Shot noise is white noise.
Flicker noise
Flicker noise is electronic noise with a 1/ƒ frequency spectrum; as f increases, the noise decreases. Flicker noise arises from a variety of sources, such as impurities in a conductive channel, generation, and recombination noise in a transistor due to base current, and so on. This noise can be avoided by modulation of the signal at a higher frequency, for example, through the use of a lock-in amplifier.
Environmental noise
Environmental noise arises from the surroundings of the analytical instrument. Sources of electromagnetic noise are power lines, radio and television stations, wireless devices, compact fluorescent lamps and electric motors. Many of these noise sources are narrow bandwidth and, therefore, can be avoided. Temperature and vibration isolation may be required for some instruments.
Noise reduction
Noise reduction can be accomplished either in computer hardware or software. Examples of hardware noise reduction are the use of shielded cable, analog filtering, and signal modulation. Examples of software noise reduction are digital filtering, ensemble average, boxcar average, and correlation methods.
Applications
Analytical chemistry has applications including in forensic science, bioanalysis, clinical analysis, environmental analysis, and materials analysis. Analytical chemistry research is largely driven by performance (sensitivity, detection limit, selectivity, robustness, dynamic range, linear range, accuracy, precision, and speed), and cost (purchase, operation, training, time, and space). Among the main branches of contemporary analytical atomic spectrometry, the most widespread and universal are optical and mass spectrometry. In the direct elemental analysis of solid samples, the new leaders are laser-induced breakdown and laser ablation mass spectrometry, and the related techniques with transfer of the laser ablation products into inductively coupled plasma. Advances in design of diode lasers and optical parametric oscillators promote developments in fluorescence and ionization spectrometry and also in absorption techniques where uses of optical cavities for increased effective absorption pathlength are expected to expand. The use of plasma- and laser-based methods is increasing. An interest towards absolute (standardless) analysis has revived, particularly in emission spectrometry.
Great effort is being put into shrinking the analysis techniques to chip size. Although there are few examples of such systems competitive with traditional analysis techniques, potential advantages include size/portability, speed, and cost. (micro total analysis system (μTAS) or lab-on-a-chip). Microscale chemistry reduces the amounts of chemicals used.
Many developments improve the analysis of biological systems. Examples of rapidly expanding fields in this area are genomics, DNA sequencing and related research in genetic fingerprinting and DNA microarray; proteomics, the analysis of protein concentrations and modifications, especially in response to various stressors, at various developmental stages, or in various parts of the body, metabolomics, which deals with metabolites; transcriptomics, including mRNA and associated fields; lipidomics - lipids and its associated fields; peptidomics - peptides and its associated fields; and metallomics, dealing with metal concentrations and especially with their binding to proteins and other molecules.
Analytical chemistry has played a critical role in the understanding of basic science to a variety of practical applications, such as biomedical applications, environmental monitoring, quality control of industrial manufacturing, forensic science, and so on.
The recent developments in computer automation and information technologies have extended analytical chemistry into a number of new biological fields. For example, automated DNA sequencing machines were the basis for completing human genome projects leading to the birth of genomics. Protein identification and peptide sequencing by mass spectrometry opened a new field of proteomics. In addition to automating specific processes, there is effort to automate larger sections of lab testing, such as in companies like Emerald Cloud Lab and Transcriptic.
Analytical chemistry has been an indispensable area in the development of nanotechnology. Surface characterization instruments, electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes enable scientists to visualize atomic structures with chemical characterizations.
See also
Important publications in analytical chemistry
List of chemical analysis methods
List of materials analysis methods
Measurement uncertainty
Metrology
Sensory analysis - in the field of Food science
Virtual instrumentation
Microanalysis
Quality of analytical results
Working range
References
Further reading
Gurdeep, Chatwal Anand (2008). Instrumental Methods of Chemical Analysis Himalaya Publishing House (India)
Ralph L. Shriner, Reynold C. Fuson, David Y. Curtin, Terence C. Morill: The systematic identification of organic compounds - a laboratory manual, Verlag Wiley, New York 1980, 6. edition, .
Bettencourt da Silva, R; Bulska, E; Godlewska-Zylkiewicz, B; Hedrich, M; Majcen, N; Magnusson, B; Marincic, S; Papadakis, I; Patriarca, M; Vassileva, E; Taylor, P; Analytical measurement: measurement uncertainty and statistics, 2012, .
External links
Infografik and animation showing the progress of analytical chemistry
aas Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
Materials science |
2414 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrangement | Arrangement | In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestration in that the latter process is limited to the assignment of notes to instruments for performance by an orchestra, concert band, or other musical ensemble. Arranging "involves adding compositional techniques, such as new thematic material for introductions, transitions, or modulations, and endings. Arranging is the art of giving an existing melody musical variety". In jazz, a memorized (unwritten) arrangement of a new or pre-existing composition is known as a head arrangement.
Classical music
Arrangement and transcriptions of classical and serious music go back to the early history of this genre.
Eighteenth century
J. S. Bach frequently made arrangements of his own and other composers' pieces. One example is the arrangement that he made of the Prelude from his Partita No. 3 for solo violin, BWV 1006.
Bach transformed this solo piece into an orchestral Sinfonia that introduces his Cantata BWV29. "The initial violin composition was in E major but both arranged versions are transposed down to D, the better to accommodate the wind instruments".
"The transformation of material conceived for a single string instrument into a fully orchestrated concerto-type movement is so successful that it is unlikely that anyone hearing the latter for the first time would suspect the existence of the former".
Nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Piano music
In particular, music written for the piano has frequently undergone this treatment, as it has been arranged for orchestra, chamber ensemble or concert band. Beethoven made an arrangement of his Piano Sonata No.9 for string quartet. Conversely, he also arranged his Grosse Fuge (one of his late string quartets) for piano duet. The American composer George Gershwin, due to his own lack of expertise in orchestration, had his Rhapsody in Blue arranged and orchestrated by Ferde Grofé.
Erik Satie wrote his three Gymnopédies for solo piano in 1888.
Eight years later, Debussy arranged two of them, exploiting the range of instrumental timbres available in a late 19th-century orchestra. "It was Debussy whose 1896 orchestrations of the Gymnopédies put their composer on the map."
Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite of ten piano pieces by Modest Mussorgsky, has been arranged over twenty times, notably by Maurice Ravel. Ravel's arrangement demonstrates an "ability to create unexpected, memorable orchestral sonorities". In the second movement, "Gnomus", Mussorgsky's original piano piece simply repeats the following passage: Ravel initially orchestrates it as follows:
Repeating the passage, Ravel provides a fresh orchestration "this time with the celesta (replacing the woodwinds) accompanied by string glissandos on the fingerboard".
Songs
A number of Franz Schubert's songs, originally for voice with piano accompaniment, were arranged by other composers. For example, his "highly charged, graphic" song "Erlkönig" ("The Erl King") has a piano introduction that conveys "unflagging energy" from the start:
The arrangement of this song by Hector Berlioz uses strings to convey faithfully the driving urgency and threatening atmosphere of the original.
Berlioz adds colour in bars 6–8 through the addition of woodwind, horns, and a timpani. With typical flamboyance, Berlioz adds spice to the harmony in bar 6 with an E flat in the horn part, creating a half-diminished seventh chord which is not in Schubert's original piano part.
There are subtle differences between this and the arrangement of the song by Franz Liszt. The upper string sound is thicker, with violins and violas playing the fierce repeated octaves in unison and bassoons compensating for this by doubling the cellos and basses. There are no timpani, but trumpets and horns add a small jolt to the rhythm of the opening bar, reinforcing the bare octaves of the strings by playing on the second main beat.
Unlike Berlioz, Liszt does not alter the harmony, but changes the emphasis somewhat in bar 6, with the note A in the oboes and clarinets grating against rather than blending with the G in the strings.
"Schubert has come in for his fair share of transcriptions and arrangements. Most, like Liszt's transcriptions of the Lieder or Berlioz's orchestration for Erlkönig, tell us more about the arranger that about the original composer, but they can be diverting so long as they are in no way a replacement for the original".
Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ("Songs of a Wayfarer") were originally written for voice with piano accompaniment. The composer's later arrangement of the piano part shows a typical ear for clarity and transparency in re-writing for an ensemble. Here is the original piano version of the closing bars of the second song, "Gieng heit' Morgen über's Feld":
The orchestration shows Mahler's attention to detail in bringing out differentiated orchestral colours supplied by woodwind, strings and horn. He uses a harp to convey the original arpeggios supplied by the left hand of the piano part. He also extracts a descending chromatic melodic line, implied by the left hand in bars 2–4 (above), and gives it to the horn.
Popular music
Popular music recordings often include parts for brass horn sections, bowed strings, and other instruments that were added by arrangers and not composed by the original songwriters. Some pop arrangers even add sections using full orchestra, though this is less common due to the expense involved. Popular music arrangements may also be considered to include new releases of existing songs with a new musical treatment. These changes can include alterations to tempo, meter, key, instrumentation, and other musical elements.
Well-known examples include Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", Cream's "Crossroads", and Ike and Tina Turner's version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary". The American group Vanilla Fudge and the British group Yes based their early careers on radical re-arrangements of contemporary hits. Bonnie Pointer performed disco- and Motown-styled versions of "Heaven Must Have Sent You". Remixes, such as in dance music, can also be considered arrangements.
Jazz
Arrangements for small jazz combos are usually informal, minimal, and uncredited. Larger ensembles have generally had greater requirements for notated arrangements, though the early Count Basie big band is known for its many head arrangements, so called because they were worked out by the players themselves, memorized ("in the player's head"), and never written down. Most arrangements for big bands, however, were written down and credited to a specific arranger, as with arrangements by Sammy Nestico and Neal Hefti for Count Basie's later big bands.
Don Redman made innovations in jazz arranging as a part of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in the 1920s. Redman's arrangements introduced a more intricate melodic presentation and soli performances for various sections of the big band. Benny Carter became Henderson's primary arranger in the early 1930s, becoming known for his arranging abilities in addition to his previous recognition as a performer. Beginning in 1938, Billy Strayhorn became an arranger of great renown for the Duke Ellington orchestra. Jelly Roll Morton is sometimes considered the earliest jazz arranger. While he toured around the years 1912 to 1915, he wrote down parts to enable "pickup bands" to perform his compositions.
Big-band arrangements are informally called charts. In the swing era they were usually either arrangements of popular songs or they were entirely new compositions. Duke Ellington's and Billy Strayhorn's arrangements for the Duke Ellington big band were usually new compositions, and some of Eddie Sauter's arrangements for the Benny Goodman band and Artie Shaw's arrangements for his own band were new compositions as well. It became more common to arrange sketchy jazz combo compositions for big band after the bop era.
After 1950, the big bands declined in number. However, several bands continued and arrangers provided renowned arrangements. Gil Evans wrote a number of large-ensemble arrangements in the late 1950s and early 1960s intended for recording sessions only. Other arrangers of note include Vic Schoen, Pete Rugolo, Oliver Nelson, Johnny Richards, Billy May, Thad Jones, Maria Schneider, Bob Brookmeyer, Lou Marini, Nelson Riddle, Ralph Burns, Billy Byers, Gordon Jenkins, Ray Conniff, Henry Mancini, Ray Reach, Vince Mendoza, and Claus Ogerman.
In the 21st century, the big-band arrangement has made a modest comeback. Gordon Goodwin, Roy Hargrove, and Christian McBride have all rolled out new big bands with both original compositions and new arrangements of standard tunes.
For instrumental groups
Strings
The string section is a body of instruments composed of various bowed stringed instruments. By the 19th century orchestral music in Europe had standardized the string section into the following homogeneous instrumental groups: first violins, second violins (the same instrument as the first violins, but typically playing an accompaniment or harmony part to the first violins, and often at a lower pitch range), violas, cellos, and double basses. The string section in a multi-sectioned orchestra is sometimes referred to as the "string choir".
The harp is also a stringed instrument, but is not a member of nor homogeneous with the violin family, and is not considered part of the string choir. Samuel Adler classifies the harp as a plucked string instrument in the same category as the guitar (acoustic or electric), mandolin, banjo, or zither. Like the harp, these instruments do not belong to the violin family and are not homogeneous with the string choir. In modern arranging these instruments are considered part of the rhythm section. The electric bass and upright string bass—depending on the circumstance—can be treated by the arranger as either string section or rhythm section instruments.
A group of instruments in which each member plays a unique part—rather than playing in unison with other like instruments—is referred to as a chamber ensemble. A chamber ensemble made up entirely of strings of the violin family is referred to by its size. A string trio consists of three players, a string quartet four, a string quintet five, and so on.
In most circumstances the string section is treated by the arranger as one homogeneous unit and its members are required to play preconceived material rather than improvise.
A string section can be utilized on its own (this is referred to as a string orchestra) or in conjunction with any of the other instrumental sections. More than one string orchestra can be utilized.
A standard string section (vln., vln 2., vla., vcl, cb.) with each section playing unison allows the arranger to create a five-part texture. Often an arranger will divide each violin section in half or thirds to achieve a denser texture. It is possible to carry this division to its logical extreme in which each member of the string section plays his or her own unique part.
Size of the string section
Artistic, budgetary and logistical concerns, including the size of the orchestra pit or hall will determine the size and instrumentation of a string section. The Broadway musical West Side Story, in 1957, was booked into the Winter Garden theater; composer Leonard Bernstein disliked the playing of "house" viola players he would have to use there, and so he chose to leave them out of the show's instrumentation; a benefit was the creation of more space in the pit for an expanded percussion section.
George Martin, producer and arranger for the Beatles, warns arrangers about the intonation problems when only two like instruments play in unison: "After a string quartet, I do not think there is a satisfactory sound for strings until one has at least three players on each line . . . as a rule two stringed instruments together create a slight 'beat' which does not give a smooth sound." Different music directors may use different numbers of string players and different balances between the sections to create different musical effects.
While any combination and number of string instruments is possible in a section, a traditional string section sound is achieved with a violin-heavy balance of instruments.
Further reading
See also
Transcription (music)
Instrumentation (music)
Orchestration
Reduction (music)
Musical notation
American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers
Electronic keyboard (or Electronic Music Arranger), which allows for live music arrangement
List of music arrangers
List of jazz arrangers
:Category:Music arrangers
References
Sources
Kers, Robert de (1944). Harmonie et orchestration pour orchestra de danse. Bruxelles: Éditions musicales C. Bens. vii, 126 p.
Kidd, Jim (1987). Unsung Heroes, the Jazz Arrangers, from Don Redman to Sy Oliver: [text with recorded examples for a presentation] Prepared on the Occasion of the 16th Annual Canadian Collectors' Congress, 25 April 1987, Toronto, Ont. Toronto: Canadian Collectors' Congress. Photo-reproduced text ([6] leaves) with audiocassette of recorded illustrative musical examples.
Randel, Don Michael (2002). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. .
External links
An oral history of pop music arranging, compiled by Richard Niles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 |
2416 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasian%20Creed | Athanasian Creed | The Athanasian Creed — also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed or Quicunque Vult (or Quicumque Vult), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes" — is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles' Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements (as does the original Nicene Creed).
Widely accepted in Western Christianity, including by the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches (it is part of the Lutheran confessions set out in the Book of Concord), Anglican Churches, Reformed Churches, and ancient liturgical churches, the Athanasian Creed has been used in public worship less frequently, with exception of Trinity Sunday. However, part of it can be found as an "Authorized Affirmation of Faith" in the main volume of the Common Worship liturgy of the Church of England published in 2000. Despite falling out of liturgical use, the creed's influence on current Protestant understanding of trinitarian doctrine is clear.
Designed to distinguish Nicene Christianity from Arianism, the Athanasian Creed traditionally was recited at the Sunday Office of Prime in the Western Church. It has not been commonly used in the Eastern Church.
Origin
There is a possible allusion to the Creed in Gregory Nazianzen's Oration in praise of Athanasius: "For, when all the rest who sympathised with us were divided into three parties, and many were faltering in their conception of the Son, and still more in that of the Holy Ghost, (a point on which to be only slightly in error was to be orthodox) and few indeed were sound upon both points, he was the first and only one, or with the concurrence of but a few, to venture to confess in writing, with entire clearness and distinctness, the Unity of Godhead and Essence of the Three Persons, and thus to attain in later days, under the influence of inspiration, to the same faith in regard to the Holy Ghost, as had been bestowed at an earlier time on most of the Fathers in regard to the Son. This confession, a truly royal and magnificent gift, he presented to the Emperor, opposing to the unwritten innovation, a written account the orthodox faith, so that an emperor might be overcome by an emperor, reason by reason, treatise by treatise." (Oration 21, p. 33)
A medieval account credited Athanasius of Alexandria, the famous defender of Nicene theology, as the author of the Creed. According to that account, Athanasius composed it during his exile in Rome and presented it to Pope Julius I as a witness to his orthodoxy. The traditional attribution of the Creed to Athanasius was first called into question in 1642 by the Dutch Protestant theologian Gerhard Johann Vossius.
It has since been widely accepted by modern scholars that the creed was not authored by Athanasius, that it was not originally called a creed at all and that Athanasius's name was not originally attached to it. Athanasius's name seems to have become attached to the creed as a sign of its strong declaration of Trinitarian faith. The reasoning for rejecting Athanasius as the author usually relies on a combination of the following:
The creed originally was most likely written in Latin, but Athanasius composed in Greek.
Neither Athanasius nor his contemporaries ever mention the Creed.
It is not mentioned in any records of the ecumenical councils.
It appears to address theological concerns that developed after Athanasius died (including the filioque).
It was most widely circulated among Western Christians.
The use of the creed in a sermon by Caesarius of Arles, as well as a theological resemblance to works by Vincent of Lérins, point to Southern Gaul as its origin. The most likely time frame is in the late fifth or early sixth century AD, at least 100 years after Athanasius lived. The Christian theology of the creed is firmly rooted in the Augustinian tradition and uses the exact terminology of Augustine's On the Trinity (published 415 AD). In the late 19th century, there was a great deal of speculation about who might have authored the creed, with suggestions including Ambrose of Milan, Venantius Fortunatus and Hilary of Poitiers.
The 1940 discovery of a lost work by Vincent of Lérins, which bears a striking similarity to much of the language of the Athanasian Creed, has led many to conclude that the creed originated with Vincent or his students. For example, in the authoritative modern monograph about the creed, J. N. D. Kelly asserts that Vincent of Lérins was not its author but that it may have come from the same milieu, the area of Lérins in southern Gaul.
The oldest surviving manuscripts of the Athanasian Creed date from the late 8th century.
Content
The Athanasian Creed is usually divided into two sections: lines 1–28 address the doctrine of the Trinity, and lines 29–44 address the doctrine of Christology. Enumerating the three persons of the Trinity (Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), the first section of the creed ascribes the divine attributes to each individually. Thus, each person of the Trinity is described as uncreated (increatus), limitless (Immensus), eternal (æternus), and omnipotent (omnipotens).
While ascribing the divine attributes and divinity to each person of the Trinity, thus avoiding subordinationism, the first half of the Athanasian Creed also stresses the unity of the three persons in the one Godhead, thus avoiding a theology of tritheism.
The text of the Athanasian Creed is as follows:
The Christology of the second section is more detailed than that of the Nicene Creed and reflects the teaching of the First Council of Ephesus (431) and the definition of the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Athanasian Creed uses the term substantia (a Latin translation of the Nicene homoousios: 'same being' or 'consubstantial') with respect to the relation of the Son to the Father according to his divine nature, but it also says that the Son is substantia of his mother Mary according to his human nature.
The Creed's wording thus excludes not only Sabellianism and Arianism but also the Christological heresies of Nestorianism and Eutychianism. A need for a clear confession against Arianism arose in Western Europe when the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who had Arian beliefs, invaded at the beginning of the 5th century.
The final section of this Creed also moved beyond the Nicene (and Apostles') Creeds in making negative statements about the people's fate: "They that have done good shall go into life everlasting: and they that have done evil into everlasting fire." That caused considerable debate in England in the mid-19th century, centred on the teaching of Frederick Denison Maurice.
Uses
Composed of 44 rhythmic lines, the Athanasian Creed appears to have been intended as a liturgical document, the original purpose of the creed being for it to be spoken or sung as a part of worship. The creed itself uses the language of public worship by speaking of the worship of God rather than the language of belief ("Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God"). In the medieval Catholic Church, the creed was recited following the Sunday sermon or at the Sunday Office of Prime. The creed was often set to music and used in the place of a Psalm.
Protestantism
Early Protestants inherited the late medieval devotion to the Athanasian Creed, and it is considered to be authoritative in many Protestant churches. The statements of Protestant belief (confessional documents) of various Reformers commend the Athanasian Creed to their followers, including the Augsburg Confession, the Formula of Concord, the Second Helvetic Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Bohemian Confession and the Thirty-nine Articles. A metric version, "Quicumque vult", with a musical setting, was published in The Whole Booke of Psalmes printed by John Day in 1562. Among modern Lutheran and Reformed churches adherence to the Athanasian Creed is prescribed by the earlier confessional documents, but the creed does not receive much attention outside occasional use, especially on Trinity Sunday.
In Reformed circles, it is included, for example, in the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia's Book of Forms (published in 1991). It is sometimes recited in liturgies of the Canadian Reformed Churches and in the Protestant Reformed Churches. The Four additional ancient creeds that they adhere to would be Apostles, Athanasian, Creed of Chalcedon, and Nicene Creed.
The text of an abbreviated form—based on the 1990s Christian Reformed Church's translation, arranged as a three-part responsive creed for congregational use—is as follows:
We worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity.
The person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one. Their glory equal; their majesty co-eternal.
What quality the Father has,
the Son has,
and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings. There is but one eternal being. So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings. There is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.
The Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings.
There is but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods.
There is but one God.
In the successive Books of Common Prayer of the reformed Church of England, from 1549 to 1662, its recitation was provided for on 19 occasions each year, a practice that continued until the 19th century, when vigorous controversy regarding its statement about 'eternal damnation' saw its use gradually decline. It remains one of the three Creeds approved in the Thirty-Nine Articles, and it is printed in several current Anglican prayer books, such as A Prayer Book for Australia (1995). As with Roman Catholic practice, its use is now generally only on Trinity Sunday or its octave. An Anglican devotional manual published by The Church Union, A Manual of Catholic Devotion: For Members of the Church of England, includes the Athanasian Creed with the prayers for Mattins, with the note: "Said on certain feasts at Mattins instead of the Apostles' Creed". The Episcopal Church, based in the United States, has never provided for its use in worship, but added it to its Book of Common Prayer for the first time in 1979, where it is included in small print in a reference section, "Historical Documents of the Church". The Anglo-Catholic devotional manual Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, first published in 1947 and revised in 1967, includes the Athanasian Creed under "Devotions to the Holy Trinity".
Lutheranism
In Lutheranism, the Athanasian Creed is, along with the Apostles' and the Nicene Creed, one of the three ecumenical creeds and is placed at the beginning of the 1580 Book of Concord, the historic collection of authoritative doctrinal statements (confessions) of the Lutheran Church. It is still used in the liturgy on Trinity Sunday.
Catholicism
In Roman Catholic churches, it was traditionally said at Prime on Sundays when the Office was of the Sunday. The 1911 reforms reduced that to Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost and on Trinity Sunday, except when a commemoration of a double feast or a day within an Octave occurred. The 1960 reforms further reduced its use to once a year, on Trinity Sunday. It has been effectively dropped from the Catholic liturgy since the Second Vatican Council. It is, however, maintained in the rite of exorcism of the Roman Rite. Opus Dei members recite it on the third Sunday of every month. Consistent with its presence in Anglican prayer books, it is preserved in Divine Worship: Daily Office, the official breviary approved for use in the personal ordinariates for former Anglicans.
A common visualization of the first half of the Creed is the Shield of the Trinity.
References
Citations
Sources
Book of Concord
Ecumenical creeds
5th-century Christian texts
Texts in Latin
Trinitarianism
Christian statements of faith
Christian terminology
Western Christianity
Nature of Jesus Christ |
2417 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicante | Alicante | Alicante () is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in the Valencian Community.
Toponymy
The name of the city echoes the Arabic name Laqant (), al-Laqant (اللَّقَنْت) or Al-qant (), which in turn reflects the Latin Lucentum and Greek root Leuké (or Leuka), meaning "white".
History
The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7000 years. The first tribes of hunter-gatherers moved down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC Greek and Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron, and the pottery wheel. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuké (Greek: , meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), in the mid-230s BC, which is generally presumed to have been on the site of modern Alicante.
Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, the Romans would eventually rule Hispania Tarraconensis for over 700 years. By the 5th century AD, Rome was in decline and the Roman predecessor town of Alicante, known as Lucentum (Latin), was more or less under the control of the Visigothic warlord Theudimer and thereafter under Visigothic rule from 400 to 700 A.D. The Goths did not put up much resistance to the Arab conquest of Medina Laqant at the beginning of the 8th century. The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the 13th century Reconquista (Reconquest). Alicante was conquered again in 1247 by the Castilian king Alfonso X, but later passed to the Kingdom of Valencia in 1296 with King James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village (Vila Reial) with representation in the medieval Valencian Parliament (Corts Valencianes).
After several decades of being the battlefield where the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon clashed, Alicante became a major Mediterranean trading station exporting rice, wine, olive oil, oranges, and wool. But between 1609 and 1614 King Felipe III expelled thousands of Moriscos who had remained in Valencia after the Reconquista, due to their cooperation with Barbary pirates who continually attacked coastal cities and caused much harm to trade. This act cost the region dearly; with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy.
Conditions worsened in the early 18th century; after the War of Spanish Succession, Alicante went into a long, slow decline, surviving through the 18th and 19th centuries by making shoes and growing agricultural produce such as oranges and almonds, and thanks to its fisheries. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the local economy with increasing international trade and the growth of the city harbour leading to increased exports of several products (particularly during World War I when Spain was a neutral country).
During the early 20th century, Alicante was a minor capital that took profit from the benefit of Spain's neutrality during World War I, and that provided new opportunities for local industry and agriculture. The Rif War in the 1920s saw numerous alicantinos drafted to fight in the long and bloody campaigns in the former Spanish protectorate (northern Morocco) against the Rif rebels. The political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of Republican candidates in local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on 14 April 1931. The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936. Alicante was the last city loyal to the Republican government to be occupied by General Franco's troops on 1 April 1939, and its harbour saw the last Republican government officials fleeing the country. Vicious air bombings were targeted on Alicante during the three years of civil conflict, most notably the bombing by the Italian Aviazione Legionaria of the Mercado on 25 May 1938 in which more than 300 civilians perished.
The port of Alicante was the site of the heroic episode of the British ship SS Stanbrook in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War. Her captain Archibald Dickson decided to rescue thousands of Spanish Republicans families during the night of 28th March 1939 under the bombing of the Nazis.
From 1954 onwards many pied-noirs settled in the city (as many as 30,000, although other sources decrease the amount tenfold). Alicante had fostered strong links with Oran in the past, and a notable share of the population of the latter city during the French colonial period had ancestry in the province of Alicante. The immigration process accelerated after the independence of Algeria in 1962.
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a lasting transformation of the city by the tourist industry. Large buildings and complexes rose in nearby Albufereta, e.g. El Barco, and Playa de San Juan de Alicante, with the benign climate being the biggest draw to attract prospective buyers and tourists who kept the hotels reasonably busy. New construction benefited the whole economy, as the development of the tourism sector also spawned new businesses such as restaurants, bars, and other tourist-oriented enterprises. Also, the old airfield at Rabasa was closed and air traffic moved to the new El Altet Airport, which made a more convenient and modern facility for charter flights bringing tourists from northern European countries.
When Franco died in 1975, his successor Juan Carlos I played his part as the living symbol of the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. The governments of regional communities were given constitutional status as nationalities, and their governments were given more autonomy, including that of the Valencian region, the Generalitat Valenciana.
The Port of Alicante has been reinventing itself since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost to Valencia's harbour). In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port made by cruise ships in 2007 bringing some 80,000 passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. The moves to develop the port for more tourism have been welcomed by the city and its residents, but the latest plans to develop an industrial estate in the port have caused great controversy.
Geography
Alicante is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Some orographic features rise over the largely flat terrain where the city is built on including the Cabo de la Huerta, the Serra Grossa, the Tosal and the Benacantil hills.
Located in an arid territory, Alicante lacks any meaningful permanent water stream. There are however several stream beds correspondent to intermittent ramblas. There was a swamp area in the northeast of the municipality, l'Albufereta, yet it was dried up in 1928.
The municipality has two exclaves in the mainland: Monnegre (between the municipalities of San Vicente del Raspeig, Mutxamel, Busot and Jijona), and Cabeçó d'Or; the latter comprises part of the namesake Cabeçó d'Or mountain (including the summit, 1209 metres above sea level). The small island of Tabarca, 8 nautical miles to the south of the city, also belongs to the municipality.
The foot of the main staircase of the City Hall Building (Ayuntamiento) is the zero point (cota cero), used as the point of reference for measuring the height above or below sea level of any point in Spain, due to the marginal tidal variations of the Mediterranean sea at Alicante.
Economy
Until the global recession which started in 2008, Alicante was one of the fastest-growing cities in Spain. The boom depended partly on tourism directed to the beaches of the Costa Blanca and particularly on the second residence-construction boom which started in the 1960s and revived again by the late 1990s. Services and public administration also play a major role in the city's economy. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. The construction surge was the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike. The latest of many public battles concerns the plans of the Port Authority of Alicante to construct an industrial estate on reclaimed land in front of the city's coastal strip, in breach of local, national, and European regulations. (See Port of Alicante for details).
The city serves as the headquarters of the European Union Intellectual Property Office and a sizeable population of European public workers live there.
The campus of the University of Alicante lies in San Vicente del Raspeig, bordering the city of Alicante to the north. More than 25,000 students attend the university.
Between 2005 and 2012 Ciudad de la Luz (Ciutat de la Llum), one of the largest film studios in Europe, had its base in Alicante. The studio shot Spanish and international movies such as Asterix at the Olympic Games by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, and Manolete by Menno Meyjes. It was shut down in 2012 for violating European competition law.
Government and administration
Luis Barcala of the People's Party has been the mayor of Alicante since 19 April 2018. He became mayor after the resignation of Gabriel Echávarri, when the councillor Nerea Belmonte defected from Guanyar Alacant and refused to support the Socialist Party replacement candidate Eva Montesinos.
Gabriel Echávarri of the Socialist Party (PSOE) was the mayor of the city from 13 June 2015 until April 2018, following the municipal elections on 24 May 2015. He was supported by the votes from his group (6), plus those from leftist parties Guanyar Alacant (6) and Compromís (3), as well as from the centre-right party Ciudadanos (6). The People's Party (Partido Popular, PP), with only 8 elected seats, lost the majority. On April he resigned due to various judicial issues and was temporarily substituted by the councillor Eva Montesinos.
In the previous municipal elections of May 2011, Sonia Castedo of People's Party won the elections with an absolute majority, but resigned in December 2014 due to her involvement in several corruption scandals, at present being under investigation. Her fellow party member Miguel Valor went on to become mayor up until Echávarri's election.
Climate
Alicante has mild winter temperatures, hot and sultry summers, and little rain, concentrated in equinoctial periods. Like the rest of the Province of Alicante itself, which has a range of dry climate types, the city has a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) according to the Köppen climate classification. It is one of the driest cities in Europe. Daily variations in temperature are generally small because of the stabilising influence of the sea, although occasional periods of westerly wind can produce temperature changes of or more. Seasonal temperature variations are also relatively small, meaning that winters are mild and summers are hot. During the summer, due to the evaporation of warm Mediterranean waters, air humidity levels are high, making the day and night stuffy for much of the season. These high humidity levels increase the heat index.
The average rainfall is per year. The cold drop means that September and October are the wettest months. Rarely, the rainfall can be torrential, reaching over in a 24-hour period, leading to severe flooding. Because of this irregularity, only 35 rainy days are observed on average per year, and the annual number of sunshine hours is 2,851.
The record maximum temperature of was observed on 13 August 2022. The record minimum temperature of was recorded on 12 February 1956. The worst flooding in the city's modern history occurred on 30 September 1997 when of rain fell within six hours. Temperatures below are very rare; the last recorded snowfall occurred in 1926. Alicante enjoys one of the sunniest and warmest winter daytime temperatures in mainland Europe.
Demographics
The official population of Alicante in 2022 was 338,577 inhabitants and 768,194 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elche". As of 2022, about 17.7% of the population is foreign, 62195 people, most of them immigrants who have arrived in the previous 20 years. Besides which, there is an estimation of additional thousands coming from countries outside the EU (mostly from the African continent) that are under illegal alien status and therefore are not accounted for in official population figures. The real percentage of foreign residents is higher, since the Alicante metropolitan area is home to many Northern European retirees who are officially still residents of their own countries. A sizable number of semi-permanent residents are Spanish nationals who officially still live in other areas of Spain.
Transportation
Alicante Airport outranks the Valencia Airport, being the busiest airport in the Valencian Community, and among the busiest airports in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Málaga. It is connected with Madrid and Barcelona by frequent Iberia and Vueling flights, and with many Western European cities through carriers such as Ryanair, Easyjet and Jet2.com. There are also regular flights to Algeria.
Alicante railway station is used by Cercanías Murcia/Alicante commuter rail services linking Alicante with suburbs and Murcia. Long-range Renfe trains run frequently to Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. In 2013, the Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network was extended to Alicante station, allowing AVE high-speed rail services to link to Madrid via Villena AV, Albacete-Los Llanos and Cuenca-Fernando Zóbel.
Alicante Tram connects the city with outlying settlements along Costa Blanca. , electric tram-trains run up to Benidorm, and diesel trains go further to Dénia.
The city has regular ferry services to the Balearic Islands and Algeria. The city is strongly fortified, with a spacious harbour.
Main sights
Amongst the most notable features of the city are the Castle of Santa Bárbara and the port of Alicante. The latter was the subject of bitter controversy in 2006–2007 as residents battled, successfully, to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate.
The Santa Bárbara castle is situated on Mount Benacantil, overlooking the city. The tower (La Torreta) at the top, is the oldest part of the castle, while part of the lowest zone and the walls were constructed later in the 18th century.
The promenade Explanada de España, lined by palm trees, is paved with 6.5 million marble floor tiles creating a wavy form. The Promenade extends from the Port of Alicante to the Gran Vía and ends at the famous statue of Mark Hersch. For the people of Alicante, the promenade is the meeting place for the traditional Spanish paseo, or stroll along the waterfront in the evenings, and a venue for outdoor musical concerts. At the end of the promenade is a monument by the artist Bañuls of the 19th century.
Barrio de la Santa Cruz is a colourful quarter of the old city, situated southwest of Santa Bárbara castle. Its small houses climb up the hill leading to the walls and the castle, through narrow streets decorated with flags and tubs of flowers.
L'Ereta Park is situated on the foothills of Mount Benacantil. It runs from the Santa Bárbara castle down to the old part of Alicante and consists of several levels, routes, decks, and rest stops which offer a panoramic view overlooking the city.
El Palmeral Park is one of the favourite parks of Alicante's citizens. It includes walking trails, children's playgrounds, ponds and brooks, picnic tables, and an auditorium for concerts.
Just a few kilometers from Alicante on the Mediterranean Sea lies Tabarca island. What was once a haven for Barbary pirates is now a tourist attraction.
Other sights include:
Basilica of Santa María (14th–16th centuries), built-in Gothic style over the former main mosque. Other features include the high altar, in Rococo style, and the portal, in Baroque style, both from the 18th century.
Co-cathedral of St. Nicholas of Bari (15th–18th centuries), also built over a mosque. It is the main church of Alicante and the bishop's seat.
Monastery of Santa Faz (15th century), located outside the city, in Baroque style.
Defence towers of the Huerta de Alicante (15th–18th centuries), built to defend against the Barbary pirates. Today some 20 towers are still extant.
Baroque Casa de La Asegurada (1685), the most ancient civil building in the city. (c. XVII). Today it is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante.
Casa consistorial de Alicante (18th century), also in Baroque style.
Convent of the Canónigas de San Agustín (18th century).
Gravina Palace (1748–1808), nowadays hosting Gravina Museum of Fine Arts.
Castle of San Fernando.
There are a dozen museums in Alicante. On exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) are local artifacts dating from 100,000 years ago until the early 20th century. The collection is divided into different rooms representing three divisions of archaeological methodology: ground, urban and underwater archaeology, with dioramas, audiovisual and interactive zones. The archaeological museum won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2004. Gravina Museum of Fine Arts presents several paintings and sculptures from the 16th century to the 19th century. Asegurada Museum of Contemporary Art houses a major collection of twentieth-century art, composed mainly of works donated by Eusebio Sempere.
Festivals
The most important festival, the Bonfires of Saint John (Hogueras de San Juan / Fogueres de Sant Joan), takes place during the summer solstice. This is followed a week later by five nights of firework and pyrotechnic contests between companies on the urban beach Playa del Postiguet. Another well-known festival is Moors and Christians (Moros y Cristianos) in Altozano or San Blas district. Overall, the city boasts a year-round nightlife for the enjoyment of tourists, residents, and a large student population of the University of Alicante. The nightlife social scene tends to shift to nearby Playa de San Juan during the summer months.
Every summer in Alicante, a two-month-long programme of music, theatre and dance is staged in the Paseo del Puerto.
Sport
For the 2023/24 season Alicante has two football clubs in the top 4 levels of Spanish football; Hércules CF and CF Intercity. For the 2023/24 season Hércules compete in Segunda Federación, the 4th level and are well known as they played in La Liga (the Spanish Premier Division) during the 1996/1997 season and again in 2010/2011. They have had many famous players such as David Trezeguet, Royston Drenthe and Nelson Valdez. Hércules are also known for their victory over Barcelona in 1997 which led to Real Madrid winning the league. Home games are played at the 30,000-capacity José Rico Pérez Stadium.
The city's other club, Alicante CF, who played in the Third Division, was dissolved in 2014 due to economic problems. They were replaced in 2017 by newly formed club CF Intercity, who compete in Primera Federación, the 3rd level of Spanish football, in the 23/24 season and play at Estadio Antonio Solana.
Basketball club (HLA Alicante) Lucentum Alicante participates in the Spanish basketball league. It plays in the Centro de Tecnificación de Alicante.
Alicante serves as headquarters and the starting point of the Volvo Ocean Race, a yacht race around the world. The latest race sailed in January 2023.
Notable people
Twin towns – sister cities
Alicante is twinned with:
Alexandria, Egypt
Brighton and Hove, England, UK
Carloforte, Italy
Herzliya, Israel
León, Nicaragua
Matanzas, Cuba
Nice, France
Oran, Algeria
Toyooka, Japan (1996)
Wenzhou, China
See also
Castrum Album
St Nicholas Day
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Official website of the Diputación Provincial de Alicante
Postal codes in Alicante
Populated places in the Province of Alicante
Mediterranean port cities and towns in Spain
Municipalities in the Province of Alicante
Seaside resorts in Spain
Tourism in Spain
Greek colonies in Iberia
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Spain
Populated coastal places in Spain
Populated places established in the 4th century BC
Roman sites in Spain
324 BC
320s BC establishments |
2418 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August%204 | August 4 |
Events
Pre-1600
598 – Goguryeo-Sui War: In response to a Goguryeo (Korean) incursion into Liaoxi, Emperor Wéndi of Sui orders his youngest son, Yang Liang (assisted by the co-prime minister Gao Jiong), to conquer Goguryeo during the Manchurian rainy season, with a Chinese army and navy.
1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham: The army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
1601–1900
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations is signed.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people (Tenmei eruption). The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.
1789 – France: abolition of feudalism by the National Constituent Assembly.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She will be tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.
1901–present
1914 – World War I: In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
1915 – World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.
1921 – Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict: Mikhail Frunze declares victory over the Makhnovshchina.
1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
1944 – Under the state of emergency law, the Finnish Parliament elects Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim as the President of Finland to replace the resigned Risto Ryti.
1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
1964 – Second Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers and mistakenly report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
1972 – Ugandan President Idi Amin announces that Uganda is no longer responsible for the care of British subjects of Asian origin, beginning the expulsions of Ugandan Asians.
1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1983 – Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara.
1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".
1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
2006 – A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
2007 – NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.
2018 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign.
2019 – Nine people are killed and 26 injured in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed.
2020 – Beirut Port explosion: At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon.
Births
Pre-1600
1222 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (d. 1262)
1281 – Külüg Khan, Emperor Wuzong of Yuan (d. 1311)
1290 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (d. 1326)
1463 – Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Florentine patron of the arts (d. 1503)
1469 – Margaret of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1528)
1470 – Bernardo Dovizi, Italian cardinal (d. 1520)
1470 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Italian noblewoman (d. 1553)
1521 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
1522 – Udai Singh II, King of Mewar (d. 1572)
1601–1900
1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French cleric and author (d. 1676)
1623 – Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1641–1680) and Hanau-Münzenberg (1642–1680) (d. 1685)
1701 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish historian and scholar (d. 1757)
1704 – Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans (d. 1752)
1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1803)
1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French soldier, painter, balloonist, and inventor (d. 1805)
1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (d. 1822)
1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1865)
1821 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton (d. 1892)
1821 – James Springer White, American religious leader, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church (d. 1881)
1834 – John Venn, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1923)
1836 – Jens Vilhelm Dahlerup, Danish architect (d. 1907)
1839 – Walter Pater, English author, critic, and academic (d. 1894)
1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (d. 1929)
1853 – John Henry Twachtman, American painter, etcher, and academic (d. 1902)
1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
1861 – Daniel Edward Howard, 16th president of Liberia (d. 1935)
1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player and coach (d. 1918)
1868 – Master C. V. V., Indian philosopher, yogi and guru (d. 1922)
1870 – Harry Lauder, Scottish actor and singer (d. 1950)
1871 – William Holman, English-Australian politician, 19th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1934)
1876 – Giovanni Giuriati, Italian lawyer and politician (d. 1970)
1876 – John Scaddan, Australian politician, 10th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1934)
1877 – Dame Laura Knight, English artist (d. 1970)
1884 – Béla Balázs, Hungarian poet and critic (d. 1949)
1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
1887 – Albert M. Greenfield, Ukrainian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1967)
1888 – Taher Saifuddin, Indian religious leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player and manager (d. 1957)
1893 – Fritz Gause, German historian and curator (d. 1973)
1898 – Ernesto Maserati, Italian race car driver and engineer (d. 1975)
1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious leader, 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1994)
1900 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
1901–present
1901 – Louis Armstrong, American trumpet player and singer (d. 1971)
1901 – Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
1902 – Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish author and playwright (d. 1969)
1904 – Helen Kane, American singer and actress (d. 1966)
1904 – Joe Tate, English footballer and manager (d. 1973)
1905 – Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar (d. 1972)
1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist, director, and producer (d. 1973)
1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American runner and academic (d. 1988)
1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
1910 – William Schuman, American composer and educator (d. 1992)
1910 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-American painter and photographer (d. 2011)
1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, and mountaineer (d. 1999)
1912 – David Raksin, American composer and educator (d. 2004)
1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat (d. 1947)
1913 – Wesley Addy, American actor (d. 1996)
1913 – Robert Hayden, American poet and educator (d. 1980)
1913 – Johann Niemann, German lieutenant (d. 1943)
1915 – Warren Avis, American businessman, founded Avis Rent a Car System (d. 2007)
1917 – John Fitch, American race car driver and engineer (d. 2012)
1918 – Brian Crozier, Australian-English historian and journalist (d. 2012)
1919 – Michel Déon, French novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2016)
1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1921 – Herb Ellis, American guitarist (d. 2010)
1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2000)
1922 – Mayme Agnew Clayton, American librarian (d. 2006)
1922 – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican cardinal (d. 2012)
1926 – George Irving Bell, American physicist, biologist, and mountaineer (d. 2000)
1926 – Perry Moss, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
1928 – Christian Goethals, Belgian race car driver (d. 2003)
1928 – Gerard Damiano, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2008)
1928 – Nadežka Mosusova, Serbian composer
1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1987)
1929 – Vellore G. Ramabhadran, Mridangam artiste from Tamil Nadu, India (d. 2012)
1930 – Ali al-Sistani, Iranian-Iraqi cleric and scholar
1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
1932 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2020)
1932 – Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist, founded Friends of Nature (d. 2010)
1934 – Dallas Green, American baseball player and manager (d. 2017)
1935 – Carol Arthur, American actress and producer (d. 2020)
1935 – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer and coach (d. 1997)
1935 – Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Minister of Defence for Ireland (d. 2013)
1936 – Giorgos Zographos, Greek singer and actor (d. 2005)
1937 – David Bedford, English keyboard player, composer, and conductor (d. 2011)
1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American historian and academic
1939 – Jack Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, English politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office
1939 – Frankie Ford, American R&B/rock and roll singer (d. 2015)
1940 – Coriún Aharonián, Uruguayan composer and musicologist (d. 2017)
1940 – Robin Harper, Scottish academic and politician
1940 – Larry Knechtel, American bass player and pianist (d. 2009)
1940 – Frances Stewart, English economist and academic
1940 – Timi Yuro, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
1941 – Andy Smillie, English footballer
1941 – Cliff Nobles, American musician (d. 2008)
1941 – Ted Strickland, American psychologist and politician, 68th Governor of Ohio
1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor (d. 2008)
1942 – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
1942 – David Lange, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
1943 – Vicente Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician, 6th President of the Principality of Asturias (d. 2019)
1943 – Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary
1943 – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper and footballer
1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor (d. 2023)
1944 – Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
1945 – Paul McCarthy, American painter and sculptor
1945 – Alan Mulally, American engineer and businessman
1946 – Aleksei Turovski, Estonian zoologist and ethologist
1947 – Klaus Schulze, German keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2022)
1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player and coach
1949 – John Riggins, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
1950 – Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
1950 – N. Rangaswamy, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of Puducherry
1951 – Peter Goodfellow, English geneticist and academic
1952 – James Arbuthnot, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
1952 – Moya Brennan, Irish singer-songwriter and harp player
1952 – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian sociologist, lawyer, and politician
1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer and manager
1954 – Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Ukraine
1954 – Steve Phillips, English footballer
1954 – François Valéry, Algerian-French singer-songwriter
1955 – Alberto Gonzales, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 80th United States Attorney General
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1957 – Rupert Farley, British actor and voice actor
1957 – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian and author
1957 – Valdis Valters, Latvian basketball player and coach
1957 – John Wark, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American-Canadian poet and academic
1958 – Mary Decker, American runner
1958 – Silvan Shalom, Tunisian-Israeli sergeant and politician, 30th Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2002)
1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government
1960 – Chuck C. Lopez, American jockey
1960 – Dean Malenko, American wrestler
1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish academic and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
1960 – Bernard Rose, English director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
1960 – Tim Winton, Australian author and playwright
1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player and actor
1962 – Paul Reynolds, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1963 – Keith Maurice Ellison, 30th Attorney General of Minnesota
1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian social worker and politician
1965 – Vishal Bhardwaj, Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, music composer and playback singer
1965 – Adam Afriyie, English businessman and politician
1965 – Dennis Lehane, American author, screenwriter, and producer
1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, Swedish soldier and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
1965 – Michael Skibbe, German footballer and manager
1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, South Korean-American actor
1968 – Lee Mack, English comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Mark Bickley, Australian footballer and coach
1969 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
1970 – John August, American director and screenwriter
1970 – Bret Baier, American journalist
1970 – Steve House, American mountaineer
1970 – Steven Jack, South African cricketer
1970 – Kate Silverton, English journalist
1971 – Bethan Benwell, English linguist, author, and academic
1971 – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver and actor
1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1973 – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
1973 – Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
1973 – Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (d. 2009)
1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
1975 – Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Finland
1975 – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
1976 – Paul Goldstein, American tennis player
1976 – Andrew McLeod, Australian footballer
1976 – Trevor Woodman, English rugby player and coach
1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American wrestler
1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer and manager
1978 – Jeremy Adduono, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1978 – Luke Allen, American baseball player (d. 2022)
1978 – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
1978 – Agnė Eggerth, Lithuanian sprinter
1978 – Ibán Espadas, Spanish footballer
1978 – Jon Knott, American baseball player
1978 – Karine Legault, Canadian swimmer
1978 – Sandeep Naik, Indian politician
1978 – Siri Nordby, Norwegian footballer
1978 – Ricardo Serrano, Spanish cyclist
1978 – Per-Åge Skrøder, Norwegian ice hockey player
1978 – Satoshi Hino, Japanese voice actor
1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer and coach
1981 – Marques Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1981 – Benjamin Lauth, German footballer
1981 – Abigail Spencer, American actress
1981 – Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, American actress and humanitarian, and member of British Royal Family
1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1984 – Terry Campese, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1985 – Robbie Findley, American soccer player
1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
1985 – Ha Seung-jin, South Korean basketball player
1985 – Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
1986 – Nick Augusto, American drummer
1986 – Leon Camier, English motorcycle racer
1986 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Iosia Soliola, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
1986 – David Williams, Australian rugby league player
1987 – Jang Keun-suk, South Korean actor and singer
1987 – Marreese Speights American basketball player
1987 – Tomoya Warabino, Japanese actor
1988 – Carly Foulkes, Canadian model and actress
1988 – Kelley O'Hara, American soccer player
1989 – Tomasz Kaczor, Polish sprint canoeist
1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1989 – Wang Hao, Chinese chess player
1990 – Hikmet Balioğlu, Turkish footballer
1990 – Siim Tenno, Estonian footballer
1991 – Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Izet Hajrović, Bosnian footballer
1992 – Daniele Garozzo, Italian fencer
1992 – Domingo Germán, Dominican baseball player
1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
1995 – Bruna Marquezine, Brazilian actress
Deaths
Pre-1600
221 – Lady Zhen, Chinese empress (b. 183)
966 – Berengar II of Italy (b. 900)
1060 – Henry I of France (b. 1008)
1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, countess and regent of Holland (b. c. 1030)
1265 – Peter de Montfort, English politician (b. 1215)
1265 – Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
1265 – Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, French-English soldier and politician, Lord High Steward (b. 1208)
1265 – Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer, English politician (b. 1223)
1266 – Eudes of Burgundy, Count of Nevers (b. 1230)
1306 – Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (b. 1289)
1345 – As-Salih Ismail, Sultan of Egypt (b. 1326)
1378 – Galeazzo II Visconti, Lord of Milan (b. c. 1320)
1430 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer and navigator (b. 1476)
1578 – Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English academic and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1520)
1601–1900
1612 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar and theologian (b. 1549)
1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican actor and playwright (b. 1581)
1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French-Canadian founder of Rimouski (b. 1656)
1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
1741 – Andrew Hamilton, Scottish-American lawyer and politician (b. 1676)
1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, Canadian-French politician, Governor General of New France (b. 1698)
1792 – John Burgoyne, English general and politician (b. 1723)
1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1711)
1804 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish admiral (b. 1731)
1822 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet and author (b. 1801)
1844 – Jacob Aall, Norwegian economist, historian, and politician (b. 1773)
1859 – John Vianney, French priest and saint (b. 1786)
1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter (b. 1834)
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1805)
1886 – Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of New York (b. 1814)
1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter and educator (b. 1860)
1901–present
1914 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (b. 1853)
1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1845)
1922 – Enver Pasha, Ottoman general and politician (b. 1881)
1932 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (b. 1868)
1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
1940 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Ukrainian-American general, journalist, and activist (b. 1880)
1941 – Mihály Babits, Hungarian poet and author (b. 1883)
1942 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian composer and educator (b. 1860)
1944 – Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Polish soldier and poet (b. 1921)
1957 – John Cain Sr., Australian politician, 34th Premier of Victoria (b. 1882)
1957 – Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (b. 1883)
1959 – József Révai, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Education (b. 1898)
1961 – Margarito Bautista, Nahua-Mexican evangelizer, theologian, and religious founder (b. 1878)
1962 – Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (b. 1926)
1964 – Nätti-Jussi, Finnish lumberjack and forest laborer (b. 1890)
1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentinian bishop and martyr (b. 1923)
1976 – Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian-English publisher (b. 1894)
1977 – Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect, designed the Boston Avenue Methodist Church (b. 1904)
1985 – Don Whillans, English rock climber and mountaineer (b. 1933)
1990 – Ettore Maserati, Italian engineer and businessman (b. 1894)
1992 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese author (b. 1909)
1996 – Geoff Hamilton, English gardener, author, and television host (b. 1936)
1997 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian; holds records for the world's substantiated longest-lived person (b. 1875)
1998 – Yury Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
2004 – Mary Sherman Morgan, American chemist and engineer (b. 1921)
2004 – Hossein Panahi (Persian: حسین پناهی), Iranian actor and poet (b. 1956)
2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist and theorist (b. 1932)
2005 – Iván Szabó, Hungarian economist and politician, Minister of Finance of Hungary (b. 1934)
2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
2007 – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-American political scientist and historian (b. 1926)
2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1957)
2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (b. 1977)
2012 – Johnnie Bassett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935)
2012 – Brian Crozier, Australian-English journalist and historian (b. 1918)
2012 – Bud Riley, American football player and coach (b. 1925)
2013 – Keith H. Basso, American anthropologist and academic (b. 1940)
2013 – Art Donovan, American football player and radio host (b. 1925)
2013 – Olavi J. Mattila, Finnish engineer and politician, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1918)
2013 – Renato Ruggiero, Italian lawyer and politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1930)
2013 – Tony Snell, English lieutenant and pilot (b. 1922)
2013 – Sandy Woodward, English admiral (b. 1932)
2014 – James Brady, American activist and politician, 15th White House Press Secretary (b. 1940)
2014 – Chester Crandell, American lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
2014 – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1953)
2015 – Elsie Hillman, American philanthropist and politician (b. 1925)
2015 – Les Munro, New Zealand soldier and pilot (b. 1919)
2015 – John Rudometkin, American basketball player (b. 1940)
2015 – Billy Sherrill, American songwriter and producer (b. 1936)
2019 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician and theorist for the Khmer Rouge (b. 1926)
2023 – Dalia Fadila, Israeli educator (b. 1971/1972)
Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Aristarchus
Euphronius
Blessed Frédéric Janssoone
John Vianney
Molua (or Lua)
Raynerius of Split
Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Coast Guard Day (United States)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands); first Monday in August
Matica slovenská Day (Slovakia)
Barack Obama Day in Illinois in the United States
2020 Beirut explosion commemoration day in Lebanon
References
External links
Days of the year
August |
2421 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht%20Achilles | Albrecht Achilles | Albrecht Achilles may refer to:
Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg (1414–1486)
Albrecht Achilles (Korvettenkapitän) (1914–1943), U-boat commander |
2422 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%20Widdecombe | Ann Widdecombe | Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British politician and television personality. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020. Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 until it was renamed Reform UK in 2021; she rejoined Reform UK in 2023.
Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a religious convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, and was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She served as Minister of State for Employment from 1994 to 1995 and Minister of State for Prisons from 1995 to 1997. She later served in the Shadow Cabinet of William Hague as Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1998 to 1999 and Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997.
Widdecombe stood down from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. Since 2002, she has made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. A prominent Eurosceptic, in 2016 she supported the Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU). Widdecombe returned to politics as the lead candidate for the Brexit Party in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election, winning the seat in line with results nationally, serving until the country left the EU on 31 January 2020. In the general election of December 2019 – as with all other candidates for the Commons fielded by the Brexit Party – she did not win the seat she contested (Plymouth Sutton and Devonport), but retained her deposit and came third.
Ideologically, Widdecombe identifies herself as a social conservative and stresses the importance of traditional values and conservatism. As a member of the House of Commons, she opposed the legality of abortion, opposed granting LGBT people legal rights such as the same age of consent as heterosexuals and the repeal of Section 28. She supported reintroduction of the death penalty for murder, though more narrowly applied than previously. She is opposed to all forms of assisted dying. She has a history of supporting rigorous laws on animal protection and opposition to fox hunting.
Early life
Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe is the daughter of Rita Noreen (née Plummer; 1911–2007) and Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe. Widdecombe's maternal grandfather, James Henry Plummer, was born to a Catholic family of English descent in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland in 1874.
She attended the Royal Naval School in Singapore, and La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath. She then read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1971, she was the secretary of the Oxford Union for one term, and became its treasurer for one term in 1972.
While studying at Oxford, she lived next door to Mary Archer, Edwina Currie, and Gyles Brandreth's wife Michèle Brown. She worked for Unilever (1973–75) and then as an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.
Political career
In 1974, Widdecombe was personal assistant to Michael Ancram in the February and October general elections of that year. From 1976 to 1978, Widdecombe was a councillor on Runnymede District Council in Surrey.
She contested the seat of Burnley in Lancashire in the 1979 general election and then, against David Owen, the Plymouth Devonport seat in the 1983 general election. In 1983 she, with Lady Olga Maitland and Virginia Bottomley, co-founded Women and Families for Defence, a group founded in opposition to the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.
Widdecombe was first elected to the House of Commons, for the Conservatives, in the 1987 general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997).
In government
Widdecombe joined Prime Minister John Major's government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security in 1990. In 1993, she was moved to the Department of Employment, and she was promoted to Minister of State the following year. In 1995, she joined the Home Office as Minister of State for Prisons and visited every prison in the UK.
In 1996, Widdecombe, as prisons minister, defended the Government's policy to shackle pregnant prisoners with handcuffs and chains when in hospital receiving prenatal care. Widdecombe told the Commons that the restrictions were needed to prevent prisoners from escaping the hospital. "Some MPs may like to think that a pregnant woman would not or could not escape. Unfortunately this is not true. The fact is that hospitals are not secure places in which to keep prisoners, and since 1990, 20 women have escaped from hospitals". Jack Straw, Labour's Home Affairs spokesman at the time, said it was "degrading and unnecessary" for a woman to be shackled at any stage.
Shadow Cabinet
In May 1997, in the context of an inquiry into a series of prison escapes, Widdecombe remarked of former Home Secretary Michael Howard, under whom she had served, that there is "something of the night" about him.
This much-quoted comment is thought to have contributed to the failure of Howard's 1997 campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, a sentiment shared by both Howard himself and Widdecombe. It led to him being caricatured as a vampire, in part due to his Romanian ancestry. Howard became the official party leader in 2003, and Widdecombe then stated, "I explained fully what my objections were in 1997 and I do not retract anything I said then. But ... we have to look to the future and not the past."
After the Conservative landslide defeat at the 1997 general election, she served as Shadow Health Secretary between 1998 and 1999 and later as Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001 under the leadership of William Hague.
Leadership contest and backbenches
During the 2001 Conservative leadership election, she could not find sufficient support amongst Conservative MPs for her leadership candidacy. She first supported Michael Ancram, who was eliminated in the first round, and then Kenneth Clarke, who lost in the final round. She afterwards declined to serve in Iain Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet (although she indicated on the television programme When Louis Met..., prior to the leadership contest, that she wished to retire to the backbenches anyway).
In 2001, when Michael Portillo was running for leader of the Conservative Party, Widdecombe described him and his allies as "backbiters" due to his alleged destabilising influence under Hague. She went on to say that, should he be appointed leader, she would never give him her allegiance. This was amidst a homophobic campaign led by socially conservative critics of Portillo.
In the 2005 leadership election, she initially supported Kenneth Clarke again. Once he was eliminated, she turned support towards Liam Fox. Following Fox's subsequent elimination, she took time to reflect before finally declaring for David Davis. She expressed reservations over the eventual winner David Cameron, feeling that he did not, like the other candidates, have a proven track record, and she was later a leading figure in parliamentary opposition to his A-List policy. At the October 2006 Conservative Conference, she was Chief Dragon in a political version of the television programme Dragons' Den, in which A-list candidates were invited to put forward a policy proposal, which was then torn apart by her team of Rachel Elnaugh, Oliver Letwin and Michael Brown.
In an interview with Metro in September 2006 she stated that if Parliament were of a normal length, it was likely she would retire at the next general election. She confirmed her intention to stand down to The Observer'''s Pendennis diary in September 2007, and again in October 2007 after Prime Minister Gordon Brown quashed speculation of an autumn 2007 general election.
In November 2006, she moved into the house of an Islington Labour Councillor to experience life on a council estate, her response to her experience being "Five years ago I made a speech in the House of Commons about the forgotten decents. I have spent the last week on estates in the Islington area finding out that they are still forgotten."
In 2007 Widdecombe was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret. When the expenses claims were leaked, however, Widdecombe was described by The Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" amongst all MPs.
In May 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons, it was reported that Widdecombe was gathering support for election as interim Speaker until the next general election. On 11 June 2009, she confirmed her bid to be the Speaker, but came last in the second ballot and was eliminated.
Widdecombe retired from politics at the 2010 general election. It was rumoured that she would be a Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012, but she refused. She since spoke about her opposition to the Coalition Government and her surprise at not being given a peerage by David Cameron.
In 2016, she supported Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum and, following the resignation of David Cameron, endorsed Andrea Leadsom in her candidacy for election for the leadership of the governing Conservative Party.
Return to politics – Brexit Party
In 2019 she returned to politics as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the European parliament elections in South West England, which were held on 23 May, though she maintained that she would still vote for the Conservatives in the local elections that took place three weeks before. She was expelled by the Conservative Party immediately after her announcement. Widdecombe had considered joining the Brexit Party in March 2019, but joined later, in May.
Widdecombe said that her decision to stand resulted from the Government's failure to deliver Britain's departure from the EU on schedule. "Both major parties need a seismic shock," she said, "to see the extent of public disgust." She subsequently won her seat.
Widdecombe became a member of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).
Widdecombe stood as a candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in the 2019 UK general election, coming a distant third but just retaining her deposit with 5.5% of the vote. Nigel Farage said that she was told by the Conservative Party that she would be part of their Brexit negotiations if she stood down as a candidate.
Political views
Social issues
As an MP, Widdecombe expressed socially conservative views, including opposition to abortion; it was understood during her time in frontline politics that she would not become Health Secretary as long as this involved responsibility for abortions. Although a committed Christian, she characterised the issue as one of life and death on which her view had been the same when she was agnostic and was a member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children while studying at Oxford. During Parliament, Widdecombe was a member of the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group, which met with SPUC over concerns the organisation's more strident approach to abortion policy could alienate Protestant and atheist supporters.
She converted from the Church of England (CoE) to the Roman Catholic Church following the CoE decision to ordain women as priests.
She is an opponent of assisted dying in any form, saying that any such legislation would fail to "protect the mentally ill, disabled and the frail elderly". She further commented: "You cannot get to my age without having seen loved ones suffer [...] or having seen dear friends die in pain. And, yes, I too have thought 'We wouldn't do this to an animal'. But that emotional indignation has also to be extended to those whom any euthanasia law would threaten."
LGBT rights
Although not an MP at the time, Widdecombe has voiced support for the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 in England and Wales. After that, Widdecombe consistently opposed further reforms while in Parliament. Out of the 17 parliamentary votes between 1998 and 2008 considered by the Public Whip website to concern equal rights for homosexuals, Widdecombe took the opposing position in 15 cases, not being present at the other two votes. In 1999, Widdecombe stated that "I do not think that [homosexuality] can be promoted as an equally valid lifestyle to [heterosexual] marriage, but I would say the same about irregular heterosexual arrangements."
She has consistently argued against an equal age of consent for same-sex relationships, voting against a 1994 act (which would have reduced the age of consent for some male-male sexual activity from 21 to 18), and in 1998 (arguing against a further reduction from 18 to 16, which later occurred in 2000). On the latter act, she wrote in The Mail on Sunday that "one of the sundry horrors for which this Government is likely to be remembered will be that it gave its imprimatur to sodomy at 16", She later said in 2000: "I do not believe that issues of equality should override the imperatives of protecting the young." In 2003, Widdecombe opposed the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. In 2012, Widdecombe voiced support in the Daily Express for the practise of conversion therapy, which claims to change the orientation of homosexuals.
Widdecombe has also expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage, introduced by David Cameron's government in 2014, arguing that "the state must have a preferred model" which is "a union that is generally open to procreation". She also opposes gender self-identification for transgender people. In 2020, she expressed her opposition to same-sex dancing on Strictly Come Dancing, saying: "I don't think it is what viewers of Strictly, especially families, are looking for. But that's up to the audience and the programme."
Criminal justice
In her speech at the 2000 Conservative conference, she called for a zero tolerance policy of prosecution, with the punishment of £100 fines for users of cannabis. This was well received by rank-and-file Conservative delegates.
Over the years, Widdecombe has expressed her support for a reintroduction of the death penalty, which was abolished in the UK in 1965. She notably spoke of her support for its reintroduction for the worst cases of murder in the aftermath of the murder of two 10-year-old girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002, arguing that in the five years up to 1970 when the death penalty was suspended, the national murder rate had more than doubled.
Environmental and science issues
She is a committed animal lover and one of the several Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on the hunting of foxes. Widdecombe was among more than 20 high-profile people who signed a letter to Members of Parliament in 2015 to oppose David Cameron's plan to amend the Hunting Act 2004.
In 2007, she wrote that she did not want to belittle the issue of climate change, but was sceptical of the claims that specific actions would prevent catastrophe. In 2008, she wrote that her doubts had been "crystalised" by Nigel Lawson's book An Appeal to Reason; in 2014, she likened Lawson's difficulty in getting the book published to the book-burnings in Nazi Germany. Later in 2008, Widdecombe claimed that the "science of climate change is robustly disputed", then, in 2009, that "There is no climate change, hasn't anybody looked out of their window recently?" She was one of the five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act 2008.
The previous year, she voted to support a parliamentary motion in favour of homeopathy, disagreeing with the Science and Technology Committee's Report on the subject.
Controversies
In 2009, she partially defended Carol Thatcher's use of the racial slur 'golliwog' on Any Questions?, saying: "There is a generation to whom a golliwog is merely a toy, a generation which was much endeared by its golliwogs which grew up with them on jam jars ... and there is a generation, a new generation for whom that word is deeply offensive and one does have to make I think some allowance for the fact." In December 2019, leaked WhatsApp conversations to the Plymouth Herald between her and Brexit Party activists showed Widdecombe using the term amid rumours BP campaign funding was being diverted away from Plymouth ahead of the general election of that year. Widdecombe said: "Yes, I threw all my toys of the pram. Bears and gollywogs flying everywhere!!".
In 2019 Widdecombe defended the comments she made in a 2012 article that supported "gay conversion" therapy. She told Sky News that science may yet "provide an answer" to the question of whether people can "switch sexuality". Following Widdecombe's apparent endorsement of conversion therapy, at least one venue, the Landmark theatre in Ilfracombe, Devon, cancelled a performance of her one-woman show.
Widdecombe and two other Brexit Party figures were criticised for previous appearances on the David Icke-affiliated Richie Allen Show, which has been accused of promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family and Zionism. Widdecombe appeared three times between August 2017 and April 2019 and was described as an "old friend of the show" by the host during one appearance. Widdecombe told Jewish Chronicle that she agreed to appear to discuss Brexit, and that she "had never heard of the Richie Allen Show until I agreed to go on" and distanced herself from its antisemitic content by, among other things, pointing to her membership of the Conservative Friends of Israel, B'nai B'rith event speeches, and her novel An Act of Treachery, which she said is set during the Holocaust.
Widdecombe was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party on 23 May 2019 in the European elections. On 3 July 2019 she used her maiden speech in Strasbourg to compare Brexit to slaves revolting against their owners and to a colonised country rising up against occupying forces, a stance which was criticised by members of both the European Parliament and the British House of Commons.
Media work and appearances
In 2002 she took part in the ITV programme Celebrity Fit Club. Also in 2002 she took part in a Louis Theroux television documentary, depicting her life, both in and out of politics. In March 2004 she briefly became The Guardian newspaper's agony aunt, introduced with an Emma Brockes interview. In 2005 BBC Two showed six episodes of The Widdecombe Project, an agony aunt television programme. In 2005, she appeared in a new series of Celebrity Fit Club, this time as an agony aunt. Also in 2005, she presented the show Ann Widdecombe to the Rescue in which she acted as an agony aunt, dispensing advice to disputing families, couples, and others across the UK. In 2005, she appeared in a discussion programme on Five to discuss who had been England's greatest monarch since the Norman Conquest; her choice of monarch was Charles II.
She was the guest host of news quiz Have I Got News for You twice, in 2006 and 2007. Her first appearance as guest host, in 2006, was widely regarded as a success. Following her second appearance, Widdecombe said she would never appear on the show again because of comments made by panellist Jimmy Carr which she considered filth, though she called regular panellists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton "the fastest wits in showbusiness". Merton later revealed that he thought Widdecombe had been "the worst ever presenter" of the show, particularly on her second appearance where Merton claimed she "thought she was Victoria Wood".
In 2007 she awarded the University Challenge trophy to the winners. In the same year, she appeared in "The Sound of Drums", the 12th episode of the third series of the science-fiction drama Doctor Who, endorsing the Master's Prime Minister campaign. In 2007 and 2008 Widdecombe fronted a television series called Ann Widdecombe Versus, on ITV1, in which she spoke to various people about things related to her as an MP, with an emphasis on confronting those responsible for problems she wished to tackle. In 2007 she talked about prostitution, social benefits, and truancy. A fourth episode was screened on 18 September 2008 in which she travelled around London and Birmingham talking to girl gangs.
In 2009, Widdecombe appeared with Archbishop John Onaiyekan in an "Intelligence Squared" debate in which they defended the motion that the Catholic Church was a force for good. Arguing against the motion were Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, who won the debate overall.
In October 2010, she appeared on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by Anton du Beke, winning the support of some viewers despite low marks from the judges. After nine weeks of routines strongly flavoured by comedy, the couple was eliminated, in the bottom two. In 2011 Widdecombe played the Lord Mayoress in an episode of Sooty.
In 2012, Widdecombe hosted the 30 one-hour episodes of Cleverdicks, a quiz show for the Sky Atlantic channel. In April 2012 Widdecombe presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live, Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates, looking at how the British attitude to alcohol consumption had changed over the previous few years. Widdecombe was in a Strictly Come Dancing special in Children in Need's 2012 appeal night. On 4 November 2012, Widdecombe guest-hosted one episode of BBC's Songs of Praise programme about singleness.
In October 2014, she appeared in the BBC series Celebrity Antiques Road Trip with expert Mark Stacey.
Widdecombe took part in a four-part BBC One television series 24 Hours in the Past, along with Colin Jackson, Alistair McGowan, Miquita Oliver, Tyger Drew-Honey and Zoe Lucker in April and May 2015, involving experiencing life as workers in a dustyard, coachhouse, pottery, and as workhouse inmates in 1840s Britain. She took part in an episode of Tipping Point: Lucky Stars in 2016. In 2017, Widdecombe took part in ITV's Sugar Free Farm.
In January 2018, Widdecombe participated in the Celebrity Big Brother twenty-first series; she was criticised over her comments regarding the Harvey Weinstein controversy and comments perceived to be anti-LGBT to her fellow housemates, most notably to drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek). She finished the competition in second place, behind Jenek.
In 2019 Widdecombe appeared on the new celebrity version of The Crystal Maze, where alongside Sunetra Sarker, Wes Nelson, Matthew Wright and Nikki Sanderson, she won money for Stand Up to Cancer.
In 2020 Widdecombe travelled to Norway for three days to visit Halden Prison, for the documentary The World's Most Luxurious Prison.
Stage acting career
Following her retirement, Widdecombe made her stage debut, on 9 December 2011, at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford in the Christmas pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, alongside Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. In April 2012, she had a ten-minute non-singing cameo part in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera La Fille du Regiment, playing the Duchesse de Crackentorp. Widdecombe reprised her pantomime performance, again with Horwood, at the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe in December 2012.
Widdecombe stepped in at short notice to play the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, at Bridlington Spa in December 2016. She replaced injured Lorraine Chase. This was Widdecombe's first appearance as a pantomime 'baddie'; a role she told the press she had always hoped for.
In December 2017 Widdecombe played the Empress of China in the pantomime Aladdin at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft.
Personal life and family
Until her retirement following the 2010 general election, Widdecombe divided her time between her two homes – one in London and one in the countryside village of Sutton Valence, Kent, in her constituency. She sold both upon retiring at the next general election. She shared her home in London with her widowed mother, Rita Widdecombe, until Rita's death, on 25 April 2007, aged 95. In March 2008, she bought a house in Haytor Vale, on Dartmoor in Devon, where she retired. Her brother, Malcolm (1937–2010), who was an Anglican canon in Bristol, retired in May 2009 and died in October 2010. Her nephew, Roger Widdecombe, is an Anglican priest. She has never married nor had any children. In November 2007 on BBC Radio 4 she described how a journalist once produced a profile on her with the assumption that she had had at least "one sexual relationship", to which Widdecombe replied: "Be careful, that's the way you get sued". When interviewer Jenni Murray asked if she had ever had a sexual relationship, Widdecombe laughed "it's nobody else's business".
A 2001 report in The Guardian said that she had had a three-year romance while studying at the University of Oxford; Widdecombe confirmed this in January 2018 on the UK reality TV show Big Brother, explaining that she had ended the romance in order to prioritise her career.
Widdecombe has a fondness for cats and many other animals such as foxes; a section of her website, the Widdyweb, is about the pet cats she has lived with. Widdecombe adopted two goats at the Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone. In an interview, Widdecombe talked about her appreciation of music, despite describing herself as "pretty well tone-deaf".
Outside politics she writes novels, and a weekly column for the Daily Express.
In January 2011 Widdecombe was President of the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, and gave a speech there supporting selective education and opposing the ban on new grammar schools being built. She also became a patron of The Grace Charity for M.E.
In April 2012 Widdecombe said that she was writing her own autobiography, which she described as "rude about all and sundry, but an amount of truth is always necessary".
Widdecombe is a Patron of the charity Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (SHADH) and in 2014 visited the SHADH Donkey Sanctuary in the West Bank.
Religious views
Widdecombe became an Anglican in her 30s, after a period of being an agnostic following her departure from religious schooling. She converted to Catholicism in 1993 after leaving the Church of England, explaining to reporters from the New Statesman:
I left the Church of England because there was a huge bundle of straw. The ordination of women was the last straw, but it was only one of many. For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England's compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn't care if something is unpopular.
In October 2006, she pledged to boycott British Airways for suspending a worker who refused to hide her Christian cross, until the company reversed the suspension.
In 2010, Widdecombe turned down the offer to be Britain's next ambassador to the Holy See, being prevented from accepting by suffering a detached retina. She was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI for services to politics and public life on 31 January 2013.
Honours
Widdecombe was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.
She was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University (D.Univ) by the University of Birmingham on 5 July 2012.
: Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great (DSG) (2013)
Selected publications
Fiction
2000: The Clematis Tree. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2002: An Act of Treachery. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2005: Father Figure. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2005: An Act of Peace. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Non-fiction
1999: Inspired and Outspoken: the collected speeches of Ann Widdecombe; edited by John Simmons, with a biographical preface by Nick Kochan. London: Politico's Publishing
2004: The Mass is a Mess, with Martin Kochanski. London: Catholic Writers' Guild
Further reading
2000: Kochan, Nicholas Ann Widdecombe: right from the beginning''. London: Politico's Publishing
Notes
References
External links
Official Website
TheyWorkForYou.com – Ann Widdecombe MP
The Public Whip – Ann Widdecombe MP voting record
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1947 births
20th-century English women politicians
20th-century English politicians
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
British broadcaster-politicians
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Converts to Anglicanism from atheism or agnosticism
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism
English Roman Catholics
Female critics of feminism
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Bath, Somerset
Television personalities from Somerset
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
Brexit Party MEPs
Reform UK parliamentary candidates
MEPs for England 2019–2020
21st-century women MEPs for England
Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
People from Sutton Valence
Politicians from Somerset
20th-century Anglicans
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century Roman Catholics
British Eurosceptics
Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Reform UK politicians |
2427 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandrine | Alexandrine | Alexandrine is a name used for several distinct types of verse line with related metrical structures, most of which are ultimately derived from the classical French alexandrine. The line's name derives from its use in the Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre of 1170, although it had already been used several decades earlier in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne. The foundation of most alexandrines consists of two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each, separated by a caesura (a metrical pause or word break, which may or may not be realized as a stronger syntactic break):
o o o o o o | o o o o o o
o=any syllable; |=caesura
However, no tradition remains this simple. Each applies additional constraints (such as obligatory stress or nonstress on certain syllables) and options (such as a permitted or required additional syllable at the end of one or both hemistichs). Thus a line that is metrical in one tradition may be unmetrical in another.
Where the alexandrine has been adopted, it has frequently served as the heroic verse form of that language or culture, English being a notable exception.
Scope of the term
The term "alexandrine" may be used with greater or lesser rigour. Peureux suggests that only French syllabic verse with a 6+6 structure is, strictly speaking, an alexandrine. Preminger et al. allow a broader scope: "Strictly speaking, the term 'alexandrine' is appropriate to French syllabic meters, and it may be applied to other metrical systems only where they too espouse syllabism as their principle, introduce phrasal accentuation, or rigorously observe the medial caesura, as in French." Common usage within the literatures of European languages is broader still, embracing lines syllabic, accentual-syllabic, and (inevitably) stationed ambivalently between the two; lines of 12, 13, or even 14 syllables; lines with obligatory, predominant, and optional caesurae.
French
Although alexandrines occurred in French verse as early as the 12th century, they were slightly looser rhythmically, and vied with the décasyllabe and octosyllabe for cultural prominence and use in various genres. "The alexandrine came into its own in the middle of the sixteenth century with the poets of the Pléiade and was firmly established in the seventeenth century." It became the preferred line for the prestigious genres of epic and tragedy. The structure of the classical French alexandrine is
o o o o o S | o o o o o S (e)
S=stressed syllable; (e)=optional mute e
Classical alexandrines are always rhymed, often in couplets alternating masculine rhymes and feminine rhymes, though other configurations (such as quatrains and sonnets) are also common.
Victor Hugo began the process of loosening the strict two-hemistich structure. While retaining the medial caesura, he often reduced it to a mere word-break, creating a three-part line (alexandrin ternaire) with this structure:
o o o S | o o ¦ o S | o o o S (e)
|=strong caesura; ¦=word break
The Symbolists further weakened the classical structure, sometimes eliminating any or all of these caesurae. However, at no point did the newer line replace the older; rather, they were used concurrently, often in the same poem. This loosening process eventually led to vers libéré and finally to vers libre.
English
In English verse, "alexandrine" is typically used to mean "iambic hexameter":
× / × / × / ¦ × / × / × / (×)
/=ictus, a strong syllabic position; ×=nonictus
¦=often a mandatory or predominant caesura, but depends upon the author
Whereas the French alexandrine is syllabic, the English is accentual-syllabic; and the central caesura (a defining feature of the French) is not always rigidly preserved in English.
Though English alexandrines have occasionally provided the sole metrical line for a poem, for example in lyric poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Sir Philip Sidney, and in two notable long poems, Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion and Robert Browning's Fifine at the Fair, they have more often featured alongside other lines. During the Middle Ages they typically occurred with heptameters (seven-beat lines), both exhibiting metrical looseness. Around the mid-16th century stricter alexandrines were popular as the first line of poulter's measure couplets, fourteeners (strict iambic heptameters) providing the second line.
The strict English alexandrine may be exemplified by a passage from Poly-Olbion, which features a rare caesural enjambment (symbolized ¦) in the first line:
Ye sacred Bards, that to ¦ your harps' melodious strings
Sung Heroes' deeds (the monuments of Kings)
And in your dreadful verse the prophecies,
The agèd world's descents, and genealogies; (lines 31-34)
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, with its stanzas of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine, exemplifies what came to be its chief role: as a somewhat infrequent variant line in an otherwise iambic pentameter context. Alexandrines provide occasional variation in the blank verse of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries (but rarely; they constitute only about 1% of Shakespeare's blank verse). John Dryden and his contemporaries and followers likewise occasionally employed them as the second (rarely the first) line of heroic couplets, or even more distinctively as the third line of a triplet. In his Essay on Criticism, Alexander Pope denounced (and parodied) the excessive and unskillful use of this practice:
Then at the last and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a thought,
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. (lines 354-357)
Other languages
Spanish
The Spanish verso alejandrino is a line of 7+7 syllables, probably developed in imitation of the French alexandrine. Its structure is:
o o o o o S o | o o o o o S o
It was used beginning about 1200 for mester de clerecía (clerical verse), typically occurring in the cuaderna vía, a stanza of four alejandrinos all with a single end-rhyme.
The alejandrino was most prominent during the 13th and 14th centuries, after which time it was eclipsed by the metrically more flexible arte mayor. Juan Ruiz's Book of Good Love is one of the best-known examples of cuaderna vía, though other verse forms also appear in the work.
Dutch
The mid-16th-century poet Jan van der Noot pioneered syllabic Dutch alexandrines on the French model, but within a few decades Dutch alexandrines had been transformed into strict iambic hexameters with a caesura after the third foot. From Holland the accentual-syllabic alexandrine spread to other continental literatures.
German
Similarly, in early 17th-century Germany, Georg Rudolf Weckherlin advocated for an alexandrine with free rhythms, reflecting French practice; whereas Martin Opitz advocated for a strict accentual-syllabic iambic alexandrine in imitation of contemporary Dutch practice — and German poets followed Opitz. The alexandrine (strictly iambic with a consistent medial caesura) became the dominant long line of the German baroque.
Polish
Unlike many similar lines, the Polish alexandrine developed not from French verse but from Latin, specifically, the 13-syllable goliardic line:
Latin goliardic: o o o s S s s | o o o s S s
Polish alexandrine: o o o o o S s | o o o s S s
s=unstressed syllable
Though looser instances of this (nominally) 13-syllable line were occasionally used in Polish literature, it was Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski who, in the 16th century, introduced the syllabically strict line as a vehicle for major works.
Czech
The Czech alexandrine is a comparatively recent development, based on the French alexandrine and introduced by Karel Hynek Mácha in the 19th century. Its structure forms a halfway point between features usual in syllabic and in accentual-syllabic verse, being more highly constrained than most syllabic verse, and less so than most accentual-syllabic verse. Moreover, it equally encourages the very different rhythms of iambic hexameter and dactylic tetrameter to emerge by preserving the constants of both measures:
iambic hexameter: s S s S s S | s S s S s S (s)
dactylic tetrameter: S s s S s s | S s s S s s (s)
Czech alexandrine: o o s S s o | o o s S s o (s)
Hungarian
Hungarian metrical verse may be written either syllabically (the older and more traditional style, known as "national") or quantitatively. One of the national lines has a 6+6 structure:
o o o o o o | o o o o o o
Although deriving from native folk versification, it is possible that this line, and the related 6-syllable line, were influenced by Latin or Romance examples. When employed in 4-line or 8-line stanzas and riming in couplets, this is called the Hungarian alexandrine; it is the Hungarian heroic verse form. Beginning with the 16th-century verse of Bálint Balassi, this became the dominant Hungarian verseform.
Modern references
In the comic book Asterix and Cleopatra, the author Goscinny inserted a pun about alexandrines: when the Druid Panoramix ("Getafix" in the English translation) meets his Alexandrian (Egyptian) friend the latter exclaims Je suis, mon cher ami, || très heureux de te voir at which Panoramix observes C'est un Alexandrin ("That's an alexandrine!"/"He's an Alexandrian!"). The pun can also be heard in the theatrical adaptations. The English translation renders this as "My dear old Getafix || I hope I find you well", with the reply "An Alexandrine".
Notes
References
French poetry
Spanish poetry
German poetry
Polish poetry
Czech poetry
Types of verses
Sonnet studies |
2433 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto%20Giacometti | Alberto Giacometti | Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and work on his art.
Giacometti was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced by artistic styles such as Cubism and Surrealism. Philosophical questions about the human condition, as well as existential and phenomenological debates played a significant role in his work. Around 1935 he gave up on his Surrealist influences to pursue a more deepened analysis of figurative compositions. Giacometti wrote texts for periodicals and exhibition catalogues and recorded his thoughts and memories in notebooks and diaries. His critical nature led to self-doubt about his own work and his self-perceived inability to do justice to his own artistic vision. His insecurities nevertheless remained a powerful motivating artistic force throughout his entire life.
Between 1938 and 1944 Giacometti's sculptures had a maximum height of seven centimeters (2.75 inches). Their small size reflected the actual distance between the artist's position and his model. In this context he self-critically stated: "But wanting to create from memory what I had seen, to my terror the sculptures became smaller and smaller". After World War II, Giacometti created his most famous sculptures: his extremely tall and slender figurines. These sculptures were subject to his individual viewing experience—between an imaginary yet real, a tangible yet inaccessible space.
In Giacometti's whole body of work, his painting constitutes only a small part. After 1957, however, his figurative paintings were equally as present as his sculptures. The almost monochrome paintings of his late work do not refer to any other artistic styles of modernity.
Early life
Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland, the eldest of four children of Giovanni Giacometti, a well-known post-Impressionist painter, and Annetta Giacometti-Stampa. He was a descendant of Protestant refugees escaping the inquisition. Coming from an artistic background, he was interested in art from an early age and was encouraged by his father and godfather. Alberto attended the Geneva School of Fine Arts. His brothers Diego (1902–1985) and Bruno (1907–2012) would go on to become artists and architects as well. Additionally, his cousin Zaccaria Giacometti, later professor of constitutional law and chancellor of the University of Zurich, grew up together with them, having been orphaned at the age of 12 in 1905.
Career
In 1922, he moved to Paris to study under the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, an associate of Rodin. It was there that Giacometti experimented with Cubism and Surrealism and came to be regarded as one of the leading Surrealist sculptors. Among his associates were Miró, Max Ernst, Picasso, Bror Hjorth, and Balthus.
Between 1936 and 1940, Giacometti concentrated his sculpting on the human head, focusing on the sitter's gaze. He preferred models he was close to—his sister and the artist Isabel Rawsthorne (then known as Isabel Delmer). This was followed by a phase in which his statues of Isabel became stretched out; her limbs elongated. Obsessed with creating his sculptures exactly as he envisioned through his unique view of reality, he often carved until they were as thin as nails and reduced to the size of a pack of cigarettes, much to his consternation. A friend of his once said that if Giacometti decided to sculpt you, "he would make your head look like the blade of a knife".
During World War II, Giacometti took refuge in Switzerland. There, in 1946, he met Annette Arm, a secretary for the Red Cross. They married in 1949.
After his marriage his tiny sculptures became larger, but the larger they grew, the thinner they became. For the remainder of Giacometti's life, Annette was his main female model. His paintings underwent a parallel procedure. The figures appear isolated and severely attenuated, as the result of continuous reworking.
He frequently revisited his subjects: one of his favourite models was his younger brother Diego, with whom he shared his studio in Paris.
Later years
In 1958 Giacometti was asked to create a monumental sculpture for the Chase Manhattan Bank building in New York, which was beginning construction. Although he had for many years "harbored an ambition to create work for a public square", he "had never set foot in New York, and knew nothing about life in a rapidly evolving metropolis. Nor had he ever laid eyes on an actual skyscraper", according to his biographer James Lord. Giacometti's work on the project resulted in the four figures of standing women—his largest sculptures—entitled Grande femme debout I through IV (1960). The commission was never completed, however, because Giacometti was unsatisfied by the relationship between the sculpture and the site, and abandoned the project.
In 1962, Giacometti was awarded the grand prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale, and the award brought with it worldwide fame. Even when he had achieved popularity and his work was in demand, he still reworked models, often destroying them or setting them aside to be returned to years later. The prints produced by Giacometti are often overlooked but the catalogue raisonné, Giacometti – The Complete Graphics and 15 Drawings by Herbert Lust (Tudor 1970), comments on their impact and gives details of the number of copies of each print. Some of his most important images were in editions of only 30 and many were described as rare in 1970.
In his later years Giacometti's works were shown in a number of large exhibitions throughout Europe. Riding a wave of international popularity, and despite his declining health, he traveled to the United States in 1965 for an exhibition of his works at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As his last work he prepared the text for the book Paris sans fin, a sequence of 150 lithographs containing memories of all the places where he had lived.
Death
Giacometti died in 1966 of heart disease (pericarditis) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Kantonsspital in Chur, Switzerland. His body was returned to his birthplace in Borgonovo, where he was interred close to his parents.
With no children, Annette Giacometti became the sole holder of his property rights. She worked to collect a full listing of authenticated works by her late husband, gathering documentation on the location and manufacture of his works and working to fight the rising number of counterfeited works. When she died in 1993, the Fondation Giacometti was set up by the French state.
In May 2007 the executor of his widow's estate, former French foreign minister Roland Dumas, was convicted of illegally selling Giacometti's works to a top auctioneer, Jacques Tajan, who was also convicted. Both were ordered to pay €850,000 to the Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation.
Artistic analysis
Regarding Giacometti's sculptural technique and according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "The rough, eroded, heavily worked surfaces of Three Men Walking (II), 1949, typify his technique. Reduced, as they are, to their very core, these figures evoke lone trees in winter that have lost their foliage. Within this style, Giacometti would rarely deviate from the three themes that preoccupied him—the walking man; the standing, nude woman; and the bust—or all three, combined in various groupings."
In a letter to Pierre Matisse, Giacometti wrote: "Figures were never a compact mass but like a transparent construction". In the letter, Giacometti writes about how he looked back at the realist, classical busts of his youth with nostalgia, and tells the story of the existential crisis which precipitated the style he became known for.
"[I rediscovered] the wish to make compositions with figures. For this I had to make (quickly I thought; in passing), one or two studies from nature, just enough to understand the construction of a head, of a whole figure, and in 1935 I took a model. This study should take, I thought, two weeks and then I could realize my compositions...I worked with the model all day from 1935 to 1940...Nothing was as I imagined. A head, became for me an object completely unknown and without dimensions."
Since Giacometti achieved exquisite realism with facility when he was executing busts in his early adolescence, Giacometti's difficulty in re-approaching the figure as an adult is generally understood as a sign of existential struggle for meaning, rather than as a technical deficit.
Giacometti was a key player in the Surrealist art movement, but his work resists easy categorization. Some describe it as formalist, others argue it is expressionist or otherwise having to do with what Deleuze calls "blocs of sensation" (as in Deleuze's analysis of Francis Bacon). Even after his excommunication from the Surrealist group, while the intention of his sculpting was usually imitation, the end products were an expression of his emotional response to the subject. He attempted to create renditions of his models the way he saw them, and the way he thought they ought to be seen. He once said that he was sculpting not the human figure but "the shadow that is cast".
Scholar William Barrett in Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1962), argues that the attenuated forms of Giacometti's figures reflect the view of 20th century modernism and existentialism that modern life is increasingly empty and devoid of meaning. "All the sculptures of today, like those of the past, will end one day in pieces...So it is important to fashion one's work carefully in its smallest recess and charge every particle of matter with life."
A 2011–2012 exhibition at the Pinacothèque de Paris focused on showing how Giacometti was inspired by Etruscan art.
Walking Man and other human figures
Giacometti is best known for the bronze sculptures of tall, thin human figures, made in the years 1945 to 1960. Giacometti was influenced by the impressions he took from the people hurrying in the big city. People in motion he saw as "a succession of moments of stillness".
The emaciated figures are often interpreted as an expression of the existential fear, insignificance and loneliness of mankind. The mood of fear in the period of the 1940s and the Cold War is reflected in this figure. It feels sad, lonely and difficult to relate to.
Legacy
Exhibitions
Giacometti's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (1970); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007–2008); Pushkin Museum, Moscow "The Studio of Alberto Giacometti: Collection of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti" (2008); Kunsthal Rotterdam (2008); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2009); Buenos Aires (2012); Kunsthalle Hamburg (2013); Pera Museum, Istanbul (2015); Tate Modern, London (2017); Vancouver Art Gallery, "Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time" (2019); National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (2022).
The National Portrait Gallery, London's first solo exhibition of Giacometti's work, Pure Presence opened to five star reviews on 13 October 2015 (to 10 January 2016, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death).
From April 2019, the Prado Museum in Madrid, has been highlighting Giacometti in an exhibition.
Public collections
Giacometti's work is displayed in numerous public collections, including:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Berggruen Museum, Berlin
Botero Museum, Bogotá, Colombia
Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, Switzerland
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Detroit Institute of Arts
Fondation Beyeler, Basel
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Holstebro, Denmark
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunstmuseum Basel
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, South Korea
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Tate, London
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Vancouver Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
Art foundations
The Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, having received a bequest from Alberto Giacometti's widow Annette, holds a collection of circa 5,000 works, frequently displayed around the world through exhibitions and long-term loans. A public interest institution, the Foundation was created in 2003 and aims at promoting, disseminating, preserving and protecting Alberto Giacometti's work.
The Alberto-Giacometti-Stiftung established in Zürich in 1965, holds a smaller collection of works acquired from the collection of the Pittsburgh industrialist G. David Thompson.
Notable sales
According to record Giacometti has sold the two most expensive sculptures in history.
In November 2000 a Giacometti bronze, Grande Femme Debout I, sold for $14.3 million. Grande Femme Debout II was bought by the Gagosian Gallery for $27.4 million at Christie's auction in New York City on 6 May 2008.
L'Homme qui marche I, a life-sized bronze sculpture of a man, became one of the most expensive works of art, and at the time was the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. It was in February 2010, when it sold for £65 million (US$104.3 million) at Sotheby's, London. Grande tête mince, a large bronze bust, sold for $53.3 million just three months later.
L'Homme au doigt (Pointing Man) sold for $126 million (£81,314,455.32), or $141.3 million with fees, in Christie's May 2015, "Looking Forward to the Past" sale in New York City. The work had been in the same private collection for 45 years. As of now it is the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.
After being showcased on the BBC programme Fake or Fortune, a plaster sculpture, titled Gazing Head, sold in 2019 for half a million pounds.
In April 2021, Giacometti's small-scale bronze sculpture, Nu debout II (1953), was sold from a Japanese private collection and went for £1.5 million ($2 million), against an estimate of £800,000 ($1.1 million).
Other legacy
Giacometti created the monument on the grave of Gerda Taro at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
According to a lecture by Michael Peppiatt at Cambridge University on 8 July 2010, Giacometti, who had a friendship with author/playwright Samuel Beckett, created a tree for the set of a 1961 Paris production of Waiting for Godot.
Giacometti and his sculpture L'Homme qui marche I appear on the former 100 Swiss franc banknote.
In 2001 he was included in the Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000 exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Giacometti's sculptural style has featured in advertisements for various financial institutions, starting in 1987 with the Shoes ad for Royal Bank of Scotland directed by Gerry Anderson.
The 2017 movie Final Portrait retells the story of his friendship with the biographer James Lord. Giacometti is played by Geoffrey Rush.
References
Citations
General sources
Jacques Dupin (1962). Alberto Giacometti, Paris, Maeght
Reinhold Hohl (1971). Alberto Giacometti, Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje
Die Sammlung der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung (1990), Zürich, Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft
Alberto Giacometti (1991–92). Sculptures – peintures – dessins. Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris,.
Jean Soldini (1993). Alberto Giacometti. Le colossal, la mère, le sacré, Lausanne, L'Age d'Homme
David Sylvester (1996) Looking at Giacometti, Henry Holt & Co.
Alberto Giacometti 1901–1966. Kunsthalle Wien, 1996
James Lord (1997). Giacometti: A Biography, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Alberto Giacometti. Kunsthaus Zürich, 2001. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2001–2002.
Yves Bonnefoy (2006). Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work, New edition, Flammarion
Further reading
Alberto Giacometti. L'espace et la force, Jean Soldini, Kimé (2016).
La Cage de Giacometti, Hisato Kuriwaki, Université de Tokyo, via Academia.edu (2012), in French
Alberto Giacometti, Yves Bonnefoy, Assouline Publishing (22 February 2011)
In Giacometti's Studio, Michael Peppiatt, Yale University Press (14 December 2010)
Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work, Yves Bonnefoy, New edition, Flammarion (2006)
Giacometti: A Biography, James Lord, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1997)
Looking at Giacometti, David Sylvester, Henry Holt & Co. (1996)
Alberto Giacometti, Herbert Matter & Mercedes Matter, Harry N Abrams (September 1987)
A Giacometti Portrait, James Lord, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1 July 1980)
Alberto Giacometti, Reinhold Hohl, H. N. Abrams (1972)
Alberto Giacometti, Reinhold Hohl, Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje (1971)
Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Dupin, Paris, Maeght (1962)
The Studio of Alberto Giacometti: Collection of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Véronique Wiesinger (ed.), exh. cat., Paris: Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti/Centre Pompidou (2007)
"The Dream, the Sphinx, and the Death of T", Alberto Giacometti, X magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (November 1959); An Anthology from X (Oxford University Press 1988).
Jacobi, Carol. Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne'', London: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, Feb 2021
The Cube and the Face: Around a Sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, Didi-Huberman, Georges (2015).
External links
The Giacometti Foundation website (www.fondation-giacometti.fr) (in English and French)
Alberto Giacometti Stiftung (giacometti-stiftung.ch) (in English and German)
Works of Alberto Giacometti:
The UNESCO Works of Art Collection
smARThistory: Giacometti's City Square
Life of Alberto Giacometti:
Chronology of his life with illustrations from the Museum of Modern Art
Exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich from 27 February until 24 May 2009
Alberto Giacometti in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler Collection
1901 births
1966 deaths
20th-century Swiss male artists
20th-century Swiss sculptors
Modern sculptors
People from Maloja District
Sibling artists
Surrealist artists
Swiss Protestants
Swiss surrealist artists
Swiss-Italian people |
2440 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht%20Altdorfer | Albrecht Altdorfer | Albrecht Altdorfer (12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Danube School, setting biblical and historical subjects against landscape backgrounds of expressive colours. He is remarkable as one of the first artists to take an interest in landscape as an independent subject. As an artist also making small intricate engravings he is seen to belong to the Nuremberg Little Masters.
Biography
Altdorfer was born in Regensburg or Altdorf around 1480.
He acquired an interest in art from his father, Ulrich Altdorfer, who was a painter and miniaturist. At the start of his career, he won public attention by creating small, intimate modestly scaled works in unconventional media and with eccentric subject matter. He settled in the free imperial city of Regensburg, a town located on the Danube River in 1505, eventually becoming the town architect and a town councillor. His first signed works date to , including engravings and drawings such the Stygmata of St. Francis and St. Jerome. His models were niellos and copper engravings from the workshops of Jacopo de Barbari and Albrecht Dürer.
Around 1511 or earlier, he travelled down the river and south into the Alps, where the scenery moved him so deeply that he became the first landscape painter in the modern sense, making him the leader of the Danube School, a circle that pioneered landscape as an independent genre, in southern Germany. From 1513 he was at the service of Maximilian I in Innsbruck, where he received several commissions from the imperial court. During the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, he dedicated mostly to architecture; paintings of the period, showing his increasing attention to architecture, include the Nativity of the Virgin.
In 1529, he executed The Battle of Alexander at Issus for Duke William IV of Bavaria. In the 1520s he returned to Regensburg as a wealthy man, and became a member of the city's council. He was also responsible for the fortifications of Regensburg.
In that period his works are influenced by artists such as Giorgione and Lucas Cranach, as shown by his Crucifixion. In 1535, he was in Vienna. He died at Regensburg in 1538.
The remains of Altdorfer's surviving work comprises 55 panels, 120 drawings, 125 woodcuts, 78 engravings, 36 etchings, 24 paintings on parchment, and fragments from a mural for the bathhouse of the Kaiserhof in Regensburg. This production extends at least over the period 1504–1537. He signed and dated each one of his works.
Painting
Altdorfer was the pioneer painter of pure landscape, making them the subject of the painting, as well as compositions dominated by their landscape; these comprise much of his oeuvre. He believed that the human figure should not disrupt nature, but rather participate in it or imitate its natural processes. Taking and developing the landscape style of Lucas Cranach the Elder, he shows the hilly landscape of the Danube valley with thick forests of drooping and crumbling firs and larches hung with moss, and often dramatic colouring from a rising or setting sun. His Landscape with Footbridge (National Gallery, London) of 1518–1520 is claimed to be the first pure landscape in oil. In this painting, Altdorfer places a large tree that is cut off by the margins at the center of the landscape, making it the central axis and focus within the piece. Some viewers perceive anthropomorphic stylisation—the tree supposedly exhibiting human qualities such as the drapery of its limbs. He also made many fine finished drawings, mostly landscapes, in pen and watercolour such as the Landscape with the Woodcutter in 1522. The drawing opens at ground level on a clearing surrounding an enormous tree that is placed in the center, dominating the picture. Some see the tree pose and gesticulate as if it was human, splaying its branches out in every corner. Halfway up the tree trunk, hangs a gabled shrine. At the time, a shrine like this might shelter an image of the Crucifixion or the Virgin Mary, but since it is turned away from the viewer, we are not sure what it truly is. At the bottom of the tree, a tiny figure of a seated man, crossed legged, holds a knife and axe, declaring his status in society/occupation.
Also, he often painted scenes of historical and biblical subjects, set in atmospheric landscapes. His best religious scenes are intense, with their glistening lights and glowing colours sometimes verging on the expressionistic. They often depict moments of intimacy between Christ and his mother, or various saints. His sacral masterpiece and one of the most famous religious works of art of the later Middle Ages is The Legend of St. Sebastian and The Passion of Christ of the so-called Sebastian Altar in St. Florian's Priory (Stift Sankt Florian) near Linz, Upper Austria. When closed the altarpiece displayed the four panels of the legend of St. Sebastian's Martyrdom, while the opened wings displayed the Stations of the Cross. Today the altarpiece is dismantled and the predellas depicting the two final scenes, Entombment and Resurrection were sold to Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1923 and 1930. Both these paintings share a similar formal structure that consists of an open landscape that is seen beyond and through the opening of a dark grotto. The date of completion on the resurrection panel is 1518.
Altdorfer often distorts perspective to subtle effect. His donor figures are often painted completely out of scale with the main scene, as in paintings of the previous centuries. He also painted some portraits; overall his painted oeuvre was not large. In his later works, Altdorfer moved more towards mannerism and began to depict the human form to the conformity of the Italian model, as well as dominate the picture with frank colors.
Paintings in Munich
His rather atypical Battle of Issus (or of Alexander) of 1529 was commissioned by William IV, Duke of Bavaria as part of a series of eight historical battle scenes destined to hang in the Residenz in Munich. Albrecht Altdorfer's depiction of the moment in 333 BCE when Alexander the Great routed Darius III for supremacy in Asia Minor is vast in ambition, sweeping in scope, vivid in imagery, rich in symbols, and obviously heroic—the Iliad of painting, as literary critic Friedrich Schlegel suggested In the painting, a swarming cast of thousands of soldiers surround the central action: Alexander on his white steed, leading two rows of charging cavalrymen, dashes after a fleeing Darius, who looks anxiously over his shoulder from a chariot. The opposing armies are distinguished by the colors of their uniforms: Darius' army in red and Alexander's in blue. The upper half of The Battle of Alexander expands with unreal rapidity into an arcing panorama comprehending vast coiling tracts of globe and sky. The victory also lies on the planar surface; The sun outshone the moon just as the Imperial and allied army successfully repel the Turks.
By making the mass number of soldiers blend within the landscape/painting, it shows that he believed that the usage and depiction of landscape was just as significant as a historical event, such as a war. He renounced the office of Mayor of Regensburg to accept the commission. Few of his other paintings resemble this apocalyptic scene of two huge armies dominated by an extravagant landscape seen from a very high viewpoint, which looks south over the whole Mediterranean from modern Turkey to include the island of Cyprus and the mouths of the Nile and the Red Sea (behind the isthmus to the left) on the other side. However his style here is a development of that of a number of miniatures of battle-scenes he had done much earlier for Maximilian I in his illuminated manuscript Triumphal Procession in 1512–14. It is thought to be the earliest painting to show the curvature of the Earth from a great height.
The Battle is now in the Alte Pinakothek, which has the best collection of Altdorfer's paintings, including also his small St. George and the Dragon (1510), in oil on parchment, where the two figures are tiny and almost submerged in the lush, dense forest that towers over them. Altdorfer seems to exaggerate the measurements of the forest in comparison to the figures: the leaves appear to be larger than the horse, showing the significance of nature and landscape. He also emphasizes line within the work, by displaying the upward growth of the forest with the vertical and diagonal lines of the trunks. There is a small opening of the forest on the lower right hand corner that provides a rest for your eyes. It serves to create depth within the painting and is the only place you can see the characters. The human form is completely absorbed by the thickness of the forest. Fantastic light effects provide a sense of mystery and dissolve the outline of objects. Without the contrast of light, the figures would blend in with its surrounding environment. Altdorfer's figures are invariably the complement of his romantic landscapes; for them he borrowed Albrecht Dürer's inventive iconography, but the panoramic setting is personal and has nothing to do with the fantasy landscapes of the Netherlands A Susanna in the Bath and the Stoning of the Elders (1526) set outside an Italianate skyscraper of a palace shows his interest in architecture. Another small oil on parchment, Danube Landscape with Castle Wörth (c. 1520) is one of the earliest accurate topographical paintings of a particular building in its setting, of a type that was to become a cliché in later centuries.
Printmaking
Altdorfer was a significant printmaker, with numerous engravings and about ninety-three woodcuts. These included some for the Triumphs of Maximilian, where he followed the overall style presumably set by Hans Burgkmair, although he was able to escape somewhat from this in his depictions of the more disorderly baggage-train, still coming through a mountain landscape. However most of his best prints are etchings, many of landscapes; in these he was able most easily to use his drawing style. He was one of the most successful early etchers, and was unusual for his generation of German printmakers in doing no book illustrations. He often combined etching and engraving techniques in a single plate, and produced about 122 intaglio prints altogether. Many of Altdorfer's prints are quite small in size, and he is considered to be of the main members of the group of artists known as the Little Masters. Arthur Mayger Hind considers his graphical work to be somewhat lacking in technical skill but with an "intimate personal touch", and notes his characteristic feeling for landscape.
Public life
As the superintendent of the municipal buildings Altdorfer had overseen the construction of several commercial structures, such as a slaughterhouse and a building for wine storage, possibly even designing them. He was considered to be an outstanding politician of his day. In 1517 he was a member of the "Ausseren Rates", the council on external affairs, and in this capacity was involved in the expulsion of the Jews, the destruction of the synagogue and in its place the construction of a church and shrine to the Schöne Maria that occurred in 1519. Altdorfer made etchings of the interior of the synagogue and designed a woodcut of the cult image of the Schöne Maria. In 1529–1530 he was also charged with reinforcing certain city fortifications in response to the Turkish threat.
Albrecht's brother, Erhard Altdorfer, was also a painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving, and a pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder.
See also
8121 Altdorfer, asteroid named after Altdorfer
Danube school
Early Renaissance painting
List of landscapes by Albrecht Altdorfer
References
Further reading
Alte Pinakotek, Munich; (Summary Catalogue -various authors),1986, Edition Lipp,
Christopher S. Wood, Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, 1993, Reaktion Books, London,
Christoph Wagner, Oliver Jehle (eds.), Albrecht Altdorfer. Kunst als zweite Natur, 2012, Schnell & Steiner Verlag, Regensburg (= Regensburger Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, Vol. 17),
Jochen Sander, Stefan Roller, Sabine Haag, Guido Messling (eds.), Fantastische Welten. Albrecht Altdorfer und das Expressive in der Kunst um 1500, 2014, Hirmer, Munich, (exhibition catalogue Städel Museum, Frankfort, November 5, 2014 - February 2015 and Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, March 17 - June 14, 2015)
External links
Works by Albrecht Altdofer at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Works by Altdorfer at Zeno.org
Albrecht Altdorfer in the "History of Art"
Albrecht Altdorfer Wallpapers
Page at artcyclopedia.com
Page at ibiblio.org
Artvibrations Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20110211004452/http://www.artvibrations.com/AlbrechtAltdorfer/
Albrecht Altdorfer Paintings Gallery (Public Domain Paintings - www.art.onilm.com)
Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Albrecht Altdorfer (see index)
1480s births
1538 deaths
16th-century German painters
German male painters
German Renaissance painters
Artists from Regensburg
16th-century German architects
German printmakers
German engravers
German Lutherans
Manuscript illuminators |
2441 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House%20of%20Ascania | House of Ascania | The House of Ascania () was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt.
The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as Schloss Askanien in German, which was located near and named after Aschersleben. The castle was the seat of the County of Ascania, a title that was later subsumed into the titles of the princes of Anhalt.
History
The earliest known member of the house, Esiko, Count of Ballenstedt, first appears in a document of 1036. He is assumed to have been a grandson (through his mother) of Odo I, Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark. From Odo, the Ascanians inherited large properties in the Saxon Eastern March.
Esiko's grandson was Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, who died in 1123. By Otto's marriage to Eilika, daughter of Magnus, Duke of Saxony, the Ascanians became heirs to half of the property of the House of Billung, former dukes of Saxony.
Otto's son, Albert the Bear, became, with the help of his mother's inheritance, the first Ascanian duke of Saxony in 1139. However, he soon lost control of Saxony to the rival House of Guelph.
Albert inherited the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157 from its last Wendish ruler, Pribislav, and he became the first Ascanian margrave. Albert, and his descendants of the House of Ascania, then made considerable progress in Christianizing and Germanizing the lands. As a borderland between German and Slavic cultures, the country was known as a march.
In 1237 and 1244, two towns, Cölln and Berlin, were founded during the rule of Otto and Johann, grandsons of Margrave Albert the Bear. Later, they were united into one city, Berlin. The emblem of the House of Ascania, a red eagle and bear, became the heraldic emblems of Berlin. In 1320, the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end.
After the Emperor had deposed the Guelph rulers of Saxony in 1180, Ascanians returned to rule the Duchy of Saxony, which had been reduced to its eastern half by the Emperor. However, even in eastern Saxony, the Ascanians could establish control only in limited areas, mostly near the River Elbe.
In the 13th century, the Principality of Anhalt was split off from the Duchy of Saxony. Later, the remaining state was split into Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg. The Ascanian dynasties in the two Saxon states became extinct in 1689 and in 1422, respectively, but Ascanians continued to rule in the smaller state of Anhalt and its various subdivisions until the monarchy was abolished in 1918.
Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796, was a member of the House of Ascania, herself the daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst.
Rulers of the House of Ascania
House of Ascania
Partitions of the House of Ascania
Table of rulers
Heads of the House of Ascania since 1918
Duke Joachim Ernest II 1918–1947
Prince Frederick 1947–1963
Prince Edward 1963–present
Family trees
(genealogical list of the dynasty in German)
Armorial
The original arms of the house of Ascania, from their ancestors the Saxon counts of Ballenstedt, were "Barry of ten sable and or".
The Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear was invested with the Saxon ducal title in 1138; when he succeeded the Welf's Henry the Lion, who was deposed by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In 1180, Albert's son Bernhard, Count of Anhalt received the remaining Saxon territories around Wittenberg and Lauenburg, and the ducal title. Legend, so unlikely to be true, goes that when he rode in front of the emperor, at the occasion of his investiture, he carried a shield with his escutcheon of the Ballenstedt coat of arms (barry sable and or). Barbarossa took the rue wreath he wore against the heat of the sun from his head, hanging it over Bernhard's shield and thus creating the Saxonian crancelin vert ("Barry of ten sable and or, a crancelin vert"). A more likely explanation is that it probably symbolized the waiver of the Lauenburg lands.
From about 1260, the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg emerged under the Ascanian duke Albert II, who adopted the tradition of the Saxon stem duchy and was granted the Saxon electoral dignity, against the fierce protest of his Ascanian Saxe-Lauenburg cousins. This was confirmed by the Golden Bull of 1356. As the Ascanian Electors of Saxony also held the High office of an Arch-Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire, they added the ensign Per fess sable and argent two swords in saltire gules (the swords later featuring as the trademark of the Meissen china factory) to their coat of arms. When the line became extinct in 1422, the arms and electoral dignity were adopted by the Wettin by margrave Frederick IV of Meissen as it had become synonymous with the Saxon ducal title.
When upon German reunification the Free State of Saxony was re-established, the coat of arms was formally confirmed in 1991.
The chivalric order was the House Order of Albert the Bear (German: Hausorden Albrechts des Bären or Der Herzoglich Anhaltische Hausorden Albrechts des Bären) which was founded in 1836 as a joint House Order by three dukes of Anhalt from separate branches of the family: Henry, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, Leopold IV, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, and Alexander Karl, Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg.
The namesake of the order, Albert the Bear, was the first Margrave of Brandenburg from the House of Ascania. The origin of his nickname "the Bear" is unknown.
List of states ruled by the House of Ascania
County, Principality, and Duchy of Anhalt: c. 1100–1918
Duchy and Electorate of Saxony: 1112, 1139–1142, 1180–1422
County of Weimar-Orlamünde: 1112–1486
Margravate of Brandenburg: 1157–1320
Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg: 1269–1689
Principality of Lüneburg: 1369–1388
Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg: 1252–1468 and 1603–1863
Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst: 1252–1396 and 1544–1796
Principality of Anhalt-Aschersleben: 1252–1315
Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Köthen: 1396–1561 and 1603–1847
Principality and Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau 1396–1561 and 1603–1863
Principality of Anhalt-Plötzkau 1544–1553 and 1603–1665
Principality of Anhalt-Harzgerode 1635–1709
Principality of Anhalt-Mühlingen: 1667–1714
Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg: 1667–1742
Lordship of Jever: 1667–1796
Principality of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym: 1718–1812
Russian Empire: 1762–1796
References
Askanien, Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888
Trillmich, Werner, Kaiser Konrad II. und seine Zeit, Bonn, 1991
External links
Ducal Family of Anhalt (House of Ascania) – official website
European Heraldry page
(first page of a series)
Stirnet: Brandenburg1 (genealogy of the Houses of Ascania and Brandenburg, including the most likely ancestry of the 11th-century House of Ascania)
Stirnet: Ascania1 (an alternate possible ancestry of the 11th-century House of Ascania)
Saxon nobility |
2443 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration | Acceleration | In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the orientation of the net force acting on that object. The magnitude of an object's acceleration, as described by Newton's Second Law, is the combined effect of two causes:
the net balance of all external forces acting onto that object — magnitude is directly proportional to this net resulting force;
that object's mass, depending on the materials out of which it is made — magnitude is inversely proportional to the object's mass.
The SI unit for acceleration is metre per second squared (, ).
For example, when a vehicle starts from a standstill (zero velocity, in an inertial frame of reference) and travels in a straight line at increasing speeds, it is accelerating in the direction of travel. If the vehicle turns, an acceleration occurs toward the new direction and changes its motion vector. The acceleration of the vehicle in its current direction of motion is called a linear (or tangential during circular motions) acceleration, the reaction to which the passengers on board experience as a force pushing them back into their seats. When changing direction, the effecting acceleration is called radial (or centripetal during circular motions) acceleration, the reaction to which the passengers experience as a centrifugal force. If the speed of the vehicle decreases, this is an acceleration in the opposite direction of the velocity vector (mathematically a negative, if the movement is unidimensional and the velocity is positive), sometimes called deceleration or retardation, and passengers experience the reaction to deceleration as an inertial force pushing them forward. Such negative accelerations are often achieved by retrorocket burning in spacecraft. Both acceleration and deceleration are treated the same, as they are both changes in velocity. Each of these accelerations (tangential, radial, deceleration) is felt by passengers until their relative (differential) velocity are neutralized in reference to the acceleration due to change in speed.
Definition and properties
Average acceleration
An object's average acceleration over a period of time is its change in velocity, , divided by the duration of the period, . Mathematically,
Instantaneous acceleration
Instantaneous acceleration, meanwhile, is the limit of the average acceleration over an infinitesimal interval of time. In the terms of calculus, instantaneous acceleration is the derivative of the velocity vector with respect to time:
As acceleration is defined as the derivative of velocity, , with respect to time and velocity is defined as the derivative of position, , with respect to time, acceleration can be thought of as the second derivative of with respect to :
(Here and elsewhere, if motion is in a straight line, vector quantities can be substituted by scalars in the equations.)
By the fundamental theorem of calculus, it can be seen that the integral of the acceleration function is the velocity function ; that is, the area under the curve of an acceleration vs. time ( vs. ) graph corresponds to the change of velocity.
Likewise, the integral of the jerk function , the derivative of the acceleration function, can be used to find the change of acceleration at a certain time:
Units
Acceleration has the dimensions of velocity (L/T) divided by time, i.e. L T−2. The SI unit of acceleration is the metre per second squared (m s−2); or "metre per second per second", as the velocity in metres per second changes by the acceleration value, every second.
Other forms
An object moving in a circular motion—such as a satellite orbiting the Earth—is accelerating due to the change of direction of motion, although its speed may be constant. In this case it is said to be undergoing centripetal (directed towards the center) acceleration.
Proper acceleration, the acceleration of a body relative to a free-fall condition, is measured by an instrument called an accelerometer.
In classical mechanics, for a body with constant mass, the (vector) acceleration of the body's center of mass is proportional to the net force vector (i.e. sum of all forces) acting on it (Newton's second law):
where is the net force acting on the body, is the mass of the body, and is the center-of-mass acceleration. As speeds approach the speed of light, relativistic effects become increasingly large.
Tangential and centripetal acceleration
The velocity of a particle moving on a curved path as a function of time can be written as:
with equal to the speed of travel along the path, and
a unit vector tangent to the path pointing in the direction of motion at the chosen moment in time. Taking into account both the changing speed and the changing direction of , the acceleration of a particle moving on a curved path can be written using the chain rule of differentiation for the product of two functions of time as:
where is the unit (inward) normal vector to the particle's trajectory (also called the principal normal), and is its instantaneous radius of curvature based upon the osculating circle at time . The components
are called the tangential acceleration and the normal or radial acceleration (or centripetal acceleration in circular motion, see also circular motion and centripetal force), respectively.
Geometrical analysis of three-dimensional space curves, which explains tangent, (principal) normal and binormal, is described by the Frenet–Serret formulas.
Special cases
Uniform acceleration
Uniform or constant acceleration is a type of motion in which the velocity of an object changes by an equal amount in every equal time period.
A frequently cited example of uniform acceleration is that of an object in free fall in a uniform gravitational field. The acceleration of a falling body in the absence of resistances to motion is dependent only on the gravitational field strength (also called acceleration due to gravity). By Newton's Second Law the force acting on a body is given by:
Because of the simple analytic properties of the case of constant acceleration, there are simple formulas relating the displacement, initial and time-dependent velocities, and acceleration to the time elapsed:
where
is the elapsed time,
is the initial displacement from the origin,
is the displacement from the origin at time ,
is the initial velocity,
is the velocity at time , and
is the uniform rate of acceleration.
In particular, the motion can be resolved into two orthogonal parts, one of constant velocity and the other according to the above equations. As Galileo showed, the net result is parabolic motion, which describes, e.g., the trajectory of a projectile in vacuum near the surface of Earth.
Circular motion
In uniform circular motion, that is moving with constant speed along a circular path, a particle experiences an acceleration resulting from the change of the direction of the velocity vector, while its magnitude remains constant. The derivative of the location of a point on a curve with respect to time, i.e. its velocity, turns out to be always exactly tangential to the curve, respectively orthogonal to the radius in this point. Since in uniform motion the velocity in the tangential direction does not change, the acceleration must be in radial direction, pointing to the center of the circle. This acceleration constantly changes the direction of the velocity to be tangent in the neighboring point, thereby rotating the velocity vector along the circle.
For a given speed , the magnitude of this geometrically caused acceleration (centripetal acceleration) is inversely proportional to the radius of the circle, and increases as the square of this speed:
For a given angular velocity , the centripetal acceleration is directly proportional to radius . This is due to the dependence of velocity on the radius .
Expressing centripetal acceleration vector in polar components, where is a vector from the centre of the circle to the particle with magnitude equal to this distance, and considering the orientation of the acceleration towards the center, yields
As usual in rotations, the speed of a particle may be expressed as an angular speed with respect to a point at the distance as
Thus
This acceleration and the mass of the particle determine the necessary centripetal force, directed toward the centre of the circle, as the net force acting on this particle to keep it in this uniform circular motion. The so-called 'centrifugal force', appearing to act outward on the body, is a so-called pseudo force experienced in the frame of reference of the body in circular motion, due to the body's linear momentum, a vector tangent to the circle of motion.
In a nonuniform circular motion, i.e., the speed along the curved path is changing, the acceleration has a non-zero component tangential to the curve, and is not confined to the principal normal, which directs to the center of the osculating circle, that determines the radius for the centripetal acceleration. The tangential component is given by the angular acceleration , i.e., the rate of change of the angular speed times the radius . That is,
The sign of the tangential component of the acceleration is determined by the sign of the angular acceleration (), and the tangent is always directed at right angles to the radius vector.
Coordinate systems
In multi-dimensional Cartesian coordinate systems, acceleration is broken up into components that correspond with each dimensional axis of the coordinate system. In a two-dimensional system, where there is an x-axis and a y-axis, corresponding acceleration components are defined as The two-dimensional acceleration vector is then defined as . The magnitude of this vector is found by the distance formula asIn three-dimensional systems where there is an additional z-axis, the corresponding acceleration component is defined asThe three-dimensional acceleration vector is defined as with its magnitude being determined by
Relation to relativity
Special relativity
The special theory of relativity describes the behavior of objects traveling relative to other objects at speeds approaching that of light in vacuum. Newtonian mechanics is exactly revealed to be an approximation to reality, valid to great accuracy at lower speeds. As the relevant speeds increase toward the speed of light, acceleration no longer follows classical equations.
As speeds approach that of light, the acceleration produced by a given force decreases, becoming infinitesimally small as light speed is approached; an object with mass can approach this speed asymptotically, but never reach it.
General relativity
Unless the state of motion of an object is known, it is impossible to distinguish whether an observed force is due to gravity or to acceleration—gravity and inertial acceleration have identical effects. Albert Einstein called this the equivalence principle, and said that only observers who feel no force at all—including the force of gravity—are justified in concluding that they are not accelerating.
Conversions
See also
Acceleration (differential geometry)
Four-vector: making the connection between space and time explicit
Gravitational acceleration
Inertia
Orders of magnitude (acceleration)
Shock (mechanics)
Shock and vibration data loggermeasuring 3-axis acceleration
Space travel using constant acceleration
Specific force
References
External links
Acceleration Calculator Simple acceleration unit converter
Acceleration Calculator Acceleration Conversion calculator converts units form meter per second square, kilometre per second square, millimeter per second square & more with metric conversion.
Dynamics (mechanics)
Kinematic properties
Vector physical quantities |
2444 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation%20and%20restoration%20of%20cultural%20property | Conservation and restoration of cultural property | The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, examination, documentation, research, treatment, and education. This field is closely allied with conservation science, curators and registrars.
Definition
Conservation of cultural property involves protection and restoration using "any methods that prove effective in keeping that property in as close to its original condition as possible for as long as possible." Conservation of cultural heritage is often associated with art collections and museums and involves collection care and management through tracking, examination, documentation, exhibition, storage, preventive conservation, and restoration.
The scope has widened from art conservation, involving protection and care of artwork and architecture, to conservation of cultural heritage, also including protection and care of a broad set of other cultural and historical works. Conservation of cultural heritage can be described as a type of ethical stewardship.
It may broadly be divided into:
Conservation and restoration of movable cultural property
Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property
Conservation of cultural property applies simple ethical guidelines:
Minimal intervention;
Appropriate materials and reversible methods;
Full documentation of all work undertaken.
Often there are compromises between preserving appearance, maintaining original design and material properties, and ability to reverse changes. Reversibility is now emphasized so as to reduce problems with future treatment, investigation, and use.
In order for conservators to decide upon an appropriate conservation strategy and apply their professional expertise accordingly, they must take into account views of the stakeholder, the values, artist's intent, meaning of the work, and the physical needs of the material.
Cesare Brandi in his Theory of Restoration, describes restoration as "the methodological moment in which the work of art is appreciated in its material form and in its historical and aesthetic duality, with a view to transmitting it to the future".
History and science
Key dates
Some consider the tradition of conservation of cultural heritage in Europe to have begun in 1565 with the restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, but more ancient examples include the work of Cassiodorus.
Brief history
The care of cultural heritage has a long history, one that was primarily aimed at fixing and mending objects for their continued use and aesthetic enjoyment. Until the early 20th century, artists were normally the ones called upon to repair damaged artworks. During the 19th century, however, the fields of science and art became increasingly intertwined as scientists such as Michael Faraday began to study the damaging effects of the environment to works of art. Louis Pasteur carried out scientific analysis on paint as well. However, perhaps the first organized attempt to apply a theoretical framework to the conservation of cultural heritage came with the founding in the United Kingdom of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877. The society was founded by William Morris and Philip Webb, both of whom were deeply influenced by the writings of John Ruskin. During the same period, a French movement with similar aims was being developed under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, an architect and theorist, famous for his restorations of medieval buildings.
Conservation of cultural heritage as a distinct field of study initially developed in Germany, where in 1888 Friedrich Rathgen became the first chemist to be employed by a Museum, the Koniglichen Museen, Berlin (Royal Museums of Berlin). He not only developed a scientific approach to the care of objects in the collections, but disseminated this approach by publishing a Handbook of Conservation in 1898. The early development of conservation of cultural heritage in any area of the world is usually linked to the creation of positions for chemists within museums. In British archaeology, key research and technical experimentation in conservation was undertaken by women such as Ione Gedye both in the field and in archaeological collections, particularly those of the Institute of Archaeology, London.
In the United Kingdom, pioneering research into painting materials and conservation, ceramics, and stone conservation was conducted by Arthur Pillans Laurie, academic chemist and Principal of Heriot-Watt University from 1900. Laurie's interests were fostered by William Holman Hunt. In 1924 the chemist Harold Plenderleith began to work at the British Museum with Alexander Scott in the recently created Research Laboratory, although he was actually employed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in the early years. Plenderleith's appointment may be said to have given birth to the conservation profession in the UK, although there had been craftsmen in many museums and in the commercial art world for generations. This department was created by the museum to address the deteriorating condition of objects in the collection, damages which were a result of their being stored in the London Underground tunnels during the First World War. The creation of this department moved the focus for the development of conservation theory and practice from Germany to Britain, and made the latter a prime force in this fledgling field. In 1956 Plenderleith wrote a significant handbook called The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art, which supplanted Rathgen's earlier tome and set new standards for the development of art and conservation science.
In the United States, the development of conservation of cultural heritage can be traced to the Fogg Art Museum, and Edward Waldo Forbes, its director from 1909 to 1944. He encouraged technical investigation, and was Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the first technical journal, Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, published by the Fogg from 1932 to 1942. Importantly he also brought onto the museum staff chemists. Rutherford John Gettens was the first of such in the US to be permanently employed by an art museum. He worked with George L. Stout, the founder and first editor of Technical Studies. Gettens and Stout co-authored Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopaedia in 1942, reprinted in 1966. This compendium is still cited regularly. Only a few dates and descriptions in Gettens' and Stout's book are now outdated.
George T. Oliver, of Oliver Brothers Art Restoration and Art Conservation-Boston
(Est. 1850 in New York City) invented the vacuum hot table for relining paintings in 1920s; he filed a patent for the table in 1937. Taylor's prototype table, which he designed and constructed, is still in operation. Oliver Brothers is believed to be the first and the oldest continuously operating art restoration company in the United States.
The focus of conservation development then accelerated in Britain and America, and it was in Britain that the first International Conservation Organisations developed. The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) was incorporated under British law in 1950 as "a permanent organization to co-ordinate and improve the knowledge, methods, and working standards needed to protect and preserve precious materials of all kinds." The rapid growth of conservation professional organizations, publications, journals, newsletters, both internationally and in localities, has spearheaded the development of the conservation profession, both practically and theoretically. Art historians and theorists such as Cesare Brandi have also played a significant role in developing conservation science theory. In recent years ethical concerns have been at the forefront of developments in conservation. Most significantly has been the idea of preventive conservation. This concept is based in part on the pioneering work by Garry Thomson CBE, and his book Museum Environment, first published in 1978. Thomson was associated with the National Gallery in London; it was here that he established a set of guidelines or environmental controls for the best conditions in which objects could be stored and displayed within the museum environment. Although his exact guidelines are no longer rigidly followed, they did inspire this field of conservation.
Conservation laboratories
Conservators routinely use chemical and scientific analysis for the examination and treatment of cultural works. The modern conservation laboratory uses equipment such as microscopes, spectrometers, and various x-ray regime instruments to better understand objects and their components. The data thus collected helps in deciding the conservation treatments to be provided to the object.
Ethics
The conservator's work is guided by ethical standards. These take the form of applied ethics. Ethical standards have been established across the world, and national and international ethical guidelines have been written. One such example is:
American Institute for Conservation Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice
Conservation OnLine provides resources on ethical issues in conservation, including examples of codes of ethics and guidelines for professional conduct in conservation and allied fields; and charters and treaties pertaining to ethical issues involving the preservation of cultural property.
As well as standards of practice conservators deal with wider ethical concerns, such as the debates as to whether all art is worth preserving.
Keeping up with the international contemporary scenario, recent concerns with sustainability in conservation have emerged. The common understanding that "the care of an artifact should not come at the undue expense of the environment" is generally well accepted within the community and is already contemplated in guidelines of diverse institutions related to the field.
Practice
Preventive conservation
Many cultural works are sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and exposure to visible light and ultraviolet radiation. These works must be protected in controlled environments where such variables are maintained within a range of damage-limiting levels. For example, watercolour paintings usually require shielding from sunlight to prevent fading of pigments.
Collections care is an important element of museum policy. It is an essential responsibility of members of the museum profession to create and maintain a protective environment for the collections in their care, whether in store, on display, or in transit. A museum should carefully monitor the condition of collections to determine when an artifact requires conservation work and the services of a qualified conservator.
Interventive conservation and restoration
A teaching programme of interventive conservation was established in the UK at the Institute of Archaeology by Ione Gedye, which is still teaching interventive conservators today.
A principal aim of a cultural conservator is to reduce the rate of deterioration of an object. Both non-interventive and interventive methodologies may be employed in pursuit of this goal. Interventive conservation refers to any direct interaction between the conservator and the material fabric of the object. Interventive actions are carried out for a variety of reasons, including aesthetic choices, stabilization needs for structural integrity, or cultural requirements for intangible continuity. Examples of interventive treatments include the removal of discolored varnish from a painting, the application of wax to a sculpture, and the washing and rebinding of a book. Ethical standards within the field require that the conservator fully justify interventive actions and carry out documentation before, during, and after the treatment.
One of the guiding principles of conservation of cultural heritage has traditionally been the idea of reversibility, that all interventions with the object should be fully reversible and that the object should be able to be returned to the state in which it was prior to the conservator's intervention. Although this concept remains a guiding principle of the profession, it has been widely critiqued within the conservation profession and is now considered by many to be "a fuzzy concept." Another important principle of conservation is that all alterations should be well documented and should be clearly distinguishable from the original object.
An example of a highly publicized interventive conservation effort would be the conservation work conducted on the Sistine Chapel.
Example of an archaeological discovery and restoration of a mural painting
Example of the restoration of an oil painting
Sustainable conservation
Recognising that conservation practices should not harm the environment, harm people, or contribute to global warming, the conservation-restoration profession has more recently focused on practices that reduce waste, reduce energy costs, and minimise the use of toxic or harmful solvents. A number of research projects, working groups, and other initiatives have explored how conservation can become a more environmentally sustainable profession. Sustainable conservation practices apply both to work within cultural institutions (e.g. museums, art galleries, archives, libraries, research centres and historic sites) as well as to businesses and private studios.
Choice of materials
Conservators and restorers use a wide variety of materials - in conservation treatments, and those used to safely transport, display and store cultural heritage items. These materials can include solvents, papers and boards, fabrics, adhesives and consolidants, plastics and foams, wood products, and many others. Stability and longevity are two important factors conservators consider when selecting materials; sustainability is becoming an increasingly important third. Examples of sustainable material choices and practices include:
Using biodegradable products or those with less environmental impact where possible;
Using 'green solvents' instead of more toxic alternatives, or treatment strategies that use much smaller amounts of solvents - for example, semi-rigid aqueous gels, emulsions or nano materials;
Preparing smaller amounts of material (e.g. adhesives) to avoid waste;
Observing recommended disposal protocols for chemicals, recyclable materials and compostable materials, particularly to avoid contamination of waterways;
Choosing protective work wear that can be washed or cleaned and reused, rather than disposable options;
Tracking stock quantities to avoid over-buying, especially for materials with expiration dates;
Using durable materials for packing that may be washed and re-used, such as Tyvek or Mylar;
Repurposing consumables such as blotting paper, non-woven fabrics, and polyester film when they are no longer fit for their original purpose;
Using locally produced products whenever possible, to reduce carbon footprints;
Reusing packaging materials such as cardboard boxes, plastic wrap and wooden crates;
Using standard sizes of packaging and package designs that reduce waste;
These decisions are not always straightforward - for example, installing deionised or distilled water filters in laboratories reduces waste associated with purchasing bottled products, but increases energy consumption. Similarly, locally-made papers and boards may reduce inherent carbon miles but they may be made with pulp sourced from old growth forests.
Another dilemma is that many conservation-grade materials are chosen because they do not biodegrade. For example, when selecting a plastic with which to make storage enclosures, conservators prefer to use relatively long-lived plastics because they have better ageing properties - they are less likely to become yellow, leach plasticisers, or lose structural integrity and crumble (examples include polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester). These plastics will also take longer to degrade in landfill.
Energy use
Many conservators and cultural organisations have sought to reduce the energy costs associated with controlling indoor storage and display environments (temperature, relative humidity, air filtration, and lighting levels) as well as those associated with the transport of cultural heritage items for exhibitions and loans.
In general, lowering the temperature reduces the rate at which damaging chemical reactions occur within materials. For example, storing cellulose acetate film at 10 °C instead of 21 °C is estimated to increase its usable life by over 100 years. Controlling the relative humidity of air helps to reduce hydrolysis reactions and minimises cracking, distortion and other physical changes in hygroscopic materials. Changes in temperature will also bring about changes in relative humidity. Therefore, the conservation profession has placed great importance on controlling indoor environments. Temperature and humidity can be controlled through passive means (e.g. insulation, building design) or active means (air conditioning). Active controls typically require much higher energy use. Energy use increases with specificity - e.g. in will require more energy to maintain a quantity of air to a narrow temperature range (20-22 °C) than to a broad range (18-25 °C). In the past, conservation recommendations have often called for very tight, inflexible temperature and relative humidity set points. In other cases, conservators have recommended strict environmental conditions for buildings that could not reasonably be expected to achieve them, due to the quality of build, local environmental conditions (e.g. recommending temperate conditions for a building located in the tropics) or the financial circumstances of the organisation. This has been an area of particular debate for cultural heritage organisations who lend and borrow cultural items to each other - often, the lender will specify strict environmental conditions as part of the loan agreement, which may be very expensive for the borrowing organisation to achieve, or impossible.
The energy costs associated with cold storage and digital storage are also gaining more attention. Cold storage is a very effective strategy to preserve at-risk collections such as cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate film, which can deteriorate beyond use within decades at ambient conditions. Digital storage costs are rising for both born-digital cultural heritage (photographs, audiovisual, time-based media) and to store digital preservation and access copies of cultural heritage. Digital storage capacity is a major factor in the complexity of preserving digital heritage such as video games, social media, messaging services, and email.
Other areas where energy use can be reduced within conservation and restoration include:
Exhibition lighting - e.g. using lower-energy LED lighting systems and light sensors that switch lights on only when visitors are present;
Installation of green energy capture systems in cultural organisations, such as solar photovoltaic plates, wind energy systems, and heat pumps;
Improving the energy performance of cultural buildings by installing insulation, sealing gaps, reducing the number of windows and installing double-glazing:
Using microclimates to house small groups of climate-sensitive objects instead of seeking to control the environmental conditions of the whole building.
Country by country look
United States
Heritage Preservation, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a U.S. federal agency, produced The Heritage Health Index. The results of this work was the report A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections, which was published in December 2005 and concluded that immediate action is needed to prevent the loss of 190 million artifacts that are in need of conservation treatment. The report made four recommendations:
Institutions must give priority to providing safe conditions for the collections they hold in trust.
Every collecting institution must develop an emergency plan to protect its collections and train staff to carry it out.
Every institution must assign responsibility for caring for collections to members of its staff.
Individuals at all levels of government and in the private sector must assume responsibility for providing the support that will allow these collections to survive.
United Kingdom
In October 2006, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a governmental department, authored a document: "Understanding the Future: Priorities for England's Museums". This document was based on several years of consultation aimed to lay out the government's priorities for museums in the 21st century.
The document listed the following as priorities for the next decade:
Museums will fulfil their potential as learning resources (pp 7–10).
Museums will be embedded into the delivery of education in every school in the country.
Understanding of the effectiveness of museum education will be improved further and best practice built into education programmes.
The value of museums' collections as a research resource will be well understood and better links built between the academic community and museums.
Museums will embrace their role in fostering, exploring, celebrating and questioning the identities of diverse communities (pp 11–14).
The sector needs to work with partners in academia and beyond to create an intellectual framework supporting museums' capacity to tackle issues of identity.
The museum sector must continue to develop improved practical techniques for engaging communities of all sorts.
Museums' collections will be more dynamic and better used (pp 15–18).
Government and the sector will find new ways to encourage museums to collect actively and strategically, especially the record of contemporary society.
The sector will develop new collaborative approaches to sharing and developing collections and related expertise.
Museums' workforce will be dynamic, highly skilled and representative (pp 17–22).
Museums' governing bodies and workforce will be representative of the communities they serve.
Find more varied ways for a broader range of skills to come into museums.
Improve continuing professional development.
Museums will work more closely with each other and partners outside the sector (pp 23–26).
A consistent evidence base of the contribution of all kinds of museums to the full range of public service agendas will be developed.
There will be deeper and longer lasting partnerships between the national museums and a broader range of regional partners.
Museums' international roles will be strengthened to improve museum programmes in this country and Britain's image, reputation and relationships abroad.
The conservation profession response to this report was on the whole less than favourable, the Institute of Conservation (ICON) published their response under the title "A Failure of Vision". It had the following to say:
Concluding:
Further to this the ICON website summary report lists the following specific recommendations:
A national survey to find out what the public want from museums, what motivates them to visit them and what makes for a rewarding visit.
A review of survey results and prioritisation of the various intrinsic, instrumental and institutional values to provide a clear basis for a 10-year strategy
HR consultants to be brought in from the commercial sector to review recruitment, career development and working practices in the national and regional museums.
A commitment to examine the potential for using Museum Accreditation as a more effective driver for improving recruitment, diversity, and career development across the sector.
DCMS to take full account of the eventual findings of the current Commons Select Committee enquiry into Care of Collections in the final version of this document
The adoption of those recommendations of the recent House of Lords inquiry into Science and Heritage which might affect the future of museums.
In November 2008, the UK-based think tank Demos published an influential pamphlet entitled It's a material world: caring for the public realm, in which they argue for integrating the public directly into efforts to conserve material culture, particularly that which is in the public, their argument, as stated on page 16, demonstrates their belief that society can benefit from conservation as a paradigm as well as a profession:
Training
Training in conservation of cultural heritage for many years took the form of an apprenticeship, whereby an apprentice slowly developed the necessary skills to undertake their job. For some specializations within conservation this is still the case. However, it is more common in the field of conservation today that the training required to become a practicing conservator comes from a recognized university course in conservation of cultural heritage.
The university can rarely provide all the necessary training in first hand experience that an apprenticeship can, and therefore in addition to graduate level training the profession also tends towards encouraging conservation students to spend time as an intern.
Conservation of cultural heritage is an interdisciplinary field as conservators have backgrounds in the fine arts, sciences (including chemistry, biology, and materials science), and closely related disciplines, such as art history, archaeology, and anthropology. They also have design, fabrication, artistic, and other special skills necessary for the practical application of that knowledge.
Within the various schools that teach conservation of cultural heritage, the approach differs according to the educational and vocational system within the country, and the focus of the school itself. This is acknowledged by the American Institute for Conservation who advise "Specific admission requirements differ and potential candidates are encouraged to contact the programs directly for details on prerequisites, application procedures, and program curriculum".
In France, training for heritage conservation is taught by four schools : , L'École supérieure des Beaux-Arts Tours, Angers, Le Mans, L'Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut national du patrimoine.
Associations and professional organizations
Societies devoted to the care of cultural heritage have been in existence around the world for many years. One early example is the founding in 1877 of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in Britain to protect the built heritage, this society continues to be active today. The 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people work to preserve their cultural heritage with organizations including the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts and an international network of eight Tibet Houses.
The built heritage was at the forefront of the growth of member based organizations in the United States. Preservation Virginia, founded in Richmond in 1889 as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group.
Today, professional conservators join and take part in the activities of numerous conservation associations and professional organizations with the wider field, and within their area of specialization. In Europe, E.C.C.O. European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers Organisations was established in 1991 by 14 European Conservator-Restorers' Organisations. Currently representing close to 6.000 professionals within 23 countries and 26 members organisations, including one international body (IADA), E.C.C.O. embodies the field of preservation of cultural heritage, both movable and immovable.
These organizations exist to "support the conservation professionals who preserve our cultural heritage".
This involves upholding professional standards, promoting research and publications, providing educational opportunities, and fostering the exchange of knowledge among cultural conservators, allied professionals, and the public.
International cultural property documents
See also
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles
The Georgian Group
Wikipedia:WikiProject Collections Care
International Day For Monuments and Sites
References
Further reading
Copies of this volume are available for free pdf download from the Smithsonian's digital library by clicking on the included link.
External links
BCIN, the Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network
CAMEO: Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia OnLine
Conservation OnLine (CoOL) Resources for Conservation Professionals
DOCAM — Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage
ICOMOS Open Archive: EPrints on Cultural Heritage
Publications & Resources at the Getty Conservation Institute
Art history
Museology
Cultural heritage
Articles containing video clips
Cultural heritage conservation |
2448 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action%20Against%20Hunger | Action Against Hunger | Action Against Hunger () is a global humanitarian organization which originated in France and is committed to ending world hunger. The organization helps malnourished children and provides communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.
Pakistan's situation has significant ramifications for food security, particularly with the ongoing high levels of inflation. The added impact of climate change intensifies security concerns, leaving an increasing number of individuals without viable means to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families.
In 2022, Action Against Hunger worked in 56 countries around the world with more than 8,990 employees helping 28 million people in need.
Action Against Hunger was established in 1979 by a group of French doctors, scientists, and writers. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alfred Kastler served as the organization's first chairman. Currently, Mumbai-based businessman and philanthropist Ashwini Kakkar serves as International President of Action Against Hunger network.
The group initially provided assistance to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, famine-stricken Ugandan communities, and Cambodian refugees in Thailand. It expanded to address additional humanitarian concerns in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and elsewhere during the 1980s and 1990s. Action Against Hunger's Scientific Committee pioneered the therapeutic milk formula (F100), now used by all major humanitarian aid organizations to treat acute malnutrition. Early results showed that treatment with F100 has the capacity to reduce the mortality rate of severely malnourished children to below 5%, with a median hospital fatality rate quoted of 23.5% A few years later, the therapeutic milk was repackaged as ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), a peanut-based paste packaged like a power bar. These bars allow for the treatment of malnutrition at home and do not require any preparation or refrigeration.
The international network currently has headquarters in eight countries – France, Germany, Spain, the United States, Canada, Italy, India, and the UK. Its four main areas of work include nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, and advocacy.
The integrated approaches with various sectors of intervention are:
Nutrition and Health
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Food Security & Livelihoods
Emergency Response
In 2022, Action Against Hunger USA is leading a USAID-funded project to address health and nutrition challenges associated with policy, advocacy, financing, and governance in communities around the world, and will work in partnership with leading organizations such as Pathfinder International, Amref Health Africa, Global Communities, Humanity & Inclusion, Kupenda for the Children, and Results for Development.
Restaurants against hunger
Action Against Hunger partners with leaders from the food and beverage industry to bring attention to global hunger. Each year, several campaigns are run by the network to raise funds and support the organisation's programs : Restaurants Against Hunger and Love Food Give Food.
Countries of intervention
In 2022, Action Against Hunger International Network is present in 56 countries:
Africa
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Chad, Zimbabwe, Zambia
Asia
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Caucasus
Caribbean
Haïti
Europe
Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Poland
Middle East
Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestinian Occupied Territories, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq
Latin America
Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras
Action Against Hunger international network
Since 1995 Action Against Hunger developed an international network to have a bigger global impact.
The Network has headquarters around the world: France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, India, and Italy.
Action Against Hunger has also a West Africa Regional Office (WARO) located in Dakar, a Horn and Eastern Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, and five logistic platforms (Lyon, Paris, Barcelona, Dubai, Panama).
This network increases the human and financial capacities and enables specialisation per headquarter.
Action Against Hunger in France, Spain and the USA are the operational headquarters. They manage the interventions directly on the field. In order to maximize efficiency and coherence, these three operational headquarters work under the principle of one headquarter per country of intervention.
Action Against Hunger UK focuses on research, monitoring and evaluation, notably with Hunger Watch. The UK headquarters also plays an intermediary role with DFID.
Action Against Hunger Canada raises public and private funds in North America and plays an increasing role on the national level.
Action Against Hunger / Azione contro la Fame Italia raises private funds and promotes important campaigns in order to sensitize the Italian public opinion on hunger and malnutrition.
See also
2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers
References
Further reading
Michelle Jurkovich. 2020. Feeding the Hungry: Advocacy and Blame in the Global Fight against Hunger. Cornell University Press.
External links
Action Against Hunger US website
Action Against Hunger UK website
Action Contre la Faim France website
Acción Contra el Hambre Spain website
Action Contre la Faim Canada website
Aktion gegen den Hunger Germany website
Azione contro la Fame Italy website
Development charities based in France
Hunger relief organizations
International charities
Organizations based in Paris
Organizations established in 1979 |
2459 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appomattox | Appomattox | Appomattox, shorthand for the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant in the American Civil War, may refer to:
Battle of Appomattox Court House, a battle of the American Civil War that was a culmination of the Appomattox Campaign and resulted in the surrender of Robert E. Lee
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, a National Historical Park in Virginia at the site of the surrender
Appomattox may also refer to:
Appomattox County, Virginia, in the United States
Appomattox, Virginia, a town and the seat of that county
Appomattox Court House (disambiguation), several courthouses in Appomattox, Virginia
Appomattox River, a tributary of the James River in Virginia
Appomattox Basin, a name for the Tri-Cities, Virginia region
Appomattox Manor, a manor in City Point, Hopewell, Virginia
Battle of Appomattox Station, a battle of the American Civil War in Appomattox, Virginia, a day before the Battle of Appomattox Court House
SS Appomattox, a large American wooden steamship operated mainly on the Great Lakes
SS Appomattox (1893), a British steamship of the early 20th century
Appomattox (opera), a 2007 opera in based on the American Civil War, composed by Philip Glass
Appomattox (statue), a bronze Confederate soldier memorial in Alexandria, Virginia
See also
Appomattoc (people) |
2460 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal%20sex | Anal sex | Anal sex or anal intercourse is generally the insertion and thrusting of the erect penis into a person's anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure. Other forms of anal sex include anal fingering, the use of sex toys, anilingus, pegging, as well as electrostimulation and erotic torture such as figging. Although anal sex most commonly means penileanal penetration, sources sometimes use anal intercourse to exclusively denote penileanal penetration, and anal sex to denote any form of anal sexual activity, especially between pairings as opposed to anal masturbation.
Most homosexual men report engaging in anal sex, though other types of sexual behaviour are more frequently practised in this group. Among heterosexual couples, anal sex is not uncommon and may be becoming more prevalent. Types of anal sex can also be a part of lesbian sexual practices. People may experience pleasure from anal sex by stimulation of the anal nerve endings, and orgasm may be achieved through anal penetration – by indirect stimulation of the prostate in men, indirect stimulation of the clitoris or an area of the vagina (sometimes called the G-spot) in women, and other sensory nerves (especially the pudendal nerve). However, people may also find anal sex painful, sometimes extremely so, which may be due to psychological factors in some cases.
As with most forms of sexual activity, anal sex participants risk contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Anal sex is considered a high-risk sexual practice because of the vulnerability of the anus and rectum. The anal and rectal tissue are delicate and do not provide lubrication like the vagina does, so they can easily tear and permit disease transmission, especially if a personal lubricant is not used. Anal sex without protection of a condom is considered the riskiest form of sexual activity, and therefore health authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend safe sex practices for anal sex.
Strong views are often expressed about anal sex. It is controversial in various cultures, often because of religious prohibitions against anal sex among males or teachings about the procreative purpose of sexual activity. It may be considered taboo or unnatural, and is a criminal offense in some countries, punishable by corporal or capital punishment. By contrast, anal sex may also be considered a natural and valid form of sexual activity as fulfilling as other desired sexual expressions, and can be an enhancing or primary element of a person's sex life.
Anatomy and stimulation
The abundance of nerve endings in the anal region and rectum can make anal sex pleasurable for men and women. The internal and external sphincter muscles control the opening and closing of the anus; these muscles, which are sensitive membranes made up of many nerve endings, facilitate pleasure or pain during anal sex. Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia states that "the inner third of the anal canal is less sensitive to touch than the outer two-thirds, but is more sensitive to pressure" and that "the rectum is a curved tube about eight or nine inches long and has the capacity, like the anus, to expand".
Research indicates that anal sex occurs significantly less frequently than other sexual behaviors, but its association with dominance and submission, as well as taboo, makes it an appealing stimulus to people of all sexual orientations. In addition to sexual penetration by the penis, people may use sex toys such as a dildo, a butt plug or anal beads, engage in anal fingering, anilingus, pegging, anal masturbation, figging or fisting for anal sexual activity, and different sex positions may also be included. Fisting is the least practiced of the activities, partly because it is uncommon that people can relax enough to accommodate an object as big as a fist being inserted into the anus.
In a male receptive partner, being anally penetrated can produce a pleasurable sensation due to the object of insertion rubbing or brushing against the prostate through the anal wall. This can result in pleasurable sensations and can lead to an orgasm in some cases. Prostate stimulation can produce a deeper orgasm, sometimes described by men as more widespread and intense, longer-lasting, and allowing for greater feelings of ecstasy than orgasm elicited by penile stimulation only. The prostate is located next to the rectum and is the larger, more developed male homologue (variation) to the female Skene's glands. It is also typical for a man to not reach orgasm as a receptive partner solely from anal sex.
General statistics indicate that 70–80% of women require direct clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm. The vaginal walls contain significantly fewer nerve endings than the clitoris (which has many nerve endings specifically intended for orgasm), and therefore intense sexual pleasure, including orgasm, from vaginal sexual stimulation is less likely to occur than from direct clitoral stimulation in the majority of women. The clitoris is composed of more than the externally visible glans (head). The vagina, for example, is flanked on each side by the clitoral crura, the internal legs of the clitoris, which are highly sensitive and become engorged with blood when sexually aroused. Indirect stimulation of the clitoris through anal penetration may be caused by the shared sensory nerves, especially the pudendal nerve, which gives off the inferior anal nerves and divides into the perineal nerve and the dorsal nerve of the clitoris. Although the anus has many nerve endings, their purpose is not specifically for inducing orgasm, and so a woman achieving orgasm solely by anal stimulation is rare.
Stimulation from anal sex can additionally be affected by popular perception or portrayals of the activity, such as erotica or pornography. In pornography, anal sex is commonly portrayed as a desirable, painless routine that does not require personal lubricant; this can result in couples performing anal sex without care, and men and women believing that it is unusual for women, as receptive partners, to find discomfort or pain instead of pleasure from the activity. By contrast, each person's sphincter muscles react to penetration differently, the anal sphincters have tissues that are more prone to tearing, and the anus and rectum do not provide lubrication for sexual penetration like the vagina does. Researchers say adequate application of a personal lubricant, relaxation, and communication between sexual partners are crucial to avoid pain or damage to the anus or rectum. Additionally, ensuring that the anal area is clean and the bowel is empty, for both aesthetics and practicality, may be desired by participants.
Male to female
Behaviors and views
The anal sphincters are usually tighter than the pelvic muscles of the vagina, which can enhance the sexual pleasure for the inserting male during male-to-female anal intercourse because of the pressure applied to the penis. Men may also enjoy the penetrative role during anal sex because of its association with dominance, because it is made more alluring by a female partner or society in general insisting that it is forbidden, or because it presents an additional option for penetration.
While some women find being a receptive partner during anal intercourse painful or uncomfortable, or only engage in the act to please a male sexual partner, other women find the activity pleasurable or prefer it to vaginal intercourse.
In a 2010 clinical review article of heterosexual anal sex, anal intercourse is used to specifically denote penile-anal penetration, and anal sex is used to denote any form of anal sexual activity. The review suggests that anal sex is exotic among the sexual practices of some heterosexuals and that "for a certain number of heterosexuals, anal intercourse is pleasurable, exciting, and perhaps considered more intimate than vaginal sex".
Anal intercourse is sometimes used as a substitute for vaginal intercourse during menstruation. The likelihood of pregnancy occurring during anal sex is greatly reduced, as anal sex alone cannot lead to pregnancy unless sperm is somehow transported to the vaginal opening. Because of this, some couples practice anal intercourse as a form of contraception, often in the absence of a condom.
Male-to-female anal sex is commonly viewed as a way of preserving female virginity because it is non-procreative and does not tear the hymen; a person, especially a teenage girl or woman, who engages in anal sex or other sexual activity with no history of having engaged in vaginal intercourse is often regarded among heterosexuals and researchers as not having yet experienced virginity loss. This is sometimes called technical virginity. Heterosexuals may view anal sex as "fooling around" or as foreplay; scholar Laura M. Carpenter stated that this view "dates to the late 1600s, with explicit 'rules' appearing around the turn of the twentieth century, as in marriage manuals defining petting as 'literally every caress known to married couples but does not include complete sexual intercourse.'"
Prevalence
Because most research on anal intercourse addresses men who have sex with men, little data exists on the prevalence of anal intercourse among heterosexual couples. In Kimberly R. McBride's 2010 clinical review on heterosexual anal intercourse and other forms of anal sexual activity, it is suggested that changing norms may affect the frequency of heterosexual anal sex. McBride and her colleagues investigated the prevalence of non-intercourse anal sex behaviors among a sample of men (n=1,299) and women (n=1,919) compared to anal intercourse experience and found that 51% of men and 43% of women had participated in at least one act of oral–anal sex, manual–anal sex, or anal sex toy use. The report states the majority of men (n=631) and women (n=856) who reported heterosexual anal intercourse in the past 12 months were in exclusive, monogamous relationships: 69% and 73%, respectively. The review added that because "relatively little attention [is] given to anal intercourse and other anal sexual behaviors between heterosexual partners", this means that it is "quite rare" to have research "that specifically differentiates the anus as a sexual organ or addresses anal sexual function or dysfunction as legitimate topics. As a result, we do not know the extent to which anal intercourse differs qualitatively from coitus."
According to a 2010 study from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) that was authored by Debby Herbenick et al., although anal intercourse is reported by fewer women than other partnered sex behaviors, partnered women in the age groups between 18 and 49 are significantly more likely to report having anal sex in the past 90 days. Women engaged in anal intercourse less commonly than men. Vaginal intercourse was practiced more than insertive anal intercourse among men, but 13% to 15% of men aged 25 to 49 practiced insertive anal intercourse.
With regard to adolescents, limited data also exists. This may be because of the taboo nature of anal sex and that teenagers and caregivers subsequently avoid talking to one another about the topic. It is also common for subject review panels and schools to avoid the subject. A 2000 study found that 22.9% of college students who self-identified as non-virgins had anal sex. They used condoms during anal sex 20.9% of the time as compared with 42.9% of the time with vaginal intercourse.
Anal sex being more common among heterosexuals today than it was previously has been linked to the increase in consumption of anal pornography among men, especially among those who view it on a regular basis. Seidman et al. argued that "cheap, accessible and, especially, interactive media have enabled many more people to produce as well as consume pornography", and that this modern way of producing pornography, in addition to the buttocks and anus having become more eroticized, has led to a significant interest in or obsession with anal sex among men.
Male to male
Behaviors and views
Most homosexual men are reported to engage in anal sex. Among men who have anal sex with other men, the insertive partner may be referred to as the top and the one being penetrated may be referred to as the bottom. Those who enjoy either role may be referred to as versatile.
Some men who have sex with men, however, believe that being a receptive partner during anal sex questions their masculinity.
Prevalence
Reports regarding the prevalence of anal sex among gay men and other men who have sex with men vary. A survey in The Advocate in 1994 indicated that 46% of gay men preferred to penetrate their partners, while 43% preferred to be the receptive partner. Other sources suggest that roughly three-fourths of gay men have had anal sex at one time or another, with an equal percentage participating as tops and bottoms. A 2012 NSSHB sex survey in the U.S. suggests high lifetime participation in anal sex among gay men: 83.3% report ever taking part in anal sex in the insertive position and 90% in the receptive position, even if only between a third and a quarter self-report very recent engagement in the practice, defined as 30 days or less.
Oral sex and mutual masturbation are more common than anal stimulation among men in sexual relationships with other men. According to Weiten et al., anal intercourse is generally more popular among gay male couples than among heterosexual couples, but "it ranks behind oral sex and mutual masturbation" among both sexual orientations in prevalence. Wellings et al. reported that "the equation of 'homosexual' with 'anal' sex among men is common among lay and health professionals alike" and that "yet an Internet survey of 180,000 MSM across Europe (EMIS, 2011) showed that oral sex was most commonly practised, followed by mutual masturbation, with anal intercourse in third place".
Female to male
Women may sexually stimulate a man's anus by fingering the exterior or interior areas of the anus; they may also stimulate the perineum (which, for males, is between the base of the scrotum and the anus), massage the prostate or engage in anilingus. Sex toys, such as a dildo, may also be used. The practice of a woman penetrating a man's anus with a strap-on dildo for sexual activity is called pegging.
Reece et al. reported in 2010 that receptive anal intercourse is infrequent among men overall, stating that "an estimated 7% of men 14 to 94 years old reported being a receptive partner during anal intercourse".
The BMJ stated in 1999:
Female to female
With regard to lesbian sexual practices, anal sex includes anal fingering, use of a dildo or other sex toys, or anilingus.
There is less research on anal sexual activity among women who have sex with women compared to couples of other sexual orientations. In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado. When asked what techniques they used in their last ten sexual encounters, lesbians in their 30s were twice as likely as other age groups to engage in anal stimulation (with a finger or dildo). A 2014 study of partnered lesbian women in Canada and the U.S. found that 7% engaged in anal stimulation or penetration at least once a week; about 10% did so monthly and 70% did not at all. Anilingus is also less often practiced among female same-sex couples.
Health risks
General risks
Anal sex can expose its participants to two principal dangers: infections due to the high number of infectious microorganisms not found elsewhere on the body, and physical damage to the anus and rectum due to their fragility. Unprotected penile-anal penetration, colloquially known as barebacking, carries a higher risk of passing on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) because the anal sphincter is a delicate, easily torn tissue that can provide an entry for pathogens. Use of condoms, ample lubrication to reduce the risk of tearing, and safer sex practices in general, reduce the risk of STIs. However, a condom can break or otherwise come off during anal sex, and this is more likely to happen with anal sex than with other sex acts because of the tightness of the anal sphincters during friction.
Unprotected receptive anal sex (with an HIV positive partner) is the sex act most likely to result in HIV transmission.
As with other sexual practices, people without sound knowledge about the sexual risks involved are susceptible to STIs. Because of the view that anal sex is not "real sex" and therefore does not result in virginity loss, or pregnancy, teenagers and other young people may consider vaginal intercourse riskier than anal intercourse and believe that an STI can only result from vaginal intercourse. It may be because of these views that condom use with anal sex is often reported to be low and inconsistent across all groups in various countries.
Although anal sex alone does not lead to pregnancy, pregnancy can still occur with anal sex or other forms of sexual activity if the penis is near the vagina (such as during intercrural sex or other genital-genital rubbing) and its sperm is deposited near the vagina's entrance and travels along the vagina's lubricating fluids; the risk of pregnancy can also occur without the penis being near the vagina because sperm may be transported to the vaginal opening by the vagina coming in contact with fingers or other non-genital body parts that have come in contact with semen.
There are a variety of factors that make male-to-female anal intercourse riskier than vaginal intercourse for women, including the risk of HIV transmission being higher for anal intercourse than for vaginal intercourse. The risk of injury to the woman during anal intercourse is also significantly higher than the risk of injury to her during vaginal intercourse because of the durability of the vaginal tissues compared to the anal tissues. Additionally, if a man moves from anal intercourse immediately to vaginal intercourse without a condom or without changing it, infections can arise in the vagina (or urinary tract) due to bacteria present within the anus; these infections can also result from switching between vaginal sex and anal sex by the use of fingers or sex toys.
Pain during receptive anal sex among gay men (or men who have sex with men) is formally known as anodyspareunia. In one study, 61% of gay or bisexual men said they experienced painful receptive anal sex and that it was the most frequent sexual difficulty they had experienced. By contrast, 24% of gay or bisexual men stated that they always experienced some degree of pain during anal sex, and about 12% of gay men find it too painful to pursue receptive anal sex; it was concluded that the perception of anal sex as painful is as likely to be psychologically or emotionally based as it is to be physically based. Factors predictive of pain during anal sex include inadequate lubrication, feeling tense or anxious, lack of stimulation, as well as lack of social ease with being gay and being closeted. Research has found that psychological factors can in fact be the primary contributors to the experience of pain during anal intercourse and that adequate communication between sexual partners can prevent it, countering the notion that pain is always inevitable during anal sex.
Damage
Anal sex can exacerbate hemorrhoids and therefore result in bleeding; in other cases, the formation of a hemorrhoid is attributed to anal sex. If bleeding occurs as a result of anal sex, it may also be because of a tear in the anal or rectal tissues (an anal fissure) or perforation (a hole) in the colon, the latter of which being a serious medical issue that should be remedied by immediate medical attention. Because of the rectum's lack of elasticity, the anal mucous membrane being thin, and small blood vessels being present directly beneath the mucous membrane, tiny tears and bleeding in the rectum usually result from penetrative anal sex, though the bleeding is usually minor and therefore usually not visible.
By contrast to other anal sexual behaviors, anal fisting poses a more serious danger of damage due to the deliberate stretching of the anal and rectal tissues; anal fisting injuries include anal sphincter lacerations and rectal and sigmoid colon (rectosigmoid) perforation, which might result in death.
Repetitive penetrative anal sex may result in the anal sphincters becoming weakened, which may cause rectal prolapse or affect the ability to hold in feces (a condition known as fecal incontinence). Rectal prolapse is relatively uncommon, however, especially in men, and its causes are not well understood. Kegel exercises have been used to strengthen the anal sphincters and overall pelvic floor, and may help prevent or remedy fecal incontinence.
Cancer
Most cases of anal cancer are related to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV). Anal sex alone does not cause anal cancer; the risk of anal cancer through anal sex is attributed to HPV infection, which is often contracted through unprotected anal sex. Anal cancer is relatively rare, and significantly less common than cancer of the colon or rectum (colorectal cancer); the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2023 there were approximately 9,760 new cases (6,580 in women and 3,180 in men) and approximately 1,870 deaths (860 women and 1,010 men) in the United States, and that, though anal cancer has been on the rise for many years, it is mainly diagnosed in adults, "with an average age being in the early 60s" and it "affects women somewhat more often than men."
Cultural views
General
Different cultures have had different views on anal sex throughout human history, with some cultures more positive about the activity than others. Historically, anal sex has been restricted or condemned, especially with regard to religious beliefs; it has also commonly been used as a form of domination, usually with the active partner (the one who is penetrating) representing masculinity and the passive partner (the one who is being penetrated) representing femininity. A number of cultures have especially recorded the practice of anal sex between males, and anal sex between males has been especially stigmatized or punished. In some societies, if discovered to have engaged in the practice, the individuals involved were put to death, such as by decapitation, burning, or even mutilation.
Anal sex has been more accepted in modern times; it is often considered a natural, pleasurable form of sexual expression. The buttocks and anus have become more eroticized in modern culture, including via pornography. Engaging in anal sex is still, however, punished in some societies. For example, regarding LGBT rights in Iran, Iran's Penal Code states in Article 109 that "both men involved in same-sex penetrative (anal) or non-penetrative sex will be punished" and "Article 110 states that those convicted of engaging in anal sex will be executed and that the manner of execution is at the discretion of the judge".
Ancient and non-Western cultures
From the earliest records, the ancient Sumerians had very relaxed attitudes toward sex and did not regard anal sex as taboo. priestesses were forbidden from producing offspring and frequently engaged in anal sex as a method of birth control. Anal sex is also obliquely alluded to by a description of an omen in which a man "keeps saying to his wife: 'Bring your backside. Other Sumerian texts refer to homosexual anal intercourse. The , a set of priests who worked in the temples of the goddess Inanna, where they performed elegies and lamentations, were especially known for their homosexual proclivities. The Sumerian sign for was a ligature of the signs for 'penis' and 'anus'. One Sumerian proverb reads: "When the wiped off his ass [he said], 'I must not arouse that which belongs to my mistress [i.e., Inanna].'"
The term Greek love has long been used to refer to anal intercourse, and in modern times, "doing it the Greek way" is sometimes used as slang for anal sex. Male-male anal sex was not a universally accepted practice in Ancient Greece; it was the target of jokes in some Athenian comedies. Aristophanes, for instance, mockingly alludes to the practice, claiming, "Most citizens are ('wide-arsed') now." The terms , , and were used by Greek residents to categorize men who chronically practiced passive anal intercourse. Pederastic practices in ancient Greece (sexual activity between men and adolescent boys), at least in Athens and Sparta, were expected to avoid penetrative sex of any kind. Greek artwork of sexual interaction between men and boys usually depicted fondling or intercrural sex, which was not condemned for violating or feminizing boys, while male-male anal intercourse was usually depicted between males of the same age-group. Intercrural sex was not considered penetrative and two males engaging in it was considered a "clean" act. Some sources explicitly state that anal sex between men and boys was criticized as shameful and seen as a form of hubris. Evidence suggests, however, that the younger partner in pederastic relationships (i.e., the ) did engage in receptive anal intercourse so long as no one accused him of being 'feminine'.
In later Roman-era Greek poetry, anal sex became a common literary convention, represented as taking place with "eligible" youths: those who had attained the proper age but had not yet become adults. Seducing those not of proper age (for example, non-adolescent children) into the practice was considered very shameful for the adult, and having such relations with a male who was no longer adolescent was considered more shameful for the young male than for the one mounting him. Greek courtesans, or hetaerae, are said to have frequently practiced male-female anal intercourse as a means of preventing pregnancy.
A male citizen taking the passive (or receptive) role in anal intercourse ( in Latin) was condemned in Rome as an act of ('immodesty' or 'unchastity'); free men, however, could take the active role with a young male slave, known as a or . The latter was allowed because anal intercourse was considered equivalent to vaginal intercourse in this way; men were said to "take it like a woman" ( 'to undergo womanly things') when they were anally penetrated, but when a man performed anal sex on a woman, she was thought of as playing the boy's role. Likewise, women were believed to only be capable of anal sex or other sex acts with women if they possessed an exceptionally large clitoris or a dildo. The passive partner in any of these cases was always considered a woman or a boy because being the one who penetrates was characterized as the only appropriate way for an adult male citizen to engage in sexual activity, and he was therefore considered unmanly if he was the one who was penetrated; slaves could be considered "non-citizen". Although Roman men often availed themselves of their own slaves or others for anal intercourse, Roman comedies and plays presented Greek settings and characters for explicit acts of anal intercourse, and this may be indicative that the Romans thought of anal sex as something specifically "Greek".
In Japan, records (including detailed shunga) show that some males engaged in penetrative anal intercourse with males. Evidence suggestive of widespread male-female anal intercourse in a pre-modern culture can be found in the erotic vases, or stirrup-spout pots, made by the Moche people of Peru; in a survey, of a collection of these pots, it was found that 31 percent of them depicted male-female anal intercourse significantly more than any other sex act. Moche pottery of this type belonged to the world of the dead, which was believed to be a reversal of life. Therefore, the reverse of common practices was often portrayed. The Larco Museum houses an erotic gallery in which this pottery is showcased.
Western cultures
In many Western countries, anal sex has generally been taboo since the Middle Ages, when heretical movements were sometimes attacked by accusations that their members practiced anal sex among themselves.
The term buggery originated in medieval Europe as an insult used to describe the rumored same-sex sexual practices of the heretics from a sect originating in Bulgaria, where its followers were called ; when they spread out of the country, they were called buggres (from the ethnonym Bulgars).
The Renaissance poet Pietro Aretino advocated anal sex in his ('Lust Sonnets').
During the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher questioned the inclusion of "risky sex" in the United Kingdom's AIDS related government advertisements. Thatcher questioned the inclusion of the term "anal sex" in line with the Obscene Publications Act 1959. The term "rectal sex" was agreed upon to be used instead.
Religion
Judaism
The Mishneh Torah, a text considered authoritative by Orthodox Jewish sects, states "since a man's wife is permitted to him, he may act with her in any manner whatsoever. He may have intercourse with her whenever he so desires and kiss any organ of her body he wishes, and he may have intercourse with her naturally or unnaturally [traditionally, unnaturally refers to anal and oral sex], provided that he does not expend semen to no purpose. Nevertheless, it is an attribute of piety that a man should not act in this matter with levity and that he should sanctify himself at the time of intercourse."
Christianity
Christian texts may sometimes euphemistically refer to anal sex as the ('the sin against nature', after Thomas Aquinas) or ('sodomitical lusts', in one of Charlemagne's ordinances), or ('that horrible sin that among Christians is not to be named').
Islam
, or the sin of Lot's people, which has come to be interpreted as referring generally to same-sex sexual activity, is commonly officially prohibited by Islamic sects; there are parts of the Quran which talk about smiting on Sodom and Gomorrah, and this is thought to be a reference to "unnatural" sex, and so there are hadith and Islamic laws which prohibit it. Same-sex male practitioners of anal sex are called luti or lutiyin in plural and are seen as criminals in the same way that a thief is a criminal.
Other animals
As a form of non-reproductive sexual behavior in animals, anal sex has been observed in a few other primates, both in captivity and in the wild.
See also
Anal eroticism
Ass to mouth
Autosodomy
Coprophilia
Creampie (sexual act)
Felching
Gay bowel syndrome
Klismaphilia
Sodomy law
References
Further reading
Brent, Bill Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Men, Cleis Press, 2002.
DeCitore, David Arouse Her Anal Ecstasy (2008)
Houser, Ward Anal Sex, Encyclopedia of Homosexuality Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. pp. 48–50.
Morin, Jack Anal Pleasure & Health: A Guide for Men and Women, Down There Press, 1998.
Sanderson, Terry The Gay Man's Kama Sutra, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.
Tristan Taormino The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, Cleis Press, 1997, 2006.
Underwood, Steven G. Gay Men and Anal Eroticism: Tops, Bottoms, and Versatiles, Harrington Park Press, 2003
External links
Anal eroticism
Sexology
Sexual acts |
2466 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarau | Aarau | Aarau (, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau. The town is also the capital of the district of Aarau. It is German-speaking and predominantly Protestant. Aarau is situated on the Swiss plateau, in the valley of the Aare, on the river's right bank, and at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains, and is west of Zürich, south of Basel and northeast of Bern. The municipality borders directly on the canton of Solothurn to the west. It is the largest town in Aargau. At the beginning of 2010 Rohr became a district of Aarau.
The official language of Aarau is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
Geography and geology
The old city of Aarau is situated on a rocky outcrop at a narrowing of the Aare river valley, at the southern foot of the Jura mountains. Newer districts of the city lie to the south and east of the outcrop, as well as higher up the mountain, and in the valley on both sides of the Aare. The neighboring municipalities are Küttigen to the north and Buchs to the east, Suhr to the south-east, Unterentfelden to the south, and Eppenberg-Wöschnau and Erlinsbach to the west. Aarau and the nearby neighboring municipalities have grown together and now form an interconnected agglomeration. The only exception is Unterentfelden whose settlements are divided from Aarau by the extensive forests of Gönhard and Zelgli. Approximately nine-tenths of the city is south of the Aare, and one tenth is to the north. It has an area, , of . Of this area, 6.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 55.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (4.5%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The lowest elevation, , is found at the banks of the Aar, and the highest elevation, at , is the Hungerberg on the border with Küttigen.
Climate
History
Prehistory
A few artifacts from the Neolithic period were found in Aarau. Near the location of the present train station, the ruins of a settlement from the Bronze Age (about 1000 BC) have been excavated. The Roman road between Salodurum (Solothurn) and Vindonissa passed through the area, along the route now covered by the Bahnhofstrasse. In 1976 divers in the Aare found part of a seven-meter wide wooden bridge from the late Roman times.
Middle Ages
Aarau was founded around AD 1240 by the counts of Kyburg. Aarau is first mentioned in 1248 as Arowe. Around 1250 it was mentioned as Arowa. However the first mention of a city sized settlement was in 1256. The town was ruled from the "Rore" tower, which has been incorporated into the modern city hall.
In 1273 the counts of Kyburg died out. Agnes of Kyburg, who had no male relations, sold the family's lands to King Rudolf I von Habsburg. He granted Aarau its city rights in 1283. In the 14th century the city was expanded in two stages, and a second defensive wall was constructed. A deep ditch separated the city from its "suburb;" its location is today marked by a wide street named "Graben" (meaning Ditch).
In 1415 Bern invaded lower Aargau with the help of Solothurn. Aarau capitulated after a short resistance, and was forced to swear allegiance to the new rulers. In the 16th century, the rights of the lower classes were abolished. In March 1528 the citizens of Aarau allowed the introduction of Protestantism at the urging of the Bernese. A growth in population during the 16th Century led to taller buildings and denser construction methods. Early forms of industry developed at this time; however, unlike in other cities, no guilds were formed in Aarau.
On 11 August 1712, the Peace of Aarau was signed into effect. This granted each canton the right to choose their own religion thereby ending Catholicism's control. Starting in the early 18th century, the textile industry was established in Aarau. German immigration contributed to the city's favorable conditions, in that they introduced the cotton and silk factories. These highly educated immigrants were also responsible for educational reform and the enlightened, revolutionary spirit that developed in Aarau.
1798: Capital of the Helvetic Republic
On 27 December 1797, the last Tagsatzung of the Old Swiss Confederacy was held in Aarau. Two weeks later a French envoy continued to foment the revolutionary opinions of the city. The contrast between a high level of education and a low level of political rights was particularly great in Aarau, and the city refused to send troops to defend the Bernese border. By Mid-March 1798 Aarau was occupied by French troops.
On 22 March 1798 Aarau was declared the capital of the Helvetic Republic. It is therefore the first capital of a unified Switzerland. Parliament met in the city hall. On 20 September, the capital was moved to Lucerne.
Aarau as canton capital
In 1803, Napoleon ordered the fusion of the cantons of Aargau, Baden and Fricktal. Aarau was declared the capital of the new, enlarged canton of Aargau. In 1820 the city wall was torn down, with the exception of the individual towers and gates, and the defensive ditches were filled in.
The wooden bridge, dating from the Middle Ages, across the Aare was destroyed by floods three times in thirty years, and was replaced with a steel suspension bridge in 1851. This was replaced by a concrete bridge in 1952. The city was linked up to the Swiss Central Railway in 1856.
The textile industry in Aarau broke down in about 1850 because of the protectionist tariff policies of neighboring states. Other industries had developed by that time to replace it, including the production of mathematical instruments, shoes and cement. Beginning in 1900, numerous electrical enterprises developed. By the 1960s, more citizens worked in service industries or for the canton-level government than in manufacturing. During the 1980s many of the industries left Aarau completely.
In 1802 the Canton School was established; it was the first non-parochial high school in Switzerland. It developed a good reputation, and was home to Nobel Prize winners Albert Einstein, Paul Karrer, and Werner Arber, as well as several Swiss politicians and authors.
The purchase of a manuscript collection in 1803 laid the foundation for what would become the Cantonal Library, which contains a Bible annotated by Huldrych Zwingli, along with the manuscripts and incunabula. More newspapers developed in the city, maintaining the revolutionary atmosphere of Aarau. Beginning in 1820, Aarau has been a refuge for political refugees.
The urban educational and cultural opportunities of Aarau were extended through numerous new institutions. A Theatre and Concert Hall was constructed in 1883, which was renovated and expanded in 1995–96. The Aargau Nature Museum opened in 1922. A former cloth warehouse was converted into a small theatre in 1974, and the alternative culture center KIFF (Culture in the fodder factory) was established in a former animal fodder factory.
Origin of the name
The earliest use of the place name was in 1248 (in the form Arowe), and probably referred to the settlement in the area before the founding of the city. It comes, along with the name of the River Aare (which was called Arula, Arola, and Araris in early times), from the German word Au, meaning floodplain.
Old town
The historic old town forms an irregular square, consisting of four parts (called Stöcke). To the south lies the Laurenzenvorstadt, that is, the part of the town formerly outside the city wall. One characteristic of the city is its painted gables, for which Aarau is sometimes called the "City of beautiful Gables". The old town, Laurenzenvorstadt, government building, cantonal library, state archive and art museum are all listed as heritage sites of national significance.
The buildings in the old city originate, on the whole, from building projects during the 16th century, when nearly all the Middle Age period buildings were replaced or expanded. The architectural development of the city ended in the 18th century, when the city began to expand beyond its (still existing) wall. Most of the buildings in the "suburb" date from this time.
The "Schlössli" (small Castle), Rore Tower and the upper gate tower have remained nearly unchanged since the 13th century. The "Schlössli" is the oldest building in the city. It was already founded at the time of the establishment of the city shortly after 1200; the exact date is not known. City hall was built around Rore Tower in 1515.
The upper gate tower stands beside the southern gate in the city wall, along the road to Lucerne and Bern. The jail has been housed in it since the Middle Ages. A Carillon was installed in the tower in the middle of the 20th century, the bells for which were provided by the centuries-old bell manufacturers of Aarau.
The town church was built between 1471 and 1478. During the Reformation, in 1528, its twelve altars and accompanying pictures were destroyed. The "Justice fountain" (Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen) was built in 1634, and is made of French limestone; it includes a statue of Lady Justice made of sandstone, hence the name. It was originally in the street in front of city hall, but was moved to its present location in front of the town church in 1905 due to increased traffic.
Economy
, Aarau had an unemployment rate of 2.35%. , there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 4,181 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 164 businesses in this sector. 20,186 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 1,461 businesses in this sector. This is a total of over 24,000 jobs, since Aarau's population is about 16,000 it draws workers from many surrounding communities. there were 8,050 total workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 4,308 or about 53.5% of the residents worked outside Aarau while 17,419 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 21,161 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.
The largest employer in Aarau is the cantonal government, the offices of which are distributed across the entire city at numerous locations. One of the two head offices of the Aargauer Zeitung, Switzerland's fifth largest newspaper, is located in Aarau, as are the Tele M1 television channel studios, and several radio stations.
Kern & Co., founded in 1819, was an internationally known geodetic instrument manufacturer based in Aarau. However, it was taken over by Wild Leitz in 1988, and was closed in 1991.
The small scale of Aarau causes it to continually expand the borders of its growth. The urban center lies in the middle of the "Golden Triangle" between Zürich, Bern, and Basel, and Aarau is having increasing difficulty in maintaining the independence of its economic base from the neighboring large cities. The idea of merging Aarau with its neighboring suburbs has been recently discussed in the hope of arresting the slowly progressing losses.
Manufacture include bells, mathematical instruments, electrical goods, cotton textiles, cutlery, chemicals, shoes, and other products. Aarau is famous for the quality of their instruments, cutlery and their bells.
Markets and fairs
Every Saturday morning there is a vegetable market in the Graben at the edge of the Old City. It is supplied with regional products. In the last week of September the MAG (Market of Aarauer Tradesmen) takes place there, with regional companies selling their products. The "Rüeblimärt" is held in the same place on the first Wednesday in November, which is a Carrot fair. The Aarau fair is held at the ice skating rink during the Spring.
Transport
Aarau railway station is a terminus of the S-Bahn Zürich on the line S11.
The town is also served with public transport provided by Busbetrieb Aarau AG.
Routes
Population
The population of Aarau grew continuously from 1800 until about 1960, when the city reached a peak population of 17,045, more than five times its population in 1800. However, since 1960 the population has fallen by 8%. There are three reasons for this population loss: firstly, since the completion of Telli (a large apartment complex), the city has not had any more considerable land developments. Secondly, the number of people per household has fallen; thus, the existing dwellings do not hold as many people. Thirdly, population growth was absorbed by neighboring municipalities in the regional urban area, and numerous citizens of Aarau moved into the countryside. This trend might have stopped since the turn of the 21st century. Existing industrial developments are being used for new purposes instead of standing empty.
Aarau has a population (as of ) of . , 19.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 1%. Most of the population () speaks German (84.5%), with Italian being second most common ( 3.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.9%).
The age distribution, , in Aarau is; 1,296 children or 8.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,334 teenagers or 8.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 2,520 people or 15.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 2,518 people or 15.8% are between 30 and 39, 2,320 people or 14.6% are between 40 and 49, and 1,987 people or 12.5% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 1,588 people or 10.0% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 1,219 people or 7.7% are between 70 and 79, there are 942 people or 5.9% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 180 people or 1.1% who are 90 and older.
, there were 1,365 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 3,845 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 2,119 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 1.99 individuals. there were 1,594 single family homes (or 18.4% of the total) out of a total of 8,661 homes and apartments.
In Aarau about 74.2% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ). Of the school age population (), there are 861 students attending primary school, there are 280 students attending secondary school, there are 455 students attending tertiary or university level schooling, there are 35 students who are seeking a job after school in the municipality.
Sport
The football club FC Aarau play in the Stadion Brügglifeld. From 1981 until 2010 they played in the top tier of the Swiss football league system when they were relegated to the Swiss Challenge League. In the 2013/2014 they climbed back to the highest tier only to be relegated again. In the 2016/17 season they will play in the Swiss Challenge League. They won the Swiss Cup in 1985 and were three times Swiss football champions, in 1912, in 1914 and in 1993.
The Argovia Stars play in the MySports League, the third highest league of Swiss ice hockey. They play their home games in the 3,000-seat KeBa Aarau Arena.
BC Alte Kanti Aarau plays in the Swiss Women's Basketball Championship, the country's top division.
Sites
Heritage sites of national significance
Aarau is home to a number of sites that are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The list includes three churches; the Christian Catholic parish house, the Roman Catholic parish house, and the Reformed City Church. There are five government buildings on the list; the Cantonal Library, which contains many pieces important to the nation's history, and Art Gallery, the old Cantonal School, the Legislature, the Cantonal Administration building, and the archives. Three gardens or parks are on the list; Garten Schmidlin, Naturama Aargau and the Schlossgarten. The remaining four buildings on the list are; the former Rickenbach Factory, the Crematorium, the Haus zum Erker at Rathausgasse 10 and the Restaurant Zunftstube at Pelzgasse.
Tourist sites
The Bally Shoe company has a unique shoe museum in the city. There is also the Trade Museum which contain stained glass windows from Muri Convent and paintings.
Annual events
Each May, Aarau plays host to the annual Jazzaar Festival attracting the world's top jazz musicians.
Religion
From the , 4,473 or 28.9% are Roman Catholic, while 6,738 or 43.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there are 51 individuals (or about 0.33% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic i.e. Old Catholic faith.
Government
Legislative
In place of a town meeting, a town assembly (Einwohnerrat) of 50 members is elected by the citizens, and follows the policy of proportional representation. It is responsible for approving tax levels, preparing the annual account, and the business report. In addition, it can issue regulations. The term of office is four years. In the last two elections the parties had the following representation:
At the district level, some elements of the government remain a direct democracy. There are optional and obligatory referendums, and the population retains the right to establish an initiative.
Executive
The executive authority is the town council (Stadtrat). The term of office is four years, and its members are elected by a plurality voting system. It leads and represents the municipality. It carries out the resolutions of the assembly, and those requested by the canton and national level governments.
The seven members (and their party) are:
Hanspeter Hilfiker (FDP) (City President)
Werner Schib (Die Mitte) (City Vice President)
Angelica Cavegn Leitner (Pro Aarau)
Franziska Graf (SP)
Daniel Siegenthaler (SP)
Hanspeter Thür (Grüne)
Suzanne Marclay-Merz (FDP)
National elections
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 27.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.1%), the FDP (17.5%) and the Green Party (11.8%).
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent an Eagle displayed Sable beaked langued and membered Gules and a Chief of the last.
Notable people
Born in Aarau
Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler (1770–1843), first director of the United States Coast Survey
Hans Herzog (1819–1894), Swiss army General.
Carl Feer-Herzog (1820–1880), politician, President of the Swiss National Council 1874
Friedrich Mühlberg (1840-1915), a Swiss geologist
Hans Renold (1852-1943), a Swiss/British engineer, inventor and industrialist in Britain
Friedrich Zschokke (1860–1936), zoologist and parasitologist, grandson of Heinrich Zschokke
Emil Hassler (1864–1937), physician, ethnographer, naturalist and botanist
Maximilian Bircher-Benner (1867–1939), physician, pioneer nutritionist popularised muesli
Frederick Sutermeister (1873–1934), a Swiss theologian and pastor
Martha Burkhardt (1874–1956), painter and photographer
Otto Hunziker (1879–1940), politician and author
Eugen Bircher (1882–1956), politician
Edmund Heuberger (1883–1962), art director, screenwriter and film director
Karl Ballmer (1891–1958) painter, anthroposophical philosopher and writer
Felix Hoffmann (1911-1975), graphic designer, illustrator and stained glass artist
Erika Burkart (1922–2010), writer and poet
Fritz Vogelsang (born 1932), decathlete, competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Hansruedi Jost (1934–2016), hammer thrower, competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Klaus Merz (born 1945), writer
Martin Schlumpf (born 1947), musician, composer, conductor, improviser and academic teacher
(born 1947), author
Charlotte Walter (born 1951), figure skater, competed in the 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics
Jürg Frey (born 1953), composer and clarinettist
Jörg Müller (born 1961), retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer, competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics
Christian Reich (born 1967), bobsledder, competed in four Winter Olympics, winning silver
Andreas Hilfiker (born 1969), former international footballer, 376 club caps
Daniel Wermelinger (born 1971), football referee, president of the Swiss Referees Union
Ivan Benito (born 1976), retired professional football goalkeeper, 327 club caps
Marisa Brunner (born 1982), retired football goalkeeper, 75 caps for Switzerland women's national football team
Stefan Eichenberger (born 1984), film director and film producer
Ricardo Feller (born 2000), racing driver and ADAC GT Masters champion
Lived in Aarau
(1753–1807), politician
(1754–1786), author and actor
(1768–1841), politician, physician
Heinrich Zschokke (1771–1848) German, later Swiss, author and reformer
Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866), physician, politician, philosopher
Johann Rudolph Rengger (1795–1832), naturalist and doctor
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), scientist, professor, physicist, and technical assistant at the Swiss Patent Office
(1899–1982), writer
Bruno Hunziker (1930–2000), a Swiss attorney and politician
Sylvia Flückiger-Bäni (born 1952), politician
David Hönigsberg (1959–2005), a South African classical composer, conductor and musicologist
Nicolas Müller (born 1982), a Swiss snowboarder
Nivin Pauly (born 1984), an Indian actor
Alexander Estis (born 1986), a Swiss author, translator and journalist
International relations
Twin towns – sister cities
Aarau is twinned with:
See also
Lenzburg (boasts a historical museum)
History of the Canton of Aargau
Footnotes
References
External links
Aarau.ch
Sister projects
Cities in Switzerland
Cantonal capitals of Switzerland
Municipalities of Aargau
Aargau
Cultural property of national significance in Aargau
Populated places on the Aare
Former national capitals |
2467 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aargau | Aargau | Aargau ( , ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau.
Aargau is one of the most northerly cantons of Switzerland. It is situated by the lower course of the Aare River, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau (meaning "Aare province"). It is one of the most densely populated regions of Switzerland.
History
Early history
The area of Aargau and the surrounding areas were controlled by the Helvetians, a tribe of Celts, as far back as 200 BC. It was eventually occupied by the Romans and then by the 6th century, the Franks. The Romans built a major settlement called Vindonissa, near the present location of Brugg.
Medieval Aargau
The reconstructed Old High German name of Aargau is Argowe, first unambiguously attested (in the spelling Argue) in 795. The term described a territory only loosely equivalent to that of the modern canton, including the region between Aare and Reuss rivers, including Pilatus and Napf, i.e. including parts of the modern cantons of Bern (Bernese Aargau, Emmental, parts of the Bernese Oberland), Solothurn, Basel-Landschaft, Lucerne, Obwalden and Nidwalden, but not the parts of the modern canton east of the Reuss (Baden District), which were part of Zürichgau.
Within the Frankish Empire (8th to 10th centuries), the area was a disputed border region between the duchies of Alamannia and Burgundy. A line of the von Wetterau (Conradines) intermittently held the countship of Aargau from 750 until about 1030, when they lost it (having in the meantime taken the name von Tegerfelden). This division became the ill-defined (and sparsely settled) outer border of the early Holy Roman Empire at its formation in the second half of the 10th century. Most of the region came under the control of the ducal house of Zähringen and the comital houses of Habsburg and Kyburg by about 1200.
In the second half of the 13th century, the territory became divided between the territories claimed by the imperial cities of Bern, Lucerne and Solothurn and the Swiss canton of Unterwalden. The remaining portion, largely corresponding to the modern canton of Aargau, remained under the control of the Habsburgs until the "conquest of Aargau" by the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1415. Habsburg Castle itself, the original seat of the House of Habsburg, was taken by Bern in April 1415. The Habsburgs had founded a number of monasteries (with some structures enduring, e.g., in Wettingen and Muri), the closing of which by the government in 1841 was a contributing factor to the outbreak of the Swiss civil war – the "Sonderbund War" – in 1847.
Under the Swiss Confederation
When Frederick IV of Habsburg sided with Antipope John XXIII at the Council of Constance, Emperor Sigismund placed him under the Imperial ban. In July 1414, the Pope visited Bern and received assurances from them, that they would move against the Habsburgs. A few months later the Swiss Confederation denounced the Treaty of 1412. Shortly thereafter in 1415, Bern and the rest of the Swiss Confederation used the ban as a pretext to invade the Aargau. The Confederation was able to quickly conquer the towns of Aarau, Lenzburg, Brugg and Zofingen along with most of the Habsburg castles. Bern kept the southwest portion (Zofingen, Aarburg, Aarau, Lenzburg, and Brugg), northward to the confluence of the Aare and Reuss. The important city of Baden was taken by a united Swiss army and governed by all 8 members of the Confederation. Some districts, named the Freie Ämter (free bailiwicks) – Mellingen, Muri, Villmergen, and Bremgarten, with the countship of Baden – were governed as "subject lands" by all or some of the Confederates. Shortly after the conquest of the Aargau by the Swiss, Frederick humbled himself to the Pope. The Pope reconciled with him and ordered all of the taken lands to be returned. The Swiss refused and years later after no serious attempts at re-acquisition, the Duke officially relinquished rights to the Swiss.
Unteraargau or Berner Aargau
Bern's portion of the Aargau came to be known as the Unteraargau, though can also be called the Berner or Bernese Aargau. In 1514 Bern expanded north into the Jura and so came into possession of several strategically important mountain passes into the Austrian Fricktal. This land was added to the Unteraargau and was directly ruled from Bern. It was divided into seven rural bailiwicks and four administrative cities, Aarau, Zofingen, Lenzburg and Brugg. While the Habsburgs were driven out, many of their minor nobles were allowed to keep their lands and offices, though over time they lost power to the Bernese government. The bailiwick administration was based on a very small staff of officials, mostly made up of Bernese citizens, but with a few locals.
When Bern converted during the Protestant Reformation in 1528, the Unteraargau also converted. At the beginning of the 16th century a number of anabaptists migrated into the upper Wynen and Rueder valleys from Zürich. Despite pressure from the Bernese authorities in the 16th and 17th centuries anabaptism never entirely disappeared from the Unteraargau.
Bern used the Aargau bailiwicks mostly as a source of grain for the rest of the city-state. The administrative cities remained economically only of regional importance. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries Bern encouraged industrial development in Unteraargau and by the late 18th century it was the most industrialized region in the city-state. The high industrialization led to high population growth in the 18th century, for example between 1764 and 1798, the population grew by 35%, far more than in other parts of the canton. In 1870 the proportion of farmers in Aarau, Lenzburg, Kulm, and Zofingen districts was 34–40%, while in the other districts it was 46–57%.
Freie Ämter
The rest of the Freie Ämter were collectively administered as subject territories by the rest of the Confederation. Muri Amt was assigned to Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Glarus, while the Ämter of Meienberg, Richensee and Villmergen were first given to Lucerne alone. The final boundary was set in 1425 by an arbitration tribunal and Lucerne had to give the three Ämter to be collectively ruled. The four Ämter were then consolidated under a single Confederation bailiff into what was known in the 15th century as the Waggental Bailiwick (). In the 16th century, it came to be known as the Vogtei der Freien Ämter. While the Freien Ämter often had independent lower courts, they were forced to accept the Confederation's sovereignty. Finally, in 1532, the canton of Uri became part of the collective administration of the Freien Ämter.
At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the majority of the Ämter converted to the new faith. In 1529, a wave of iconoclasm swept through the area and wiped away much of the old religion. After the defeat of Zürich in the second Battle of Kappel in 1531, the victorious five Catholic cantons marched their troops into the Freie Ämter and reconverted them to Catholicism.
In the First War of Villmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second War of Villmergen), in 1712, the Freie Ämter became the staging ground for the warring Reformed and Catholic armies. While the peace after the 1656 war did not change the status quo, the fourth Peace of Aarau in 1712 brought about a reorganization of power relations. The victory gave Zürich the opportunity to force the Catholic cantons out of the government in the county of Baden and the adjacent area of the Freie Ämter. The Freie Ämter were then divided in two by a line drawn from the gallows in Fahrwangen to the Oberlunkhofen church steeple. The northern part, the so-called Unteren Freie Ämter (lower Freie Ämter), which included the districts of Boswil (in part) and Hermetschwil and the Niederamt, were ruled by Zürich, Bern and Glarus. The southern part, the Oberen Freie Ämter (upper Freie Ämter), were ruled by the previous seven cantons but Bern was added to make an eighth.
During the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803), the county of Baden, the Freie Ämter and the area known as the Kelleramt were combined into the canton of Baden.
County of Baden
The County of Baden was a shared condominium of the entire Old Swiss Confederacy. After the Confederacy conquest in 1415, they retained much of the Habsburg legal structure, which caused a number of problems. The local nobility had the right to hold the low court in only about one fifth of the territory. There were over 30 different nobles who had the right to hold courts scattered around the surrounding lands. All these overlapping jurisdictions caused numerous conflicts, but gradually the Confederation was able to acquire these rights in the county. The cities of Baden, Bremgarten and Mellingen became the administrative centers and held the high courts. Together with the courts, the three administrative centers had considerable local autonomy, but were ruled by a governor who was appointed by the Acht Orte every two years. After the Protestant victory at the Second Battle of Villmergen, the administration of the County changed slightly. Instead of the Acht Orte appointing a bailiff together, Zürich and Bern each appointed the governor for 7 out of 16 years while Glarus appointed him for the remaining two years.
The chaotic legal structure and fragmented land ownership combined with a tradition of dividing the land among all the heirs in an inheritance prevented any large scale reforms. The governor tried in the 18th century to reform and standardize laws and ownership across the county, but with limited success. With an ever-changing administration, the County lacked a coherent long-term economic policy or support for reforms. By the end of the 18th century there were no factories or mills and only a few small cottage industries along the border with Zürich. Road construction first became a priority after 1750, when Zürich and Bern began appointing a governor for seven years.
During the Protestant Reformation, some of the municipalities converted to the new faith. However, starting in 1531, some of the old parishes were converted back to the old faith. The governors were appointed from both Catholic and Protestant cantons and since they changed every two years, neither faith gained a majority in the county.
After the French invasion, on 19 March 1798, the governments of Zürich and Bern agreed to the creation of the short lived canton of Baden in the Helvetic Republic. With the Act of Mediation in 1803, the canton of Baden was dissolved. Portions of the lands of the former County of Baden now became the District of Baden in the newly created canton of Aargau. After World War II, this formerly agrarian region saw striking growth and became the district with the largest and densest population in the canton (110,000 in 1990, 715 persons per km2).
Forming the canton of Aargau
The contemporary canton of Aargau was formed in 1803, a canton of the Swiss Confederation as a result of the Act of Mediation. It was a combination of three short-lived cantons of the Helvetic Republic: Aargau (1798–1803), Baden (1798–1803) and Fricktal (1802–1803). Its creation is therefore rooted in the Napoleonic era. In the year 2003, the canton of Aargau celebrated its 200th anniversary.
French forces occupied the Aargau from 10 March to 18 April 1798; thereafter the Bernese portion became the canton of Aargau and the remainder formed the canton of Baden. Aborted plans to merge the two halves came in 1801 and 1802, and they were eventually united under the name Aargau, which was then admitted as a full member of the reconstituted Confederation following the Act of Mediation. Some parts of the canton of Baden at this point were transferred to other cantons: the Amt of Hitzkirch to Lucerne, whilst Hüttikon, Oetwil an der Limmat, Dietikon and Schlieren went to Zürich. In return, Lucerne's Amt of Merenschwand was transferred to Aargau (district of Muri).
The Fricktal, ceded in 1802 by Austria via Napoleonic France to the Helvetic Republic, was briefly a separate canton of the Helvetic Republic (the canton of Fricktal) under a Statthalter ('Lieutenant'), but on 19 March 1803 (following the Act of Mediation) was incorporated into the canton of Aargau.
The former cantons of Baden and Fricktal can still be identified with the contemporary districts – the canton of Baden is covered by the districts of Zurzach, Baden, Bremgarten, and Muri (albeit with the gains and losses of 1803 detailed above); the canton of Fricktal by the districts of Rheinfelden and Laufenburg (except for Hottwil which was transferred to that district in 2010).
Chief magistracy
The chief magistracy of Aargau changed its style repeatedly:
first two consecutive Regierungsstatthalter :
April 1798 – November 1801 Jakob Emmanuel Feer (1754–1833)
1802–1803 Johann Heinrich Rothpletz (1766–1833)
Presidents of the Government Commission
10 March 1803 – 26 April 1803 Johann Rudolf Dolder (1753–1807)
26 April 1803 – 1815 a 'Small Council' (president rotating monthly)
annual Amtsbürgermeister 1815–1831
annual Landammänner since 1815
Jewish history in Aargau
In the 17th century, Aargau was the only federal condominium where Jews were tolerated. In 1774, they were restricted to just two towns, Endingen and Lengnau. While the rural upper class pressed incessantly for the expulsion the Jews, the financial interests of the authorities prevented it. They imposed special taxes on peddling and cattle trading, the primary Jewish professions. The Protestant occupiers also enjoyed the discomfort of the local Catholics by the presence of the Jewish community. The Jews were directly subordinate to the governor; from 1696, they were compelled to renew a letter of protection from him every 16 years.
During this period, Jews and Christians were not allowed to live under the same roof, neither were Jews allowed to own land or houses. They were taxed at a much higher rate than others and, in 1712, the Lengnau community was "pillaged." In 1760, they were further restricted regarding marriages and procreation. An exorbitant tax was levied on marriage licenses; oftentimes, they were outright refused. This remained the case until the 19th century. In 1799, the Helvetic republic abolished all special tolls, and, in 1802, removed the poll tax. On 5 May 1809, they were declared citizens and given broad rights regarding trade and farming. They were still restricted to Endingen and Lengnau until 7 May 1846, when their right to move and reside freely within the canton of Aargau was granted. On 24 September 1856, the Swiss Federal Council granted them full political rights within Aargau, as well as broad business rights; however the majority Christian population did not fully abide by these new liberal laws. The time of 1860 saw the canton government voting to grant suffrage in all local rights and to give their communities autonomy. Before the law was enacted, it was however repealed due to vocal opposition led by the Ultramonte Party. Finally, the federal authorities in July 1863, granted all Jews full rights of citizens. However, they did not receive all of the rights in Endingen and Lengnau until a resolution of the Grand Council, on 15 May 1877, granted citizens' rights to the members of the Jewish communities of those places, giving them charters under the names of New Endingen and New Lengnau. The Swiss Jewish Kulturverein was instrumental in this fight from its founding in 1862 until it was dissolved 20 years later. During this period of diminished rights, they were not even allowed to bury their dead in Swiss soil and had to bury their dead on an island called Judenäule (Jews' Isle) on the Rhine near Waldshut. Beginning in 1603, the deceased Jews of the Surbtal communities were buried on the river island which was leased by the Jewish community. As the island was repeatedly flooded and devastated, in 1750 the Surbtal Jews asked the Tagsatzung to establish the Endingen cemetery in the vicinity of their communities.
Geography
The capital of the canton is Aarau, which is located on its western border, on the Aare. The canton borders Germany (Baden-Württemberg) to the north, the Rhine forming the border. To the west lie the Swiss cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Solothurn and Bern; the canton of Lucerne lies south, and Zürich and Zug to the east. Its total area is . Besides the Rhine, it contains two large rivers, the Aare and the Reuss.
The canton of Aargau is one of the least mountainous Swiss cantons, forming part of a great table-land, to the north of the Alps and the east of the Jura, above which rise low hills. The surface of the country is diversified with undulating tracts and well-wooded hills, alternating with fertile valleys watered mainly by the Aare and its tributaries. The valleys alternate with hills, many of which are wooded. Slightly over one-third of the canton is wooded (), while nearly half is used from farming (). or about 2.4% of the canton is considered unproductive, mostly lakes (notably Lake Hallwil) and streams. With a population density of 450/km2 (1,200/sq mi), the canton has a relatively high amount of land used for human development, with or about 15% of the canton developed for housing or transportation.
It contains the hot sulphur springs of Baden and Schinznach-Bad, while at Rheinfelden there are very extensive saline springs. Just below Brugg the Reuss and the Limmat join the Aar, while around Brugg are the ruined castle of Habsburg, the old convent of Königsfelden (with fine painted medieval glass) and the remains of the Roman settlement of Vindonissa (Windisch).
Fahr Monastery forms a small exclave of the canton, otherwise surrounded by the canton of Zürich, and since 2008 is part of the Aargau municipality of Würenlos.
Political subdivisions
Districts
Aargau is divided into 11 districts:
Aarau with capital Aarau
Baden with capital Baden
Bremgarten with capital Bremgarten
Brugg with capital Brugg
Kulm with capital Unterkulm
Laufenburg with capital Laufenburg
Lenzburg with capital Lenzburg
Muri with capital Muri
Rheinfelden with capital Rheinfelden
Zofingen with capital Zofingen
Zurzach with capital Zurzach
The most recent change in district boundaries occurred in 2010 when Hottwil transferred from Brugg to Laufenburg, following its merger with other municipalities, all of which were in Laufenburg.
Municipalities
There are (as of 2014) 213 municipalities in the canton of Aargau. As with most Swiss cantons there has been a trend since the early 2000s for municipalities to merge, though mergers in Aargau have so far been less radical than in other cantons.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the coat of arms is Per pale, dexter: sable, a fess wavy argent, charged with two cotises wavy azure; sinister: sky blue, three mullets of five argent.
The flag and arms of the canton of Aargau date to 1803 and are an original design by Samuel Ringier-Seelmatter; the current official design, specifying the stars as five-pointed, dates to 1930.
Demographics
Aargau has a population () of . , 21.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 11%. Migration accounted for 8.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (477,093 or 87.1%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (17,847 or 3.3%) and Serbo-Croatian is the third (10,645 or 1.9%). There are 4,151 people who speak French and 618 people who speak Romansh.
Of the population in the canton, 146,421 or about 26.7% were born in Aargau and lived there in 2000. There were 140,768 or 25.7% who were born in the same canton, while 136,865 or 25.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 107,396 or 19.6% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.4%.
, there were 227,656 people who were single and never married in the canton. There were 264,939 married individuals, 27,603 widows or widowers and 27,295 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 224,128 private households in the canton, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 69,062 households that consist of only one person and 16,254 households with five or more people. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the canton, , was 1.54%.
The majority of the population is centered on one of three areas: the Aare Valley, the side branches of the Aare Valley, or along the Rhine.
Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the SVP which received 34.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP/PS (18.0%), the FDP (11.5%) and the CVP (10.6%).
The SVP received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (36.2% in 2007 vs 34.7% in 2011). The SPS retained about the same popularity (17.9% in 2007), the FDP retained about the same popularity (13.6% in 2007) and the CVP retained about the same popularity (13.5% in 2007).
Federal election results
FDP before 2009, FDP.The Liberals after 2009
"*" indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton.
Part of the GPS
CVP and BDP merged to form The Centre party.
Cantonal politics
The Grand Council of the canton of Aargau is called Grosser Rat. It is the legislature of the canton, has 140 seats, with members elected every four years.
Religion
From the , 219,800 or 40.1% were Roman Catholic, while 189,606 or 34.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 11,523 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.10% of the population), there were 3,418 individuals (or about 0.62% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 29,580 individuals (or about 5.40% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 342 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 30,072 (or about 5.49% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 1,463 individuals who were Buddhist, 2,089 individuals who were Hindu and 495 individuals who belonged to another church. 57,573 (or about 10.52% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 15,875 individuals (or about 2.90% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Aargau about 212,069 or (38.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 70,896 or (12.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 70,896 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.6% were Swiss men, 20.9% were Swiss women, 10.4% were non-Swiss men and 5.2% were non-Swiss women.
Economy
, Aargau had an unemployment rate of 3.6%. , there were 11,436 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3,927 businesses involved in this sector. 95,844 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 6,055 businesses in this sector. 177,782 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 21,530 businesses in this sector.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 238,225. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 7,167, of which 6,731 were in agriculture, 418 were in forestry or lumber production and 18 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 90,274 of which 64,089 or (71.0%) were in manufacturing, 366 or (0.4%) were in mining and 21,705 (24.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 140,784. In the tertiary sector; 38,793 or 27.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13,624 or 9.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8,150 or 5.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5,164 or 3.7% were in the information industry, 5,946 or 4.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 14,831 or 10.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 10,951 or 7.8% were in education and 21,952 or 15.6% were in health care.
Of the working population, 19.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.3% used a private car. Public transportation – bus and train – is provided by Busbetrieb Aarau AG.
The farmland of the canton of Aargau is some of the most fertile in Switzerland. Dairy farming, cereal and fruit farming are among the canton's main economic activities. The canton is also industrially developed, particularly in the fields of electrical engineering, precision instruments, iron, steel, cement and textiles.
Three of Switzerland's five nuclear power plants are in the canton of Aargau (Beznau I + II and Leibstadt). Additionally, the many rivers supply enough water for numerous hydroelectric power plants throughout the canton. The canton of Aargau is often called "the energy canton".
A significant number of people commute into the financial center of the city of Zürich, which is just across the cantonal border. As such the per capita cantonal income (in 2005) is 49,209 CHF.
Tourism is significant, particularly for the hot springs at Baden and Schinznach-Bad, the ancient castles, the landscape, and the many old museums in the canton. Hillwalking is another tourist attraction but is of only limited significance.
See also
Aargauer Zeitung
FC Aarau
Grand Prix of Aargau Canton, bicycle race
Notes
Footnotes
References
External links
Official statistics (archived 15 November 2013)
Cantons of Switzerland
Cantons of the Helvetic Republic
Articles which contain graphical timelines
States and territories established in 1803
1803 establishments in Switzerland |
2470 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aba | Aba | Aba may refer to:
Animals
Aba roundleaf bat
Gymnarchus (or aba), an electric fish
People
Clans
Aba (family), in Hungary
Aba people, in Russia
In arts and entertainment
Aba Bayefsky, Canadian artist and teacher
Aba Cercato, Italian television presenter
Vilmos Aba-Novák, a Hungarian painter
Rulers
Aba, ruler of Olba
Samuel Aba, 11th-century Hungarian king
Other people
Aba I, patriarch of the Church of the East from 540 to 552
Aba II, patriarch of the Church of the East from 741 to 751
Aba Andam, Ghanaian physicist
Johnny Aba (born 1956), a Papua New Guinean boxer
Places
Africa
Aba, Nigeria
Aba River (Nigeria)
Aba Island, on Sudan's White Nile river
Aba, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Asia
Aba (Russia), a river
Aba, Okayama, Japan
Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, China
Aba County
Aba, Sichuan
Upu (also transliterated Aba), a historic region around Damascus
Europe
Aba, Hungary
Religion and mythology
Aba (mythology), Hellenic Thracian naiad nymph
Anglican Province of Aba, Nigeria
Roman Catholic Diocese of Aba, Nigeria
Aba, the Great Spirit of Choctaw mythology
Other uses
Aba (Dune), a robe in the fictional Dune universe
Aba (film), a 2008 Sri Lanka film
Aba Women's War, period of unrest in colonial Nigeria
A short form of Abaya, a middle eastern robe
See also
Abaá, a Fang longhouse
Abba (disambiguation)
Abas (disambiguation)
Ab (Semitic), "father" in Semitic languages
ABA (disambiguation) |
2471 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ababda%20people | Ababda people | The Ababda ( or ) are an Arab or Beja tribe in eastern Egypt and Sudan. Historically, most were Bedouins living in the area between the Nile and the Red Sea, with some settling along the trade route linking Korosko with Abu Hamad. Numerous traveler accounts from the nineteenth century report that some Ababda at that time still spoke Beja or a language of their own, hence many secondary sources consider the Ababda to be a Beja subtribe. Most Ababda now speak Arabic and identify as an Arab tribe from the Hijaz. The Ababda have a total population of over 250,000 people.
Origin and history
Ababda tribal origin narratives identify them as an Arab people from the Hijaz, descended from Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (possibly through his son Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr) following the Muslim conquest of Egypt.
Many published sources in Western languages identify the Ababda as a subtribe of the Beja, or as descendants of speakers of a Cushitic language.
Language
Arabic
Today, virtually all Ababda communities speak Arabic. There is no oral tradition of having spoken any other language prior to Arabic, in keeping with Ababda Arab origin narratives.
In a 1996 study, Rudolf de Jong found that the Ababda dialect of Arabic was quite similar to that of the Shukriya people of the Sudan, and concluded that it was an extension of the northern Sudanese dialect area.
Alfred von Kremer reported in 1863 that the Ababda had developed an Arabic-based thieves' cant that only they understood.
Ababda or Beja Language
There is rich evidence confirming that as late as the second half of the 19th century the Ababde were bilingual in Arabic and a Beja language that was either identical or closely related to Bisharin. A distinct language being spoken by the Ababda has been reported by several early travellers, either identified as Beja or left without further description. In around 1770 the Scottish traveller James Bruce claimed that they spoke the "Barabra" language, Nubian. At the turn of the 19th century, during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, the engineer Dubois-Aymé wrote that the Ababda understood Arabic, but still spoke a language of their own. In the 1820s Eduard Rüppell briefly stated that the Ababda spoke their own, seemingly non-Arabic language. A similar opinion was written by Pierre Trémaux after his journey in Sudan in the late 1840s.
John Lewis Burckhardt reported that in 1813 those Ababda who co-resided with the Bishari tribe spoke Beja. Alfred von Kremer believed them to be native Beja-speakers and was told that the Ababda were bilingual in Arabic, which they spoke with a heavy accent. Those who resided with the Nubians spoke Kenzi. Robert Hartmann, who visited the country in 1859/60, noted that the vast majority of the Ababda now spoke Arabic. However, in the past they used to speak a Beja dialect that was now, as he was told, solely restricted to a few nomadic families roaming the Eastern Desert. He believed that they abandoned their language in favour of Arabic due to their close contact with other arabophone tribes. The Swedish linguist Herman Almkvist, writing in 1881, counted the Ababda to the Beja and noted that most had discarded the Beja language, supposedly identical to the Bishari dialect, in favour of Arabic, although "quite a lot" were still capable of understanding and even talking Beja. Bishari informants told him that in the past, the Bishari and Ababda were the same people. Joseph Russegger, who visited the country around 1840, noted that the Ababda spoke their own language, although he added that it was heavily mixed with Arabic. He believed it to be a "Nubian Bedouin" language and implied that this language, and the Ababda customs and appearance in general, is similar to that of the Bishari. Traveller Bayard Taylor wrote in 1856 that the Ababda spoke a language different from that of the Bishari, although it "probably sprang from the same original stock." The French Orientalist Eusebe de Salle concluded in 1840, after attending a Beja conversation between Ababda and Bishari, that both understood each other reasonably well, but that the Ababda "definitely" had a language of their own. The physician Carl Benjamin Klunzinger wrote in 1878 that the Ababda would always speak Arabic while conversing with strangers, avoiding to speak their own language which he thought was a mixture of Arabic and Beja.
See also
Zubayrids
Beja people
Halaib Triangle
References
External links
African nomads
Arabic-speaking people
Cushitic-speaking peoples
Modern nomads
Blemmyes |
2472 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American%20Quarter%20Horse | American Quarter Horse | The American Quarter Horse, or Quarter Horse, is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name is derived from its ability to outrun other horse breeds in races of or less; some have been clocked at speeds up to . The development of the Quarter Horse traces to the 1600s.
The American Quarter Horse is the most popular breed in the United States, and the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest breed registry in the world, with almost three million living American Quarter Horses registered in 2014. The American Quarter Horse is well known both as a race horse and for its performance in rodeos, horse shows, and as a working ranch horse.
The compact body of the American Quarter Horse is well suited for the intricate and quick maneuvers required in reining, cutting, working cow horse, barrel racing, calf roping, and other western riding events, especially those involving live cattle. The American Quarter Horse is also used in English disciplines, driving, show jumping, dressage, hunting, and many other equestrian activities.
The Texas Legislature designated the American Quarter Horse as the official "State Horse of Texas" in 2009, and Oklahoma also designated the Quarter Horse as its official state horse in 2022.
Breed history
Colonial era
In the 1600s, imported English Thoroughbred horses were first bred with assorted local horses on the Eastern seaboard of colonial America.
One of the most famous of these early imports was Janus, a Thoroughbred who was the grandson of the Godolphin Arabian. He was foaled in 1746, and imported to colonial Virginia in 1756. The influence of Thoroughbreds like Janus contributed genes crucial to the development of the colonial "Quarter Horse". The resulting horse was small, hardy, quick, and was used as a work horse during the week and a race horse on the weekends.
As flat racing became popular with the colonists, the Quarter Horse gained even more popularity as a sprinter over courses that, by necessity, were shorter than the classic racecourses of England. These courses were often no more than a straight stretch of road or flat piece of open land. When competing against a Thoroughbred, local sprinters often won. As the Thoroughbred breed became established in America, many colonial Quarter Horses were included in the original American stud books. This began a long association between the Thoroughbred breed and what would later become officially known as the "Quarter Horse", named after the race distance at which it excelled. Some Quarter Horses have been clocked at up to .
Westward expansion
In the 19th century, pioneers heading West needed a hardy, willing horse. On the Great Plains, settlers encountered horses that descended from the Spanish stock Hernán Cortés and other Conquistadors had introduced into the viceroyalty of New Spain, which became the Southwestern United States and Mexico.
The horses of the West included herds of feral animals known as Mustangs, as well as horses domesticated by Native Americans, including the Comanche, Shoshoni and Nez Perce tribes. As the colonial Quarter Horse was crossed with these western horses, the pioneers found that the new crossbred had innate "cow sense", a natural instinct for working with cattle, making it popular with cattlemen on ranches.
Development as a distinct breed
Early foundation sires of Quarter Horse type included Steel Dust, foaled 1843; Shiloh (or Old Shiloh), foaled 1844; Old Cold Deck (1862); Lock's Rondo, one of many "Rondo" horses, foaled in 1880; Old Billy—again, one of many "Billy" horses—foaled ; Traveler, a stallion of unknown breeding, known to have been in Texas by 1889; and Peter McCue, foaled 1895, registered as a Thoroughbred but of disputed pedigree. Another early foundation sire for the breed was Copperbottom, foaled in 1828, who tracks his lineage through the Byerley Turk, a foundation sire of the Thoroughbred horse breed.
The main duty of the ranch horse in the American West was working cattle. Even after the invention of the automobile, horses were still irreplaceable for handling livestock on the range. Thus, major Texas cattle ranches, such as the King Ranch, the 6666 (Four Sixes) Ranch, and the Waggoner Ranch played a significant role in the development of the modern Quarter Horse. The skills required by cowboys and their horses became the foundation of the rodeo, a contest which began with informal competition between cowboys and expanded to become a major competitive event throughout the west. The Quarter Horse dominates in events that require speed as well as the ability to handle cattle.
Sprint races were also popular weekend entertainment and racing became a source of economic gain for breeders. As a result, more Thoroughbred blood was added into the developing American Quarter Horse breed. The American Quarter Horse also benefitted from the addition of Arabian, Morgan, and even Standardbred bloodlines.
In 1940, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) was formed by a group of horsemen and ranchers from the Southwestern United States dedicated to preserving the pedigrees of their ranch horses. After winning the 1941 Fort Worth Exposition and Fat Stock Show grand champion stallion, the horse honored with the first registration number, P-1, was Wimpy, a descendant of the King Ranch foundation sire Old Sorrel. Other sires alive at the founding of the AQHA were given the earliest registration numbers Joe Reed P-3, Chief P-5, Oklahoma Star P-6, Cowboy P-12, and Waggoner's Rainy Day P-13. The Thoroughbred race horse Three Bars, alive in the early years of the AQHA, is recognized by the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame as one of the significant foundation sires for the Quarter Horse breed. Other significant Thoroughbred sires seen in early AQHA pedigrees include Rocket Bar, Top Deck and Depth Charge.
"Appendix" and "Foundation" horses
Since the American Quarter Horse was formally established as a breed, the AQHA stud book has remained open to additional Thoroughbred blood via a performance standard. An "Appendix" American Quarter Horse is a first generation cross between a registered Thoroughbred and an American Quarter Horse or a cross between a "numbered" American Quarter Horse and an "appendix" American Quarter Horse. The resulting offspring is registered in the "appendix" of the American Quarter Horse Association's studbook, hence the nickname. Horses listed in the appendix may be entered in competition, but offspring are not initially eligible for full AQHA registration. If the Appendix horse meets certain conformational criteria and is shown or raced successfully in sanctioned AQHA events, the horse can earn its way from the appendix into the permanent studbook, making its offspring eligible for AQHA registration.
Since Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred crosses continue to enter the official registry of the American Quarter Horse breed, this creates a continual gene flow from the Thoroughbred breed into the American Quarter Horse breed, which has altered many of the characteristics that typified the breed in the early years of its formation. Some breeders argue that the continued addition of Thoroughbred bloodlines are beginning to compromise the integrity of the breed standard. Some favor the earlier style of horse and have created several separate organizations to promote and register "Foundation" Quarter Horses.
Modern American Quarter Horse
The American Quarter Horse is a show horse, race horse, reining and cutting horse, rodeo competitor, ranch horse, and all-around family horse. Quarter Horses are commonly used in rodeo events such as barrel racing, calf roping and team roping; and gymkhana or O-Mok-See. Other stock horse events such as cutting and reining are open to all breeds but are dominated by American Quarter Horse.
The breed is not only well-suited for western riding and cattle work. Many race tracks offer Quarter Horses a wide assortment of pari-mutuel horse racing with earnings in the millions. Quarter Horses have also been trained to compete in dressage and show jumping. They are also used for recreational trail riding and in mounted police units.
The American Quarter Horse has also been exported worldwide. European nations such as Germany and Italy have imported large numbers of Quarter Horses. Next to the American Quarter Horse Association (which also encompasses Quarter Horses from Canada), the second largest registry of Quarter Horses is in Brazil, followed by Australia. In the UK the breed is also becoming very popular, especially with the two Western riding Associations, the Western Horse Association and The Western Equestrian Society. The British American Quarter Horse breed society is the AQHA-UK. With the internationalization of the discipline of reining and its acceptance as one of the official seven events of the World Equestrian Games, there is a growing international interest in Quarter Horses. The American Quarter Horse is the most popular breed in the United States, and the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest breed registry in the world, with nearly 3 million American Quarter Horses registered worldwide in 2014.
Breed characteristics
The Quarter Horse has a small, short, refined head with a straight profile, and a strong, well-muscled body, featuring a broad chest and powerful, rounded hindquarters. They usually stand between high, although some Halter-type and English hunter-type horses may grow as tall as .
There are two main body types: the stock type and the hunter or racing type. The stock horse type is shorter, more compact, stocky and well-muscled, yet agile. The racing and hunter type Quarter Horses are somewhat taller and smoother muscled than the stock type, more closely resembling the Thoroughbred.
Quarter Horses come in nearly all colors. The most common color is sorrel, a brownish red, part of the color group called chestnut by most other breed registries. Other recognized colors include bay, black, brown, buckskin, palomino, gray, dun, red dun, grullo (also occasionally referred to as blue dun), red roan, blue roan, bay roan, perlino, cremello, and white. In the past, spotted color patterns were excluded, but now with the advent of DNA testing to verify parentage, the registry accepts all colors as long as both parents are registered.
Stock type
A stock horse is a horse of a type that is well suited for working with livestock, particularly cattle. Reining and cutting horses are smaller in stature, with quick, agile movements and very powerful hindquarters. Western pleasure show horses are often slightly taller, with slower movements, smoother gaits, and a somewhat more level topline – though still featuring the powerful hindquarters characteristic of the Quarter Horse.
Halter type
Horses shown in-hand in Halter competition are larger yet, with a very heavily muscled appearance, while retaining small heads with wide jowls and refined muzzles. There is controversy amongst owners, breeder and veterinarians regarding the health effects of the extreme muscle mass that is currently fashionable in the specialized halter horse, which typically is and weighs in at over when fitted for halter competition. Not only are there concerns about the weight to frame ratio on the horse's skeletal system, but the massive build is also linked to hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) in descendants of the stallion Impressive (see Genetic diseases below).
Racing and hunter type
Quarter Horse race horses are bred to sprint short distances ranging from 220 to 870 yards. Thus, they have long legs and are leaner than their stock type counterparts, but are still characterized by muscular hindquarters and powerful legs. Quarter Horses race primarily against other Quarter Horses, and their sprinting ability has earned them the nickname, "the world's fastest athlete." The show hunter type is slimmer, even more closely resembling a Thoroughbred, usually reflecting a higher percentage of appendix breeding. They are shown in hunter/jumper classes at both breed shows and in open USEF-rated horse show competition.
Genetic diseases
There are several genetic diseases of concern to Quarter Horse breeders. Most can now be identified by DNA testing so that breeders do not inadvertently produce foals with these conditions:
Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), which is caused by an autosomal dominant gene originally linked to the stallion Impressive. It is characterized by uncontrollable muscle twitching and substantial muscle weakness or paralysis among affected horses. Because it is a dominant gene, only one parent has to have the gene for it to be transmitted to offspring. There is a DNA test for HYPP, which is required by the AQHA. Since 2007, the AQHA bars registration of horses who possess the homozygous form (H/H) of the gene, and though heterozygous (H/N) horses are still eligible for registration, altering that status is periodically discussed. Additionally, all Quarter Horses born 2007 or later that are confirmed to be descendants of Impressive must carry a note about the risks of HYPP on their registration papers. Due to HYPP, there have been some rule changes for show competition, including the creation of a "Performance Halter class" in which a horse must possess a Register of Merit in performance or racing before it can compete.
Myosin-heavy chain myopathy (MYHM) is a genetic muscle disease added to the AQHA genetic testing panel in 2022. It is a genetic dominant condition, though not all horses who inherit the gene will show clinical signs of being affected and the environmental triggers are not well understood at present. An estimated 7% of all Quarter Horses carry this gene. There are two forms, both linked to the same genetic variant. Affected horses may exhibit one or both forms. The first is Immune-Mediated Myositis (IMM). It may occur in response to a vaccine or infectious agent, where the immune system misinterprets the muscle cells as foreign and rapidly attacks them. Horses initially experience stiffness, weakness, and a decreased appetite followed by the rapid loss of 40% of muscle mass within 72 hours. The second presentation of MYHM is Nonexertional Rhabdomyolysis (compare to PSSM, below) and often presents as stiffness and possible swelling of muscles along the back and haunches without exercise. Clinical signs include pain, muscle cramping, and muscle damage, but may or may not result in muscle loss. When triggered, horses can recover but may have more frequent episodes. Horses that are homozygous (My/My) may have more severe symptoms.
Malignant hyperthermia (MH) causes a horse’s body to release uncontrolled amounts of calcium into the bloodstream when subjected to certain stressors, which results in painful muscle cramps, extremely high temperature up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit, irregular heart rhythm, excessive sweating and shallow breathing. It manifests when horses receive certain anesthesia drugs or by stressors such as overwork or excitement. Caused by a mutated allele, ryanodine receptor 1 gene (RyR1) at nucleotide C7360G, generating a R2454G amino acid substitution, it is inherited as an autosomal dominant. Horses that carry PSSM or MYHM along with MH have more severe episodes.
Hereditary Equine Regional Dermal Asthenia (HERDA), also known as hyperelastosis cutis (HC). This is caused by an autosomal recessive gene, and thus produces affected offspring only when both parents transmit the gene, but may produce unaffected carriers if only one copy is transmitted. When a horse is affected by this disease, there is a collagen defect that results in the layers of skin not being held firmly together. Thus, when the horse is ridden under saddle or suffers trauma to the skin, the outer layer often splits or separates from the deeper layer, or it can tear off completely. It rarely heals without disfiguring scars. Sunburn can also be a concern. In dramatic cases, the skin can split along the back and even roll down the sides, with the horse literally being skinned alive. Most horses with HERDA are euthanized for humane reasons between the age of two and four years. Researchers at Cornell University and Mississippi State University theorized that the sire line of the foundation stallion Poco Bueno is linked to the disease. In 2007, Researchers working independently at Cornell University and at the University of California, Davis announced that a DNA test for HERDA has been developed. Over 1,500 horses were tested during the development phase of the test, which is now available to the general public through both institutions. Approximately 3.5% of all Quarter Horses are carriers, and as many as 28% of horses in cutting and related working cow horse disciplines.
Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency (GBED) is a recessive genetic disease where the horse is lacking an enzyme necessary for storing glycogen, the horse's heart muscle and skeletal muscles cannot function, leading to rapid death. The disease manifests in foals who are homozygous for the lethal GBED allele, meaning both parents carry one copy of the gene. The stallion King P-234 has been linked to this disease. There is a DNA blood test available. Roughly 10% of all Quarter Horses carry this gene.
Equine polysaccharide storage myopathy, also called EPSM or PSSM, is a metabolic muscular condition in horses that causes tying up, and is also related to a glycogen storage disorder. There are two forms, PSSM-1 and PSSM-2. PSSM-1 is found in Quarter Horses and has a genetic test available. PSSM-2, which is primarily found in other breeds, has no genetic test available but can be diagnosed with a muscle biopsy. PSSM-1 has been traced to three specific but undisclosed bloodlines in Quarter Horses, with an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. 11% of the Quarter Horse population carries PSSM, and 48% of Quarter Horses with symptoms of neuromuscular disease have PSSM. To some extent it can be diet controlled with specialized low-starch diets, but genetic testing is advised before breeding, as the condition exists at a subclinical level in approximately 6% of the general Quarter Horse population.
Lethal White Syndrome (LWS) is fatal when homozygous. Affected foals are born pure white in color, with an underdeveloped intestinal tract, and cannot defecate, thus dying within days if not euthanized first. Although "cropout" Quarter Horses with pinto markings were not allowed to be registered for many years because white markings were thought to be a result of undesirable crossbreeding, the gene that causes the condition also creates the frame overo color pattern when heterozygous, and the color pattern was not always visibly expressed. Thus, the condition continued to periodically appear in Quarter Horse foals. There is a DNA test for this condition, and in part because DNA testing can verify parentage and because the genetic mechanism of LWS is now understood, AQHA repealed its cropout rules, allowing horses with white patterns to be registered.
Cleft Palate: a birth defect linked to multiple causative factors, including genetics, hormones, mineral deficiency, tranquilizers, or steroids. Cleft palates are extremely uncommon, but as most of the research done on the condition has utilized Quarter Horses, the defect is linked to the breed. The surgery to repair the cleft palate has about a 20% success rate. Clinical signs include: lifting head high when eating, dropping head low to drink, coughing when beginning of exercise, and taking an extremely long time to fully administer oral medications placed in the side of the jaw.
See also
Quarab
Quarter pony
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
American Quarter Horse Association
Information about Quarter Horses in Europe
Horse breeds
Horse breeds originating in the United States |
2473 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abac%C3%A1 | Abacá | Abacá (Spanish) ( ; ), Musa textilis, is a species of banana endemic to the Philippines. The plant grows to , and averages about . The plant, also known as Manila hemp, has great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber, also called Manila hemp, extracted from the leaf-stems.
The lustrous fiber is traditionally hand-loomed into various indigenous textiles (abaca cloth or medriñaque) in the Philippines. They still figure prominently as the traditional material of the barong tagalog, the national male attire of the Philippines, as well as in sheer lace-like fabrics called nipis used in various clothing components. Native abaca textiles also survive into the modern era among various ethnic groups, like the t'nalak of the T'boli people and the dagmay of the Bagobo people. Abaca is also used in traditional Philippine millinery, as well as for bags, shawls, and other decorative items. The hatmaking straw made from Manila hemp is called tagal or tagal straw.
The fiber is also exceptionally strong, stronger than hemp and naturally salt-resistant, making it ideal for making twines and ropes (especially for maritime shipping). It became a major trade commodity in the colonial era for this reason. The abaca industry declined sharply in the mid-20th century when abaca plantations were decimated by World War II and plant diseases, as well as the invention of nylon in the 1930s (which eventually replaced the use of abacá in maritime cordage). Today, abaca is mostly used in a variety of specialized paper products including tea bags, filter paper and banknotes. Manila envelopes and Manila paper derive their name from this fiber.
Abaca is classified as a hard fiber, along with coir, henequin and sisal. Abaca is grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, Costa Rica.
Description
The abacá plant is stoloniferous, meaning that the plant produces runners or shoots along the ground that then root at each segment. Cutting and transplanting rooted runners is the primary technique for creating new plants, since seed growth is substantially slower. Abacá has a "false trunk" or pseudostem about in diameter. The leaf stalks (petioles) are expanded at the base to form sheaths that are tightly wrapped together to form the pseudostem. There are from 12 to 25 leaves, dark green on the top and pale green on the underside, sometimes with large brown patches. They are oblong in shape with a deltoid base. They grow in succession. The petioles grow to at least in length.
When the plant is mature, the flower stalk grows up inside the pseudostem. The male flower has five petals, each about long. The leaf sheaths contain the valuable fiber. After harvesting, the coarse fibers range in length from long. They are composed primarily of cellulose, lignin, and pectin.
The fruit, which is inedible and is rarely seen as harvesting occurs before the plant fruits, grows to about in length and in diameter. It has black turbinate seeds that are in diameter.
Systematics
The abacá plant belongs to the banana family, Musaceae; it resembles the closely related wild seeded bananas, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Its scientific name is Musa textilis. Within the genus Musa, it is placed in section Callimusa (now including the former section Australimusa), members of which have a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 20.
Genetic diversity
The Philippines, especially the Bicol region in Luzon, has the most abaca genotypes and cultivars. Genetic analysis using simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers revealed that the Philippines' abaca germplasm is genetically diverse. Abaca genotypes in Luzon had higher genetic diversity than Visayas and Mindanao. Ninety-five (95) percent was attributed to molecular variance within the population, and only 5% of the molecular variance to variation among populations. Genetic analysis by Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) revealed several clusters irrespective of geographical origin.
History
Before synthetic textiles came into use, M. textilis was a major source of high quality fiber: soft, silky and fine. Ancestors of the modern abacá are thought to have originated from the eastern Philippines, where there is significant rainfall throughout the year. Wild varieties of abacá can still be found in the interior forests of the island province of Catanduanes, away from cultivated areas.
Today, Catanduanes has many other modern kinds of abacá which are more competitive. For many years, breeders from various research institutions have made the cultivated varieties of Catanduanes even more competitive in local and international markets. This results in the optimum production of the island which had a consistent highest production throughout the archipelago.
16th century
Europeans first came into contact with Abacá fibre when Ferdinand Magellan landed in the Philippines in 1521, as the natives were already cultivating it and utilizing it in bulk for textiles. Throughout the Spanish colonial era, it was referred to as "medriñaque" cloth.
19th century
By 1897, the Philippines were exporting almost 100,000 tons of abacá, and it was one of the three biggest cash crops, along with tobacco and sugar. In fact, from 1850 through the end of the 19th century, sugar or abacá alternated with each other as the biggest export crop of the Philippines. This 19th-century trade was predominantly with the United States and the making of ropes was done mainly in New England, although in time rope-making shifted back to the Philippines.
From 1898 to 1946, the United States colonized the Philippines following the Spanish-American War. The Guggenheim claims the "colonial government found ways to prevent Filipinos from profiting off of the abaca crops, instead favoring the businesses of American expats and Japanese immigrants, as well as ensuring that the bulk of the abaca harvests were exported to the United States" for use in military initiatives.
20th century
In the early 1900s, a train running from Danao to Argao would transport Philippine abacá from the plantations to Cebu City for export. The railway system was destroyed during World War II; the abaca continues to be transported to Cebu by road.
Excluding the Philippines, abacá was first cultivated on a large scale in Sumatra in 1925 under the Dutch, who had observed its cultivation in the Philippines for cordage since the nineteenth century, followed up by plantings in Central America in 1929 sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It also was transplanted into India and Guam. Commercial planting began in 1930 in British North Borneo; at the onset of World War II, the supply from the Philippines was eliminated by the Empire of Japan.
After the war, the U.S. Department of Agriculture started production in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.
21st century
Today, abacá is produced primarily in the Philippines and Ecuador. The Philippines produces between 85% and 95% of the world's abacá, and the production employs 1.5 million people. Production has declined because of virus diseases.
Cultivation
The plant is normally grown in well-drained loamy soil, using rhizomes planted at the start of the rainy season. In addition, new plants can be started by seeds. Growers harvest abacá fields every three to eight months after an initial growth period of 12–25 months. Harvesting is done by removing the leaf-stems after flowering but before fruit appears. The plant loses productivity between 15 and 40 years. The slopes of volcanoes provide a preferred growing environment. Harvesting generally includes several operations involving the leaf sheaths:
tuxying (separation of primary and secondary sheath)
stripping (getting the fibers)
drying (usually following the tradition of sun-drying).
When the processing is complete, the bundles of fiber are pale and lustrous with a length of .
In Costa Rica, more modern harvest and drying techniques are being developed to accommodate the very high yields obtained there.
According to the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority, the Philippines provided 87.4% of the world's abacá in 2014, earning the Philippines US$111.33 million. The demand is still greater than the supply. The remainder came from Ecuador (12.5%) and Costa Rica (0.1%). The Bicol region in the Philippines produced 27,885 metric tons of abacá in 2014, the largest of any Philippine region.
The Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) and the Department of Agriculture reported that in 2009–2013, Bicol Region had 39% share of Philippine abacá production while overwhelming 92% comes from Catanduanes Island. Eastern Visayas, the second largest producer had 24% and the Davao Region, the third largest producer had 11% of the total production. Around 42 percent of the total abacá fiber shipments from the Philippines went to the United Kingdom in 2014, making it the top importer. Germany imported 37.1 percent abacá pulp from the Philippines, importing around 7,755 metric tons (MT). Sales of abacá cordage surged 20 percent in 2014 to a total of 5,093 MT from 4,240 MT, with the United States holding around 68 percent of the market.
Pathogens
Abacá is vulnerable to a number of pathogens, notably abaca bunchy top virus, abaca bract mosaic virus, and abaca mosaic virus.
Uses
Due to its strength, it is a sought after product and is the strongest of the natural fibers. It is used by the paper industry for such specialty uses such as tea bags, banknotes and decorative papers. It can be used to make handcrafts such as hats, bags, carpets, clothing and furniture.
Lupis is the finest quality of abacá. Sinamay is woven chiefly from abacá.
Textiles
Abacá fibers were traditionally woven into sturdy textiles and clothing in the Philippines since pre-colonial times. Along with cotton, they were the main source of textile fibers used for clothing in the pre-colonial Philippines. Abacá cloth was often compared to calico in terms of texture and was a major trade commodity in the pre-colonial maritime trade and the Spanish colonial era. There are multiple traditional types and names of abaca cloth among the different ethnic groups of the Philippines. Undyed plain abacá cloth, woven from fine fibers of abaca, is generally known as sinamáy in most of the islands. Abacá cloth with a more delicate texture is called tinampipi. While especially fine lace-like abacá cloth is called nipis or lupis. Fine abacá fibers may also be woven with piña, silk, or fine cotton to create a fabric called jusi.
Traditional abacá textiles were often dyed in various colors from various natural dyes. These include blue from indigo (tarum, dagum, tayum, etc.); black from ebony (knalum or batulinao) leaves; red from noni roots and sapang; yellow from turmeric (kalawag, kuning, etc.); and so on. They were often woven into specific patterns, and further ornamented with embroidery, beadwork, and other decorations. Most clothing made from abacá took the form of the baro (also barú or bayú, literally "shirt" or "clothing"), a simple collar-less shirt or jacket with close-fitting long sleeves worn by both men and women in most ethnic groups in the pre-colonial Philippines. These were paired with wraparound sarong-like skirts (for both men and women), close-fitting pants, or loincloths (bahag).
During the Spanish colonial era, abacá cloth became known as medriñaque in Spanish (apparently derived from a native Cebuano name). They were exported to other Spanish colonies since the 16th century. A waistcoat of a native Quechua man in Peru was recorded as being made of medriñaque as early as 1584. Abacá cloth also appear in English records, spelled variously as medrinacks, medrianacks, medrianackes, and medrinacles, among other names. They were used as canvas for sails and for stiffening clothing like skirts, collars, and doublets.
Philippine indigenous tribes still weave abacá-based textiles like t'nalak, made by the Tiboli tribe of South Cotabato, and dagmay, made by the Bagobo people. Abacá cloth is found in museum collections around the world, like the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Textile Museum of Canada.
The inner fibers are also used in the making of hats, including the "Manila hats", hammocks, matting, cordage, ropes, coarse twines, and types of canvas.
Industrial textile production
Processing
Dyeing and weaving
Manila rope
Manila rope is a type of rope made from manila hemp. Manila rope is very durable, flexible, and resistant to salt water damage, allowing its use in rope, hawsers, ships' lines, and fishing nets. A rope can require to break.
Manila ropes shrink when they become wet. This effect can be advantageous under certain circumstances, but if it is not a wanted feature, it should be well taken into account. Since shrinkage is more pronounced the first time the rope becomes wet, new rope is usually immersed into water and put to dry before use so that the shrinkage is less than it would be if the rope had never been wet. A major disadvantage in this shrinkage is that many knots made with manila rope became harder and more difficult to untie when wet, thus becoming subject of increased stress. Manila rope will rot after a period of time when exposed to saltwater.
Manila hemp rope was previously the favoured variety of rope used for executions by hanging, both in the U.K. and USA. Usually 3/4 to 1 inch diameter, boiled prior to use to take out any overelasticity. It was also used in the 19th century as whaling line. Abacá fiber was once used primarily for rope, but this application is now of minor significance.
See also
Musa basjoo (Japanese banana), banana species also used as a traditional source of fiber in Okinawa, Japan
Kijōka-bashōfu, similar traditional fiber from Okinawa, Japan
Piña
T'nalak
Malong
Tapis
Inabel
Batik
Yakan people
Fiber crop
International Year of Natural Fibres
Natural fiber
Manila folder
Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
Notes
Footnotes
References
Yllano, O. B., Diaz, M. G. Q., Lalusin, A. G., Laurena, A. C., & Tecson-Mendoza, E. M. (2020). Genetic Analyses of Abaca (Musa textilis Née) Germplasm from its Primary Center of Origin, the Philippines, Using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Markers. Philippine Agricultural Scientist, 103(4).
External links
The World Book encyclopedia set, 1988.
See International Year of Natural Fibres 2009
Plants USDA
abacá A comprehensive pamphlet about Philippine abacá presented 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco. Online publication uploaded in Filipiniana.net
Musa (genus)
Flora of the Philippines
Fiber plants
Biodegradable materials
Philippine clothing
History of Asian clothing
Philippine handicrafts |
2474 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaddon | Abaddon | The Hebrew term Abaddon ( ’Ăḇaddōn, meaning "destruction", "doom"), and its Greek equivalent Apollyon (, Apollúōn meaning "Destroyer") appear in the Bible as both a place of destruction and an angel of the abyss. In the Hebrew Bible, abaddon is used with reference to a bottomless pit, often appearing alongside the place Sheol ( Šəʾōl), meaning the resting place of dead peoples.
In the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, an angel called Abaddon is described as the king of an army of locusts; his name is first transcribed in Koine Greek (Revelation 9:11—"whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon,") as , and then translated , Apollyon. The Vulgate and the Douay–Rheims Bible have additional notes not present in the Greek text, "in Latin Exterminans", exterminans being the Latin word for "destroyer".
In medieval Christian literature, Abbadon's portrayal diverges significantly, as seen in the "Song of Roland," an 11th-century epic poem. Abbadon is depicted as part of a fictional trinity, alongside Mahome (Mahound) and Termagant (Termagaunt), which the poem attributes to the religious practices of Muslims.
Etymology
According to the Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon, the Hebrew is an intensive form of the Semitic root and verb stem "perish", transitive "destroy", which occurs 184 times in the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, renders "Abaddon" as "" (), while the Greek is the active participle of ἀπόλλυμι , "to destroy".
Judaism
Hebrew Bible
The term abaddon appears six times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible; abaddon means destruction or "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is accompanied by Sheol.
Job 26:6: Sheol is naked before Him; Abaddon has no cover.
Job 28:22: Abaddon and Death say, “We have only a report of it.”
Job 31:12: A fire burning down to Abaddon, Consuming the roots of all my increase.
Psalm 88:12: Is Your faithful care recounted in the grave, Your constancy in the place of perdition?
Proverbs 15:11: Sheol and Abaddon lie exposed to the LORD, How much more the minds of men!
Proverbs 27:20: Sheol and Abaddon cannot be satisfied, Nor can the eyes of man be satisfied.
Second Temple era texts
The Thanksgiving Hymns — a text found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 — tell of "the Sheol of Abaddon" and of the "torrents of Belial [that] burst into Abaddon". The Biblical Antiquities (misattributed to Philo) mention Abaddon as a place (destruction) rather than as an individual. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna. By extension, the name can refer to an underworld abode of lost souls, or Gehenna.
Rabbinical literature
In some legends, Abaddon is identified as a realm where the damned lie in fire and snow, one of the places in Gehenna that Moses visited.
Christianity
The New Testament contains the first known depiction of Abaddon as an individual entity instead of a place.
In the Old Testament, Abaddon and Death can be personified:
And,
And,
And,
The Hebrew text of Proverbs 6:32 does not contain the noun () but a participial form of the verb (). But the Septuagint uses (), the accusative case of the noun () with which it also translates in five of the six Hebrew verses that contain the word. (Though an English interlinear of the Septuagint might read "destruction the soul of him obtains", the reader should understand that "adulterer" is the subject, "soul" is the indirect object, and "destruction" is the direct object.)
In Revelation 9:11, Abaddon is described as "Destroyer", the angel of the Abyss, and as the king of a plague of locusts resembling horses with crowned human faces, women's hair, lions' teeth, wings, iron breast-plates, and a tail with a scorpion's stinger that torments for five months anyone who does not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
The symbolism of Revelation 9:11 leaves the identity of Abaddon open to interpretation. Protestant commentator Matthew Henry (1708) believed Abaddon to be the Antichrist, whereas the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (1871) and Henry Hampton Halley (1922) identified the angel as Satan.
Early in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress the Christian pilgrim fights "over half a day" long with the demon Apollyon. This book permeated Christianity in the English-speaking world for 300 years after its first publication in 1678.
In contrast, the Methodist publication The Interpreter's Bible states, "Abaddon, however, is an angel not of Satan but of God, performing his work of destruction at God's bidding", citing the context at Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 3. Jehovah's Witnesses also cite Revelation 20:1-3 where the angel having "the key of the abyss" is actually shown to be a representative of God, concluding that "Abaddon" is another name for Jesus after his resurrection.
In Medieval Christian Literature
In medieval Christian literature, the depiction of Abaddon often mirrors the religious and cultural contexts of the time. A notable illustration of this is found in the Song of Roland, an 11th-century epic poem. This work associates Abaddon with figures such as Mahome (Mahound), Apollyon (Appolin), and Termagant, which are presented as deities in the context of the poem's portrayal of Muslims. The inclusion of Apollyon, a name sometimes linked with Abaddon in Christian texts, highlights the interpretative approaches of the period towards Islamic practices.
Such literary representations in medieval Christian literature are indicative of the broader context of interfaith understanding and relations during the Middle Ages. They reflect the complexities and nuances in the depiction of figures like Abaddon and their perceived associations with other faiths.
Mandaeism
Mandaean scriptures such as the Ginza Rabba mention the Abaddons () as part of the World of Darkness. The Right Ginza mentions the existence of the "upper Abaddons" () as well as the "lower Abaddons" (). The final poem of the Left Ginza mentions the "House of the Abaddons" ().
Häberl (2022) considers the Mandaic word
ʿbdunia to be a borrowing from Hebrew.
Apocryphal texts
In the 3rd-century Gnostic text Acts of Thomas, Abaddon is the name of a demon, or the devil himself.
Abaddon is given particularly important roles in two sources, a homily entitled The Enthronement of Abaddon by pseudo-Timothy of Alexandria, and the Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by Bartholomew the Apostle. In the homily by Timothy, Abaddon was first named Muriel, and had been given the task by God of collecting the earth that would be used in the creation of Adam. Upon completion of this task, the angel was appointed as a guardian. Everyone, including the angels, demons, and corporeal entities feared him. Abaddon was promised that any who venerated him in life could be saved. Abaddon is also said to have a prominent role in the Last Judgment, as the one who will take the souls to the Valley of Josaphat. He is described in the Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as being present in the Tomb of Jesus at the moment of the resurrection of Jesus.
See also
Abaddon in popular culture
List of angels in theology
Maalik
Muriel (angel)
Citations
General bibliography
External links
Angels in Christianity
Book of Revelation
Hebrew Bible places
Hell (Christianity)
Individual angels
Jewish underworld
Satan |
2475 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abadeh | Abadeh | Abadeh () is a city in the Central District of Abadeh County, Fars province, Iran, serving as both capital of the district and of the county.
At the 2006 National Census, its population was 52,042 in 14,184 households. The following census in 2011 counted 55,758 people in 16,546 households. The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 59,116 people in 18,965 households.
Abadeh is at an elevation of in a fertile plain on the high road between Isfahan and Shiraz, from the former and from the latter.
It is the largest city in the Northern Fars Region (South-Central Iran), which is famed for its carved wood-work, made of the wood of pear and box trees. Sesame oil, castor oil, grain, and various fruits are also produced there. The area is famous for its Abadeh rugs.
An interesting fact is that Abadeh is closer, road-distance-wise to 4 provincial capitals of Isfahan (193 km), Yasuj (197 km), Yazd (217 km), and Shahrekord (237 km) compared to the distance to the provincial capital of its corresponding province, Shiraz (260 km).
History
According to the texts of archaeologists, the settlement in the current area of Abadeh dates back to the first millennium BC. Nomadic Kurdish groups were the first to settle in the plain between Abadeh and Isfahan in the Achaemenid period. Remaining ancient monuments, such as the ancient castle of Izadkhas and Bahram Gur Palace in Surmaq, are proofs of the existence of culture and civilization in this geographical area. Abadeh city has a special position due to its location at the three-way communication between Isfahan, Yazd and Shiraz.
Landmarks and crafts
Abadeh historical monuments include Emirate Kolah Farangi, Tymcheh Sarafyan and Khaje tomb, located in the Khoja mountains.
Abadeh crafts can be embroidered in cotton. The town also produces Abadeh rugs.
The rugs tend to be based on a cotton warp and have a thin, tightly knotted pile. Most Abadeh rugs are closely cut making them very flat. Although some of the older Abadehs vary in style, many of the new designs are easily recognisable. These new designs, known as Heybatlu consist of a single diamond shaped medallion in the centre with smaller medallions on each corner. The pattern is typically geometrical flowers or animals and the main colours are light reds or burnt orange on top of a dark blue background with strong green details. The corners or borders are generally ivory in colour. Although some Abadeh and Shiraz rugs appear similar Abadeh can normally be differentiated by their higher knot counts as well as the fact that the warp is invariably cotton. The rugs are almost always exclusively medium in size and the KPSI of an average Abadeh is around 90. As always in the rug-world you get what you pay for however in general Abadeh are well made and fairly popular items, particularly in modern interiors or those with a Mediterranean or North African style.
Geographical location
Abadeh city is located in the northernmost point of Fars province. Abadeh is connected to Isfahan province from the north and west, Safacity and Eqlid from the south, and Yazd province from the east. The city is located north of Shiraz, south of Tehran, south of Isfahan, and southwest of Yazd. The geographical area of Abadeh is , which is about 11% of the total area of the province.
Transportation
Expressway 65 passes through Abadeh. This situation helps Abadeh to improve its capabilities compared to the neighboring city, Eqlid. Road 78 makes connections from Abadeh to Abarkuh, Yazd Eqlid and Yasuj. It has a junction with Abadeh Shiraz Expressway 24 km south of the city. A road starts from Abadeh Ring Road to Soqad and Semirom, Road 55.
The railroad from Isfahan to Shiraz passes Abadeh and there are train services at Abadeh Railway Station to Shiraz, Esfahan, Tehran and Mashad. Abadeh Airport (OISA) was planned to be built in the mid 1990s.
Universities
Islamic Azad University, Abadeh branch
Contemporary people
Jalal Zolfonun was an Iranian musician
Mahmoud Zoufonoun was an Iranian-born American musician accomplished in the art of Persian traditional music.
Hooshmand Aghili is a prominent Iranian singer
Ruhollah Hosseinian was an Iranian principalist politician.
Rahmatollah Khosravi is an Iranian politician who was formerly a member of the Iranian Parliament and City Council of Tehran.
Mojtaba Heidarpanah is an Iranian cartoonist, illustrator, painter, character designer and animator.
Mahmoud Mohammadi (diplomat) is an Iranian diplomat and politician.
Sport
Abadeh's main sport is football, as in the rest of the country. The main stadium is Takhti Stadium located in Mo'allem Square. The main team in Abadeh is Behineh Rahbar Abadeh F.C. which is currently playing in Iran Football's 3rd Division after finishing first in Fars Provincial League (FPL) last year. It played in Hazfi Cup 2010-11 reaching the fourth round.
Air defense base
In 2012 Iran announced it had started the construction of an air defense site in the city of Abadeh. The site is planned to be the largest in the country and will house 6,000 personnel for a variety of duties, including educational ones.
Geography
Climate
Abadeh features a arid climate (Köppen climate classification BWk) with heat and dryness over summer, and cold (extreme at times) and relatively wetter winters, with huge variations between daytime and nighttime throughout the year. The area can experience severely cold weather due to its high elevation.
Handicrafts
Abadeh woodwork is world famous and its examples are kept in world museums as the best works of art. The carvings of the Marble Palace were made by the artists of this city, such as Master Ahmad Emami. In 2017, the World Council of Handicrafts (WCC) introduced Abadeh as the world city of carving. Monbat Abadeh has 150 active domestic or commercial carving workshops and 5000 carving artists.
Mining
The mines located in this city are:
Esteghlal Abadeh large refractory soil mine is one of the largest producers of this mineral. In addition to the Esteghlal refractory mine, there is also an industrial mine around the city where the raw materials are from tile, ceramic and brick factories in the country.
See also
Notes
References
Populated places in Abadeh County
Cities in Fars Province |
2476 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abae | Abae | Abae (, ) was an ancient town in the northeastern corner of ancient Phocis, in Greece, near the frontiers of the Opuntian Locrians, said to have been built by the Argive Abas, son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, and grandson of Danaus. This bit of legend suggests an origin or at least an existence in the Bronze Age. Its protohistory supports a continued existence in Iron-Age antiquity. It was famous for its oracle of Apollo Abaeus, one of those consulted by Croesus, king of Lydia, and Mardonius, among others. The site of the oracle was rediscovered at Kalapodi and excavated in modern times. The results confirm an archaeological existence dating from the Bronze Age, as is suggested by the lore.
History
Before the Persian invasion, the temple was richly adorned with treasuries and votive offerings. It was twice destroyed by fire; the first time by the Persians in the invasion of Xerxes in their march through Phocis (480 BCE), and a second time by the Boeotians in the Sacred or Phocian War in 346 BCE. It was rebuilt by Hadrian. Hadrian caused a smaller temple to be built near the ruins of the former one. In the new temple there were three ancient statues in brass of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, which had been dedicated by the Abaei, and had perhaps been saved from the former temple. The ancient agora and the ancient theatre still existed in the town in the time of Pausanias. According to the statement of Aristotle, as preserved by Strabo, Thracians from the Phocian town of Abae immigrated to Euboea, and gave to the inhabitants the name of Abantes.
Oracle
Despite destruction of the town, the oracle was still consulted, e.g. by the Thebans before the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE. The temple, along with the village of the same name, may have escaped destruction during the Third Sacred War (355–346 BCE), due to the respect given to the inhabitants; however, it was in a very dilapidated state when seen by Pausanias in the 2nd century CE, though some restoration, as well as the building of a new temple, was undertaken by Emperor Hadrian.
The sanctity of the shrine ensured certain privileges to the people of Abae, and these were confirmed by the Romans. The Persians did not reflect this opinion and would destroy all the temples that they overcame, Abae included. The Greeks pledged not to rebuild them as a memorial of the ravages of the Persians.
Among the most exciting recent archaeological discoveries in Greece is the recognition that the sanctuary site near the modern village of Kalapodi is not only the site of the oracle of Apollon at Abae, but that it was in constant use for cult practices from early Mycenaean times to the Roman period. It is thus the first site where the archaeology confirms the continuity of Mycenaean and Classical Greek religion, which has been inferred from the presence of the names of Classical Greek divinities on Linear B texts from Pylos and Knossos.
The fortified site described below, originally identified as Abae by Colonel William Leake in the 19th century, is much more likely to be that of the Sanctuary of Artemis at Hyampolis:
"The polygonal walls of the acropolis may still be seen in a fair state of preservation on a circular hill standing about 500 ft. [150 m] above the little plain of Exarcho; one gateway remains, and there are also traces of town walls below. The temple site was on a low spur of the hill, below the town. An early terrace wall supports a precinct in which are a stoa and some remains of temples; these were excavated by the British School at Athens in 1894, but very little was found."
The oracle was mentioned in Oedipus Rex.
Attribution
Notes
References
Reference bibliography
External links
German Archaeological Institute (German)
10-part documentary series (German)
Excavation archive of the British School at Athens and French School at Athens (English and French)
Ancient Greek cities
Cities in ancient Greece
Populated places in ancient Phocis
Former populated places in Greece
Classical oracles |
2482 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc%20de%20Triomphe | Arc de Triomphe | The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the étoile or "star" of the juncture formed by its twelve radiating avenues. The location of the arc and the plaza is shared between three arrondissements, 16th (south and west), 17th (north), and 8th (east). The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
The central cohesive element of the Axe historique (historic axis, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route running from the courtyard of the Louvre to the Grande Arche de la Défense), the Arc de Triomphe was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806; its iconographic programme pits heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments with triumphant patriotic messages. Inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome, Italy, the Arc de Triomphe has an overall height of , width of and depth of , while its large vault is high and wide. The smaller transverse vaults are high and wide.
Paris's Arc de Triomphe was the tallest triumphal arch until the completion of the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City in 1938, which is high. The Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, completed in 1982, is modeled on the Arc de Triomphe and is slightly taller at . The Grande Arche in La Défense near Paris is 110 metres high, and, if considered to be a triumphal arch, is the world's tallest.
History
Construction and late 19th century
The Arc de Triomphe is located on the right bank of the Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806, after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his new bride, Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect, Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.
During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted, and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, between 1833 and 1836, by the architects Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. The final cost was reported at about 10,000,000 francs (equivalent to an estimated €65 million or $75 million in 2020).
On 15 December 1840, brought back to France from Saint Helena, Napoleon's remains passed under it on their way to the Emperor's final resting place at . Before burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was displayed under the Arc on the night of 22 May 1885.
20th century
The sword carried by the Republic in the Marseillaise relief broke off on the day, it is said, that the Battle of Verdun began in 1916. The relief was immediately hidden by tarpaulins to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations.
On 7 August 1919 three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919 (marking the end of hostilities in World War I), Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane under the arch's primary vault, with the event captured on newsreel. Jean Navarre was the pilot who was tasked to make the flight, but he died on 10 July 1919 when he crashed near Villacoublay while training for the flight
Following its construction, the Arc de Triomphe became the rallying point of French troops parading after successful military campaigns and for the annual Bastille Day military parade. Famous victory marches around or under the Arc have included the Germans in 1871, the French in 1919, the Germans in 1940, and the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945. A United States postage stamp of 1945 shows the Arc de Triomphe in the background as victorious American troops march down the Champs-Élysées and U.S. airplanes fly overhead on 29 August 1944. After the interment of the Unknown Soldier, however, all military parades (including the aforementioned post-1919) have avoided marching through the actual arch. The route taken is up to the arch and then around its side, out of respect for the tomb and its symbolism. Both Hitler in 1940 and de Gaulle in 1944 observed this custom.
By the early 1960s, the monument had grown very blackened from coal soot and automobile exhaust, and during 1965–1966 it was cleaned through bleaching. In the prolongation of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a new arch, the Grande Arche de la Défense, was built in 1982, completing the line of monuments that forms Paris's Axe historique. After the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, the Grande Arche is the third arch built on the same perspective.
In 1995, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria placed a bomb near the Arc de Triomphe which wounded 17 people as part of a campaign of bombings.
On 12 July 1998, when France won the FIFA World Cup for the first time after defeating Brazil 3–0 at the Stade de France, images of the players including double goal scorer Zinedine Zidane and their names along with celebratory messages were projected onto the arch.
21st century
In late 2018, the Arc de Triomphe suffered acts of vandalism as part of the Yellow vests protests. The vandals sprayed the monument with graffiti and ransacked its small museum. In September 2021, the arc was wrapped in a silvery blue fabric and red rope, as part of L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, a posthumous project planned by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude since the early 1960s.
Design
Monument
The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin (1739–1811), in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture. Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. The main sculptures are not integral friezes but are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze appliqués on Empire furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Arc are The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot), Resistance and Peace (both by Antoine Étex), and the most renowned of them all, Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 commonly called La Marseillaise (François Rude). The face of the allegorical representation of France calling forth her people on this last was used as the belt buckle for the honorary rank of Marshal of France. Since the fall of Napoleon (1815), the sculpture representing Peace is interpreted as commemorating the Peace of 1815.
In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major French victories in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. The inside walls of the monument list the names of 660 people, among which are 558 French generals of the First French Empire; The names of those generals killed in battle are underlined. Also inscribed, on the shorter sides of the four supporting columns, are the names of the major French victories in the Napoleonic Wars. The battles that took place in the period between the departure of Napoleon from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo are not included.
For four years from 1882 to 1886, a monumental sculpture by Alexandre Falguière topped the arch. Titled Le triomphe de la Révolution ("The Triumph of the Revolution"), it depicted a chariot drawn by horses preparing "to crush Anarchy and Despotism".
Inside the monument, a permanent exhibition, conceived by artist Maurice Benayoun and architect Christophe Girault, opened in February 2007.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Interred on Armistice Day 1920, an eternal flame burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both world wars).
A ceremony is held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every 11 November on the anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918 signed by the Entente Powers and Germany in 1918. It was originally decided on 12 November 1919 to bury the unknown soldier's remains in the Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on 10 November 1920, and put in its final resting place on 28 January 1921. The slab on top bears the inscription: Ici repose un soldat français mort pour la Patrie, 1914–1918 ("Here rests a French soldier who died for the Fatherland, 1914–1918").
In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by President Charles de Gaulle. After the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy remembered the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe and requested that an eternal flame be placed next to her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Details
The four main sculptural groups on each of the Arc's pillars are:
Le Départ de 1792 (or La Marseillaise), by François Rude. The sculptural group celebrates the cause of the French First Republic during the 10 August uprising. Above the volunteers is the winged personification of Liberty. This group served as a recruitment tool in the early months of World War I and encouraged the French to invest in war loans in 1915–1916.
Le Triomphe de 1810, by Jean-Pierre Cortot celebrates the Treaty of Schönbrunn. This group features Napoleon, crowned by the goddess of Victory.
La Résistance de 1814, by Antoine Étex commemorates the French Resistance to the Allied Armies during the War of the Sixth Coalition.
La Paix de 1815, by Antoine Étex commemorates the Treaty of Paris, concluded in that year.
Six reliefs sculpted on the façades of the Arch, representing important moments of the French Revolution and of the Napoleonic era include:
Les funérailles du général Marceau (General Marceau's burial), by Henri Lemaire (Southern façade, right).
La bataille d'Aboukir (The Battle of Aboukir), by Bernard Seurre (Southern façade, left).
La bataille de Jemappes (The Battle of Jemappes), by Carlo Marochetti (Eastern façade).
Le passage du pont d'Arcole (The Battle of Arcole), by Jean-Jacques Feuchère (Northern façade, right).
La prise d'Alexandrie (The Fall of Alexandria), by John-Étienne Chaponnière (Northern façade, left).
La bataille d'Austerlitz (The Battle of Austerlitz), by Théodore Gechter (Western façade).
The names of 158 battles fought by the French First Republic and the First French Empire are engraved on the monument. Among them, 30 battles are engraved on the attic:
96 battles are engraved on the inner façades, under the great arches:
The names of 660 military leaders who served during the French First Republic and the First French Empire are engraved on the inner façades of the small arches. Underlined names signify those who died on the battlefield:
The great arcades are decorated with allegorical figures representing characters in Roman mythology (by James Pradier):
The ceiling with 21 sculpted roses:
Interior of the Arc de Triomphe:
There are several plaques at the foot of the monument:
Access
The Arc de Triomphe is accessible by the RER and Métro, with exit at the Charles de Gaulle–Étoile station. Because of heavy traffic on the roundabout of which the Arc is the centre, it is recommended that pedestrians use one of two underpasses located at the Champs Élysées and the Avenue de la Grande Armée. A lift will take visitors almost to the top – to the attic, where a small museum contains large models of the Arc and tells its story from the time of its construction. Another 40 steps remain to climb to reach the top, the terrasse, from where one can enjoy a panoramic view of Paris.
The location of the arc, as well as the Place de l'Étoile, is shared between three arrondissements, 16th (south and west), 17th (north), and 8th (east).
Replicas
While many structures around the world resemble the Arc de Triomphe, some were actually inspired by it. Replicas that used its design as a model include Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, North Korea; Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest, Romania; Rosedale World War I Memorial Arch in Kansas City, Kansas, US; and a miniature version at the Paris Casino in Las Vegas, US.
See also
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
List of works by James Pradier
Napoleon's tomb
Bastille Day military parade
Romanian Arcul de Triumf
List of tourist attractions in Paris
List of post-Roman triumphal arches
Notes
References
External links
Inscriptions on the Arc de Triomphe
Clarification of history of Arc de Triomphe
The permanent exhibition inside the Arc de Triomphe
View from the Arc de Triomphe
Buildings and structures completed in 1836
Monuments and memorials in Paris
Neoclassical architecture in Paris
Triumphal arches in France
Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris
Buildings and structures in the 16th arrondissement of Paris
Buildings and structures in the 17th arrondissement of Paris
Landmarks in France
Champs-Élysées
Terminating vistas in Paris
Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux |
2483 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April%2021 | April 21 |
Events
Pre-1600
753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).
43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
900 – The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.
1092 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II
1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
1526 – The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.
1601–1900
1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.
1782 – The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
1789 – John Adams sworn in as first US Vice President (nine days before George Washington).
1789 – George Washington's reception at Trenton is hosted by the Ladies of Trenton as he journeys to New York City for his first inauguration.
1792 – Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
1802 – Twelve thousand Wahhabis sack Karbala, killing over three thousand inhabitants.
1806 – Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.
1809 – Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.
1821 – Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.
1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1856 – Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.
1894 – Norway formally adopts the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
1901–present
1914 – Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.
1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
1926 – Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four Shi'a Imams, is leveled to the ground by Wahhabis.
1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1994, it is revealed to be a hoax).
1945 – World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
1946 – The U.S. Weather Bureau publish a paper which stated the width of a tornado which struck the city of Timber Lake, South Dakota was , which would make this the widest tornado ever documented in history.
1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.
1950 – The Nainital wedding massacre occurs, killing 22 members of the Harijan caste.
1952 – Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.
1958 – United Air Lines Flight 736 collides with a United States Air Force fighter jet near Arden, Nevada in what is now Enterprise, Nevada.
1960 – Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
1962 – The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
1963 – The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Baháʼí Faith.
1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
1966 – Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
1967 – A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
1972 – Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke fly Apollo 16's Apollo Lunar Module to the Moon's surface, the fifth NASA Apollo Program crewed lunar landing.
1975 – Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
1977 – Annie opens on Broadway.
1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.
1987 – The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.
1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
1993 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
2004 – Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.
2010 – The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.
2012 – Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, killing one person and injuring 116 others.
2014 – The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and at least 12 deaths from Legionnaires' disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
2019 – Eight bombs explode at churches, hotels, and other locations in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing at least 269.
2021 – Indonesian Navy submarine KRI Nanggala (402) sinks in the Bali Sea during a military drill, killing all 53 on board.
Births
Pre-1600
1132 – Sancho VI, king of Navarre (d. 1194)
1488 – Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (d. 1523)
1523 – Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (d. 1571)
1555 – Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter and etcher (d. 1619)
1601–1900
1619 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (d. 1677)
1630 – Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Dutch-English painter (d. 1700)
1631 – Francesco Maidalchini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1700)
1642 – Simon de la Loubère, French mathematician, poet, and diplomat (d. 1729)
1651 – Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankan priest, missionary, and saint (d. 1711)
1652 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician and academic (d. 1719)
1671 – John Law, Scottish economist (d. 1729)
1673 – Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1742)
1713 – Louis de Noailles, French general (d. 1793)
1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788)
1752 – Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer, hydrographer, and politician, French Minister of Marine and the Colonies (d. 1807)
1752 – Humphry Repton, English gardener and author (d. 1818)
1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1862)
1775 – Alexander Anderson, Scottish-American illustrator and engraver (d. 1870)
1783 – Reginald Heber, English priest (d. 1821) ; re-printed 2015 by Facsimile Publisher and distributed by Gyan Books, New Delhi.
1790 – Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (d. 1876)
1810 – John Putnam Chapin, American politician, 10th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1864)
1811 – Alson Sherman, American merchant and politician, 8th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1903)
1814 – Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, English art collector and philanthropist (d. 1906)
1816 – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (d. 1855)
1837 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish lieutenant and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
1838 – John Muir, Scottish-American environmentalist and author (d. 1914)
1854 – William Stang, German-American bishop (d. 1907)
1864 – Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (d. 1920)
1868 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (d. 1932)
1868 – Mary Rogers Miller, American author and educator (d. 1971)
1870 – Edwin Stanton Porter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1941)
1874 – Vincent Scotto, French composer and actor (d. 1952)
1882 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
1885 – Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1967)
1887 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball manager (d. 1978)
1889 – Marcel Boussac, French businessman (d. 1980)
1889 – Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
1892 – Freddie Dixon, English motorcycle racer and racing driver (d. 1956)
1893 – Romeo Bertini, Italian runner (d. 1973)
1897 – Odd Lindbäck-Larsen, Norwegian Army general and war historian (d. 1975)
1898 – Maurice Wilson, English soldier, pilot, and mountaineer (d. 1934)
1899 – Randall Thompson, American composer and academic (d. 1984)
1901–present
1903 – Luis Saslavsky, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1904 – Jean Hélion, French painter (d. 1987)
1904 – Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (d. 1945)
1905 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)
1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (d. 2000)
1911 – Kemal Satır, Turkish physician and politician (d. 1991)
1912 – Eve Arnold, Russian-American photojournalist (d. 2012)
1912 – Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1913 – Norman Parkinson, English photographer (d. 1990)
1914 – Angelo Savoldi, Italian-American wrestler and promoter, co-founded International World Class Championship Wrestling (d. 2013)
1915 – Garrett Hardin, American ecologist, author, and academic (d. 2003)
1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (d. 2001)
1916 – Estella B. Diggs, American businesswoman and politician (d. 2013)
1918 – Eddy Christiani, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1919 – Don Cornell, American singer (d. 2004)
1919 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (d. 1981)
1919 – Licio Gelli, Italian financer (d. 2015)
1922 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1922 – Allan Watkins, Welsh-English cricketer (d. 2011)
1923 – John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (d. 2009)
1924 – Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (d. 1965)
1925 – Anthony Mason, Australian soldier and judge, 9th Chief Justice of Australia
1925 – John Swinton of Kimmerghame, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (d. 2018)
1926 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms (d. 2022)
1926 – Arthur Rowley, English footballer, manager, and cricketer (d. 2002)
1927 – Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (d. 1991)
1928 – Jack Evans, Welsh-Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
1930 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (d. 2004)
1930 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
1930 – Dieter Roth, German-Swiss illustrator and sculptor (d. 1998)
1930 – Jack Taylor, English footballer and referee (d. 2012)
1931 – Morgan Wootten, American high school basketball coach (d. 2020)
1932 – Slide Hampton, African-American trombonist and composer (d. 2021)
1932 – Elaine May, American actress, comedian, director, and screenwriter
1932 – Angela Mortimer, English tennis player
1933 – Edelmiro Amante, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator (d. 2023)
1933 – Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (d. 2014)
1935 – Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host (d. 2021)
1935 – Thomas Kean, American academic and politician, 48th Governor of New Jersey
1936 – James Dobson, American evangelist, psychologist, and author, founded Focus on the Family
1936 – Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2009)
1937 – Gary Peters, American baseball player (d. 2023)
1937 – Ben Zinn, Israeli-born American academic and former international soccer player
1939 – John McCabe, English pianist and composer (d. 2015)
1939 – Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, activist, and author
1939 – Reni Santoni, American actor (d. 2020)
1940 – Jacques Caron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1940 – Souleymane Cissé, Malian director, producer, and screenwriter
1941 – David L. Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma
1942 – Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand politician, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
1945 – Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Indian cricketer and umpire
1945 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (d. 2017)
1945 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
1947 – Al Bumbry, American baseball player
1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1947 – John Weider, English bass player
1948 – Gary Condit, American businessman and politician
1948 – Paul Davis, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2008)
1948 – Josef Flammer, Swiss ophthalmologist
1948 – Dieter Fromm, German runner
1949 – Patti LuPone, American actress and singer
1950 – Shivaji Satam, Indian actor
1951 – Tony Danza, American actor and producer
1951 – Michael Freedman, American mathematician and academic
1951 – Bob Varsha, American sportscaster
1951 – Steve Vickers, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Gerald Early, American author and academic
1952 – Cheryl Gillan, British businesswoman and politician, Secretary of State for Wales (d. 2021)
1953 – John Brumby, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Victoria
1954 – Ebiet G. Ade, Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – James Morrison, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1954 – Mike Wingfield, South African academic and scientist
1955 – Murathan Mungan, Turkish author, poet, and playwright
1956 – Peter Kosminsky, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Phillip Longman, German-American demographer and journalist
1957 – Hervé Le Tellier, French linguist and author
1957 – Herbert Wetterauer, German painter, sculptor, and author
1958 – Andie MacDowell, American model, actress, and producer
1958 – Yoshito Usui, Japanese illustrator (d. 2009)
1958 – Michael Zarnock, American author
1959 – Tim Jacobus, American illustrator and painter
1959 – Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – David Servan-Schreiber, French physician, neuroscientist, and author (d. 2011)
1963 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (d. 2004)
1965 – Fiona Kelleghan, American academic, critic and librarian
1969 – Toby Stephens, English actor
1970 – Rob Riggle, American actor and comedian
1971 – Michael Turner, American author and illustrator (d. 2008)
1973 – Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter
1977 – Gyula Koi, Hungarian scholar and educator
1979 – Virginie Basselot, French chef
1979 – James McAvoy, Scottish actor
1980 – Tony Romo, American football player and announcer
1983 – Tarvaris Jackson, American football player (d. 2020)
1988 – Ricky Berens, American swimmer
1988 – Jencarlos Canela, American singer-songwriter and actor
1989 – Nikki Cross, Scottish wrestler
1992 – Isco, Spanish footballer
1992 – Joc Pederson, American baseball player
1994 – Ludwig Augustinsson, Swedish footballer
1996 – Arianne Hartono, Dutch tennis player
1997 – Mikel Oyarzabal, Spanish footballer
1998 – Jarrett Allen, American basketball player
2003 – Xavi Simons, Dutch footballer
2007 – Princess Isabella of Denmark, daughter of King Frederik X and Queen Mary of Denmark
Deaths
Pre-1600
234 – Emperor Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (b. 181)
586 – Liuvigild, king of the Visigoths
847 – Odgar, Frankish archbishop of Mainz
866 – Bardas, de facto regent of the Byzantine Empire
941 – Bajkam, de facto regent of the Abbasid Caliphate
1073 – Pope Alexander II
1109 – Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-English archbishop and saint (b. 1033)
1136 – Stephen, Count of Tréguier Breton noblemen (b. )
1142 – Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (b. 1079)
1213 – Maria of Montpellier, Lady of Montpellier, Queen of Aragon (b. 1182)
1329 – Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1282)
1400 – John Wittlebury, English politician (b. 1333)
1509 – Henry VII of England (b. 1457)
1557 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1495)
1574 – Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519)
1591 – Sen no Rikyū, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
1601–1900
1650 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
1668 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (b. )
1699 – Jean Racine, French playwright and poet (b. 1639)
1719 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
1720 – Antoine Hamilton, Irish-French soldier and author (b. 1646)
1722 – Robert Beverley, Jr., English historian and author (b. 1673)
1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy (b. 1663)
1740 – Thomas Tickell, English poet and author (b. 1685)
1758 – Francesco Zerafa, Maltese architect (b. 1679)
1815 – Joseph Winston, American soldier and politician (b. 1746)
1825 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician and academic (b. 1765)
1852 – Ivan Nabokov, Russian general (b. 1787)
1863 – Sir Robert Bateson, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (b. 1782)
1900 – Vikramatji Khimojiraj, Indian ruler (b. 1819)
1901–present
1910 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (b. 1835)
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (b. 1892)
1924 – Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
1930 – Robert Bridges, English poet and author (b. 1844)
1932 – Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Bohemian cardinal (b. 1864)
1938 – Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani National philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
1941 – Fritz Manteuffel, German gymnast (b. 1875)
1945 – Walter Model, German field marshal (b. 1891)
1946 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist and philosopher (b. 1883)
1948 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author (b. 1887)
1952 – Leslie Banks, American actor, director and producer (b. 1890)
1954 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (b. 1897)
1956 – Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
1965 – Edward Victor Appleton, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1971 – François Duvalier, Haitian physician and politician, 40th President of Haiti (b. 1907)
1973 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
1973 – Kemal Tahir, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1910)
1977 – Gummo Marx, American vaudevillian and talent agent (b. 1892)
1978 – Sandy Denny, English singer-songwriter (b. 1947)
1978 – Thomas Wyatt Turner, American biologist and academic (b. 1877)
1980 – Alexander Oparin, Russian biochemist and academic (b. 1894)
1980 – Sohrab Sepehri, Iranian poet and painter (b. 1928)
1983 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-American actor and singer (b. 1902)
1984 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
1984 – Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian engineer and mountaineer (b. 1943)
1985 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer, created the monokini (b. 1922)
1985 – Tancredo Neves, Brazilian banker and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (b. 1910)
1986 – Marjorie Eaton, American painter and actress (b. 1901)
1986 – Salah Jahin, Egyptian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1930)
1987 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1906)
1990 – Erté, Russian-French illustrator (b. 1892)
1991 – Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor (b. 1909)
1992 – Väinö Linna, Finnish author (b. 1920)
1996 – Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistani cricketer (b. 1925)
1996 – Jimmy Snyder, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
1998 – Jean-François Lyotard, French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1924)
1999 – Buddy Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933)
2005 – Zhang Chunqiao, Chinese writer and politician, member of the Gang of Four (b. 1917)
2010 – Gustav Lorentzen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
2010 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, seventh President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1920)
2010 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan-English engineer and civil servant (b. 1930)
2011 – Catharina Halkes, Dutch theologian and academic (b. 1920)
2012 – Doris Betts, American author and academic (b. 1932)
2013 – Shakuntala Devi, Indian mathematician and astrologer (b. 1929)
2013 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor, author, and educator (b. 1905)
2014 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (b. 1936)
2014 – Win Tin, Burmese journalist and politician, co-founded the National League for Democracy (b. 1930)
2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958)
2017 – Ugo Ehiogu, English footballer (b. 1972)
2018 – Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1900)
2019 – Polly Higgins, Scottish barrister, author and environmental lobbyist (b. 1968)
2024 – Terry A. Anderson, American journalist (b. 1947)
Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Abdecalas
Anastasius Sinaita
Anselm of Canterbury
Beuno
Conrad of Parzham
Holy Infant of Good Health
Shemon Bar Sabbae
Wolbodo
April 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Parilia (ancient Rome)
Civil Service Day (India)
Grounation Day (Rastafari)
Heroic Defense of Veracruz (Mexico)
Kang Pan-sok's Birthday (North Korea)
Kartini Day (Indonesia)
Local Self Government Day (Russia)
National Tea Day (United Kingdom)
National Tree Planting Day (Kenya)
San Jacinto Day (Texas)
Queen or King's Official Birthday (Falkland Islands)
Tiradentes' Day (Brazil)
Vietnam Book Day (Vietnam)
References
Sources
External links
BBC: On This Day
Historical Events on April 21
Days of the year
April |
2484 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATM | ATM | ATM or atm often refers to:
Atmosphere (unit) (symbol atm), a unit of atmospheric pressure
Automated teller machine (ATM), a cash dispenser or cash machine
ATM or atm may also refer to:
Computing, telecommunications, electronics, software
ATM (computer), a ZX Spectrum clone developed in Moscow in 1991
Adobe Type Manager, a computer program for managing fonts
Accelerated Turing machine, or Zeno machine, a model of computation used in theoretical computer science
Alternating Turing machine, a model of computation used in theoretical computer science
Asynchronous Transfer Mode, a telecommunications protocol used in networking
ATM adaptation layer
ATM Adaptation Layer 5
Arts, Entertainment, Media
Amateur Telescope Making (books), a series of books by Albert Graham Ingalls
"ATM" (song), a 2018 song by J. Cole from KOD
@fter Midnight (TV series) (logo: @m -- at-m), U.S. late night comedy celebrity game show
Film
ATM (2012 film), an American film
ATM: Er Rak Error, a 2012 Thai film
Azhagiya Tamil Magan, a 2007 Indian film
Groups, companies, organizations
Abiding Truth Ministries, anti-LGBT organization in Springfield, Massachusetts, US
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, UK
Acrylic Tank Manufacturing, US aquarium manufacturer, televised in Tanked
ATM FA, a football club in Malaysia
Atlético Madrid (abbreviated AtM), football club in Spain
African Transformation Movement, South African political party founded in 2018
The a2 Milk Company (NZX ticker symbol ATM)
Science and engineering
Apollo Telescope Mount, a solar observatory
ATM serine/threonine kinase, a serine/threonine kinase activated by DNA damage
The Airborne Topographic Mapper, a laser altimeter among the instruments used by NASA's Operation IceBridge
Transportation
Active traffic management, a motorway scheme on the M42 in England
Air traffic management, a concept in aviation
Altamira Airport (IATA airport code ATM), Brazil
Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, the municipal public transport company of Milan
Airlines of Tasmania (ICAO airline code ATM)
Catalonia, Spain
Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM Àrea de Barcelona), in the Barcelona metropolitan area
Autoritat Territorial de la Mobilitat del Camp de Tarragona (ATM Camp de Tarragona), in the Camp de Tarragona area
Autoritat Territorial de la Mobilitat de l'Àrea de Girona (ATM Àrea de Girona), in the Girona area
Autoritat Territorial de la Mobilitat de l'Àrea de Lleida (ATM Àrea de Lleida), in the Lleida area
Other uses
A. T. M. Wilson (1906–1978), British psychiatrist
Actun Tunichil Muknal, a cave in Belize
Anti-tank missile, a missile designed to destroy tanks
Ass to mouth, a sexual act
At the money, moneyness where the strike price is the same as the current spot price
At-the-market offering, a type of follow-on offering of stock
Automatenmarken, a variable value stamp
"at the moment" (atm) in the common abbreviation in SMS language
Texas A&M University, whose lettermark resembles "ATM"
See also
ATMS (disambiguation) |
2490 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosius%20Bosschaert | Ambrosius Bosschaert | Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (18 January 1573 – 1621) was a Flemish-born Dutch still life painter and art dealer. He is recognised as one of the earliest painters who created floral still lifes as an independent genre. He founded a dynasty of painters who continued his style of floral and fruit painting and turned Middelburg into the leading centre for flower painting in the Dutch Republic.
Biography
He was born in Antwerp, where he started his career, but he spent most of it in Middelburg (1587–1613), where he moved with his family because of the threat of religious persecution. He specialized in painting still lifes with flowers, which he signed with the monogram AB (the B in the A). At the age of twenty-one, he joined the city's Guild of Saint Luke and later became dean. Not long after, Bosschaert married and established himself as a leading figure in the fashionable floral painting genre.
He had three sons who all became flower painters: Ambrosius II, Johannes and Abraham. His brother-in-law Balthasar van der Ast also lived and worked in his workshop and accompanied him on his travels. Bosschaert later worked in Amsterdam (1614), Bergen op Zoom (1615–1616), Utrecht (1616–1619), and Breda (1619). In 1619 when he moved to Utrecht, his brother-in-law van der Ast entered the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke, where the renowned painter Abraham Bloemaert had just become dean. The painter Roelandt Savery (1576–1639) entered the St. Luke's guild in Utrecht at about the same time. Savery had considerable influence on the Bosschaert dynasty.
After Bosschaert died in The Hague while on commission there for a flower piece, Balthasar van der Ast took over his workshop and pupils in Middelburg.
Style
His bouquets were painted symmetrically and with scientific accuracy in small dimensions and normally on copper. They sometimes included symbolic and religious meanings. At the time of his death, Bosschaert was working on an important commission in the Hague. That piece is now in the collection in Stockholm.
Bosschaert was one of the first artists to specialize in flower still life painting as a stand-alone subject. He started a tradition of painting detailed flower bouquets, which typically included tulips and roses, and inspired the genre of Dutch flower painting. Thanks to the booming seventeenth-century Dutch art market, he became highly successful, as the inscription on one of his paintings attests. His works commanded high prices although he never achieved the level of prestige of Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Antwerp master who contributed to the floral genre.
Legacy
His sons and his pupil and brother-in-law, Balthasar van der Ast, were among those to uphold the Bosschaert dynasty which continued until the mid-17th century.
It may not be a coincidence that this trend coincided with a national obsession with exotic flowers which made flower portraits highly sought after.
Although he was highly in demand, he did not create many pieces because he was also employed as an art dealer.
References
Bibliography
External links
1573 births
1621 deaths
Flemish Baroque painters
Dutch flower artists
Dutch Golden Age painters
Dutch male painters
Painters from Antwerp
Painters from Middelburg
Dutch still life painters
Flemish still life painters |
2501 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendix | Appendix | Appendix (: appendices or appendixes) may refer to:
In documents
Addendum, an addition made to a document by its author after its initial printing or publication
Bibliography, a systematic list of books and other works
Index (publishing), a list of words or phrases with pointers to where related material can be found in a document
Anatomy
Appendix (anatomy), a part of the human digestive system
Arts and media
Appendix (band), a Finnish punk rock group
The Appendix, a quarterly journal of history and culture |
2502 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acantharea | Acantharea | The Acantharea (Acantharia) are a group of radiolarian protozoa, distinguished mainly by their strontium sulfate skeletons. Acantharians are heterotrophic marine microplankton that range in size from about 200 microns in diameter up to several millimeters. Some acantharians have photosynthetic endosymbionts and hence are considered mixotrophs.
Morphology
Acantharian skeletons are composed of strontium sulfate, SrSO4, in the form of mineral celestine crystal. Celestine is named for the delicate blue colour of its crystals, and is the heaviest mineral in the ocean. The denseness of their celestite ensures acantharian shells function as mineral ballast, resulting in fast sedimentation to bathypelagic depths. High settling fluxes of acantharian cysts have been observed at times in the Iceland Basin and the Southern Ocean, as much as half of the total gravitational organic carbon flux.
Acantharian skeletons are composed of strontium sulfate crystals secreted by vacuoles surrounding each spicule or spine. Acantharians are unique among marine organisms for their ability to biomineralize strontium sulfate as the main component of their skeletons.
However, unlike other radiolarians whose skeletons are made of silica, acantharian skeletons do not fossilize, primarily because strontium sulfate is very scarce in seawater and the crystals dissolve after the acantharians die. The arrangement of the spines is very precise, and is described by what is called the Müllerian law, which can be described in terms of lines of latitude and longitude – the spines lie on the intersections between five of the former, symmetric about an equator, and eight of the latter, spaced uniformly. Each line of longitude carries either two tropical spines or one equatorial and two polar spines, in alternation.
The cell cytoplasm is divided into two regions: the endoplasm and the ectoplasm. The endoplasm, at the core of the cell, contains the main organelles, including many nuclei, and is delineated from the ectoplasm by a capsular wall made of a microfibril mesh. In symbiotic species, the algal symbionts are maintained in the endoplasm. The ectoplasm consists of cytoplasmic extensions used for prey capture and also contains food vacuoles for prey digestion. The ectoplasm is surrounded by a periplasmic cortex, also made up of microfibrils, but arranged into twenty plates, each with a hole through which one spicule projects. The cortex is linked to the spines by contractile myonemes, which assist in buoyancy control by allowing the ectoplasm to expand and contract, increasing and decreasing the total volume of the cell.
Taxonomy
The way that the spines are joined at the center of the cell varies and is one of the primary characteristics by which acantharians are classified. The skeletons are made up of either ten diametric or twenty radial spicules. Diametric spicules cross the center of the cell, whereas radial spicules terminate at the center of the cell where they either form a tight or flexible junction depending on species. Acantharians with diametric spicules or loosely attached radial spicules are able to rearrange or shed spicules and form cysts.
Holacanthida – 10 diametric spicules, simply crossed, no central junction, capable of encystment
Chaunacanthida – 20 radial spicules, loosely attached, capable of encystment
Symphiacanthida – 20 radial spicules, tight central junction
Arthracanthida – 20 radial spines, tight central junction
The morphological classification system roughly agrees with phylogenetic trees based on the alignment of ribosomal RNA genes, although the groups are mostly polyphyletic. Holacanthida seems to have evolved first and includes molecular clades A, B, and D. Chaunacanthida evolved second and includes only one molecular clade, clade C. Arthracanthida and Symphacanthida, which have the most complex skeletons, evolved most recently and constitute molecular clades E and F.
Symbiosis
Many acantharians, including some in clade B (Holacanthida) and all in clades E & F (Symphiacanthida and Arthracanthida), host single-celled algae within their inner cytoplasm (endoplasm). By participating in this photosymbiosis, acantharians are essentially mixotrophs: they acquire energy through both heterotrophy and autotrophy. The relationship may make it possible for acantharians to be abundant in low-nutrient regions of the oceans and may also provide extra energy necessary to maintain their elaborate strontium sulfate skeletons. It is hypothesized that the acantharians provide the algae with nutrients (N & P) that they acquire by capturing and digesting prey in return for sugar that the algae produces during photosynthesis. It is not known, however, whether the algal symbionts benefit from the relationship or if they are simply being exploited and then digested by the acantharians.
Symbiotic Holacanthida acantharians host diverse symbiont assemblages, including several genera of dinoflagellates (Pelagodinium, Heterocapsa, Scrippsiella, Azadinium) and a haptophyte (Chrysochromulina). Clade E & F acantharians have a more specific symbiosis and primarily host symbionts from the haptophyte genus Phaeocystis, although they sometimes also host Chrysochromulina symbionts. Clade F acantharians simultaneously host multiple species and strains of Phaeocystis and their internal symbiont community does not necessarily match the relative availability of potential symbionts in the surrounding environment. The mismatch between internal and external symbiont communities suggests that acantharians can be selective in choosing symbionts and probably do not continuously digest and recruit new symbionts, and maintain symbionts for extended periods of time instead.
Life cycle
Adults are usually multinucleated. Earlier diverging clades are able to shed their spines and form cysts, which are often referred to as reproductive cysts. Reproduction is thought to take place by formation of swarmer cells (formerly referred to as "spores"), which may be flagellate, and cysts have been observed to release these swarmers. Non-encysted cells have also been seen releasing swarmers in laboratory conditions. Not all life cycle stages have been observed, however, and no one has witnessed the fusion of swarmers to produce a new acantharian. Cysts are often found in sediment traps and it is therefore believed that the cysts help acantharians sink into deep water. Genetic data and some imaging suggests that non-cyst-forming acantharians may also sink to deep water to release swarmers. Releasing swarmer cells in deeper water may improve the survival chances of juveniles. Study of these organisms has been hampered mainly by an inability to "close the lifecycle" and maintain these organisms in culture through successive generations.
References |
2506 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous%20communication | Asynchronous communication | In telecommunications, asynchronous communication is transmission of data, generally without the use of an external clock signal, where data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. Any timing required to recover data from the communication symbols is encoded within the symbols.
The most significant aspect of asynchronous communications is that data is not transmitted at regular intervals, thus making possible variable bit rate, and that the transmitter and receiver clock generators do not have to be exactly synchronized all the time. In asynchronous transmission, data is sent one byte at a time and each byte is preceded by start and stop bits.
Physical layer
In asynchronous serial communication in the physical protocol layer, the data blocks are code words of a certain word length, for example octets (bytes) or ASCII characters, delimited by start bits and stop bits. A variable length space can be inserted between the code words. No bit synchronization signal is required. This is sometimes called character oriented communication. Examples include MNP2 and modems older than V.2.
Data link layer and higher
Asynchronous communication at the data link layer or higher protocol layers is known as statistical multiplexing, for example Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). In this case, the asynchronously transferred blocks are called data packets, for example ATM cells. The opposite is circuit switched communication, which provides constant bit rate, for example ISDN and SONET/SDH.
The packets may be encapsulated in a data frame, with a frame synchronization bit sequence indicating the start of the frame, and sometimes also a bit synchronization bit sequence, typically 01010101, for identification of the bit transition times. Note that at the physical layer, this is considered as synchronous serial communication. Examples of packet mode data link protocols that can be/are transferred using synchronous serial communication are the HDLC, Ethernet, PPP and USB protocols.
Application layer
An asynchronous communication service or application does not require a constant bit rate. Examples are file transfer, email and the World Wide Web. An example of the opposite, a synchronous communication service, is realtime streaming media, for example IP telephony, IPTV and video conferencing.
Electronically mediated communication
Electronically mediated communication often happens asynchronously in that the participants do not communicate concurrently. Examples include email
and bulletin-board systems, where participants send or post messages at different times than they read them. The term "asynchronous communication" acquired currency in the field of online learning, where teachers and students often exchange information asynchronously instead of synchronously (that is, simultaneously), as they would in face-to-face or in telephone conversations.
See also
Synchronization in telecommunications
Asynchronous serial communication
Asynchronous system
Asynchronous circuit
Anisochronous
Baud rate
Plesiochronous
Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH)
References
Synchronization
Telecommunications techniques |
2508 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery | Artillery | Artillery are ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
Originally, the word "artillery" referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannon, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, and mortars (collectively called barrel artillery, cannon artillery or gun artillery) and rocket artillery. In common speech, the word "artillery" is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly called "equipment". However, there is no generally recognized generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: the United States uses "artillery piece", but most English-speaking armies use "gun" and "mortar". The projectiles fired are typically either "shot" (if solid) or "shell" (if not solid). Historically, variants of solid shot including canister, chain shot and grapeshot were also used. "Shell" is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions.
By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines. In some armies, the artillery arm has operated field, coastal, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank artillery; in others these have been separate arms, and with some nations coastal has been a naval or marine responsibility.
In the 20th century, target acquisition devices (such as radar) and techniques (such as sound ranging and flash spotting) emerged, primarily for artillery. These are usually utilized by one or more of the artillery arms. The widespread adoption of indirect fire in the early 20th century introduced the need for specialist data for field artillery, notably survey and meteorological, and in some armies, provision of these are the responsibility of the artillery arm. The majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was "the god of war".
Artillery piece
Although not called by that name, siege engines performing the role recognizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first known catapult was developed in Syracuse in 399 BC. Until the introduction of gunpowder into western warfare, artillery was dependent upon mechanical energy which not only severely limited the kinetic energy of the projectiles, it also required the construction of very large engines to accumulate sufficient energy. A 1st-century BC Roman catapult launching stones achieved a kinetic energy of 16 kilojoules, compared to a mid-19th-century 12-pounder gun, which fired a round, with a kinetic energy of 240 kilojoules, or a 20th-century US battleship that fired a projectile from its main battery with an energy level surpassing 350 megajoules.
From the Middle Ages through most of the modern era, artillery pieces on land were moved by horse-drawn gun carriages. In the contemporary era, artillery pieces and their crew relied on wheeled or tracked vehicles as transportation. These land versions of artillery were dwarfed by railway guns; the largest of these large-calibre guns ever conceived – Project Babylon of the Supergun affair – was theoretically capable of putting a satellite into orbit. Artillery used by naval forces has also changed significantly, with missiles generally replacing guns in surface warfare.
Over the course of military history, projectiles were manufactured from a wide variety of materials, into a wide variety of shapes, using many different methods in which to target structural/defensive works and inflict enemy casualties. The engineering applications for ordnance delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, encompassing some of the most complex and advanced technologies in use today.
In some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the equipment that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery. The actions involved in operating an artillery piece are collectively called "serving the gun" by the "detachment" or gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The manner in which gunnery crews (or formations) are employed is called artillery support. At different periods in history, this may refer to weapons designed to be fired from ground-, sea-, and even air-based weapons platforms.
Crew
Some armed forces use the term "gunners" for the soldiers and sailors with the primary function of using artillery.
The gunners and their guns are usually grouped in teams called either "crews" or "detachments". Several such crews and teams with other functions are combined into a unit of artillery, usually called a battery, although sometimes called a company. In gun detachments, each role is numbered, starting with "1" the Detachment Commander, and the highest number being the Coverer, the second-in-command. "Gunner" is also the lowest rank, and junior non-commissioned officers are "Bombardiers" in some artillery arms.
Batteries are roughly equivalent to a company in the infantry, and are combined into larger military organizations for administrative and operational purposes, either battalions or regiments, depending on the army. These may be grouped into brigades; the Russian army also groups some brigades into artillery divisions, and the People's Liberation Army has artillery corps.
The term "artillery" also designates a combat arm of most military services when used organizationally to describe units and formations of the national armed forces that operate the weapons.
Tactics
During military operations, field artillery has the role of providing support to other arms in combat or of attacking targets, particularly in-depth. Broadly, these effects fall into two categories, aiming either to suppress or neutralize the enemy, or to cause casualties, damage, and destruction. This is mostly achieved by delivering high-explosive munitions to suppress, or inflict casualties on the enemy from casing fragments and other debris and from blast, or by destroying enemy positions, equipment, and vehicles. Non-lethal munitions, notably smoke, can also suppress or neutralize the enemy by obscuring their view.
Fire may be directed by an artillery observer or another observer, including crewed and uncrewed aircraft, or called onto map coordinates.
Military doctrine has had a significant influence on the core engineering design considerations of artillery ordnance through its history, in seeking to achieve a balance between the delivered volume of fire with ordnance mobility. However, during the modern period, the consideration of protecting the gunners also arose due to the late-19th-century introduction of the new generation of infantry weapons using conoidal bullet, better known as the Minié ball, with a range almost as long as that of field artillery.
The gunners' increasing proximity to and participation in direct combat against other combat arms and attacks by aircraft made the introduction of a gun shield necessary. The problems of how to employ a fixed or horse-towed gun in mobile warfare necessitated the development of new methods of transporting the artillery into combat. Two distinct forms of artillery were developed: the towed gun, used primarily to attack or defend a fixed-line; and the self-propelled gun, intended to accompany a mobile force and to provide continuous fire support and/or suppression. These influences have guided the development of artillery ordnance, systems, organizations, and operations until the present, with artillery systems capable of providing support at ranges from as little as 100 m to the intercontinental ranges of ballistic missiles. The only combat in which artillery is unable to take part is close-quarters combat, with the possible exception of artillery reconnaissance teams.
Etymology
The word as used in the current context originated in the Middle Ages. One suggestion is that it comes from French atelier, meaning the place where manual work is done.
Another suggestion is that it originates from the 13th century and the Old French artillier, designating craftsmen and manufacturers of all materials and warfare equipments (spears, swords, armor, war machines); and, for the next 250 years, the sense of the word "artillery" covered all forms of military weapons. Hence, the naming of the Honourable Artillery Company, which was essentially an infantry unit until the 19th century.
Another suggestion is that it comes from the Italian arte de tirare (art of shooting), coined by one of the first theorists on the use of artillery, Niccolò Tartaglia.
History
Mechanical systems used for throwing ammunition in ancient warfare, also known as "engines of war", like the catapult, onager, trebuchet, and ballista, are also referred to by military historians as artillery.
Medieval
During medieval times, more types of artillery were developed, most notably the trebuchet. Traction trebuchets, using manpower to launch projectiles, have been used in ancient China since the 4th century as anti-personnel weapons. However, in the 12th century, the counterweight trebuchet was introduced, with the earliest mention of it being in 1187.
Invention of gunpowder
Early Chinese artillery had vase-like shapes. This includes the "long range awe inspiring" cannon dated from 1350 and found in the 14th century Ming Dynasty treatise Huolongjing. With the development of better metallurgy techniques, later cannons abandoned the vase shape of early Chinese artillery. This change can be seen in the bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon", an early example of field artillery. These small, crude weapons diffused into the Middle East (the madfaa) and reached Europe in the 13th century, in a very limited manner.
In Asia, Mongols adopted the Chinese artillery and used it effectively in the great conquest. By the late 14th century, Chinese rebels used organized artillery and cavalry to push Mongols out.
As small smooth-bore barrels, these were initially cast in iron or bronze around a core, with the first drilled bore ordnance recorded in operation near Seville in 1247. They fired lead, iron, or stone balls, sometimes large arrows and on occasions simply handfuls of whatever scrap came to hand. During the Hundred Years' War, these weapons became more common, initially as the bombard and later the cannon. Cannon were always muzzle-loaders. While there were many early attempts at breech-loading designs, a lack of engineering knowledge rendered these even more dangerous to use than muzzle-loaders.
Expansion of use
In 1415, the Portuguese invaded the Mediterranean port town of Ceuta. While it is difficult to confirm the use of firearms in the siege of the city, it is known the Portuguese defended it thereafter with firearms, namely bombardas, colebratas, and falconetes. In 1419, Sultan Abu Sa'id led an army to reconquer the fallen city, and Marinids brought cannons and used them in the assault on Ceuta. Finally, hand-held firearms and riflemen appear in Morocco, in 1437, in an expedition against the people of Tangiers. It is clear these weapons had developed into several different forms, from small guns to large artillery pieces.
The artillery revolution in Europe caught on during the Hundred Years' War and changed the way that battles were fought. In the preceding decades, the English had even used a gunpowder-like weapon in military campaigns against the Scottish. However, at this time, the cannons used in battle were very small and not particularly powerful. Cannons were only useful for the defense of a castle, as demonstrated at Breteuil in 1356, when the besieged English used a cannon to destroy an attacking French assault tower. By the end of the 14th century, cannon were only powerful enough to knock in roofs, and could not penetrate castle walls.
However, a major change occurred between 1420 and 1430, when artillery became much more powerful and could now batter strongholds and fortresses quite efficiently. The English, French, and Burgundians all advanced in military technology, and as a result the traditional advantage that went to the defense in a siege was lost. The cannon during this period were elongated, and the recipe for gunpowder was improved to make it three times as powerful as before. These changes led to the increased power in the artillery weapons of the time.
Joan of Arc encountered gunpowder weaponry several times. When she led the French against the English at the Battle of Tourelles, in 1430, she faced heavy gunpowder fortifications, and yet her troops prevailed in that battle. In addition, she led assaults against the English-held towns of Jargeau, Meung, and Beaugency, all with the support of large artillery units. When she led the assault on Paris, Joan faced stiff artillery fire, especially from the suburb of St. Denis, which ultimately led to her defeat in this battle. In April 1430, she went to battle against the Burgundians, whose support was purchased by the English. At this time, the Burgundians had the strongest and largest gunpowder arsenal among the European powers, and yet the French, under Joan of Arc's leadership, were able to beat back the Burgundians and defend themselves. As a result, most of the battles of the Hundred Years' War that Joan of Arc participated in were fought with gunpowder artillery.
The army of Mehmet the Conqueror, which conquered Constantinople in 1453, included both artillery and foot soldiers armed with gunpowder weapons. The Ottomans brought to the siege sixty-nine guns in fifteen separate batteries and trained them at the walls of the city. The barrage of Ottoman cannon fire lasted forty days, and they are estimated to have fired 19,320 times. Artillery also played a decisive role in the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs of 1444. Early cannon were not always reliable; King James II of Scotland was killed by the accidental explosion of one of his own cannon, imported from Flanders, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle in 1460.
The able use of artillery supported to a large measure the expansion and defense of the Portuguese Empire, as it was a necessary tool that allowed the Portuguese to face overwhelming odds both on land and sea from Morocco to Asia. In great sieges and in sea battles, the Portuguese demonstrated a level of proficiency in the use of artillery after the beginning of the 16th century unequalled by contemporary European neighbours, in part due to the experience gained in intense fighting in Morocco, which served as a proving ground for artillery and its practical application, and made Portugal a forerunner in gunnery for decades. During the reign of King Manuel (1495–1521) at least 2017 cannon were sent to Morocco for garrison defense, with more than 3000 cannon estimated to have been required during that 26-year period. An especially noticeable division between siege guns and anti-personnel guns enhanced the use and effectiveness of Portuguese firearms above contemporary powers, making cannon the most essential element in the Portuguese arsenal.
The three major classes of Portuguese artillery were anti-personnel guns with a high borelength (including: rebrodequim, berço, falconete, falcão, sacre, áspide, cão, serpentina and passavolante); bastion guns which could batter fortifications (camelete, leão, pelicano, basilisco, águia, camelo, roqueira, urso); and howitzers that fired large stone cannonballs in an elevated arch, weighted up to 4000 pounds and could fire incendiary devices, such as a hollow iron ball filled with pitch and fuse, designed to be fired at close range and burst on contact. The most popular in Portuguese arsenals was the berço, a 5 cm, one pounder bronze breech-loading cannon that weighted 150 kg with an effective range of 600 meters.
A tactical innovation the Portuguese introduced in fort defense was the use of combinations of projectiles against massed assaults. Although canister shot had been developed in the early 15th century, the Portuguese were the first to employ it extensively, and Portuguese engineers invented a canister round which consisted of a thin lead case filled with iron pellets, that broke up at the muzzle and scattered its contents in a narrow pattern. An innovation which Portugal adopted in advance of other European powers was fuse-delayed action shells, and were commonly used in 1505. Although dangerous, their effectiveness meant a sixth of all rounds used by the Portuguese in Morocco were of the fused-shell variety.
The new Ming Dynasty established the "Divine Engine Battalion" (神机营), which specialized in various types of artillery. Light cannons and cannons with multiple volleys were developed. In a campaign to suppress a local minority rebellion near today's Burmese border, "the Ming army used a 3-line method of arquebuses/muskets to destroy an elephant formation".
When the Portuguese and Spanish arrived at Southeast Asia, they found that the local kingdoms were already using cannons. Portuguese and Spanish invaders were unpleasantly surprised and even outgunned on occasion. Duarte Barbosa ca. 1514 said that the inhabitants of Java were great masters in casting artillery and very good artillerymen. They made many one-pounder cannons (cetbang or rentaka), long muskets, spingarde (arquebus), schioppi (hand cannon), Greek fire, guns (cannons), and other fire-works. Every place was considered excellent in casting artillery, and in the knowledge of using it. In 1513, the Javanese fleet led by Pati Unus sailed to attack Portuguese Malacca "with much artillery made in Java, for the Javanese are skilled in founding and casting, and in all works in iron, over and above what they have in India". By the early 16th century, the Javanese already locally-producing large guns, some of them still survived until the present day and dubbed as "sacred cannon" or "holy cannon". These cannons varied between 180 and 260 pounders, weighing anywhere between 3–8 tons, measuring between 3–6 m.
Between 1593 and 1597, about 200,000 Korean and Chinese troops which fought against Japan in Korea actively used heavy artillery in both siege and field combat. Korean forces mounted artillery in ships as naval guns, providing an advantage against Japanese navy which used Kunikuzushi (国崩し – Japanese breech-loading swivel gun) and Ōzutsu (大筒 – large size Tanegashima) as their largest firearms.
Smoothbores
Bombards were of value mainly in sieges. A famous Turkish example used at the siege of Constantinople in 1453 weighed 19 tons, took 200 men and sixty oxen to emplace, and could fire just seven times a day. The Fall of Constantinople was perhaps "the first event of supreme importance whose result was determined by the use of artillery" when the huge bronze cannons of Mehmed II breached the city's walls, ending the Byzantine Empire, according to Sir Charles Oman.
Bombards developed in Europe were massive smoothbore weapons distinguished by their lack of a field carriage, immobility once emplaced, highly individual design, and noted unreliability (in 1460 James II, King of Scots, was killed when one exploded at the siege of Roxburgh). Their large size precluded the barrels being cast and they were constructed out of metal staves or rods bound together with hoops like a barrel, giving their name to the gun barrel.
The use of the word "cannon" marks the introduction in the 15th century of a dedicated field carriage with axle, trail and animal-drawn limber—this produced mobile field pieces that could move and support an army in action, rather than being found only in the siege and static defenses. The reduction in the size of the barrel was due to improvements in both iron technology and gunpowder manufacture, while the development of trunnions—projections at the side of the cannon as an integral part of the cast—allowed the barrel to be fixed to a more movable base, and also made raising or lowering the barrel much easier.
The first land-based mobile weapon is usually credited to Jan Žižka, who deployed his oxen-hauled cannon during the Hussite Wars of Bohemia (1418–1424). However, cannons were still large and cumbersome. With the rise of musketry in the 16th century, cannon were largely (though not entirely) displaced from the battlefield—the cannon were too slow and cumbersome to be used and too easily lost to a rapid enemy advance.
The combining of shot and powder into a single unit, a cartridge, occurred in the 1620s with a simple fabric bag, and was quickly adopted by all nations. It speeded loading and made it safer, but unexpelled bag fragments were an additional fouling in the gun barrel and a new tool—a worm—was introduced to remove them. Gustavus Adolphus is identified as the general who made cannon an effective force on the battlefield—pushing the development of much lighter and smaller weapons and deploying them in far greater numbers than previously. The outcome of battles was still determined by the clash of infantry.
Shells, explosive-filled fused projectiles, were in use by the 15th century. The development of specialized pieces—shipboard artillery, howitzers and mortars—was also begun in this period. More esoteric designs, like the multi-barrel ribauldequin (known as "organ guns"), were also produced.
The 1650 book by Kazimierz Siemienowicz Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima was one of the most important contemporary publications on the subject of artillery. For over two centuries this work was used in Europe as a basic artillery manual.
One of the most significant effects of artillery during this period was however somewhat more indirect—by easily reducing to rubble any medieval-type fortification or city wall (some which had stood since Roman times), it abolished millennia of siege-warfare strategies and styles of fortification building. This led, among other things, to a frenzy of new bastion-style fortifications to be built all over Europe and in its colonies, but also had a strong integrating effect on emerging nation-states, as kings were able to use their newfound artillery superiority to force any local dukes or lords to submit to their will, setting the stage for the absolutist kingdoms to come.
Modern rocket artillery can trace its heritage back to the Mysorean rockets of Mysore. Their first recorded use was in 1780 during the battles of the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars. The wars fought between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore in India made use of the rockets as a weapon. In the Battle of Pollilur, the Siege of Seringapatam (1792) and in Battle of Seringapatam in 1799, these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British. After the wars, several Mysore rockets were sent to England, but experiments with heavier payloads were unsuccessful. In 1804 William Congreve, considering the Mysorian rockets to have too short a range (less than 1,000 yards) developed rockets in numerous sizes with ranges up to 3,000 yards and eventually utilizing iron casing as the Congreve rocket which were used effectively during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Napoleonic
With the Napoleonic Wars, artillery experienced changes in both physical design and operation. Rather than being overseen by "mechanics", artillery was viewed as its own service branch with the capability of dominating the battlefield. The success of the French artillery companies was at least in part due to the presence of specially trained artillery officers leading and coordinating during the chaos of battle. Napoleon, himself a former artillery officer, perfected the tactic of massed artillery batteries unleashed upon a critical point in his enemies' line as a prelude to a decisive infantry and cavalry assault.
Physically, cannons continued to become smaller and lighter. During the Seven Years War, King Frederick II of Prussia used these advances to deploy horse artillery that could move throughout the battlefield. Frederick also introduced the reversible iron ramrod, which was much more resistant to breakage than older wooden designs. The reversibility aspect also helped increase the rate of fire, since a soldier would no longer have to worry about what end of the ramrod they were using.
Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval, a French artillery engineer, introduced the standardization of cannon design in the mid-18th century. He developed a 6-inch (150 mm) field howitzer whose gun barrel, carriage assembly and ammunition specifications were made uniform for all French cannons. The standardized interchangeable parts of these cannons down to the nuts, bolts and screws made their mass production and repair much easier. While the Gribeauval system made for more efficient production and assembly, the carriages used were heavy and the gunners were forced to march on foot (instead of riding on the limber and gun as in the British system). Each cannon was named for the weight of its projectiles, giving us variants such as 4, 8, and 12, indicating the weight in pounds. The projectiles themselves included solid balls or canister containing lead bullets or other material. These canister shots acted as massive shotguns, peppering the target with hundreds of projectiles at close range. The solid balls, known as round shot, was most effective when fired at shoulder-height across a flat, open area. The ball would tear through the ranks of the enemy or bounce along the ground breaking legs and ankles.
Modern
The development of modern artillery occurred in the mid to late 19th century as a result of the convergence of various improvements in the underlying technology. Advances in metallurgy allowed for the construction of breech-loading rifled guns that could fire at a much greater muzzle velocity.
After the British artillery was shown up in the Crimean War as having barely changed since the Napoleonic Wars, the industrialist William Armstrong was awarded a contract by the government to design a new piece of artillery. Production started in 1855 at the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, and the outcome was the revolutionary Armstrong Gun, which marked the birth of modern artillery. Three of its features particularly stand out.
First, the piece was rifled, which allowed for a much more accurate and powerful action. Although rifling had been tried on small arms since the 15th century, the necessary machinery to accurately rifle artillery was not available until the mid-19th century. Martin von Wahrendorff, and Joseph Whitworth independently produced rifled cannon in the 1840s, but it was Armstrong's gun that was first to see widespread use during the Crimean War. The cast iron shell of the Armstrong gun was similar in shape to a Minié ball and had a thin lead coating which made it fractionally larger than the gun's bore and which engaged with the gun's rifling grooves to impart spin to the shell. This spin, together with the elimination of windage as a result of the tight fit, enabled the gun to achieve greater range and accuracy than existing smooth-bore muzzle-loaders with a smaller powder charge.
His gun was also a breech-loader. Although attempts at breech-loading mechanisms had been made since medieval times, the essential engineering problem was that the mechanism could not withstand the explosive charge. It was only with the advances in metallurgy and precision engineering capabilities during the Industrial Revolution that Armstrong was able to construct a viable solution. The gun combined all the properties that make up an effective artillery piece. The gun was mounted on a carriage in such a way as to return the gun to firing position after the recoil.
What made the gun really revolutionary lay in the technique of the construction of the gun barrel that allowed it to withstand much more powerful explosive forces. The "built-up" method involved assembling the barrel with wrought-iron (later mild steel was used) tubes of successively smaller diameter. The tube would then be heated to allow it to expand and fit over the previous tube. When it cooled the gun would contract although not back to its original size, which allowed an even pressure along the walls of the gun which was directed inward against the outward forces that the gun's firing exerted on the barrel.
Another innovative feature, more usually associated with 20th-century guns, was what Armstrong called its "grip", which was essentially a squeeze bore; the 6 inches of the bore at the muzzle end was of slightly smaller diameter, which centered the shell before it left the barrel and at the same time slightly swaged down its lead coating, reducing its diameter and slightly improving its ballistic qualities.
Armstrong's system was adopted in 1858, initially for "special service in the field" and initially he produced only smaller artillery pieces, 6-pounder (2.5 in/64 mm) mountain or light field guns, 9-pounder (3 in/76 mm) guns for horse artillery, and 12-pounder (3 inches /76 mm) field guns.
The first cannon to contain all 'modern' features is generally considered to be the French 75 of 1897. The gun used cased ammunition, was breech-loading, had modern sights, and a self-contained firing mechanism. It was the first field gun to include a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism, which kept the gun's trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence. Since it did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, the crew could fire as soon as the barrel returned to its resting position. In typical use, the French 75 could deliver fifteen rounds per minute on its target, either shrapnel or melinite high-explosive, up to about 5 miles (8,500 m) away. Its firing rate could even reach close to 30 rounds per minute, albeit only for a very short time and with a highly experienced crew. These were rates that contemporary bolt action rifles could not match.
Indirect fire
Indirect fire, the firing of a projectile without relying on direct line of sight between the gun and the target, possibly dates back to the 16th century. Early battlefield use of indirect fire may have occurred at Paltzig in July 1759, when the Russian artillery fired over the tops of trees, and at the Battle of Waterloo, where a battery of the Royal Horse Artillery fired shrapnel indirectly against advancing French troops.
In 1882, Russian Lieutenant Colonel KG Guk published Indirect Fire for Field Artillery, which provided a practical method of using aiming points for indirect fire by describing, "all the essentials of aiming points, crest clearance, and corrections to fire by an observer".
A few years later, the Richtfläche (lining-plane) sight was invented in Germany and provided a means of indirect laying in azimuth, complementing the clinometers for indirect laying in elevation which already existed. Despite conservative opposition within the German army, indirect fire was adopted as doctrine by the 1890s. In the early 1900s, Goertz in Germany developed an optical sight for azimuth laying. It quickly replaced the lining-plane; in English, it became the 'Dial Sight' (UK) or 'Panoramic Telescope' (US).
The British halfheartedly experimented with indirect fire techniques since the 1890s, but with the onset of the Boer War, they were the first to apply the theory in practice in 1899, although they had to improvise without a lining-plane sight.
In the next 15 years leading up to World War I, the techniques of indirect fire became available for all types of artillery. Indirect fire was the defining characteristic of 20th-century artillery and led to undreamt of changes in the amount of artillery, its tactics, organisation, and techniques, most of which occurred during World War I.
An implication of indirect fire and improving guns was increasing range between gun and target, this increased the time of flight and the vertex of the trajectory. The result was decreasing accuracy (the increasing distance between the target and the mean point of impact of the shells aimed at it) caused by the increasing effects of non-standard conditions. Indirect firing data was based on standard conditions including a specific muzzle velocity, zero wind, air temperature and density, and propellant temperature. In practice, this standard combination of conditions almost never existed, they varied throughout the day and day to day, and the greater the time of flight, the greater the inaccuracy. An added complication was the need for survey to accurately fix the coordinates of the gun position and provide accurate orientation for the guns. Of course, targets had to be accurately located, but by 1916, air photo interpretation techniques enabled this, and ground survey techniques could sometimes be used.
In 1914, the methods of correcting firing data for the actual conditions were often convoluted, and the availability of data about actual conditions was rudimentary or non-existent, the assumption was that fire would always be ranged (adjusted). British heavy artillery worked energetically to progressively solve all these problems from late 1914 onwards, and by early 1918, had effective processes in place for both field and heavy artillery. These processes enabled 'map-shooting', later called 'predicted fire'; it meant that effective fire could be delivered against an accurately located target without ranging. Nevertheless, the mean point of impact was still some tens of yards from the target-centre aiming point. It was not precision fire, but it was good enough for concentrations and barrages. These processes remain in use into the 21st century with refinements to calculations enabled by computers and improved data capture about non-standard conditions.
The British Major General Henry Hugh Tudor pioneered armour and artillery cooperation at the breakthrough Battle of Cambrai. The improvements in providing and using data for non-standard conditions (propellant temperature, muzzle velocity, wind, air temperature, and barometric pressure) were developed by the major combatants throughout the war and enabled effective predicted fire. The effectiveness of this was demonstrated by the British in 1917 (at Cambrai) and by Germany the following year (Operation Michael).
Major General J.B.A. Bailey, British Army (retired) wrote:
An estimated 75,000 French soldiers were casualties of friendly artillery fire in the four years of World War I.
Precision-guidance
Modern artillery is most obviously distinguished by its long range, firing an explosive shell or rocket and a mobile carriage for firing and transport. However, its most important characteristic is the use of indirect fire, whereby the firing equipment is aimed without seeing the target through its sights. Indirect fire emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and was greatly enhanced by the development of predicted fire methods in World War I. However, indirect fire was area fire; it was and is not suitable for destroying point targets; its primary purpose is area suppression. Nevertheless, by the late 1970s precision-guided munitions started to appear, notably the US 155 mm Copperhead and its Soviet 152 mm Krasnopol equivalent that had success in Indian service. These relied on laser designation to 'illuminate' the target that the shell homed onto. However, in the early 21st century, the Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled relatively cheap and accurate guidance for shells and missiles, notably the US 155 mm Excalibur and the 227 mm GMLRS rocket. The introduction of these led to a new issue, the need for very accurate three dimensional target coordinates—the mensuration process.
Weapons covered by the term 'modern artillery' include "cannon" artillery (such as howitzer, mortar, and field gun) and rocket artillery. Certain smaller-caliber mortars are more properly designated small arms rather than artillery, albeit indirect-fire small arms. This term also came to include coastal artillery which traditionally defended coastal areas against seaborne attack and controlled the passage of ships. With the advent of powered flight at the start of the 20th century, artillery also included ground-based anti-aircraft batteries.
The term "artillery" has traditionally not been used for projectiles with internal guidance systems, preferring the term "missilery", though some modern artillery units employ surface-to-surface missiles. Advances in terminal guidance systems for small munitions has allowed large-caliber guided projectiles to be developed, blurring this distinction. See Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF), Joint terminal attack controller
Ammunition
One of the most important roles of logistics is the supply of munitions as a primary type of artillery consumable, their storage (ammunition dump, arsenal, magazine
) and the provision of fuzes, detonators and warheads at the point where artillery troops will assemble the charge, projectile, bomb or shell.
A round of artillery ammunition comprises four components:
Fuze
Projectile
Propellant
Primer
Fuzes
Fuzes are the devices that initiate an artillery projectile, either to detonate its High Explosive (HE) filling or eject its cargo (illuminating flare or smoke canisters being examples). The official military spelling is "fuze". Broadly there are four main types:
impact (including graze and delay)
mechanical time including airburst
proximity sensor including airburst
programmable electronic detonation including airburst
Most artillery fuzes are nose fuzes. However, base fuzes have been used with armor-piercing shells and for squash head (High-Explosive Squash Head (HESH) or High Explosive, Plastic (HEP) anti-tank shells). At least one nuclear shell and its non-nuclear spotting version also used a multi-deck mechanical time fuze fitted into its base.
Impact fuzes were, and in some armies remain, the standard fuze for HE projectiles. Their default action is normally 'superquick', some have had a 'graze' action which allows them to penetrate light cover and others have 'delay'. Delay fuzes allow the shell to penetrate the ground before exploding. Armor or Concrete-Piercing (AP or CP) fuzes are specially hardened. During World War I and later, ricochet fire with delay or graze fuzed HE shells, fired with a flat angle of descent, was used to achieve airburst.
HE shells can be fitted with other fuzes. Airburst fuzes usually have a combined airburst and impact function. However, until the introduction of proximity fuzes, the airburst function was mostly used with cargo munitions—for example, shrapnel, illumination, and smoke. The larger calibers of anti-aircraft artillery are almost always used airburst. Airburst fuzes have to have the fuze length (running time) set on them. This is done just before firing using either a wrench or a fuze setter pre-set to the required fuze length.
Early airburst fuzes used igniferous timers which lasted into the second half of the 20th century. Mechanical time fuzes appeared in the early part of the century. These required a means of powering them. The Thiel mechanism used a spring and escapement (i.e. 'clockwork'), Junghans used centrifugal force and gears, and Dixi used centrifugal force and balls. From about 1980, electronic time fuzes started replacing mechanical ones for use with cargo munitions.
Proximity fuzes have been of two types: photo-electric or radar. The former was not very successful and seems only to have been used with British anti-aircraft artillery 'unrotated projectiles' (rockets) in World War II. Radar proximity fuzes were a big improvement over the mechanical (time) fuzes which they replaced. Mechanical time fuzes required an accurate calculation of their running time, which was affected by non-standard conditions. With HE (requiring a burst 20 to above the ground), if this was very slightly wrong the rounds would either hit the ground or burst too high. Accurate running time was less important with cargo munitions that burst much higher.
The first radar proximity fuzes (perhaps originally codenamed 'VT' and later called Variable Time (VT)) were invented by the British and developed by the US and initially used against aircraft in World War II. Their ground use was delayed for fear of the enemy recovering 'blinds' (artillery shells which failed to detonate) and copying the fuze. The first proximity fuzes were designed to detonate about above the ground. These air-bursts are much more lethal against personnel than ground bursts because they deliver a greater proportion of useful fragments and deliver them into terrain where a prone soldier would be protected from ground bursts.
However, proximity fuzes can suffer premature detonation because of the moisture in heavy rain clouds. This led to 'Controlled Variable Time' (CVT) after World War II. These fuzes have a mechanical timer that switched on the radar about 5 seconds before expected impact, they also detonated on impact.
The proximity fuze emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944. They have become known as the U.S. Artillery's "Christmas present", and were much appreciated when they arrived during the Battle of the Bulge. They were also used to great effect in anti-aircraft projectiles in the Pacific against kamikaze as well as in Britain against V-1 flying bombs.
Electronic multi-function fuzes started to appear around 1980. Using solid-state electronics they were relatively cheap and reliable, and became the standard fitted fuze in operational ammunition stocks in some western armies. The early versions were often limited to proximity airburst, albeit with height of burst options, and impact. Some offered a go/no-go functional test through the fuze setter.
Later versions introduced induction fuze setting and testing instead of physically placing a fuze setter on the fuze. The latest, such as Junghan's DM84U provide options giving, superquick, delay, a choice of proximity heights of burst, time and a choice of foliage penetration depths.
Projectiles
The projectile is the munition or "bullet" fired downrange. This may be an explosive device. Projectiles have traditionally been classified as "shot" or "shell", the former being solid and the latter having some form of "payload".
Shells can be divided into three configurations: bursting, base ejection or nose ejection. The latter is sometimes called the shrapnel configuration. The most modern is base ejection, which was introduced in World War I. Base and nose ejection are almost always used with airburst fuzes. Bursting shells use various types of fuze depending on the nature of the payload and the tactical need at the time.
Payloads have included:
Bursting: high-explosive, white phosphorus, coloured marker, chemical, nuclear devices; high-explosive anti-tank and canister may be considered special types of bursting shell.
Nose ejection: shrapnel, star, incendiary and flechette (a more modern version of shrapnel).
Base ejection: Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition bomblets, which arm themselves and function after a set number of rotations after having been ejected from the projectile (this produces unexploded sub-munitions, or "duds", which remain dangerous), scatterable mines, illuminating, coloured flare, smoke, incendiary, propaganda, chaff (foil to jam radars) and modern exotics such as electronic payloads and sensor-fuzed munitions.
Stabilization
Rifled: Artillery projectiles have traditionally been spin-stabilised, meaning that they spin in flight so that gyroscopic forces prevent them from tumbling. Spin is induced by gun barrels having rifling, which engages a soft metal band around the projectile, called a "driving band" (UK) or "rotating band" (U.S.). The driving band is usually made of copper, but synthetic materials have been used.
Smoothbore/fin-stabilized: In modern artillery, smoothbore barrels have been used mostly by mortars. These projectiles use fins in the airflow at their rear to maintain correct orientation. The primary benefits over rifled barrels is reduced barrel wear, longer ranges that can be achieved (due to the reduced loss of energy to friction and gas escaping around the projectile via the rifling) and larger explosive cores for a given caliber artillery due to less metal needing to be used to form the case of the projectile because of less force applied to the shell from the non-rifled sides of the barrel of smooth bore guns.
Rifled/fin-stabilized: A combination of the above can be used, where the barrel is rifled, but the projectile also has deployable fins for stabilization, guidance or gliding.
Propellant
Most forms of artillery require a propellant to propel the projectile at the target. Propellant is always a low explosive, which means it deflagrates, rather than detonating like high explosives. The shell is accelerated to a high velocity in a very short time by the rapid generation of gas from the burning propellant. This high pressure is achieved by burning the propellant in a contained area, either the chamber of a gun barrel or the combustion chamber of a rocket motor.
Until the late 19th century, the only available propellant was black powder. It had many disadvantages as a propellant; it has relatively low power, requiring large amounts of powder to fire projectiles, and created thick clouds of white smoke that would obscure the targets, betray the positions of guns, and make aiming impossible. In 1846, nitrocellulose (also known as guncotton) was discovered, and the high explosive nitroglycerin was discovered at nearly the same time. Nitrocellulose was significantly more powerful than black powder, and was smokeless. Early guncotton was unstable, however, and burned very fast and hot, leading to greatly increased barrel wear. Widespread introduction of smokeless powder would wait until the advent of the double-base powders, which combine nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin to produce powerful, smokeless, stable propellant.
Many other formulations were developed in the following decades, generally trying to find the optimum characteristics of a good artillery propellant – low temperature, high energy, non-corrosive, highly stable, cheap, and easy to manufacture in large quantities. Modern gun propellants are broadly divided into three classes: single-base propellants that are mainly or entirely nitrocellulose based, double-base propellants consisting of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, and triple base composed of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin and nitroguanidine.
Artillery shells fired from a barrel can be assisted to greater range in three ways:
Rocket-assisted projectiles enhance and sustain the projectile's velocity by providing additional 'push' from a small rocket motor that is part of the projectile's base.
Base bleed uses a small pyrotechnic charge at the base of the projectile to introduce sufficient combustion products into the low-pressure region behind the base of the projectile responsible for a large proportion of the drag.
Ramjet-assisted, similar to rocket-assisted, but using a ramjet instead of a rocket motor; it is anticipated that a ramjet-assisted 120-mm mortar shell could reach a range of .
Propelling charges for barrel artillery can be provided either as cartridge bags or in metal cartridge cases. Generally, anti-aircraft artillery and smaller-caliber (up to 3" or 76.2 mm) guns use metal cartridge cases that include the round and propellant, similar to a modern rifle cartridge. This simplifies loading and is necessary for very high rates of fire. Bagged propellant allows the amount of powder to be raised or lowered, depending on the range to the target. It also makes handling of larger shells easier. Cases and bags require totally different types of breech. A metal case holds an integral primer to initiate the propellant and provides the gas seal to prevent the gases leaking out of the breech; this is called obturation. With bagged charges, the breech itself provides obturation and holds the primer. In either case, the primer is usually percussion, but electrical is also used, and laser ignition is emerging. Modern 155 mm guns have a primer magazine fitted to their breech.
Artillery ammunition has four classifications according to use:
Service: ammunition used in live fire training or for wartime use in a combat zone. Also known as "warshot" ammunition.
Practice: Ammunition with a non- or minimally-explosive projectile that mimics the characteristics (range, accuracy) of live rounds for use under training conditions. Practice artillery ammunition often utilizes a colored-smoke-generating bursting charge for marking purposes in place of the normal high-explosive charge.
Dummy: Ammunition with an inert warhead, inert primer, and no propellant; used for training or display.
Blank: Ammunition with live primer, greatly reduced propellant charge (typically black powder), and no projectile; used for training, demonstration or ceremonial use.
Field artillery system
Because modern field artillery mostly uses indirect fire, the guns have to be part of a system that enables them to attack targets invisible to them, in accordance with the combined arms plan.
The main functions in the field artillery system are:
Communications
Command: authority to allocate resources;
Target acquisition: detect, identify and deduce the location of targets;
Control: authority to decide which targets to attack and allot fire units to the attack;
Computation of firing data – to deliver fire from a fire unit onto its target;
Fire units: guns, launchers or mortars grouped together;
Specialist services: produce data to support the production of accurate firing data;
Logistic services: to provide combat supplies, particularly ammunition, and equipment support.
All these calculations to produce a quadrant elevation (or range) and azimuth were done manually using instruments, tabulated, data of the moment, and approximations until battlefield computers started appearing in the 1960s and 1970s. While some early calculators copied the manual method (typically substituting polynomials for tabulated data), computers use a different approach. They simulate a shell's trajectory by 'flying' it in short steps and applying data about the conditions affecting the trajectory at each step. This simulation is repeated until it produces a quadrant elevation and azimuth that lands the shell within the required 'closing' distance of the target coordinates.
NATO has a standard ballistic model for computer calculations and has expanded the scope of this into the NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel (NABK) within the SG2 Shareable (Fire Control) Software Suite (S4).
Logistics
Supply of artillery ammunition has always been a major component of military logistics. Up until World War I some armies made artillery responsible for all forward ammunition supply because the load of small arms ammunition was trivial compared to artillery. Different armies use different approaches to ammunition supply, which can vary with the nature of operations. Differences include where the logistic service transfers artillery ammunition to artillery, the amount of ammunition carried in units and extent to which stocks are held at unit or battery level. A key difference is whether supply is 'push' or 'pull'. In the former the 'pipeline' keeps pushing ammunition into formations or units at a defined rate. In the latter units fire as tactically necessary and replenish to maintain or reach their authorised holding (which can vary), so the logistic system has to be able to cope with surge and slack.
Classification
Artillery types can be categorised in several ways, for example by type or size of weapon or ordnance, by role or by organizational arrangements.
Types of ordnance
The types of cannon artillery are generally distinguished by the velocity at which they fire projectiles.
Types of artillery:
Cannon: The oldest type of artillery with direct firing trajectory.
Bombard: A type of a large calibre, muzzle-loading artillery piece, a cannon or mortar used during sieges to shoot round stone projectiles at the walls of enemy fortifications.
Falconet was a type of light cannon developed in the late 15th century that fired a smaller shot than the similar falcon.
Swivel gun is a type of small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Camel mounted swivel guns called as zamburak were used by the Gunpowder Empires as self-propelled artillery.
Volley gun is a gun with multiple single-shot barrels that volley fired simultaneously or sequentially in quick succession. Although capable of unleashing intense firepower, volley guns differ from modern machine guns in that they lack autoloading and automatic fire mechanisms
Siege artillery: Large-caliber artillery that have limited mobility with indirect firing trajectory, which was used to bombard targets at long distances.
Large-calibre artillery.
Field artillery: Mobile weapons used to support armies in the field. Subcategories include:
Infantry support guns: Directly support infantry units.
Mountain guns: Lightweight guns that can be disassembled and transported through difficult terrain.
Field guns: Capable of long-range direct fires.
Howitzers: Capable of high-angle fire, they are most often employed for indirect-fire.
Gun-howitzers: Capable of high or low-angle fire with a longer barrel.
Mortars: Typically muzzle-loaded, short-barreled, high-trajectory weapons designed primarily for an indirect-fire role.
Gun-mortars: Typically breech-loaded, capable of high or low-angle fire with a longer barrel.
Tank guns: Large-caliber guns mounted on tanks to provide mobile direct fire.
Anti-tank artillery: Guns, usually mobile, designed primarily for direct fire to destroy armored fighting vehicles with heavy armor.
Anti-tank gun: Guns designed for direct fire to destroy tanks and other armored fighting vehicles.
Anti-aircraft artillery: Guns, usually mobile, designed for attacking aircraft by land and/or at sea. Some guns were suitable for the dual roles of anti-aircraft and anti-tank warfare.
Rocket artillery: Launches rockets or missiles, instead of shot or shell.
Railway gun: Large-caliber weapons that are mounted on, transported by and fired from specially-designed railway wagons.
Naval artillery: Guns mounted on warships to be used either against other naval vessels or to bombard coastal targets in support of ground forces. The crowning achievement of naval artillery was the battleship, but the advent of air power and missiles have rendered this type of artillery largely obsolete. They are typically longer-barreled, low-trajectory, high-velocity weapons designed primarily for a direct-fire role.
Coastal artillery: Fixed-position weapons dedicated to defense of a particular location, usually a coast (for example, the Atlantic Wall in World War II) or harbor. Not needing to be mobile, coastal artillery used to be much larger than equivalent field artillery pieces, giving them longer range and more destructive power. Modern coastal artillery (for example, Russia's "Bereg" system) is often self-propelled, (allowing it to avoid counter-battery fire) and fully integrated, meaning that each battery has all of the support systems that it requires (maintenance, targeting radar, etc.) organic to its unit.
Aircraft artillery: Large-caliber guns mounted on attack aircraft, this is typically found on slow-flying gunships.
Nuclear artillery: Artillery which fires nuclear shells.
Modern field artillery can also be split into two other subcategories: towed and self-propelled. As the name suggests, towed artillery has a prime mover, usually an artillery tractor or truck, to move the piece, crew, and ammunition around. Towed artillery is in some cases equipped with an APU for small displacements. Self-propelled artillery is permanently mounted on a carriage or vehicle with room for the crew and ammunition and is thus capable of moving quickly from one firing position to another, both to support the fluid nature of modern combat and to avoid counter-battery fire. It includes mortar carrier vehicles, many of which allow the mortar to be removed from the vehicle and be used dismounted, potentially in terrain in which the vehicle cannot navigate, or in order to avoid detection.
Organizational types
At the beginning of the modern artillery period, the late 19th century, many armies had three main types of artillery, in some case they were sub-branches within the artillery branch in others they were separate branches or corps. There were also other types excluding the armament fitted to warships:
Horse artillery, first formed as regular units in the late 18th century, with the role of supporting cavalry, they were distinguished by the entire crew being mounted.
Field or "foot" artillery, the main artillery arm of the field army, using either guns, howitzers, or mortars. In World War II this branch again started using rockets and later surface to surface missiles.
Fortress or garrison artillery, operated a nation's fixed defences using guns, howitzers or mortars, either on land or coastal frontiers. Some had deployable elements to provide heavy artillery to the field army. In some nations coast defence artillery was a naval responsibility.
Mountain artillery, a few nations treated mountain artillery as a separate branch, in others it was a speciality in another artillery branch. They used light guns or howitzers, usually designed for pack animal transport and easily broken down into small easily handled loads
Naval artillery, some nations carried pack artillery on some warships, these were used and manhandled by naval (or marine) landing parties. At times, part of a ship's armament would be unshipped and mated to makeshift carriages and limbers for actions ashore, for example during the Second Boer War, during the First World War the guns from the stricken SMS Königsberg formed the main artillery strength of the German forces in East Africa.
After World War I many nations merged these different artillery branches, in some cases keeping some as sub-branches. Naval artillery disappeared apart from that belonging to marines. However, two new branches of artillery emerged during that war and its aftermath, both used specialised guns (and a few rockets) and used direct not indirect fire, in the 1950s and 1960s both started to make extensive use of missiles:
Anti-tank artillery, also under various organisational arrangements but typically either field artillery or a specialist branch and additional elements integral to infantry, etc., units. However, in most armies field and anti-aircraft artillery also had at least a secondary anti-tank role. After World War II anti-tank in Western armies became mostly the responsibility of infantry and armoured branches and ceased to be an artillery matter, with some exceptions.
Anti-aircraft artillery, under various organisational arrangements including being part of artillery, a separate corps, even a separate service or being split between army for the field and air force for home defence. In some cases infantry and the new armoured corps also operated their own integral light anti-aircraft artillery. Home defence anti-aircraft artillery often used fixed as well as mobile mountings. Some anti-aircraft guns could also be used as field or anti-tank artillery, providing they had suitable sights.
However, the general switch by artillery to indirect fire before and during World War I led to a reaction in some armies. The result was accompanying or infantry guns. These were usually small, short range guns, that could be easily man-handled and used mostly for direct fire but some could use indirect fire. Some were operated by the artillery branch but under command of the supported unit. In World War II they were joined by self-propelled assault guns, although other armies adopted infantry or close support tanks in armoured branch units for the same purpose, subsequently tanks generally took on the accompanying role.
Equipment types
The three main types of artillery "gun" are field guns, howitzers, and mortars. During the 20th century, guns and howitzers have steadily merged in artillery use, making a distinction between the terms somewhat meaningless. By the end of the 20th century, true guns with calibers larger than about 60 mm have become very rare in artillery use, the main users being tanks, ships, and a few residual anti-aircraft and coastal guns. The term "cannon" is a United States generic term that includes guns, howitzers, and mortars; it is not used in other English speaking armies.
The traditional definitions differentiated between guns and howitzers in terms of maximum elevation (well less than 45° as opposed to close to or greater than 45°), number of charges (one or more than one charge), and having higher or lower muzzle velocity, sometimes indicated by barrel length. These three criteria give eight possible combinations, of which guns and howitzers are but two. However, modern "howitzers" have higher velocities and longer barrels than the equivalent "guns" of the first half of the 20th century.
True guns are characterized by long range, having a maximum elevation significantly less than 45°, a high muzzle velocity and hence a relatively long barrel, smooth bore (no rifling) and a single charge. The latter often led to fixed ammunition where the projectile is locked to the cartridge case. There is no generally accepted minimum muzzle velocity or barrel length associated with a gun.
Howitzers can fire at maximum elevations at least close to 45°; elevations up to about 70° are normal for modern howitzers. Howitzers also have a choice of charges, meaning that the same elevation angle of fire will achieve a different range depending on the charge used. They have rifled bores, lower muzzle velocities and shorter barrels than equivalent guns. All this means they can deliver fire with a steep angle of descent. Because of their multi-charge capability, their ammunition is mostly separate loading (the projectile and propellant are loaded separately).
That leaves six combinations of the three criteria, some of which have been termed gun howitzers. A term first used in the 1930s when howitzers with a relatively high maximum muzzle velocities were introduced, it never became widely accepted, most armies electing to widen the definition of "gun" or "howitzer". By the 1960s, most equipment had maximum elevations up to about 70°, were multi-charge, had quite high maximum muzzle velocities and relatively long barrels.
Mortars are simpler. The modern mortar originated in World War I and there were several patterns. After that war, most mortars settled on the Stokes pattern, characterized by a short barrel, smooth bore, low muzzle velocity, elevation angle of firing generally greater than 45°, and a very simple and light mounting using a "baseplate" on the ground. The projectile with its integral propelling charge was dropped down the barrel from the muzzle to hit a fixed firing pin. Since that time, a few mortars have become rifled and adopted breech loading.
There are other recognized typifying characteristics for artillery. One such characteristic is the type of obturation used to seal the chamber and prevent gases escaping through the breech. This may use a metal cartridge case that also holds the propelling charge, a configuration called "QF" or "quickfiring" by some nations. The alternative does not use a metal cartridge case, the propellant being merely bagged or in combustible cases with the breech itself providing all the sealing. This is called "BL" or "breech loading" by some nations.
A second characteristic is the form of propulsion. Modern equipment can either be towed or self-propelled (SP). A towed gun fires from the ground and any inherent protection is limited to a gun shield. Towing by horse teams lasted throughout World War II in some armies, but others were fully mechanized with wheeled or tracked gun towing vehicles by the outbreak of that war. The size of a towing vehicle depends on the weight of the equipment and the amount of ammunition it has to carry.
A variation of towed is portee, where the vehicle carries the gun which is dismounted for firing. Mortars are often carried this way. A mortar is sometimes carried in an armored vehicle and can either fire from it or be dismounted to fire from the ground. Since the early 1960s it has been possible to carry lighter towed guns and most mortars by helicopter. Even before that, they were parachuted or landed by glider from the time of the first airborne trials in the USSR in the 1930s.
In SP equipment, the gun is an integral part of the vehicle that carries it. SPs first appeared during World War I, but did not really develop until World War II. They are mostly tracked vehicles, but wheeled SPs started to appear in the 1970s. Some SPs have no armor and carry few or no other weapons and ammunition. Armored SPs usually carry a useful ammunition load. Early armored SPs were mostly a "casemate" configuration, in essence an open top armored box offering only limited traverse. However, most modern armored SPs have a full enclosed armored turret, usually giving full traverse for the gun. Many SPs cannot fire without deploying stabilizers or spades, sometimes hydraulic. A few SPs are designed so that the recoil forces of the gun are transferred directly onto the ground through a baseplate. A few towed guns have been given limited self-propulsion by means of an auxiliary engine.
Two other forms of tactical propulsion were used in the first half of the 20th century: Railways or transporting the equipment by road, as two or three separate loads, with disassembly and re-assembly at the beginning and end of the journey. Railway artillery took two forms, railway mountings for heavy and super-heavy guns and howitzers and armored trains as "fighting vehicles" armed with light artillery in a direct fire role. Disassembled transport was also used with heavy and super heavy weapons and lasted into the 1950s.
Caliber categories
A third form of artillery typing is to classify it as "light", "medium", "heavy" and various other terms. It appears to have been introduced in World War I, which spawned a very wide array of artillery in all sorts of sizes so a simple categorical system was needed. Some armies defined these categories by bands of calibers. Different bands were used for different types of weapons—field guns, mortars, anti-aircraft guns and coastal guns.
Modern operations
List of countries in order of amount of artillery (only conventional barrel ordnance is given, in use with land forces):
Artillery is used in a variety of roles depending on its type and caliber. The general role of artillery is to provide fire support—"the application of fire, coordinated with the manoeuvre of forces to destroy, neutralize or suppress the enemy". This NATO definition makes artillery a supporting arm although not all NATO armies agree with this logic. The italicised terms are NATO's.
Unlike rockets, guns (or howitzers as some armies still call them) and mortars are suitable for delivering close supporting fire. However, they are all suitable for providing deep supporting fire although the limited range of many mortars tends to exclude them from the role. Their control arrangements and limited range also mean that mortars are most suited to direct supporting fire. Guns are used either for this or general supporting fire while rockets are mostly used for the latter. However, lighter rockets may be used for direct fire support. These rules of thumb apply to NATO armies.
Modern mortars, because of their lighter weight and simpler, more transportable design, are usually an integral part of infantry and, in some armies, armour units. This means they generally do not have to concentrate their fire so their shorter range is not a disadvantage. Some armies also consider infantry operated mortars to be more responsive than artillery, but this is a function of the control arrangements and not the case in all armies. However, mortars have always been used by artillery units and remain with them in many armies, including a few in NATO.
In NATO armies artillery is usually assigned a tactical mission that establishes its relationship and responsibilities to the formation or units it is assigned to. It seems that not all NATO nations use the terms and outside NATO others are probably used. The standard terms are: direct support, general support, general support reinforcing and reinforcing. These tactical missions are in the context of the command authority: operational command, operational control, tactical command or tactical control.
In NATO direct support generally means that the directly supporting artillery unit provides observers and liaison to the manoeuvre troops being supported, typically an artillery battalion or equivalent is assigned to a brigade and its batteries to the brigade's battalions. However, some armies achieve this by placing the assigned artillery units under command of the directly supported formation. Nevertheless, the batteries' fire can be concentrated onto a single target, as can the fire of units in range and with the other tactical missions.
Application of fire
There are several dimensions to this subject. The first is the notion that fire may be against an opportunity target or may be arranged. If it is the latter it may be either on-call or scheduled. Arranged targets may be part of a fire plan. Fire may be either observed or unobserved, if the former it may be adjusted, if the latter then it has to be predicted. Observation of adjusted fire may be directly by a forward observer or indirectly via some other target acquisition system.
NATO also recognises several different types of fire support for tactical purposes:
Counterbattery fire: delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the enemy's fire support system.
Counterpreparation fire: intensive prearranged fire delivered when the imminence of the enemy attack is discovered.
Covering fire: used to protect troops when they are within range of enemy small arms.
Defensive fire: delivered by supporting units to assist and protect a unit engaged in a defensive action.
Final Protective Fire: an immediately available prearranged barrier of fire designed to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas.
Harassing fire: a random number of shells are fired at random intervals, without any pattern to it that the enemy can predict. This process is designed to hinder enemy forces' movement, and, by the constantly imposed stress, threat of losses and inability of enemy forces to relax or sleep, lowers their morale.
Interdiction fire: placed on an area or point to prevent the enemy from using the area or point.
Preparation fire: delivered before an attack to weaken the enemy position.
These purposes have existed for most of the 20th century, although their definitions have evolved and will continue to do so, lack of suppression in counterbattery is an omission. Broadly they can be defined as either:
Deep supporting fire: directed at objectives not in the immediate vicinity of own force, for neutralizing or destroying enemy reserves and weapons, and interfering with enemy command, supply, communications and observation; or
Close supporting fire: placed on enemy troops, weapons or positions which, because of their proximity present the most immediate and serious threat to the supported unit.
Two other NATO terms also need definition:
Neutralization fire: delivered to render a target temporarily ineffective or unusable; and
Suppression fire: that degrades the performance of a target below the level needed to fulfill its mission. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire.
The tactical purposes also include various "mission verbs", a rapidly expanding subject with the modern concept of "effects based operations".
Targeting is the process of selecting target and matching the appropriate response to them taking account of operational requirements and capabilities. It requires consideration of the type of fire support required and the extent of coordination with the supported arm. It involves decisions about:
what effects are required, for example, neutralization or suppression;
the proximity of and risks to own troops or non-combatants;
what types of munitions, including their fuzing, are to be used and in what quantities;
when the targets should be attacked and possibly for how long;
what methods should be used, for example, converged or distributed, whether adjustment is permissible or surprise essential, the need for special procedures such as precision or danger close
how many fire units are needed and which ones they should be from those that are available (in range, with the required munitions type and quantity, not allotted to another target, have the most suitable line of fire if there is a risk to own troops or non-combatants);
The targeting process is the key aspect of tactical fire control. Depending on the circumstances and national procedures it may all be undertaken in one place or may be distributed. In armies practicing control from the front, most of the process may be undertaken by a forward observer or other target acquirer. This is particularly the case for a smaller target requiring only a few fire units. The extent to which the process is formal or informal and makes use of computer based systems, documented norms or experience and judgement also varies widely armies and other circumstances.
Surprise may be essential or irrelevant. It depends on what effects are required and whether or not the target is likely to move or quickly improve its protective posture. During World War II UK researchers concluded that for impact fuzed munitions the relative risk were as follows:
men standing – 1
men lying – 1/3
men firing from trenches – 1/15–1/50
men crouching in trenches – 1/25–1/100
Airburst munitions significantly increase the relative risk for lying men, etc. Historically most casualties occur in the first 10–15 seconds of fire, i.e. the time needed to react and improve protective posture, however, this is less relevant if airburst is used.
There are several ways of making best use of this brief window of maximum vulnerability:
ordering the guns to fire together, either by executive order or by a "fire at" time. The disadvantage is that if the fire is concentrated from many dispersed fire units then there will be different times of flight and the first rounds will be spread in time. To some extent a large concentration offsets the problem because it may mean that only one round is required from each gun and most of these could arrive in the 15 second window.
burst fire, a rate of fire to deliver three rounds from each gun within 10 or 15 seconds, this reduces the number of guns and hence fire units needed, which means they may be less dispersed and have less variation in their times of flight. Smaller caliber guns, such as 105 mm, have always been able to deliver three rounds in 15 seconds, larger calibers firing fixed rounds could also do it but it was not until the 1970s that a multi-charge 155 mm howitzer, FH-70 first gained the capability.
multiple round simultaneous impact (MRSI), where a single weapon or multiple individual weapons fire multiple rounds at differing trajectories so that all rounds arrive on target at the same time.
time on target, fire units fire at the time less their time of flight, this works well with prearranged scheduled fire but is less satisfactory for opportunity targets because it means delaying the delivery of fire by selecting a 'safe' time that all or most fire units can achieve. It can be used with both the previous two methods.
Counter-battery fire
Modern counter-battery fire developed in World War I, with the objective of defeating the enemy's artillery. Typically such fire was used to suppress enemy batteries when they were or were about to interfere with the activities of friendly forces (such as to prevent enemy defensive artillery fire against an impending attack) or to systematically destroy enemy guns. In World War I the latter required air observation. The first indirect counter-battery fire was in May 1900 by an observer in a balloon.
Enemy artillery can be detected in two ways, either by direct observation of the guns from the air or by ground observers (including specialist reconnaissance), or from their firing signatures. This includes radars tracking the shells in flight to determine their place of origin, sound ranging detecting guns firing and resecting their position from pairs of microphones or cross-observation of gun flashes using observation by human observers or opto-electronic devices, although the widespread adoption of 'flashless' propellant limited the effectiveness of the latter.
Once hostile batteries have been detected they may be engaged immediately by friendly artillery or later at an optimum time, depending on the tactical situation and the counter-battery policy. Air strike is another option. In some situations the task is to locate all active enemy batteries for attack using a counter-battery fire at the appropriate moment in accordance with a plan developed by artillery intelligence staff. In other situations counter-battery fire may occur whenever a battery is located with sufficient accuracy.
Modern counter-battery target acquisition uses unmanned aircraft, counter-battery radar, ground reconnaissance and sound-ranging. Counter-battery fire may be adjusted by some of the systems, for example the operator of an unmanned aircraft can 'follow' a battery if it moves. Defensive measures by batteries include frequently changing position or constructing defensive earthworks, the tunnels used by North Korea being an extreme example. Counter-measures include air defence against aircraft and attacking counter-battery radars physically and electronically.
Field artillery team
'Field Artillery Team' is a US term and the following description and terminology applies to the US, other armies are broadly similar but differ in significant details. Modern field artillery (post–World War I) has three distinct parts: the Forward Observer (FO), the Fire Direction Center (FDC) and the actual guns themselves. The forward observer observes the target using tools such as binoculars, laser rangefinders, designators and call back fire missions on his radio, or relays the data through a portable computer via an encrypted digital radio connection protected from jamming by computerized frequency hopping. A lesser known part of the team is the FAS or Field Artillery Survey team which sets up the "Gun Line" for the cannons. Today most artillery battalions use a(n) "Aiming Circle" which allows for faster setup and more mobility. FAS teams are still used for checks and balances purposes and if a gun battery has issues with the "Aiming Circle" a FAS team will do it for them.
The FO can communicate directly with the battery FDC, of which there is one per each battery of 4–8 guns. Otherwise the several FOs communicate with a higher FDC such as at a Battalion level, and the higher FDC prioritizes the targets and allocates fires to individual batteries as needed to engage the targets that are spotted by the FOs or to perform preplanned fires.
The Battery FDC computes firing data—ammunition to be used, powder charge, fuse settings, the direction to the target, and the quadrant elevation to be fired at to reach the target, what gun will fire any rounds needed for adjusting on the target, and the number of rounds to be fired on the target by each gun once the target has been accurately located—to the guns. Traditionally this data is relayed via radio or wire communications as a warning order to the guns, followed by orders specifying the type of ammunition and fuse setting, direction, and the elevation needed to reach the target, and the method of adjustment or orders for fire for effect (FFE). However, in more advanced artillery units, this data is relayed through a digital radio link.
Other parts of the field artillery team include meteorological analysis to determine the temperature, humidity and pressure of the air and wind direction and speed at different altitudes. Also radar is used both for determining the location of enemy artillery and mortar batteries and to determine the precise actual strike points of rounds fired by battery and comparing that location with what was expected to compute a registration allowing future rounds to be fired with much greater accuracy.
Time on target
A technique called time on target (TOT) was developed by the British Army in North Africa at the end of 1941 and early 1942 particularly for counter-battery fire and other concentrations, it proved very popular. It relied on BBC time signals to enable officers to synchronize their watches to the second because this avoided the need to use military radio networks and the possibility of losing surprise, and the need for field telephone networks in the desert. With this technique the time of flight from each fire unit (battery or troop) to the target is taken from the range or firing tables, or the computer and each engaging fire unit subtracts its time of flight from the TOT to determine the time to fire. An executive order to fire is given to all guns in the fire unit at the correct moment to fire. When each fire unit fires their rounds at their individual firing time all the opening rounds will reach the target area almost simultaneously. This is especially effective when combined with techniques that allow fires for effect to be made without preliminary adjusting fires.
Multiple round simultaneous impact
Multiple round simultaneous impact (MRSI) is a modern version of the earlier time on target concept. MRSI is when a single gun fires multiple shells so all arrive at the same target simultaneously. This is possible because there is more than one trajectory for a round to fly to any given target. Typically one is below 45 degrees from horizontal and the other is above it, and by using different sized propellant charges with each shell, it is possible to utilize more than two trajectories. Because the higher trajectories cause the shells to arc higher into the air, they take longer to reach the target. If shells are fired on higher trajectories for initial volleys (starting with the shell with the most propellant and working down) and later volleys are fired on the lower trajectories, with the correct timing the shells will all arrive at the same target simultaneously. This is useful because many more shells can land on the target with no warning. With traditional methods of firing, the target area may have time (however long it takes to reload and re-fire the guns) to take cover between volleys. However, guns capable of burst fire can deliver multiple rounds in a few seconds if they use the same firing data for each, and if guns in more than one location are firing on one target they can use Time on Target procedures so that all their shells arrive at the same time and target.
MRSI has a few prerequisites. The first is guns with a high rate of fire. The second is the ability to use different sized propellant charges. Third is a fire control computer that has the ability to compute MRSI volleys and the capability to produce firing data, sent to each gun, and then presented to the gun commander in the correct order. The number of rounds that can be delivered in MRSI depends primarily on the range to the target and the rate of fire. To allow the most shells to reach the target, the target has to be in range of the lowest propellant charge.
Examples of guns with a rate of fire that makes them suitable for MRSI includes UK's AS-90, South Africa's Denel G6-52 (which can land six rounds simultaneously at targets at least away), Germany's Panzerhaubitze 2000 (which can land five rounds simultaneously at targets at least away), Slovakia's 155 mm SpGH ZUZANA model 2000, and K9 Thunder.
The Archer project (developed by BAE-Systems Bofors in Sweden) is a 155 mm howitzer on a wheeled chassis which is claimed to be able to deliver up to six shells on target simultaneously from the same gun. The 120 mm twin barrel AMOS mortar system, joint developed by Hägglunds (Sweden) and Patria (Finland), is capable of 7 + 7 shells MRSI. The United States Crusader program (now cancelled) was slated to have MRSI capability. It is unclear how many fire control computers have the necessary capabilities.
Two-round MRSI firings were a popular artillery demonstration in the 1960s, where well trained detachments could show off their skills for spectators.
Air burst
The destructiveness of artillery bombardments can be enhanced when some or all of the shells are set for airburst, meaning that they explode in the air above the target instead of upon impact. This can be accomplished either through time fuzes or proximity fuzes. Time fuzes use a precise timer to detonate the shell after a preset delay. This technique is tricky and slight variations in the functioning of the fuze can cause it to explode too high and be ineffective, or to strike the ground instead of exploding above it. Since December 1944 (Battle of the Bulge), proximity fuzed artillery shells have been available that take the guesswork out of this process. These employ a miniature, low powered radar transmitter in the fuze to detect the ground and explode them at a predetermined height above it. The return of the weak radar signal completes an electrical circuit in the fuze which explodes the shell. The proximity fuze itself was developed by the British to increase the effectiveness of anti-aircraft warfare.
This is a very effective tactic against infantry and light vehicles, because it scatters the fragmentation of the shell over a larger area and prevents it from being blocked by terrain or entrenchments that do not include some form of robust overhead cover. Combined with TOT or MRSI tactics that give no warning of the incoming rounds, these rounds are especially devastating because many enemy soldiers are likely to be caught in the open; even more so if the attack is launched against an assembly area or troops moving in the open rather than a unit in an entrenched tactical position.
Use in monuments
Numerous war memorials around the world incorporate an artillery piece that was used in the war or battle commemorated.
See also
List of artillery
Advanced Gun System
Artillery museums
Barrage (artillery)
Beehive anti-personnel round
Coilgun
Combustion light-gas gun
Cordite
Fuze
Gun laying
Light-gas gun
Paris Gun
Railgun
Shoot-and-scoot
Shrapnel shell
Suppressive fire
Improvised artillery in the Syrian Civil War
References
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Naval Weapons of the World
Cannon Artillery – The Voice of Freedom's Thunder
Modern Artillery
What sort of forensic information can be derived from the analysis of shell fragments
Evans, Nigel F. (2001–2007) "British Artillery in World War 2"
Artillery Tactics and Combat during the Napoleonic Wars
Artillery of Napoleon's Imperial Guard
French artillery and its ammunition. 14th to the end of the 19th century
Historic films showing artillery in World War I at europeanfilmgateway.eu
Video: Inside shrieking shrapnel. Hear the great sound of shrapnel's – Finnish field artillery fire video year 2013
Video: Forensic and archaeological interpretation of artillery shell fragments and shrapnel
Chinese inventions
Explosive weapons |
2510 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnulf%20of%20Carinthia | Arnulf of Carinthia | Arnulf of Carinthia ( 850 – 8 December 899) was the duke of Carinthia who overthrew his uncle Emperor Charles the Fat to become the Carolingian king of East Francia from 887, the disputed king of Italy from 894 and the disputed emperor from February 22, 896, until his death at Regensburg, Bavaria.
Early life
Illegitimacy and early life
Arnulf was the illegitimate son of Carloman of Bavaria, and Liutswind, who may have been the sister of Ernst, Count of the Bavarian Nordgau Margraviate, in the area of the Upper Palatinate, or perhaps the burgrave of Passau, according to other sources. After Arnulf's birth, Carloman married, before 861, a daughter of that same Count Ernst, who died after 8 August 879. As it is mainly West-Franconian historiography that speaks of Arnulf's illegitimacy, it is quite possible that the two women are actually the same person, Liutswind, and that Carloman married Arnulf's mother, thus legitimizing his son.
Arnulf was granted the rule over the Duchy of Carinthia, a Frankish vassal state and successor of the ancient Principality of Carantania by his father, after Carloman reconciled with his own father, King Louis the German, and was made king in the Duchy of Bavaria.
Arnulf spent his childhood in Mosaburch or Mosapurc, which is widely believed to be Moosburg in Carinthia. Moosburg was a few miles away from one of the imperial residences, the Carolingian Kaiserpfalz at Karnburg, which had been the residence of the Carantanian princes. Arnulf kept his seat here, and from later events it may be inferred that the Carantanians, from an early time, treated him as their own duke. Later, after he had been crowned King of East Francia, Arnulf turned his old territory of Carinthia into the March of Carinthia, a part of the Duchy of Bavaria.
Regional ruler
After Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke in 879, Louis the Younger inherited Bavaria, Charles the Fat was given the Kingdom of Italy, and Arnulf was confirmed in Carinthia by an agreement with Carloman. However, Bavaria was more or less ruled by Arnulf during the summer and autumn of 879 while his father arranged his succession. He was also granted "Pannonia," in the words of the Annales Fuldenses, or "Carantanum," in the words of Regino of Prüm. The division of the realm was confirmed in 880 after Carloman's death.
When Engelschalk II of Pannonia in 882 rebelled against Margrave Aribo and ignited the Wilhelminer War, Arnulf supported him and accepted his and his brother's homage. This ruined Arnulf's relationship with his uncle, Emperor Charles the Fat, and put him at war with Svatopluk of Moravia. Pannonia was invaded, but Arnulf refused to give up the young Wilhelminers. Arnulf did not make peace with Svatopluk until late 885, by which time the Moravian ruler was loyal to the emperor. Some scholars see this war as destroying Arnulf's hopes of succeeding Charles the Fat.
King of East Francia
Arnulf took the leading role in the deposition of Charles the Fat. With the support of the Frankish nobles, Arnulf called a Diet at Tribur and deposed Charles in November 887, under threat of military action. Charles peacefully agreed to this involuntary retirement, but not without first chastising his nephew for his treachery and asking for a few royal villas in Swabia on which to live out his final months, which Arnulf granted him. Arnulf, having distinguished himself in the war against the Slavs, was then elected king by the nobles of East Francia (only the eastern realm, though Charles had ruled the whole of the Frankish Empire). West Francia, the Kingdom of Burgundy, and the Kingdom of Italy elected their own kings from the Carolingian family.
Like many rulers of the period, Arnulf was heavily involved in ecclesiastical disputes. In 895, at the Diet of Tribur, he presided over a dispute between the Episcopal sees of Bremen, Hamburg and Cologne over jurisdictional authority, which saw Bremen and Hamburg remain a combined see, independent of the see of Cologne.
Arnulf was more a fighter than a negotiator. In 890 he was successfully battling Slavs in Pannonia. In early/mid-891, Vikings invaded Lotharingia and crushed an East Frankish army at Maastricht. Terms such as "Vikings", "Danes", "Northmen" and "Norwegians" have been used loosely and interchangeably to describe these invaders. In September 891, Arnulf repelled the Vikings and essentially ended their attacks on that front. The Annales Fuldenses report that there were so many dead Northmen that their bodies blocked the run of the river. After this victory Arnulf built a castle on an island in the Dijle river.
Intervention in West Francia
Arnulf took advantage of the problems in West Francia after the death of Charles the Fat to secure the territory of Lotharingia, which he converted into a kingdom for his son Zwentibold. In 889 Arnulf supported the claim of Louis the Blind to the kingdom of Provence, after receiving a personal appeal from Louis' mother, Ermengard, who came to see Arnulf at Forchheim in May 889.
Recognising the superiority of Arnulf's position, in 888 king Odo of France formally accepted the suzerainty of Arnulf. In 893 Arnulf switched his support from Odo to Charles the Simple after being persuaded by Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, that it was in his best interests. Arnulf then took advantage of the following fighting between Odo and Charles in 894, harrying some territories of West Francia. At one point, Charles the Simple was forced to flee to Arnulf and ask for his protection. His intervention soon forced Pope Formosus to get involved, as he was worried that a divided and war weary West Francia would be easy prey for the Vikings.
In 895 Arnulf summoned both Charles and Odo to his residence at Worms. Charles's advisers convinced him not to go, and he sent a representative in his place. Odo, on the other hand, personally attended, together with a large retinue, bearing many gifts for Arnulf. Angered by the non-appearance of Charles, he welcomed Odo at the Diet of Worms in May 895 and again supported Odo's claim to the throne of West Francia. In the same assembly he crowned his illegitimate son Zwentibold as the king of Lotharingia.
Wars with Moravia
As early as 880 Arnulf had designs on Great Moravia and had the Frankish bishop Wiching of Nitra interfere with the missionary activities of the Eastern Orthodox priest Methodius, with the aim of preventing any potential for creating a unified Moravian state. Arnulf had formal relations with the ruler of the Moravian Kingdom, Svatopluk, using them to learn the latter's military and political secrets. Later, these tactics were used to occupy the territory of the Greater Moravian state.
Arnulf failed to conquer the whole of Great Moravia in wars of 892, 893, and 899. Yet Arnulf did achieve some successes, in particular in 895, when the Duchy of Bohemia broke away from Great Moravia and became his vassal state. An accord was reached between him and Duke of Bohemia Borivoj I. Bohemia was thus freed from the dangers of Frankish invasion. In 893 or 894 Great Moravia probably lost a part of its territory — present-day western Hungary — to him. As a reward, Wiching became Arnulf's chancellor in 892. In his attempts to conquer Moravia, in 899 Arnulf reached out to Magyars who had settled in the Carpathian Basin, and with their help he imposed a measure of control over Moravia.
King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor
In Italy Guy III of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli fought over the Iron Crown of Lombardy. Berengar had been crowned king in 887, but Guy was then crowned in 889. While Pope Stephen V supported Guy, even crowning him Roman Emperor in 891, Arnulf threw his support behind Berengar.
In 893 the new Pope Formosus, not trusting the newly crowned co-emperors Guy and his son Lambert, sent an embassy to Omuntesberch, where Arnulf was meeting with Svatopluk, to request that Arnulf come and liberate Italy, where he would be crowned emperor in Rome. Arnulf met the Primores of the Kingdom of Italy, dismissed them with gifts and promised to assist the pope. Arnulf then sent Zwentibold with a Bavarian army to join Berengar. They defeated Guy but were bought off and left in autumn.
When Pope Formosus again asked Arnulf to invade, the duke personally led an army across the Alps early in 894. In January 894 Bergamo fell, and Count Ambrose, Guy's representative in the city, was hung from a tree by the city's gates. Conquering all of the territory north of the Po River, Arnulf forced the surrender of Milan and then drove Guy out of Pavia, where he was crowned King of Italy. Arnulf went no further before Guy died suddenly in late autumn, and a fever incapacitated his troops. His march northward through the Alps was interrupted by Rudolph I of Burgundy, and it was only with great difficulty that Arnulf crossed the mountain range. In retaliation, Arnulf ordered Zwentibold to ravage Rudolph's kingdom. In the meantime, Lambert and his mother Ageltrude travelled to Rome to receive papal confirmation of his imperial succession, but when Pope Formosus, still desiring to crown Arnulf, refused, he was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo.
In September 895 a new papal embassy arrived in Regensburg beseeching Arnulf's aid. In October Arnulf undertook his second campaign into Italy. He crossed the Alps quickly and again took Pavia, but then he continued slowly, garnering support among the nobility of Tuscany. Maginulf, Count of Milan, and Walfred of Friuli joined him. Eventually even Adalbert II of Tuscany abandoned Lambert. Finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, Arnulf had to take the city by force on 21 February, 896, freeing the pope. Arnulf was then greeted at the Ponte Milvio by the Roman Senate who escorted him into the Leonine City, where he was received by Pope Formosus on the steps of the Santi Apostoli.
On 22 February 896 Formosus led the king into the church of St. Peter, anointed and crowned him as emperor, and saluted him as Augustus. Arnulf then proceeded to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where he received the homage of the Roman people, who swore "never to hand over the city to Lambert or his mother Ageltrude". Arnulf then proceeded to exile to Bavaria two leading senators, Constantine and Stephen, who had helped Ageltrude to seize Rome.
Leaving one of his vassals, Farold, to hold Rome, two weeks later Arnulf marched on Spoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to join Lambert. However at this point, Arnulf had a stroke, forcing him to call off the campaign and return to Bavaria. Rumours of the time made Arnulf's condition to be a result of poisoning at the hand of Ageltrude.
Arnulf retained power in Italy only as long as he was personally there. On his way north, he stopped at Pavia where he crowned his illegitimate son Ratold as sub-king of Italy, after which he left Ratold in Milan in an attempt to preserve his hold on Italy. That same year Pope Formosus died, leaving Lambert once again in power, and both he and Berengar proceeded to kill any officials who had been appointed by Arnulf, forcing Ratold to flee from Milan to Bavaria. For the rest of his life Arnulf exercised very little control in Italy, and his agents in Rome did not prevent the accession of Pope Stephen VI in 896. The pope initially gave his support to Arnulf but eventually became a supporter of Lambert.
Final years
In addition to aftereffects from the stroke, Arnulf contracted morbus pediculosis (infestation of pubic lice on his eyelid), which prevented him from effectively dealing with the problems besetting his reign. Italy was lost, raiders from Moravia and Magyars were continually harassing his lands, and Lotharingia was in revolt against Zwentibold. He was also plagued by escalating violence and power struggles among the lower Frankish nobility.
On December 8, 899, Arnulf died at Ratisbon in present-day Bavaria. He is entombed in St. Emmeram's Basilica at Regensburg, which is now known as Schloss Thurn und Taxis, the palace of the Princes of Thurn und Taxis. He was succeeded as the king of East Francia by his only legitimate son from Ota, Louis the Child. After Louis' death in 911 at age 17 or 18, the East Frankish branch of the Carolingian dynasty ceased to exist. Arnulf had had the nobility recognize the rights of his illegitimate sons, Zwentibold and Ratold, as his successors. Zwentibold continued to rule Lotharingia until his murder in 900.
See also
Family tree of German monarchs
List of Frankish kings
Notes
References
Duckett, Eleanor (1968). Death and Life in the Tenth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Comyn, Robert. History of the Western Empire, from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession of Charles V, Vol. I. 1851
Bryce, James, The Holy Roman Empire, MacMillan. 1913
Mann, Horace, K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol III: The Popes During the Carolingian Empire, 858–891. 1925
Mann, Horace, K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891–999. 1925
850s births
899 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
9th-century Holy Roman Emperors
9th-century kings of Italy
9th-century kings of East Francia
9th-century dukes of Bavaria
Frankish warriors
Kings of Bavaria
Kings of Saxony
Kings of Lotharingia
People from Carinthia (state)
Burials at St. Emmeram's Abbey
Wikipedia articles containing unlinked shortened footnotes |
2511 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexanderplatz | Alexanderplatz | () () is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the north-east to and the in the south-west.
is reputedly the most visited area of Berlin, beating Friedrichstrasse and City West. It is a popular starting point for tourists, with many attractions including the (TV tower), the Nikolai Quarter and the ('Red City Hall') situated nearby. is still one of Berlin's major commercial areas, housing various shopping malls, department stores and other large retail locations.
History
Early history to the 18th century
A hospital stood at the location of present-day since the 13th century. Named (St. George), the hospital gave its name to the nearby (George Gate) of the Berlin city wall. Outside the city walls, this area was largely undeveloped until around 1400, when the first settlers began building thatched cottages. As a gallows was located close by, the area earned the nickname the ('Devil's Pleasure Garden').
The George Gate became the most important of Berlin's city gates during the 16th century, being the main entry point for goods arriving along the roads to the north and north-east of the city, for example from , and , and the big Hanseatic cities on the Baltic Sea.
After the Thirty Years' War, the city wall was strengthened. From 1658 to 1683, a citywide fortress was constructed to plans by the Linz master builder, . The new fortress contained 13 bastions connected by ramparts and was preceded by a moat measuring up to wide. Within the new fortress, many of the historic city wall gates were closed. For example, the southeastern Gate was closed but the Georgian Gate remained open, making the Georgian Gate an even more important entrance to the city.
In 1681, the trade of cattle and pig fattening was banned within the city. Frederick William, the Great Elector, granted cheaper plots of land, waiving the basic interest rate, in the area in front of the Georgian Gate. Settlements grew rapidly and a weekly cattle market was established on the square in front of the Gate.
The area developed into a suburb – the – which continued to flourish into the late 17th century. Unlike the southwestern suburbs (, ) which were strictly and geometrically planned, the suburbs in the northeast (, and the ) proliferated without plan. Despite a building ban imposed in 1691, more than 600 houses existed in the area by 1700.
At that time, the George Gate was a rectangular gatehouse with a tower. Next to the tower stood a remaining tower from the original medieval city walls. The upper floors of the gatehouse served as the city jail. A drawbridge spanned the moat and the gate was locked at nightfall by the garrison using heavy oak planks.
A highway ran through the cattle market to the northeast towards . To the right stood the George chapel, an orphanage and a hospital that was donated by the Elector Sophie Dorothea in 1672. Next to the chapel stood a dilapidated medieval plague house which was demolished in 1716. Behind it was a rifleman's field and an inn, later named the .
By the end of the 17th century, 600 to 700 families lived in this area. They included butchers, cattle herders, shepherds and dairy farmers. The George chapel was upgraded to the George church and received its own preacher.
(1701–1805)
After his coronation in on 6 May 1701 the Prussian King Frederick I entered Berlin through the George Gate. This led to the gate being renamed the King's Gate, and the surrounding area became known in official documents as (King's Gate Square). The suburb was renamed (or 'royal suburbs' short).
In 1734, the Berlin Customs Wall, which initially consisted of a ring of palisade fences, was reinforced and grew to encompass the old city and its suburbs, including . This resulted in the King's Gate losing importance as an entry point for goods into the city. The gate was finally demolished in 1746.
By the end of the 18th century, the basic structure of the royal suburbs of the had been developed. It consisted of irregular-shaped blocks of buildings running along the historic highways which once carried goods in various directions out of the gate. At this time, the area contained large factories (silk and wool), such as the (one of Berlin's first cloth factories, located in a former barn) and a workhouse established in 1758 for beggars and homeless people, where the inmates worked a man-powered treadmill to turn a mill.
Soon, military facilities came to dominate the area, such as the 1799–1800 military parade grounds designed by David Gilly. At this time, the residents of the were mostly craftsmen, petty-bourgeois, retired soldiers and manufacturing workers. The southern part of the later was separated from traffic by trees and served as a parade ground, whereas the northern half remained a market. Beginning in the mid-18th century, the most important wool market in Germany was held in .
Between 1752 and 1755, the writer lived in a house on Alexanderplatz. In 1771, a new stone bridge (the ) was built over the moat and in 1777 a colonnade-lined row of shops () was constructed by architect . Between 1783 and 1784, seven three-storey buildings were erected around the square by , including the famous , where lived as a permanent tenant and stayed in the days before his suicide.
(1805–1900)
On 25 October 1805 the Russian Tsar Alexander I was welcomed to the city on the parade grounds in front of the old King's Gate. To mark this occasion, on 2 November, King Frederick William III ordered the square to be renamed :
In the southeast of the square, the cloth factory buildings were converted into the Theater by at a cost of 120,000 Taler. The foundation stone was laid on 31 August 1823 and the opening ceremony occurred on 4 August 1824. Sales were poor, forcing the theatre to close on 3 June 1851. Thereafter, the building was used for wool storage, then as a tenement building, and finally as an inn called until the building's demolition in 1932.
During these years, was populated by fish wives, water carriers, sand sellers, rag-and-bone men, knife sharpeners and day laborers.
Because of its importance as a transport hub, horse-drawn buses ran every 15 minutes between and in 1847.
During the March Revolution of 1848, large-scale street fighting occurred on the streets of , where revolutionaries used barricades to block the route from to the city.
Novelist and poet , who worked in the vicinity in a nearby pharmacy, participated in the construction of barricades and later described how he used materials from the Theater to barricade .
The continued to grow throughout the 19th century, with three-storey developments already existing at the beginning of the century and fourth storeys being constructed from the middle of the century. By the end of the century, most of the buildings were already five storeys high. The large factories and military facilities gave way to housing developments (mainly rental housing for the factory workers who had just moved into the city) and trading houses.
At the beginning of the 1870s, the Berlin administration had the former moat filled to build the Berlin city railway, which was opened in 1882 along with (' Railway Station').
In 1883–1884, the Grand Hotel, a neo-Renaissance building with 185 rooms and shops beneath was constructed. From 1886 to 1890, built the police headquarters, a huge brick building whose tower on the northern corner dominated the building. In 1890, a district court at was also established.
In 1886, the local authorities built a central market hall west of the rail tracks, which replaced the weekly market on the in 1896. During the end of the 19th century, the emerging private traffic and the first horse bus lines dominated the northern part of the square, the southern part (the former parade ground) remained quiet, having green space elements added by garden director in 1889. The northwest of the square contained a second, smaller green space where, in 1895, the copper Berolina statue by sculptor was erected.
Between Empire and the Nazi era (1900–1940)
At the beginning of the 20th century, experienced its heyday. In 1901, founded the first German cabaret, the , in the former ('Secession stage') at , initially under the name . It was announced as " as upscale entertainment with artistic ambitions. Emperor-loyal and market-oriented stands the uncritical amusement in the foreground."
The merchants , and opened large department stores on : (1904–1911), (1910–1911) and (1911). marketed itself as a department store for the Berlin people, whereas modelled itself as a department store for the world.
In October 1905, the first section of the department store opened to the public. It was designed by architects and , who had already won second prize in the competition for the construction of the building. The department store underwent further construction phases and, in 1911, had a commercial space of and the longest department store façade in the world at in length.
For the construction of the department store, by architects and , the were removed in 1910 and now stand in the Park in .
In October 1908, the ('the teacher's house') was opened next to the at . It was designed by and Henry Gross. The building belonged to the ('teachers’ association'), who rented space on the ground floor of the building out to a pastry shop and restaurant to raise funds for the association. The building housed the teachers' library which survived two world wars, and today is integrated into the library for educational historical research. The rear of the property contained the association's administrative building, a hotel for members and an exhibition hall. Notable events that took place in the hall include the funeral services for and on 2 February 1919 and, on 4 December 1920, the (Unification Party Congress) of the Communist Party and the USPD.
The First Ordinary Congress of the Communist Workers Party of Germany was held in the nearby restaurant, 1–4 August 1920.
's position as a main transport and traffic hub continued to fuel its development. In addition to the three underground lines, long-distance trains and trains ran along the 's viaduct arches. Omnibuses, horse-drawn from 1877 and, after 1898, also electric-powered trams, ran out of in all directions in a star shape. The subway station was designed by Alfred Grenander and followed the colour-coded order of subway stations, which began with green at and ran through to dark red.
In the Golden Twenties, was the epitome of the lively, pulsating cosmopolitan city of Berlin, rivalled in the city only by . Many of the buildings and rail bridges surrounding the platz bore large billboards that illuminated the night. The Berlin cigarette company Manoli had a famous billboard at the time which contained a ring of neon tubes that constantly circled a black ball. The proverbial "" of those years was characterized as "". Writer wrote a poem referencing the advert, and the composer Rudolf Nelson made the legendary with the dancer Lucie Berber. The writer named his novel, , after the square, and filmed parts of his 1927 film (Berlin: The Symphony of the Big City) at .
Destruction of (1940–1945)
One of Berlin's largest air-raid shelters during the Second World War was situated under . It was built between 1941 and 1943 for the by .
The war reached in early April 1945. The Berolina statue had already been removed in 1944 and probably melted down for use in arms production. During the Battle of Berlin, Red Army artillery bombarded the area around . The battles of the last days of the war destroyed considerable parts of the historic , as well as many of the buildings around .
The had entrenched itself within the tunnels of the underground system. Hours before fighting ended in Berlin on 2 May 1945, troops of the SS detonated explosives inside the north–south tunnel under the Canal to slow the advance of the Red Army towards Berlin's city centre. The entire tunnel flooded, as well as large sections of the network via connecting passages at the underground station. Many of those seeking shelter in the tunnels were killed. Of the then of subway tunnel, around were flooded with more than one million cubic meters () of water.
Demolition and reconstruction (1945–1964)
Before a planned reconstruction of the entire could take place, all the war ruins needed to be demolished and cleared away. A popular black market emerged within the ruined area, which the police raided several times a day.
One structure demolished after World War II was the 'Rote Burg', a red brick building with round arches, previously used as police and Gestapo headquarters. The huge construction project began in 1886 and was completed in 1890; it was one of Berlin's largest buildings. The 'castle' suffered extensive damage during 1944-45 and was demolished in 1957. The site on the southwest corner of Alexanderplatz remained largely unused as a carpark until the Alexa shopping centre opened in 2007.
Reconstruction planning for post-war Berlin gave priority to the dedicated space to accommodate the rapidly growing motor traffic in inner-city thoroughfares. This idea of a traffic-orientated city was already based on considerations and plans by and from the 1930s.
East Germany
has been subject to redevelopment several times in its history, most recently during the 1960s, when it was turned into a pedestrian zone and enlarged as part of the German Democratic Republic's redevelopment of the city centre. It is surrounded by several notable structures including the ('TV Tower').
During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, the demonstration on 4 November 1989 was the largest demonstration in the history of the German Democratic Republic. Protests starting 15 October and peaked on 4 November with an estimated 200,000 participants who called on the government of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany to step down and demanded a free press, the opening of the borders and their right to travel. Speakers were , , , , , and . The protests continued and culminated in the unexpected Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.
After German reunification (1989)
Ever since German reunification, has undergone a gradual process of change with many of the surrounding buildings being renovated. After the political turnaround in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, socialist urban planning and architecture of the 1970s no longer corresponded to the current ideas of an inner-city square. Investors demanded planning security for their construction projects. After initial discussions with the public, the goal quickly arose to reinstate 's tram network for better connections to surrounding city quarters. In 1993, an urban planning ideas competition for architects took place to redesign the square and its surrounding area.
In the first phase, there were 16 submissions, five of which were selected for the second phase of the competition. These five architects had to adapt their plans to detailed requirements. For example, the return of the Alex's trams was planned, with the implementation to be made in several stages.
The winner, who was determined on 17 September 1993, was the Berlin architect . 's plan was based on Behrens’ design, provided a horseshoe-shaped area of seven- to eight-storey buildings and high towers with 42 floors. The and the – both listed buildings – would form the southwestern boundary. Second place went to the design by and . The proposal of the architecture firm Kny & Weber, which was strongly based on the horseshoe shape of Wagner, finally won the third place. The design by was chosen on 7 June 1994 by the Berlin Senate as a basis for the further transformation of .
In 1993, architect 's master plan for a major redevelopment including the construction of several skyscrapers was published.
In 1995, completed the renovation of the . In 1998, the first tram returned to , and in 1999, the town planning contracts for the implementation of and 's plans were signed by the landowners and the investors.
21st century
On 2 April 2000, the Senate finally fixed the development plan for . The purchase contracts between investors and the Senate Department for Urban Development were signed on 23 May 2002, thus laying the foundations for the development.
The CUBIX multiplex cinema (CineStar Cubix am Alexanderplatz, styled CUBIX), which opened in November 2000, joined the team of Berlin International Film Festival cinemas in 2007, and the festival shows films on three of its screens.
Renovation of the department store began in 2004, led by Berlin professor of architecture, and his son . The building was enlarged by about and has since operated under the name .
Beginning with the reconstruction of the department store in 2004, and the biggest underground railway station of Berlin, some buildings were redesigned and new structures built on the square's south-eastern side. Sidewalks were expanded to shrink one of the avenues, a new underground garage was built, and commuter tunnels meant to keep pedestrians off the streets were removed. Between 2005 and 2006, was renovated and later became a branch of the clothing chain, C&A.
In 2005, the began work to extend the tram line from to (Alex II). This route was originally to be opened in 2000 but was postponed several times. After further delays caused by the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the route opened on 30 May 2007.
In February 2006, the redesign of the walk-in plaza began. The redevelopment plans were provided by the architecture firm Gerkan, Marg and Partners and the Hamburg-based company . The final plans emerged from a design competition launched by the state of Berlin in 2004. However, the paving work was temporarily interrupted a few months after the start of construction by the 2006 FIFA World Cup and all excavation pits had to be provisionally asphalted over. The construction work could only be completed at the end of 2007.
The renovation of , the largest Berlin underground station, had been ongoing since the mid-1990s and was finally completed in October 2008.
The was given a pavement of yellow granite, bordered by grey mosaic paving around the buildings. Wall AG modernized the 1920s-era underground toilets at a cost of 750,000 euros. The total redesign cost amounted to around 8.7 million euros.
On 12 September 2007 the Alexa shopping centre opened. It is located in the immediate vicinity of the , on the site of the old Berlin police headquarters. With a sales area, it is one of the largest shopping centres in Berlin.
In May 2007, the Texas property development company Hines began building a six-story commercial building named . The building was built on a plot of , which, according to the plans, closes the square to the east and thus reduces the area of the Platz. The building was opened on 25 March 2009.
At the beginning of 2007, the construction company created an underground garage with three levels below the , located between the hotel tower and the building, which cost 25 million euros to build and provides space for around 700 cars. The opening took place on 26 November 2010. At the same time, the Senate narrowed from almost wide to wide (), thus reducing it to three lanes in each direction.
Behind the station, next to the CUBIX cinema in the immediate vicinity of the TV tower, the high residential and commercial building, Alea 101, was built between 2012 and 2014.
it was assessed that due to a lack of demand the skyscrapers planned in 1993 were unlikely to be constructed.
In January 2014, a 39-story residential tower designed by Frank Gehry was announced, but this project was put on hold in 2018.
The area is the largest area for crime in Berlin. As of October 2017, was classified a ("crime-contaminated location") by the (General Safety and Planning Laws).
Today and future plans
Despite the reconstruction of the tram line crossing, it has retained its socialist character, including the much-graffitied , a popular venue.
is reputedly the most visited area of Berlin, beating Friedrichstrasse and City West. It is a popular starting point for tourists, with many attractions including the (TV tower), the Nikolai Quarter and the ('Red City Hall') situated nearby. is still one of Berlin's major commercial areas, housing various shopping malls, department stores and other large retail locations.
Many historic buildings are located in the vicinity of . The traditional seat of city government, the , or 'Red City Hall', is located nearby, as was the former East German parliament building, the . The was demolished from 2006–2008 to make room for a full reconstruction of the Baroque Berlin Palace, or , which is set to open in 2019.
is also the name of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations there. It is one of Berlin's largest and most important transportation hubs, being a meeting place of three subway () lines, three lines, and many tram and bus lines, as well as regional trains.
It also accommodates the Park Inn Berlin and the World Time Clock, a continually rotating installation that shows the time throughout the globe, the House of Travel, and 's (House of Teachers)'.
Long-term plans exist for the demolition of the high former (now the Hotel Park-Inn), with the site to be replaced by three skyscrapers. If and when this plan will be implemented is unclear, especially since the hotel tower received a new façade as recently as in 2005, and the occupancy rates of the hotel are very good. However, the plans could give way in the next few years to a suggested high new block conversion. The previous main tenant of the development, Saturn, moved into the building in March 2009. In 2014, Primark opened a branch inside the hotel building.
The majority of the planned high skyscrapers will probably never be built. The state of Berlin has announced that it will not enforce the corresponding urban development contracts against the market. Of the 13 planned skyscrapers, 10 remained as of 2008, after modifications to the plans – eight of which had construction rights. Some investors in the Alexa shopping centre announced several times since 2007 that they would sell their respective shares in the plot to an investor interested in building a high-rise building.
The first concrete plans for the construction of a high-rise were made by Hines, the investor behind die mitte. In 2009, the construction of a high tower to be built behind die mitte was announced. On 12 September 2011, a slightly modified development plan was presented, which provided for a residential tower housing 400 apartments. In early 2013, the development plan was opened to the public.
In autumn 2015, the Berlin Senate organized two forums in which interested citizens could express their opinions on the proposed changes to the . Architects, city planners and Senate officials held open discussions. On that occasion, however, it was reiterated that the plans for high-rise developments were not up for debate. According to the master plan of the architect , up to eleven huge buildings will continue to be built, which will house a mixture of shops and apartments.
Roads and public transport
During the post-war reconstruction of the 1960s, was completely pedestrianized. Since then, trams were reintroduced to the area in 1998.
station provides connections, access to the U2, U5 and U8 subway lines, regional train lines for DB Regio and ODEG services and, on weekends, the (HBX). Several tram and bus lines also service the area.
The following main roads connect to :
Northwest: (federal highways B 2 and B 5)
Northeast: (B 2 and B 5)
Southeast: (B 1)
Southwest (in front of the station, in the pedestrian zone):
Several arterial roads lead radially from to the outskirts of Berlin. These include (clockwise from north to south-east):
/ – – (to Bundesstraße 96a)
– intersection – (main road 109 to the triangle at the )
/ – (B 2) – (intersection ) – (B 2 via to the junction at )
(B 1 and B 5) – – / – (B 1 and B 5 to junction at )
Structures
World Clock
Berolina
Fountain of Friendship
The Fountain of Friendship () was erected in 1970 during the redesign of and inaugurated on October 7. It was created by and his group of artists. Its water basin has a diameter of 23 meters, it is 6.20 meters high and is built from embossed copper, glass, ceramics and enamel. The water spurts from the highest point and then flows down in spirals over 17 shells, which each have a diameter between one and four meters. After German reunification, it was completely renovated in a metal art workshop during the reconstruction of the .
Other
Apart from , is the only existing square in front of one of the medieval gates of Berlin's city wall.
Image gallery
Further reading
Weszkalnys, Gisa (2010). Berlin, Alexanderplatz: Transforming Place in a Unified Germany. Berghahn Books.
Alexanderplatz: Plenty of Space for Free Speech. In: Sites of Unity (Haus der Geschichte), 2022.
External links
Alexanderplatz – Overview of the changes
References
Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century
13th-century establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Articles containing video clips
Mitte
Squares in Berlin
Zones of Berlin
Cremer & Wolffenstein
Alexander I of Russia
Frederick William III of Prussia |
2512 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian%20Development%20Bank | Asian Development Bank | The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila 1550, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offices around the world to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank admits the members of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP, formerly the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East or ECAFE), and non-regional developed countries. Starting with 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 68 members.
The ADB was modeled closely on the World Bank and has a similar weighted voting system, where votes are distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions. ADB releases an annual report that summarizes its operations, budget, and other materials for review by the public. The ADB-Japan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP) enrolls about 300 students annually in academic institutions located in 10 countries within the Region. After completing their study programs, scholars are expected to contribute to the economic and social development of their home countries. ADB holds the status of an official United Nations Observer.
As of 31 December 2020, Japan and the United States each holds the largest proportion of shares at 15.571%. China holds 6.429%, India holds 6.317%, and Australia holds 5.773%.
Organization
The highest policy-making body of the bank is the Board of Governors, composed of one representative from each member state. The Board of Governors, in turn, elect among themselves the twelve members of the board of directors and their deputies. Eight of the twelve members come from regional (Asia-Pacific) members while the others come from non-regional members.
The Board of Governors also elect the bank's president, who is the chairperson of the board of directors and manages ADB. The president has a term of office lasting five years, and may be re-elected. Traditionally, and because Japan is one of the largest shareholders of the bank, the president has always been Japanese.
The current president is Masatsugu Asakawa. He succeeded Takehiko Nakao on 17 January 2020, who succeeded Haruhiko Kuroda in 2013.
The headquarters of the bank is at 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines, and it has 42 field offices in Asia and the Pacific and representative offices in Washington, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Sydney. The bank employs about 3,000 people, representing 60 of its 68 members.
List of presidents
(*) As from 17 January 2020, Masatsugu Asakawa was president of ADB.
History
1960s
As early as 1956, Japan Finance Minister Hisato Ichimada had suggested to United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that development projects in Southeast Asia could be supported by a new financial institution for the region. A year later, Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi announced that Japan intended to sponsor the establishment of a regional development fund with resources largely from Japan and other industrial countries. But the US did not warm to the plan and the concept was shelved. See full account in "Banking the Future of Asia and the Pacific: 50 Years of the Asian Development Bank", July 2017.
The idea came up again late in 1962 when Kaoru Ohashi, an economist from a research institute in Tokyo, visited Takeshi Watanabe, then a private financial consultant in Tokyo, and proposed a study group to form a development bank for the Asian region. The group met regularly in 1963, examining various scenarios for setting up a new institution and drew on Watanabe's experiences with the World Bank. However, the idea received a cool reception from the World Bank itself and the study group became discouraged.
In parallel, the concept was formally proposed at a trade conference organized by the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) in 1963 by a young Thai economist, Paul Sithi-Amnuai. (ESCAP, United Nations Publication March 2007, "The first parliament of Asia" pp. 65). Despite an initial mixed reaction, support for the establishment of a new bank soon grew.
An expert group was convened to study the idea, with Japan invited to contribute to the group. When Watanabe was recommended, the two streams proposing a new bank—from ECAFE and Japan—came together. Initially, the US was on the fence, not opposing the idea but not ready to commit financial support. But a new bank for Asia was soon seen to fit in with a broader program of assistance to Asia planned by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson in the wake of the escalating U.S. military support for the government of South Vietnam.
As a key player in the concept, Japan hoped that the ADB offices would be in Tokyo. However, eight other cities had also expressed an interest: Bangkok, Colombo, Kabul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Phnom Penh, Singapore, and Tehran. To decide, the 18 prospective regional members of the new bank held three rounds of votes at a ministerial conference in Manila in November/December 1965. In the first round on 30 November, Tokyo failed to win a majority, so a second ballot was held the next day at noon. Although Japan was in the lead, it was still inconclusive, so a final vote was held after lunch. In the third poll, Tokyo gained eight votes to Manila's nine, with one abstention. Therefore, Manila was declared the host of the new development bank; the Japanese were mystified and deeply disappointed. Watanabe later wrote in his personal history of ADB: "I felt as if the child I had so carefully reared had been taken away to a distant country." (Asian Development Bank publication, "Towards a New Asia", 1977, p. 16)
As intensive work took place during 1966 to prepare for the opening of the new bank in Manila, high on the agenda was choice of president. Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satō asked Watanabe to be a candidate. Although he initially declined, pressure came from other countries and Watanabe agreed. In the absence of any other candidates, Watanabe was elected first President of the Asian Development Bank at its Inaugural Meeting on 24 November 1966.
By the end of 1972, Japan had contributed $173.7 million (22.6% of the total) to the ordinary capital resources and $122.6 million (59.6% of the total) to the special funds. In contrast, the United States contributed only $1.25 million to the special fund.
After its creation in the 1960s, ADB focused much of its assistance on food production and rural development. At the time, Asia was one of the poorest regions in the world.
Early loans went largely to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines; these countries accounted for 78.48% of the total ADB loans between 1967 and 1972. Moreover, Japan received tangible benefits, 41.67% of the total procurements between 1967 and 1976. Japan tied its special funds contributions to its preferred sectors and regions and procurements of its goods and services, as reflected in its $100 million donation for the Agricultural Special Fund in April 1968.
Watanabe served as the first ADB president to 1972.
1970s–1980s
In the 1970s, ADB's assistance to developing countries in Asia expanded into education and health, and then to infrastructure and industry. The gradual emergence of Asian economies in the latter part of the decade spurred demand for better infrastructure to support economic growth. ADB focused on improving roads and providing electricity. When the world suffered its first oil price shock, ADB shifted more of its assistance to support energy projects, especially those promoting the development of domestic energy sources in member countries.
Following considerable pressure from the Reagan Administration in the 1980s, ADB reluctantly began working with the private sector in an attempt to increase the impact of its development assistance to poor countries in Asia and the Pacific. In the wake of the second oil crisis, ADB expanded its assistance to energy projects. In 1982, ADB opened its first field office, in Bangladesh, and later in the decade, it expanded its work with non-government organizations (NGOs).
Japanese presidents Inoue Shiro (1972–76) and Yoshida Taroichi (1976–81) took the spotlight in the 1970s. Fujioka Masao, the fourth president (1981–90), adopted an assertive leadership style, launching an ambitious plan to expand the ADB into a high-impact development agency.
On 18 November 1972, the Bank inaugurated its headquarters along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, Philippines. In the early 1990s, ADB moved its offices to Ortigas Center in Pasig City, with the Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippines) taking over its old Pasay premises.
1990s
In the 1990s, ADB began promoting regional cooperation by helping the countries on the Mekong River to trade and work together. The decade also saw an expansion of ADB's membership with the addition of several Central Asian countries following the end of the Cold War.
In mid-1997, ADB responded to the financial crisis that hit the region with projects designed to strengthen financial sectors and create social safety nets for the poor. During the crisis, ADB approved its largest single loan – a $4 billion emergency loan to South Korea. In 1999, ADB adopted poverty reduction as its overarching goal.
2000s
The early 2000s saw a dramatic expansion of private sector finance. While the institution had such operations since the 1980s (under pressure from the Reagan Administration) the early attempts were highly unsuccessful with low lending volumes, considerable losses and financial scandals associated with an entity named AFIC. However, beginning in 2002, the ADB undertook a dramatic expansion of private sector lending under a new team. Over the course of the next six years, the Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) grew by a factor of 41 times the 2001 levels of new financings and earnings for the ADB. This culminated with the Board's formal recognition of these achievements in March 2008, when the Board of Directors formally adopted the Long Term Strategic Framework (LTSF). That document formally stated that assistance to private sector development was the lead priority of the ADB and that it should constitute 50% of the bank's lending by 2020.
In 2003, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic hit the region and ADB responded with programs to help the countries in the region work together to address infectious diseases, including avian influenza and HIV/AIDS. ADB also responded to a multitude of natural disasters in the region, committing more than $850 million for recovery in areas of India, Indonesia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka which were impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In addition, $1 billion in loans and grants was provided to the victims of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
In December 2005, China donated $20 million to the ADB for a regional poverty alleviation fund; China's first such fund set up at an international institution.
In 2009, ADB's Board of Governors agreed to triple ADB's capital base from $55 billion to $165 billion, giving it much-needed resources to respond to the global economic crisis. The 200% increase is the largest in ADB's history, and was the first since 1994.
2010s
Asia moved beyond the economic crisis and by 2010 had emerged as a new engine of global economic growth though it remained home to two-thirds of the world's poor. In addition, the increasing prosperity of many people in the region created a widening income gap that left many people behind. ADB responded to this with loans and grants that encouraged economic growth.
In early 2012, the ADB began to re-engage with Myanmar in response to reforms initiated by the government. In April 2014, ADB opened an office in Myanmar and resumed making loans and grants to the country.
In 2017, ADB combined the lending operations of its Asian Development Fund (ADF) with its ordinary capital resources (OCR). The result was to expand the OCR balance sheet to permit increasing annual lending and grants to $20 billion by 2020 — 50% more than the previous level.
In 2020, ADB gave a $2 million grant from the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, to support the Armenian government in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year, the ADB committed a $20 million loan to Electric Networks of Armenia, that will ensure electricity for the citizens during the pandemic, as well as approved $500,000 in regional technical assistance to procure personal protective equipment and other medical supplies.
Objectives and activities
Aim
The ADB defines itself as a social development organization that is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. This is carried out through investments – in the form of loans, grants and information sharing – in infrastructure, health care services, financial and public administration systems, helping countries prepare for the impact of climate change or better manage their natural resources, as well as other areas.
Focus areas
Eighty percent of ADB's lending is concentrated public sector lending in five operational areas.
Education – Most developing countries in Asia and the Pacific have earned high marks for a dramatic rise in primary education enrollment rates in the last three decades, but daunting challenges remain, threatening economic and social growth.
Environment, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management – Environmental sustainability is a prerequisite for economic growth and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific.
Finance Sector Development – The financial system is the lifeline of a country's economy. It creates prosperity that can be shared throughout society and benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people. Financial sector and capital market development, including microfinance, small and medium-sized enterprises, and regulatory reforms, is vital to decreasing poverty in Asia and the Pacific. This has been a key priority of the Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) since 2002. One of the most active sub-sectors of finance is the PSOD's support for trade finance. Each year the PSOD finances billions of dollars in letters of credit across all of Asia and the rest of the world.
Infrastructure, including transport and communications, energy, water supply and sanitation, and urban development.
Regional Cooperation and Integration – Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) was introduced by President Kuroda when he joined the ADB in 2004. It was seen as a long-standing priority of the Japanese government as a process by which national economies become more regionally connected. It plays a critical role in accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and economic disparity, raising productivity and employment, and strengthening institutions.
Private Sector Lending – This priority was introduced into the ADB's activities at the insistence of the Reagan Administration. However, that effort was never a true priority until the administration of President Tadeo Chino who in turn brought in a seasoned American banker – Robert Bestani. From then on, the Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) grew at a very rapid pace, growing from the smallest financing unit of the ADB to the largest in terms of financing volume. As noted earlier, this culminated in the Long Term Strategic Framework (LTSF) which was adopted by the Board in March 2008.
Financings
The ADB offers "hard" loans on commercial terms primarily to middle income countries in Asia and "soft" loans with lower interest rates to poorer countries in the region. Based on a new policy, both types of loans will be sourced starting January 2017 from the bank's ordinary capital resources (OCR), which functions as its general operational fund.
The ADB's Private Sector Department (PSOD) can and does offer a broader range of financings beyond commercial loans. They also have the capability to provide guarantees, equity and mezzanine finance (a combination of debt and equity).
In 2017, ADB lent $19.1 billion of which $3.2 billion went to private enterprises, as part of its "non-sovereign" operations. ADB's operations in 2017, including grants and co-financing, totaled $28.9 billion.
ADB obtains its funding by issuing bonds on the world's capital markets. It also relies on the contributions of member countries, retained earnings from lending operations, and the repayment of loans.
Private sector investments
ADB provides direct financial assistance, in the form of debt, equity and mezzanine finance to private sector companies, for projects that have clear social benefits beyond the financial rate of return. ADB's participation is usually limited but it leverages a large amount of funds from commercial sources to finance these projects by holding no more than 25% of any given transaction.
Co-financing
ADB partners with other development organizations on some projects to increase the amount of funding available. In 2014, $9.2 billion—or nearly half—of ADB's $22.9 billion in operations were financed by other organizations. According to Jason Rush, Principal Communication Specialist, the Bank communicates with many other multilateral organizations.
Funds and resources
More than 50 financing partnership facilities, trust funds, and other funds – totaling several billion each year – are administered by ADB and put toward projects that promote social and economic development in Asia and the Pacific. ADB has raised Rupees 5 billion or around Rupees 500 crores from its issuance of 5-year offshore Indian rupee (INR) linked bonds.
On 26 February 2020, ADB raises $118 million from rupee-linked bonds and supporting the development of India International Exchange in India, as it also contributes to an established yield curve which stretches from 2021 through 2030 with $1 billion of outstanding bonds.
2022 Annual Report
The 2022 Annual Report details ADB's efforts in aiding its developing member countries to overcome the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, tackle new challenges like the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a severe food crisis, while also addressing climate change with significant financial commitments, including $6.7 billion for climate initiatives and a $14 billion package for food security. The ADB committed a total of $20.5 billion in various forms of assistance, including private sector financing, and fostered regional cooperation, with a focus on gender equality, education, healthcare, and unlocking additional resources through innovative financial mechanisms. The report also notes organizational reforms for increased efficacy, the adoption of a hybrid work model following the full reopening of its headquarters.
Access to information
ADB has an information disclosure policy that presumes all information that is produced by the institution should be disclosed to the public unless there is a specific reason to keep it confidential. The policy calls for accountability and transparency in operations and the timely response to requests for information and documents. ADB does not disclose information that jeopardizes personal privacy, safety and security, certain financial and commercial information, as well as other exceptions.
Notable projects and technical assistance
Afghanistan: Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif Railway Project
Armenia: Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Bhutan: Green Power Development Project
India: Rural Roads Sector II Investment Program; Agartala Municipal Infrastructure Development Project
Indonesia: Vocational Education Strengthening Project
Laos: Northern and Central Regions Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project
Mongolia: Food and Nutrition Social Welfare Program and Project
Philippines: North–South Commuter Railway Project (Malolos–Clark Railway Project and South Commuter Railway Project), jointly funded with Japan International Cooperation Agency
Solomon Islands: Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative
Criticism
Since the ADB's early days, critics have charged that the two major donors, Japan and the United States, have had extensive influence over lending, policy and staffing decisions.
Oxfam Australia has criticized the Asian Development Bank for insensitivity to local communities. "Operating at a global and international level, these banks can undermine people's human rights through projects that have detrimental outcomes for poor and marginalized communities." The bank also received criticism from the United Nations Environmental Program, stating in a report that "much of the growth has bypassed more than 70 percent of its rural population, many of whom are directly dependent on natural resources for livelihoods and incomes."
There had been criticism that ADB's large scale projects cause social and environmental damage due to lack of oversight. One of the most controversial ADB-related projects is Thailand's Mae Moh coal-fired power station. Environmental and human rights activists say ADB's environmental safeguards policy as well as policies for indigenous peoples and involuntary resettlement, while usually up to international standards on paper, are often ignored in practice, are too vague or weak to be effective, or are simply not enforced by bank officials.
The bank has been criticized over its role and relevance in the food crisis. The ADB has been accused by civil society of ignoring warnings leading up the crisis and also contributing to it by pushing loan conditions that many say unfairly pressure governments to deregulate and privatize agriculture, leading to problems such as the rice supply shortage in Southeast Asia.
Indeed, whereas the Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) closed out that year with financings of $2.4 billion, the ADB has significantly dropped below that level in the years since and is clearly not on the path to achieving its stated goal of 50% of financings to the private sector by 2020. Critics also point out that the PSOD is the only Department that actually makes money for the ADB. Hence, with the vast majority of loans going to concessionary (sub-market) loans to the public sector, the ADB is facing considerable financial difficulty and continuous operating losses.
Countries with the largest subscribed capital and voting rights
The following table are amounts for 20 largest countries by subscribed capital and voting power at the Asian Development Bank as of December 2021.
Members
ADB has 68 members (as of 23 March 2019): 49 members from the Asian and Pacific Region, and 19 members from Other Regions. The year listed after a member's name indicates the year of their membership. When a country no longer remains a member, the Bank shall arrange for the repurchase of such country's shares by the Bank as a part of the settlement of accounts with such country in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 43.
See also
African Development Bank
Asian Clearing Union
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Asia Cooperation Dialogue
Asia Council
CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean Development Bank
Eurasian Development Bank
Inter-American Development Bank
International Monetary Fund
South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation
World Bank
References
Further reading
Huang, P.W. 1975. The Asian Development Bank: Diplomacy and Development in Asia. New York, NY: Vantage Press.
Krishnamurti, R. 1977. ADB: The Seeding Days. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
McCawley, Peter. 2017. Banking on the Future of Asia and the Pacific: 50 Years of the Asian Development Bank. Manila: Asian Development Bank, (print), (e-ISBN), (Japanese language edition).
McCawley, Peter. 2020. Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank: Fifty Years of Partnership Manila: Asian Development Bank, (print), (e-book). DOI: Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank: Fifty Years of Partnership
Watanabe, Takeshi. 1977 (reprinted 2010). Towards a New Asia. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
Wihtol, Robert. 1988. The Asian Development Bank and Rural Development: Policy and Practice. Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Press.
Wilson, Dick. 1997. A Bank for Half the World: The Story of the Asian Development Bank, 1966-1986. Manila: Asian Development Bank.
Yasutomo, D.T. 1983. Japan and the Asian Development Bank. New York, NY: Praeger.
External links
Bank Information Center
ADB Institute
"Inequality Worsens across Asia", Dollars & Sense magazine, November/December 2007. Article discussing recent reports from the ADB.
"The right business environment" Youth unemployment in Asia. An interview with Jesus Felipe, advisor in the Economics and Research Department of ADB.
Free Futures Thinking Guidebooks
Banking institutes
Supranational banks
Organizations based in Manila
International development multilaterals
Multilateral development banks
United Nations General Assembly observers
International banking institutions
Intergovernmental organizations established by treaty
Development in Asia
Banks established in 1966 |
2514 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan | Aswan | Aswan (, also ; ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine.
Aswan includes five monuments within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; these are the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs of Qubbet el-Hawa, the town of Elephantine, the stone quarries and Unfinished Obelisk, the Monastery of St. Simeon and the Fatimid Cemetery. The city's Nubian Museum is an important archaeological center, containing finds from the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia before the Aswan Dam flooded all of Lower Nubia.
The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of craft and folk art. Aswan joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2017.
Other spellings and variations
Aswan was formerly spelled Assuan or Assouan. Names in other languages include (; Ancient Egyptian: ; ; ; proposed Biblical Hebrew: סְוֵנֵה Sǝwēnê). The Nubians also call the city Dib which means "fortress, palace" and is derived from the Old Nubian name ⲇⲡ̅ⲡⲓ.
History
Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett, later known as Syene, which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt facing the south. Swenett is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Lucina by the Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for "trade", or "market".
Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented themselves toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, and as Swenett was the southernmost town in the country, Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenett. The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (and north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extended to it from Philae. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier.
The stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithic shrines that are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids; and the traces of the quarrymen who worked in these 3,000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae.
Swenett was equally important as a military station and for its position on a trade route. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing southwards and northwards. Around 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria; this later became the Coptic Diocese of Syene. The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius, and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary. It may also be mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Isaiah.
The Nile is nearly wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favorable weather.
Archaeological findings
In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the head of the bust of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Temple of Kom Ombo during work to protect the site from groundwater.
In September 2018, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany announced that a sandstone sphinx statue had been discovered at the temple of Kom Ombo. The statue, measuring approximately in width and ) in height, probably dates to the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
Archaeologists discovered 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in a tomb in Aswan in 2019. Italian archaeologist Patrizia Piacentini and El-Enany both reported that the tomb, where the remains of ancient men, women and children were found, dates back to the Greco-Roman period between 332 BC and 395 AD. While the findings assumed belonging to a mother and a child were well preserved, others had suffered major destruction. Other than the mummies, artifacts including painted funerary masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphics on the tomb, it was detected that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit.
Piacentini commented "It's a very important discovery because we have added something to the history of Aswan that was missing. We knew about tombs and necropoli dating back to the second and third millennium, but we didn't know where the people who lived in the last part of the Pharaonic era were. Aswan, on the southern border of Egypt, was also a very important trading city".
Stan Hendrick, John Coleman Darnell and Maria Gatto in 2012 excavated petroglyphic engravings from Nag el-Hamdulab in Aswan which featured representations of a boat procession, solar symbolism and the earliest depiction of the White Crown with an estimated dating range between 3200BC and 3100BC.
In February 2021, archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced significant discoveries at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan, namely a Ptolemaic period temple, a Roman fort, an early Coptic church and an inscription in hieratic script. According to Mostafa Waziri, the crumbling temple was decorated with palm leaf carvings and an incomplete sandstone panel that described a Roman emperor. Researcher Abdel Badie states more generally that the church contained ovens used to bake pottery, four rooms, a long hall, stairs, and stone tiles.
Geography
Northern Tropic boundary
The latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers and mathematicians. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice, a vertically positioned staff cast no shadow. They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a deep well (or pit) at noon. This statement is only approximately correct; at the summer solstice, the shadow was only of the staff, and so could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the Sun's disc would be nearly vertical. More than 2200 years ago, Greek polymath Eratosthenes used this information to calculate Earth's circumference.
Climate
Aswan has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh) like the rest of Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any city in Egypt. Aswan is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Average high temperatures are consistently above during summer (June, July, August and also September) while average low temperatures remain above . Average high temperatures remain above during the coldest month of the year while average low temperatures remain above . Summers are very prolonged and extremely hot with blazing sunshine although desert heat is dry. Winters are brief and pleasantly mild, though nights may be cool at times.
The climate of Aswan is extremely dry year-round, with less than of average annual precipitation. The desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall doesn't occur every year, as of early 2001, the last rain there was seven years earlier. When heavy precipitation does occur, as in a November 2021 rain and hail storm, flash flooding can drive scorpions from their lairs to deadly effects. Aswan is one of the least humid cities on the planet, with an average relative humidity of only 26%, with a maximum mean of 42% during winter and a minimum mean of 16% during summer.
The weather of Aswan is extremely clear, bright and sunny year-round, in all seasons, with a low seasonal variation, with almost 4,000 hours of annual sunshine, very close to the maximum theoretical sunshine duration. Aswan is one of the sunniest places on Earth.
The highest record temperature was on July 4, 1918, and the lowest record temperature was on January 6, 1989.
Education
In 2012, the Aswan University was inaugurated, which is headquartered in the city. Aswan is also home to the Aswan Higher Institute of Social Work, which was established in 1975.
Transport
The city is crossed by the Cape to Cairo Road, which connects it to Luxor and Cairo to the north, and Abu Simbel and Wadi Halfa to the south. Also important is the Aswan-Berenice highway, which connects with the ports of the Red Sea.
Aswan is linked to Cairo by the Cape to Cairo Railway, which also connects it with Wadi Halfa. The railway is incomplete towards the south.
Other key transport infrastructures are the Port of Aswan, the largest river port in the region, and Aswan International Airport.
International relations
Twin towns/Sister cities
Aswan is twinned with:
Sonoma, California, United States
Gallery
See also
References
External links
Ancient Aswan City
Governorate capitals in Egypt
Archaeological sites in Egypt
Populated places in Aswan Governorate
Roman sites in Egypt
Tourism in Egypt
Medieval cities of Egypt
Upper Egypt |
2519 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide%20of%20Italy | Adelaide of Italy | Adelaide of Italy (; 931 – 16 December 999 AD), also called Adelaide of Burgundy, was Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Emperor Otto the Great. She was crowned with him by Pope John XII in Rome on 2 February 962. She was the first empress designated consors regni, denoting a "co-bearer of royalty" who shared power with her husband. She was essential as a model for future consorts regarding both status and political influence. She was regent of the Holy Roman Empire as the guardian of her grandson in 991–995.
Life
Early life
Adelaide was born in Orbe Castle, Orbe, Kingdom of Upper Burgundy (now in modern-day Switzerland), to Rudolf II of Burgundy, a member of the Elder House of Welf, and Bertha of Swabia.
Adelaide was involved from the outset in the complicated fight to control not only Burgundy but also Lombardy. The battle between her father Rudolf II and Berengar I to control northern Italy ended with Berengar's death, enabling Rudolf to claim the throne.
Not happy with this, the inhabitants of Lombardy appealed to another ally, Hugh of Provence, who had long considered Rudolf an enemy. Although Hugh challenged Rudolf for the Burgundian throne, he only succeeded when Adelaide's father died in 937. So as to control Upper Burgundy, Hugh decided to marry his son Lothair II, the nominal King of Italy, to the 15-year-old Adelaide (in 947, before 27 June).
The marriage produced a daughter, Emma of Italy, born about 948. Emma became Queen of West Francia by marrying King Lothair of France.
Marriage and alliance with Otto I
The calendar of saints states that Lothair was poisoned on 22 November 950 in Turin by the holder of real power, his successor, Berengar II of Italy.
There were some suspicions amongst the people of Lombardy that Adelaide wanted to rule the kingdom by herself. Berengar attempted to thwart this and cement his political power by forcing her to marry his son Adalbert. Adelaide refused and fled, taking refuge in the castle of Como. However, she was quickly tracked down and was imprisoned for four months at Garda.
According to Adelaide's contemporary biographer, Odilo of Cluny, she managed to escape from captivity. After a time spent in the marshes nearby, she was rescued by a priest and taken to a "certain impregnable fortress," likely the fortified town of Canossa Castle near Reggio. She was able to send an emissary to the East Frankish king Otto I asking for his protection. Adelaide met Otto at the old Lombard capital of Pavia and they married on 23 September 951. Early in their marriage, Adelaide and Otto had two children, Henry and Bruno, both of whom died before reaching adulthood.
A few years later, in 953, Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, Otto's son by his first marriage, instigated a big revolt that was quelled by his father. As a consequence, Otto decided to dispossess Liudolf of his ducal title. This decision favoured the position of Adelaide and her descendants at court. Adelaide also managed to retain her entire territorial dowry.
After returning to Germany with his new wife, Otto cemented the Holy Roman Empire by defeating the Hungarian invaders at the Battle of Lechfeld on 10 August 955. He then extended the boundaries of East Francia beyond the Elbe River, defeating the Obotrites and other Slavs of the Elbe at the battle of Recknitz on 16 October 955. That same year, Adelaide gave birth to Otto II. In 955 or 956, she gave birth to a daughter who would become Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg.
Holy Roman Empress
Adelaide accompanied her husband on his second expedition to Italy to subdue the revolt of Berengar II and to protect Pope John XII. In Rome, Otto the Great was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on 2 February 962 by Pope John XII. Breaking new ground, Pope John XII also crowned Adelaide as Holy Roman Empress. In 960, a new ordo was created for her coronation and anointing, including prayers to biblical female figures, especially Esther. The ordo presents a theological and political concept that legitimizes the empress's status as a divinely ordained component of the earthly rule. In 966, Adelaide and the eleven-year-old Otto II, travelled again with Otto on his third expedition to Italy, where the Emperor restored the newly elected Pope John XIII to his throne (and executed some of the Roman rioters who had deposed him). Crucial to Otto's establishing legitimacy in his conquest of Italy and in bringing the imperial crown to the couple, was the support of Adelaide and her extensive network of relations. As heir to the Italian throne, Adelaide established for late Carolingian traditions the legitimate claim over Italy by the imperial throne.
Adelaide remained in Rome for six years while Otto ruled his kingdom from Italy. Otto II was crowned co-emperor in 967, then married the Byzantine princess Theophanu in April 972, resolving the conflict between the two empires in southern Italy and ensuring the imperial succession. Adelaide and her husband returned to Germany, where Otto died in May 973, at the same Memleben palace where his father had died 37 years earlier.
After her coronation, which increased her power as she was now consors regni and able to receive people from the entire Empire, Adelaide's interventions in political decisions increased. According to Buchinger, "Between 962 and 972 Adelheid appears as intervenient in seventy-five charters. Additionally Adelheid and Otto I are named together in Papal bulls". She often protected the ecclesiastic institutions, seemingly to gain a sphere of influence separate from that of her husband. Between 991 and 993, the brothers of Feuchtwang wrote to her and requested to be "protected by the shadow of your rule from now on, we may be safe from the tumults of secular attacks". They promised they would pray for her so that her reign would be long and stable.
Adelaide wielded a great amount of power during her husband's reign, as evidenced by the requests her made of her. A letter, written in the 980s by her daughter Emma demanded that Adelaide intervene against Emma's enemies and mobilize forces in the Ottonian Empire. She also asked that Adelaide capture Hugh Capet, who was already elected king of West Frankia in 987.
Another enemy of Emma's was Charles, the brother of Emma's deceased consort Lothar, who had accused his sister-in-law of adultery. Another pleader was Gerbert of Aurillac, at that time archbishop of Reims (the later Pope Sylvester II), who wrote to Adelaide to ask for protection against his enemies. Buchinger remarks that, "These examples are remarkable, because they imply that Adelheid had the possibilities to help in both cases or at least Emma and Gerbert do believe that she could have intervened and succeeded. Both are themselves important political figures in their realm and still they rely on Adelheid. Adelheid’s power and importance must have been extremely stable and reliable to do as wished by the pleaders."
Otto II's era
In the years following Otto's death, Adelaide exerted a powerful influence at court. However, Adelaide was in conflict with her daughter-in-law, the Byzantine princess Theophanu, as only one woman could be queen and hold the associated functions and powers at court. Adelaide was able to maintain the title imperatrix augusta even though Theophanu now also used it. Moreover, Theophanu opposed Adelaide in the use of her dowry lands, which Adelaide wanted to continue to use and donate to ecclesiastical institutions, ensuring her power base. Adelaide had the right to make transactions of her Italian lands as she pleased, but she needed the permission of the emperor to use her Ottonian lands. Adelaide also sided with her extended kin against Otto II. Wilson compares this action with those of other royal women: "Royal women possessed agency and did not always do the bidding of male relatives. Engelberge greatly influenced her husband, Emperor Louis II, in his attempts to extend imperial control to southern Italy in the 870s. Matilda’s favouritism for her younger son Heinrich caused Otto I considerable trouble, while Adelaide sided with her extended kin against her own son, Otto II, until he temporarily exiled her to Burgundy in 978. Agency was clearest during regencies, because these lacked formal rules, offering scope for forceful personalities to assert themselves." After being expelled from court by Otto II in 978, she divided her time between living in Italy in the royal palace of Pavia and Arles with her brother Conrad I, King of Burgundy, through whom she was finally reconciled with her son. In 983 (shortly before his death) Otto II appointed her his viceroy in Italy.
Regency
In 983, her son Otto II died and was succeeded by Adelaide's grandson Otto III under the regency of Theophanu while Adelaide remained in Italy. For some time, Adelaide and Theophanu were able to put aside their separate interests and work together to ensure Otto III's succession. This is seen through their joint appearance in the charters. According to the Annales Quedlinburgenses, after Otto II's death, Henry, duke of Bavaria kidnapped Otto III. The narrative claims that Adelaide returned from Lombardy to join with Theophanu, Matilda, and other leaders of Europe and reclaim the child.
When Theophanu died in 990, Adelaide assumed regency on behalf for Otto III until he reached legal majority four years later.
Adelaide's role in establishing Otto's position can be seen in a letter Otto III wrote to his grandmother in 996: "According to your [Adelheid’s] wishes and desires, the divinity has conferred the rights of an empire on us [Otto III] with a happy outcome".
Troubles in the East continued under Adelaide, as Boleslaus of Bohemia wavered in his loyalty. In 992, there was war between Bohemia and Poland , and again like in Theophanu's time, the Ottonian regime sided with Poland. Jestice comments that, "Christianity was not re-established in the land of the Liutizi during their lifetimes. But there were territorial gains, and by 987 it was possible to begin rebuilding destroyed fortresses along the Elbe". A Saxon army, with Otto III's presence, took Brandenburg in 991. The reports that there was another expedition in 992.
Thietmar of Merseburg reports that Otto III dismissed his grandmother after his mother's death, but Althoff doubts this story. Even after Otto attained majority, Adelaide often accompanied him in his travels and influenced him, along with other women.
In Burgundy, Adelaide's homeland, the counts and castellans behaved increasingly independently from their king Rudolph III. Just before her death in 999, she had to intervene in Burgundy to restore peace.
Later years
Adelaide resigned as regent when Otto III was declared to be of the legal majority in 995. From then on, she devoted herself exclusively to her works of charity, in particular to the foundation and restoration of religious houses, i.e. monasteries, churches and abbeys.
Adelaide had long entertained close relations with Cluny, then the center of the movement for ecclesiastical reform, and in particular with its abbots Majolus and Odilo. She retired to a nunnery she had founded in c. 991 at Selz in Alsace.
On her way to Burgundy to support her nephew Rudolf III against a rebellion, she died at Selz Abbey on 16 December 999, days short of the millennium she thought would bring the Second Coming of Christ. She was buried in the Abbey and Pope Urban II canonized her in 1097. After serious flooding, which almost completely destroyed it in 1307, Adelaide's relics were moved elsewhere. A goblet reputed to have belonged to Saint Adelaide has long been preserved in Seltz.; it was used to give potions to people with fever and the healings were said to have been numerous.
Adelaide constantly devoted herself to the service of the church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she also interested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus a principal agent — almost an embodiment — of the work of the pre-schism Church at the end of the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religious culture of Central Europe.
Some of her relics are preserved in a shrine in Hanover. Her feast day, 16 December, is still kept in many German dioceses.
Issue
In 947, Adelaide was married to King Lothair II of Italy. The union produced one child:
Emma of Italy (948 – after 987), queen of France and wife of Lothair of France
In 951, Adelaide was married to King Otto I, the future Holy Roman Emperor. The union produced four children:
Henry (952 – 7 April 954)
Bruno (953 – 8 September 957)
Matilda (early 955 – † 6 February 999), the first Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg
Otto II (end 955 – 7 December 983), later Holy Roman Emperor.
Historiography and cultural depictions
Historiography
Adelaide was one of the most important and powerful medieval female rulers. Historically, as empress and saint, she has been described as powerful, with both male attributes (like strength, justness and prudence) and female attributes (piety, self denying). Modern German historiography tends to focus on her contributions to the Ottonian dynasty and the development of the Holy Roman Empire.
Depictions in art
Adelaide is usually represented in the garb of an empress, with sceptre and crown. Since the 14th century, she is also given as an attribute a model church or a ship (by which she is said to have escaped from captivity).
The most famous representation of Adelaide in German art belongs to a group of sandstone figures in the choir of Meissen Cathedral, which was created around 1260. She is shown here with her husband, who was not canonized, since he founded the diocese of Meissen with her.
Operas
Adelaide of Burgundy is the main character of the opera l'Adelaide (1672) by Antonio Sartorio.
Adelaide is the subject of a 1723 opera by Nicola Porpora, where she was played by the great castrato Farinelli en travesti.
Lotario is a 1729 opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It is a fictionalisation of some events in the life of Adeläide.
Adelaide is the heroine of Adelaide di Borgogna, an opera with two acts (1817) by Gioachino Rossini (music) and Giovanni Schmidt (libretto).
Adelaide is the heroine of William Bernard McCabe's 1856 novel Adelaide, Queen of Italy, or The Iron Crown.
Books and novels
Adelheid, Mutter der Königreiche (Adelaide, Mother of Kingdoms) published in 1936 by Gertrud Bäumer.
Die fremde Königin (The Foreign Queen), published in 2017, Adelaide is one of the central characters in Rebecca Gablé's novel.
Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda: medieval female rulership and the foundations of European society by Penelope Nash (2017).
Imperial ladies of the Ottonian Dynasty: women and rule in tenth-century Germany by Phyllis G. Jestice (2018)
God's Maidservant: The story of Adelaide of Italy (Women of the Dark Ages) by Anna Chant (2017)
Artwork
San Giuseppe con Gesù Bambino tra Sant'Adelaide, Sant'Antonio da Padova, San Lupo e San Michele arcangelo by Francesco Coghetti, 1828
Adelaide is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor, with the related place setting of Theodora (wife of Justinian I).
See also
List of Eastern Orthodox saints
List of Holy Roman empresses
List of Catholic saints
Saint Adelaide, patron saint archive
References
Sources
Further reading
Genealogie-Mittelalter: "Adelheid von Burgund".
Bibliography
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: Adelheid of Burgundy. In: Biographical-Bibliographical Dictionary of Churches (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, , Sp. 35–35.
Amalie Fößel: Adelheid. In: Amalie Fößel (Ed.): The Empresses of the Middle Ages. Pustet, Regensburg 2011, , p. 35-59.
Werner Goez: Empress Adelheid. In: Pictures of life from the Middle Ages. The time of the Ottonians, Salians and Staufers. Primus, Darmstadt 2010, , p. 66-82.
Bruno Keiser: Adelheid. Queen, empress, saint. Piper Verlag, Munich 2009, .
Walter Schlesinger: Adelheid. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, , p. 57 f. (digitized version).
Franz Staab: Thorsten Unger (Ed.): Empress Adelheid and her monastery foundation in Selz (= Publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science in Speyer. Vol. 99). Presentations at the scientific conference in Landau and Selz from 15 to 17 October 1999, published by the Society for the Advancement of Science, Speyer 2005, .
Ernst Steindorff: Adelheid (Empress). In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 75–77.
Stefan Weinfurter: Empress Adelheid and the Ottonian Empire. In: Early Medieval Studies. Vol. 33, 1999, pp. 1–19, (digitised version).
External links
Women's Biography: Adelaide of Burgundy, Ottonian empress
Monks of Ramsgate. "Adelaide". Book of Saints, 1921. Saints.SQPN.com. 1 May 2012. Web. {2012-9-20}.
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931 births
999 deaths
10th-century women regents
10th-century Christian saints
10th-century German nobility
10th-century German women
People from Orbe
Roman Catholic royal saints
Medieval German saints
Ottonian dynasty
German female regents
Holy Roman Empresses
Queens consort of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)
Remarried queens consort
Christian royal saints
Elder House of Welf
Duchesses of Saxony
Female saints of medieval Germany
Daughters of kings
Otto the Great
10th-century empresses consort
10th-century regents
Mothers of Holy Roman Emperors
Italian queen mothers
Mothers of German monarchs |
2526 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agostino%20Carracci | Agostino Carracci | Agostino Carracci (or Caracci; 16 August 1557 – 22 March 1602) was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the Progressives) in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favored in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Life
Agostino Carracci was born in Bologna as the son of a tailor. He was the elder brother of Annibale Carracci and the cousin of Ludovico Carracci. He initially trained as a goldsmith. He later studied painting, first with Prospero Fontana, who had been Lodovico's master, and later with Bartolomeo Passarotti. He traveled to Parma to study the works of Correggio. Accompanied by his brother Annibale, he spent a long time in Venice, where he trained as an engraver under the renowned Cornelis Cort. Starting from 1574 he worked as a reproductive engraver, copying works of 16th century masters such as Federico Barocci, Tintoretto, Antonio Campi, Veronese and Correggio. He also produced some original prints, including two etchings.
He traveled to Venice (1582, 1587–1589) and Parma (1586–1587). Together with Annibale and Ludovico he worked in Bologna on the fresco cycles in Palazzo Fava (Histories of Jason and Medea, 1584) and Palazzo Magnani (Histories of Romulus, 1590–1592). In 1592 he also painted the Communion of St. Jerome, now in the Pinacoteca di Bologna and considered his masterwork. In 1620, Giovanni Lanfranco, a pupil of the Carracci, famously accused another Carracci student, Domenichino, of plagiarizing this painting. From 1586 is his altarpiece of the Madonna with Child and Saints, in the National Gallery of Parma. In 1598 Carracci joined his brother Annibale in Rome, to collaborate on the decoration of the Gallery in Palazzo Farnese. From 1598 to 1600 is a triple Portrait, now in Naples, an example of genre painting. In 1600 he was called to Parma by Duke Ranuccio I Farnese to begin the decoration of the Palazzo del Giardino, but he died before it was finished. His friend the poet Claudio Achillini composed an epitaph, which was later published by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in the life of the Carracci.
Agostino's son Antonio Carracci was also a painter, and attempted to compete with his father's Academy.
An engraving by Agostino Carraci after the painting Love in the Golden Age by the 16th-century Flemish painter Paolo Fiammingo was the inspiration for Matisse's Le bonheur de vivre (Joy of Life).
Critical evaluation
While his undoubted value in the graphic field is widely recognised, Agostino, as a painter, although admired by his contemporaries, ended up being overshadowed by the fame of his brother Annibale. Perhaps even his long practice of engraving ended up putting him at disadvantage, since he might have been perceived as more inclined to copy than to create.
Even Giovanni Pietro Bellori, who included Agostino Carracci in his selective collection of biographies of artists (Vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti moderni, 1672), described his activity as a painter, with the sole exception of the Communion of Saint Jerome, a work that he praises, almost entirely limited to the role of supporting his younger brother Annibale, and reproaches him for having dedicated too much of his work to graphic production.
The modern critical evaluation of the painter Agostino Carracci probably still suffers from the negative legacies of the past. The fact that there is still only one important monograph dedicated to him published (Stephen E. Ostrow, from the United States, 1966, never translated into Italian), and that an individual exhibition on this artist has yet to be held, are probably significant factors that show that he remains an underrated artist.
However, there have been a positive critical reevaluation of the painter, since there is now a better awareness of his artistic role, alongside his more famous relatives, and the knowledge of his personal work is now greater.
Works
Oil on canvas unless otherwise noted
1573 – Pietà (Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia)
1586 – Madonna and Child with Saints (Galleria nazionale di Parma)
– Lamentation or Pietà (Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
– (engraving, Baltimore Museum of Art)
– Annunciation (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
1590–1595 – Portrait of a Woman as Judith (private collection)
– Assumption (Ss. Salvatore church, Bologna)
1592–1597 – The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna)
– Head of a Faun in a Concave (drawing in roundel, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)
1598–1600 – Triple Portrait of Arrigo, Pietro and Amon (National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples)
Fresco collaborations with Annibale and Ludovico
Life of Aeneas (Palazzo Fava, Bologna)
Lives of Jason and Medea (Palazzo Fava, Bologna)
Scenes from the Foundation of Rome (Palazzo Magnani, Bologna)
Life of Hercules (Palazzo Sampieri Talon, Bologna)
Undated
The Penitent Magdalen (private collection)
Carracci's erotic work (prints)
See also
The Carracci
Bibliography
Stephen E. Ostrow, Agostino Carracci (1966), Thesis (Ph. D.) New York University, New York
References
External links
1557 births
1602 deaths
16th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
17th-century Italian painters
Italian Baroque painters
Painters from Bologna
Italian printmakers
Italian erotic artists
Italian Roman Catholics
Sibling artists
Catholic painters
Catholic decorative artists |
2528 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenylyl%20cyclase | Adenylyl cyclase | Adenylate cyclase (EC 4.6.1.1, also commonly known as adenyl cyclase and adenylyl cyclase, abbreviated AC) is an enzyme with systematic name ATP diphosphate-lyase (cyclizing; 3′,5′-cyclic-AMP-forming). It catalyzes the following reaction:
ATP = 3′,5′-cyclic AMP + diphosphate
It has key regulatory roles in essentially all cells. It is the most polyphyletic known enzyme: six distinct classes have been described, all catalyzing the same reaction but representing unrelated gene families with no known sequence or structural homology. The best known class of adenylyl cyclases is class III or AC-III (Roman numerals are used for classes). AC-III occurs widely in eukaryotes and has important roles in many human tissues.
All classes of adenylyl cyclase catalyse the conversion of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to 3',5'-cyclic AMP (cAMP) and pyrophosphate. Magnesium ions are generally required and appear to be closely involved in the enzymatic mechanism. The cAMP produced by AC then serves as a regulatory signal via specific cAMP-binding proteins, either transcription factors, enzymes (e.g., cAMP-dependent kinases), or ion transporters.
Classes
Class I
The first class of adenylyl cyclases occur in many bacteria including E. coli (as CyaA [unrelated to the Class II enzyme]). This was the first class of AC to be characterized. It was observed that E. coli deprived of glucose produce cAMP that serves as an internal signal to activate expression of genes for importing and metabolizing other sugars. cAMP exerts this effect by binding the transcription factor CRP, also known as CAP. Class I AC's are large cytosolic enzymes (~100 kDa) with a large regulatory domain (~50 kDa) that indirectly senses glucose levels. , no crystal structure is available for class I AC.
Some indirect structural information is available for this class. It is known that the N-terminal half is the catalytic portion, and that it requires two Mg2+ ions. S103, S113, D114, D116 and W118 are the five absolutely essential residues. The class I catalytic domain () belongs to the same superfamily () as the palm domain of DNA polymerase beta (). Aligning its sequence onto the structure onto a related archaeal CCA tRNA nucleotidyltransferase () allows for assignment of the residues to specific functions: γ-phosphate binding, structural stabilization, DxD motif for metal ion binding, and finally ribose binding.
Class II
These adenylyl cyclases are toxins secreted by pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis, Bordetella pertussis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Vibrio vulnificus during infections. These bacteria also secrete proteins that enable the AC-II to enter host cells, where the exogenous AC activity undermines normal cellular processes. The genes for Class II ACs are known as cyaA, one of which is anthrax toxin. Several crystal structures are known for AC-II enzymes.
Class III
These adenylyl cyclases are the most familiar based on extensive study due to their important roles in human health. They are also found in some bacteria, notably Mycobacterium tuberculosis where they appear to have a key role in pathogenesis. Most AC-III's are integral membrane proteins involved in transducing extracellular signals into intracellular responses. A Nobel Prize was awarded to Earl Sutherland in 1971 for discovering the key role of AC-III in human liver, where adrenaline indirectly stimulates AC to mobilize stored energy in the "fight or flight" response. The effect of adrenaline is via a G protein signaling cascade, which transmits chemical signals from outside the cell across the membrane to the inside of the cell (cytoplasm). The outside signal (in this case, adrenaline) binds to a receptor, which transmits a signal to the G protein, which transmits a signal to adenylyl cyclase, which transmits a signal by converting adenosine triphosphate to cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). cAMP is known as a second messenger.
Cyclic AMP is an important molecule in eukaryotic signal transduction, a so-called second messenger. Adenylyl cyclases are often activated or inhibited by G proteins, which are coupled to membrane receptors and thus can respond to hormonal or other stimuli. Following activation of adenylyl cyclase, the resulting cAMP acts as a second messenger by interacting with and regulating other proteins such as protein kinase A and cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels.
Photoactivated adenylyl cyclase (PAC) was discovered in Euglena gracilis and can be expressed in other organisms through genetic manipulation. Shining blue light on a cell containing PAC activates it and abruptly increases the rate of conversion of ATP to cAMP. This is a useful technique for researchers in neuroscience because it allows them to quickly increase the intracellular cAMP levels in particular neurons, and to study the effect of that increase in neural activity on the behavior of the organism. A green-light activated rhodopsin adenylyl cyclase (CaRhAC) has recently been engineered by modifying the nucleotide binding pocket of rhodopsin guanylyl cyclase.
Structure
Most class III adenylyl cyclases are transmembrane proteins with 12 transmembrane segments. The protein is organized with 6 transmembrane segments, then the C1 cytoplasmic domain, then another 6 membrane segments, and then a second cytoplasmic domain called C2. The important parts for function are the N-terminus and the C1 and C2 regions. The C1a and C2a subdomains are homologous and form an intramolecular 'dimer' that forms the active site. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis and many other bacterial cases, the AC-III polypeptide is only half as long, comprising one 6-transmembrane domain followed by a cytoplasmic domain, but two of these form a functional homodimer that resembles the mammalian architecture with two active sites. In non-animal class III ACs, the catalytic cytoplasmic domain is seen associated with other (not necessarily transmembrane) domains.
Class III adenylyl cyclase domains can be further divided into four subfamilies, termed class IIIa through IIId. Animal membrane-bound ACs belong to class IIIa.
Mechanism
The reaction happens with two metal cofactors (Mg or Mn) coordinated to the two aspartate residues on C1. They perform a nucleophilic attack of the 3'-OH group of the ribose on the α-phosphoryl group of ATP. The two lysine and aspartate residues on C2 selects ATP over GTP for the substrate, so that the enzyme is not a guanylyl cyclase. A pair of arginine and asparagine residues on C2 stabilizes the transition state. In many proteins, these residues are nevertheless mutated while retaining the adenylyl cyclase activity.
Types
There are ten known isoforms of adenylyl cyclases in mammals:
These are also sometimes called simply AC1, AC2, etc., and, somewhat confusingly, sometimes Roman numerals are used for these isoforms that all belong to the overall AC class III. They differ mainly in how they are regulated, and are differentially expressed in various tissues throughout mammalian development.
Regulation
Adenylyl cyclase is regulated by G proteins, which can be found in the monomeric form or the heterotrimeric form, consisting of three subunits. Adenylyl cyclase activity is controlled by heterotrimeric G proteins. The inactive or inhibitory form exists when the complex consists of alpha, beta, and gamma subunits, with GDP bound to the alpha subunit. In order to become active, a ligand must bind to the receptor and cause a conformational change. This conformational change causes the alpha subunit to dissociate from the complex and become bound to GTP. This G-alpha-GTP complex then binds to adenylyl cyclase and causes activation and the release of cAMP. Since a good signal requires the help of enzymes, which turn on and off signals quickly, there must also be a mechanism in which adenylyl cyclase deactivates and inhibits cAMP. The deactivation of the active G-alpha-GTP complex is accomplished rapidly by GTP hydrolysis due to the reaction being catalyzed by the intrinsic enzymatic activity of GTPase located in the alpha subunit. It is also regulated by forskolin, as well as other isoform-specific effectors:
Isoforms I, III, and VIII are also stimulated by Ca2+/calmodulin.
Isoforms V and VI are inhibited by Ca2+ in a calmodulin-independent manner.
Isoforms II, IV and IX are stimulated by alpha subunit of the G protein.
Isoforms I, V and VI are most clearly inhibited by Gi, while other isoforms show less dual regulation by the inhibitory G protein.
Soluble AC (sAC) is not a transmembrane form and is not regulated by G proteins or forskolin, instead acts as a bicarbonate/pH sensor. It is anchored at various locations within the cell and, with phosphodiesterases, forms local cAMP signalling domains.
In neurons, calcium-sensitive adenylyl cyclases are located next to calcium ion channels for faster reaction to Ca2+ influx; they are suspected of playing an important role in learning processes. This is supported by the fact that adenylyl cyclases are coincidence detectors, meaning that they are activated only by several different signals occurring together. In peripheral cells and tissues adenylyl cyclases appear to form molecular complexes with specific receptors and other signaling proteins in an isoform-specific manner.
Function
Individual transmembrane adenylyl cyclase isoforms have been linked to numerous physiological functions. Soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC, AC10) has a critical role in sperm motility. Adenylyl cyclase has been implicated in memory formation, functioning as a coincidence detector.
Class IV
AC-IV was first reported in the bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila, and the structure of the AC-IV from Yersinia pestis has been reported. These are the smallest of the AC enzyme classes; the AC-IV (CyaB) from Yersinia is a dimer of 19 kDa subunits with no known regulatory components (). AC-IV forms a superfamily with mammalian thiamine-triphosphatase called CYTH (CyaB, thiamine triphosphatase).
Classes V and VI
These forms of AC have been reported in specific bacteria (Prevotella ruminicola and Rhizobium etli , respectively) and have not been extensively characterized. There are a few extra members (~400 in Pfam) known to be in class VI. Class VI enzymes possess a catalytic core similar to the one in Class III.
Additional images
References
Further reading
External links
Interactive 3D views of Adenylate cyclase at
EC 4.6.1
Cell signaling
Signal transduction |
2536 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articolo%2031 | Articolo 31 | Articolo 31 is a band from Milan, Italy, formed in 1990 by J-Ax and DJ Jad, combining hip hop, funk, pop and traditional Italian musical forms. They are one of the most popular Italian hip hop groups.
Band history
Articolo 31 were formed by rapper J-Ax (real name Alessandro Aleotti) and DJ Jad (Vito Luca Perrini).
In the spoken intro of the album Strade di Città ("City Streets"), it is stated that the band is named after the article of the Irish constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press, although article 31 of the Irish constitution is not about the freedom of the press. They probably meant the Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act.
Articolo 31 released one of the first Italian hip hop records, Strade di città, in 1993. Soon, they signed with BMG Ricordi and started to mix rap with pop music – a move that earned them great commercial success but that alienated the underground hip hop scene, who perceived them as traitors.
In 1997, DJ Gruff dissed Articolo 31 in a track titled 1 vs 2 on the first album of the beatmaker Fritz da Cat, starting a feud that would go on for years.
In 2001, Articolo 31 collaborated with the American old school rapper Kurtis Blow on the album XChé SI!. In the same year, they made the film Senza filtro (in English, "Without filter"). Their producer was Franco Godi, who also produced the music for the Signor Rossi animated series.
Their 2002 album Domani smetto represented a further departure from hip hop, increasingly relying on the formula of rapping over pop music samples. Several of their songs rotate around the theme of soft drugs legalization in Italy (pointing strongly in favour).
Following their 2003 album "Italiano medio", the band took a break. Both J-Ax and DJ Jad have been involved with solo projects. In 2006, the group declared an indefinite hiatus.
Their posse, Spaghetti Funk, includes other popular performers like Space One and pop rappers Gemelli DiVersi.
On 4 December 2022, it was officially announced Articolo 31 participation in the Sanremo Music Festival 2023. "Un bel viaggio" was later announced as their entry for the Sanremo Music Festival 2023.
Band members
J-Ax – vocals
DJ Jad – turntables
Discography
References
Italian hip hop groups
Musical groups from Milan
Hip hop groups from Milan
Italian rappers
Italian rap rock groups |
2544 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansgar | Ansgar | Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" because of his travels and the See of Hamburg received the missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe.
Life
Ansgar was the son of a noble Frankish family, born near Amiens (present day France). After his mother's early death, Ansgar was brought up in Benedictine monastery of Corbie in Picardy. According to the Vita Ansgarii ("Life of Ansgar"), when the little boy learned in a vision that his mother was in the company of Mary, mother of Jesus, his careless attitude toward spiritual matters changed to seriousness. His pupil, successor, and eventual biographer Rimbert considered the visions (of which this was the first) to have been Ansgar's main life motivator.
Ansgar acted in the context of the phase of Christianization of Saxony (present day Northern Germany) begun by Charlemagne and continued by Charlemagne's son and successor, Louis the Pious. In 822 Ansgar became one of many missionaries sent to found the abbey of Corvey (New Corbie) in Westphalia, where he became a teacher and preacher. A group of monks including Ansgar were sent further north to Jutland with the king Harald Klak, who had received baptism during his exile. With Harald's downfall in 827 and Ansgar's companion Autbert having died, their school for the sons of courtiers closed and Ansgar returned to Germany. Then in 829, after the Swedish king Björn at Hauge requested missionaries for his Swedes, King Louis sent Ansgar, now accompanied by friar Witmar from New Corbie as his assistant. Ansgar preached and made converts, particularly during six months at Birka, on Lake Mälaren, where the wealthy widow Mor Frideborg extended hospitality. Ansgar organized a small congregation with her and the king's steward, Hergeir, as its most prominent members.
In 831 Ansgar returned to Louis' court at Worms and was appointed to the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. This was a new archbishopric, incorporating the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden and with the right to send missions into all the northern lands, as well as to consecrate bishops for them. Ansgar received the mission of evangelizing pagan Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The King of Sweden decided to cast lots as to whether to admit the Christian missionaries into his kingdom. Ansgar recommended the issue to the care of God, and the lot was favorable. Ansgar was consecrated as a bishop in November 831, with the approval of Gregory IV. Before traveling north once again, Ansgar traveled to Rome to receive the pallium directly from the pope's hands, and was formally named legate for the northern lands. Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims had previously received a similar commission, but would be deposed twice before his death in 851, and never actually traveled so far north, so the jurisdiction was divided by agreement, with Ebbo retaining Sweden for himself. For a time Ansgar devoted himself to the needs of his own diocese, which was still a missionary territory and had few churches. He founded a monastery and a school in Hamburg. Although intended to serve the Danish mission further north, it accomplished little.
After Louis the Pious died in 840, his empire was divided and Ansgar lost the abbey of Turholt, which Louis had given to endow Ansgar's work. Then in 845, the Danes unexpectedly raided Hamburg, destroying all the church's treasures and books. Ansgar now had neither see nor revenue, and many helpers deserted him. The new king, Louis' third son, Louis the German, did not re-endow Turholt to Ansgar, but in 847 he named the missionary to the vacant diocese of Bremen, where Ansgar moved in 848. However, since Bremen had been suffragan to the Bishop of Cologne, combining the sees of Bremen and Hamburg presented canonical difficulties. After prolonged negotiations, Pope Nicholas I would approve the union of the two dioceses in 864.
Through this political turmoil, Ansgar continued his northern mission. The Danish civil war compelled him to establish good relations with two kings, Horik the Elder and his son, Horik II. Both assisted him until his death; Ansgar was able to secure permission to build a church in Sleswick north of Hamburg and recognition of Christianity as a tolerated religion. Ansgar did not forget the Swedish mission, and spent two years there in person (848–850), averting a threatened pagan reaction. In 854, Ansgar returned to Sweden when king Olof ruled in Birka. According to Rimbert, he was well disposed to Christianity. On a Viking raid to Apuole (current village in Lithuania) in Courland, the Swedes plundered the Curonians.
Death and legacy
Ansgar was buried in Bremen in 865. His successor as archbishop, Rimbert, wrote the Vita Ansgarii. He noted that Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water, and showed great charity to the poor. Adam of Bremen attributed the Vita et miracula of Willehad (first bishop of Bremen) to Ansgar in Gesta Hammenburgensis ecclesiæ; Ansgar is also the reputed author of a collection of brief prayers Pigmenta (ed. J. M. Lappenberg, Hamburg, 1844). Pope Nicholas I declared Ansgar a saint shortly after the missionary's death. The first actual missionary in Sweden and the Nordic countries (and organizer of the Catholic church therein), Ansgar was later declared "Patron of Scandinavia".
Relics are located in Hamburg in two places: St. Mary's Cathedral (Ger.: Domkirche St. Marien) and St. Ansgar's and St. Bernard's Church (Ger.: St. Ansgar und St. Bernhard Kirche).
Statues of Bishop Ansgar stand in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Ribe, as well as a stone cross at Birka. His feast day (Lesser Festival) is 3 February, as it is in the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Visions
Although a historical document and primary source written by a man whose existence can be proven historically, the Vita Ansgarii ("The Life of Ansgar") aims above all to demonstrate Ansgar's sanctity. It is partly concerned with Ansgar's visions, which, according to the author Rimbert, encouraged and assisted Ansgar's remarkable missionary feats.
Through the course of this work, Ansgar repeatedly embarks on a new stage in his career following a vision. According to Rimbert, his early studies and ensuing devotion to the ascetic life of a monk were inspired by a vision of his mother in the presence of Mary, mother of Jesus. Again, when the Swedish people were left without a priest for some time, he begged King Horik to help him with this problem; then after receiving his consent, consulted with Bishop Gautbert to find a suitable man. The two together sought the approval of King Louis, which he granted when he learned that they were in agreement on the issue. Ansgar was convinced he was commanded by heaven to undertake this mission and was influenced by a vision he received when he was concerned about the journey, in which he met a man who reassured him of his purpose and informed him of a prophet that he would meet, the abbot Adalhard, who would instruct him in what was to happen. In the vision, he searched for and found Adalhard, who commanded, "Islands, listen to me, pay attention, remotest peoples", which Ansgar interpreted as God's will that he go to the Scandinavian countries as "most of that country consisted of islands, and also, when 'I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth' was added, since the end of the world in the north was in Swedish territory".
See also
List of Eastern Orthodox saints
Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)
Hochkirchlicher Apostolat St. Ansgar
Priory of St. Ansgar
Sankt-Ansgar-Schule
Vita Ansgarii
References
Further reading
Jakobsson, Sverrir. Mission Miscarried: The Narrators of the Ninth-Century Missions to Scandinavia and Central Europe. Bulgaria Medievalis 2 (2011), 49–69.
Palmer, James T., Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and the Scandinavian Mission in the Ninth Century. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 55/2 (2004), 235–56.
Pryce, Mark. Literary Companion to the Festivals: A Poetic Gathering to Accompany Liturgical Celebrations of Commemorations and Festivals. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
Tschan, Francis J. History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.
External links
Ansgar at Birka History of Birka
Vita Ansgari, English translation from Medieval sourcebook
German History Forum
ANSKAR The Apostle of the North (801–865). Translated from the Vita Anskarii by Bishop Rimbert his fellow missionary and successor. BY CHARLES H. ROBINSON. Im BTM format
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801 births
865 deaths
Diplomats of the Holy See
Danish Roman Catholic saints
Medieval Swedish saints
Bishops in the Carolingian Empire
Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen
9th-century Christian saints
Saints from East Francia
9th-century people from East Francia
Christian missionaries in Denmark
Christian missionaries in Sweden
Medieval Danish saints
9th-century writers in Latin
Writers from the Carolingian Empire
Anglican saints
Lutheran saints |
2546 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated%20theorem%20proving | Automated theorem proving | Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a major impetus for the development of computer science.
Logical foundations
While the roots of formalised logic go back to Aristotle, the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw the development of modern logic and formalised mathematics. Frege's Begriffsschrift (1879) introduced both a complete propositional calculus and what is essentially modern predicate logic. His Foundations of Arithmetic, published in 1884, expressed (parts of) mathematics in formal logic. This approach was continued by Russell and Whitehead in their influential Principia Mathematica, first published 1910–1913, and with a revised second edition in 1927. Russell and Whitehead thought they could derive all mathematical truth using axioms and inference rules of formal logic, in principle opening up the process to automatisation. In 1920, Thoralf Skolem simplified a previous result by Leopold Löwenheim, leading to the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem and, in 1930, to the notion of a Herbrand universe and a Herbrand interpretation that allowed (un)satisfiability of first-order formulas (and hence the validity of a theorem) to be reduced to (potentially infinitely many) propositional satisfiability problems.
In 1929, Mojżesz Presburger showed that the first-order theory of the natural numbers with addition and equality (now called Presburger arithmetic in his honor) is decidable and gave an algorithm that could determine if a given sentence in the language was true or false.
However, shortly after this positive result, Kurt Gödel published On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems (1931), showing that in any sufficiently strong axiomatic system there are true statements that cannot be proved in the system. This topic was further developed in the 1930s by Alonzo Church and Alan Turing, who on the one hand gave two independent but equivalent definitions of computability, and on the other gave concrete examples of undecidable questions.
First implementations
Shortly after World War II, the first general-purpose computers became available. In 1954, Martin Davis programmed Presburger's algorithm for a JOHNNIAC vacuum-tube computer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. According to Davis, "Its great triumph was to prove that the sum of two even numbers is even". More ambitious was the Logic Theorist in 1956, a deduction system for the propositional logic of the Principia Mathematica, developed by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and J. C. Shaw. Also running on a JOHNNIAC, the Logic Theorist constructed proofs from a small set of propositional axioms and three deduction rules: modus ponens, (propositional) variable substitution, and the replacement of formulas by their definition. The system used heuristic guidance, and managed to prove 38 of the first 52 theorems of the Principia.
The "heuristic" approach of the Logic Theorist tried to emulate human mathematicians, and could not guarantee that a proof could be found for every valid theorem even in principle. In contrast, other, more systematic algorithms achieved, at least theoretically, completeness for first-order logic. Initial approaches relied on the results of Herbrand and Skolem to convert a first-order formula into successively larger sets of propositional formulae by instantiating variables with terms from the Herbrand universe. The propositional formulas could then be checked for unsatisfiability using a number of methods. Gilmore's program used conversion to disjunctive normal form, a form in which the satisfiability of a formula is obvious.
Decidability of the problem
Depending on the underlying logic, the problem of deciding the validity of a formula varies from trivial to impossible. For the common case of propositional logic, the problem is decidable but co-NP-complete, and hence only exponential-time algorithms are believed to exist for general proof tasks. For a first-order predicate calculus, Gödel's completeness theorem states that the theorems (provable statements) are exactly the semantically valid well-formed formulas, so the valid formulas are computably enumerable: given unbounded resources, any valid formula can eventually be proven. However, invalid formulas (those that are not entailed by a given theory), cannot always be recognized.
The above applies to first-order theories, such as Peano arithmetic. However, for a specific model that may be described by a first-order theory, some statements may be true but undecidable in the theory used to describe the model. For example, by Gödel's incompleteness theorem, we know that any consistent theory whose axioms are true for the natural numbers cannot prove all first-order statements true for the natural numbers, even if the list of axioms is allowed to be infinite enumerable. It follows that an automated theorem prover will fail to terminate while searching for a proof precisely when the statement being investigated is undecidable in the theory being used, even if it is true in the model of interest. Despite this theoretical limit, in practice, theorem provers can solve many hard problems, even in models that are not fully described by any first-order theory (such as the integers).
Related problems
A simpler, but related, problem is proof verification, where an existing proof for a theorem is certified valid. For this, it is generally required that each individual proof step can be verified by a primitive recursive function or program, and hence the problem is always decidable.
Since the proofs generated by automated theorem provers are typically very large, the problem of proof compression is crucial, and various techniques aiming at making the prover's output smaller, and consequently more easily understandable and checkable, have been developed.
Proof assistants require a human user to give hints to the system. Depending on the degree of automation, the prover can essentially be reduced to a proof checker, with the user providing the proof in a formal way, or significant proof tasks can be performed automatically. Interactive provers are used for a variety of tasks, but even fully automatic systems have proved a number of interesting and hard theorems, including at least one that has eluded human mathematicians for a long time, namely the Robbins conjecture. However, these successes are sporadic, and work on hard problems usually requires a proficient user.
Another distinction is sometimes drawn between theorem proving and other techniques, where a process is considered to be theorem proving if it consists of a traditional proof, starting with axioms and producing new inference steps using rules of inference. Other techniques would include model checking, which, in the simplest case, involves brute-force enumeration of many possible states (although the actual implementation of model checkers requires much cleverness, and does not simply reduce to brute force).
There are hybrid theorem proving systems that use model checking as an inference rule. There are also programs that were written to prove a particular theorem, with a (usually informal) proof that if the program finishes with a certain result, then the theorem is true. A good example of this was the machine-aided proof of the four color theorem, which was very controversial as the first claimed mathematical proof that was essentially impossible to verify by humans due to the enormous size of the program's calculation (such proofs are called non-surveyable proofs). Another example of a program-assisted proof is the one that shows that the game of Connect Four can always be won by the first player.
Applications
Commercial use of automated theorem proving is mostly concentrated in integrated circuit design and verification. Since the Pentium FDIV bug, the complicated floating point units of modern microprocessors have been designed with extra scrutiny. AMD, Intel and others use automated theorem proving to verify that division and other operations are correctly implemented in their processors.
Other uses of theorem provers include program synthesis, constructing programs that satisfy a formal specification. Automated theorem provers have been integrated with proof assistants, including Isabelle/HOL.
First-order theorem proving
In the late 1960s agencies funding research in automated deduction began to emphasize the need for practical applications. One of the first fruitful areas was that of program verification whereby first-order theorem provers were applied to the problem of verifying the correctness of computer programs in languages such as Pascal, Ada, etc. Notable among early program verification systems was the Stanford Pascal Verifier developed by David Luckham at Stanford University. This was based on the Stanford Resolution Prover also developed at Stanford using John Alan Robinson's resolution principle. This was the first automated deduction system to demonstrate an ability to solve mathematical problems that were announced in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society before solutions were formally published.
First-order theorem proving is one of the most mature subfields of automated theorem proving. The logic is expressive enough to allow the specification of arbitrary problems, often in a reasonably natural and intuitive way. On the other hand, it is still semi-decidable, and a number of sound and complete calculi have been developed, enabling fully automated systems. More expressive logics, such as higher-order logics, allow the convenient expression of a wider range of problems than first-order logic, but theorem proving for these logics is less well developed.
Relationship with SMT
There is substantial overlap between first-order automated theorem provers and SMT solvers. Generally, automated theorem provers focus on supporting full first-order logic with quantifiers, whereas SMT solvers focus more on supporting various theories (interpreted predicate symbols). ATPs excel at problems with lots of quantifiers, whereas SMT solvers do well on large problems without quantifiers. The line is blurry enough that some ATPs participate in SMT-COMP, while some SMT solvers participate in CASC.
Benchmarks, competitions, and sources
The quality of implemented systems has benefited from the existence of a large library of standard benchmark examples—the Thousands of Problems for Theorem Provers (TPTP) Problem Library—as well as from the CADE ATP System Competition (CASC), a yearly competition of first-order systems for many important classes of first-order problems.
Some important systems (all have won at least one CASC competition division) are listed below.
E is a high-performance prover for full first-order logic, but built on a purely equational calculus, originally developed in the automated reasoning group of Technical University of Munich under the direction of Wolfgang Bibel, and now at Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart.
Otter, developed at the Argonne National Laboratory, is based on first-order resolution and paramodulation. Otter has since been replaced by Prover9, which is paired with Mace4.
SETHEO is a high-performance system based on the goal-directed model elimination calculus, originally developed by a team under direction of Wolfgang Bibel. E and SETHEO have been combined (with other systems) in the composite theorem prover E-SETHEO.
Vampire was originally developed and implemented at Manchester University by Andrei Voronkov and Kryštof Hoder. It is now developed by a growing international team. It has won the FOF division (among other divisions) at the CADE ATP System Competition regularly since 2001.
Waldmeister is a specialized system for unit-equational first-order logic developed by Arnim Buch and Thomas Hillenbrand. It won the CASC UEQ division for fourteen consecutive years (1997–2010).
SPASS is a first-order logic theorem prover with equality. This is developed by the research group Automation of Logic, Max Planck Institute for Computer Science.
The Theorem Prover Museum is an initiative to conserve the sources of theorem prover systems for future analysis, since they are important cultural/scientific artefacts. It has the sources of many of the systems mentioned above.
Popular techniques
First-order resolution with unification
Model elimination
Method of analytic tableaux
Superposition and term rewriting
Model checking
Mathematical induction
Binary decision diagrams
DPLL
Higher-order unification
Quantifier elimination
Software systems
Free software
Alt-Ergo
Automath
CVC
E
IsaPlanner
LCF
Mizar
NuPRL
Paradox
Prover9
PVS
SPARK (programming language)
Twelf
Z3 Theorem Prover
Proprietary software
CARINE
Wolfram Mathematica
ResearchCyc
See also
Curry–Howard correspondence
Symbolic computation
Ramanujan machine
Computer-aided proof
Formal verification
Logic programming
Proof checking
Model checking
Proof complexity
Computer algebra system
Program analysis (computer science)
General Problem Solver
Metamath language for formalized mathematics
De Bruijn factor
Notes
References
II .
External links
A list of theorem proving tools
Formal methods |
2551 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical%20year%20numbering | Astronomical year numbering | Astronomical year numbering is based on AD/CE year numbering, but follows normal decimal integer numbering more strictly. Thus, it has a year 0; the years before that are designated with negative numbers and the years after that are designated with positive numbers. Astronomers use the Julian calendar for years before 1582, including the year 0, and the Gregorian calendar for years after 1582, as exemplified by Jacques Cassini (1740), Simon Newcomb (1898) and Fred Espenak (2007).
The prefix AD and the suffixes CE, BC or BCE (Common Era, Before Christ or Before Common Era) are dropped. The year 1 BC/BCE is numbered 0, the year 2 BC is numbered −1, and in general the year n BC/BCE is numbered "−(n − 1)" (a negative number equal to 1 − n). The numbers of AD/CE years are not changed and are written with either no sign or a positive sign; thus in general n AD/CE is simply n or +n. For normal calculation a number zero is often needed, here most notably when calculating the number of years in a period that spans the epoch; the end years need only be subtracted from each other.
The system is so named due to its use in astronomy. Few other disciplines outside history deal with the time before year 1, some exceptions being dendrochronology, archaeology and geology, the latter two of which use 'years before the present'. Although the absolute numerical values of astronomical and historical years only differ by one before year 1, this difference is critical when calculating astronomical events like eclipses or planetary conjunctions to determine when historical events which mention them occurred.
Usage of the year zero
In his Rudolphine Tables (1627), Johannes Kepler used a prototype of year zero which he labeled Christi (Christ's) between years labeled Ante Christum (Before Christ) and Post Christum (After Christ) on the mean motion tables for the Sun, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. In 1702, the French astronomer Philippe de la Hire used a year he labeled at the end of years labeled ante Christum (BC), and immediately before years labeled post Christum (AD) on the mean motion pages in his Tabulæ Astronomicæ, thus adding the designation 0 to Kepler's Christi. Finally, in 1740 the French astronomer Jacques Cassini , who is traditionally credited with the invention of year zero, completed the transition in his Tables astronomiques, simply labeling this year 0, which he placed at the end of Julian years labeled avant Jesus-Christ (before Jesus Christ or BC), and immediately before Julian years labeled après Jesus-Christ (after Jesus Christ or AD).
Cassini gave the following reasons for using a year 0:
Fred Espenak of NASA lists 50 phases of the Moon within year 0, showing that it is a full year, not an instant in time. Jean Meeus gives the following explanation:
Signed years without the year zero
Although he used the usual French terms "avant J.-C." (before Jesus Christ) and "après J.-C." (after Jesus Christ) to label years elsewhere in his book, the Byzantine historian Venance Grumel (1890–1967) used negative years (identified by a minus sign, −) to label BC years and unsigned positive years to label AD years in a table. He may have done so to save space and he put no year 0 between them.
Version 1.0 of the XML Schema language, often used to describe data interchanged between computers in XML, includes built-in primitive datatypes date and dateTime. Although these are defined in terms of ISO 8601 which uses the proleptic Gregorian calendar and therefore should include a year 0, the XML Schema specification states that there is no year zero. Version 1.1 of the defining recommendation realigned the specification with ISO 8601 by including a year zero, despite the problems arising from the lack of backward compatibility.
See also
Julian day, another calendar commonly used by astronomers
Astronomical chronology
Holocene calendar
ISO 8601
References
Calendar eras
Chronology
Specific calendars
Year numbering |
2552 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%20of%20Bremen | Adam of Bremen | Adam of Bremen (; ; before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church). He was "one of the foremost historians and early ethnographers of the medieval period".
In his chronicle, he included a chapter mentioning the Norse outpost of Vinland, and was thus the first continental European to write about the New World.
Life
Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles. He is believed to have come from Meissen, then its own margravate. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but he was probably born before 1050 and died on 12 October of an unknown year (possibly 1081, at the latest 1085). From his chronicles, it is apparent that he was familiar with a number of authors. The honorary name of Magister Adam shows that he had passed through all the stages of a higher education. It is probable that he was taught at the Magdeburger Domschule.
In 1066 or 1067, he was invited by Archbishop Adalbert von Hamburg-Bremen to join the Church of Bremen. Adam was accepted among the capitulars of Bremen, and by 1069 he appeared as director of the Bremen Cathedral's school. Soon thereafter he began to write the history of Bremen/Hamburg and of the northern lands in his Gesta.
His position and the missionary activity of the church of Bremen allowed him to gather information on the history and the geography of Northern Germany. A stay at the court of Sweyn II of Denmark gave him the opportunity to find information about the history and geography of Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries. Among other things he wrote about in Scandinavia were the sailing passages across Øresund such as today's Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry route.
References
Further reading
Chłopacka Hanna: Adam Bremeński. In: Słownik Starożytności Słowiańskich. Vol. 1. 1961, p. 3-4.
External links
Adamus Bremensis: Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Lat.)
11th-century German historians
11th-century writers in Latin
11th-century births
1080s deaths
Year of birth unknown
Year of death uncertain
Chroniclers from the Holy Roman Empire
History of Bremen (city)
History of Hamburg
People from Meissen
History of Uppsala |
2553 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab%20urbe%20condita | Ab urbe condita | Ab urbe condita (; 'from the founding of the City'), or (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an expression used in antiquity and by classical historians to refer to a given year in Ancient Rome. In reference to the traditional year of the foundation of Rome, the year 1 BC would be written AUC 753, whereas AD 1 would be AUC 754. The foundation of the Roman Empire in 27 BC would be AUC 727. The current year AD would be AUC .
Usage of the term was more common during the Renaissance, when editors sometimes added AUC to Roman manuscripts they published, giving the false impression that the convention was commonly used in antiquity. In reality, the dominant method of identifying years in Roman times was to name the two consuls who held office that year. In late antiquity, regnal years were also in use, as in Roman Egypt during the Diocletian era after AD 293, and in the Byzantine Empire from AD 537, following a decree by Justinian.
Significance
Prior to the Roman state's adoption of the Varronian chronology – created by Titus Pomponius Atticus and Marcus Terentius Varro – there were many different dates posited for when the city was founded. This state of confusion required, for one to use an AUC date, one to pick a date as canonical. The Varronian chronology, constructed from fragmentary sources and demonstrably about four years off of absolute events , placed the founding of the city on 21 April 753 BC. This date, likely arrived at by mechanical calculation but accepted by the Augustan-era , has become the traditional date.
From the time of Claudius () onward, this calculation superseded other contemporary calculations. Celebrating the anniversary of the city became part of imperial propaganda. Claudius was the first to hold magnificent celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the city, in AD 47, the eight hundredth year from the founding of the city. Hadrian, in AD 121, and Antoninus Pius, in AD 147 and AD 148, held similar celebrations respectively.
In AD 248, Philip the Arab celebrated Rome's first millennium, together with Ludi saeculares for Rome's alleged tenth saeculum. Coins from his reign commemorate the celebrations. A coin by a contender for the imperial throne, Pacatianus, explicitly states "[y]ear one thousand and first," which is an indication that the citizens of the empire had a sense of the beginning of a new era, a Sæculum Novum.
Calendar era
The Anno Domini (AD) year numbering was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in , as a result of his work on calculating the date of Easter. Dionysius did not use the AUC convention, but instead based his calculations on the Diocletian era. This convention had been in use since AD 293, the year of the tetrarchy, as it became impractical to use regnal years of the current emperor. In his Easter table, the year was equated with the 248th regnal year of Diocletian. The table counted the years starting from the presumed birth of Christ, rather than the accession of the emperor Diocletian on 20 November AD 284 or, as stated by Dionysius: "sed magis elegimus ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesu Christi annorum tempora praenotare" ("but rather we choose to name the times of the years from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ"). Blackburn and Holford-Strevens review interpretations of Dionysius which place the Incarnation in 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1.
The year AD 1 corresponds to AUC 754, based on the epoch of Varro. Thus:
See also
Calendar era
History of Italy
List of Latin phrases
Roman calendar
References
External links
1st-century BC establishments in the Roman Empire
8th century BC in the Roman Kingdom
Calendar eras
Chronology
Latin words and phrases
Roman calendar
Diocletian |
2559 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arapaoa%20Island | Arapaoa Island | Arapaoa Island (formerly spelled Arapawa Island) is the second-largest island in the Marlborough Sounds, at the north-east tip of the South Island of New Zealand. The island has a land area of . Queen Charlotte Sound defines its western side, while to the south lies Tory Channel, which is on the sea route between Wellington in the North Island to Picton. Cook Strait's narrowest point is between Arapaoa Island's Perano Head and Cape Terawhiti in the North Island.
History
According to Māori oral tradition, the island was where the great navigator Kupe killed the octopus Te Wheke-a-Muturangi.
It was from a hill on Arapaoa Island in 1770 that Captain James Cook first saw the sea passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Sea, and confirmed that what the indigenous people had told him was correct – Aotearoa is composed of two main islands. Cook is not known for naming places after himself, and it is speculated that Joseph Banks bestowed the name Cook Strait. This discovery banished the fond notion of geographers that there existed a great southern continent, Terra Australis. A monument at Cook's Lookout was erected in 1970.
From the late 1820s until the mid-1960s, Arapaoa Island was a base for whaling in the Sounds. John Guard established a shore station at Te Awaiti in 1827, however initially could only salvage baleen until the station was equipped to process whale oil from 1830 onwards, targeting right whales. Later, the station at Perano Head on the east coast of the island was used to hunt humpback whales from 1911 to 1964 (see Whaling in New Zealand). The houses built by the Perano family are now operated as tourist accommodation. In the 2000s the former whalers from the Perano and Heberley families, who live on Arapawa, joined a Department of Conservation whale spotting programme to assess how the humpback whale population has recovered since the end of whaling.
An Air Albatross Cessna 402 commuter aircraft struck the 11,000-volt power lines linking the island and the mainland over Tory Channel in 1985. The crash was witnessed by many passengers on an inter-island Cook Strait ferry. The ferry immediately stopped to dispatch a rescue lifeboat. Along with the two pilots, one entire family died, and all but a young girl from the other. No bodies were ever found. The sole survivor (Cindy Mosey) was travelling with her family and the other family from Nelson to Wellington to attend a gymnastics competition. The Arapaoa Island crash caused public confidence in Air Albatross to falter, contributing to the company going into liquidation in December of that year.
In August 2014, the spelling of the island's name was officially changed from Arapawa to Arapaoa.
Conservation
Parts of the island have been heavily cleared of native vegetation in the past through burning and logging, A number of pine forests were planted on the island. Wilding pines, an invasive species in some parts of New Zealand, are being poisoned on the island to allow the regenerating native vegetation to grow. About at Ruaomoko Point on the south-eastern portion of the island will be killed by drilling holes into the trees and injecting poison.
Arapaoa Island is known for the breeds of domestic animals found only on the island – the Arapawa pig, Arapawa sheep and Arapawa goat. They became established in the 19th century, but the origin of the breeds is uncertain, and a matter of some speculation. Common suggestions are that they are old English breeds introduced by the early whalers, or by Captain Cook or other early explorers. These breeds are now extinct in England, and the goats surviving in a sanctuary on the island are now also bred in other parts of New Zealand and in the northern hemisphere.
The small Brothers Islands, which lie off the northeast coast of Arapaoa Island, are a sanctuary for the rare Brothers Island tuatara.
See also
List of islands of New Zealand
References
Further reading
Philp, Matt. 2011. The Sound of the Sea. New Zealand Geographic, 110.
Heberley, Heather. 1996. Weather permitting. Whatamango Bay, N.Z. : Cape Catley.
Heberley, Heather. 1997. Flood tide. Whatamango Bay, N.Z. : Cape Catley.
Islands of the Marlborough Sounds
Whaling stations in New Zealand
Whaling in New Zealand
Cook Strait Ferry
Populated places in the Marlborough Sounds |
2560 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative%20law | Administrative law | Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), adjudication, and the enforcement of laws. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law.
Administrative law deals with the decision-making of such administrative units of government that are part of the executive branch in such areas as international trade, manufacturing, the environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration, and transport.
Administrative law expanded greatly during the 20th century, as legislative bodies worldwide created more government agencies to regulate the social, economic and political spheres of human interaction.
Civil law countries often have specialized administrative courts that review these decisions.
In the last fifty years, administrative law, in many countries of the civil law tradition, has opened itself to the influence of rules posed by supranational legal orders, in which judicial principles have a strong importance: it has led, for one, to changes in some traditional concepts of the administrative law model, as has happened with the public procurements or with judicial control of administrative activity and, for another, has built a supranational or international public administration, as in the environmental sector or with reference to education, for which, within the United Nations' system, it has been possible to assist to a further increase of administrative structure devoted to coordinate the States' activity in that sector.
In civil law countries
Unlike most common law jurisdictions, most civil law jurisdictions have specialized courts or sections to deal with administrative cases that as a rule apply procedural rules that are specifically designed for such cases and distinct from those applied in private law proceedings, such as contract or tort claims.
Brazil
In Brazil, administrative cases are typically heard either by the Federal Courts (in matters concerning the Federal Union) or by the Public Treasury divisions of State Courts (in matters concerning the States). In 1998 a constitutional reform led by the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso introduced regulatory agencies as a part of the executive branch. Since 1988, Brazilian administrative law has been strongly influenced by the judicial interpretations of the constitutional principles of public administration (Art. 37 of Federal Constitution): legality, impersonality, publicity of administrative acts, morality and efficiency.
Chile
In Chile the President of the Republic exercises the administrative function, in collaboration with several ministries or other authorities with ministerial rank. Each ministry has one or more under-secretaries that act through public service to meet public needs. There is no single specialized court to deal with actions against the administrative entities, but there are several specialized courts and procedures of review.
China
Administrative law in the China was virtually non-existent before the economic reform era initiated by Deng Xiaoping. Since the 1980s China has constructed a new legal framework for administrative law, establishing control mechanisms for overseeing the bureaucracy, and disciplinary committees for the Chinese Communist Party.
In 1989, China established its Administrative Litigation Law, which provides and avenue for people to challenge government action. In 2014, it was amended to lower the burdens on those challenging administrative actions.
In 1990, the Administrative Supervision Regulations (行政检查条例) and the Administrative Reconsideration Regulations (行政复议条例) were passed. The 1993 State Civil Servant Provisional Regulations (国家公务员暂行条例) changed the way government officials were selected and promoted, requiring that they pass exams and yearly appraisals, and introducing a rotation system. The three regulations have been amended and upgraded into laws. In 1994, the State Compensation Law (国家赔偿法) was passed, followed by the Administrative Penalties Law (行政处罚法) in 1996. Administrative Compulsory Law was enforced in 2012. The General Administrative Procedure Law is underway.
France
In France, there is a dual jurisdictional system with the judiciary branch responsible for civil law and criminal law, and the administrative branch having jurisdiction when a government institution is involved.
Most claims against the national or local governments as well as claims against private bodies providing public services are handled by administrative courts, which use the Conseil d'État (Council of State) as a court of last resort for both ordinary and special courts. The main administrative courts are the tribunaux administratifs and appeal courts are the cours administratives d'appel. Special administrative courts include the National Court of Asylum Right as well as military, medical and judicial disciplinary bodies. The French body of administrative law is called "droit administratif".
Over the course of their history, France's administrative courts have developed an extensive and coherent case law (jurisprudence constante) and legal doctrine ( and ), often before similar concepts were enshrined in constitutional and legal texts. These principes include:
Right to fair trial (droit à la défense), including for internal disciplinary bodies
Right to challenge any administrative decision before an administrative court (droit au recours)
Equal treatment of public service users (égalité devant le service public)
Equal access to government employment (égalité d'accès à la fonction publique) without regard for political opinions
Freedom of association (liberté d'association)
Right to entrepreneurship (Liberté du Commerce et de l'industrie, lit. freedom of commerce and industry)
Right to legal certainty (Droit à la sécurité juridique)
French administrative law, the basis of continental administrative law, has had a strong influence on administrative laws in several other countries such as Belgium, Greece, Turkey and Tunisia.
Germany
In Germany, administrative law () has been differentiated from other branches of public law by scholars, courts, and legislators, since the late 19th century; the precise delimitations of the term, however, are in contention (which is especially relevant because German legal scholarship uses a terminological approach to conceptualizing the law). Administrative law defines all aspects of public administration in the modern German state.
German legal scholarship does not have an agreed-upon definition for public administration.
All that is administration, and is thus subject to administrative law, might be deemed to extend to all state activity of a certain type (material definition of public administration). Where the parliament imposes a fine on one of its members for misbehavior, or a presiding judge directs a disruptive member of the public to be removed from the viewing gallery, the question arises whether to treat these acts of public authority as acts of administration (and therefore executive in nature), even though they are performed by component parts of the state (that is to say, the government) that the law formally classifies as a legislative or a judicial body, respectively.
The opposite approach – the formalist definition of public administration – begins its examination by considering all those public authorities intended (judging by their lawful charter, organizational context, internal structure, and performed tasks) to do the work of public administration, and equates their functioning with public administration. There is some danger of circular reasoning, since the formal categorization of the organizational unit may in turn derive from some material conception of its function. Some functions that might, in the material view, be seen as not of the executive type, and thus not as belonging to the field of administration (such as the creation of rules with the force of law, which are usually thought of as legislative), would then be held to the standards of administrative law, and not another field of law.
This discussion is of seen as being of particular importance when considering the role of administrative law in maintaining the division of government powers.
A traditional, negative approach tries to define administration by subtracting those operations of the state which cannot be called administration, namely law-making and adjudication. Using this negative definition, though, requires law-making and adjudication to be defined first, and leaves some activities that are a poor fit for the term "administration", such as the cabinet government's political leadership decisions, within the bounds of the definition.
Positive definitions abound, but none has won out over the others, or been entirely convincing to scholars of German administrative law. Nonetheless, certain features may be seen as being charactersitic of administration: According to Maurer and Waldhoff, administration is social engineering (exerting influence on the non-state, societal domain) oriented towards some conception of the (ever-changing) public interest; it consists of taking action in the present, with a view to engineering the future; and it is the taking of concrete measures to regulate individual cases and to realize particular plans.
Administrative law, then, determines the organizational pre-conditions, the action and forms of action, and the completion of which duties and the fulfillment of which purposes will determine the face of public administration.
German scholarship on administrative law usually presents its description of Germany's body of rules for public administration in two parts: General doctrines of administrative law (), and doctrines pertaining to particulate fields of administrative law ().
General rules for public administration in Germany
Germany's principal piece of legislation concerning the legal forms and principles common to most fields of its public administration is the Law on Administrative Procedure (, abbreviated VwVfG); before the enactment of this law in 1977, these rules had only been general principles developed in the scholarly literature and the courts. The VwVfG is not a full codification of the generally applicable ground rules of German administrative law, since it mostly only determines the procedure to be followed by public authorities in the fulfillment of their tasks, rather than mandating the substance of public administration.
The VwVfG is a federal law that only applies to administration carried out by the German federal authorities. The vast majority of public administration in Germany, however, is performed by its component federal states (), as they are responsible for the execution both of federal laws and their own laws, with execution of the laws directly by authorities of the Federal Republic being the exceptional case (pursuant to article 83 of the 1949 German Constitution). All 16 German have enacted a State Law on Administrative Procedure of their own that is nearly word-for-word identical with the federal VwVfG.
With regard to the law of social safety nets and welfare (), the VwVfG is supplanted by Volume X of the Social Law Code (, abbreviated SGB X), and other general rules for administration in this area may be found in parts of Volume I and IV; the Revenue Code (, abbreviated AO) also supersedes the VwVfG with respect to the procedures of the tax authorities.
The law governing the adjudication of questions of administrative law before the courts of general administrative jurisdiction () is the Code on Administrative Courts (, abbreviated VwGO), which was enacted in 1960. Though the VwGO was not conceived as a full codification of court process for the courts of general administrative jurisdiction, and VwGO § 173 directs these courts to apply Germany's Code of Civil Procedure wherever the VwGO lacks special rules, proceedings before the courts of general administrative jurisdiction are mostly distinct from civil proceedings before the courts of general jurisdiction. The VwGO also does not apply to the courts of special administrative jurisdiction over tax disputes () or over social benefits disputes ().
Central legal principles in the field of public administration ‒ mostly developed before the adoption of the modern 1949 German Constitution, but buttressed and expanded after its advent ‒ include:
The principle of legality (lawfulness) of the executive: administrative agencies are bound to act where a law (of parliament, or of delegated legislation) prescribes it, and to not violate any laws (articles 1 III and 20 III of the German Constitution). Where its actions may burden or comparatively disadvantage a person, they must rest on a grant of authority by the legislature: this concept is called the or , meaning that limiting interference with (fundamental) rights is a sphere of action that is reserved to statute.
The principle of legal security, which includes a principle of legal certainty and the principle of non-retroactivity.
The principle of proportionality, which means that an act of an authority has to be suitable, necessary and appropriate.
Law on Administrative Procedure (VwVfG)
The Law on Administrative Procedure (VwVfG) was enacted in 1977, where it regulates the main administrative procedures of the federal government. The VwVfG contains the regulations for mass processes and gives legal power against the authorities. The VwVfG applies for public administrative activities of federal agencies as well as federal state authorities—in where federal laws are made. Paragraph 35 of the VwVfG defines the administrative act as the most common form of action in which the public administration occurs against a citizen. It states that an administration act is characterized by the following features:
It is an official act of an authority in the field of public law to resolve an individual case with effect to the outside.
Paragraph 36–39, 58–59, and 80 show the organization and structure of the administrative act. Paragraphs 48 and 49 state the prerequisites for redemption of an unlawful administration act (§ 48) and withdrawal of a lawful administration act (§ 49 VwVfG).
Other sources of law
Administration procedural law (Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung [VwGO]), which was enacted in 1960, rules the court procedures at the administrative court. The VwGO is divided into five parts, which are the constitution of the courts, action, remedies and retrial, costs and enforcement15 and final clauses and temporary arrangements.
In absence of a rule, the VwGO is supplemented by the code of civil procedure (Zivilprozessordnung [ZPO]) and the judicature act (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz [GVG]). In addition to the regulation of the administrative procedure, the VwVfG also constitutes the legal protection in administrative law beyond the court procedure. § 68 VwVGO rules the preliminary proceeding, called "Vorverfahren" or "Widerspruchsverfahren", which is a stringent prerequisite for the administrative procedure, if an action for rescission or a writ of mandamus against an authority is aimed. The preliminary proceeding gives each citizen, feeling unlawfully mistreated by an authority, the possibility to object and to force a review of an administrative act without going to court. The prerequisites to open the public law remedy are listed in § 40 I VwGO. Therefore, it is necessary to have the existence of a conflict in public law without any constitutional aspects and no assignment to another jurisdiction.
The social security code (Sozialgesetzbuch [SGB]) and the general fiscal law are less important for the administrative law. They supplement the VwVfG and the VwGO in the fields of taxation and social legislation, such as social welfare or financial support for students (BaFöG) etc.
Law of specialized areas of public administration
German legal scholarship traditionally organizes the body of German administration-related law into the following fields, each with its particular legal doctrines and written rules:
the law governing preventative measures against hazards to common goods (or, if civil process cannot be timely availed to remedy the hazard, against individual goods), especially public safety and order ( or );
environmental protection law (, including protection against emissions () and wildlife protection ());
Urban and land use planning law ( and );
the law regulating commerce and trades ().
Italy
In Italy administrative law is known as , a branch of public law whose rules govern the organization of the public administration and the activities of the pursuit of the public interest of the public administration and the relationship between this and the citizens.
Its genesis is related to the principle of division of powers of the State. The administrative power, originally called "executive", is to organize resources and people whose function is devolved to achieve the public interest objectives as defined by the law.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands administrative law provisions are usually contained in the various laws about public services and regulations. There is however also a single General Administrative Law Act ( or Awb), which is a rather good sample of procedural laws in Europe. It applies both to the making of administrative decisions and the judicial review of these decisions in courts. Another act about judicial procedures in general is the (General time provisions act), with general provisions about time schedules in procedures.
On the basis of the Awb, citizens can oppose a decision () made by an administrative agency () within the administration and apply for judicial review in courts if unsuccessful. Before going to court, citizens must usually first object to the decision with the administrative body who made it. This is called . This procedure allows for the administrative body to correct possible mistakes themselves and is used to filter cases before going to court. Sometimes, instead of , a different system is used called (administrative appeal). The difference with is that is filed with a different administrative body, usually a higher ranking one, than the administrative body that made the primary decision. is available only if the law on which the primary decision is based specifically provides for it. An example involves objecting to a traffic ticket with the district attorney (), after which the decision can be appealed in court.
Unlike France or Germany, there are no special administrative courts of first instance in the Netherlands, but regular courts have an administrative "chamber" which specializes in administrative appeals. The courts of appeal in administrative cases however are specialized depending on the case, but most administrative appeals end up in the judicial section of the Council of State (Raad van State).
Sweden
In Sweden, there is a system of administrative courts that considers only administrative law cases, and is completely separate from the system of general courts. This system has three tiers, with 12 county administrative courts () as the first tier, four administrative courts of appeal () as the second tier, and the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden () as the third tier.
Migration cases are handled in a two-tier system, effectively within the system general administrative courts. Three of the administrative courts serve as migration courts () with the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm serving as the Migration Court of Appeal ().
Taiwan (ROC)
In Taiwan the recently enacted Constitutional Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) in 2019 (former Constitutional Interpretation Procedure Act, 1993), the Justices of the Constitutional Court of Judicial Yuan of Taiwan is in charge of judicial interpretation. As of 2019, this council has made 757 interpretations.
Turkey
In Turkey, the lawsuits against the acts and actions of the national or local governments and public bodies are handled by administrative courts which are the main administrative courts. The decisions of the administrative courts are checked by the Regional Administrative Courts and Council of State. Council of State as a court of last resort is exactly similar to Conseil d'État in France.
Ukraine
Administrative law in Ukraine is a homogeneous legal substance isolated in a system of jurisprudence characterized as: (1) a branch of law; (2) a science; (3) a discipline.
In common law countries
Generally speaking, most countries that follow the principles of common law have developed procedures for judicial review that limit the reviewability of decisions made by administrative law bodies. Often these procedures are coupled with legislation or other common law doctrines that establish standards for proper rulemaking. Administrative law may also apply to review of decisions of so-called semi-public bodies, such as non-profit corporations, disciplinary boards, and other decision-making bodies that affect the legal rights of members of a particular group or entity.
While administrative decision-making bodies are often controlled by larger governmental units, their decisions could be reviewed by a court of general jurisdiction under some principle of judicial review based upon due process (United States) or fundamental justice (Canada). Judicial review of administrative decisions is different from an administrative appeal. When sitting in review of a decision, the Court will only look at the method in which the decision was arrived at, whereas in an administrative appeal the correctness of the decision itself will be examined, usually by a higher body in the agency. This difference is vital in appreciating administrative law in common law countries.
The scope of judicial review may be limited to certain questions of fairness, or whether the administrative action is ultra vires. In terms of ultra vires actions in the broad sense, a reviewing court may set aside an administrative decision if it is unreasonable (under Canadian law, following the rejection of the "Patently Unreasonable" standard by the Supreme Court in Dunsmuir v New Brunswick), Wednesbury unreasonable (under British law), or arbitrary and capricious (under U.S. Administrative Procedure Act and New York State law). Administrative law, as laid down by the Supreme Court of India, has also recognized two more grounds of judicial review which were recognized but not applied by English Courts, namely legitimate expectation and proportionality.
The powers to review administrative decisions are usually established by statute, but were originally developed from the royal prerogative writs of English law, such as the writ of mandamus and the writ of certiorari. In certain common law jurisdictions, such as India or Pakistan, the power to pass such writs is a Constitutionally guaranteed power. This power is seen as fundamental to the power of judicial review and an aspect of the independent judiciary.
Australia
Canada
Singapore
United Kingdom
United States
In the United States, many government agencies are organized under the executive branch of government, although a few are part of the judicial or legislative branches.
In the federal government, the executive branch, led by the president, controls the federal executive departments, which are led by secretaries who are members of the United States Cabinet. The many independent agencies of the United States government created by statutes enacted by Congress exist outside of the federal executive departments but are still part of the executive branch.
Congress has also created some special judicial bodies known as Article I tribunals to handle some areas of administrative law.
The actions of executive agencies and independent agencies are the main focus of American administrative law. In response to the rapid creation of new independent agencies in the early twentieth century (see discussion below), Congress enacted the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in 1946. Many of the independent agencies operate as miniature versions of the tripartite federal government, with the authority to "legislate" (through rulemaking; see Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations), "adjudicate" (through administrative hearings), and to "execute" administrative goals (through agency enforcement personnel). Because the United States Constitution sets no limits on this tripartite authority of administrative agencies, Congress enacted the APA to establish fair administrative law procedures to comply with the constitutional requirements of due process. Agency procedures are drawn from four sources of authority: the APA, organic statutes, agency rules, and informal agency practice. It is important to note, though, that agencies can only act within their congressionally delegated authority, and must comply with the requirements of the APA.
At state level the first version of the Model State Administrative Procedure Act was promulgated and published in 1946 by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), in which year the Federal Administrative Procedure Act was drafted. It is incorporated basic principles with only enough elaboration of detail to support essential features, therefore it is a "model", and not a "uniform", act. A model act is needed because state administrative law in the states is not uniform, and there are a variety of approaches used in the various states. Later it was modified in 1961 and 1981. The present version is the 2010 Model State Administrative Procedure Act (MSAPA) which maintains the continuity with earlier ones. The reason of the revision is that, in the past two decades state legislatures, dissatisfied with agency rule-making and adjudication, have enacted statutes that modify administrative adjudication and rule-making procedure.
The American Bar Association's official journal concerning administrative law is the Administrative Law Review, a quarterly publication that is managed and edited by students at the Washington College of Law.
Historical development
Stephen Breyer, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1994 to 2022, divides the history of administrative law in the United States into six discrete periods, in his book, Administrative Law & Regulatory Policy (3d Ed., 1992):
English antecedents & the American experience to 1875
1875 – 1930: the rise of regulation & the traditional model of administrative law
1930 – 1945: the New Deal
1945 – 1965: the Administrative Procedure Act & the maturation of the traditional model of administrative law
1965 – 1985: critique and transformation of the administrative process
1985 – ?: retreat or consolidation
Agriculture
The agricultural sector is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the U.S. economy, as it is regulated in various ways at the international, federal, state, and local levels. Consequently, administrative law is a significant component of the discipline of agricultural law. The United States Department of Agriculture and its myriad agencies such as the Agricultural Marketing Service are the primary sources of regulatory activity, although other administrative bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency play a significant regulatory role as well.
See also
Constitutionalism
Rule of law
Rechtsstaat
References
Further reading
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2563 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%20Phillip | Arthur Phillip | Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until December 1753. He then became an apprentice on the whaling ship Fortune. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War against France, Phillip enlisted in the Royal Navy as captain's servant to Michael Everitt aboard . With Everitt, Phillip also served on and . Phillip was promoted to lieutenant on 7 June 1761, before being put on half-pay at the end of hostilities on 25 April 1763. Seconded to the Portuguese Navy in 1774, he served in the war against Spain. Returning to Royal Navy service in 1778, in 1782 Phillip, in command of , was to capture Spanish colonies in South America, but an armistice was concluded before he reached his destination. In 1784, Phillip was employed by Home Office Under Secretary Evan Nepean, to survey French defences in Europe.
In 1786, Phillip was appointed by Lord Sydney as the commander of the First Fleet, a fleet of 11 ships whose crew were to establish a penal colony and a settlement at Botany Bay, New South Wales. On arriving at Botany Bay, Phillip found the site unsuitable and searched for a more habitable site for a settlement, which he found in Port Jackson – the site of Sydney, Australia, today. Phillip was a far-sighted governor who soon realised that New South Wales would need a civil administration and a system for emancipating convicts. However, his plan to bring skilled tradesmen on the First Fleet's voyage had been rejected. Consequently, he faced immense problems with labour, discipline, and supply. Phillip wanted harmonious relations with the local indigenous peoples, in the belief that everyone in the colony was a British citizen and was protected by the law as such, therefore the indigenous peoples had the same rights as everyone under Phillip's command. Eventually, cultural differences between the two groups of people led to conflict. The arrival of more convicts with the Second and Third Fleets placed new pressures on scarce local resources. By the time Phillip sailed home in December 1792, the colony was taking shape, with official land grants, systematic farming, and a water supply in place.
On 11 December 1792, Phillip left the colony to return to Britain to receive medical treatment for kidney stones. He had planned to return to Australia, but medical advisors recommended he resign from the governorship. His health recovered and he returned to active duty in the Navy in 1796, holding a number of commands in home waters before being put in command of the Hampshire Sea Fencibles. He eventually retired from active naval service in 1805. He spent his final years of retirement in Bath, Somerset, before his death on 31 August 1814. As the first Governor of New South Wales, a number of places in Australia are named after him, including Port Phillip, Phillip Island, Phillip Street in the Sydney central business district, the suburb of Phillip in Canberra and the Governor Phillip Tower building in Sydney, as well as many streets, parks, and schools.
Early life
Arthur Phillip was born on 11 October 1738, in the Parish of All Hallows, in Bread Street, London. He was the son of Jacob Phillip, an immigrant from Frankfurt, who by various accounts was a language teacher, a merchant vessel owner, a merchant captain, or a common seaman. His mother, Elizabeth Breach, was the widow of a common seaman by the name of John Herbert, who had died of disease in Jamaica aboard on 13 August 1732. At the time of Arthur Phillip's birth, his family maintained a modest existence as tenants near Cheapside in the City of London.
There are no surviving records of Phillip's early childhood. His father, Jacob, died in 1739, after which the Phillip family would have a low income. Arthur went to sea on a British naval vessel aged nine. On 22 June 1751, he was accepted into the Greenwich Hospital School, a charity school for the sons of indigent seafarers. In accordance with the school's curriculum, his education focused on literacy, arithmetic, and navigational skills, including cartography. His headmaster, Reverend Francis Swinden, observed that in personality, Phillip was "unassuming, reasonable, business-like to the smallest degree in everything he undertakes".
Phillip remained at the Greenwich Hospital School for two and a half years, longer than the average student stay of one year. At the end of 1753, he was granted a seven-year indenture as an apprentice aboard Fortune, a 210-ton whaling vessel commanded by merchant mariner William Readhead. Phillip left the Greenwich Hospital School on 1 December, and spent the next few months aboard the Fortune, awaiting the start of the 1754 whaling season.
Contemporary portraits depict Phillip as shorter than average, with an olive complexion and dark eyes. A long nose and a pronounced lower lip dominated his "smooth pear of a skull" as quoted by Robert Hughes.
Early maritime career
Whaling and merchant expeditions
In April 1754 Fortune headed out to hunt whales near Svalbard in the Barents Sea. As an apprentice Phillip's responsibilities included stripping blubber from whale carcasses and helping to pack it into barrels. Food was scarce, and Fortunes 30 crew members supplemented their diet with bird's eggs, scurvy grass, and, where possible, reindeer. The ship returned to England on 20 July 1754. The whaling crew were paid and replaced with twelve sailors for a winter voyage to the Mediterranean. Phillip remained aboard as Fortune undertook an outward trading voyage to Barcelona and Livorno carrying salt and raisins, returning via Rotterdam with a cargo of grains and citrus. The ship returned to England in April 1755 and sailed immediately for Svalbard for that year's whale hunt. Phillip was still a member of the crew but abandoned his apprenticeship when the ship returned to England on 27 July.
Royal Navy and the Seven Years' War
On 16 October 1755, Phillip enlisted in the Royal Navy as captain's servant aboard the 68-gun , commanded by his mother's cousin, Captain Michael Everitt. As a member of Buckinghams crew, Phillip served in home waters until April 1756 and then joined Admiral John Byng's Mediterranean fleet. The Buckingham was Rear-Admiral Temple West's flagship at the Battle of Minorca on 20 May 1756.
Phillip moved on 1 August 1757, with Everitt, to the 90-gun , which took part in the Raid on St Malo on 5–12 June 1758. Phillip, again with Captain Everitt, transferred on 28 December 1758 to the 64-gun , which went to the West Indies to serve at the Siege of Havana. On 7 June 1761, Phillip was commissioned as a lieutenant in recognition for his active service. With the coming of peace on 25 April 1763, he was retired on half-pay.
Retirement and the Portuguese Navy
In July 1763, Phillip married Margaret Charlotte Denison (), known as Charlott, a widow 16 years his senior, and moved to Glasshayes in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, establishing a farm there. The marriage was unhappy, and the couple separated in 1769 when Phillip returned to the Navy. The following year, he was posted as second lieutenant aboard , a newly built 74-gun ship of the line.
In 1774, Phillip was seconded to the Portuguese Navy as a captain, serving in the war against Spain. While with the Portuguese Navy, Phillip commanded a 26-gun frigate, Nossa Senhora do Pilar. On that ship, he took a detachment of troops from Rio de Janeiro to Colonia do Sacramento on the Río de la Plata (opposite Buenos Aires) to relieve the garrison there. The voyage also conveyed a consignment of convicts assigned to carry out work at Colonia. During a storm encountered in the course of the voyage, the convicts assisted in working the ship, and on arriving at Colonia, Phillip recommended that they be rewarded for saving the ship by remission of their sentences. A garbled version of this recommendation eventually found its way into the English press in 1786, when Phillip was appointed to lead the expedition to Sydney. Phillip played a leading role in the capture of the Spanish ship San Agustín, on 19 April 1777, off Santa Catarina. The Portuguese Navy commissioned her as the Santo Agostinho, under Phillip's command. The action was reported in the English press:
Madrid, 28 Aug. Letters from Lisbon bring the following Account from Rio Janeiro: That the St. Augustine, of 70 Guns, having been separated from the Squadron of M. Casa Tilly, was attacked by two Portugueze Ships, against which they defended themselves for a Day and a Night, but being next Day surrounded by the Portugueze Fleet, was obliged to surrender.
Recommissioned into Royal Navy
In 1778, with Britain again at war, Phillip was recalled to Royal Navy service and on 9 October was appointed first lieutenant of the 74-gun as part of the Channel fleet. Promoted to commander on 2 September 1779 and given command of the 8-gun fireship HMS Basilisk. With Spain's entry into the conflict, Phillip had a series of private meetings with the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich, sharing his charts and knowledge about the South American coastlines.
Phillip was promoted to post-captain on 30 November 1781 and given command of the 20-gun . Ariadne was sent to the Elbe to escort a transport ship carrying a detachment of Hanoverian troops, arriving at the port of Cuxhaven on 28 December, the estuary froze over trapping Ariadne in the harbour. In March 1782, Phillip arrived in England with the Hanoverian troops. In the following months Ariadne got a new lieutenant, Philip Gidley King, whom Phillip took under his wing. Ariadne was used to patrol the Channel where on 30 June, she captured the French frigate Le Robecq.
With a change of government on 27 March 1782, Sandwich retired from the Admiralty, Lord Germain was replaced as Secretary of State for Home and American Affairs by Earl of Shelburne, before 10 July 1782, in another change of government Thomas Townshend replaced him, and assumed responsibility for organising an expedition against Spanish America. Like Sandwich and Germain, he turned to Phillip for planning advice. The plan was for a squadron of three ships of the line and a frigate to mount a raid on Buenos Aires and Monte Video, then to proceed to the coasts of Chile, Peru, and Mexico to maraud, and ultimately to cross the Pacific to join the British Navy's East India squadron for an attack on Manila. On 27 December 1782, Phillip, took charge of the 64-gun . The expedition, consisting of the 70-gun , the 74-gun , Europa, and the 32-gun frigate , sailed on 16 January 1783 under the command of Commodore Robert Kingsmill. Shortly after the ships' departure, an armistice was concluded between Great Britain and Spain. Phillip learnt of this in April when he put in for storm repairs at Rio de Janeiro. Phillip wrote to Townshend from Rio de Janeiro on 25 April 1783, expressing his disappointment that the ending of the American War had robbed him of the opportunity for naval glory in South America.
Survey work in Europe
After his return to England in April 1784, Phillip remained in close contact with Townshend, now Lord Sydney, and Home Office Under Secretary Evan Nepean. From October 1784 to September 1786, Nepean, who was in charge of the Secret Service relating to the Bourbon Powers, France, and Spain, employed him to spy on the French naval arsenals at Toulon and other ports. There was fear that Britain would soon be at war with these powers as a consequence of the Batavian Revolution in the Netherlands.
Colonial service
Lord Sandwich, together with the president of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, the scientist who had accompanied Lieutenant James Cook on his 1770 voyage, was advocating the establishment of a British colony in Botany Bay, New South Wales. Banks accepted an offer of assistance from the American loyalist James Matra in July 1783. Under Banks' guidance, Matra rapidly produced "A Proposal for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales" (24 August 1783), with a fully developed set of reasons for a colony composed of American loyalists, Chinese, and South Sea Islanders (but not convicts). Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, as Secretary of State for the Home Office and minister in charge, decided to establish the proposed colony in Australia. This decision was taken for two reasons: the ending of the option to transport criminals to North America following the American Revolution, and the need for a base in the Pacific to counter French expansion.
In September 1786, Phillip was appointed commodore of the fleet, which came to be known as the First Fleet. His assignment was to transport convicts and soldiers to establish a colony at Botany Bay. Upon arriving there, Phillip was to assume the powers of captain general and governor in chief of the new colony. A subsidiary colony was to be founded on Norfolk Island, as recommended by Sir John Call and Sir George Young, to take advantage of that island's native flax (harakeke) and timber for naval purposes.
Voyage to Colony of New South Wales
On 25 October 1786, the 20-gun , lying in the dock at Deptford, was commissioned, with the command given to Phillip. The armed tender , under the command of Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, was also commissioned to join the expedition. On 15 December, Captain John Hunter was assigned as second captain to Sirius to command in the absence of Phillip, who as governor of the colony, would be where the seat of government was to be fixed.
Phillip had a difficult time assembling the fleet, which was to make an eight-month sea voyage and then establish a colony. Everything a new colony might need had to be taken, since Phillip had no real idea of what he might find when he got there. There were few funds available for equipping the expedition. His suggestion that people with experience in farming, building, and crafts be included was rejected by the Home Office. Most of the 772 convicts were petty thieves from the London slums. A contingent of marines and a handful of other officers who were to administer the colony accompanied Phillip.
The fleet of 11 ships and about 1,500 people, under Phillip's command, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787; provided an escort out of British waters. On 3 June 1787, the fleet anchored at Santa Cruz, Tenerife. On 10 June they set sail to cross the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, taking advantage of favourable trade winds and ocean currents. The Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro on 5 August and stayed for a month to resupply. The Fleet left Rio de Janeiro on 4 September to run before the westerlies to Table Bay in Southern Africa, which it reached on 13 October; this was the last port of call before Botany Bay. On 25 November, Phillip transferred from the Sirius to the faster Supply, and with the faster ships of the fleet hastened ahead to prepare for the arrival of the rest of the fleet. However, this "flying squadron", as Frost called it, reached Botany Bay only hours before the rest of the Fleet, so no preparatory work was possible. Supply reached Botany Bay on 18 January 1788; the three fastest transports in the advance group arrived on 19 January; slower ships, including Sirius, arrived on 20 January.
Phillip soon decided that the site, chosen on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, who had accompanied James Cook in 1770, was not suitable, since it had poor soil, no secure anchorage, and no reliable water source. Cook was an explorer and Banks had a scientific interest, whereas Phillip's differing assessment of the site came from his perspective as, quoted by Tyrrell, "custodian of over a thousand convicts" for whom he was responsible. After some exploration, Phillip decided to go on to Port Jackson, and on 26 January, the marines and the convicts landed at a cove, which Phillip named for Lord Sydney. This date later became Australia's national day, Australia Day. Governor Phillip formally proclaimed the colony on 7 February 1788 in Sydney. Sydney Cove offered a fresh water supply and a safe harbour, which Phillip famously described as: "being with out exception the finest Harbour in the World [...] Here a Thousand Sail of the Line may ride in the most perfect Security."
Establishing a settlement
On 26 January, the Union Jack was raised, and possession of the land was taken formally in the name of King George III. The next day, sailors from Sirius, a party of marines, and a number of male convicts were disembarked to fell timber and clear the ground for the erection of tents. The remaining large company of male convicts disembarked from the transports over the following days. Phillip himself structured the ordering of the camp. His own tent as governor and those of his attendant staff and servants were set on the east side of Tank Stream, with the tents of the male convicts and marines on the west. During this time, priority was given to building permanent storehouses for the settlement's provisions. On 29 January, the governor's portable house was placed, and livestock were landed the next day. The female convicts disembarked on 6 February; the general camp for the women was to the north of the governor's house and separated from the male convicts by the houses of chaplain Richard Johnson and the Judge Advocate, Marine Captain David Collins. On 7 February 1788, Phillip and his government were formally inaugurated.
On 15 February 1788, Phillip sent Lieutenant Philip Gidley King with a party of 23, including 15 convicts, to establish the colony at Norfolk Island, partly in response to a perceived threat of losing the island to the French, and partly to establish an alternative food source for the mainland colony.
Governor of New South Wales
When Phillip was appointed as governor-designate of the colony and began to plan the expedition, he requested that the convicts that were being sent be trained; only twelve carpenters and a few men who knew anything about agriculture were sent. Seamen with technical and building skills were commandeered immediately. The colony's isolation meant that it took almost two years for Phillip to receive replies to his dispatches from his superiors in London.
Phillip established a civil administration, with courts of law, that applied to everyone living in the settlement. Two convicts, Henry and Susannah Kable, sought to sue Duncan Sinclair, the captain of the Alexander, for stealing their possessions during the voyage. Sinclair, believing that as convicts they had no protection from the law, as was the case in Britain, boasted that he could not be sued. Despite this, the court found for the plaintiffs and ordered the captain to make restitution for the theft of the Kables' possessions.
Phillip had drawn up a detailed memorandum of his plans for the proposed new colony. In one paragraph he wrote: "The laws of this country [England] will of course, be introduced in [New] South Wales, and there is one that I would wish to take place from the moment his Majesty's forces take possession of the country: That there can be no slavery in a free land, and consequently no slaves." Nevertheless, Phillip believed in severe discipline; floggings and hangings were commonplace, although Phillip commuted many death sentences. The settlement's supplies were rationed equally to convicts, officers, and marines, and females were given two-thirds of the weekly males' rations. In late February, six convicts were brought before the criminal court for stealing supplies. They were sentenced to death; the ringleader, Thomas Barrett, was hanged that day. Phillip gave the rest a reprieve. They were banished to an island in the harbour and given only bread and water.
The governor also expanded the settlement's knowledge of the landscape. Two officers from Sirius, Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant William Bradley, conducted a thorough survey of the harbour at Sydney Cove. Phillip later joined them on an expedition to survey Broken Bay.
The fleet's ships left over the next months, with Sirius and Supply remaining in the colony under command of the governor. They were used to survey and map the coastlines and waterways. Scurvy broke out, so Sirius left Port Jackson for Cape Town under the command of Hunter in October 1788, having been sent for supplies. The voyage, which completed a circumnavigation, returned to Sydney Cove in April, just in time to save the near-starving colony.
As an experienced farmhand, Phillip's appointed servant Henry Edward Dodd, served as farm superintendent at Farm Cove, where he successfully cultivated the first crops, later moving to Rose Hill, where the soil was better. James Ruse, a convict, was later appointed to the position after Dodd died in 1791. When Ruse succeeded in the farming endeavours, he received the colony's first land grant.
In June 1790, more convicts arrived with the Second Fleet, but , carrying more supplies, was disabled en route after hitting an iceberg, leaving the colony low on provisions again. Supply, the only ship left under colonial command after Sirius was wrecked 19 March 1790 trying to land men and supplies on Norfolk Island, was sent to Batavia for supplies.
In late 1792, Phillip, whose health was suffering, relinquished the governorship to Major Francis Grose, lieutenant-governor and commander of New South Wales Corps. On 11 December 1792, Phillip left for Britain, on the Atlantic, which had arrived with convicts of the Third Fleet. Phillip was unable to follow his original intention of returning to Port Jackson once his health was restored, as medical advice compelled him to resign formally on 23 July 1793.
Military personnel in colony
The main challenge for order and harmony in the settlement came not from the convicts secured there on terms of good behaviour, but from the attitude of officers from the New South Wales Marine Corps. As Commander in Chief, Phillip was in command of both the naval and marine forces; his naval officers readily obeyed his commands, but a measure of co-operation from the marine officers ran against their tradition. Major Robert Ross and his officers (with the exception of a few such as David Collins, Watkin Tench, and William Dawes) refused to do anything other than guard duty, claiming that they were neither gaolers, supervisors, nor policemen.
Four companies of marines, consisting of 160 privates with 52 officers and NCO's, accompanied the First Fleet to Botany Bay. In addition, there were 34 officers and men serving in the Ship's Complement of Marines aboard Sirius and Supply, bringing the total to 246 who departed England.
Ross supported and encouraged his fellow officers in their conflicts with Phillip, engaged in clashes of his own, and complained of the governor's actions to the Home Office. Phillip, more placid and forbearing in temperament, was anxious in the interests of the community as a whole to avoid friction between the civil and military authorities. Though firm in his attitude, he endeavoured to placate Ross, but to little effect. In the end, he solved the problem by ordering Ross to Norfolk Island on 5 March 1790 to replace the commandant there.
Beginning with guards arriving with the Second and Third fleets, but officially with the arrival of on 22 September 1791, the New South Wales Marines were relieved by a newly formed British Army regiment of foot, the New South Wales Corps. On 18 December 1791, Gorgon left Port Jackson, taking home the larger part of the still-serving New South Wales Marines. There remained in New South Wales a company of active marines serving under Captain George Johnston, who had been Phillip's aide-de-camp, that transferred to the New South Wales Corps. Also remaining in the colony were discharged marines, many of whom became settlers. The official departure of the last serving marines from the colony was in December 1792, with Governor Phillip on Atlantic.
Major Francis Grose, commander of the New South Wales Corps, had replaced Ross as the Lieutenant-Governor and took over command of the colony when Phillip returned to Britain.
Relations with indigenous peoples
Phillip's official orders with regard to Aboriginal people were to "conciliate their affections", to "live in amity and kindness with them", and to punish anyone who should "wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations". The first meeting between the colonists and the Eora, Aboriginal people, happened in Botany Bay. When Phillip went ashore, gifts were exchanged, thus Phillip and the officers began their relationship with the Eora through gift-giving, hilarity, and dancing, but also by showing them what their guns could do. Anyone found harming or killing Aboriginal people without provocation would be severely punished.
After the early meetings, dancing, and musket demonstrations, the Eora avoided the settlement in Sydney Cove for the first year, but they warned and then attacked whenever colonists trespassed on their lands away from the settlement. Part of Phillip's early plan for peaceful cohabitation had been to persuade some Eora, preferably a family, to come and live in the town with the British so that the colonists could learn about the Eora's language, beliefs, and customs.
By the end of the first year, as none of the Eora had come to live in the settlement, Phillip decided on a more ruthless strategy, and ordered the capture of some Eora warriors. The man who was captured was Arabanoo, from whom Phillip and his officers started to learn language and customs. Arabanoo died in April 1789 of smallpox, which also ravaged the rest of the Eora population. Phillip again ordered the boats to Manly Cove, where two more warriors were captured, Coleby and Bennelong; Coleby soon escaped, but Bennelong remained. Bennelong and Phillip formed a kind of friendship, before he too escaped.
Four months after Bennelong escaped from Sydney, Phillip was invited to a whale feast at Manly. Bennelong greeted him in a friendly and jovial way. Phillip was suddenly surrounded by warriors and speared in the shoulder by a man called Willemering. He ordered his men not to retaliate. Phillip, perhaps realising that the spearing was in retaliation for the kidnapping, ordered no actions to be taken over it. Friendly relations were reestablished afterwards, with Bennelong even returning to Sydney with his family.
Even though there were now friendly relations with the Indigenous people around Sydney Cove, the same couldn't be said about the ones around Botany Bay, who had killed or wounded 17 colonists. Phillip despatched orders, as quoted by Tench, "to put to death ten... [and] cut off the heads of the slain... to infuse a universal terror, which might operate to prevent further mischief". Even though two expeditions were despatched under command of Watkin Tench, no one was apprehended.
On 11 December 1792, when Phillip returned to Britain, Bennelong and another Aboriginal man named Yemmerrawanne (or Imeerawanyee) travelled with him on the Atlantic.
Later life and death
Phillip's estranged wife, Charlott, died 3 August 1792 and was buried in St Beuno's Churchyard, Llanycil, Bala, Merionethshire. Phillip, a resident in Marylebone, married Isabella Whitehead of Bath in St Marylebone Church of England on 8 May 1794.
His health recovered, he was recommissioned in March 1796 to the 74-gun as part of the Channel fleet. In October, his command was switched to the 74-gun . In September 1797, Phillip was transferred again to the 90-gun , command of which he held until December of that year. During 1798–99, Phillip commanded the Hampshire Sea Fencibles, then appointed inspector of the Impress Service, in which capacity he and a secretary toured the outposts of Britain to report on the strengths of the various posts.
In the ordinary course of events he was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 1 January 1801. Phillip retired in 1805 from active service in the Navy, was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 13 December 1806, and received a final promotion to Admiral of the Blue on 4 June 1814.
Phillip suffered a stroke in 1808, which left him partially paralysed. He died 31 August 1814 at his residence, 19 Bennett Street, Bath. He was buried nearby at St Nicholas's Church, Bathampton. His Last Will and Testament has been transcribed and is online. Forgotten for many years, the grave was discovered in November 1897 by a young woman cleaning the church, who found the name after lifting matting from the floor; the historian James Bonwick had been searching Bath records for its location. An annual service of remembrance is held at the church around Phillip's birthdate by the Britain–Australia Society.
In 2007, Geoffrey Robertson QC alleged that Phillip's remains were no longer in St Nicholas Church, Bathampton, and had been lost: "Captain Arthur Phillip is not where the ledger stone says he is: it may be that he is buried somewhere outside, it may simply be that he is simply lost. But he is not where Australians have been led to believe that he now lies."
Legacy
A number of places in Australia bear Phillip's name, including Port Phillip, Phillip Island (Victoria), Phillip Island (Norfolk Island), Phillip Street in the Sydney central business district, the federal electorate of Phillip (1949–1993), the suburb of Phillip in Canberra, the Governor Phillip Tower building in Sydney, St Phillip's Church, Sydney (now St Philip's), and many streets, parks, and schools, including Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta.
A monument to Phillip in Bath Abbey Church was unveiled in 1937. Another was unveiled at St Mildred's Church, Bread Street, London, in 1932; that church was destroyed in the London Blitz in 1940, but the principal elements of the monument were re-erected at the west end of Watling Street, near Saint Paul's Cathedral, in 1968. A different bust and memorial is inside the nearby church of St Mary-le-Bow. There is a statue of him in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney. There is a portrait of him by Francis Wheatley in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
Percival Serle wrote of Phillip in his Dictionary of Australian Biography:
200th anniversary
As part of a series of events on the bicentenary of his death, a memorial was dedicated in Westminster Abbey on 9 July 2014. In the service, the Dean of Westminster, Very Reverend Dr John Hall, described Phillip as follows: "This modest, yet world-class seaman, linguist, and patriot, whose selfless service laid the secure foundations on which was developed the Commonwealth of Australia, will always be remembered and honoured alongside other pioneers and inventors here in the Nave: David Livingstone, Thomas Cochrane, and Isaac Newton." A similar memorial was unveiled by the outgoing 37th Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir, in St James' Church, Sydney, on 31 August 2014. A bronze bust was installed at the Museum of Sydney, and a full-day symposium discussed his contributions to the founding of modern Australia.
In popular culture
Phillip has been played by a number of actors in movies and television programs, including:
Sir Cedric Hardwicke in Botany Bay (1953)
Edward Hepple in The Hungry Ones (1963)
Wynn Roberts in Prelude to Harvest (1963)
Peter Collingwood in The Timeless Land (1980)
Sam Neill in The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (2005)
David Wenham in Banished (2015)
Barry Lee-Pearce in The Australian Wars (2022)
He is a prominent character in Timberlake Wertenbaker's play Our Country's Good, in which he commissions Lieutenant Ralph Clark to stage a production of The Recruiting Officer. He is shown as compassionate and just, but receives little support from his fellow officers.
His life was dramatised on radio in:
The Watch on the Headland (1940)
I'll Meet You in Botany Bay (1945)
See also
Historical Records of Australia
Journals of the First Fleet
History of smallpox in Australia
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
B. H. Fletcher, "Phillip, Arthur (1738–1814)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp 326–333.
Governors of New South Wales
City founders
Royal Navy admirals
1738 births
1814 deaths
Australian penal colony administrators
Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War
Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War
People from the City of London
English people of German descent
Port Phillip
18th-century Australian people
People educated at the Royal Hospital School
Colony of New South Wales people
Sea captains
Military personnel from London
First Fleet
People from Marylebone
British people in whaling |
2564 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April%2010 | April 10 |
Events
Pre-1600
428 – Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
837 – Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles).
1407 – Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma".
1500 – Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French.
1545 – The settlement of Villa Imperial de Carlos V (now the city of Potosí) in Bolivia is founded after the discovery of huge silver deposits in the area.
1601–1900
1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.
1717 – Robert Walpole resigns from the British government, commencing the Whig Split which lasts until 1720.
1724 – Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, his first cantata composed for Easter in Leipzig.
1741 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia gains control of Silesia at the Battle of Mollwitz.
1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria.
1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth's climate for the next two years.
1816 – The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States.
1821 – Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus.
1821 – Greek War of Independence: the island of Psara joins the Greek struggle for independence.
1826 – The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi begin leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.
1858 – After the original Big Ben, a bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
1864 – Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico.
1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
1868 – At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die.
1872 – The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.
1875 – India: Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda Saraswati to propagate his goal of social reform.
1887 – On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America.
1896 – 1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis.
1900 – British suffer a sharp defeat by the Boers south of Brandfort. 600 British troops are killed and wounded and 800 taken prisoner.
1901–present
1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.
1916 – The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City.
1919 – Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos.
1919 – The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole.
1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
1938 – The 1938 German parliamentary election and referendum seeks approval for a single list of Nazi candidates and the recent annexation of Austria.
1939 – Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.'s "Big Book", is first published.
1941 – World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia.
1944 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp.
1963 – One hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine sinks at sea.
1968 – The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm – the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734 people on board, fifty-three died.
1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit.
1972 – Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are discovered by construction workers in Shandong.
1972 – Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
1973 – Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland, killing 108 people.
1979 – Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people.
1988 – The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.
1991 – Italian ferry collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140.
1991 – A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.
1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.
2009 – President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis.
2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.
2016 – The Paravur temple accident in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu, kills more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for seventh day of Bhadrakali worship.
2016 – An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, impacting India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan.
2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, which was located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.
2023 – A mass shooting occurs at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky that leaves five victims dead and eight wounded.
Births
Pre-1600
401 – Theodosius II, Roman emperor (d. 450)
1018 – Nizam al-Mulk, Persian scholar and vizier (d. 1092)
1472 – Margaret of York, English princess (d. 1472)
1480 – Philibert II, duke of Savoy (d. 1504)
1487 – William I, count of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1559)
1512 – James V, king of Scotland (d. 1542)
1579 – Augustus II, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1666)
1583 – Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and jurist (d. 1645)
1601–1900
1603 – Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark (d. 1647)
1651 – Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, German mathematician, physicist, and physician (d. 1708)
1656 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French-Canadian settler, founded Rimouski (d. 1718)
1704 – Benjamin Heath, English scholar and author (d. 1766)
1707 – Michel Corrette, French organist, composer, and author (d. 1795)
1713 – John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (d. 1788)
1755 – Samuel Hahnemann, German-French physician and academic (d. 1843)
1762 – Giovanni Aldini, Italian physicist and academic (d. 1834)
1769 – Jean Lannes, French marshal (d. 1809)
1778 – William Hazlitt, English essayist and critic (d. 1830)
1794 – Matthew C. Perry, English-Scottish American commander (d. 1858)
1806 – Juliette Drouet, French actress (d. 1883)
1806 – Leonidas Polk, Scottish-American general and bishop (d. 1884)
1827 – Lew Wallace, American general, lawyer, and politician, 11th Governor of New Mexico Territory (d. 1905)
1829 – William Booth, English minister, founded The Salvation Army (d. 1912)
1847 – Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian-American journalist, publisher, and politician, founded Pulitzer, Inc. (d. 1911)
1864 – Eugen d'Albert, Scottish-German pianist and composer (d. 1932)
1865 – Jack Miner, American-Canadian farmer, hunter, and environmentalist (d. 1944)
1867 – George William Russell, Irish author, poet, and painter (d. 1935)
1868 – George Arliss, English actor and playwright (d. 1946)
1868 – Asriel Günzig, Moravian rabbi (d. 1931)
1873 – Kyösti Kallio, Finnish farmer, banker, and politician, 4th President of Finland (d. 1940)
1875 – George Clawley, English footballer (d. 1920)
1877 – Alfred Kubin, Austrian author and illustrator (d. 1959)
1879 – Bernhard Gregory, Estonian-German chess player (d. 1939)
1879 – Coenraad Hiebendaal, Dutch rower and physician (d. 1921)
1880 – Frances Perkins, American sociologist, academic, and politician, United States Secretary of Labor (d. 1965)
1880 – Montague Summers, English clergyman and author (d. 1948)
1886 – Johnny Hayes, American runner and trainer (d. 1965)
1887 – Bernardo Houssay, Argentinian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1889 – Louis Rougier, French philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1982)
1891 – Frank Barson, English footballer and coach (d. 1968)
1893 – Otto Steinböck, Austrian zoologist (d. 1969)
1894 – Ben Nicholson, British painter (d. 1982)
1897 – Prafulla Chandra Sen, Indian accountant and politician, 3rd Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1990)
1900 – Arnold Orville Beckman, American chemist, inventor, and philanthropist (d. 2004)
1901–present
1901 – Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil, Indian economist (d. 1971)
1903 – Patroklos Karantinos, Greek architect (d. 1976)
1903 – Clare Turlay Newberry, American author and illustrator (d. 1970)
1906 – Steve Anderson, American hurdler (d. 1988)
1910 – Margaret Clapp, American scholar and academic (d. 1974)
1910 – Helenio Herrera, Argentinian footballer and manager (d. 1997)
1910 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and publisher, founded the Monthly Review (d. 2004)
1911 – Martin Denny, American pianist and composer (d. 2005)
1911 – Maurice Schumann, French journalist and politician, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs for France (d. 1998)
1912 – Boris Kidrič, Austrian-Slovenian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Slovenia (d. 1953)
1913 – Stefan Heym, German-American soldier and author (d. 2001)
1914 – Jack Badcock, Australian cricketer (d. 1982)
1915 – Harry Morgan, American actor and director (d. 2011)
1915 – Leo Vroman, Dutch-American hematologist, poet, and illustrator (d. 2014)
1916 – Lee Jung-seob, Korean painter (d. 1956)
1917 – Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, Indian politician (d. 2013)
1917 – Robert Burns Woodward, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
1919 – John Houbolt, American engineer and academic (d. 2014)
1921 – Chuck Connors, American baseball player and actor (d. 1992)
1921 – Jake Warren, Canadian soldier and diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States (d. 2008)
1921 – Sheb Wooley, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2003)
1923 – Roger Gaillard, Haitian historian and author (d. 2000)
1923 – Jane Kean, American actress and singer (d. 2013)
1923 – Floyd Simmons, American decathlete and actor (d. 2008)
1923 – Sid Tickridge, English footballer (d. 1997)
1923 – John Watkins, South African cricketer (d. 2021)
1924 – Kenneth Noland, American soldier and painter (d. 2010)
1925 – Angelo Poffo, American wrestler and promoter (d. 2010)
1926 – Jacques Castérède, French pianist and composer (d. 2014)
1926 – Junior Samples, American comedian (d. 1983)
1927 – Norma Candal, Puerto Rican actress (d. 2006)
1927 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)
1929 – Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (d. 1959)
1929 – Liz Sheridan, American actress (d. 2022)
1929 – Max von Sydow, Swedish-French actor (d. 2020)
1930 – Claude Bolling, French pianist, composer, and actor (d. 2020)
1930 – Dolores Huerta, American activist, co-founded the United Farm Workers
1930 – Spede Pasanen, Finnish film director and producer, comedian, and inventor (d. 2001)
1931 – Kishori Amonkar, Indian classical vocalist (d. 2017)
1932 – Delphine Seyrig, Swiss/Alsatian French actress (d. 1990)
1932 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1933 – Rokusuke Ei, Japanese composer and author (d. 2016)
1933 – Helen McElhone, Scottish politician (d. 2013)
1934 – David Halberstam, American journalist and author (d. 2007)
1935 – Patrick Garland, English actor and director (d. 2013)
1935 – Peter Hollingworth, Australian bishop, 23rd Governor General of Australia
1935 – Christos Yannaras, Greek philosopher, theologian and author
1936 – John A. Bennett, American soldier (d. 1961)
1936 – David A. Hardy, British artist
1936 – John Howell, English long jumper
1936 – John Madden, American football player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2021)
1936 – Bobby Smith, American singer (d. 2013)
1937 – Bella Akhmadulina, Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator (d. 2010)
1938 – Don Meredith, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2010)
1939 – Claudio Magris, Italian scholar, author, and translator
1940 – Gloria Hunniford, British radio and television host
1941 – Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, (d. 2022)
1941 – Harold Long, Canadian politician (d. 2013)
1941 – Paul Theroux, American novelist, short story writer, and travel writer
1942 – Nick Auf der Maur, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1998)
1942 – Ian Callaghan, English footballer
1942 – Stuart Dybek, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
1943 – Andrzej Badeński, Polish-German sprinter (d. 2008)
1943 – Margaret Pemberton, English author
1945 – Kevin Berry, Australian swimmer (d. 2006)
1946 – David Angell, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2001)
1946 – Bob Watson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2020)
1946 – Adolf Winkelmann, German director, producer, and screenwriter
1947 – David A. Adler, American author and educator
1947 – Bunny Wailer, Jamaican singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2021)
1948 – Mel Blount, American football player
1948 – Jim Burns, Welsh artist
1949 – Daniel Mangeas, French banker and sportscaster
1949 – Eric Troyer, American singer-songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist
1950 – Ken Griffey, Sr., American baseball player and manager
1950 – Eddie Hazel, American guitarist (d. 1992)
1951 – David Helvarg, American journalist and activist
1952 – Narayan Rane, Indian politician, 16th Chief Minister of Maharashtra
1952 – Masashi Sada, Japanese singer, lyricist, composer, novelist, actor, and producer
1952 – Steven Seagal, American actor, producer, and martial artist
1953 – David Moorcroft, English runner and businessman
1953 – Pamela Wallin, Swedish-Canadian journalist, academic, and politician
1954 – Paul Bearer, American wrestler and manager (d. 2013)
1954 – Anne Lamott, American author and educator
1954 – Peter MacNicol, American actor
1954 – Juan Williams, Panamanian-American journalist and author
1955 – Marit Breivik, Norwegian handball player and coach
1955 – Lesley Garrett, English soprano and actress
1956 – Carol V. Robinson, English chemist and academic
1957 – Aliko Dangote, Nigerian businessman, founded Dangote Group
1957 – John M. Ford, American author and poet (d. 2006)
1957 – Steve Gustafson, Spanish-American bass player
1957 – Rosemary Hill, English historian and author
1958 – Bob Bell, Northern Irish engineer
1958 – Yefim Bronfman, Uzbek-American pianist
1958 – Brigitte Holzapfel, German high jumper
1959 – Babyface, American singer-songwriter and producer
1959 – Yvan Loubier, Canadian economist and politician
1959 – Brian Setzer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Steve Bisciotti, American businessman, co-founded Allegis Group
1960 – Katrina Leskanich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Terry Teagle, American basketball player
1961 – Nicky Campbell, Scottish broadcaster and journalist
1961 – Carole Goble, English computer scientist and academic
1961 – Mark Jones, American basketball player
1962 – Steve Tasker, American football player and sportscaster
1963 – Warren DeMartini, American guitarist and songwriter
1963 – Jeff Gray, American baseball player and coach
1963 – Doris Leuthard, Swiss lawyer and politician, 162nd President of the Swiss Confederation
1965 – Tim Alexander, American drummer and songwriter
1965 – Anna-Leena Härkönen, Finnish author
1966 – Brad William Henke, American football player and actor (d. 2022)
1966 – Steve Claridge, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
1967 – Donald Dufresne, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1967 – David Rovics, American singer-songwriter
1968 – Metin Göktepe, Turkish photographer and journalist (d. 1996)
1968 – Orlando Jones, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Steve Glasson, Australian lawn bowler
1969 – Ekaterini Koffa, Greek sprinter
1970 – Enrico Ciccone, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 – Leonard Doroftei, Romanian-Canadian boxer
1970 – Kenny Lattimore, American singer-songwriter
1970 – Q-Tip, American rapper, producer, and actor
1971 – Indro Olumets, Estonian footballer and coach
1971 – Al Reyes, Dominican-American baseball player
1972 – Ian Harvey, Australian cricketer
1972 – Priit Kasesalu, Estonian computer programmer, co-created Skype
1972 – Gordon Buchanan, Scottish film maker
1973 – Guillaume Canet, French actor and director
1973 – Roberto Carlos, Brazilian footballer and manager
1973 – Aidan Moffat, Scottish singer-songwriter
1973 – Christopher Simmons, Canadian-American graphic designer, author, and academic
1974 – Eric Greitens, American soldier, author and politician
1974 – Petros Passalis, Greek footballer
1975 – Chris Carrabba, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1975 – Terrence Lewis, Indian dancer and choreographer
1975 – David Harbour, American actor
1976 – Clare Buckfield, English actress
1976 – Yoshino Kimura, Japanese actress and singer
1976 – Sara Renner, Canadian skier
1977 – Stephanie Sheh, Taiwanese-American voice actress, director, and producer
1978 – Sir Christus, Finnish guitarist (d. 2017)
1979 – Iván Alonso, Uruguayan footballer
1979 – Kenyon Coleman, American football player
1979 – Rachel Corrie, American author and activist (d. 2003)
1979 – Tsuyoshi Domoto, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor
1979 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor, English singer-songwriter
1979 – Pavlos Fyssas, Greek rapper (d. 2013)
1979 – Peter Kopteff, Finnish footballer
1980 – Sean Avery, Canadian ice hockey player and model
1980 – Charlie Hunnam, English actor
1980 – Shao Jiayi, Chinese footballer
1980 – Kasey Kahne, American race car driver
1980 – Andy Ram, Israeli tennis player
1980 – Bryce Soderberg, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1981 – Laura Bell Bundy, American actress and singer
1981 – Liz McClarnon, English singer and dancer
1981 – Michael Pitt, American actor, model and musician
1981 – Alexei Semenov, Russian ice hockey player
1982 – Andre Ethier, American baseball player
1982 – Chyler Leigh, American actress and singer
1983 – Jamie Chung, American actress
1983 – Andrew Dost, American guitarist and songwriter
1983 – Ryan Merriman, American actor
1983 – Hannes Sigurðsson, Icelandic footballer
1984 – Faustina Agolley, Australian television host
1984 – Jeremy Barrett, American figure skater
1984 – Mandy Moore, American singer-songwriter and actress
1984 – David Obua, Ugandan footballer
1984 – Damien Perquis, French-Polish footballer
1984 – Gonzalo Javier Rodríguez, Argentinian footballer
1985 – Barkhad Abdi, Somali-American actor and director
1985 – Willo Flood, Irish footballer
1985 – Jesús Gámez, Spanish footballer
1985 – Dion Phaneuf, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Olivia Borlée, Belgian sprinter
1986 – Fernando Gago, Argentine footballer
1986 – Corey Kluber, American baseball pitcher
1986 – Vincent Kompany, Belgian footballer
1986 – Tore Reginiussen, Norwegian footballer
1987 – Ahmed Adel Abdel Moneam, Egyptian footballer
1987 – Shay Mitchell, Canadian actress and model
1987 – Hayley Westenra, New Zealand soprano
1988 – Chris Heston, American baseball pitcher
1988 – Kareem Jackson, American football player
1988 – Haley Joel Osment, American actor
1989 – Charlie Culberson, American baseball player
1990 – Ben Amos, English footballer
1990 – Andile Jali, South African footballer
1990 – Ricky Leutele, Australian-Samoan rugby league player
1990 – Maren Morris, American singer
1990 – Alex Pettyfer, English actor
1991 – AJ Michalka, American actress and singer
1992 – Jack Buchanan, Australian rugby league player
1992 – Sadio Mané, Senegalese footballer
1992 – Chaz Mostert, Australian racing driver
1992 – Daisy Ridley, English actress
1993 – Sofia Carson, American singer and actress
1994 – Siobhan Hunter, Scottish footballer
1995 – Ian Nelson, American actor
1996 – Thanasi Kokkinakis, Australian tennis player
1996 – Audrey Whitby, American actress
1997 – Claire Wineland, American activist and author (d. 2018)
1998 – Anna Pogorilaya, Russian figure skater
2001 – Ky Baldwin, Australian singer and actor
2001 – Noa Kirel, Israeli singer
Deaths
Pre-1600
879 – Louis the Stammerer, king of West Francia (b. 846)
943 – Landulf I, prince of Benevento and Capua
948 – Hugh of Arles, king of Italy
1008 – Notker of Liège, French bishop (b. 940)
1216 – Eric X, king of Sweden (b. 1180)
1282 – Ahmad Fanakati, chief minister under Kublai Khan
1309 – Elisabeth von Rapperswil, Swiss countess (b. 1261)
1362 – Maud, English noblewoman (b. 1339)
1500 – Michael Tarchaniota Marullus, Greek scholar and poet
1533 – Frederick I, king of Denmark and Norway (b. 1471)
1545 – Costanzo Festa, Italian composer
1585 – Gregory XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1502)
1598 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (b. 1548)
1599 – Gabrielle d'Estrées, French mistress of Henry IV of France (b. 1571)
1601–1900
1601 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish soldier and poet (b. 1562)
1619 – Thomas Jones, English-Irish archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of Ireland (b. 1550)
1640 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1578)
1644 – William Brewster, English official and pilgrim leader (b. 1566)
1646 – Santino Solari, Swiss architect and sculptor (b. 1576)
1667 – Jan Marek Marci, Czech physician and author (b. 1595)
1704 – Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg, German cardinal (b. 1629)
1756 – Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer (b. 1661)
1760 – Jean Lebeuf, French historian and author (b. 1687)
1786 – John Byron, English admiral and politician, 24th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1723)
1806 – Horatio Gates, English-American general (b. 1727)
1813 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1736)
1821 – Gregory V of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1746)
1823 – Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Austrian philosopher and academic (b. 1757)
1871 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentinian general and politician (b. 1789)
1889 – William Crichton, Scottish engineer and shipbuilder (b. 1827)
1901–present
1909 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic (b. 1837)
1919 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican general (b. 1879)
1920 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician and historian (b. 1829)
1931 – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet, painter, and philosopher (b. 1883)
1935 – Rosa Campbell Praed, Australian novelist (b. 1851)
1938 – King Oliver, American cornet player and bandleader (b. 1885)
1942 – Carl Schenstrøm, Danish actor and director (b. 1881)
1943 – Andreas Faehlmann, Estonian-German sailor and engineer (b. 1898)
1945 – Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, Dutch printer and typographer (b. 1882)
1947 – Charles Nordhoff, English-American lieutenant and author (b. 1887)
1950 – Fevzi Çakmak, Turkish field marshal and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1876)
1954 – Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (b. 1862)
1954 – Oscar Mathisen, Norwegian speed skater (b. 1888)
1955 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French priest, theologian, and philosopher (b. 1881)
1958 – Chuck Willis, American singer-songwriter (b. 1928)
1960 – André Berthomieu, French director and screenwriter (b. 1903)
1962 – Michael Curtiz, Hungarian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1886)
1962 – Stuart Sutcliffe, Scottish artist and musician (b. 1940)
1965 – Lloyd Casner, American race car driver, founded Casner Motor Racing Division (b. 1928)
1965 – Linda Darnell, American actress (b. 1923)
1966 – Evelyn Waugh, English soldier, novelist, journalist and critic (b. 1903)
1968 – Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian lieutenant and politician (b. 1899)
1969 – Harley Earl, American businessman (b. 1893)
1975 – Walker Evans, American photographer (b. 1903)
1975 – Marjorie Main, American actress (b. 1890)
1978 – Hjalmar Mäe, Estonian politician (b. 1901)
1979 – Nino Rota, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1911)
1980 – Kay Medford, American actress and singer (b. 1919)
1981 – Howard Thurman, American author, philosopher and civil rights activist (b. 1899)
1983 – Issam Sartawi, Palestinian activist (b. 1935)
1985 – Zisis Verros, Greek chieftain of the Macedonian Struggle (b. 1880)
1986 – Linda Creed, American singer-songwriter (b. 1948)
1988 – Ezekias Papaioannou, Greek Cypriot politician (b. 1908)
1991 – Kevin Peter Hall, American actor (b. 1955)
1991 – Martin Hannett, English guitarist and producer (b. 1948)
1991 – Natalie Schafer, American actress (b. 1900)
1992 – Sam Kinison, American comedian and actor (b. 1953)
1993 – Chris Hani, South African activist and politician (b. 1942)
1994 – Sam B. Hall, Jr., American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1924)
1995 – Morarji Desai, Indian politician, 4th Prime Minister of India (b. 1896)
1997 – Michael Dorris, American author and academic (b. 1945)
1998 – Seraphim of Athens, Greek archbishop (b. 1913)
1999 – Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, German-American biochemist and physician (b. 1910)
1999 – Jean Vander Pyl, American actress and voice artist (b. 1919)
2000 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1920)
2000 – Larry Linville, American actor (b. 1939)
2003 – Little Eva, American singer (b. 1943)
2004 – Jacek Kaczmarski, Polish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and poet (b. 1957)
2004 – Sakıp Sabancı, Turkish businessman and philanthropist, founded Sabancı Holding (b. 1933)
2005 – Norbert Brainin, Austrian violinist (b. 1923)
2005 – Scott Gottlieb, American drummer (b. 1970)
2005 – Archbishop Iakovos of America (b. 1911)
2005 – Al Lucas, American football player (b. 1978)
2005 – Wally Tax, Dutch singer-songwriter (b. 1948)
2006 – Kleitos Kyrou, Greek poet and translator (b. 1921)
2007 – Charles Philippe Leblond, French-Canadian biologist and academic (b. 1910)
2007 – Dakota Staton, American singer (b. 1930)
2009 – Deborah Digges, American poet and educator (b. 1950)
2009 – Ioannis Patakis, Greek politician (b. 1940)
2010 – Casualties in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash included:
Ryszard Kaczorowski, Polish soldier and politician, 6th President of the Republic of Poland (b. 1919)
Maria Kaczyńska, Polish economist, First Lady of Poland (b. 1942)
Lech Kaczyński, Polish lawyer and politician, 4th President of Poland (b. 1949)
Anna Walentynowicz, Ukrainian-Polish journalist and activist (b. 1929)
2010 – Dixie Carter, American actress and singer (b. 1939)
2012 – Raymond Aubrac, French engineer and activist (b. 1914)
2012 – Barbara Buchholz, German theremin player and composer (b. 1959)
2012 – Lili Chookasian, Armenian-American operatic singer (b. 1921)
2012 – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican cardinal (b. 1922)
2012 – Akin Omoboriowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (b. 1932)
2013 – Lorenzo Antonetti, Italian cardinal (b. 1922)
2013 – Raymond Boudon, French sociologist and academic (b. 1934)
2013 – Binod Bihari Chowdhury, Bangladeshi activist (b. 1911)
2013 – Robert Edwards, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
2013 – Olive Lewin, Jamaican anthropologist, musicologist, and author (b. 1927)
2013 – Gordon Thomas, English cyclist (b. 1921)
2013 – Angela Voigt, German long jumper (b. 1951)
2014 – Dominique Baudis, French journalist and politician (b. 1947)
2014 – Jim Flaherty, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Canadian Minister of Finance (b. 1949)
2014 – Richard Hoggart, English author and academic (b. 1918)
2014 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (b. 1946)
2015 – Richie Benaud, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1930)
2015 – Raúl Héctor Castro, Mexican-American politician and diplomat, 14th Governor of Arizona (b. 1916)
2015 – Judith Malina, German-American actress and director, co-founded The Living Theatre (b. 1926)
2015 – Rose Francine Rogombé, Gabonese lawyer and politician, President of Gabon (b. 1942)
2015 – Peter Walsh, Australian farmer and politician, 6th Australian Minister for Finance (b. 1935)
2016 – Howard Marks, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer, and legalisation campaigner (b. 1945)
2023 – Al Jaffee, American cartoonist (b. 1921)
2024 – O. J. Simpson, American football player, actor, and broadcaster (b. 1947)
Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Fulbert of Chartres
James, Azadanus and Abdicius
Mikael Agricola (Lutheran)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Episcopal Church)
William of Ockham (Anglicanism)
William Law (Anglicanism)
April 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of the Builder (Azerbaijan)
Feast of the Third Day of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema)
Siblings Day (International observance)
References
External links
BBC: On This Day
Historical Events on April 10
Days of the year
April |
2577 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrastea%20%28moon%29 | Adrastea (moon) | Adrastea (), also known as , is the second by distance, and the smallest of the four inner moons of Jupiter. It was discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 2 in 1979, making it the first natural satellite to be discovered from images taken by an interplanetary spacecraft, rather than through a telescope. It was officially named after the mythological Adrasteia, foster mother of the Greek god Zeus—the equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter.
Adrastea is one of the few moons in the Solar System known to orbit its planet in less than the length of that planet's day. It orbits at the edge of Jupiter's main ring and is thought to be the main contributor of material to the rings of Jupiter. Despite observations made in the 1990s by the Galileo spacecraft, very little is known about the moon's physical characteristics other than its size and the fact that it is tidally locked to Jupiter.
Discovery and observations
Adrastea was discovered by David C. Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson in Voyager 2 probe photographs taken on July 8, 1979, and received the designation . Although it appeared only as a dot, it was the first moon to be discovered by an interplanetary spacecraft. Soon after its discovery, two other of the inner moons of Jupiter (Thebe and Metis) were observed in the images taken a few months earlier by Voyager 1. The Galileo spacecraft was able to determine the moon's shape in 1998, but the images remain poor. In 1983, Adrastea was officially named after the Greek nymph Adrastea, the daughter of Zeus and his lover Ananke.
Although the Juno orbiter, which arrived at Jupiter in 2016, has a camera called JunoCam, it is almost entirely focused on observations of Jupiter itself. However, if all goes well, it should be able to capture some limited images of the moons Metis and Adrastea.
Physical characteristics
Adrastea has an irregular shape and measures 20×16×14 km across. A surface area estimate would be between 840 and 1,600 (~1,200) km2. This makes it the smallest of the four inner moons. The bulk, composition, and mass of Adrastea are not known, but assuming that its mean density is like that of Amalthea, around 0.86 g/cm3, its mass can be estimated at 2 kg. Amalthea's density implies that the moon is composed of water ice with a porosity of 10–15%, and Adrastea may be similar.
No surface details of Adrastea are known, due to the low resolution of available images.
Orbit
Adrastea is the smallest and second-closest member of the inner Jovian satellite family. It orbits Jupiter at a radius of about (1.806 Jupiter radii) at the exterior edge of the planet's main ring. Its orbit has a very small eccentricity of around 0.0015 and an inclination relative to Jupiter's equator of 0.03°, respectively.
Due to tidal locking, Adrastea rotates synchronously with its orbital period, keeping one face always looking toward the planet. Its long axis is aligned towards Jupiter, this being the lowest energy configuration.
The orbit of Adrastea lies inside Jupiter's synchronous orbit radius (as does Metis's), and as a result, tidal forces are slowly causing its orbit to decay so that it will one day impact Jupiter. If its density is similar to Amalthea's then its orbit would actually lie within the fluid Roche limit. However, since it is not breaking up, it must still lie outside its rigid Roche limit.
Relationship with Jupiter's rings
Adrastea is the largest contributor to material in Jupiter's rings. This appears to consist primarily of material that is ejected from the surfaces of Jupiter's four small inner satellites by meteorite impacts. It is easy for the impact ejecta to be lost from these satellites into space. This is due to the satellites' low density and their surfaces lying close to the edge of their Hill spheres.
It seems that Adrastea is the most copious source of this ring material, as evidenced by the densest ring (the main ring) being located at and within Adrastea's orbit. More precisely, the orbit of Adrastea lies near the outer edge of Jupiter's main ring. The exact extent of visible ring material depends on the phase angle of the images: in forward-scattered light Adrastea is firmly outside the main ring, but in back-scattered light (which reveals much bigger particles) there appears to also be a narrow ringlet outside Adrastea's orbit.
Notes
References
Cited sources
(discovery)
(naming the moon)
External links
Adrastea Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
Moons of Jupiter
19790708
Discoveries by David C. Jewitt
Discoveries by G. Edward Danielson
Moons with a prograde orbit |
2578 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalthea | Amalthea | Amalthea may refer to:
Amalthea (mythology), the foster-mother of Zeus in Greek mythology
Amalthea (moon), a moon of Jupiter
MV Amalthea, a cargo ship
113 Amalthea, a main-belt asteroid
Amalthea Cellars, a winery in New Jersey, United States
Cumaean Sibyl or Amalthea, a priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony near Naples, Italy
Amalthea, a ship bombed by Anton Nilson in 1908
Lady Amalthea, a character in The Last Unicorn |
2580 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananke%20%28disambiguation%29 | Ananke (disambiguation) | Ananke is a deity in Greek mythology. Ananke may also refer to:
Ananke (moon), a moon of Jupiter
Ananke group, a group of satellites of Jupiter that follow similar orbits to Ananke
"Ananke", a short story by Stanisław Lem from Tales of Pirx the Pilot
Cosmopterix ananke, a moth of family Cosmopterigidae |
2582 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alph | Alph | Alph may refer to:
Alpheus River, a river on the Peloponnese
Alph River, a river in Antarctica
Alph Lake, a lake in Antarctica
Alph, a fictional river in the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Alph, a character from Luminous Arc
Alph, a character from the game Pikmin 3
See also
ALF (disambiguation)
Alph Lyla, the in-house band of video game developer Capcom |
2583 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbroath%20Abbey | Arbroath Abbey | Arbroath Abbey, in the Scottish town of Arbroath, was founded in 1178 by King William the Lion for a group of Tironensian Benedictine monks from Kelso Abbey. It was consecrated in 1197 with a dedication to the deceased Saint Thomas Becket, whom the king had met at the English court. It was William's only personal foundation — he was buried before the high altar of the church in 1214.
The last Abbot was Cardinal David Beaton, who in 1522 succeeded his uncle James to become Archbishop of St Andrews. The Abbey is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland and is open to the public throughout the year (entrance charge). The distinctive red sandstone ruins stand at the top of the High Street in Arbroath.
History
King William gave the Abbey independence from its founding abbey, Kelso Abbey, and endowed it generously, including income from 24 parishes, land in every royal burgh and more. The Abbey's monks were allowed to run a market and build a harbour. King John of England gave the Abbey permission to buy and sell goods anywhere in England (except London) toll-free.
The Abbey, which was the richest in Scotland, is most famous for its association with the 1320 Declaration of Scottish Independence believed to have been drafted by Abbot Bernard, who was the Chancellor of Scotland under King Robert I.
The Abbey fell into ruin after the Reformation. From 1590 onward, its stones were raided for buildings in the town of Arbroath. This continued until 1815 when steps were taken to preserve the remaining ruins.
On Christmas Day 1950, the Stone of Destiny went missing from Westminster Abbey. On April 11, 1951, the stone was found lying on the site of the Abbey's altar.
Since 1947, a major historical re-enactment commemorating the Declaration's signing has been held within the roofless remains of the Abbey church. The celebration is run by the local Arbroath Abbey Pageant Society, and tells the story of the events which led up to the signing. This is not an annual event. However, a special event to mark the signing is held every year on the 6th of April and involves a street procession and short piece of street theatre.
In 2005 The Arbroath Abbey campaign was launched. The campaign seeks to gain World Heritage Status for the iconic Angus landmark that was the birthplace of one of Scotland's most significant document, The Declaration of Arbroath. Campaigners believe that the Abbey's historical pronouncement makes it a prime candidate to achieve World Heritage Status. MSP Alex Johnstone wrote "Clearly, the Declaration of Arbroath is a literary work of outstanding universal significance by any stretch of the imagination" In 2008, the Campaign Group Chairman, Councillor Jim Millar launched a public petition to reinforce the bid explaining "We're simply asking people to, local people especially, to sign up to the campaign to have the Declaration of Arbroath and Arbroath Abbey recognised by the United Nations. Essentially we need local people to sign up to this campaign simply because the United Nations demand it."
Architectural description
The Abbey was built over some sixty years using local red sandstone, but gives the impression of a single coherent, mainly 'Early English' architectural design, though the round-arched processional doorway in the western front looks back to late Norman or transitional work. The triforium (open arcade) above the door is unique in Scottish medieval architecture. It is flanked by twin towers decorated with blind arcading. The cruciform church measured long by wide. What remains of it today are the sacristy, added by Abbot Paniter in the 15th century, the southern transept, which features Scotland's largest lancet windows, part of the choir and presbytery, the southern half of the nave, parts of the western towers and the western doorway.
The church originally had a central tower and (probably) a spire. These would once have been visible from many miles over the surrounding countryside, and no doubt once acted as a sea mark for ships. The soft sandstone of the walls was originally protected by plaster internally and render externally. These coatings are long gone and much of the architectural detail is sadly eroded, though detached fragments found in the ruins during consolidation give an impression of the original refined, rather austere, architectural effect.
The distinctive round window high in the south transept was originally lit up at night as a beacon for mariners. It is known locally as the 'Round O', and from this tradition inhabitants of Arbroath are colloquially known as 'Reid Lichties' (Scots reid = red).
Little remains of the claustral buildings of the Abbey except for the impressive gatehouse, which stretches between the south-west corner of the church and a defensive tower on the High Street, and the still complete Abbot's House, a building of the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries, which is the best preserved of its type in Scotland.
In the summer of 2001, a new visitors' centre was opened to the public beside the Abbey's west front. This red sandstone-clad building, with its distinctive 'wave-shaped' organic roof, planted with sedum, houses displays on the history of the Abbey and some of the best surviving stonework and other relics. The upper storey features a scale model of the Abbey complex, a computer-generated 'fly-through' reconstruction of the church as it was when complete, and a viewing gallery with excellent views of the ruins. The centre won the 2002 Angus Design Award. An archaeological investigation of the site of the visitors' centre before building started revealed the foundations of the medieval precinct wall, with a gateway, and stonework discarded during manufacture, showing that the area was the site of the masons' yard while the Abbey was being built.
See also
Abbot of Arbroath, for a list of abbots and commendators
1950 removal of the Stone of Scone
References
External links
Undiscovered Scotland's detailed history
https://web.archive.org/web/20140220180351/http://www.angus.gov.uk/history/features/buildings/arbabbey.htm
http://www.arbroathabbeypageant.com
2002 Angus Design Award
1178 establishments
12th century in Scotland
Christian monasteries established in the 12th century
Buildings and structures in Angus, Scotland
History of Angus, Scotland
Tironensian monasteries
Category A listed buildings in Angus, Scotland
Listed monasteries in Scotland
Former Christian monasteries in Scotland
Arbroath
Thomas Becket |
2593 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting | Accounting | Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used interchangeably.
Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, tax accounting and cost accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to the external users of the information, such as investors, regulators and suppliers. Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information for internal use by management to enhance business operations. The recording of financial transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial reports, is known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most common system. Accounting information systems are designed to support accounting functions and related activities.
Accounting has existed in various forms and levels of sophistication throughout human history. The double-entry accounting system in use today was developed in medieval Europe, particularly in Venice, and is usually attributed to the Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli. Today, accounting is facilitated by accounting organizations such as standard-setters, accounting firms and professional bodies. Financial statements are usually audited by accounting firms, and are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). GAAP is set by various standard-setting organizations such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States and the Financial Reporting Council in the United Kingdom. As of 2012, "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
History
Accounting is thousands of years old and can be traced to ancient civilizations. One early development of accounting dates back to ancient Mesopotamia and is closely related to developments in writing, counting and money; there is also evidence of early forms of bookkeeping in ancient Iran, and early auditing systems by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. By the time of Emperor Augustus, the Roman government had access to detailed financial information.
Many concepts related to today's accounting seem to be initiated in medieval's Middle East. For example, Jewish communities used double-entry bookkeeping in the early-medieval period and Muslim societies, at least since the 10th century also used many modern accounting concepts.
The spread of the use of Arabic numerals, instead of the Roman numbers historically used in Europe, increased efficiency of accounting procedures among Mediterranean merchants, who further refined accounting in medieval Europe. With the development of joint-stock companies, accounting split into financial accounting and management accounting.
The first published work on a double-entry bookkeeping system was the Summa de arithmetica, published in Italy in 1494 by Luca Pacioli (the "Father of Accounting"). Accounting began to transition into an organized profession in the nineteenth century, with local professional bodies in England merging to form the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1880.
Etymology
Both the words "accounting" and "accountancy" were in use in Great Britain by the mid-1800s and are derived from the words accompting and accountantship used in the 18th century. In Middle English (used roughly between the 12th and the late 15th century), the verb "to account" had the form accounten, which was derived from the Old French word aconter, which is in turn related to the Vulgar Latin word computare, meaning "to reckon". The base of computare is putare, which "variously meant to prune, to purify, to correct an account, hence, to count or calculate, as well as to think".
The word "accountant" is derived from the French word , which is also derived from the Italian and Latin word . The word was formerly written in English as "accomptant", but in process of time the word, which was always pronounced by dropping the "p", became gradually changed both in pronunciation and in orthography to its present form.
Terminology
Accounting has variously been defined as the keeping or preparation of the financial records of transactions of the firm, the analysis, verification and reporting of such records and "the principles and procedures of accounting"; it also refers to the job of being an accountant.
Accountancy refers to the occupation or profession of an accountant, particularly in British English.
Topics
Accounting has several subfields or subject areas, including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, taxation and accounting information systems.
Financial accounting
Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information to external users of the information, such as investors, potential investors and creditors. It calculates and records business transactions and prepares financial statements for the external users in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). GAAP, in turn, arises from the wide agreement between accounting theory and practice, and change over time to meet the needs of decision-makers.
Financial accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example financial statements are often published six to ten months after the end of the accounting period—on an annual or quarterly basis, generally about the organization as a whole.
Management accounting
Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information that can help managers in making decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. In management accounting, internal measures and reports are based on cost-benefit analysis, and are not required to follow the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP). In 2014 CIMA created the Global Management Accounting Principles (GMAPs). The result of research from across 20 countries in five continents, the principles aim to guide best practice in the discipline.
Management accounting produces past-oriented reports with time spans that vary widely, but it also encompasses future-oriented reports such as budgets. Management accounting reports often include financial and non financial information, and may, for example, focus on specific products and departments.
Auditing
Auditing is the verification of assertions made by others regarding a payoff, and in the context of accounting it is the "unbiased examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organization". Audit is a professional service that is systematic and conventional.
An audit of financial statements aims to express or disclaim an independent opinion on the financial statements. The auditor expresses an independent opinion on the fairness with which the financial statements presents the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of an entity, in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and "in all material respects". An auditor is also required to identify circumstances in which the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have not been consistently observed.
Information systems
An accounting information system is a part of an organization's information system used for processing accounting data.
Many corporations use artificial intelligence-based information systems. The banking and finance industry uses AI in fraud detection. The retail industry uses AI for customer services. AI is also used in the cybersecurity industry. It involves computer hardware and software systems using statistics and modeling.
Many accounting practices have been simplified with the help of accounting computer-based software. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is commonly used for a large organisation and it provides a comprehensive, centralized, integrated source of information that companies can use to manage all major business processes, from purchasing to manufacturing to human resources. These systems can be cloud based and available on demand via application or browser, or available as software installed on specific computers or local servers, often referred to as on-premise.
Tax accounting
Tax accounting in the United States concentrates on the preparation, analysis and presentation of tax payments and tax returns. The U.S. tax system requires the use of specialised accounting principles for tax purposes which can differ from the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial reporting. U.S. tax law covers four basic forms of business ownership: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and limited liability company. Corporate and personal income are taxed at different rates, both varying according to income levels and including varying marginal rates (taxed on each additional dollar of income) and average rates (set as a percentage of overall income).
Forensic accounting
Forensic accounting is a specialty practice area of accounting that describes engagements that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. "Forensic" means "suitable for use in a court of law", and it is to that standard and potential outcome that forensic accountants generally have to work.
Political campaign accounting
Political campaign accounting deals with the development and implementation of financial systems and the accounting of financial transactions in compliance with laws governing political campaign operations. This branch of accounting was first formally introduced in the March 1976 issue of The Journal of Accountancy.
Organizations
Professional bodies
Professional accounting bodies include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the other 179 members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), including Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Some countries have a single professional accounting body and, in some other countries, professional bodies for subfields of the accounting professions also exist, for example the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in the UK and Institute of management accountants in the United States. Many of these professional bodies offer education and training including qualification and administration for various accounting designations, such as certified public accountant (AICPA) and chartered accountant.
Firms
Depending on its size, a company may be legally required to have their financial statements audited by a qualified auditor, and audits are usually carried out by accounting firms.
Accounting firms grew in the United States and Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and through several mergers there were large international accounting firms by the mid-twentieth century. Further large mergers in the late twentieth century led to the dominance of the auditing market by the "Big Five" accounting firms: Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The demise of Arthur Andersen following the Enron scandal reduced the Big Five to the Big Four.
Standard-setters
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are accounting standards issued by national regulatory bodies. In addition, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issues the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implemented by 147 countries. Standards for international audit and assurance, ethics, education, and public sector accounting are all set by independent standard settings boards supported by IFAC. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board sets international standards for auditing, assurance, and quality control; the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) sets the internationally appropriate principles-based Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants; the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) sets professional accounting education standards; and International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) sets accrual-based international public sector accounting standards.
Organizations in individual countries may issue accounting standards unique to the countries. For example, in Australia, the Australian Accounting Standards Board manages the issuance of the accounting standards in line with IFRS. In the United States the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issues the Statements of Financial Accounting Standards, which form the basis of US GAAP, and in the United Kingdom the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) sets accounting standards. However, as of 2012 "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the IFRS.
Education, training and qualifications
Degrees
At least a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field is required for most accountant and auditor job positions, and some employers prefer applicants with a master's degree. A degree in accounting may also be required for, or may be used to fulfill the requirements for, membership to professional accounting bodies. For example, the education during an accounting degree can be used to fulfill the American Institute of CPA's (AICPA) 150 semester hour requirement, and associate membership with the Certified Public Accountants Association of the UK is available after gaining a degree in finance or accounting.
A doctorate is required in order to pursue a career in accounting academia, for example, to work as a university professor in accounting. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) are the most popular degrees. The PhD is the most common degree for those wishing to pursue a career in academia, while DBA programs generally focus on equipping business executives for business or public careers requiring research skills and qualifications.
Professional qualifications
Professional accounting qualifications include the chartered accountant designations and other qualifications including certificates and diplomas.
In Scotland, chartered accountants of ICAS undergo Continuous Professional Development and abide by the ICAS code of ethics. In England and Wales, chartered accountants of the ICAEW undergo annual training, and are bound by the ICAEW's code of ethics and subject to its disciplinary procedures.
In the United States, the requirements for joining the AICPA as a Certified Public Accountant are set by the Board of Accountancy of each state, and members agree to abide by the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws.
The ACCA is the largest global accountancy body with over 320,000 members, and the organisation provides an 'IFRS stream' and a 'UK stream'. Students must pass a total of 14 exams, which are arranged across three levels.
Research
Accounting research is research in the effects of economic events on the process of accounting, the effects of reported information on economic events, and the roles of accounting in organizations and society. It encompasses a broad range of research areas including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing and taxation.
Accounting research is carried out both by academic researchers and practicing accountants. Methodologies in academic accounting research include archival research, which examines "objective data collected from repositories"; experimental research, which examines data "the researcher gathered by administering treatments to subjects"; analytical research, which is "based on the act of formally modeling theories or substantiating ideas in mathematical terms"; interpretive research, which emphasizes the role of language, interpretation and understanding in accounting practice, "highlighting the symbolic structures and taken-for-granted themes which pattern the world in distinct ways"; critical research, which emphasizes the role of power and conflict in accounting practice; case studies; computer simulation; and field research.
Empirical studies document that leading accounting journals publish in total fewer research articles than comparable journals in economics and other business disciplines, and consequently, accounting scholars are relatively less successful in academic publishing than their business school peers. Due to different publication rates between accounting and other business disciplines, a recent study based on academic author rankings concludes that the competitive value of a single publication in a top-ranked journal is highest in accounting and lowest in marketing.
Scandals
The year 2001 witnessed a series of financial information frauds involving Enron, auditing firm Arthur Andersen, the telecommunications company WorldCom, Qwest and Sunbeam, among other well-known corporations. These problems highlighted the need to review the effectiveness of accounting standards, auditing regulations and corporate governance principles. In some cases, management manipulated the figures shown in financial reports to indicate a better economic performance. In others, tax and regulatory incentives encouraged over-leveraging of companies and decisions to bear extraordinary and unjustified risk.
The Enron scandal deeply influenced the development of new regulations to improve the reliability of financial reporting, and increased public awareness about the importance of having accounting standards that show the financial reality of companies and the objectivity and independence of auditing firms.
In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history, the Enron scandal undoubtedly is the biggest audit failure causing the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which at the time was one of the five largest accounting firms in the world. After a series of revelations involving irregular accounting procedures conducted throughout the 1990s, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2001.
One consequence of these events was the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act in the United States in 2002, as a result of the first admissions of fraudulent behavior made by Enron. The act significantly raises criminal penalties for securities fraud, for destroying, altering or fabricating records in federal investigations or any scheme or attempt to defraud shareholders.
Fraud and error
Accounting fraud is an intentional misstatement or omission in the accounting records by management or employees which involves the use of deception. It is a criminal act and a breach of civil tort. It may involve collusion with third parties.
An accounting error is an unintentional misstatement or omission in the accounting records, for example misinterpretation of facts, mistakes in processing data, or oversights leading to incorrect estimates. Acts leading to accounting errors are not criminal but may breach civil law, for example, the tort of negligence.
The primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud and errors rests with the entity's management.
See also
Accounting information system
Accounting records
References
External links
Operations Research in Accounting on the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences website
Administrative theory
fi:Laskentatoimi |
2594 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant | Ant | Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. Larger colonies consist of various castes of sterile, wingless females, most of which are workers (ergates), as well as soldiers (dinergates) and other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens" (gynes). The colonies are described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.
Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. The only places lacking indigenous ants are Antarctica and a few remote or inhospitable islands. Ants thrive in moist tropical ecosystems and may exceed the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals. Their success in so many environments has been attributed to their social organisation and their ability to modify habitats, tap resources, and defend themselves. Their long co-evolution with other species has led to mimetic, commensal, parasitic, and mutualistic relationships.
Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study. Many human cultures make use of ants in cuisine, medication, and rites. Some species are valued in their role as biological pest control agents. Their ability to exploit resources may bring ants into conflict with humans, however, as they can damage crops and invade buildings. Some species, such as the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) of South America, are regarded as invasive species in other parts of the world, establishing themselves in areas where they have been introduced accidentally.
Etymology
The word ant and the archaic word emmet are derived from , of Middle English, which come from of Old English; these are all related to Low Saxon , and varieties (Old Saxon ) and to German (Old High German ). All of these words come from West Germanic *, and the original meaning of the word was "the biter" (from Proto-Germanic , "off, away" + "cut").
The family name Formicidae is derived from the Latin ("ant") from which the words in other Romance languages, such as the Portuguese , Italian , Spanish , Romanian , and French are derived. It has been hypothesised that a Proto-Indo-European word *morwi- was the root for Sanskrit vamrah, Greek μύρμηξ mýrmēx, Old Church Slavonic mraviji, Old Irish moirb, Old Norse maurr, Dutch mier, Swedish myra, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere, and Crimean Gothic miera.
Taxonomy and evolution
The family Formicidae belongs to the order Hymenoptera, which also includes sawflies, bees, and wasps. Ants evolved from a lineage within the stinging wasps, and a 2013 study suggests that they are a sister group of the Apoidea. In 1966, E. O. Wilson and his colleagues identified the fossil remains of an ant (Sphecomyrma) that lived in the Cretaceous period. The specimen, trapped in amber dating back to around 92 million years ago, has features found in some wasps, but not found in modern ants. The oldest fossils of ants date to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago, which belong to extinct stem-groups such as the Haidomyrmecinae, Sphecomyrminae and Zigrasimeciinae, with modern ant subfamilies appearing towards the end of the Cretaceous around 80–70 million years ago. Ants diversified extensively during the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution and assumed ecological dominance around 60 million years ago. Some groups, such as the Leptanillinae and Martialinae, are suggested to have diversified from early primitive ants that were likely to have been predators underneath the surface of the soil.
During the Cretaceous period, a few species of primitive ants ranged widely on the Laurasian supercontinent (the Northern Hemisphere). Their representation in the fossil record is poor, in comparison to the populations of other insects, representing only about 1% of fossil evidence of insects in the era. Ants became dominant after adaptive radiation at the beginning of the Paleogene period. By the Oligocene and Miocene, ants had come to represent 20–40% of all insects found in major fossil deposits. Of the species that lived in the Eocene epoch, around one in 10 genera survive to the present. Genera surviving today comprise 56% of the genera in Baltic amber fossils (early Oligocene), and 92% of the genera in Dominican amber fossils (apparently early Miocene).
Termites live in colonies and are sometimes called "white ants", but termites are only distantly related to ants. They are the sub-order Isoptera, and together with cockroaches, they form the order Blattodea. Blattodeans are related to mantids, crickets, and other winged insects that do not undergo complete metamorphosis. Like ants, termites are eusocial, with sterile workers, but they differ greatly in the genetics of reproduction. The similarity of their social structure to that of ants is attributed to convergent evolution. Velvet ants look like large ants, but are wingless female wasps.
Distribution and diversity
Ants have a cosmopolitan distribution. They are found on all continents except Antarctica, and only a few large islands, such as Greenland, Iceland, parts of Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands lack native ant species. Ants occupy a wide range of ecological niches and exploit many different food resources as direct or indirect herbivores, predators and scavengers. Most ant species are omnivorous generalists, but a few are specialist feeders. There is considerable variation in ant abundance across habitats, peaking in the moist tropics to nearly six times that found in less suitable habitats. Their ecological dominance has been examined primarily using estimates of their biomass: myrmecologist E. O. Wilson had estimated in 2009 that at any one time the total number of ants was between one and ten quadrillion (short scale) (i.e., between 1015 and 1016) and using this estimate he had suggested that the total biomass of all the ants in the world was approximately equal to the total biomass of the entire human race. More careful estimates made in 2022 which take into account regional variations puts the global ant contribution at 12 megatons of dry carbon, which is about 20% of the total human contribution, but greater than that of the wild birds and mammals combined. This study also puts a conservative estimate of the ants at about 20 × 1015 (20 quadrillion).
Ants range in size from , the largest species being the fossil Titanomyrma giganteum, the queen of which was long with a wingspan of . Ants vary in colour; most ants are yellow to red or brown to black, but a few species are green and some tropical species have a metallic lustre. More than 13,800 species are currently known (with upper estimates of the potential existence of about 22,000; see the article List of ant genera), with the greatest diversity in the tropics. Taxonomic studies continue to resolve the classification and systematics of ants. Online databases of ant species, including AntWeb and the Hymenoptera Name Server, help to keep track of the known and newly described species. The relative ease with which ants may be sampled and studied in ecosystems has made them useful as indicator species in biodiversity studies.
Morphology
Ants are distinct in their morphology from other insects in having geniculate (elbowed) antennae, metapleural glands, and a strong constriction of their second abdominal segment into a node-like petiole. The head, mesosoma, and metasoma are the three distinct body segments (formally tagmata). The petiole forms a narrow waist between their mesosoma (thorax plus the first abdominal segment, which is fused to it) and gaster (abdomen less the abdominal segments in the petiole). The petiole may be formed by one or two nodes (the second alone, or the second and third abdominal segments). Tergosternal fusion, when the tergite and sternite of a segment fuse together, can occur partly or fully on the second, third and fourth abdominal segment and is used in identification. Fourth abdominal tergosternal fusion was formerly used as character that defined the poneromorph subfamilies, Ponerinae and relatives within their clade, but this is no longer considered a synapomorphic character.
Like other arthropods, ants have an exoskeleton, an external covering that provides a protective casing around the body and a point of attachment for muscles, in contrast to the internal skeletons of humans and other vertebrates. Insects do not have lungs; oxygen and other gases, such as carbon dioxide, pass through their exoskeleton via tiny valves called spiracles. Insects also lack closed blood vessels; instead, they have a long, thin, perforated tube along the top of the body (called the "dorsal aorta") that functions like a heart, and pumps haemolymph toward the head, thus driving the circulation of the internal fluids. The nervous system consists of a ventral nerve cord that runs the length of the body, with several ganglia and branches along the way reaching into the extremities of the appendages.
Head
An ant's head contains many sensory organs. Like most insects, ants have compound eyes made from numerous tiny lenses attached together. Ant eyes are good for acute movement detection, but do not offer a high resolution image. They also have three small ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of the head that detect light levels and polarization. Compared to vertebrates, ants tend to have blurrier eyesight, particularly in smaller species, and a few subterranean taxa are completely blind. However, some ants, such as Australia's bulldog ant, have excellent vision and are capable of discriminating the distance and size of objects moving nearly a meter away. Based on experiments conducted to test their ability differentiate between selected wavelengths of light, some ant species such as Camponotus blandus, Solenopsis invicta, and Formica cunicularia are thought to possess a degree of colour vision.
Two antennae ("feelers") are attached to the head; these organs detect chemicals, air currents, and vibrations; they also are used to transmit and receive signals through touch. The head has two strong jaws, the mandibles, used to carry food, manipulate objects, construct nests, and for defence. In some species, a small pocket (infrabuccal chamber) inside the mouth stores food, so it may be passed to other ants or their larvae.
Mesosoma
Both the legs and wings of the ant are attached to the mesosoma ("thorax"). The legs terminate in a hooked claw which allows them to hook on and climb surfaces. Only reproductive ants (queens and males) have wings. Queens shed their wings after the nuptial flight, leaving visible stubs, a distinguishing feature of queens. In a few species, wingless queens (ergatoids) and males occur.
Metasoma
The metasoma (the "abdomen") of the ant houses important internal organs, including those of the reproductive, respiratory (tracheae), and excretory systems. Workers of many species have their egg-laying structures modified into stings that are used for subduing prey and defending their nests.
Polymorphism
In the colonies of a few ant species, there are physical castes—workers in distinct size-classes, called minor, median, and major ergates. Often, the larger ants have disproportionately larger heads, and correspondingly stronger mandibles. These are known as macrergates while smaller workers are known as micrergates. Although formally known as dinergates, such individuals are sometimes called "soldier" ants because their stronger mandibles make them more effective in fighting, although they still are workers and their "duties" typically do not vary greatly from the minor or median workers. In a few species, the median workers are absent, creating a sharp divide between the minors and majors. Weaver ants, for example, have a distinct bimodal size distribution. Some other species show continuous variation in the size of workers. The smallest and largest workers in Carebara diversa show nearly a 500-fold difference in their dry weights.
Workers cannot mate; however, because of the haplodiploid sex-determination system in ants, workers of a number of species can lay unfertilised eggs that become fully fertile, haploid males. The role of workers may change with their age and in some species, such as honeypot ants, young workers are fed until their gasters are distended, and act as living food storage vessels. These food storage workers are called repletes. For instance, these replete workers develop in the North American honeypot ant Myrmecocystus mexicanus. Usually the largest workers in the colony develop into repletes; and, if repletes are removed from the colony, other workers become repletes, demonstrating the flexibility of this particular polymorphism. This polymorphism in morphology and behaviour of workers initially was thought to be determined by environmental factors such as nutrition and hormones that led to different developmental paths; however, genetic differences between worker castes have been noted in Acromyrmex sp. These polymorphisms are caused by relatively small genetic changes; differences in a single gene of Solenopsis invicta can decide whether the colony will have single or multiple queens. The Australian jack jumper ant (Myrmecia pilosula) has only a single pair of chromosomes (with the males having just one chromosome as they are haploid), the lowest number known for any animal, making it an interesting subject for studies in the genetics and developmental biology of social insects.
Genome size
Genome size is a fundamental characteristic of an organism. Ants have been found to have tiny genomes, with the evolution of genome size suggested to occur through loss and accumulation of non-coding regions, mainly transposable elements, and occasionally by whole genome duplication. This may be related to colonisation processes, but further studies are needed to verify this.
Life cycle
The life of an ant starts from an egg; if the egg is fertilised, the progeny will be female diploid, if not, it will be male haploid. Ants develop by complete metamorphosis with the larva stages passing through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. The larva is largely immobile and is fed and cared for by workers. Food is given to the larvae by trophallaxis, a process in which an ant regurgitates liquid food held in its crop. This is also how adults share food, stored in the "social stomach". Larvae, especially in the later stages, may also be provided solid food, such as trophic eggs, pieces of prey, and seeds brought by workers.
The larvae grow through a series of four or five moults and enter the pupal stage. The pupa has the appendages free and not fused to the body as in a butterfly pupa. The differentiation into queens and workers (which are both female), and different castes of workers, is influenced in some species by the nutrition the larvae obtain. Genetic influences and the control of gene expression by the developmental environment are complex and the determination of caste continues to be a subject of research. Winged male ants, called drones (termed "aner" in old literature), emerge from pupae along with the usually winged breeding females. Some species, such as army ants, have wingless queens. Larvae and pupae need to be kept at fairly constant temperatures to ensure proper development, and so often are moved around among the various brood chambers within the colony.
A new ergate spends the first few days of its adult life caring for the queen and young. She then graduates to digging and other nest work, and later to defending the nest and foraging. These changes are sometimes fairly sudden, and define what are called temporal castes. Such age-based task-specialization or polyethism has been suggested as having evolved due to the high casualties involved in foraging and defence, making it an acceptable risk only for ants who are older and likely to die sooner from natural causes. In the Brazilian ant Forelius pusillus, the nest entrance is closed from the outside to protect the colony from predatory ant species at sunset each day. About one to eight workers seal the nest entrance from the outside and they have no chance of returning to the nest and are in effect sacrificed. Whether these seemingly suicidal workers are older workers has not been determined.
Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, being quite short-lived and surviving for only a few weeks. Ant queens are estimated to live 100 times as long as solitary insects of a similar size.
Ants are active all year long in the tropics; however, in cooler regions, they survive the winter in a state of dormancy known as hibernation. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state (diapause), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity.
Reproduction
A wide range of reproductive strategies have been noted in ant species. Females of many species are known to be capable of reproducing asexually through thelytokous parthenogenesis. Secretions from the male accessory glands in some species can plug the female genital opening and prevent females from re-mating. Most ant species have a system in which only the queen and breeding females have the ability to mate. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens, while others may exist without queens. Workers with the ability to reproduce are called "gamergates" and colonies that lack queens are then called gamergate colonies; colonies with queens are said to be queen-right.
Drones can also mate with existing queens by entering a foreign colony, such as in army ants. When the drone is initially attacked by the workers, it releases a mating pheromone. If recognized as a mate, it will be carried to the queen to mate. Males may also patrol the nest and fight others by grabbing them with their mandibles, piercing their exoskeleton and then marking them with a pheromone. The marked male is interpreted as an invader by worker ants and is killed.
Most ants are univoltine, producing a new generation each year. During the species-specific breeding period, winged females and winged males, known to entomologists as alates, leave the colony in what is called a nuptial flight. The nuptial flight usually takes place in the late spring or early summer when the weather is hot and humid. Heat makes flying easier and freshly fallen rain makes the ground softer for mated queens to dig nests. Males typically take flight before the females. Males then use visual cues to find a common mating ground, for example, a landmark such as a pine tree to which other males in the area converge. Males secrete a mating pheromone that females follow. Males will mount females in the air, but the actual mating process usually takes place on the ground. Females of some species mate with just one male but in others they may mate with as many as ten or more different males, storing the sperm in their spermathecae. In Cardiocondyla elegans, workers may transport newly emerged queens to other conspecific nests where wingless males from unrelated colonies can mate with them, a behavioural adaptation that may reduce the chances of inbreeding.
Mated females then seek a suitable place to begin a colony. There, they break off their wings using their tibial spurs and begin to lay and care for eggs. The females can selectively fertilise future eggs with the sperm stored to produce diploid workers or lay unfertilized haploid eggs to produce drones. The first workers to hatch, known as nanitics, are weaker and smaller than later workers but they begin to serve the colony immediately. They enlarge the nest, forage for food, and care for the other eggs. Species that have multiple queens may have a queen leaving the nest along with some workers to found a colony at a new site, a process akin to swarming in honeybees.
Nests, colonies, and supercolonies
The typical ant species has a colony occupying a single nest, housing one or more queens, where the brood is raised. There are however more than 150 species of ants in 49 genera that are known to have colonies consisting of multiple spatially separated nests. These polydomous (as opposed to monodomous) colonies have food and workers moving between the nests. Membership to a colony is identified by the response of worker ants which identify whether another individual belongs to their own colony or not. A signature cocktail of body surface chemicals (also known as cuticular hydrocarbons or CHCs) forms the so-called colony odor which other members can recognize. Some ant species appear to be less discriminating and in the Argentine ant Linepithema humile, workers carried from a colony anywhere in the southern US and Mexico are acceptable within other colonies in the same region. Similarly workers from colonies that have established in Europe are accepted by any other colonies within Europe but not by the colonies in the Americas. The interpretation of these observations has been debated and some have been termed these large populations as supercolonies while others have termed the populations as unicolonial.
Behaviour and ecology
Communication
Ants communicate with each other using pheromones, sounds, and touch. Since most ants live on the ground, they use the soil surface to leave pheromone trails that may be followed by other ants. In species that forage in groups, a forager that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants, these ants then reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. When the food source is exhausted, no new trails are marked by returning ants and the scent slowly dissipates. This behaviour helps ants deal with changes in their environment. For instance, when an established path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, the foragers leave the path to explore new routes. If an ant is successful, it leaves a new trail marking the shortest route on its return. Successful trails are followed by more ants, reinforcing better routes and gradually identifying the best path.
Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from farther away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves. Pheromones are produced by a wide range of structures including Dufour's glands, poison glands and glands on the hindgut, pygidium, rectum, sternum, and hind tibia. Pheromones also are exchanged, mixed with food, and passed by trophallaxis, transferring information within the colony. This allows other ants to detect what task group (e.g., foraging or nest maintenance) other colony members belong to. In ant species with queen castes, when the dominant queen stops producing a specific pheromone, workers begin to raise new queens in the colony.
Some ants produce sounds by stridulation, using the gaster segments and their mandibles. Sounds may be used to communicate with colony members or with other species.
Defence
Ants attack and defend themselves by biting and, in many species, by stinging often injecting or spraying chemicals. Bullet ants (Paraponera), located in Central and South America, are considered to have the most painful sting of any insect, although it is usually not fatal to humans. This sting is given the highest rating on the Schmidt sting pain index.
The sting of jack jumper ants can be lethal for humans, and an antivenom has been developed for it. Fire ants, Solenopsis spp., are unique in having a venom sac containing piperidine alkaloids. Their stings are painful and can be dangerous to hypersensitive people. Formicine ants secrete a poison from their glands, made mainly of formic acid.
Trap-jaw ants of the genus Odontomachus are equipped with mandibles called trap-jaws, which snap shut faster than any other predatory appendages within the animal kingdom. One study of Odontomachus bauri recorded peak speeds of between , with the jaws closing within 130 microseconds on average. The ants were also observed to use their jaws as a catapult to eject intruders or fling themselves backward to escape a threat. Before striking, the ant opens its mandibles extremely widely and locks them in this position by an internal mechanism. Energy is stored in a thick band of muscle and explosively released when triggered by the stimulation of sensory organs resembling hairs on the inside of the mandibles. The mandibles also permit slow and fine movements for other tasks. Trap-jaws also are seen in other ponerines such as Anochetus, as well as some genera in the tribe Attini, such as Daceton, Orectognathus, and Strumigenys, which are viewed as examples of convergent evolution.
A Malaysian species of ant in the Camponotus cylindricus group has enlarged mandibular glands that extend into their gaster. If combat takes a turn for the worse, a worker may perform a final act of suicidal altruism by rupturing the membrane of its gaster, causing the content of its mandibular glands to burst from the anterior region of its head, spraying a poisonous, corrosive secretion containing acetophenones and other chemicals that immobilise small insect attackers. The worker subsequently dies.
In addition to defence against predators, ants need to protect their colonies from pathogens. Secretions from the metapleural gland, unique to the ants, produce a complex range of chemicals including several with antibiotic properties. Some worker ants maintain the hygiene of the colony and their activities include undertaking or necrophoresis, the disposal of dead nest-mates. Oleic acid has been identified as the compound released from dead ants that triggers necrophoric behaviour in Atta mexicana while workers of Linepithema humile react to the absence of characteristic chemicals (dolichodial and iridomyrmecin) present on the cuticle of their living nestmates to trigger similar behaviour.
Nests may be protected from physical threats such as flooding and overheating by elaborate nest architecture. Workers of Cataulacus muticus, an arboreal species that lives in plant hollows, respond to flooding by drinking water inside the nest, and excreting it outside. Camponotus anderseni, which nests in the cavities of wood in mangrove habitats, deals with submergence under water by switching to anaerobic respiration.
Learning
Many animals can learn behaviours by imitation, but ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. A knowledgeable forager of Temnothorax albipennis can lead a naïve nest-mate to newly discovered food by the process of tandem running. The follower obtains knowledge through its leading tutor. The leader is acutely sensitive to the progress of the follower and slows down when the follower lags and speeds up when the follower gets too close.
Controlled experiments with colonies of Cerapachys biroi suggest that an individual may choose nest roles based on her previous experience. An entire generation of identical workers was divided into two groups whose outcome in food foraging was controlled. One group was continually rewarded with prey, while it was made certain that the other failed. As a result, members of the successful group intensified their foraging attempts while the unsuccessful group ventured out fewer and fewer times. A month later, the successful foragers continued in their role while the others had moved to specialise in brood care.
Nest construction
Complex nests are built by many ant species, but other species are nomadic and do not build permanent structures. Ants may form subterranean nests or build them on trees. These nests may be found in the ground, under stones or logs, inside logs, hollow stems, or even acorns. The materials used for construction include soil and plant matter, and ants carefully select their nest sites; Temnothorax albipennis will avoid sites with dead ants, as these may indicate the presence of pests or disease. They are quick to abandon established nests at the first sign of threats.
The army ants of South America, such as the Eciton burchellii species, and the driver ants of Africa do not build permanent nests, but instead, alternate between nomadism and stages where the workers form a temporary nest (bivouac) from their own bodies, by holding each other together.
Weaver ant (Oecophylla spp.) workers build nests in trees by attaching leaves together, first pulling them together with bridges of workers and then inducing their larvae to produce silk as they are moved along the leaf edges. Similar forms of nest construction are seen in some species of Polyrhachis.
Formica polyctena, among other ant species, constructs nests that maintain a relatively constant interior temperature that aids in the development of larvae. The ants maintain the nest temperature by choosing the location, nest materials, controlling ventilation and maintaining the heat from solar radiation, worker activity and metabolism, and in some moist nests, microbial activity in the nest materials.
Some ant species, such as those that use natural cavities, can be opportunistic and make use of the controlled micro-climate provided inside human dwellings and other artificial structures to house their colonies and nest structures.
Cultivation of food
Most ants are generalist predators, scavengers, and indirect herbivores, but a few have evolved specialised ways of obtaining nutrition. It is believed that many ant species that engage in indirect herbivory rely on specialized symbiosis with their gut microbes to upgrade the nutritional value of the food they collect and allow them to survive in nitrogen poor regions, such as rainforest canopies. Leafcutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex) feed exclusively on a fungus that grows only within their colonies. They continually collect leaves which are taken to the colony, cut into tiny pieces and placed in fungal gardens. Ergates specialise in related tasks according to their sizes. The largest ants cut stalks, smaller workers chew the leaves and the smallest tend the fungus. Leafcutter ants are sensitive enough to recognise the reaction of the fungus to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus. If a particular type of leaf is found to be toxic to the fungus, the colony will no longer collect it. The ants feed on structures produced by the fungi called gongylidia. Symbiotic bacteria on the exterior surface of the ants produce antibiotics that kill bacteria introduced into the nest that may harm the fungi.
Navigation
Foraging ants travel distances of up to from their nest and scent trails allow them to find their way back even in the dark. In hot and arid regions, day-foraging ants face death by desiccation, so the ability to find the shortest route back to the nest reduces that risk. Diurnal desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis such as the Sahara desert ant navigate by keeping track of direction as well as distance travelled. Distances travelled are measured using an internal pedometer that keeps count of the steps taken and also by evaluating the movement of objects in their visual field (optical flow). Directions are measured using the position of the sun.
They integrate this information to find the shortest route back to their nest.
Like all ants, they can also make use of visual landmarks when available as well as olfactory and tactile cues to navigate. Some species of ant are able to use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation. The compound eyes of ants have specialised cells that detect polarised light from the Sun, which is used to determine direction.
These polarization detectors are sensitive in the ultraviolet region of the light spectrum. In some army ant species, a group of foragers who become separated from the main column may sometimes turn back on themselves and form a circular ant mill. The workers may then run around continuously until they die of exhaustion.
Locomotion
The female worker ants do not have wings and reproductive females lose their wings after their mating flights in order to begin their colonies. Therefore, unlike their wasp ancestors, most ants travel by walking. Some species are capable of leaping. For example, Jerdon's jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator) is able to jump by synchronising the action of its mid and hind pairs of legs. There are several species of gliding ant including Cephalotes atratus; this may be a common trait among arboreal ants with small colonies. Ants with this ability are able to control their horizontal movement so as to catch tree trunks when they fall from atop the forest canopy.
Other species of ants can form chains to bridge gaps over water, underground, or through spaces in vegetation. Some species also form floating rafts that help them survive floods. These rafts may also have a role in allowing ants to colonise islands. Polyrhachis sokolova, a species of ant found in Australian mangrove swamps, can swim and live in underwater nests. Since they lack gills, they go to trapped pockets of air in the submerged nests to breathe.
Cooperation and competition
Not all ants have the same kind of societies. The Australian bulldog ants are among the biggest and most basal of ants. Like virtually all ants, they are eusocial, but their social behaviour is poorly developed compared to other species. Each individual hunts alone, using her large eyes instead of chemical senses to find prey.
Some species attack and take over neighbouring ant colonies. Extreme specialists among these slave-raiding ants, such as the Amazon ants, are incapable of feeding themselves and need captured workers to survive. Captured workers of enslaved Temnothorax species have evolved a counter-strategy, destroying just the female pupae of the slave-making Temnothorax americanus, but sparing the males (who do not take part in slave-raiding as adults).
Ants identify kin and nestmates through their scent, which comes from hydrocarbon-laced secretions that coat their exoskeletons. If an ant is separated from its original colony, it will eventually lose the colony scent. Any ant that enters a colony without a matching scent will be attacked.
Parasitic ant species enter the colonies of host ants and establish themselves as social parasites; species such as Strumigenys xenos are entirely parasitic and do not have workers, but instead, rely on the food gathered by their Strumigenys perplexa hosts. This form of parasitism is seen across many ant genera, but the parasitic ant is usually a species that is closely related to its host. A variety of methods are employed to enter the nest of the host ant. A parasitic queen may enter the host nest before the first brood has hatched, establishing herself prior to development of a colony scent. Other species use pheromones to confuse the host ants or to trick them into carrying the parasitic queen into the nest. Some simply fight their way into the nest.
A conflict between the sexes of a species is seen in some species of ants with these reproducers apparently competing to produce offspring that are as closely related to them as possible. The most extreme form involves the production of clonal offspring. An extreme of sexual conflict is seen in Wasmannia auropunctata, where the queens produce diploid daughters by thelytokous parthenogenesis and males produce clones by a process whereby a diploid egg loses its maternal contribution to produce haploid males who are clones of the father.
Relationships with other organisms
Ants form symbiotic associations with a range of species, including other ant species, other insects, plants, and fungi. They also are preyed on by many animals and even certain fungi. Some arthropod species spend part of their lives within ant nests, either preying on ants, their larvae, and eggs, consuming the food stores of the ants, or avoiding predators. These inquilines may bear a close resemblance to ants. The nature of this ant mimicry (myrmecomorphy) varies, with some cases involving Batesian mimicry, where the mimic reduces the risk of predation. Others show Wasmannian mimicry, a form of mimicry seen only in inquilines.
Aphids and other hemipteran insects secrete a sweet liquid called honeydew, when they feed on plant sap. The sugars in honeydew are a high-energy food source, which many ant species collect. In some cases, the aphids secrete the honeydew in response to ants tapping them with their antennae. The ants in turn keep predators away from the aphids and will move them from one feeding location to another. When migrating to a new area, many colonies will take the aphids with them, to ensure a continued supply of honeydew. Ants also tend mealybugs to harvest their honeydew. Mealybugs may become a serious pest of pineapples if ants are present to protect mealybugs from their natural enemies.
Myrmecophilous (ant-loving) caterpillars of the butterfly family Lycaenidae (e.g., blues, coppers, or hairstreaks) are herded by the ants, led to feeding areas in the daytime, and brought inside the ants' nest at night. The caterpillars have a gland which secretes honeydew when the ants massage them. Some caterpillars produce vibrations and sounds that are perceived by the ants. A similar adaptation can be seen in Grizzled skipper butterflies that emit vibrations by expanding their wings in order to communicate with ants, which are natural predators of these butterflies. Other caterpillars have evolved from ant-loving to ant-eating: these myrmecophagous caterpillars secrete a pheromone that makes the ants act as if the caterpillar is one of their own larvae. The caterpillar is then taken into the ant nest where it feeds on the ant larvae. A number of specialized bacteria have been found as endosymbionts in ant guts. Some of the dominant bacteria belong to the order Hyphomicrobiales whose members are known for being nitrogen-fixing symbionts in legumes but the species found in ant lack the ability to fix nitrogen. Fungus-growing ants that make up the tribe Attini, including leafcutter ants, cultivate certain species of fungus in the genera Leucoagaricus or Leucocoprinus of the family Agaricaceae. In this ant-fungus mutualism, both species depend on each other for survival. The ant Allomerus decemarticulatus has evolved a three-way association with the host plant, Hirtella physophora (Chrysobalanaceae), and a sticky fungus which is used to trap their insect prey.
Lemon ants make devil's gardens by killing surrounding plants with their stings and leaving a pure patch of lemon ant trees, (Duroia hirsuta). This modification of the forest provides the ants with more nesting sites inside the stems of the Duroia trees. Although some ants obtain nectar from flowers, pollination by ants is somewhat rare, one example being of the pollination of the orchid Leporella fimbriata which induces male Myrmecia urens to pseudocopulate with the flowers, transferring pollen in the process. One theory that has been proposed for the rarity of pollination is that the secretions of the metapleural gland inactivate and reduce the viability of pollen. Some plants have special nectar exuding structures, extrafloral nectaries, that provide food for ants, which in turn protect the plant from more damaging herbivorous insects. Species such as the bullhorn acacia (Acacia cornigera) in Central America have hollow thorns that house colonies of stinging ants (Pseudomyrmex ferruginea) who defend the tree against insects, browsing mammals, and epiphytic vines. Isotopic labelling studies suggest that plants also obtain nitrogen from the ants. In return, the ants obtain food from protein- and lipid-rich Beltian bodies. In Fiji Philidris nagasau (Dolichoderinae) are known to selectively grow species of epiphytic Squamellaria (Rubiaceae) which produce large domatia inside which the ant colonies nest. The ants plant the seeds and the domatia of young seedling are immediately occupied and the ant faeces in them contribute to rapid growth. Similar dispersal associations are found with other dolichoderines in the region as well. Another example of this type of ectosymbiosis comes from the Macaranga tree, which has stems adapted to house colonies of Crematogaster ants.
Many plant species have seeds that are adapted for dispersal by ants. Seed dispersal by ants or myrmecochory is widespread, and new estimates suggest that nearly 9% of all plant species may have such ant associations. Often, seed-dispersing ants perform directed dispersal, depositing the seeds in locations that increase the likelihood of seed survival to reproduction. Some plants in arid, fire-prone systems are particularly dependent on ants for their survival and dispersal as the seeds are transported to safety below the ground. Many ant-dispersed seeds have special external structures, elaiosomes, that are sought after by ants as food. Ants can substantially alter rate of decomposition and nutrient cycling in their nest. By myrmecochory and modification of soil conditions they substantially alter vegetation and nutrient cycling in surrounding ecosystem.
A convergence, possibly a form of mimicry, is seen in the eggs of stick insects. They have an edible elaiosome-like structure and are taken into the ant nest where the young hatch.
Most ants are predatory and some prey on and obtain food from other social insects including other ants. Some species specialise in preying on termites (Megaponera and Termitopone) while a few Cerapachyinae prey on other ants. Some termites, including Nasutitermes corniger, form associations with certain ant species to keep away predatory ant species. The tropical wasp Mischocyttarus drewseni coats the pedicel of its nest with an ant-repellent chemical. It is suggested that many tropical wasps may build their nests in trees and cover them to protect themselves from ants. Other wasps, such as A. multipicta, defend against ants by blasting them off the nest with bursts of wing buzzing. Stingless bees (Trigona and Melipona) use chemical defences against ants.
Flies in the Old World genus Bengalia (Calliphoridae) prey on ants and are kleptoparasites, snatching prey or brood from the mandibles of adult ants. Wingless and legless females of the Malaysian phorid fly (Vestigipoda myrmolarvoidea) live in the nests of ants of the genus Aenictus and are cared for by the ants.
Fungi in the genera Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps infect ants. Ants react to their infection by climbing up plants and sinking their mandibles into plant tissue. The fungus kills the ants, grows on their remains, and produces a fruiting body. It appears that the fungus alters the behaviour of the ant to help disperse its spores in a microhabitat that best suits the fungus. Strepsipteran parasites also manipulate their ant host to climb grass stems, to help the parasite find mates.
A nematode (Myrmeconema neotropicum) that infects canopy ants (Cephalotes atratus) causes the black-coloured gasters of workers to turn red. The parasite also alters the behaviour of the ant, causing them to carry their gasters high. The conspicuous red gasters are mistaken by birds for ripe fruits, such as Hyeronima alchorneoides, and eaten. The droppings of the bird are collected by other ants and fed to their young, leading to further spread of the nematode.
A study of Temnothorax nylanderi colonies in Germany found that workers parasitized by the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis (ants are intermediate hosts, the definitive hosts are woodpeckers) lived much longer than unparasitized workers and had a reduced mortality rate, comparable to that of the queens of the same species, which live for as long as two decades.
South American poison dart frogs in the genus Dendrobates feed mainly on ants, and the toxins in their skin may come from the ants.
Army ants forage in a wide roving column, attacking any animals in that path that are unable to escape. In Central and South America, Eciton burchellii is the swarming ant most commonly attended by "ant-following" birds such as antbirds and woodcreepers. This behaviour was once considered mutualistic, but later studies found the birds to be parasitic. Direct kleptoparasitism (birds stealing food from the ants' grasp) is rare and has been noted in Inca doves which pick seeds at nest entrances as they are being transported by species of Pogonomyrmex. Birds that follow ants eat many prey insects and thus decrease the foraging success of ants. Birds indulge in a peculiar behaviour called anting that, as yet, is not fully understood. Here birds rest on ant nests, or pick and drop ants onto their wings and feathers; this may be a means to remove ectoparasites from the birds.
Anteaters, aardvarks, pangolins, echidnas and numbats have special adaptations for living on a diet of ants. These adaptations include long, sticky tongues to capture ants and strong claws to break into ant nests. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) have been found to feed on ants. About 12%, 16%, and 4% of their faecal volume in spring, summer and autumn, respectively, is composed of ants.
Relationship with humans
Ants perform many ecological roles that are beneficial to humans, including the suppression of pest populations and aeration of the soil. The use of weaver ants in citrus cultivation in southern China is considered one of the oldest known applications of biological control. On the other hand, ants may become nuisances when they invade buildings or cause economic losses.
In some parts of the world (mainly Africa and South America), large ants, especially army ants, are used as surgical sutures. The wound is pressed together and ants are applied along it. The ant seizes the edges of the wound in its mandibles and locks in place. The body is then cut off and the head and mandibles remain in place to close the wound. The large heads of the dinergates (soldiers) of the leafcutting ant Atta cephalotes are also used by native surgeons in closing wounds.
Some ants have toxic venom and are of medical importance. The species include Paraponera clavata (tocandira) and Dinoponera spp. (false tocandiras) of South America and the Myrmecia ants of Australia.
In South Africa, ants are used to help harvest the seeds of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis), a plant used to make a herbal tea. The plant disperses its seeds widely, making manual collection difficult. Black ants collect and store these and other seeds in their nest, where humans can gather them en masse. Up to half a pound (200 g) of seeds may be collected from one ant-heap.
Although most ants survive attempts by humans to eradicate them, a few are highly endangered. These tend to be island species that have evolved specialized traits and risk being displaced by introduced ant species. Examples include the critically endangered Sri Lankan relict ant (Aneuretus simoni) and Adetomyrma venatrix of Madagascar.
As food
Ants and their larvae are eaten in different parts of the world. The eggs of two species of ants are used in Mexican escamoles. They are considered a form of insect caviar and can sell for as much as US$50 per kg going up to US$200 per kg (as of 2006) because they are seasonal and hard to find. In the Colombian department of Santander, hormigas culonas (roughly interpreted as "large-bottomed ants") Atta laevigata are toasted alive and eaten. In areas of India, and throughout Burma and Thailand, a paste of the green weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) is served as a condiment with curry. Weaver ant eggs and larvae, as well as the ants, may be used in a Thai salad, yam (), in a dish called yam khai mot daeng () or red ant egg salad, a dish that comes from the Issan or north-eastern region of Thailand. Saville-Kent, in the Naturalist in Australia wrote "Beauty, in the case of the green ant, is more than skin-deep. Their attractive, almost sweetmeat-like translucency possibly invited the first essays at their consumption by the human species". Mashed up in water, after the manner of lemon squash, "these ants form a pleasant acid drink which is held in high favor by the natives of North Queensland, and is even appreciated by many European palates".
In his First Summer in the Sierra, John Muir notes that the Digger Indians of California ate the tickling, acid gasters of the large jet-black carpenter ants. The Mexican Indians eat the repletes, or living honey-pots, of the honey ant (Myrmecocystus).
As pests
Some ant species are considered as pests, primarily those that occur in human habitations, where their presence is often problematic. For example, the presence of ants would be undesirable in sterile places such as hospitals or kitchens. Some species or genera commonly categorized as pests include the Argentine ant, immigrant pavement ant, yellow crazy ant, banded sugar ant, pharaoh ant, red wood ant, black carpenter ant, odorous house ant, red imported fire ant, and European fire ant. Some ants will raid stored food, some will seek water sources, others may damage indoor structures, some may damage agricultural crops directly or by aiding sucking pests. Some will sting or bite. The adaptive nature of ant colonies make it nearly impossible to eliminate entire colonies and most pest management practices aim to control local populations and tend to be temporary solutions. Ant populations are managed by a combination of approaches that make use of chemical, biological, and physical methods. Chemical methods include the use of insecticidal bait which is gathered by ants as food and brought back to the nest where the poison is inadvertently spread to other colony members through trophallaxis. Management is based on the species and techniques may vary according to the location and circumstance.
In science and technology
Observed by humans since the dawn of history, the behaviour of ants has been documented and the subject of early writings and fables passed from one century to another. Those using scientific methods, myrmecologists, study ants in the laboratory and in their natural conditions. Their complex and variable social structures have made ants ideal model organisms. Ultraviolet vision was first discovered in ants by Sir John Lubbock in 1881. Studies on ants have tested hypotheses in ecology and sociobiology, and have been particularly important in examining the predictions of theories of kin selection and evolutionarily stable strategies. Ant colonies may be studied by rearing or temporarily maintaining them in formicaria, specially constructed glass framed enclosures. Individuals may be tracked for study by marking them with dots of colours.
The successful techniques used by ant colonies have been studied in computer science and robotics to produce distributed and fault-tolerant systems for solving problems, for example Ant colony optimization and Ant robotics. This area of biomimetics has led to studies of ant locomotion, search engines that make use of "foraging trails", fault-tolerant storage, and networking algorithms.
As pets
From the late 1950s through the late 1970s, ant farms were popular educational children's toys in the United States. Some later commercial versions use transparent gel instead of soil, allowing greater visibility at the cost of stressing the ants with unnatural light.
In culture
Anthropomorphised ants have often been used in fables and children's stories to represent industriousness and cooperative effort. They also are mentioned in religious texts. In the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, ants are held up as a good example of hard work and cooperation. Aesop did the same in his fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. In the Quran, Sulayman is said to have heard and understood an ant warning other ants to return home to avoid being accidentally crushed by Sulayman and his marching army., In parts of Africa, ants are considered to be the messengers of the deities. Some Native American mythology, such as the Hopi mythology, considers ants as the very first animals. Ant bites are often said to have curative properties. The sting of some species of Pseudomyrmex is claimed to give fever relief. Ant bites are used in the initiation ceremonies of some Amazon Indian cultures as a test of endurance. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena turned the maiden Myrmex into an ant when the latter claimed to have invented the plough, when in fact it was Athena's own invention.
Ant society has always fascinated humans and has been written about both humorously and seriously. Mark Twain wrote about ants in his 1880 book A Tramp Abroad. Some modern authors have used the example of the ants to comment on the relationship between society and the individual. Examples are Robert Frost in his poem "Departmental" and T. H. White in his fantasy novel The Once and Future King. The plot in French entomologist and writer Bernard Werber's Les Fourmis science-fiction trilogy is divided between the worlds of ants and humans; ants and their behaviour are described using contemporary scientific knowledge. H.G. Wells wrote about intelligent ants destroying human settlements in Brazil and threatening human civilization in his 1905 science-fiction short story, The Empire of the Ants. A similar German story involving army ants, Leiningen Versus the Ants, was written in 1937 and recreated in movie form as The Naked Jungle in 1954. In more recent times, animated cartoons and 3-D animated films featuring ants have been produced including Antz, A Bug's Life, The Ant Bully, The Ant and the Aardvark, Ferdy the Ant and Atom Ant. Renowned myrmecologist E. O. Wilson wrote a short story, "Trailhead" in 2010 for The New Yorker magazine, which describes the life and death of an ant-queen and the rise and fall of her colony, from an ants' point of view. The French neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist Auguste Forel believed that ant societies were models for human society. He published a five volume work from 1921 to 1923 that examined ant biology and society.
In the early 1990s, the video game SimAnt, which simulated an ant colony, won the 1992 Codie award for "Best Simulation Program".
Ants also are quite popular inspiration for many science-fiction insectoids, such as the Formics of Ender's Game, the Bugs of Starship Troopers, the giant ants in the films Them! and Empire of the Ants, Marvel Comics' super hero Ant-Man, and ants mutated into super-intelligence in Phase IV. In computer strategy games, ant-based species often benefit from increased production rates due to their single-minded focus, such as the Klackons in the Master of Orion series of games or the ChCht in Deadlock II. These characters are often credited with a hive mind, a common misconception about ant colonies.
See also
Glossary of ant terms
International Union for the Study of Social Insects
Myrmecological News (journal)
Task allocation and partitioning in social insects
References
Cited texts
Further reading
External links
AntWeb from The California Academy of Sciences
AntWiki – Bringing Ants to the World
Ant Species Fact Sheets from the National Pest Management Association on Argentine, Carpenter, Pharaoh, Odorous, and other ant species
Ant Genera of the World – distribution maps
The super-nettles. A dermatologist's guide to ants-in-the-plants
Symbiosis
Extant Albian first appearances
Articles containing video clips
Insects in culture |
2597 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration%20in%20the%20United%20States | Arbitration in the United States | Arbitration, in the context of the law of the United States, is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Specifically, arbitration is an alternative to litigation through which the parties to a dispute agree to submit their respective evidence and legal arguments to a third party (the arbitrator(s) or arbiter(s)) for resolution. In practice, arbitration is generally used as a substitute for litigation. In some contexts, an arbitrator has been described as an umpire.
Arbitration in the United States' most overarching clause is the Federal Arbitration Act (officially the United States Arbitration Act of 1925, commonly referred to as the FAA). The Act stipulates that arbitration in a majority of instances is legal when both parties, either after or prior to the arising of a dispute, agree to the arbitration. The Supreme Court has taken a pro-arbitration stance across most but not all cases, although the federal government, most recently in 2022, has passed certain exemptions to arbitration agreements. States are also generally prohibited from passing their own laws which the Supreme Court and other federal courts believe limit or discriminate against arbitration.
The practice of arbitration, especially "forced" arbitration clauses between workers/consumers and large companies or organizations, has been gaining a growing amount of scrutiny from both the general public and trial lawyers. Arbitration clauses face various challenges to enforcement, and clauses are unenforceable in the United States when a dispute which falls under the scope of an arbitration clause pertains to sexual harassment or assault.
History
Agreements to arbitrate were not enforceable at common law. This rule has been traced back to dictum by Lord Coke in Vynor’s Case, 8 Co. Rep. 81b, 77 Eng. Rep. 597 (1609), that agreements to arbitrate were revocable by either party.
During the Industrial Revolution, merchants became increasingly opposed to this rule. They argued that too many valuable business relationships were being destroyed through years of expensive adversarial litigation, in courts whose rules differed significantly from the informal norms and conventions of businesspeople. Arbitration was promoted as being faster, less adversarial, and cheaper.
The result was the New York Arbitration Act of 1920, followed by the United States Arbitration Act of 1925 (now known as the Federal Arbitration Act). Both made agreements to arbitrate valid and enforceable (unless one party could show fraud or unconscionability or some other ground for rescission which undermined the validity of the entire contract). Due to the subsequent judicial expansion of the meaning of interstate commerce, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the FAA in a series of cases in the 1980s and 1990s to cover almost the full scope of interstate commerce. In the process, the Court held that the FAA preempted many state laws covering arbitration, some of which had been passed by state legislatures to protect their workers and consumers against powerful business interests. Starting in 1991 with the Gilmer decision arbitration expanded dramatically in the employment context, growing from 2.1 percent of employees subject to mandatory arbitration clauses in 1992 to 53.9% in 2017.
Types of Arbitration
Commercial and other forms of contract arbitration
Since commercial arbitration is based upon either contract law or the law of treaties, the agreement between the parties to submit their dispute to arbitration is a legally binding contract. All arbitral decisions are considered to be "final and binding". This does not, however, void the requirements of law. Any dispute not excluded from arbitration by virtue of law (for example, criminal proceedings) may be submitted to arbitration.
Furthermore, arbitration agreements can only bind parties who have agreed, expressly or impliedly, to arbitrate, and parties cannot be required to submit to an arbitration process if they have not previously "agreed so to submit". It is only through the advance agreement of the parties that the arbitrator derives [any] authority to resolve disputes. Arbitration cannot bind non-signatories to an arbitration contract, even if those non-signatories later become involved with a signatory to a contract by accident (usually through the commission of a tort). However, third-party non-signatories can be bound by arbitration agreements based on theories of estoppel, agency relationships with a party, assumption of the contract containing the arbitration agreement, third-party beneficiary status under the contract, or piercing the corporate veil.
The question of whether two parties have actually agreed to arbitrate any disputes is one for judicial determination, because if the parties have not agreed to arbitrate then the arbitrator would have no authority. Where there is an arbitration agreement, doubts concerning "the scope of arbitrable issues should be resolved in favor of arbitration", but issues regarding whether a claim falls within the scope of arbitrable issues is a judicial matter, unless the parties have expressly agreed that the arbitrator may decide the scope of his or her own authority. Most courts hold that general arbitration clauses, such as an agreement to refer to arbitration any dispute "arising from" or "related to" a particular contract, do not authorize an arbitrator to determine whether a particular issue arises from or relates to the contract concerned. A minority view embraced by some courts is that this broad language can evidence the parties' clear and unmistakable intention to delegate the resolution of all issues to the arbitrator, including issues regarding arbitrability.
Labor arbitration
Arbitration may be used as a means of resolving labor disputes, an alternative to strikes and lockouts. Labor arbitration comes in two varieties:
interest arbitration, which provides a method for resolving disputes about the terms to be included in a new contract when the parties are unable to agree, and
grievance arbitration, which provides a method for resolving disputes over the interpretation and application of a collective bargaining agreement.
Arbitration has also been used as a means of resolving labor disputes for more than a century. Labor organizations in the United States, such as the National Labor Union, called for arbitration as early as 1866 as an alternative to strikes to resolve disputes over the wages, benefits and other rights that workers would enjoy.
Interest arbitration
Governments have relied on arbitration to resolve particularly large labor disputes, such as the Coal Strike of 1902. This type of arbitration, wherein a neutral arbitrator decides the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, is commonly known as interest arbitration. The United Steelworkers of America adopted an elaborate form of interest arbitration, known as the Experimental Negotiating Agreement, in the 1970s as a means of avoiding the long and costly strikes that had made the industry vulnerable to foreign competition. Major League Baseball uses a variant of interest arbitration, in which an arbitrator chooses between the two sides' final offers, to set the terms for contracts for players who are not eligible for free agency. Interest arbitration is now most frequently used by public employees who have no right to strike (for example, law enforcement and firefighters).
Grievance arbitration
Unions and employers have also employed arbitration to resolve employee and union grievances arising under a collective bargaining agreement. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America made arbitration a central element of the Protocol of Peace it negotiated with garment manufacturers in the second decade of the twentieth century. Grievance arbitration became even more popular during World War II, when most unions had adopted a no-strike pledge. The War Labor Board, which attempted to mediate disputes over contract terms, pressed for inclusion of grievance arbitration in collective bargaining agreements. The Supreme Court subsequently made labor arbitration a key aspect of federal labor policy in three cases which came to be known as the Steelworkers' Trilogy. The Court held that grievance arbitration was a preferred dispute resolution technique and that courts could not overturn arbitrators' awards unless the award does not draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement. State and federal statutes may allow vacating an award on narrow grounds (e.g., fraud). These protections for arbitrator awards are premised on the union-management system, which provides both parties with due process. Due process in this context means that both parties have experienced representation throughout the process, and that the arbitrators practice only as neutrals. See National Academy of Arbitrators.
Securities arbitration
In the United States securities industry, arbitration has long been the preferred method of resolving disputes between brokerage firms, and between firms and their customers. The arbitration process operates under its own rules, as defined by contract. Securities arbitrations are held primarily by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The securities industry uses pre-dispute arbitration agreements, through which the parties agree to arbitrate their disputes before any such dispute arises. Those agreements were upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Shearson v. MacMahon, 482 U.S. 220 (1987) and today nearly all disputes involving brokerage firms, other than Securities class action claims, are resolved in arbitration.
The SEC has come under fire from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for not fulfilling statutory duty to protect individual investors, because all brokers require arbitration, and arbitration does not provide a court-supervised discovery process, require arbitrators to follow rules of evidence or result in written opinions establishing precedence, or case law, or provide the efficiency gains it once did. Arbitrator selection bias, hidden conflicts of interest, and a case where an arbitration panel refused to follow instructions handed down from a judge, were also raised as issues.
Judicial arbitration
Some state court systems have promulgated court-ordered arbitration; family law (particularly child custody) is the most prominent example. Judicial arbitration is often merely advisory dispute resolution technique, serving as the first step toward resolution, but not binding either side and allowing for trial de novo. Litigation attorneys present their side of the case to an independent tertiary lawyer, who issues an opinion on settlement. Should the parties in question decide to continue to dispute resolution process, there can be some sanctions imposed from the initial arbitration per terms of the contract.
Arbitration clauses
Congress has expressed a policy in support of arbitration clauses. This support is found in the Federal Arbitration Act, (FAA) which permits compulsory and binding arbitration, under which parties give up the right to appeal an arbitrator's decision to a court. In Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., the U.S. Supreme Court established the "separability principle", under which enforceability of a contract must be challenged in arbitration before any court action, unless the arbitration clause itself has been challenged. Today, mandatory (or "forced") arbitration clauses are widespread in the United States, with 15 of the largest 20 U.S. credit card issuers, 7 of the 8 largest cell phone companies, and 2 out of 3 major bike sharing companies in Seattle including such clauses in their consumer contracts. Arbitration clauses can be enforceable if "signed" electronically, though California courts have stated that a handwritten signature to an arbitration agreement is easier to enforce than one done electronically.
The FAA has also been interpreted to preempt and invalidate state laws which prevent or discriminate against the enforcement of arbitration agreements. In one such case in 2023, which overruled California Assembly Bill 51, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that California's bill placed restrictions on the "broad national policy" favoring arbitration agreements. Similar fates have been bestowed upon legislation in New Jersey, New York, and Washington state which attempted to reduce the scope of arbitration clauses.
In insurance law, arbitration is complicated by the fact that insurance is regulated at the state level under the McCarran–Ferguson Act. From a federal perspective, however, a circuit court ruling has determined that McCarran-Ferguson requires a state statute rather than administrative interpretations. The Missouri Department of Insurance attempted to block a binding arbitration agreement under its state authority, but since this action was based only on a policy of the department and not on a state statute, the United States district court found that the Department of Insurance did not have the authority to invalidate the arbitration agreement.
In AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (2011), the Supreme Court upheld an arbitration clause in a consumer standard form contract which waived the right to a lawsuit and class action. However, this clause was relatively generous in that the business paid all fees unless the action was determined to be frivolous and a small-claims court action remained available; these types of protections are recommended for the contract to remain enforceable and not unconscionable.
The Supreme Court has also ruled that questions on whether an arbitration clause should be enforced at all permits litigation involving the rest of the case to be stayed. In 2023's Coinbase v. Bielski, the court ruled that federal district courts must stay proceedings involving a case during an arbitration appeal on such case.
Arbitration clauses can also be written in a manner which excludes certain disputes from being required to be sent to arbitration. Motions to compel arbitration involving excluded disputes then on would not be honored, as seen in a 2023 ruling made by the Ninth Circuit via one of its judicial panels. In such ruling, the casino firm Saipan included an arbitration agreement which exempted licensing claims from being subject to mandatory arbitration.
Opt out provisions
Some arbitration clauses in the United States offer opportunities for parties to opt out of the arbitration agreement and not be subject to it. Many companies utilize opt out clauses within their arbitration agreements, most often giving 30 or 60 days for consumers in contracts between consumers and companies to either send a rejection notice by mail or by email.
Including an opt out provision has been found to improve the likelihood of a contract to be found conscionable. In Hopkins v. World Acceptance Corp, a case cited in Ferrara v. Luxottica, failure to opt out of an arbitration agreement dilutes the ability to combat a motion to compel arbitration.
Many credit card companies which have arbitration agreements allow card signers to opt out, although company procedures may make it difficult for consumers to exercise that option.
Prohibitions on arbitration
Challenges to clause enforcement
Determination of validity
Although properly drafted arbitration clauses are generally valid, they are subject to challenge in court for compliance with laws and public policy. Arbitration clauses may potentially be challenged as unconscionable and, therefore, unenforceable. Typically, the validity of an arbitration clause is decided by a court rather than an arbitrator. However, if the validity of the entire arbitration agreement is in dispute, then the issue is decided by the arbitrators in the first instance. This is known as the principle of separability. For example, in Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson, the Supreme Court of the United States held that "under the FAA, where an agreement to arbitrate includes an agreement that the arbitrator will determine the enforceability of the agreement, if a party challenges specifically the enforceability of that particular agreement, the district court considers the challenge, but if a party challenges the enforceability of the agreement as a whole, the challenge is for the arbitrator."
In other words, the law typically allows federal courts to decide these types of "gateway" or validity questions, but the Supreme Court ruled that since Jackson targeted the entire contract rather than a specific clause, the arbitrator decided the validity. Public Citizen, an advocacy organization opposed to the enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration agreements, characterized the decision negatively: "the court said that companies can write their contracts so that the companies' own arbitrator decides whether it's fair to submit a case to that arbitrator."
Arbitration clauses must also further provide a clear procedure, and confusion and/or ambiguity in an arbitration clause can also cause such clause to be struck down. One example of this phenomenon occurred in a lawsuit against SoLo Funds, where a Philadelphia federal judge ruled that because the app did not make clear its arbitration requirements, the clause was unconscionable and SoLo's bid to compel arbitration was not granted. Ambiguity-related nullifications of arbitration agreements further extend to proof of agreement between the parties, as in Romano v. BCBSM, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan failed to compel arbitration against a former employee in June 2023 after US district judge George Caram Steeh III ruled that the online application process failed to adequately provide the employee notice of the arbitration agreement he would otherwise be bound to.
Modification of the arbitration clause
A significant challenge to arbitrate agreements arose out of South Carolina through the case Hooters v. Phillips. In the 1999 case, a federal district court found that Hooters modified its dispute resolution rules in 1996 to be unfair enough that the court held that the agreement was unconscionable, partly due to Hooters requiring that all of the arbitrators in dispute resolution cases be selected from a list pre-approved by the company, which included Hooters managers. In April 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that in Coady v. Nationwide Motor Sales, because Nationwide Motor Sales' contract enabled them to be the sole party permitted to modify the contract that Coady signed. Citing Hooters v. Phillips, the court expressed when an employer has the ability “in whole or in part” to modify the arbitration provision without notice to its employees. California's Court of Appeal reached a similar conclusion in Peleg v. Neiman Marcus, in which a unilateral modification to an arbitration agreement invalidated the clause.
Another instance of modified arbitration clauses causing it to be overturned was found in a privacy-related dispute between Amazon and its drivers who work under the company's Amazon Flex service. Amazon Flex drivers, who filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the company spied on private Facebook conversations, alleged that the updated 2019 terms related to Amazon Flex were not delivered properly to them, and that the 2016 terms, which did not include an arbitration clause, should apply. Ultimately, the Ninth Circuit decided that since Amazon was the party compelling arbitration, the burden of proof was on Amazon to prove that its flex drivers received notice of the 2019 updated terms, and that arbitration should not be compelled.
Waiving the right to arbitrate
Some courts have found that parties can waive their right to compel arbitration through various forms of actions. In California, as demonstrated by Davis v. Shiekh Shoes and Espinoza v. Superior Court, a party wishing to compel arbitration though failing to pay arbitration fees in a timely manner waives their right to compel arbitration, and must resolve the dispute in court. More importantly, the Supreme Court found in Morgan v. Sundance that a party which does not compel arbitration when a valid clause exists waives its right to compel arbitration. Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court's unanimous ruling in favor of hourly Taco Bell employee Robyn Morgan, found that the Eighth Circuit created "special rules" in which Morgan was compelled to arbitrate based on Sundance's prejudice (delay) of compelling arbitration.
The opinion on a party waiving its right to compel arbitration if it had litigated extensively prior to the motion has been further confirmed in light of Davis and Espinoza when one of Bronx County's justices ruled in Worbes Corp v. Sebrow. Justice Fidel Gomez states that if a party who intended to compel arbitration brought a "substantive defense" before the court, served a trial notice, moved to depose a witness, or "interposed a counterclaim demanding money damages", that party would have waived its right to compel arbitration. Justice Gomez, however, clarified that such right would not be waived by a party if a defendant "had only defended its position and had not acted in a manner that waives the right to arbitrate".
Unbearable arbitration fees
Arbitration clauses can be void in instances where the costs of arbitration would be too high. In 1999's Shankle v. B-G Maintenance Management of Colorado, Inc, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant a motion to compel arbitration on the basis that the fees were too high for the plaintiff Matthew Shankle. The Texas Courts of Appeals found in 2022's Cont'l Homes of Texas v. Perez that due to unaffordable arbitration costs for the plaintiffs and the arbitration agreement not being an adequate remedy for litigation.
Severability-related challenges
In January 2023, a federal court in Delaware recommended that motions to compel arbitration which conflicted with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 not be honored in Burnett et al. v. Prudent Financial Services LLC, et al. (C.A. No. 22-270-RGA-JLH). Presiding magistrate judge Jennifer Hall interpreted that based on recent action by the Supreme Court and other federal courts, not every provision within the arbitration agreement should be validated. Additionally, Judge Hall prospected that entire arbitration agreements could become invalid if a single provision is found to be unenforceable by a court.
The notion of a single unconscionable provision invalidating the arbitration agreement, even if such provision was outside of the arbitration-related clauses of a contract, was expanded the following June when a California court ruled in Alberto v. Cambrian Homecare that a confidentiality agreement which prohibited discussing compensation and salary information, and threatened litigation and the collection of attorneys fees, was unenforceable and also declared the arbitration agreement unenforceable.
Other challenges
In 2014's Atalese v. U.S. Legal Services Group, L.P, the Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled that arbitration clauses must have a valid jury trial waiver, which the court saw as a constitutional right which must be explicitly waived in a contract, in order to be effective, a position reaffirmed by Pennsylvania's Superior Court in 2022's Chiluti v. Uber.
A Pennsylvania appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in March 2023 that parents cannot bind their children to arbitration agreements over injuries, in a lawsuit between parents and a local trampoline park.
Transportation workers exemption
The Federal Arbitration Act also explicitly provides that workers involved in transportation are exempt from arbitration agreements, which the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed in various cases, with one notable example being 2022's Southwest Airlines v. Saxon. This, however, does not apply to drivers working for Uber and other ridesharing services.
Acts of Congress
Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act
In 2022, Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFASASHA or EFAA), which excludes these types of complaints from arbitration clauses. Congress also included a ban on class action waivers for claims covered under the act. Under the law, claims which are filed after March 3, 2022 and fall under the scope of EFAA shall have agreements to submit disputes to binding arbitration and class action waivers within contracts signed deemed unenforceable for the entire case, though the law allows for claimants to have a case decided by binding arbitration if the plaintiff wishes upon filing. The law was championed by Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News host sexually harassed for many years by then CEO Roger Ailes; she also opposed the use of non-disclosure agreements to shield perpetrators.
The law was introduced by Illinois House Democrat Cheri Bustos as HR 4445, and passed the House of Representatives by a 335-97 vote, with all no votes coming from Republicans. The EFAA passed the Senate with unanimous consent, and was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 3, 2022. The law became effective immediately at signing.
Some legal agencies raised concerns that the law could allow for claims attached to a sexual harassment or sexual assault dispute to bypass arbitration as well. These concerns were ultimately confirmed in February 2023, where New York federal judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled in two lawsuits against the company Everyrealm that if at least one claim in a single case was an act of sexual assault or sexual harassment, the pre-dispute arbitration agreement was unenforceable and arbitration could not be compelled. Engelmayer's decision was rooted in the decision from Congress to directly amend the Federal Arbitration Act, and its actions to do so were indicative of its intention to prohibit the practice in entire cases which the EFAA covers; Engelmayer, however, clarified that the claim of sexual assault or harassment must be reasonable and that the EFAA does not enable implausible claims of sexual harassment to be used to "dodge" arbitration agreements. One month later, a California court ruling on a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Tesla further confirmed the EFAA's ability to ban compelling arbitration in sexual harassment suits, and a second New York federal court earlier came to a similar conclusion in a case filed by an investment banker.
Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act
The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act is a bill filed in every meeting of Congress since the 116th Congress which, if passed, contains provisions which ban arbitration agreements and class action waivers in cases between consumers and large companies, as well as employers and large companies. The bill is generally supported by the Democratic Party as well as Freedom Caucus member Matt Gaetz, though has usually been opposed by the Republican Party. In the 116th and 117th congresses, the bill passed the House but failed to pass the Senate; the bill has since been reintroduced in the 118th Congress by Democratic senators Sherrod Brown and Richard Blumenthal, and Democratic representative Hank Johnson.
Protecting Older Americans Act
The Protecting Older Americans Act is pending legislation first filed in the 118th Congress by South Carolina Republicans Lindsey Graham in the Senate and Nancy Mace in the House. The law would ban and overturn arbitration agreements in cases involving discrimination based on age.
Rulings and actions by federal agencies
Federal Student Loans
In November 2022, the Department of Education and the office on Federal Student Aid passed new rules which included reinstating a ban on institutions participating in its Direct Loan Program from utilizing pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements and class action waivers in cases relating to Borrower Defense to Repayment. The new rules also require institutions to disclose their uses of arbitration to the Department and to provide certain records connected with any borrower defense claim against the school to the Department. The Department of Education stated its reasoning for the ban is that class action waivers and arbitration agreements are too complex for much of the general public to comprehend and that arbitration "rarely" gives favorable decisions to consumers.The rules become effective on July 1, 2023.
Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor was noted in May 2023 by Bloomberg Law journalist Khorri Atkinson for its increased focus and hostility towards mandatory arbitration and its use by employers for violating Department of Labor rules. Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda has stated that the Department will pursue more cases where employers are utilizing mandatory arbitration to commit violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Proceedings
Various bodies of rules have been developed that can be used for arbitration proceedings. The rules to be followed by the arbitrator are specified by the agreement establishing the arbitration.
Enforcement of award
In some cases, a party may comply with an award voluntarily. However, in other cases a party will have to petition to receive a court judgment for enforcement through various means such as a writ of execution, garnishment, or lien. If the property is in another state, then a sister-state judgment (relying on the Full Faith and Credit Clause) can be received by filing to enforce the judgment in the state where the property is located.
Vacatur
Under the Federal Arbitration Act, courts can only vacate awards for limited reasons set out in statute with similar language in the state model Uniform Arbitration Act.
The court will generally not change the arbitrator's findings of fact but will decide only whether the arbitrator was guilty of malfeasance, or whether the arbitrator exceeded the limits of his or her authority in the arbitral award or whether the award was made in manifest disregard of law or conflicts with well-established public policy.
Arbitration Fairness Act
See also
Arbitration award
Consumer arbitration
Conciliation
Dispute resolution
Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis
Expert determination
London Court of International Arbitration
Mediation
Negotiation
Special referee
Subrogation
Tort reform
UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration
National Arbitration Forum
National Academy of Arbitrators
For the relevant conflict of laws elements, see contract, forum selection clause, choice of law clause, proper law, and lex loci arbitri
References
Further reading
Jerold S. Auerbach, Justice Without Law?: Non-Legal Dispute Settlement in American History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).
Mark J. Astarita, Esq., Introduction to Securities Arbitration (SECLaw.com, 2000 - Securities Arbitration Overview-2023 Update)
David Sherwyn, Bruce Tracey & Zev Eigen. "In Defense of Mandatory Arbitration of Employment Disputes: Saving the Baby, Tossing out the Bath Water, and Constructing a New Sink in the Process," 2 U. Pa. J. Lab. & Emp. L. 73 (1999); n.b., abbreviated source in this legal citation format is the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Vol. 2, p. 73.
Ed Brunet, J.D., Arbitration Law in America: A Critical Assessment, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Gary Born, International Civil Litigation in United States Courts (Aspen 4th ed. 2006) (with Bo Rutledge) (3rd ed. 1996) (2nd ed. 1992) (1st ed. 1989)
External links
Read actual arbitration awards and find arbitrator's resumes at GVSU
American Arbitration Association's Home Page
An Example of Labor Arbitration in the United States (Vulcan Iron Works and the Machinists' Union, 1981) .
United States
Law of the United States |
2598 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversarial%20system | Adversarial system | The adversarial system or adversary system or accusatorial system or accusatory system is a legal system used in the common law countries where two advocates represent their parties' case or position before an impartial person or group of people, usually a judge or jury, who attempt to determine the truth and pass judgment accordingly. It is in contrast to the inquisitorial system used in some civil law systems (i.e. those deriving from Roman law or the Napoleonic code) where a judge investigates the case.
The adversarial system is the two-sided structure under which criminal trial courts operate, putting the prosecution against the defense.
Basic features
Adversarial systems are considered to have three basic features. The first is a neutral decision-maker such as a judge or jury. The second is presentation of evidence in support of each party's case, usually by lawyers. The third is a highly
structured procedure.
The rules of evidence are developed based upon the system of objections of adversaries and on what basis it may tend to prejudice the trier of fact which may be the judge or the jury. In a way the rules of evidence can function to give a judge limited inquisitorial powers as the judge may exclude evidence deemed to not be trustworthy, or irrelevant to the legal issue at hand. Peter Murphy in his Practical Guide to Evidence recounts an instructive example. A frustrated judge in an English (adversarial) court finally asked a barrister after witnesses had produced conflicting accounts, "Am I never to hear the truth?" "No, my lord, merely the evidence", replied counsel.
Parties
Judges in an adversarial system are impartial in ensuring the fair play of due process, or fundamental justice. Such judges decide, often when called upon by counsel rather than of their own motion, what evidence is to be admitted when there is a dispute; though in some common law jurisdictions judges play more of a role in deciding what evidence to admit into the record or reject. At worst, abusing judicial discretion would actually pave the way to a biased decision, rendering obsolete the judicial process in question—rule of law being illicitly subordinated by rule of man under such discriminating circumstances. Lord Devlin in The Judge said: "It can also be argued that two prejudiced searchers starting from opposite ends of the field will between them be less likely to miss anything than the impartial searcher starting at the middle."
The right to counsel in criminal trials was initially not accepted in some adversarial systems. It was believed that the facts should speak for themselves, and that lawyers would just blur the matters. As a consequence, it was only in 1836 that England gave suspects of felonies the formal right to have legal counsel (the Prisoners' Counsel Act 1836), although in practice, English courts routinely allowed defendants to be represented by counsel from the mid-18th century. During the second half of the 18th century, advocates like Sir William Garrow and Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law countries today. In the United States, however, personally retained counsel have had a right to appear in all federal criminal cases since the adoption of the United States Constitution, and in state cases at least since the end of the civil war, although nearly all provided this right in their state constitutions or laws much earlier. Appointment of counsel for indigent defendants was nearly universal in federal felony cases, though it varied considerably in state cases. It was not until 1963 that the U.S. Supreme Court declared that legal counsel must be provided at the expense of the state for indigent felony defendants, under the federal Sixth Amendment, in state courts. See Gideon v. Wainwright, .
Criminal proceedings
In criminal adversarial proceedings, an accused is not compelled to give evidence. Therefore, they may not be questioned by a prosecutor or judge unless they choose to be; however, should they decide to testify, they are subject to cross-examination and could be found guilty of perjury. As the election to maintain an accused person's right to silence prevents any examination or cross-examination of that person's position, it follows that the decision of counsel as to what evidence will be called is a crucial tactic in any case in the adversarial system and hence it might be said that it is a lawyer's manipulation of the truth. Certainly, it requires the skills of counsel on both sides to be fairly equally pitted and subjected to an impartial judge.
In some adversarial legislative systems, the court is permitted to make inferences on an accused's failure to face cross-examination or to answer a particular question. This obviously limits the usefulness of silence as a tactic by the defense. In the United States, the Fifth Amendment has been interpreted to prohibit a jury from drawing a negative inference based on the defendant's invocation of his or her right not to testify, and the jury must be so instructed if the defendant requests.
By contrast, while defendants in most civil law systems can be compelled to give statements, these statements are not subject to cross-examinations by the prosecution and are not given under oath. This allows the defendant to explain their side of the case without being subject to cross-examination by a skilled opposition. However, this is mainly because it is not the prosecutor but the judge who questions the defendant. The concept of "cross"-examination is entirely due to adversarial structure of the common law.
Comparison with inquisitorial systems
The name "adversarial system" may be misleading in that it implies it is only within this type of system in which there are opposing prosecution and defense. This is not the case, and both modern adversarial and inquisitorial systems have the powers of the state separated between a prosecutor and the judge and allow the defendant the right to counsel. Indeed, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Article 6 requires these features in the legal systems of its signatory states.
One of the most significant differences between the adversarial system and the inquisitorial system occurs when a criminal defendant admits to the crime. In an adversarial system, there is no more controversy and the case proceeds to sentencing; though in many jurisdictions the defendant must have allocution of her or his crime; an obviously false confession will not be accepted even in common law courts. By contrast, in an inquisitorial system, the fact that the defendant has confessed is merely one more fact that is entered into evidence, and a confession by the defendant does not remove the requirement that the prosecution present a full case. This allows for plea bargaining in adversarial systems in a way that is difficult or impossible in inquisitional system, and many felony cases in the United States are handled without trial through such plea bargains. Plea bargains are becoming more common in 27 civil law countries.
See also
Adversary evaluation
Exclusionary rule
Parallel thinkingdescribed as a systemic alternative
References
Further reading
Judiciaries
Legal systems |
2602 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abano%20Terme | Abano Terme | Abano Terme (known as Abano Bagni until 1924) is a town and comune in the Province of Padua, in the Veneto region, Italy, on the eastern slope of the Euganean Hills; it is southwest by rail from Padua. Abano Terme's population is 19,062 (2001) (in 1901 it was 4,556).
The town's hot springs and mud baths are an important economic resource. The waters have a temperature of about .
History
The baths were known to the Romans as Aponi fons or Aquae Patavinae. A description of them is given in a letter to Theodoric, the king of the Ostrogoths, from Cassiodorus. Some remains of the ancient baths have been discovered (S. Mandruzzato, Trattato dei Bagni d'Abano, Padua, 1789). An oracle of Geryon lay near, and the so-called sortes Praenestinae (C.I.L. i., Berlin, 1863; 1438–1454), small bronze cylinders inscribed, and used as oracles, were perhaps found here in the 16th century.
The baths were destroyed by the Lombards in the 6th century, but they were rebuilt and enlarged when Abano became an autonomous comune in the 12th century and, again, in the late 14th century. The city was under the Republic of Venice from 1405 to 1797.
Main sights
Abano Cathedral, or the cathedral (duomo) of St. Lawrence. The current edifice was erected in 1780 over a pre-existing church which was allegedly destroyed by Cangrande della Scala. The bell tower has parts from the 9th/10th and 14th centuries.
The Montirone Gallery, housing works of Il Moretto, Palma il Giovane, Guido Reni, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and others.
The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Salute or of Monteortone (built from 1428). It lies on the site where the Madonna appeared to Pietro Falco, healing his wounds. The church is on the Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles with three apses decorated by a frieze. It has with a Baroque portal (1667), a bell tower, presbytery frescoes portraying the Histories of St. Peter and Virgin by Jacopo da Montagnana (1495) and Palma il Giovane's altarpiece depicting Christ Crucifixed Between St. Augustine and St. Jerome.
Just outside the city is San Daniele Abbey (11th century). from the city is also Praglia Abbey, founded in the 11th century by Benedictine monks and rebuilt in 1496–1550. The abbey church of the Assumption, with a marble portal from 1548, has a Renaissance style interior.
People
Pietro d'Abano (1316), Italian physician and philosopher
Matteo Meneghello (born 1981), Italian racing driver
Twin towns
Shibukawa, Japan
Bad Füssing, Germany
Lipik, Croatia
Kamena Vourla, Greece
See also
Ex Oratorio del Montirone
References
Sources
L'Italia da scoprire, Giorgio Mondadori, 2006.
External links
Abano.it Touristic informations web site
Cities and towns in Veneto
Spa towns in Italy |
2604 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abated | Abated | See also, Abatement.
Abated, an ancient technical term applied in masonry and metal work to those portions which are sunk beneath the surface, as in inscriptions where the ground is sunk round the letters so as to leave the letters or ornament in relief.
References
Construction
Masonry |
2605 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abati | Abati | Abati is a surname. It was used by an ancient noble family of Florence.
Notable people with the surname include:
Antonio Abati (died 1667), Italian poet
Baldo Angelo Abati (sixteenth century), Italian naturalist
Joaquín Abati (1865–1936), Spanish writer
Joël Abati (born 1970), French handball player
Megliore degli Abati (thirteenth century), Italian poet
Niccolò dell'Abbate (1509 or 1512 – 1571), Italian painter
Reuben Abati (born 1965), Nigerian newspaper columnist
Other uses
The Abati people, a fictional ethnic group in H. Rider Haggard's adventure novel Queen Sheba's Ring
Abati, Iran, village
Marauna abati, species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae
References
Italian-language surnames |
2606 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatis | Abatis | An abatis, abattis, or abbattis is a field fortification consisting of an obstacle formed (in the modern era) of the branches of trees laid in a row, with the sharpened tops directed outwards, towards the enemy. The trees are usually interlaced or tied with wire. Abatis are used alone or in combination with wire entanglements and other obstacles.
In Slavic languages it is known as zaseka, a position behind sharpened objects.
History
There is evidence it was used as early as the Roman Imperial period, and as recently as the American Civil War and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.
Gregory of Tours mentions the use of abatises several times in his writing about the history of the early Franks. He wrote that the Franks ambushed and destroyed a Roman army near Neuss during the reign of Magnus Maximus with the use of an abatis. He also wrote that Mummolus, a general working for Burgundy, successfully used an abatis to defeat a Lombard army near Embrun.
A classic use of an abatis was at the Battle of Carillon (1758) during the Seven Years' War. The 3,600 French troops defeated a massive army of 16,000 British and Colonial troops by fronting their defensive positions with an extremely dense abatis. The British found the defences almost impossible to breach and were forced to withdraw with some 2,600 casualties. Other uses of an abatis can be found at the Battle of the Chateauguay, 26 October 1813, when approximately 1,300 Canadian Voltigeurs, under the command of Charles-Michel de Salaberry, defeated an American corps of approximately 4,000 men, or at the Battle of Plattsburgh.
Construction
An important weakness of abatis, in contrast to barbed wire, is that it can be destroyed by fire. Also, if laced together with rope instead of wire, the rope can be very quickly destroyed by such fires, after which the abatis can be quickly pulled apart by grappling hooks thrown from a safe distance.
An important advantage is that an improvised abatis can be quickly formed in forested areas. This can be done by simply cutting down a row of trees so that they fall with their tops toward the enemy. An alternative is to place explosives so as to blow the trees down.
Modern use
Abatis are rarely seen nowadays, having been largely replaced by wire obstacles. However, it may be used as a replacement or supplement when barbed wire is in short supply. A form of giant abatis, using whole trees instead of branches, can be used as an improvised anti-tank obstacle.
Though rarely used by modern conventional military units, abatises are still officially maintained in United States Army and Marine Corps training. Current US training instructs engineers or other constructors of such obstacles to fell trees, leaving a stump, in such a manner as the trees fall interlocked pointing at a 45-degree angle towards the direction of approach of the enemy. Furthermore, it is recommended that the trees remain connected to the stumps and the length of roadway covered be at least . US military maps record an abatis by use of an inverted "V" with a short line extending from it to the right.
See also
Great Zasechnaya cherta
Notes
References
External links
Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier includes large and authentic reproduction of abatis used in the U.S. Civil War.
Fortifications by type
Engineering barrages
Medieval defences |
2607 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine%20Thomson%20d%27Abbadie | Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie | Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie d'Arrast (3 January 1810 – 19 March 1897) was an Irish-born French explorer, geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer notable for his travels in Ethiopia during the first half of the 19th century. He was the older brother of Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, with whom he travelled.
Biography
D'Abbadie was born a British subject, in Dublin, Ireland, from a partially Basque noble family of the French province of Soule. His mother, Madam Thompson, was Irish and his father, Michel d'Abbadie, was born in Arrast-Larrebieu. He descended from an old family of lay abbots from Arrast, a commune in the canton of Mauléon. These lay abbots were instituted beyond the Crusades by Charlemagne to defend the border against the Saracens. The lay abbots resided with their lances in hand in the abbeys of the Basque country. They were granted the right to collect tithes and participated in the appointment of priests by designating them in accordance with the bishop's selection. The name d'Abbadie was initially not a surname but rather designated their function (abbatia, abbadia).
The family moved to France in 1818 where the brothers received a careful scientific education. In 1827, Antoine received a bachelor's degree in Toulouse. Starting in 1829, he began his education in Paris, where he studied law.
He married Virginie Vincent de Saint-Bonnet on 21 February 1859, and settled in Hendaye where he purchased 250ha to build a castle, and became the mayor of the city from 1871 to 1875.
D'Abbadie was a knight of the Legion of Honour, which he received on 27 September 1850, and the president of the French Academy of Sciences. He died in 1897, and bequeathed the Abbadia domain and castle in Hendaye, yielding 40,000 francs a year, to the Academy of Sciences, on the condition that they produce a catalogue of half a million stars within fifty years.
Education
Michel d'Abbadie returned to France with his family circa 1820. Initially residing in Toulouse, he oversaw the education of all his children who were placed under the tutelage of a governess. "I was raised," Antoine saids, "in the English tradition alongside my sisters. We spent our days and nights in a dormitory, overseen carefully by a servant. We rarely had time in the evenings to converse with our parents, only to hear the occasional tale from Daddy before being sent to play in a corner of the room. We always addressed our parents formally, using 'Sir' or 'Madam'."
Antoine remained at home for three or four years, "far from the strict discipline of a boarding school tutor." At the age of 13, he attended middle School where he exhibited extraordinary fervour. Still in his childhood, he displayed an uncommon curiosity concerning the unfamiliar in his surroundings by asking his governess, "What lies at the end of the road?" to which she replied, "A river, my friend." "And what lies beyond the river?" inquired the child. "A mountain," responded the elder. "And what lies beyond the mountain?" asked the child. "I cannot say, for I have never been there," replied the elder. "Then I shall journey forth and discover it myself," declared the child. Antoine d'Abbadie maintained this unquenchable thirst for knowledge throughout his life. He has an exceptional talent for acquiring languages and is proficient in English, Italian, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Berber, and several Ethiopian languages.
In August 1827, he obtained his baccalaureate and returned to Toulouse to become a law student. His closest friends at this time were Pierre Étienne Simon Duchartre, Bernard-Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac and
.These young people often talk about their plans for the future. "Sometimes", notes d'Abbadie, "Granier asks about my future projects; I respond with commonplaces, and he likely perceives this as indecisiveness. However, I hold in my heart the most insane and beautiful project, which brings me great joy in my leisure activities, and I cherish it just as much as any other endeavour."
This project, to which the young law student made such a particular reference, had long been a part of his thinking. Since he was in middle school, he had focused his attention, his education and his smallest actions. Very early on, d'Abbadie had the passions and calling of an adventurer. His initial ideas, somewhat indeterminate at the start, presently became more distinct. "After completing college in 1829,"he tells us,"I undertook six years-long study primarily aimed at preparing me for a successful exploration of Africa's interior, which I planned to enter through Tunisia and Morocco. Reading Bruce's travels transported me back to East Africa, a region marked by numerous migrations and the origin of many traditions still present on this continent, though shrouded in mystery. From then on, I became convinced that the most important field of study a man could devote himself to was that of his fellow human beings."
Here is how d'Abbadie utilized the six years he spoke of to refine the remarkable project he had conceived:
Being endowed with exceptional agility even in the Basque country, he trained himself over numerous years with physical exercises in anticipation of the fatigue and deprivations explorers face. He developed adept fencing skills, practiced gymnastics, honed his ability to contend in endurance races under differing weather conditions, and became an accomplished swimmer. During his 1827 Biarritz vacation, he astounded locals by swimming to the Boucalot rock, situated almost 500 meters away from the shore.
Science and explorations
In 1835 the French Academy sent Antoine on a scientific mission to Brazil, the results being published at a later date (1873) under the title of Observations relatives à la physique du globe faites au Brésil et en Éthiopie. He left in November 1836 in the frigate L'Andromède and had as a travelling companion Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, exiled after the attempted uprising of Strasbourg. During their long voyage, the prince and the young scholar had ample time to converse. D'Abbadie, who was acquainted with Mrs Lenormand, took pleasure in making predictions about the future. Upon being consulted by the prince, he declared: "You will be called upon to govern France; I will meet you at the Tuileries." Sixteen years later, the prince became President of the Republic. When Antoine d'Abbadie reminded him that they had arranged to meet at the Tuileries and not the Élysée, the prince responded: "The Élysée is not far from the Tuileries."
After successfully completing the task assigned to him by the French Academy, Antoine d'Abbadie hurried to Cairo in 1837 to meet his younger brother who awaited his arrival. The two youthful travelers, aged 26 and 21 respectively, were to stay in Ethiopia for almost 12 years.
The two brothers landing at Massawa in February 1838. They journeyed throughout Ethiopia, travelling as far south as the Kingdom of Kaffa, sometimes together and sometimes separately. In addition to his studies in the sciences, he delved into the political fray exerting influence in favour of France and the Catholic missionaries.
Arnaud held several distinguished positions such as general, judge, and diplomat. He participated in battles and earned the title of Ras, a highly esteemed title in this country. Antoine, on the other hand, pursued an academic path and became a scholar. "When residing in a foreign country without any known antecedents,"he tells us"it is advisable to adopt a vocation in line with local customs, as failure to do so may result in being branded as a political spy, a hazardous accusation in any nation. As I was unable to engage in combat, agriculture, or merchandising, I identified as a "mamhir", or teacher and scholar, during my time in Christian Ethiopia and received an education from their public and non-compulsory schools."
For a considerable length of time, the two brothers had assimilated into the customs of the region; relinquishing European attire for the turban and toga of the Ethiopians. They traversed the terrain barefoot, as during this era, solely lepers and Jews sported sandals. Furthermore, they were welcomed warmly wherever they travelled.
The d'Abbadie brothers undertook extensive journeys throughout Ethiopia, documenting their observations on a range of topics, including human geography, physical geography, religion, legislative texts, ethnography, philology, linguistics, numismatics, and history. Moreover, Antoine amassed a collection of 250 antique manuscripts and, with the assistance of the Ethiopian Debtera Tewelde Medhin of Welkait, produced the first ever Amharic-French dictionary containing 15,000 words.
In late 1848, the two brothers departed Ethiopia after successfully completing their extensive self-promised program and more.
Antoine became involved in various controversies relating both to his geographical results and his political intrigues. He was especially attacked by Charles Tilstone Beke, who impugned his veracity, especially with reference to the journey to Kana. But time and the investigations of subsequent explorers have shown that Abbadie was quite trustworthy as to his facts, though wrong in his assertion — hotly contested by Beke — that the Blue Nile was the main stream. The topographical results of his explorations were published in Paris between 1860 and 1873 in Géodésie d'Éthiopie, full of the most valuable information and illustrated by ten maps. Of the Géographie de l'Éthiopie (Paris, 1890) only one volume was published. In Un Catalogue raisonné de manuscrits éthiopiens (Paris, 1859) is a description of 234 Ethiopian manuscripts collected by Antoine. He also compiled various vocabularies, including a Dictionnaire de la langue amariñña (Paris, 1881), and prepared an edition of the Shepherd of Hermas, with the Latin version, in 1860. He published numerous papers dealing with the geography of Ethiopia, Ethiopian coins and ancient inscriptions. Under the title of Reconnaissances magnétiques he published in 1890 an account of the magnetic observations made by him in the course of several journeys to the Red Sea and the Levant. The general account of the travels of the two brothers was published by Arnaud in 1868 under the title of Douze ans de séjour dans la Haute Ethiopie.The book has been translated into English "Twelve Years in Upper Ethiopia".
Antoine was responsible for streamlining techniques in geodesy, along with inventing a new theodolite for measuring angles.
Basque and bascophile
Basque through his father, Abbadie developed a particular interest in the Basque Language after meeting Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte in London. He started his academic work on Basque in 1852.
A speaker of both Souletin and Lapurdian, a resident of Lapurdi, Abbadie considered himself a Basque from Soule. The popularity of the motto Zazpiak Bat is attributed to Abbadie, coined in the framework of the Lore Jokoak Basque festivals that he fostered.
Abbadia Castle
Abbadie gave his castle home the name Abbadia, which is the name still used in Basque. However, in French it is usually referred to as Chateau d'Abbadie or Domaine d'Abbadia, and locally it is not unusual for it to be called le Chateau d'Antoine d'Abbadie.
The château was built between 1864 and 1879 on a cliff by the Atlantic Ocean, and was designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the Neo Gothic style. It is considered one of the most important examples of French Gothic Revival Architecture. It is divided in three parts: the observatory and library, the chapel, and the living quarters.
Over the front entrance door of the château is engraved "Céd míle fáilte" Irish gaelic for one hundred thousand welcomes in honour of his Irish heritage.
The château still belongs to the Academy of Science to which it was bequeathed in 1895 on condition of its producing a catalogue of half-a-million stars within fifty years' time, with the work to be carried out by members of religious orders.
The château was classified as a protected historical monument by France in 1984. Most of the château property now belongs to the Coastal Protection Agency, and is managed by the city of Hendaye.
Publications
Awards and memberships
Antoine received the French Legion of Honor on 27 September 1850 with the order of chevalier or knight. He was a member of the Bureau des Longitudes and also the French Academy of Sciences. Both brothers received the grand medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1850.
Notes
Footnotes
References
– Antoine d'Abbadie
External links
1810 births
1897 deaths
French explorers
People from Soule
19th-century French astronomers
French-Basque people
Basque-language writers
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Members of the Lincean Academy
Irish people of Basque descent
Knights of the Legion of Honour
Irish emigrants to France
Ethiopianists |
2608 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba%20Mari | Abba Mari | Abba Mari ben Moses ben Joseph, was a Provençal rabbi, born at Lunel, near Montpellier, towards the end of the 13th century. He is also known as Yarhi from his birthplace (Hebrew Yerah, i.e. moon, lune), and he further took the name Astruc, Don Astruc or En Astruc of Lunel from the word "astruc" meaning lucky.
The descendant of men learned in rabbinic lore, Abba Mari devoted himself to the study of theology and philosophy, and made himself acquainted with the writings of Moses Maimonides and Nachmanides as well as with the Talmud.
In Montpellier, where he lived from 1303 to 1306, he was much distressed by the prevalence of Aristotelian rationalism, which (in his opinion) through the medium of the works of Maimonides, threatened the authority of the Old Testament, obedience to the law, and the belief in miracles and revelation. He therefore, in a series of letters (afterwards collected under the title Minhat Kenaot, i.e., "Offering of Zealotry") called upon the famous rabbi Solomon ben Aderet of Barcelona to come to the aid of orthodoxy. Ben Aderet, with the approval of other prominent Spanish rabbis, sent a letter to the community at Montpellier proposing to forbid the study of philosophy to those who were less than twenty-five years of age, and, in spite of keen opposition from the liberal section, a decree in this sense was issued by Ben Aderet in 1305. The result was a great schism among the Jews of Spain and southern France, and a new impulse was given to the study of philosophy by the unauthorized interference of the Spanish rabbis.
Upon the expulsion of the Jews from France by Philip IV in 1306, Abba Mari settled at Perpignan, where he published the letters connected with the controversy. His subsequent history is unknown. Beside the letters, he was the author of liturgical poetry and works on civil law.
Defender of Law and Tradition
Leader of the opposition to the rationalism of the Maimonists in the Montpellier controversy of 1303–1306; born at Lunel—hence his name, Yarḥi (from Yeraḥ = Moon = Lune). He was a descendant of Meshullam ben Jacob of Lunel, one of whose five sons was Joseph, the grandfather of Abba Mari, who, like his son Moses, the father of Abba Mari, was highly respected for both his rabbinical learning and his general erudition. Abba Mari moved to Montpellier, where, to his chagrin, he found the study of rabbinical lore greatly neglected by the young, who devoted all of their time and zeal to science and philosophy. The rationalistic method pursued by the new school of Maimonists (including Levi ben Abraham ben Chayyim of Villefranche, near the town of Perpignan, and Jacob Anatolio) especially provoked his indignation; for the sermons preached and the works published by them seemed to resolve the entire Scriptures into allegory and threatened to undermine the Jewish faith and the observance of the Law and tradition. He was not without some philosophical training. He mentions even with reverence the name of Maimonides, whose work he possessed and studied; but he was more inclined toward the mysticism of Nachmanides. Above all, he was a thorough believer in revelation and in a divine providence, and was a sincere, law-observing follower of rabbinical Judaism. He would not allow Aristotle, "the searcher after God among the heathen," to be ranked with Moses.
Opponent of Rationalism
Abba Mari possessed considerable Talmudic knowledge and some poetical talent; but his zeal for the Law made him an agitator and a persecutor of all the advocates of liberal thought. Being himself without sufficient authority, he appealed in a number of letters, afterward published under the title of Minḥat Ḳenaot (Jealousy Offering), to Solomon ben Adret of Barcelona, the most influential rabbi of the time, to use his powerful authority to check the source of evil by hurling his anathema against both the study of philosophy and the allegorical interpretations of the Bible, which did away with all belief in miracles. Ben Adret, while reluctant to interfere in the affairs of other congregations, was in perfect accord with Abba Mari as to the danger of the new rationalistic systems, and advised him to organize the conservative forces in defense of the Law. Abba Mari, through Ben Adret's aid, obtained allies eager to take up his cause, among whom were Don Bonafoux Vidal of Barcelona and his brother, Don Crescas Vidal, then in Perpignan. The proposition of the latter to prohibit, under penalty of excommunication, the study of philosophy and any of the sciences except medicine, by one under thirty years of age, met with the approval of Ben Adret. Accordingly, Ben Adret addressed to the congregation of Montpellier a letter, signed by fifteen other rabbis, proposing to issue a decree pronouncing the anathema against all those who should pursue the study of philosophy and science before due maturity in age and in rabbinical knowledge. On a Sabbath in September, 1304, the letter was to be read before the congregation, when Jacob Machir Don Profiat Tibbon, the renowned astronomical and mathematical writer, entered his protest against such unlawful interference by the Barcelona rabbis, and a schism ensued. Twenty-eight members signed Abba Mari's letter of approval; the others, under Tibbon's leadership, addressed another letter to Ben Adret, rebuking him and his colleagues for condemning a whole community without knowledge of the local conditions. Finally, the agitation for and against the liberal ideas brought about a schism in the entire Jewish population in southern France and Spain.
Encouraged, however, by letters signed by the rabbis of Argentière and Lunel, and particularly by the support of Kalonymus ben Todros, the nasi of Narbonne, and of the eminent Talmudist Asheri of Toledo, Ben Adret issued a decree, signed by thirty-three rabbis of Barcelona, excommunicating those who should, within the next fifty years, study physics or metaphysics before their thirtieth year of age (basing his action on the principle laid down by Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed part one chapter 34), and had the order promulgated in the synagogue on Sabbath, July 26, 1305. When this heresy-decree, to be made effective, was forwarded to other congregations for approval, the friends of liberal thought, under the leadership of the Tibbonites, issued a counter-ban, and the conflict threatened to assume a serious character, as blind party zeal (this time on the liberal side) did not shrink from asking the civil powers to intervene. But an unlooked-for calamity brought the warfare to an end. The expulsion of the Jews from France by Philip IV ("the Fair"), in, caused the Jews of Montpellier to take refuge, partly in Provence, partly in Perpignan and partly in Majorca. Consequently, Abba Mari removed first to Arles, and, within the same year, to Perpignan, where he finally settled and disappeared from public view. There he published his correspondence with Ben Adret and his colleagues.
Minchat Kenaot
Abba Mari collected the correspondence and added to each letter a few explanatory notes. Of this collection, called Minchat Kenaot, several manuscript copies survive (at Oxford; Paris; Günzburg Libr., Saint Petersburg; Parma; Ramsgate Montefiore College Library; and Turin). Some of these are mere fragments. The printed edition (Presburg, 1838), prepared by M. L. Bislichis, contains: (1) Preface; (2) a treatise of eighteen chapters on the incorporeality of God; (3) correspondence; (4) a treatise, called Sefer ha-Yarḥi, included also in letter 58; (5) a defense of The Guide and its author by Shem-Tob Palquera.
As the three cardinal doctrines of Judaism, Abba Mari accentuates: (1) Recognition of God's existence and of His absolute sovereignty, eternity, unity, and incorporeality, as taught in revelation, especially in the Ten Commandments; (2) the world's creation by Him out of nothing, as evidenced particularly by the Sabbath; (3) special Divine providence, as manifested in the Biblical miracles. In the preface, Abba Mari explains his object in collecting the correspondence; and in the treatise which follows he shows that the study of philosophy, useful in itself as a help toward the acquisition of the knowledge of God, requires great caution, lest we be misled by the Aristotelian philosophy or its false interpretation, as regards the principles of creatio ex nihilo and divine individual providence. The manuscripts include twelve letters which are not included in the printed edition of Minḥat Ḳenaot.
The correspondence refers mainly to the proposed restriction of the study of the Aristotelian philosophy. Casually, other theological questions are discussed. For example, letters 1, 5, and 8 contain a discussion on the question, whether the use of a piece of metal with the figure of a lion, as a talisman, is permitted by Jewish law for medicinal purposes, or is prohibited as idolatrous. In letter 131, Abba Mari mourns the death of Ben Adret, and in letter 132 he sends words of sympathy to the congregation of Perpignan, on the death of Don Vidal Shlomo (the Meiri) and Rabbi Meshullam. Letter 33 contains the statement of Abba Mari that two letters which he desired to insert could not be discovered by him. MS. Ramsgate, No. 52, has the same statement, but also the two letters missing in the printed copies. In Sefer haYarchi, Abba Mari refers to the great caution shown by the rabbis of old regarding the teaching of the philosophical mysteries, and recommended by men like the Hai Gaon, Maimonides, and David Kimhi. A response of Abba Mari on a ritual question is contained in MS. Ramsgate, No. 136; and Zunz mentions a ḳinah composed by Abba Mari.
Minchat Kenaot is instructive reading for the historian because it throws much light upon the deeper problems which agitated Judaism, the question of the relation of religion to the philosophy of the age, which neither the zeal of the fanatic nor the bold attitude of the liberal-minded could solve in any fixed dogmatic form or by any anathema, as the independent spirit of the congregations refused to accord to the rabbis the power possessed by the Church of dictating to the people what they should believe or respect.
At the close of the work are added several eulogies written by Abba Mari on Ben Adret (who died in 1310), and on Don Vidal, Solomon of Perpignan, and Don Bonet Crescas of Lunel.
References
13th-century births
14th-century deaths
People from Lunel
14th-century French rabbis
Provençal rabbis
French Orthodox rabbis
Jewish refugees |
2609 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas%20II%20of%20Egypt | Abbas II of Egypt | Abbas Helmy II (also known as ʿAbbās Ḥilmī Pāshā, ) (14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive of Egypt and the Sudan, ruling from 8January 1892 to 19 December 1914. In 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, the nationalist Khedive was removed by the British, then ruling Egypt, in favour of his more pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel, marking the de jure end of Egypt's four-century era as a province of the Ottoman Empire, which had begun in 1517.
Early life
Abbas II (full name: Abbas Hilmy), the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 14 July 1874. In 1887 he was ceremonially circumcised together with his younger brother Mohammed Ali Tewfik. The festivities lasted for three weeks and were carried out with great pomp. As a boy he visited the United Kingdom, and he had a number of British tutors in Cairo including a governess who taught him English. In a profile of Abbas II, the boys' annual, Chums, gave a lengthy account of his education. His father established a small school near the Abdin Palace in Cairo where European, Arab and Ottoman masters taught Abbas and his brother Mohammed Ali Tewfik. An American officer in the Egyptian army took charge of his military training. He attended school at Lausanne, Switzerland; then, at the age of twelve, he was sent to the Haxius School in Geneva, in preparation for his entry into the Theresianum in Vienna. In addition to Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, he had good conversational knowledge of English, French and German.
Reign
Abbas II succeeded his father, Tewfik Pasha, as Khedive of Egypt and Sudan on 8 January 1892. He was still in college in Vienna when he assumed the throne of the Khedivate of Egypt upon the sudden death of his father. He was barely of age according to Egyptian law; normally eighteen in cases of succession to the throne. For some time he did not willingly cooperate with the British, whose army had occupied Egypt in 1882. As he was young and eager to exercise his new power, he resented the interference of the British Agent and Consul General in Cairo, Sir Evelyn Baring, later made Lord Cromer. Lord Cromer initially supported Abbas but the new Khedive's nationalist agenda and association with anti-colonial Islamist movements put him in direct conflict with British colonial officers, and Cromer later interceded on behalf of Lord Kitchener (British commander in the Sudan) in an ongoing dispute with Abbas about Egyptian sovereignty and influence in that territory.
At the outset of his reign, Khedive Abbas II surrounded himself with a coterie of European advisers who opposed the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan and encouraged the young khedive to challenge Cromer by replacing his ailing prime minister with an Egyptian nationalist. At Cromer's behest, Lord Rosebery, the British Foreign Secretary, sent Abbas II a letter stating that the Khedive was obliged to consult the British consul on such issues as cabinet appointments. In January 1894 Abbas II made an inspection tour of Sudanese and Egyptian frontier troops stationed near the southern border, the Mahdists being at the time still in control of the Sudan. At Wadi Halfa the Khedive made public remarks disparaging the Egyptian army units commanded by British officers. The British Sirdar of the Egyptian army, Sir Herbert Kitchener, immediately threatened to resign. Kitchener further insisted on the dismissal of a nationalist under-secretary of war appointed by Abbas II and that an apology be made for the Khedive's criticism of the army and its officers.
By 1899 he had come to accept British counsels. Also in 1899, British diplomat Alfred Mitchell-Innes was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Finance in Egypt, and in 1900 Abbas II paid a second visit to Britain, during which he said he thought the British had done good work in Egypt, and declared himself ready to cooperate with the British officials administering Egypt and Sudan. He gave his formal approval for the establishment of a sound system of justice for Egyptian nationals, a significant reduction in taxation, increased affordable and sound education, the inauguration of the substantial irrigation works such as the Aswan Low Dam and the Assiut Barrage, and the reconquest of Sudan. He displayed more interest in agriculture than in statecraft. His farm of cattle and horses at Qubbah, near Cairo, was a model for agricultural science in Egypt, and he created a similar establishment at Muntazah, just east of Alexandria. He married the Princess Ikbal Hanem and had several children. Muhammad Abdul Moneim, the heir-apparent, was born on 20 February 1899.
Although Abbas II no longer publicly opposed the British, he secretly created, supported and sustained the Egyptian nationalist movement, which came to be led by Mustafa Kamil Pasha. He also funded the anti-British newspaper Al-Mu'ayyad. As Kamil's thrust was increasingly aimed at winning popular support for a nationalist political party, Khedive Abbas publicly distanced himself from the Nationalists and was labeled as being against Islam by said nationalists. The western world would characterize him as a revolutionary against peace, although his main goal was to gain independence for Morocco. Their demand for a constitutional government in 1906 was rebuffed by Abbas II, and the following year he formed the National Party, led by Mustafa Kamil Pasha, to counter the Ummah Party of the Egyptian moderates. However, in general, he had no real political power. When the Egyptian Army was sent to fight Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi in Sudan in 1896, he only found out about it because the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand was in Egypt and told him after being informed of it by a British Army officer.
His relations with Cromer's successor, Sir Eldon Gorst, however, were excellent, and they co-operated in appointing the cabinets headed by Butrus Ghali in 1908 and Muhammad Sa'id in 1910 and in checking the power of the National Party. The appointment of Kitchener to succeed Gorst in 1912 displeased Abbas II, and relations between the Khedive and the British deteriorated. Kitchener, who exiled or imprisoned the leaders of the National Party, often complained about "that wicked little Khedive" and wanted to depose him.
On 25 July 1914, at the onset of World War I, Abbas II was in Constantinople and was wounded in his hands and cheeks during a failed assassination attempt. On 5 November 1914 when Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire, he was accused of deserting Egypt by not promptly returning home. The British also believed that he was plotting against their rule, as he had attempted to appeal to Egyptians and Sudanese to support the Central Powers against the British. So when the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, the United Kingdom declared Egypt a Sultanate under British protection on 18 December 1914 and deposed Abbas II.
During the war, Abbas II sought support from the Ottomans, including proposing to lead an attack on the Suez Canal. He was replaced by the British by his uncle Hussein Kamel from 1914 to 1917, with the title of Sultan of Egypt. Hussein Kamel issued a series of restrictive orders to strip Abbas II of property in Egypt and Sudan and forbade contributions to him. These also barred Abbas from entering Egyptian territory and stripped him of the right to sue in Egyptian courts. This did not prevent his progeny, however, from exercising their rights. Abbas II finally accepted the new order on 12 May 1931 and formally abdicated. He retired to Switzerland, where he wrote The Anglo-Egyptian Settlement (1930). He died at Geneva on 19 December 1944, aged 70, 30 years to the day after the end of his reign as Khedive.
Marriages and issue
His first marriage in Cairo on 19 February 1895 was to Ikbal Hanim (Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 22 October 1876Istanbul, 10 February 1941). They divorced in 1910 and had six children, two sons and four daughters:
Princess Emina (Montaza Palace, Alexandria, 12 February 1895 – 1954), unmarried and without issue, received decoration of the Order of Charity, 1st class, 31 May 1895;
Princess Atiyatullah (Cairo, 9 June 1896 – 1971), married twice and had issue, three sons, received decoration of the Order of Charity, 1st class, 1 October 1904;
Princess Fathiya (27 November 1897 – 30 November 1923), married without issue, received decoration of the Order of Charity, 1st class, 1 October 1904;
Prince Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, Heir Apparent and Regent of Egypt and Sudan, (20 February 1899 – 1 December 1979), married and had issue, a son and a daughter;
Princess Lutfiya Shavkat (Cairo, 29 September 1900 – 1975), married and had issue, two daughters, received decoration of the Order of Charity, 1st class, 20 July 1907;
Prince Muhammad Abdul Kadir (4 February 1902 – Montreux, 21 April 1919);
His second marriage in Çubuklu, Turkey on 28 February 1910 was to Hungarian noblewoman Javidan Hanim (born May Torok de Szendro, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., 8 January 18745 August 1968). They divorced in 1913 without issue.
Honours
Notes
Footnotes
References
Further reading
External links
Al-Ahram on Abbas in exile
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1874 births
1944 deaths
Dethroned monarchs
Monarchs who abdicated
19th-century Egyptian monarchs
20th-century Egyptian monarchs
Khedives of Egypt
Muhammad Ali dynasty monarchs
Egyptian expatriates in Austria
Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland
Albanian people from the Ottoman Empire
Egyptian people of Albanian descent
Ottoman governors of Egypt
Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star
Grand Crosses of the Order of Franz Joseph
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Recipients of the Order of the Medjidie, 1st class
Knights of the Order of Pope Pius IX
Egyptian slave owners
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Sons of monarchs |
2610 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas%20Mirza | Abbas Mirza | Abbas Mirza (; August 26, 1789October 25, 1833) was a Qajar crown prince of Iran. He developed a reputation as a military commander during the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 and the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, as well as through the Ottoman–Persian War of 1821–1823. He is furthermore noted as an early modernizer of Persia's armed forces and institutions, and for his death before his father, Fath Ali Shah.
Abbas was an intelligent prince, possessed some literary taste, and is noteworthy on account of the comparative simplicity of his life.
With Abbas Mirza as the military commander of the Persian forces, Iran lost all of its territories in the Caucasus comprising the South Caucasus and parts of the North Caucasus (Dagestan) to Russia in conformity with the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, following the outcomes of the 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 wars.
Biography
Abbas Mirza was born on 26 August 1789 in Nava, Mazandaran, a younger son of Fath Ali Shah, but, on account of his mother's royal birth, was destined by his father to succeed him. Considered the favorite son by his father, he was named governor (beglarbeg) of the Azerbaijan region of Persia, in approximately 1798, when he was 10 years old. In 1801, three years after Agha Mohammad Khan's death, the Russians capitalized on the moment, and annexed Kartli-Kakheti. As (Eastern) Georgia had been under intermittent Iranian suzerainty since the early 16th century, this act by the Russians was seen as intrusion into Iranian territory. In 1804, eager to take the rest of Iran's territories, the Russian army led by general Pavel Tsitsianov, besieged, captured and sacked the city of Ganja, thereby initiating the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813). Fath-Ali Shah appointed Abbas Mirza as commander of the expeditionary force of 30,000 men. His aid was eagerly solicited by both England and Napoleon, anxious to checkmate one another in the East, especially as Persia bordered a common rival, namely Imperial Russia. Preferring the friendship of France, Abbas Mirza continued the war against Russia's young General Kotlyarevsky, aged only twenty-nine but his new ally could give him very little assistance.
The early stages of the war following Fath Ali Shah's orders to invade and regain Georgia and the northern parts of the contemporary Azerbaijani Republic ended up in years of relatively territorial stale warfare. However, as Prof. Alexander Mikaberidze adds, Abbas Mirza led the army in an overall disastrous campaign against the Russians, suffering defeats at Gyumri, Kalagiri, the Zagam River (1805), Karakapet (1806), Karababa (1808), Ganja (1809), Meghri, the Aras River, and Akhalkalaki (1810). The tide started to decisively turn as Russia was sending more and more advanced weaponry and increasing numbers of soldiers. Commanding the southernmost Russian divisions during the long war, Kotlyarevsky defeated the numerically superior Persian army in the Battle of Aslanduz (1812) and in early 1813 stormed and took Lankaran. The Russians were encamped on the opposite bank of River Aras when his two British advisers, Capt Christie and Lt Pottinger, told him to post sentry pickets in short order, but Mirza ignored the warnings. Christie and other British officers tried to rally an army retreating in panic; for days the Russians launched fierce assaults, but at last Christie fell, and Mirza ordered a full retreat. Complacency cost 10,000 Persian lives; Mirza believing wrongly in the weight of superior numbers. In spite of the absence of leadership, The Persians at Lenkoran held out for weeks until, breaking through, the Russians slaughtered the garrison of 4,000 officers and men.
In October 1813, with Abbas Mirza still commander-in-chief, Persia was compelled to make a severely disadvantageous peace known as the Treaty of Gulistan, irrevocably ceding swaths of its territory in the Caucasus, comprising present-day Georgia, Dagestan, and most of what most recently became the Republic of Azerbaijan. The only promise the Shah received in return was a lukewarm guarantee the Mirza would succeed to his throne, without let or hindrance. Persia's dire losses attracted the attention of the British Empire; following the reversal of initial successes, the Russians now posed a serious threat from the Caucasus.
The drastic losses suffered by his forces made him realize that he needed to train Persia's military in the European style of war, and he started sending his students to Europe for military training. By introducing European-style regiments, Abbas Mirza believed it would enable Iran to gain the upper hand over Russia and to reclaim its lost territories. Influenced by Sultan Selim III's reforms, Abbas Mirza set out to create an Iranian version of the Ottoman Nizam-ı Cedid, and reduce the Qajar dependence on tribal and provincial forces. In 1811 and 1815, two groups were sent to Britain, and in 1812 a printing press was finished in Tabriz as a means to reproduce European military handbooks. Tabriz also saw a gunpowder factory and a munitions depot. The training continued with constant drilling by British advisers, with a focus on the infantry and artillery.
He received his opportunity to test his newly reformed military when the Ottoman–Persian War (1821–1823) began, and they proved themselves adept with several victories. This resulted in a peace treaty signed in 1823 after the Battle of Erzurum. The war was a victory for Persia, especially considering they were outnumbered, and this gave much needed confidence to his forces. His second war with Russia, which began in 1826, started off on a good note as he won back most of the territory lost in the Russo-Persian War (1804–1813); however it ended in a string of costly defeats after which Persia was forced to cede the last of its Caucasian territories, comprising all of what is modern day Armenia, Nakhchivan, the rest of the remainder of the contemporary Azerbaijani Republic that was still in Iranian hands, and Iğdır Province, all conform the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay. The eventual loss was due less to his army's skill and more to do with lack of reinforcements and overwhelming superiority in numbers. The irrevocable losses, which in total amounted up for all of Qajar Iran's territories in the North Caucasus and the South Caucasus, affected Abbas Mirza severely and his health began to suffer. He also lost enthusiasm for any more military reform. In 1833, he sought to restore order in Khorasan province, which was nominally under Persian supremacy, and while engaged in the task died at Mashhad in 1833. In 1834, his eldest son, Mohammed Mirza, succeeded Fath Ali Shah as the next king. R. G. Watson (History of Persia, 128–9) described him as “the noblest of the Qajar race”.
He is most remembered for his valor in battle and his failed attempts to modernize the Persian army. He was unsuccessful in the latter due, in part, to the lack of government centralization in Iran during the era. Furthermore, it was Abbas Mirza who first dispatched Iranian students to Europe for a western education. He was unable to prove successful in the long run in his wars with Russia as he ended up losing more territory than he gained.
In popular culture
Tabriz in Fog: an Iranian historical drama about Abbas Mirza's life.
Issue
Prince Mohammed Mirza, to become Mohammad Shah Qajar
Prince Bahram Mirza Mo'ez ed-Dowleh
Prince Djahangir Mirza
Prince Bahman Mirza
Prince Fereydoun Mirza Nayeb-ol-Eyaleh
Prince Eskandar Mirza
Prince Khosrow Mirza
Prince Ghahreman Mirza
Prince Ardeshir Mirza Rokn ed-Dowleh
Prince Ahmad Mirza Mo'in ed-Dowleh
Prince Ja'far Gholi Mirza
Prince Mostafa Gholi Mirza
Prince Soltan Morad Mirza Hessam-al-Saltaneh
Prince Manouchehr Mirza
Prince Farhad Mirza Mo'tamed ed-Dowleh
Prince Firouz Mirza Nosrat ed-Dowleh
Prince Khanlar Mirza Ehtesham ed-Dowleh
Prince Bahador Mirza
Prince Mohammad Rahim Mirza
Prince Mehdi Gholi Mirza
Prince Hamzeh Mirza Heshmat ed-Dowleh
Prince Ildirim Bayazid Mirza
Prince Lotfollah Mirza Shoa'a ed-Dowleh
Prince Mohammad Karim Mirza
Prince Ja'ffar Mirza
Prince Abdollah Mirza
See also
Set Khan Astvatsatourian
Abbas Mirza Mosque, Yerevan
Russo-Persian Wars
Samson Makintsev
Imperial Crown Jewels of Persia
Military history of Iran
Notes
References
Further reading
Children of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar
1789 births
1833 deaths
Iranian royalty
Iranian generals
19th-century Iranian military personnel
People of the Russo-Persian Wars
Heirs apparent who never acceded
People from Mazandaran Province
History of Azerbaijan (Iran)
Qajar governors
Burials at Imam Reza Shrine
Qajar governors of Azerbaijan |
2613 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%20Abbot%20%28bishop%29 | George Abbot (bishop) | George Abbot (29 October 15624 August 1633) was an English divine who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1611 to 1633. He also served as the fourth chancellor of the University of Dublin, from 1612 to 1633.
Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "[a] sincere but narrow-minded Calvinist". Among his five brothers, Robert became Bishop of Salisbury and Maurice became Lord Mayor of London. He was a translator of the King James Version of the Bible.
Life and career
Early years
Born at Guildford in Surrey, where his father Maurice Abbot (died 1606) was a cloth worker, he was taught at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. According to an eighteenth-century biographical dictionary, when Abbot's mother was pregnant with him she had a dream in which she was told that if she ate a pike her child would be a son and rise to great prominence. Some time afterwards she accidentally caught a pike while fetching water from the River Wey and it "being reported to some gentlemen in the neighbourhood, they offered to stand sponsors for the child, and afterwards shewed him many marks of favour". He later studied, and then taught under many eminent scholars, including Thomas Holland, at Balliol College, Oxford, was chosen Master of University College in 1597, and appointed Dean of Winchester in 1600. He was three times Vice-Chancellor of the University, and took a leading part in preparing the authorised version of the New Testament. In 1608, he went to Scotland with George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar to arrange for a union between the churches of England and Scotland. He so pleased King James in this affair that he was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1609 and was translated to the see of London a month afterwards.
Archbishop of Canterbury
On 4 March 1611, Abbot was raised to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. As archbishop, he defended the apostolic succession of Anglican bishops and the validity of the church's priesthood in 1614. In consequence of the Nag's Head Fable, the archbishop invited certain Roman Catholics to inspect the register in the presence of six of his own episcopal colleagues, the details of which inspection were preserved. It was agreed by all parties that:
In spite of his defence of the catholic nature of the priesthood, his Puritan instincts frequently led him not only into harsh treatment of Roman Catholics, but also into courageous resistance to the royal will, such as when he opposed the scandalous divorce suit of the Lady Frances Howard against Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and again in 1618 when, at Croydon, he forbade the reading of the Declaration of Sports listing the permitted Sunday recreations. He was naturally, therefore, a promoter of the match between the king's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and a firm opponent of the projected marriage of the new Prince of Wales (later Charles I) and the Spanish Infanta, Maria Anna. This policy brought upon the archbishop the hatred of William Laud (with whom he had previously come into collision at Oxford) and the king's court, although the King himself never forsook Abbot.
In July 1621, while hunting in Lord Zouch's park at Bramshill in Hampshire, a bolt from his cross-bow aimed at a deer happened to strike one of the keepers, who died within an hour, and Abbot was so greatly distressed by the event that he fell into a state of settled melancholia. His enemies maintained that the fatal issue of this accident disqualified him for his office, and argued that, though the homicide was involuntary, the sport of hunting which had led to it was one in which no clerical person could lawfully indulge. The King had to refer the matter to a commission of ten, though he said that "an angel might have miscarried after this sort". The commission was equally divided, and the King gave a casting vote in the Archbishop's favour, though signing also a formal pardon or dispensation. Gustavus Paine notes that Abbot was both the "only translator of the 1611 Bible and the only Archbishop of Canterbury ever to kill a human being".
After this, the Archbishop seldom appeared at the council, chiefly on account of his infirmities. In 1625 he attended the King constantly, however, in his last illness, and performed the ceremony of the coronation of King Charles I as king of England. His refusal to license the assize sermon preached by Robert Sibthorp at Northampton on 22 February 1627, in which cheerful obedience was urged to the king's demand for a general loan, and the duty proclaimed of absolute non-resistance even to the most arbitrary royal commands, led Charles to deprive him of his functions as primate, putting them in commission. The need of summoning parliament, however, soon brought about a nominal restoration of the Archbishop's powers. His presence being unwelcome at court, he lived from that time in retirement, leaving Laud and his party in undisputed ascendancy. He died at Croydon on 4 August 1633, and was buried at Guildford, his native place, where he had endowed Abbot's Hospital with lands to the value of £300 a year.
Legacy
Abbot was a conscientious prelate, though narrow in view and often harsh towards both separatists and Roman Catholics. He wrote a large number of works, the most interesting being his discursive Exposition on the Prophet Jonah (1600), which was reprinted in 1845. His Geography, or a Brief Description of the Whole World (1599), passed through numerous editions. The newest edition, edited by the current Master of the Abbot's Hospital, was published by Goldenford Publishers Ltd on 20 June 2011, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Abbot had a large private library of more than 8000 volumes, the majority of which he left to Lambeth Palace Library. Books bearing his armorial stamp can still be found in libraries today.
Guildford remembers the Archbishop with his hospital and a statue in the High Street. A secondary school and a pub in the High Street are named after him. His tomb can be found in Holy Trinity Church.
Notes
References
External links
1562 births
1633 deaths
Clergy from Guildford
17th-century Anglican archbishops
People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Archbishops of Canterbury
Bishops of London
Bishops of Lichfield
Chancellors of the University of Dublin
17th-century English translators
Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford
Masters of University College, Oxford
Translators of the King James Version
17th-century English Anglican priests
17th-century English diplomats
Scottish Episcopal Church
Deans of Winchester
Burials in Surrey
English male poets
17th-century Anglican theologians
16th-century Anglican theologians |
2616 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adware | Adware | Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process. The software may generate two types of revenue: one is for the display of the advertisement and another on a "pay-per-click" basis, if the user clicks on the advertisement. Some advertisements also act as spyware, collecting and reporting data about the user, to be sold or used for targeted advertising or user profiling. The software may implement advertisements in a variety of ways, including a static box display, a banner display, a full screen, a video, a pop-up ad or in some other form. All forms of advertising carry health, ethical, privacy and security risks for users.
The 2003 Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security and some other sources use the term "adware" differently: "any software that installs itself on your system without your knowledge and displays advertisements when the user browses the Internet", i.e., a form of malware.
Some software developers offer their software free of charge, and rely on revenue from advertising to recoup their expenses and generate income. Some also offer a version of the software at a fee without advertising.
Advertising-supported software
In legitimate software, the advertising functions are integrated into or bundled with the program. Adware is usually seen by the developer as a way to recover development costs, and generate revenue. In some cases, the developer may provide the software to the user free of charge or at a reduced price. The income derived from presenting advertisements to the user may allow or motivate the developer to continue to develop, maintain and upgrade the software product. The use of advertising-supported software in business is becoming increasingly popular, with a third of IT and business executives in a 2007 survey by McKinsey & Company planning to be using ad-funded software within the following two years. Advertisement-funded software is also one of the business models for open-source software.
Application software
Some software is offered in both an advertising-supported mode and a paid, advertisement-free mode. The latter is usually available by an online purchase of a license or registration code for the software that unlocks the mode, or the purchase and download of a separate version of the software.
Some software authors offer advertising-supported versions of their software as an alternative option to business organizations seeking to avoid paying large sums for software licenses, funding the development of the software with higher fees for advertisers.
Examples of advertising-supported software include Adblock Plus ("Acceptable Ads"), the Windows version of the Internet telephony application Skype, and the Amazon Kindle 3 family of e-book readers, which has versions called "Kindle with Special Offers" that display advertisements on the home page and in sleep mode in exchange for substantially lower pricing.
In 2012, Microsoft and its advertising division, Microsoft Advertising, announced that Windows 8, the major release of the Microsoft Windows operating system, would provide built-in methods for software authors to use advertising support as a business model. The idea had been considered since as early as 2005. Most editions of Windows 10 include adware by default.
Software as a service
Support by advertising is a popular business model of software as a service (SaaS) on the Web. Notable examples include the email service Gmail and other Google Workspace products (previously called Google Apps and G Suite), and the social network Facebook. Microsoft has also adopted the advertising-supported model for many of its social software SaaS offerings. The Microsoft Office Live service was also available in an advertising-supported mode.
Definition of Spyware, Consent, and Ethics
In the view of Federal Trade Commission staff, there appears to be general agreement that software should be considered "spyware" only if it is downloaded or installed on a computer without the user's knowledge and consent. However, unresolved issues remain concerning how, what, and when consumers need to be told about software installed on their computers. For instance, distributors often disclose in an end-user license agreement that there is additional software bundled with primary software, but some participants did not view such disclosure as sufficient to infer consent.
Much of the discussion on the topic involves the idea of informed consent, the assumption being that this standard eliminates any ethical issues with any given software's behavior. However, if a majority of important software, websites and devices were to adopt similar behavior and only the standard of informed consent is used, then logically a user's only recourse against that behavior would become not using a computer. The contract would become an ultimatum—agree or be ostracized from the modern world. This is a form of psychological coercion and presents an ethical problem with using implied or inferred consent as a standard. There are notable similarities between this situation and binding arbitration clauses which have become inevitable in contracts in the United States.
Furthermore, certain forms and strategies of advertising have been shown to lead to psychological harm, especially in children. One example is childhood eating disorders—several studies have reported a positive association between exposure to beauty and fashion magazines and an increased level of weight concerns or eating disorder symptoms in girls.
Malware
The term adware is frequently used to describe a form of malware (malicious software) which presents unwanted advertisements to the user of a computer. The advertisements produced by adware are sometimes in the form of a pop-up, sometimes in an "unclosable window", and sometimes injected into web pages.
When the term is used in this way, the severity of its implication varies. While some sources rate adware only as an "irritant", others classify it as an "online threat" or even rate it as seriously as computer viruses and trojans. The precise definition of the term in this context also varies. Adware that observes the computer user's activities without their consent and reports it to the software's author is called spyware. Adwares may collect the personal information of the user, causing privacy concerns. However, most adware operates legally and some adware manufacturers have even sued antivirus companies for blocking adware.
Programs have been developed to detect, quarantine, and remove advertisement-displaying malware, including Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Spyware Doctor and Spybot – Search & Destroy. In addition, almost all commercial antivirus software currently detect adware and spyware, or offer a separate detection module.
A new wrinkle is adware (using stolen certificates) that disables anti-malware and virus protection; technical remedies are available.
Adware has also been discovered in certain low-cost Android devices, particularly those made by small Chinese firms running on Allwinner systems-on-chip. There are even cases where adware code is embedded deep into files stored on the system and boot partitions, to which removal involves extensive (and complex) modifications to the firmware.
In recent years, machine-learning based systems have been implemented to detect malicious adware on Android devices by examining features in the flow of network traffic.
See also
Malvertising
Online advertising
Typhoid adware
Notes
References
Online advertising
Types of malware |
2618 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeacus | Aeacus | Aeacus (; also spelled Eacus; Ancient Greek: Αἰακός) was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon. According to legend, he was famous for his justice, and after he died he became one of the three judges in Hades alongside Minos and Rhadamanthos. In another story, he assisted Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.
He had sanctuaries in Athens and Aegina, and the Aeginetan festival of the Aeacea (Αἰάκεια) was celebrated in his honour.
Mythology
Birth and early days
Aeacus was born on the island of Oenone or Oenopia, where his mother Aegina had been carried by Zeus to secure her from the anger of her parents; afterward, this island became known as Aegina. He was the father of Peleus, Telamon and Phocus and was the grandfather of the Trojan war warriors Achilles and Telemonian Ajax. In some accounts, Aeacus had a daughter called Alcimache who bore Medon to Oileus of Locris. Aeacus' sons Peleus and Telamon were jealous of Phocus and killed him. When Aeacus learned about the murder, he exiled Peleus and Telamon. Some traditions related that, at the time when Aeacus was born, Aegina was not yet inhabited, and that Zeus either changed the ants (μύρμηκες) of the island into the men (Myrmidons) over whom Aeacus ruled, or he made the men grow up out of the earth. Ovid, on the other hand, supposed that the island was not uninhabited at the time of the birth of Aeacus, instead stating that during the reign of Aeacus, Hera, jealous of Aegina, ravaged the island bearing the name of the latter by sending a plague or a fearful dragon into it, by which nearly all its inhabitants were carried off. Afterward, Zeus restored the population by changing the ants into men.
These legends seem to be a mythical account of the colonization of Aegina, which seems to have been originally inhabited by Pelasgians, and afterwards received colonists from Phthiotis, the seat of the Myrmidons, and from Phlius on the Asopus. While he reigned in Aegina, Aeacus was renowned in all Greece for his justice and piety, and was frequently called upon to settle disputes not only among men, but even among the gods themselves. He was such a favourite with the latter, that when Greece was visited by a drought as a consequence of a murder that had been committed, the oracle of Delphi declared that the calamity would not cease unless Aeacus prayed to the gods to end it. Aeacus prayed, and as a result, the drought ceased. Aeacus then demonstrated his gratitude by erecting a temple to Zeus Panhellenius on Mount Panhellenion, and afterward, the Aeginetans built a sanctuary on their island called Aeaceum, which was a square temple enclosed by walls of white marble. Aeacus was believed in later times to be buried under the altar of this sacred enclosure.
Later adventures
A legend preserved in Pindar relates that Apollo and Poseidon took Aeacus as their assistant in building the walls of Troy. When the work was completed, three dragons rushed against the wall, and though the two that attacked the sections of the wall built by the gods fell down dead, the third forced its way into the city through the portion of the wall built by Aeacus. Thereafter, Apollo prophesied that Troy would fall at the hands of Aeacus's descendants, the Aeacidae (i.e. his sons Telamon and Peleus joined Heracles when he sieged the city during Laomedon's rule. Later, his great-grandson Neoptolemus was present in the wooden horse).
Aeacus was also believed by the Aeginetans to have surrounded their island with high cliffs in order to protect it against pirates. Several other incidents connected to the story of Aeacus are mentioned by Ovid. By Endeïs Aeacus had two sons, Telamon (father of Ajax and Teucer) and Peleus (father of Achilles), and by Psamathe a son, Phocus, whom he preferred to the former two sons, both of whom conspired to kill Phocus during a contest, and then subsequently fled from their native island.
In the afterlife
After his death, Aeacus became one of the three judges in Hades (along with his Cretan half-brothers Rhadamanthus and Minos) and, according to Plato, was specifically concerned with the shades of Europeans upon their arrival to the underworld. In works of art he was depicted bearing a sceptre and the keys of Hades. Aeacus had sanctuaries in both Athens and in Aegina, and the Aeginetans regarded him as the tutelary deity of their island and celebrated the Aeacea in his honor.
In The Frogs (405 BC) by Aristophanes, Dionysus descends to Hades and proclaims himself to be Heracles. Aeacus, lamenting the fact that Heracles had stolen Cerberus, sentences Dionysus to Acheron to be tormented by the hounds of Cocytus, the Echidna, the Tartesian eel, and Tithrasian Gorgons.
Family
Aeacus was the son of Zeus by Aegina, a daughter of the river-god Asopus, and thus, brother of Damocrateia. In some accounts, his mother was Europa and thus possible full-brother to Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. He was the father of Peleus, Telamon and Phocus and was the grandfather of the Trojan war warriors Achilles and Telemonian Ajax. In some accounts, Aeacus had a daughter called Alcimache who bore Medon to Oileus of Locris. Aeacus' sons Peleus and Telamon were jealous of Phocus and killed him. When Aeacus learned about the murder, he exiled Peleus and Telamon. Aeacus' descendants are collectively known as Aeacidae (). Several times in the Iliad, Homer refers to Achilles as Αἰακίδης (Aiakides: II.860, 874; IX.184, 191, etc.). The kings of Epirus and Olympias, mother to Alexander the Great, claimed to be members of this lineage.
Family tree of Aeacidae
See also
Chinvat Bridge, the bridge of the dead in Persian cosmology
Sraosha, Mithra and Rashnu, guardians and judges of souls in Zoroastrian tradition
Notes
References
Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pindar, Odes translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Further reading
External links
Kings of the Myrmidons
Kings in Greek mythology
Children of Zeus
Greek judges of the dead
Chthonic beings
Underworld gods
Metamorphoses characters
Aeginetan characters in Greek mythology |
2619 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeclanum | Aeclanum | Aeclanum (also spelled Aeculanum, , ) was an ancient town of Samnium, Southern Italy, about 25 km east-southeast of Beneventum, on the Via Appia. It lies in Passo di Mirabella, near the modern Mirabella Eclano.
It is now an archaeological park.
Location
Aeclanum was on a promontory naturally defended, to some extent, by a steep slope on the south side down to the river Calore, while the north side lay open towards the crest of the ridge where the Via Appia ran. This led through Lacus Ampsanctus to Aquilonia and Venusia. Two other routes to Apulia, the and , diverged nearby, leading through Aequum Tuticum to Luceria and through Trivicum to Herdoniae respectively. The road from Aeclanum to Abellinum (modern Atripalda, near Avellino) may also follow an ancient line.
Today there are ruins of the city walls, of an aqueduct, baths and an amphitheatre; nearly 400 inscriptions have also been discovered. Excavation has revealed a long history of pre-Roman settlement.
History
Aeclanum was a town of the Hirpini, although it was never mentioned during the Samnite wars. Sulla captured it in 89 BC by setting on fire the wooden breastwork by which it was defended, and sacked it. It quickly recovered, new fortifications were erected, and it became a municipium. Hadrian, who repaired the Via Appia from Beneventum to this point, made it a (colony).
With the Lombard invasion of Italy, in the 6th century AD, it was annexed to the Duchy of Benevento, but was captured and destroyed by Eastern Roman forces under Constans II in 663 and never recovered, being reduced to a small hamlet known as Quintodecimo, a name that referred to its distance of 15 Roman miles from Benevento.
Bishopric
Aeclanum became a Christian episcopal see, whose best known bishop was Julian of Eclanum, who was consecrated by Pope Innocent I in about 417. He refused to sign the condemnation of Pelagianism issued by Pope Innocent's successor, Pope Zosimus, and carried on a war of writings against Augustine of Hippo. It has been thought that the diocese was united to that of Frequentium as early as the 5th century, but there is mention of Quintodecimo as a suffragan see of Benevento in 969 and 1058. From 1059 it was definitively united with Frequentium. No longer a residential bishopric, Aeclanum is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
Gallery
References
External links
Aeclanum (Cultural Property of Campania website)
Aeclanum (Mirabella Eclano municipal website)
Roman sites of Campania
Samnite cities
Former populated places in Italy
Province of Avellino
Human remains (archaeological)
Archaeological sites in Campania
Roman towns and cities in Italy
Archaeological parks
Buildings and structures in Campania
Tourist attractions in Campania
Tourism in Italy
Osci
Ruins in Italy
Destroyed populated places
Coloniae (Roman) |
2620 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedesius | Aedesius | Aedesius (, died 355 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher and mystic. He was born into a wealthy Cappadocian family, but he moved to Syria, where he was apprenticed to Iamblichos. None of his writings have survived, but there is an extant biography by Eunapius, a Greek sophist and historian of the 4th century who wrote a collection of biographies titled Lives of the Sophists. Aedesius's philosophical doctrine was a mixture between Platonism and eclecticism and, according to Eunapius, he differed from Iamblichus on certain points connected with theurgy and magic.
The school of Syria was dispersed after Iamblichus' death, and Aedesius seems to have modified his doctrines out of fear of Constantine II, and took refuge in divination. An oracle in hexameter verse represented a pastoral life as his only retreat, but his disciples, perhaps calming his fears by a metaphorical interpretation, compelled him to resume his instructions. Aedesius then founded a school of philosophy at Pergamon, which emphasized theurgy and the revival of polytheism, and where he numbered among his pupils Eusebius of Myndus, Maximus of Ephesus, and the Roman emperor Julian. After the accession of the latter to the imperial purple he invited Aedesius to continue his instructions, but the declining strength of the sage being unequal to the task, two of his most learned disciples, Chrysanthius and the aforementioned Eusebius, were by his own desire appointed to supply his place. His co-teacher and perhaps consort at the Pergamon school was the female philosopher and mystic, Sosipatra.
References
355 deaths
4th-century Romans
4th-century Greek philosophers
Neoplatonists
Year of birth missing |
2621 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedicula | Aedicula | In ancient Roman religion, an aedicula (: aediculae) is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue, the early Christian ones sometimes contained funeral urns. Aediculae are also represented in art as a form of ornamentation.
The word aedicula is the diminutive of the Latin aedes, a temple building or dwelling place. The Latin word has been anglicised as "aedicule" and as "edicule". Describing post-antique architecture, especially Renaissance architecture, aedicular forms may be described using the word tabernacle, as in tabernacle window.
Classical aediculae
Many aediculae were household shrines (lararia) that held small altars or statues of the Lares and Di Penates. The Lares were Roman deities protecting the house and the family household gods. The Penates were originally patron gods (really genii) of the storeroom, later becoming household gods guarding the entire house.
Other aediculae were small shrines within larger temples, usually set on a base, surmounted by a pediment and surrounded by columns. In ancient Roman architecture the aedicula has this representative function in the society. They are installed in public buildings like the triumphal arch, city gate, and thermae. The Library of Celsus in Ephesus ( AD) is a good example.
From the 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire onwards such shrines, or the framework enclosing them, are often called by the Biblical term tabernacle, which becomes extended to any elaborated framework for a niche, window or picture.
Gothic aediculae
In Gothic architecture, too, an aedicula or tabernacle is a structural framing device that gives importance to its contents, whether an inscribed plaque, a cult object, a bust or the like, by assuming the tectonic vocabulary of a little building that sets it apart from the wall against which it is placed. A tabernacle frame on a wall serves similar hieratic functions as a free-standing, three-dimensional architectural baldaquin or a ciborium over an altar.
In Late Gothic settings, altarpieces and devotional images were customarily crowned with gables and canopies supported by clustered-column piers, echoing in small the architecture of Gothic churches. Painted aediculae frame figures from sacred history in initial letters of illuminated manuscripts.
Renaissance aediculae
Classicizing architectonic structure and décor all'antica, in the "ancient [Roman] mode", became a fashionable way to frame a painted or bas-relief portrait, or protect an expensive and precious mirror during the High Renaissance; Italian precedents were imitated in France, then in Spain, England and Germany during the later 16th century.
Post-Renaissance classicism
Aedicular door surrounds that are architecturally treated, with pilasters or columns flanking the doorway and an entablature even with a pediment over it came into use with the 16th century. In the neo-Palladian revival in Britain, architectonic aedicular or tabernacle frames, carved and gilded, are favourite schemes for English Palladian mirror frames of the late 1720s through the 1740s, by such designers as William Kent.
Aediculae feature prominently in the arrangement of the Saint Peter's tomb with statues by Bernini; a small aedicula directly underneath it, dated ca. 160 AD, was discovered in 1940.
Other aediculae
Similar small shrines, called naiskoi, are found in Greek religion, but their use was strictly religious.
Aediculae exist today in Roman cemeteries as a part of funeral architecture.
Presently the most famous aediculae is situated inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in city of Jerusalem.
Contemporary American architect Charles Moore (1925–1993) used the concept of aediculae in his work to create spaces within spaces and to evoke the spiritual significance of the home.
See also
Portico
Similar, but free-standing structures:
Ciborium
Baldachin
Monopteros
Gazebo
Notes
References
Bibliography
Adkins, Lesley & Adkins, Roy A. (1996). Dictionary of Roman Religion. Facts on File, inc. .
External links
Conservation glossary
Ancient Roman temples
Architectural elements
Ancient Roman architectural elements |
2622 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedui | Aedui | The Aedui or Haedui (Gaulish: *Aiduoi, 'the Ardent'; ) were a Gallic tribe dwelling in what is now the region of Burgundy during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
The Aedui had an ambiguous relationship with the Roman Republic, as well as other Gallic tribes. In 121 BC, they appealed to Rome against the Arverni and Allobroges. During the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), they gave valuable though not whole-hearted support to Caesar, before eventually giving lukewarm support to Vercingetorix in 52. Although they were involved in the revolts of Iulius Sacrovir in 21 AD and Vindex in 68 AD, their aristocracy became highly Romanized under the Empire.
Name
They are mentioned as Ardues (Ἄρδυες) by Polybius (2nd c. BC), Haedui by Cicero (mid-1st c. BC) and Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), Haeduos by Livy (late 1st c. BC), Aedui by Pliny (mid-1st c. AD), Aidúōn (Αἰδύων) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), and as Aídouoi (Aἴδουοι) by Cassius Dio (3rd c. AD).
The ethnonym Aedui is a latinized form of Gaulish *Aiduoi (sing. *Aiduos), which means 'the Ardent ones'. It derives from the Celtic stem *aidu- ('fire, ardour'; cf. Old Irish áed 'fire', Welsh aidd 'ardour'; also the Irish deity Aéd or Aodh), itself from Proto-Indo-European ('firewood'; cf. Sanskrit édhas 'bonfire', Latin aedes 'building, temple'; cf. also Ancient Greek Aether 'god of the upper sky' and Aethra 'bright sky', from aíthō 'to ignite, to kindle').
Geography
Territory
The territory of the Aedui was situated between the Saône and Loire rivers, in a strategic position regarding trade routes. It included most of the modern départements of Saône-et-Loire and Nièvre, the southwestern-part of Côte-d'Or between Beaune and Saulieu, and the southern part of Yonne around Avallon, corresponding to the Saône plains, the Morvan granitic massif, and the low Nivernais plateau, from east to west. They dwelled between the Arverni in the west, the Segusiavi and Ambarri in the south, the Sequani in the east, and the Lingones and Senones in the north.
Settlements
Three oppida are known from the end of the La Tène period: Vieux-Dun (Dun-les-Places), Le Fou de Verdun (Lavault-de-Frétoy), and Bibracte, which occupied a central position in the Aedian economic system.
During the Roman period, Bibracte was abandoned for Augustodunum ('fortress of Augustus'; modern-day Autun).
Ancient sources
The country of the Aedui is defined by reports of them in ancient writings. The upper Liger formed their western border, separating them from the Bituriges. The Arar formed their eastern border, separating them from the Sequani. The Sequani did not reside in the region of the confluence of the Dubis and the Arar, and of the Arar into the Rhodanus, as Caesar says that the Helvetii, traveling southward along the pass between the Jura Mountains and the Rhodanus, which belonged to the Sequani, plundered the territory of the Aedui. These circumstances explain an apparent contradiction in Strabo, who in one sentence says that the Aedui lived between the Arar and the Dubis, and in the next, that the Sequani lived across the Arar (eastward).
History
Pre-Roman period
Burgundy is situated in the heartland of the early La Tène culture (see Vix Grave).
By the early 3rd century BC, the emergence of settlements with diversified functions, along with the creation of sanctuaries, suggest the beginning of a civilization centered around the oppidum.
Roman period
Outside of the Roman province and prior to Roman rule, Gaul was occupied by self-governing tribes divided into cantons, and each canton was further divided into communes. The Aedui, like other powerful tribes in the region, such as the Arverni, Sequani, and Helvetii, had replaced their monarchy with a council of magistrates called grand-judges. The grand-judges were under the authority of a senate. This senate was made up of the descendants of ancient royal families. Free men in the tribes were vassals of the heads of these families, in an exchange of military, financial, and political interests.
According to Livy (v. 34), the Aedui took part in the expedition of Bellovesus into Italy in the sixth century BC. Before Caesar's time, they had attached themselves to the Romans and were honoured with the title of brothers and kinsmen of the Roman people. When the Sequani, their traditional rivals, defeated and massacred the Aedui at the Battle of Magetobriga in 63 BC, with the assistance of the Germanic chieftain Ariovistus, the Aedui sent the druid Diviciacus to Rome with an appeal to the senate for help; but his mission was unsuccessful.
After his arrival in Gaul in 58 BC, Caesar restored the independence of the Aedui. In spite of this, they subsequently joined the Gallic coalition against Caesar (B. G. vii. 42), but after the surrender of Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia, the Aedui gladly returned to their allegiance. Augustus dismantled their capital, Bibracte, on Mont Beuvray, and constructed a new town with a half-Roman, half-Gaulish name, Augustodunum (modern Autun).
In AD 21, during the reign of Tiberius, the Aedui revolted under Julius Sacrovir, and seized Augustodunum, but they were soon put down by Gaius Silius (Tacitus Ann. iii. 43–46). The Aedui were the first of the Gauls to receive from the emperor Claudius the distinction of jus honorum, thus being the first Gauls permitted to become senators.
Until Claudius (41–54 AD), the Aedui were the first northern Gallic people to send senators to Rome.
The oration of Eumenius, in which he pleaded for the restoration of the schools of his native Augustodunum, suggests that the district was then neglected. The chief magistrate of the Aedui in Caesar's time was called the Vergobretus (according to Mommsen, "judgment-worker"). He was elected annually, and possessed powers of life and death, but was forbidden to go beyond the frontiers of his territory. Certain clientes, or small communities, were also dependent upon the Aedui.
Religion
The Temple of Janus was located just outside the Aedian town of Augustodunum. It probably dates back to the second half of the 1st century AD.
At the end of the La Tène period, religious convergences occurred between the Aedui and the neighbouring Lingones and Sequani in the Saône-Doubs area, as evidenced by the similarity in the practices at the sanctuaries of Nuits-Saint-Georges (Aedui), Mirebeau-sur-Bèze (Lingones) and Mandeure (Sequani).
Political organization
According to Julius Caesar, the Aedui were one of the strongest Gallic tribes, in rivalry with the Helvetii, Sequani, Remi, and Arverni. Furthermore, the Aedui seemed to work in a semi-republican state, with the powerful Vergobret at least slightly being at the will of the people, similar to the senators of Rome.
See also
List of peoples of Gaul
Jublains archeological site
References
Primary sources
Bibliography
Further reading
Historical Celtic peoples
Gauls
Tribes involved in the Gallic Wars |
2623 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegadian%20Islands | Aegadian Islands | The Aegadian Islands (; ; ; ; ) are a group of five small mountainous islands in the Mediterranean Sea off the northwest coast of Sicily, Italy, near the cities of Trapani and Marsala, with a total area of .
The island of Favignana (Aegusa), the largest, lies southwest of Trapani; Levanzo (Phorbantia) lies west; and Marettimo, the ancient Hiera Nesos, west of Trapani, is now reckoned as a part of the group. There are also two minor islands, Formica and Maraone, lying between Levanzo and Sicily. For administrative purposes the archipelago constitutes the comune of Favignana in the province of Trapani.
The overall population in 2017 was 4,292. Winter frost is unknown and rainfall is low. The main occupation of the islanders is fishing, and the largest tuna fishery in Sicily is there.
History
There is evidence of Neolithic and even Paleolithic paintings in caves on Levanzo, and to a lesser extent on Favignana.
The islands were the scene of the battle of the Aegates of 241 BC, in which the Carthaginian fleet was defeated by the Roman fleet led by Lutatius Catulus; the engagement ended the First Punic War. After the end of Western Roman power in the first millennium AD, the islands, to the extent that they were governed at all, were part of territories of Goths, Vandals, Saracens, before the Normans fortified Favignana in 1081.
The islands belonged to the Pallavicini-Rusconi family of Genoa until 1874, when the Florio family of Palermo bought them.
Island views
See also
Isolotto Formica Lighthouse
References
External links
Archipelagoes of Italy |
2624 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean%20civilization | Aegean civilization | Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cycladic civilization converges with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From (Late Helladic, Late Minoan), the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete, probably by military conquest. The earlier Aegean farming populations of Neolithic Greece brought agriculture westward into Europe before 5,000 BC.
Aegean Neolithic farmers
A DNA study from 2019 indicates that agriculture was brought to Western Europe by the Aegean populations, known as "Aegean Neolithic farmers". These Neolithic groups arrived in northern France and Germany around 5000 BC. About 1000 years later, they arrived in Britain.
When they left the Aegean, these peoples split into two groups with somewhat different cultures. One group went north along the Danube, while the other took a southerly route along the Mediterranean and reached Iberia. This latter group then arrived in Britain. Previously, these areas were populated by hunter-gathererer cultures known as the 'western hunter-gatherers', similar to the Cheddar Man.
Most of the ancestry of the population after 4000 BC (74% on average) is attributable to the Aegean Neolithic farmers. This indicates a shift in ancestry with the transition to farming.
The Chalcolithic (Copper Age) started in Europe about 5500 BC. Numerous megalithic structures and monuments were erected in this period.
Periodization
Mainland
Early Helladic (EH): 3200/3100–2050/2001 BC
Middle Helladic (MH): 2000/1900–1550 BC
Late Helladic (LH): 1550–1050 BC
Crete
Early Minoan (EM): 3200–2160 BC
Middle Minoan (MM): 2160–1600 BC
Late Minoan (LM): 1600–1100 BC
Cyclades
Early Cycladic (EC): 3300–2000 BC
Kastri (EH II–EH III): –2100 BC
Convergence with MM from ca. 2000 BC
Commerce
Commerce was practiced to some extent in very early times, as is shown by the distribution of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area. Cretan vessels appeared to be exported to Melos, Egypt, and the Greek mainland. In particular, Melian vases, eventually, found their way to Crete. After 1600 BC, there was commerce with Egypt, and Aegean goods found their way to all coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of currency have come to light, excluding certain axeheads. These axeheads were too small for practical use. Standard weights have been found, as well as representations of ingots. The Aegean written documents have not yet been proven (by being found outside the area) to be epistolary (letter writing) correspondence with other countries. Representations of ships are not common, but several have been observed on Aegean gems, gem-sealings, frying pans, and vases. These vases feature ships of low free-board, with masts and oars. Familiarity with the sea is proved by the free use of marine motifs in decoration. The most detailed illustrations are to be found on the 'ship fresco' at Akrotiri on the island of Thera (Santorini) preserved by the ash fall from the volcanic eruption which destroyed the town there.
Discoveries, later in the 20th century, of sunken trading vessels such as those at Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya off the south coast of Turkey have brought forth an enormous amount of new information about that culture.
Evidence
For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted. The most representative site explored up to now is Knossos (see Crete) which has yielded not only the most various but the most continuous evidence from the Neolithic age to the twilight of classical civilization. Next in importance come Hissarlik, Mycenae, Phaestus, Hagia Triada, Tiryns, Phylakope, Palaikastro and Gournia.
Internal evidence
Structures: Ruins of palaces, palatial villas, houses, built dome- or cist-graves and fortifications (Aegean islands, Greek mainland and northwestern Anatolia), but not distinct temples; small shrines, however, and temene (religious enclosures, remains of one of which were probably found at Petsofa near Palaikastro by J. L. Myres in 1904) are represented on intaglios and frescoes. From the sources and from inlay-work we have also representations of palaces and houses.
Structural decoration: Architectural features, such as columns, friezes and various mouldings; mural decoration, such as fresco-paintings, coloured reliefs and mosaic inlay. Roof tiles were also occasionally employed, as at early Helladic Lerna and Akovitika, and later in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea.
Furniture: (a) Domestic furniture, such as vessels of all sorts and in many materials, from huge store jars down to tiny unguent pots; culinary and other implements; thrones, seats, tables, etc., these all in stone or plastered terracotta. (b) Sacred furniture, such as models or actual examples of ritual objects; of these we have also numerous pictorial representations. (c) Funerary furniture, for example, coffins in painted terracotta.
Art products: for example, plastic objects, carved in stone, or ivory, cast or beaten in metals (gold, silver, copper and bronze), or modelled in clay, faience, paste, etc. Very little trace has yet been found of large free-standing sculpture, but many examples exist of sculptors' smaller work. Vases of many kinds, carved in marble or other stones, cast or beaten in metals or fashioned in clay, the latter in enormous number and variety, richly ornamented with coloured schemes, and sometimes bearing moulded decoration. Examples of painting on stone, opaque and transparent. Engraved objects in great number for example, ring-bezels and gems; and an immense quantity of clay impressions, taken from these.
Weapons, tools and implements: In stone, clay, and bronze, and at the last iron, sometimes richly ornamented or inlaid. Numerous representations also of the same. No actual body armour, except such as was ceremonial and buried with the dead, like the gold breastplates in the circle-graves at Mycenae or the full length body armour from Dendra.
Articles of personal use: for example, brooches (fibulae), pins, razors, tweezers, often found as dedications to a deity, for example, in the Dictaean Cavern of Crete. No textiles have survived other than impressions in clay.
Written documents: for example, clay tablets and discs (so far in Crete only), but nothing of more perishable nature, such as skin, papyrus, etc.; engraved gems and gem impressions; legends written with pigment on pottery (rare); characters incised on stone or pottery. These show a number of systems of script employing either ideograms or syllabograms (see Linear B).
Excavated tombs: Of either the pit, chamber or the tholos kind, in which the dead were laid, together with various objects of use and luxury, without cremation, and in either coffins or loculi or simple wrappings.
Public works: Such as paved and stepped roadways, bridges, systems of drainage, etc.
External evidence
Monuments and records of other contemporary civilizations: for example, representations of alien peoples in Egyptian frescoes; imitation of Aegean fabrics and style in non-Aegean lands; allusions to Mediterranean peoples in Egyptian, Semitic or Babylonian records.
Literary traditions of subsequent civilizations: Especially the Hellenic; such as, for example, those embodied in the Homeric poems, the legends concerning Crete, Mycenae, etc.; statements as to the origin of gods, cults and so forth, transmitted to us by Hellenic antiquarians such as Strabo, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, etc.
Traces of customs, creeds, rituals, etc.: In the Aegean area at a later time, discordant with the civilization in which they were practiced and indicating survival from earlier systems. There are also possible linguistic and even physical survivals to be considered.
Mycenae and Tiryns are the two principal sites on which evidence of a prehistoric civilization was remarked long ago by the ancient Greeks.
Discovery
The curtain-wall and towers of the Mycenaean citadel, its gate with heraldic lions, and the great "Treasury of Atreus" had borne silent witness for ages before Heinrich Schliemann's time. However, they were regarded as a crude precursor of later Greek culture. It was not until Schliemann's excavations that Mycenaean culture attracted serious scholarly attention.
There had been, however, a good deal of other evidence available before 1876, which, had it been collated and seriously studied, might have discounted the sensation that the discovery of the citadel graves eventually made. For instance, scholars had noted that tributaries appearing in Egyptian art resembled modern Greeks, but were unable to definitely recognize them as such. Nor did the Aegean objects which were lying obscurely in museums in 1870, or thereabouts, provide a sufficient test of the real basis underlying the Hellenic myths of the Argolid, the Troad and Crete, to cause these to be taken seriously. Aegean vases have been exhibited both at Sèvres and Neuchatel since about 1840, the provenance (i.e. source or origin) being in the one case Phylakope in Melos, in the other Cephalonia.
Ludwig Ross, the German archaeologist appointed Curator of the Antiquities of Athens at the time of the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece, by his explorations in the Greek islands from 1835 onwards, called attention to certain early intaglios, since known as Inselsteine; but it was not until 1878 that C. T. Newton demonstrated these to be no strayed Phoenician products. In 1866 primitive structures were discovered on the island of Therasia by quarrymen extracting pozzolana, a siliceous volcanic ash, for the Suez Canal works. When this discovery was followed up in 1870, on the neighbouring Santorini (Thera), by representatives of the French School at Athens, much pottery of a class now known immediately to precede the typical late Aegean ware, and many stone and metal objects, were found. These were dated by the geologist Ferdinand A. Fouqué, somewhat arbitrarily, to 2000 BC, by consideration of the superincumbent eruptive stratum.
Meanwhile, in 1868, tombs at Ialysus in Rhodes had yielded to Alfred Biliotti many painted vases of styles which were called later the third and fourth "Mycenaean"; but these, bought by John Ruskin, and presented to the British Museum, excited less attention than they deserved, being supposed to be of some local fabric of uncertain date. Nor was a connection immediately detected between them and the objects found four years later in a tomb at Menidi in Attica and a rock-cut "bee-hive" grave near the Argive Heraeum.
Even Schliemann's initial excavations at Hissarlik in the Troad did not excite surprise. However, the "Burnt City" now known as Troy II, revealed in 1873, with its fortifications and vases, and a hoard of gold, silver, and bronze objects, which the discoverer connected with it, began to arouse curiosity both among scholars and the general public. With Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae, interest in prehistoric Greece exploded. It was recognized that the character of both the fabric and the decoration of the Mycenaean objects was not that of any previously known style. A wide range in space was proved by the identification of the Inselsteine and the Ialysus vases with the new style, and a wide range in time by collation of the earlier Theraean and Hissarlik discoveries. Many scholars were struck by potential resemblances between objects described by Homer and Mycenaean artifacts.
Schliemann resumed excavations at Hissarlik in 1878, and greatly increased our knowledge of the lower strata, but did not recognize the Aegean remains in his "Lydian" city now known as Late Bronze Age Troy. These were not to be fully revealed until Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who had become Schliemann's assistant in 1879, resumed the work at Hissarlik in 1892 after Schliemann's death. But by laying bare in 1884 the upper stratum of remains on the rock of Tiryns, Schliemann made a contribution to our knowledge of prehistoric domestic life which was amplified two years later by Christos Tsountas's discovery of the palace at Mycenae. Schliemann's work at Tiryns was not resumed till 1905, when it was proved, as had long been suspected, that an earlier palace underlies the one he had exposed.
From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenaean sepulchres outside the Argolid, from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas's exploration of the buildings and lesser graves at Mycenae, a large treasure, independent of Schliemann's princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at Athens. In that year tholos-tombs, most already pillaged but retaining some of their furniture, were excavated at Arkina and Eleusis in Attica, at Dimini near Volos in Thessaly, at Kampos on the west of Mount Taygetus, and at Maskarata in Cephalonia. The richest grave of all was explored at Vaphio in Laconia in 1889, and yielded, besides many gems and miscellaneous goldsmiths' work, two golden goblets chased with scenes of bull-hunting, and certain broken vases painted in a large bold style which remained an enigma until the excavation of Knossos.
In 1890 and 1893, Staes cleared out certain less rich tholos-tombs at Thoricus in Attica; and other graves, either rock-cut "bee-hives" or chambers, were found at Spata and Aphidna in Attica, in Aegina and Salamis, at the Argive Heraeum and Nauplia in the Argolid, near Thebes and Delphi, and not far from the Thessalian Larissa. During the Acropolis excavations in Athens, which terminated in 1888, many potsherds of the Mycenaean style were found; but Olympia had yielded either none, or such as had not been recognized before being thrown away, and the temple site at Delphi produced nothing distinctively Aegean (in dating). The American explorations of the Argive Heraeum, concluded in 1895, also failed to prove that site to have been important in the prehistoric time, though, as was to be expected from its neighbourhood to Mycenae itself, there were traces of occupation in the later Aegean periods.
Prehistoric research had now begun to extend beyond the Greek mainland. Certain central Aegean islands, Antiparos, Ios, Amorgos, Syros and Siphnos, were all found to be singularly rich in evidence of the Middle-Aegean period. The series of Syran-built graves, containing crouching corpses, is the best and most representative that is known in the Aegean. Melos, long marked as a source of early objects but not systematically excavated until taken in hand by the British School at Athens in 1896, yielded at Phylakope remains of all the Aegean periods, except the Neolithic.
A map of Cyprus in the later Bronze Age (such as is given by J. L. Myres and M. O. Richter in Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum) shows more than 25 settlements in and about the Mesaorea district alone, of which one, that at Enkomi, near the site of Salamis, has yielded the richest Aegean treasure in precious metal found outside Mycenae. E. Chantre in 1894 picked up lustreless ware, like that of Hissariik, in central Phtygia and at Pteria, and the English archaeological expeditions, sent subsequently into north-western Anatolia, have never failed to bring back ceramic specimens of Aegean appearance from the valleys of the Rhyndncus, Sangarius and Halys.
In Egypt in 1887, Flinders Petrie found painted sherds of Cretan style at Kahun in the Fayum, and farther up the Nile, at Tell el-Amarna, chanced on bits of no fewer than 800 Aegean vases in 1889. There have now been recognized in the collections at Cairo, Florence, London, Paris and Bologna several Egyptian imitations of the Aegean style which can be set off against the many debts which the centres of Aegean culture owed to Egypt. Two Aegean vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments of Aegean and especially Cypriot pottery have been found during recent excavations of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund.
Sicily, ever since P. Orsi excavated the Sicel cemetery near Lentini in 1877, has proved a mine of early remains, among which appear in regular succession Aegean fabrics and motives of decoration from the period of the second stratum at Hissarlik. Sardinia has Aegean sites, for example, at Abini near Teti; and Spain has yielded objects recognized as Aegean from tombs near Cádiz and from Saragossa.
One land, however, has eclipsed all others in the Aegean by the wealth of its remains of all the prehistoric ages— Crete; and so much so that, for the present, we must regard it as the fountainhead of Aegean civilization, and probably for long its political and social centre. The island first attracted the notice of archaeologists by the remarkable archaic Greek bronzes found in a cave on Mount Ida in 1885, as well as by epigraphic monuments such as the famous law of Gortyna (also called Gortyn). But the first undoubted Aegean remains reported from it were a few objects extracted from Cnossus by Minos Kalokhairinos of Candia in 1878. These were followed by certain discoveries made in the S. plain Messara by F. Halbherr. Unsuccessful attempts at Cnossus were made by both W. J. Stillman and H. Schliemann, and A. J. Evans, coming on the scene in 1893, travelled in succeeding years about the island picking up trifles of unconsidered evidence, which gradually convinced him that greater things would eventually be found. He obtained enough to enable him to forecast the discovery of written characters, till then not suspected in Aegean civilization. The revolution of 1897–1898 opened the door to wider knowledge, and much exploration has ensued, for which see Crete.
Thus the "Aegean Area" has now come to mean the Archipelago with Crete and Cyprus, the Hellenic peninsula with the Ionian islands, and Western Anatolia. Evidence is still wanting for the Macedonian and Thracian coasts. Offshoots are found in the western Mediterranean area, in Sicily, Italy, Sardinia and Spain, and in the eastern Mediterranean area in Syria and Egypt. Regarding the Cyrenaica, we are still insufficiently informed.
End
The final collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation appears to have occurred about 1200 BC. Iron took the place of bronze, cremation took the place of burial of the dead, and writing was lost.
See also
Mycenaean Greece
Prehistory of Southeastern Europe
References
This includes illustrations and a history of the civilizations, as understood in the early 20th century.
External links
Jeremy B. Rutter, "The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean": chronology, history, bibliography
Aegean and Balkan Prehistory: Articles, site-reports and bibliography database concerning the Aegean, Balkans and Western Anatolia |
2626 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegeus | Aegeus | Aegeus (, ; ) was one of the kings of Athens in Greek mythology, who gave his name to the Aegean Sea, was the father of Theseus, and founded Athenian institutions.
Family
Aegeus was the son of Pandion II, king of Athens and Pylia, daughter of King Pylas of Megara and thus, brother to Pallas, Nysus, Lykos and the wife of Sciron. But, in some accounts, he was regarded as the son of Scyrius or Phemius and was not of the stock of the Erechtheids, since he was only an adopted son of Pandion.
Aegeus' first wife was Meta, daughter of Hoples and his second wife was Chalciope, daughter of Rhexenor, neither of whom bore him any children. He was also credited to be the father of Medus by the witch Medea. In a rare account, Pallas was also said to be the son of Aegeus.
Aegeides (Αἰγείδης), was a patronymic from Aegeus and especially used to designate Theseus.
Mythology
Reign
Aegeus was born in Megara where his father Pandion had settled after being expelled from Athens by the sons of Metion who seized the throne. After the death of Pandion, now king of Megara, Aegeus in conjunction with his three brothers successfully attacked Athens, took control over the government and expelled the usurpers, the Metionids. Then, they divide the power among themselves but Aegeus obtained the sovereignty of Attica, succeeding Pandion to the throne. It has been said that Megara was at the time a part of Attica, and that Nisus received his part when he became king of that city. Lycus became king of Euboea whereas Pallas received the southern part of the territory. Aegeus, being the eldest of the brothers, received what they all regarded as the best part: Athens.
The division of the land was explained further in the following text by the geographer Strabo:
... when Attica was divided into four parts, Nisus obtained Megaris as his portion and founded Nisaea. Now, according to Philochorus, his rule extended from the Isthmus to the Pythium, but according to Andron, only as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian Plain. Although different writers have stated the division into four parts in different ways, it suffices to take the following from Sophocles: Aegeus says that his father ordered him to depart to the shorelands, assigning to him as the eldest the best portion of this land; then to Lycus he assigns Euboea's garden that lies side by side therewith; and for Nisus he selects the neighboring land of Sceiron's shore; and the southerly part of the land fell to this rugged Pallas, breeder of giants.
Later on, Lycus was driven from the territory by Aegeus himself, and had to seek refuge in Arene, Messenia which was ruled by King Aphareus. Pallas and his fifty sons revolted at a later time, being crushed by Aegeus' son Theseus.
Heirless King
Still without a male heir with his previous marriages, Aegeus asked the oracle at Delphi for advice. According to Pausanias, Aegeus ascribed this misfortune to the anger of Aphrodite and in order to conciliate her introduced her worship as Aphrodite Urania (Heavenly) in Athens.
The cryptic words of the oracle were "Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief." Aegeus did not understand the prophecy and was disappointed. This puzzling oracle forced Aegeus to visit Pittheus, king of Troezen, who was famous for his wisdom and skill at expounding oracles. Pittheus understood the prophecy and introduced Aegeus to his daughter, Aethra, when Aegeus was drunk. They lay with each other, and then in some versions, Aethra waded to the island of Sphairia (a.k.a. Calauria) and bedded Poseidon. When Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. Before leaving, he buried his sandal, shield, and sword under a huge rock and told her that, when their son grew up, he should move the rock and bring the weapons to his father, who would acknowledge him. Upon his return to Athens, Aegeus married Medea, who had fled from Corinth and the wrath of Jason. Aegeus and Medea had one son named Medus.
When Theseus grew up, he found his father's belongings left for him and went to Athens to claim his birthright. Aegeus recognized him as his son by his sword, shield, and sandals. Medea, Aegeus' wife perceived Theseus to be a threat for her children's inheritance and first tried to discredit and then to poison Theseus. When Aegeus discovered these schemes, he drove Medea out of Athens.
Conflict with Crete
While visiting in Athens, King Minos' son, Androgeus managed to defeat Aegeus in every contest during the Panathenaic Games. Out of envy, Aegeus sent him to conquer the Marathonian Bull, which killed him. Minos was angry and declared war on Athens. He offered the Athenians peace, however, under the condition that Athens would send seven young men and seven young women every nine years to Crete to be fed to the Minotaur, a vicious monster. This continued until Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, Minos' daughter.
After his adventures in Crete, Theseus returned by ship to Athens. His father, Aegeus previously had asked him to hang a white sail as a sign that Theseus is alive, but Theseus neglected this request. When Aegeus saw Theseus' ships without a white sail, he assumed the worst and threw himself in his grief into the sea, named after him the Aegean Sea.
Theseus and the Minotaur
In Troezen, Theseus grew up and became a brave young man. He managed to move the rock and took his father's weapons. His mother then told him the identity of his father and that he should take the weapons back to him at Athens and be acknowledged. Theseus decided to go to Athens and had the choice of going by sea, which was the safe way, or by land, following a dangerous path with thieves and bandits all the way. Young, brave and ambitious, Theseus decided to go to Athens by land.
When Theseus arrived, he did not reveal his true identity. He was welcomed by Aegeus, who was suspicious about the stranger who came to Athens. Medea tried to have Theseus killed by encouraging Aegeus to ask him to capture the Marathonian Bull, but Theseus succeeded. She tried to poison him, but at the last second, Aegeus recognized his son and knocked the poisoned cup out of Theseus' hand. Father and son were thus reunited, and Medea was sent away to Asia.
Theseus departed for Crete. Upon his departure, Aegeus told him to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. However, when Theseus returned, he forgot these instructions. When Aegeus saw the black sails coming into Athens, mistaken in his belief that his son had been slain, he killed himself by jumping from a height: according to some, from the Acropolis or another unnamed rock; according to some Latin authors, into the sea which was therefore known as the Aegean Sea.
Sophocles' tragedy Aegeus has been lost, but Aegeus features in Euripides' Medea.
Legacy
At Athens, the traveller Pausanias was informed in the second-century CE that the cult of Aphrodite Urania above the Kerameikos was so ancient that it had been established by Aegeus, whose sisters were barren, and he still childless himself.
There was a heroon of Aigeus in Athens, called Aigeion (Αἰγεῖον).
See also
Catullus, LXIV.
Plutarch, Theseus.
Notes
References
Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, Lives with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 1. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Scholia to Lycophron's Alexandra, marginal notes by Isaak and Ioannis Tzetzes and others from the Greek edition of Eduard Scheer (Weidmann 1881). Online version at the Topos Text Project.. Greek text available on Archive.org
Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
External links
Princes in Greek mythology
Kings of Athens
Kings in Greek mythology
Metamorphoses characters
Ancient Megarians
Attican characters in Greek mythology
Characters in Greek mythology
Theseus
Suicides in Greek mythology
People who died at sea
Ancient Megara
Medea |
2628 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis | Aegis | The aegis ( ; aigís), as stated in the Iliad, is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a daughter of Helios and a nurse of Zeus or alternatively a mistress of Zeus (Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13).
The modern concept of doing something "under someone's aegis means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word aegis is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in Greek mythology and adopted by the Romans; there are parallels in Norse mythology and in Egyptian mythology as well, where the Greek word aegis is applied by extension.
Etymology
The Greek aigis has many meanings, including:
"violent windstorm", from the verb aïssō (word stem aïg-) = "I rush or move violently". Akin to kataigis, "thunderstorm".
The shield of a deity as described above.
"goatskin coat", from treating the word as meaning "something grammatically feminine pertaining to goat": Greek aix (stem aig-) = "goat" + suffix -is (stem -id-).
The original meaning may have been the first, and Zeus Aigiokhos = "Zeus who holds the aegis" may have originally meant "Sky/Heaven, who holds the thunderstorm". The transition to the meaning "shield" or "goatskin" may have come by folk etymology among a people familiar with draping an animal skin over the left arm as a shield.
In Greek mythology
The aegis of Athena is referred to in several places in the Iliad. "It produced a sound as from myriad roaring dragons (Iliad, 4.17) and was borne by Athena in battle ... and among them went bright-eyed Athene, holding the precious aegis which is ageless and immortal: a hundred tassels of pure gold hang fluttering from it, tight-woven each of them, and each the worth of a hundred oxen."
Virgil imagines the Cyclopes in Hephaestus' forge, who "busily burnished the aegis Athena wears in her angry moods—a fearsome thing with a surface of gold like scaly snake-skin, and the linked serpents and the Gorgon herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes", furnished with golden tassels and bearing the Gorgoneion (Medusa's head) in the central boss. Some of the Attic vase-painters retained an archaic tradition that the tassels had originally been serpents in their representations of the aegis. When the Olympian deities overtook the older deities of Greece and she was born of Metis (inside Zeus who had swallowed the goddess) and "re-born" through the head of Zeus fully clothed, Athena already wore her typical garments.
When the Olympian shakes the aegis, Mount Ida is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are struck down with fear. "Aegis-bearing Zeus", as he is in the Iliad, sometimes lends the fearsome aegis to Athena. In the Iliad when Zeus sends Apollo to revive the wounded Hector, Apollo, holding the aegis, charges the Achaeans, pushing them back to their ships drawn up on the shore. According to Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, the Aegis is the breastplate of Zeus, and was "awful to behold". However, Zeus is normally portrayed in classical sculpture holding a thunderbolt or lightning, bearing neither a shield nor a breastplate.
In some versions, Zeus watched Athena and Triton's daughter, Pallas, compete in a friendly mock battle involving spears. Not wanting his daughter to lose, Zeus flapped his aegis to distract Pallas, whom Athena accidentally impaled. Zeus apologized to Athena by giving her the aegis; Athena then named herself Pallas Athena in tribute to her late friend.
In classical poetry and art
Classical Greece interpreted the Homeric aegis usually as a cover of some kind borne by Athena. It was supposed by Euripides (Ion, 995) that the aegis borne by Athena was the skin of the slain Gorgon, yet the usual understanding is that the Gorgoneion was added to the aegis, a votive offering from a grateful Perseus.
In a similar interpretation, Aex, a daughter of Helios, represented as a great fire-breathing chthonic serpent similar to the Chimera, was slain and flayed by Athena, who afterwards wore its skin, the aegis, as a cuirass (Diodorus Siculus iii. 70), or as a chlamys. The Douris cup shows that the aegis was represented exactly as the skin of the great serpent, with its scales clearly delineated.
John Tzetzes says that aegis was the skin of the monstrous giant Pallas whom Athena overcame and whose name she attached to her own.
In a late rendering by Gaius Julius Hyginus (Poetical Astronomy ii. 13), Zeus is said to have used the skin of a pet goat owned by his nurse Amalthea (aigis "goat-skin") which suckled him in Crete, as a shield when he went forth to do battle against the Titans.
The aegis appears in works of art sometimes as an animal's skin thrown over Athena's shoulders and arms, occasionally with a border of snakes, usually also bearing the Gorgon head, the gorgoneion. In some pottery it appears as a tasselled cover over Athena's dress. It is sometimes represented on the statues of Roman emperors, heroes, and warriors, and on coins, cameos and vases. A vestige of that appears in a portrait of Alexander the Great in a fresco from Pompeii dated to the first century BC, which shows the image of the head of a woman on his armor that resembles the Gorgon.
Interpretations
Herodotus thought he had identified the source of the aegis in ancient Libya, which was always a distant territory of ancient magic for the Greeks. "Athene's garments and aegis were borrowed by the Greeks from the Libyan women, who are dressed in exactly the same way, except that their leather garments are fringed with thongs, not serpents."
Robert Graves in The Greek Myths (1955) asserts that the aegis in its Libyan sense had been a shamanic pouch containing various ritual objects, bearing the device of a monstrous serpent-haired visage with tusk-like teeth and a protruding tongue which was meant to frighten away the uninitiated. In this context, Graves identifies the aegis as clearly belonging first to Athena.
One current interpretation is that the Hittite sacral hieratic hunting bag (kursas), a rough and shaggy goatskin that has been firmly established in literary texts and iconography by H.G. Güterbock, was a source of the aegis.
References
External links
Theoi Project: "Aigis"
Die Aigis: Zu Typologie und Ikonographie eines Mythischen Gegenstandes: a Doctoral dissertation on the Ægis (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität, Münster 1991) by Sigrid Vierck.
Comparative mythology
Greek mythology
Greek shields
Interpersonal relationships
Medusa
Mythography
Mythological clothing
Mythological shields
Symbols of Athena |
2629 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegisthus | Aegisthus | Aegisthus (; ; also transliterated as Aigisthos, ) was a figure in Greek mythology. Aegisthus is known from two primary sources: the first is Homer's Odyssey, believed to have been first written down by Homer at the end of the 8th century BC, and the second from Aeschylus's Oresteia, written in the 5th century BC. Aegisthus also features heavily in the action of Euripides's Electra ( 420 BC), although his character remains offstage.
Family
Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and Thyestes's own daughter Pelopia, an incestuous union motivated by his father's rivalry with the house of Atreus for the throne of Mycenae. Aegisthus murdered Atreus in order to restore his father to power, ruling jointly with him, only to be driven from power by Atreus's son Agamemnon. In another version, Aegisthus was the sole surviving son of Thyestes after Atreus killed his brother's children and served them to Thyestes in a meal.
While Agamemnon laid siege to Troy, his estranged queen Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as a lover. The couple killed Agamemnon upon the king's return, making Aegisthus king of Mycenae once more. Aegisthus ruled for seven more years before his death at the hands of Agamemnon's son Orestes.
Mythology
Early life
Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenean throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus. The two battled back and forth several times. In addition, Thyestes had an affair with Atreus's wife, Aerope. In revenge, Atreus killed Thyestes's sons and served them to him unknowingly. After realizing he had eaten his own sons' corpses, Thyestes asked an oracle how best to gain revenge. The advice was to father a son with his own daughter, Pelopia, and that son would kill Atreus.
Thyestes raped Pelopia after she performed a sacrifice, hiding his identity from her. When Aegisthus was born, his mother abandoned him, ashamed of his origin, and he was raised by shepherds and suckled by a goat, hence his name Aegisthus (from , male goat). Atreus, not knowing the baby's origin, took Aegisthus in and raised him as his own son.
Death of Atreus
In the night in which Pelopia had been raped by her father, she had taken from him his sword which she afterwards gave to Aegisthus. When she discovered that the sword belonged to her own father, she realised that her son was the product of incestuous rape. In despair, she killed herself. Atreus in his enmity towards his brother sent Aegisthus to kill him; but the sword which Aegisthus carried was the cause of the recognition between Thyestes and his son, and the latter returned and slew his uncle Atreus, while he was offering a sacrifice on the seacoast. Aegisthus and his father now took possession of their lawful inheritance from which they had been expelled by Atreus.
Power struggle over Mycenae
Aegisthus and Thyestes thereafter ruled over Mycenae jointly, exiling Atreus's sons Agamemnon and Menelaus to Sparta, where King Tyndareus gave the pair his daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen, to take as wives. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis.
After the death of Tyndareus, Meneleaus became king of Sparta. He used the Spartan army to drive out Aegisthus and Thyestes from Mycenae and place Agamemnon on the throne. Agamemnon extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful ruler in Greece. After Helen's abduction to Troy, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia in order to appease the gods before setting off for Ilium. While Agamemnon was away fighting in the Trojan War, Clytemnestra turned against her husband and took Aegisthus as a lover. Upon Agamemnon's return to Mycenae, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra worked together to kill Agamemnon with certain accounts recording Aegisthus committing the murder while others record Clytemnestra herself exacting revenge on Agamemnon for his murder of Iphigenia.
Following Agamemnon's death, Aegisthus reigned over Mycenae for seven years. He and Clytemnestra had a son, Aletes, and a daughter, Erigone (sometimes known as Helen). In the eighth year of his reign Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returned to Mycenae and avenged the death of his father by killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. The impiety of matricide was such that Orestes was forced to flee from Mycenae, pursued by the Furies. Aletes became king until Orestes returned several years later and killed him. Orestes later married Aegisthus's daughter Erigone.
In culture
Homer gives no information about Aegisthus's antecedents. We learn from him only that, after the death of Thyestes, Aegisthus ruled as king at Mycenae and took no part in the Trojan expedition. While Agamemnon was absent on his expedition against Troy, Aegisthus seduced Clytemnestra, and was so wicked as to offer up thanks to the gods for the success with which his criminal exertions were crowned. In order not to be surprised by the return of Agamemnon, he sent out spies, and when Agamemnon came, Aegisthus invited him to a repast at which he had him treacherously murdered.
In Aeschylus's Oresteia, Aegisthus is a minor figure. In the first play, Agamemnon, he appears at the end to claim the throne, after Clytemnestra herself has killed Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra wields the axe she has used to quell dissent. In The Libation Bearers he is killed quickly by Orestes, who then struggles over having to kill his mother. Aegisthus is referred to as a "weak lion", plotting the murders but having his lover commit the deeds. According to Johanna Leah Braff, he "takes the traditional female role, as one who devises but is passive and does not act." Christopher Collard describes him as the foil to Clytemnestra, his brief speech in Agamemnon revealing him to be "cowardly, sly, weak, full of noisy threats - a typical 'tyrant figure' in embryo."
Aeschylus's portrayal of Aegisthus as a weak, implicitly feminised figure, influenced later writers and artists who often depict him as an effeminate or decadent individual, either manipulating or dominated by the more powerful Clytemnestra. He appears in Seneca's Agamemnon, enticing her to murder. In Richard Strauss's and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's opera, Elektra his voice is "a decidedly high-pitched tenor, punctuated by irrational upward leaps, that rises to high pitched squeals during his death colloquy with Elektra." In the first production he was depicted as "an epicene...with long curly locks and rouged lips, half-cringing, half-posturing seductively."
An ancient tomb in Mycenae is fancifully known as the "Tomb of Aegisthus". It dates from around 1470 BC.
References
External links
Kings of Mycenae |
2630 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegospotami | Aegospotami | Aegospotami (, Aigos Potamoi) or Aegospotamos (i.e. Goat Streams) is the ancient Greek name for a small river issuing into the Hellespont (Modern Turkish Çanakkale Boğazı), northeast of Sestos.
Aegospotami is located on the Dardanelles, south of the modern Turkish town of Sütlüce, Gelibolu.
At its mouth was the scene of the decisive battle in 405 BC in which Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet, ending the Peloponnesian War. The ancient Greek township of the same name, whose existence is attested by coins of the 5th and 4th centuries, and the river itself were located in ancient Thrace in the Chersonese.
According to ancient sources including Pliny the Elder and Aristotle, in 467 BC a large meteorite landed near Aegospotami. It was described as brown in colour and the size of a wagon load. A comet, tentatively identified as Halley's Comet, was reported at the time the meteorite landed. This is possibly the first European record of Halley's comet.
References
Greek colonies in the Thracian Chersonese
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Rivers of Turkey
Former populated places in Turkey
Landforms of Çanakkale Province
History of Çanakkale Province
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Populated places in ancient Thrace |
2633 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelian | Aelian | Aelian or Aelianus may refer to:
Aelianus Tacticus, 2nd-century Greek military writer in Rome
Casperius Aelianus (13–98 AD), Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan
Claudius Aelianus, Roman writer of De Natura Animalium, teacher and historian of the 3rd century, who wrote in Greek
Lucius Aelianus or Laelian (died 269), one of the thirty tyrants under the Roman empire
Aelianus Meccius, 2nd-century Greek physician, tutor of Galen
Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, adopted nephew of Plautia Urgulanilla, first wife of Claudius; consul 45 and 74 AD
Aelian (rebel) (fl. 285), leader of the Bagaudae peasant rebels
Aelianus (comes), leader of the Roman defensive forces at the Siege of Amida in 359 |
2634 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelianus%20Tacticus | Aelianus Tacticus | Aelianus Tacticus (; fl. 2nd century AD), also known as Aelian (), was a Greek military writer who lived in Rome.
Work
Aelian's military treatise in fifty-three chapters on the tactics of the Greeks, titled On Tactical Arrays of the Greeks (), is dedicated to the emperor Hadrian, though this is probably a mistake for Trajan, and the date 106 has been assigned to it. It is a handbook of Greek, i.e. Macedonian, drill and tactics as practiced by the Hellenistic successors of Alexander the Great. The author claims to have consulted all the best authorities, the most important of which was a lost treatise on the subject by Polybius. Perhaps the chief value of Aelian's work lies in his critical account of preceding works on the art of war, and in the fullness of his technical details in matters of drill.
Aelian also gives a brief account of the constitution of a Roman army at that time. The work arose, he says, from a conversation he had with the emperor Nerva at Frontinus's house at Formiae. He promises a work on Naval Tactics also; but this, if it was written, is lost.
Critics of the 18th century — Guichard Folard and the Prince de Ligne — were unanimous in thinking Aelian greatly inferior to Arrian, but Aelian exercised a great influence both on his immediate successors, the Byzantines, and later on the Arabs, (who translated the text for their own use). The author of the Strategikon ascribed to the emperor Maurice selectively used Aelian's work as a conceptional model, especially its preface. Emperor Leo VI the Wise incorporated much of Aelian's text in his own Taktika. The Arabic version of Aelian was made about 1350. It was first translated into Latin by Theodore Gaza, published at Rome in 1487. The Greek editio princeps was edited by Francesco Robortello and published at Venice in 1552.
In spite of its academic nature, the copious details to be found in the treatise rendered it of the highest value to the army organisers of the 16th century, who were engaged in fashioning a regular military system out of the semi-feudal systems of previous generations. The Macedonian phalanx of Aelian had many points of resemblance to the solid masses of pikemen and the squadrons of cavalry of the Spanish and Dutch systems, and the translations made in the 16th century formed the groundwork of numerous books on drill and tactics.
The first significant reference to the influence of Aelian in the 16th century is a letter to Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange from his cousin William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg on December 8, 1594. The letter is influential in supporting the thesis of the early-modern Military Revolution. In the letter, William Louis discusses the use of ranks by soldiers of Imperial Rome as discussed in Aelian's Tactica. Aelian was discussing the use of the counter march in the context of the Roman sword gladius and spear pilum. William Louis in a 'crucial leap' realised that the same technique could work for men with firearms.
References
Sources
Roman-era Greeks
2nd-century writers
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2635 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarose | Agarose | Agarose is a heteropolysaccharide, generally extracted from certain red algae. It is a linear polymer made up of the repeating unit of agarobiose, which is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose. Agarose is one of the two principal components of agar, and is purified from agar by removing agar's other component, agaropectin.
Agarose is frequently used in molecular biology for the separation of large molecules, especially DNA, by electrophoresis. Slabs of agarose gels (usually 0.7 - 2%) for electrophoresis are readily prepared by pouring the warm, liquid solution into a mold. A wide range of different agaroses of varying molecular weights and properties are commercially available for this purpose. Agarose may also be formed into beads and used in a number of chromatographic methods for protein purification.
Structure
Agarose is a linear polymer with a molecular weight of about 120,000, consisting of alternating D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose linked by α-(1→3) and β-(1→4) glycosidic bonds. The 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose is an L-galactose with an anhydro bridge between the 3 and 6 positions, although some L-galactose units in the polymer may not contain the bridge. Some D-galactose and L-galactose units can be methylated, and pyruvate and sulfate are also found in small quantities.
Each agarose chain contains ~800 molecules of galactose, and the agarose polymer chains form helical fibers that aggregate into supercoiled structure with a radius of 20-30 nanometer (nm). The fibers are quasi-rigid, and have a wide range of length depending on the agarose concentration. When solidified, the fibers form a three-dimensional mesh of channels of diameter ranging from 50 nm to >200 nm depending on the concentration of agarose used - higher concentrations yield lower average pore diameters. The 3-D structure is held together with hydrogen bonds and can therefore be disrupted by heating back to a liquid state.
Properties
Agarose is available as a white powder which dissolves in near-boiling water, and forms a gel when it cools. Agarose exhibits the phenomenon of thermal hysteresis in its liquid-to-gel transition, i.e. it gels and melts at different temperatures. The gelling and melting temperatures vary depending on the type of agarose. Standard agaroses derived from Gelidium has a gelling temperature of and a melting temperature of , while those derived from Gracilaria, due to its higher methoxy substituents, has a gelling temperature of and melting temperature of . The melting and gelling temperatures may be dependent on the concentration of the gel, particularly at low gel concentration of less than 1%. The gelling and melting temperatures are therefore given at a specified agarose concentration.
Natural agarose contains uncharged methyl groups and the extent of methylation is directly proportional to the gelling temperature. Synthetic methylation however have the reverse effect, whereby increased methylation lowers the gelling temperature. A variety of chemically modified agaroses with different melting and gelling temperatures are available through chemical modifications.
The agarose in the gel forms a meshwork that contains pores, and the size of the pores depends on the concentration of agarose added. On standing, the agarose gels are prone to syneresis (extrusion of water through the gel surface), but the process is slow enough to not interfere with the use of the gel.
Agarose gel can have high gel strength at low concentration, making it suitable as an anti-convection medium for gel electrophoresis. Agarose gels as dilute as 0.15% can form slabs for gel electrophoresis. The agarose polymer contains charged groups, in particular pyruvate and sulfate. These negatively charged groups can slow down the movement of DNA molecules in a process called electroendosmosis (EEO), and low EEO agarose is therefore generally preferred for use in agarose gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids. Zero EEO agaroses are also available but these may be undesirable for some applications as they may be made by adding positively charged groups that can affect subsequent enzyme reactions. Electroendosmosis is a reason agarose is used preferentially over agar as agaropectin in agar contains a significant amount of negatively charged sulphate and carboxyl groups. The removal of agaropectin in agarose substantially reduces the EEO, as well as reducing the non-specific adsorption of biomolecules to the gel matrix. However, for some applications such as the electrophoresis of serum protein, a high EEO may be desirable, and agaropectin may be added in the gel used.
Low melting and gelling temperature agaroses
The melting and gelling temperatures of agarose can be modified by chemical modifications, most commonly by hydroxyethylation, which reduces the number of intrastrand hydrogen bonds, resulting in lower melting and setting temperatures compared to standard agaroses. The exact temperature is determined by the degree of substitution, and many available low-melting-point (LMP) agaroses can remain fluid at range. This property allows enzymatic manipulations to be carried out directly after the DNA gel electrophoresis by adding slices of melted gel containing DNA fragment of interest to a reaction mixture. The LMP agarose contains fewer of the sulphates that can affect some enzymatic reactions, and is therefore preferably used for some applications.
Hydroxyethylated agarose also has a smaller pore size (~90 nm) than standard agaroses. Hydroxyethylation may reduce the pore size by reducing the packing density of the agarose bundles, therefore LMP gel can also have an effect on the time and separation during electrophoresis. Ultra-low melting or gelling temperature agaroses may gel only at .
Applications
Agarose is a preferred matrix for work with proteins and nucleic acids as it has a broad range of physical, chemical and thermal stability, and its lower degree of chemical complexity also makes it less likely to interact with biomolecules. Agarose is most commonly used as the medium for analytical scale electrophoretic separation in agarose gel electrophoresis. Gels made from purified agarose have a relatively large pore size, making them useful for separation of large molecules, such as proteins and protein complexes >200 kilodaltons, as well as DNA fragments >100 basepairs. Agarose is also used widely for a number of other applications, for example immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis, as the agarose fibers can function as anchor for immunocomplexes.
Agarose gel electrophoresis
Agarose gel electrophoresis is the routine method for resolving DNA in the laboratory. Agarose gels have lower resolving power for DNA than acrylamide gels, but they have greater range of separation, and are therefore usually used for DNA fragments with lengths of 50–20,000 bp (base pairs), although resolution of over 6 Mb is possible with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). It can also be used to separate large protein molecules, and it is the preferred matrix for the gel electrophoresis of particles with effective radii larger than 5-10 nm.
The pore size of the gel affects the size of the DNA that can be sieved. The lower the concentration of the gel, the larger the pore size, and the larger the DNA that can be sieved. However low-concentration gels (0.1 - 0.2%) are fragile and therefore hard to handle, and the electrophoresis of large DNA molecules can take several days. The limit of resolution for standard agarose gel electrophoresis is around 750 kb. This limit can be overcome by PFGE, where alternating orthogonal electric fields are applied to the gel. The DNA fragments reorientate themselves when the applied field switches direction, but larger molecules of DNA take longer to realign themselves when the electric field is altered, while for smaller ones it is quicker, and the DNA can therefore be fractionated according to size.
Agarose gels are cast in a mold, and when set, usually run horizontally submerged in a buffer solution. Tris-acetate-EDTA and Tris-Borate-EDTA buffers are commonly used, but other buffers such as Tris-phosphate, barbituric acid-sodium barbiturate or Tris-barbiturate buffers may be used in other applications. The DNA is normally visualized by staining with ethidium bromide and then viewed under a UV light, but other methods of staining are available, such as SYBR Green, GelRed, methylene blue, and crystal violet. If the separated DNA fragments are needed for further downstream experiment, they can be cut out from the gel in slices for further manipulation.
Protein purification
Agarose gel matrix is often used for protein purification, for example, in column-based preparative scale separation as in gel filtration chromatography, affinity chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. It is however not used as a continuous gel, rather it is formed into porous beads or resins of varying fineness. The beads are highly porous so that protein may flow freely through the beads. These agarose-based beads are generally soft and easily crushed, so they should be used under gravity-flow, low-speed centrifugation, or low-pressure procedures. The strength of the resins can be improved by increased cross-linking and chemical hardening of the agarose resins, however such changes may also result in a lower binding capacity for protein in some separation procedures such as affinity chromatography.
Agarose is a useful material for chromatography because it does not absorb biomolecules to any significant extent, has good flow properties, and can tolerate extremes of pH and ionic strength as well as high concentration of denaturants such as 8M urea or 6M guanidine HCl. Examples of agarose-based matrix for gel filtration chromatography are Sepharose and WorkBeads 40 SEC (cross-linked beaded agarose), Praesto and Superose (highly cross-linked beaded agaroses), and Superdex (dextran covalently linked to agarose).
For affinity chromatography, beaded agarose is the most commonly used matrix resin for the attachment of the ligands that bind protein. The ligands are linked covalently through a spacer to activated hydroxyl groups of agarose bead polymer. Proteins of interest can then be selectively bound to the ligands to separate them from other proteins, after which it can be eluted. The agarose beads used are typically of 4% and 6% densities with a high binding capacity for protein.
Solid culture media
Agarose plate may sometimes be used instead of agar for culturing organisms as agar may contain impurities that can affect the growth of the organism or some downstream procedures such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Agarose is also harder than agar and may therefore be preferable where greater gel strength is necessary, and its lower gelling temperature may prevent causing thermal shock to the organism when the cells are suspended in liquid before gelling. It may be used for the culture of strict autotrophic bacteria, plant protoplast, Caenorhabditis elegans, other organisms and various cell lines.
Motility assays
Agarose is sometimes used instead of agar to measure microorganism motility and mobility. Motile species will be able to migrate, albeit slowly, throughout the porous gel and infiltration rates can then be visualized. The gel's porosity is directly related to the concentration of agar or agarose in the medium, so different concentration gels may be used to assess a cell's swimming, swarming, gliding and twitching motility. Under-agarose cell migration assay may be used to measure chemotaxis and chemokinesis. A layer of agarose gel is placed between a cell population and a chemoattractant. As a concentration gradient develops from the diffusion of the chemoattractant into the gel, various cell populations requiring different stimulation levels to migrate can then be visualized over time using microphotography as they tunnel upward through the gel against gravity along the gradient.
See also
Agar
SDD-AGE
References
Polysaccharides |
2637 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic%20absorption%20spectroscopy | Atomic absorption spectroscopy | Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) is a spectroanalytical procedure for the quantitative determination of chemical elements by free atoms in the gaseous state. Atomic absorption spectroscopy is based on absorption of light by free metallic ions.
In analytical chemistry the technique is used for determining the concentration of a particular element (the analyte) in a sample to be analyzed. AAS can be used to determine over 70 different elements in solution, or directly in solid samples via electrothermal vaporization, and is used in pharmacology, biophysics,
archaeology and toxicology research.
Atomic emission spectroscopy (AAS) was first used as an analytical technique, and the underlying principles were established in the second half of the 19th century by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, both professors at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
The modern form of AAS was largely developed during the 1950s by a team of Australian chemists. They were led by Sir Alan Walsh at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Division of Chemical Physics, in Melbourne, Australia.
Atomic absorption spectrometry has many uses in different areas of chemistry such as clinical analysis of metals in biological fluids and tissues such as whole blood, plasma, urine, saliva, brain tissue, liver, hair, muscle tissue. Atomic absorption spectrometry can be used in qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Principles
The technique makes use of the atomic absorption spectrum of a sample in order to assess the concentration of specific analytes within it. It requires standards with known analyte content to establish the relation between the measured absorbance and the analyte concentration and relies therefore on the [Beer–Lambert law]. ## Analyzing Samples with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS)
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) measures the concentration of specific elements in a sample by analyzing their unique "fingerprint" in the form of an atomic absorption spectrum. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Sample Preparation:**
The sample is typically dissolved in a suitable solvent (acids, water) to create a liquid solution. This ensures the analytes are present as free atoms, ready for absorption.
For solid samples like ores or minerals, additional steps like grinding and digestion may be required to break down the matrix and liberate the analytes.
Step 2: Atomization:**
The prepared solution is nebulized into a fine mist and introduced into a high-temperature flame (air-acetylene or nitrous oxide-acetylene mix).
The intense heat in the flame excites the electrons in the analyte atoms, promoting them to higher energy levels.
Step 3: Absorption:**
Simultaneously, a hollow cathode lamp containing the same element as the analyte emits a specific wavelength of light that corresponds to the energy difference between the excited and ground state of the analyte atoms.
As the emitted light passes through the atomized sample, some photons are absorbed by the excited analyte atoms, causing them to return to their ground state. This absorption decreases the intensity of the light at the specific wavelength.
Step 4: Measurement and Analysis:**
The light intensity before and after passing through the sample is measured by a detector.
The difference in intensity is directly proportional to the concentration of the analyte in the sample, following the Beer-Lambert law:
* **A = εcl**, where:
* A is the absorbance measured.
* ε is the molar absorptivity (constant specific to the element and wavelength).
* c is the concentration of the analyte.
* l is the path length of the light through the sample.
Step 5: Calibration and Quantification:**
To determine the actual concentration of the analyte, the instrument is calibrated using standard solutions containing known concentrations of the element.
By comparing the measured absorbance of the sample to the calibration curve, the concentration of the analyte in the original sample can be calculated.
Feedback Mechanism:**
The measured absorbance directly provides feedback on the concentration of the analyte in the sample. This feedback loop allows the AAS to analyze various samples efficiently and determine their elemental composition with high accuracy.
In summary, AAS utilizes the unique absorption properties of elements to accurately quantify their concentration in samples. By preparing the sample, atomizing the analytes, measuring their absorption of specific light, and applying the Beer-Lambert law, this powerful technique helps us understand the elemental makeup of diverse materials across various scientific and industrial fields.
Instrumentation
In order to analyze a sample for its atomic constituents, it has to be atomized. The atomizers most commonly used nowadays are flames and electrothermal (graphite tube) atomizers. The atoms should then be irradiated by optical radiation, and the radiation source could be an element-specific line radiation source or a continuum radiation source. The radiation then passes through a monochromator in order to separate the element-specific radiation from any other radiation emitted by the radiation source, which is finally measured by a detector.
Atomizers
The used nowadays are spectroscopic flames and electrothermal atomizers. Other atomizers, such as glow-discharge atomization, hydride atomization, or cold-vapor atomization, might be used for special purposes.
Flame atomizers
The oldest and most commonly used atomizers in AAS are flames, principally the air-acetylene flame with a temperature of about 2300 °C and the nitrous oxide system (N2O)-acetylene flame with a temperature of about 2700 °C. The latter flame, in addition, offers a more reducing environment, being ideally suited for analytes with high affinity to oxygen.
Liquid or dissolved samples are typically used with flame atomizers. The sample solution is aspirated by a pneumatic analytical nebulizer, transformed into an aerosol, which is introduced into a spray chamber, where it is mixed with the flame gases and conditioned in a way that only the finest aerosol droplets (< 10 μm) enter the flame. This conditioning process reduces interference, but only about 5% of the aerosolized solution reaches the flame because of it.
On top of the spray chamber is a burner head that produces a flame that is laterally long (usually 5–10 cm) and only a few mm deep. The radiation beam passes through this flame at its longest axis, and the flame gas flow-rates may be adjusted to produce the highest concentration of free atoms. The burner height may also be adjusted, so that the radiation beam passes through the zone of highest atom cloud density in the flame, resulting in the highest sensitivity.
The processes in a flame include the stages of desolvation (drying) in which the solvent is evaporated and the dry sample nano-particles remain, vaporization (transfer to the gaseous phase) in which the solid particles are converted into gaseous molecule, atomization in which the molecules are dissociated into free atoms, and ionization where (depending on the ionization potential of the analyte atoms and the energy available in a particular flame) atoms may be in part converted to gaseous ions.
Each of these stages includes the risk of interference in case the degree of phase transfer is different for the analyte in the calibration standard and in the sample. Ionization is generally undesirable, as it reduces the number of atoms that are available for measurement, i.e., the sensitivity.
In flame AAS a steady-state signal is generated during the time period when the sample is aspirated. This technique is typically used for determinations in the mg L−1 range, and may be extended down to a few μg L−1 for some elements.
Electrothermal atomizers
Electrothermal AAS (ET AAS) using graphite tube atomizers was pioneered by Boris V. L’vov at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute, Russia, since the late 1950s, and investigated in parallel by Hans Massmann at the Institute of Spectrochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (ISAS) in Dortmund, Germany.
Although a wide variety of graphite tube designs have been used over the years, the dimensions nowadays are typically 20–25 mm in length and 5–6 mm inner diameter. With this technique liquid/dissolved, solid and gaseous samples may be analyzed directly. A measured volume (typically 10–50 μL) or a weighed mass (typically around 1 mg) of a solid sample are introduced into the graphite tube and subject to a temperature program. This typically consists of stages, such as drying – the solvent is evaporated; pyrolysis – the majority of the matrix constituents are removed; atomization – the analyte element is released to the gaseous phase; and cleaning – eventual residues in the graphite tube are removed at high temperature.
The graphite tubes are heated via their ohmic resistance using a low-voltage high-current power supply; the temperature in the individual stages can be controlled very closely, and temperature ramps between the individual stages facilitate separation of sample components. Tubes may be heated transversely or longitudinally, where the former ones have the advantage of a more homogeneous temperature distribution over their length. The so-called stabilized temperature platform furnace (STPF) concept, proposed by Walter Slavin, based on research of Boris L’vov, makes ET AAS essentially free from interference. The major components of this concept are atomization of the sample from a graphite platform inserted into the graphite tube (L’vov platform) instead of from the tube wall in order to delay atomization until the gas phase in the atomizer has reached a stable temperature; use of a chemical modifier in order to stabilize the analyte to a pyrolysis temperature that is sufficient to remove the majority of the matrix components; and integration of the absorbance over the time of the transient absorption signal instead of using peak height absorbance for quantification.
In ET AAS a transient signal is generated, the area of which is directly proportional to the mass of analyte (not its concentration) introduced into the graphite tube. This technique has the advantage that any kind of sample, solid, liquid or gaseous, can be analyzed directly. Its sensitivity is 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than that of flame AAS, so that determinations in the low μg L−1 range (for a typical sample volume of 20 μL) and ng g−1 range (for a typical sample mass of 1 mg) can be carried out. It shows a very high degree of freedom from interferences, so that ET AAS might be considered the most robust technique available nowadays for the determination of trace elements in complex matrices.
Specialized atomization techniques
While flame and electrothermal vaporizers are the most common atomization techniques, several other atomization methods are utilized for specialized use.
Glow-discharge atomization
A glow-discharge device (GD) serves as a versatile source, as it can simultaneously introduce and atomize the sample. The glow discharge occurs in a low-pressure argon gas atmosphere between 1 and 10 torr. In this atmosphere lies a pair of electrodes applying a DC voltage of 250 to 1000 V to break down the argon gas into positively charged ions and electrons. These ions, under the influence of the electric field, are accelerated into the cathode surface containing the sample, bombarding the sample and causing neutral sample atom ejection through the process known as sputtering. The atomic vapor produced by this discharge is composed of ions, ground state atoms, and fraction of excited atoms. When the excited atoms relax back into their ground state, a low-intensity glow is emitted, giving the technique its name.
The requirement for samples of glow discharge atomizers is that they are electrical conductors. Consequently, atomizers are most commonly used in the analysis of metals and other conducting samples. However, with proper modifications, it can be utilized to analyze liquid samples as well as nonconducting materials by mixing them with a conductor (e.g. graphite).
Hydride atomization
Hydride generation techniques are specialized in solutions of specific elements. The technique provides a means of introducing samples containing arsenic, antimony, selenium, bismuth, and lead into an atomizer in the gas phase. With these elements, hydride atomization enhances detection limits by a factor of 10 to 100 compared to alternative methods. Hydride generation occurs by adding an acidified aqueous solution of the sample to a 1% aqueous solution of sodium borohydride, all of which is contained in a glass vessel. The volatile hydride generated by the reaction that occurs is swept into the atomization chamber by an inert gas, where it undergoes decomposition. This process forms an atomized form of the analyte, which can then be measured by absorption or emission spectrometry.
Cold-vapor atomization
The cold-vapor technique is an atomization method limited only for the determination of mercury, due to it being the only metallic element to have a large vapor pressure at ambient temperature. Because of this, it has an important use in determining organic mercury compounds in samples and their distribution in the environment. The method initiates by converting mercury into Hg2+ by oxidation from nitric and sulfuric acids, followed by a reduction of Hg2+ with tin(II) chloride. The mercury, is then swept into a long-pass absorption tube by bubbling a stream of inert gas through the reaction mixture. The concentration is determined by measuring the absorbance of this gas at 253.7 nm. Detection limits for this technique are in the parts-per-billion range making it an excellent mercury detection atomization method.
Radiation sources
We have to distinguish between line source AAS (LS AAS) and continuum source AAS (CS AAS). In classical LS AAS, as it has been proposed by Alan Walsh, the high spectral resolution required for AAS measurements is provided by the radiation source itself that emits the spectrum of the analyte in the form of lines that are narrower than the absorption lines. Continuum sources, such as deuterium lamps, are only used for background correction purposes. The advantage of this technique is that only a medium-resolution monochromator is necessary for measuring AAS; however, it has the disadvantage that usually a separate lamp is required for each element that has to be determined. In CS AAS, in contrast, a single lamp, emitting a continuum spectrum over the entire spectral range of interest is used for all elements. Obviously, a high-resolution monochromator is required for this technique, as will be discussed later.
Hollow cathode lamps
Hollow cathode lamps (HCL) are the most common radiation source in LS AAS. Inside the sealed lamp, filled with argon or neon gas at low pressure, is a cylindrical metal cathode containing the element of interest and an anode. A high voltage is applied across the anode and cathode, resulting in an ionization of the fill gas. The gas ions are accelerated towards the cathode and, upon impact on the cathode, sputter cathode material that is excited in the glow discharge to emit the radiation of the sputtered material, i.e., the element of interest. In the majority of cases single element lamps are used, where the cathode is pressed out of predominantly compounds of the target element. Multi-element lamps are available with combinations of compounds of the target elements pressed in the cathode. Multi element lamps produce slightly less sensitivity than single element lamps and the combinations of elements have to be selected carefully to avoid spectral interferences. Most multi-element lamps combine a handful of elements, e.g.: 2 - 8. Atomic Absorption Spectrometers can feature as few as 1-2 hollow cathode lamp positions or in automated multi-element spectrometers, a 8-12 lamp positions may be typically available.
Electrodeless discharge lamps
Electrodeless discharge lamps (EDL) contain a small quantity of the analyte as a metal or a salt in a quartz bulb together with an inert gas, typically argon gas, at low pressure. The bulb is inserted into a coil that is generating an electromagnetic radio frequency field, resulting in a low-pressure inductively coupled discharge in the lamp. The emission from an EDL is higher than that from an HCL, and the line width is generally narrower, but EDLs need a separate power supply and might need a longer time to stabilize.
Deuterium lamps
Deuterium HCL or even hydrogen HCL and deuterium discharge lamps are used in LS AAS for background correction purposes. The radiation intensity emitted by these lamps decreases significantly with increasing wavelength, so that they can be only used in the wavelength range between 190 and about 320 nm.
Continuum sources
When a continuum radiation source is used for AAS, it is necessary to use a high-resolution monochromator, as will be discussed later. In addition, it is necessary that the lamp emits radiation of intensity at least an order of magnitude above that of a typical HCL over the entire wavelength range from 190 nm to 900 nm. A special high-pressure xenon short arc lamp, operating in a hot-spot mode has been developed to fulfill these requirements.
Spectrometer
As already pointed out above, there is a difference between medium-resolution spectrometers that are used for LS AAS and high-resolution spectrometers that are designed for CS AAS. The spectrometer includes the spectral sorting device (monochromator) and the detector.
Spectrometers for LS AAS
In LS AAS the high resolution that is required for the measurement of atomic absorption is provided by the narrow line emission of the radiation source, and the monochromator simply has to resolve the analytical line from other radiation emitted by the lamp. This can usually be accomplished with a band pass between 0.2 and 2 nm, i.e., a medium-resolution monochromator. Another feature to make LS AAS element-specific is modulation of the primary radiation and the use of a selective amplifier that is tuned to the same modulation frequency, as already postulated by Alan Walsh. This way any (unmodulated) radiation emitted for example by the atomizer can be excluded, which is imperative for LS AAS. Simple monochromators of the Littrow or (better) the Czerny-Turner design are typically used for LS AAS. Photomultiplier tubes are the most frequently used detectors in LS AAS, although solid state detectors might be preferred because of their better signal-to-noise ratio.
Spectrometers for CS AAS
When a continuum radiation source is used for AAS measurement it is indispensable to work with a high-resolution monochromator. The resolution has to be equal to or better than the half-width of an atomic absorption line (about 2 pm) in order to avoid losses of sensitivity and linearity of the calibration graph. The research with high-resolution (HR) CS AAS was pioneered by the groups of O’Haver and Harnly in the US, who also developed the (up until now) only simultaneous multi-element spectrometer for this technique. The breakthrough, however, came when the group of Becker-Ross in Berlin, Germany, built a spectrometer entirely designed for HR-CS AAS. The first commercial equipment for HR-CS AAS was introduced by Analytik Jena (Jena, Germany) at the beginning of the 21st century, based on the design proposed by Becker-Ross and Florek. These spectrometers use a compact double monochromator with a prism pre-monochromator and an echelle grating monochromator for high resolution. A linear charge-coupled device (CCD) array with 200 pixels is used as the detector. The second monochromator does not have an exit slit; hence the spectral environment at both sides of the analytical line becomes visible at high resolution. As typically only 3–5 pixels are used to measure the atomic absorption, the other pixels are available for correction purposes. One of these corrections is that for lamp flicker noise, which is independent of wavelength, resulting in measurements with very low noise level; other corrections are those for background absorption, as will be discussed later.
Background absorption and background correction
The relatively small number of atomic absorption lines (compared to atomic emission lines) and their narrow width (a few pm) make spectral overlap rare; there are only few examples known that an absorption line from one element will overlap with another. Molecular absorption, in contrast, is much broader, so that it is more likely that some molecular absorption band will overlap with an atomic line. This kind of absorption might be caused by un-dissociated molecules of concomitant elements of the sample or by flame gases. We have to distinguish between the spectra of di-atomic molecules, which exhibit a pronounced fine structure, and those of larger (usually tri-atomic) molecules that don't show such fine structure. Another source of background absorption, particularly in ET AAS, is scattering of the primary radiation at particles that are generated in the atomization stage, when the matrix could not be removed sufficiently in the pyrolysis stage.
All these phenomena, molecular absorption and radiation scattering, can result in artificially high absorption and an improperly high (erroneous) calculation for the concentration or mass of the analyte in the sample. There are several techniques available to correct for background absorption, and they are significantly different for LS AAS and HR-CS AAS.
Background correction techniques in LS AAS
In LS AAS background absorption can only be corrected using instrumental techniques, and all of them are based on two sequential measurements: firstly, total absorption (atomic plus background), secondly, background absorption only. The difference of the two measurements gives the net atomic absorption. Because of this, and because of the use of additional devices in the spectrometer, the signal-to-noise ratio of background-corrected signals is always significantly inferior compared to uncorrected signals. It should also be pointed out that in LS AAS there is no way to correct for (the rare case of) a direct overlap of two atomic lines. In essence there are three techniques used for background correction in LS AAS:
Deuterium background correction
This is the oldest and still most commonly used technique, particularly for flame AAS. In this case, a separate source (a deuterium lamp) with broad emission is used to measure the background absorption over the entire width of the exit slit of the spectrometer. The use of a separate lamp makes this technique the least accurate one, as it cannot correct for any structured background. It also cannot be used at wavelengths above about 320 nm, as the emission intensity of the deuterium lamp becomes very weak. The use of deuterium HCL is preferable compared to an arc lamp due to the better fit of the image of the former lamp with that of the analyte HCL.
Smith-Hieftje background correction
This technique (named after their inventors) is based on the line-broadening and self-reversal of emission lines from HCL when high current is applied. Total absorption is measured with normal lamp current, i.e., with a narrow emission line, and background absorption after application of a high-current pulse with the profile of the self-reversed line, which has little emission at the original wavelength, but strong emission on both sides of the analytical line. The advantage of this technique is that only one radiation source is used; among the disadvantages are that the high-current pulses reduce lamp lifetime, and that the technique can only be used for relatively volatile elements, as only those exhibit sufficient self-reversal to avoid dramatic loss of sensitivity. Another problem is that background is not measured at the same wavelength as total absorption, making the technique unsuitable for correcting structured background.
Zeeman-effect background correction
An alternating magnetic field is applied at the atomizer (graphite furnace) to split the absorption line into three components, the π component, which remains at the same position as the original absorption line, and two σ components, which are moved to higher and lower wavelengths, respectively. Total absorption is measured without magnetic field and background absorption with the magnetic field on. The π component has to be removed in this case, e.g. using a polarizer, and the σ components do not overlap with the emission profile of the lamp, so that only the background absorption is measured. The advantages of this technique are that total and background absorption are measured with the same emission profile of the same lamp, so that any kind of background, including background with fine structure can be corrected accurately, unless the molecule responsible for the background is also affected by the magnetic field and using a chopper as a polariser reduces the signal to noise ratio. While the disadvantages are the increased complexity of the spectrometer and power supply needed for running the powerful magnet needed to split the absorption line.
Background correction techniques in HR-CS AAS
In HR-CS AAS background correction is carried out mathematically in the software using information from detector pixels that are not used for measuring atomic absorption; hence, in contrast to LS AAS, no additional components are required for background correction.
Background correction using correction pixels
It has already been mentioned that in HR-CS AAS lamp flicker noise is eliminated using correction pixels. In fact, any increase or decrease in radiation intensity that is observed to the same extent at all pixels chosen for correction is eliminated by the correction algorithm. This obviously also includes a reduction of the measured intensity due to radiation scattering or molecular absorption, which is corrected in the same way. As measurement of total and background absorption, and correction for the latter, are strictly simultaneous (in contrast to LS AAS), even the fastest changes of background absorption, as they may be observed in ET AAS, do not cause any problem. In addition, as the same algorithm is used for background correction and elimination of lamp noise, the background corrected signals show a much better signal-to-noise ratio compared to the uncorrected signals, which is also in contrast to LS AAS.
Background correction using a least-squares algorithm
The above technique can obviously not correct for a background with fine structure, as in this case the absorbance will be different at each of the correction pixels. In this case HR-CS AAS is offering the possibility to measure correction spectra of the molecule(s) that is (are) responsible for the background and store them in the computer. These spectra are then multiplied with a factor to match the intensity of the sample spectrum and subtracted pixel by pixel and spectrum by spectrum from the sample spectrum using a least-squares algorithm. This might sound complex, but first of all the number of di-atomic molecules that can exist at the temperatures of the atomizers used in AAS is relatively small, and second, the correction is performed by the computer within a few seconds. The same algorithm can actually also be used to correct for direct line overlap of two atomic absorption lines, making HR-CS AAS the only AAS technique that can correct for this kind of spectral interference.
See also
Absorption spectroscopy
Beer–Lambert law
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Laser absorption spectrometry
References
Further reading
B. Welz, M. Sperling (1999), Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, .
A. Walsh (1955), The application of atomic absorption spectra to chemical analysis, Spectrochim. Acta 7: 108–117.
J.A.C. Broekaert (1998), Analytical Atomic Spectrometry with Flames and Plasmas, 3rd Edition, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany.
B.V. L’vov (1984), Twenty-five years of furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy, Spectrochim. Acta Part B, 39: 149–157.
B.V. L’vov (2005), Fifty years of atomic absorption spectrometry; J. Anal. Chem., 60: 382–392.
H. Massmann (1968), Vergleich von Atomabsorption und Atomfluoreszenz in der Graphitküvette, Spectrochim. Acta Part B, 23: 215–226.
W. Slavin, D.C. Manning, G.R. Carnrick (1981), The stabilized temperature platform furnace, At. Spectrosc. 2: 137–145.
B. Welz, H. Becker-Ross, S. Florek, U. Heitmann (2005), High-resolution Continuum Source AAS, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, .
H. Becker-Ross, S. Florek, U. Heitmann, R. Weisse (1996), Influence of the spectral bandwidth of the spectrometer on the sensitivity using continuum source AAS, Fresenius J. Anal. Chem. 355: 300–303.
J.M. Harnly (1986), Multi element atomic absorption with a continuum source, Anal. Chem. 58: 933A-943A.
Skoog, Douglas (2007). Principles of Instrumental Analysis (6th ed.). Canada: Thomson Brooks/Cole. .
External links
Absorption spectroscopy
Australian inventions
Scientific techniques
Analytical chemistry |
2639 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%20St.%20Clair | Arthur St. Clair | Major General Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During the American Revolutionary War, he rose to the rank of major general in the Continental Army, but lost his command after a controversial retreat from Fort Ticonderoga.
After the war, he served as President of the Continental Congress, which during his term passed the Northwest Ordinance. He was then made governor of the Northwest Territory in 1788, and then the portion that would become Ohio in 1800. In 1791, St. Clair commanded the American forces in what was the United States' worst-ever defeat by the Native Americans, which became known as St. Clair's defeat. Politically out-of-step with the Jefferson administration, he was replaced as governor in 1802.
Early life and career
St. Clair was born in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland. Little is known of his early life. Early biographers estimated his year of birth as 1734, but subsequent historians uncovered a birth date of March 23, 1736, which in the modern calendar system means that he was born in 1737. His parents, unknown to early biographers, were probably William Sinclair, a merchant, and Elizabeth Balfour. He reportedly attended the University of Edinburgh before being apprenticed to the renowned physician William Hunter.
In 1757, St. Clair purchased a commission in the British Army, Royal American Regiment, and came to America with Admiral Edward Boscawen's fleet for the French and Indian War. He served under General Jeffery Amherst at the capture of Louisburg, Nova Scotia, on July 26, 1758. On April 17, 1759, he received a lieutenant's commission and was assigned under the command of General James Wolfe, under whom he served at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham which resulted in the capture of Quebec City.
Settler in America
On April 16, 1762, he resigned his commission, and, in 1764, he settled in Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, where he purchased land and erected mills. He was the largest landowner in Western Pennsylvania.
In 1770, St. Clair became a justice of the court, of quarter sessions and of common pleas, a member of the proprietary council, a justice, recorder, and clerk of the orphans' court, and prothonotary of Bedford and Westmoreland counties.
In 1774, the colony of Virginia took claim of the area around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and some residents of Western Pennsylvania took up arms to eject them. St. Clair issued an order for the arrest of the officer leading the Virginia troops. Lord Dunmore's War eventually settled the boundary dispute.
Revolutionary War
By the mid-1770s, St. Clair considered himself more of an American than a British subject. In January 1776, he accepted a commission in the Continental Army as a colonel of the 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment. He first saw service in the later days of the Quebec invasion, where he saw action in the Battle of Trois-Rivières. He was appointed a brigadier general in August 1776, and was sent by Gen. George Washington to help organize the New Jersey militia. He took part in George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26, 1776, before the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26. Many biographers credit St. Clair with the strategy that led to Washington's capture of Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1777. St. Clair was promoted to major general in February 1777.
In April 1777, St. Clair was sent to defend Fort Ticonderoga. His outnumbered garrison could not resist British General John Burgoyne's larger force in the Saratoga campaign. St. Clair was forced to retreat at the Siege of Fort Ticonderoga on July 5, 1777. He withdrew his forces and played no further part in the campaign. In 1778 he was court-martialed for the loss of Ticonderoga. The court exonerated him and he returned to duty, although he was no longer given any battlefield commands. He still saw action, however, as an aide-de-camp to General Washington, who retained a high opinion of him. St. Clair was at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army. During his military service, St. Clair was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1780.
President of the United States in Congress Assembled
St. Clair was a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Censors in 1783 and was elected a delegate to the Confederation Congress, serving from November 2, 1785, until November 28, 1787. Chaos ruled the day in early 1787 with Shays's Rebellion in full force and the states refusing to settle land disputes or contribute to the now six-year-old federal government. On February 2, 1787, the delegates finally gathered into a quorum and elected St. Clair to a one-year term as President of the Continental Congress. Congress enacted its most important piece of legislation, the Northwest Ordinance, during St. Clair's tenure as president. Time was running out for the Confederation Congress, however; during St. Clair's presidency, the Philadelphia Convention was drafting a new United States Constitution, which would abolish the old Congress.
Northwest Territory
Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor of what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, along with parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. He named Cincinnati, Ohio, after the Society of the Cincinnati, and it was there that he established his home.
As Governor, he formulated Maxwell's Code (named after its printer, William Maxwell), the first written laws of the territory. He also sought to end Native American claims to Ohio land and clear the way for white settlement. In 1789, he succeeded in getting certain Native Americans to sign the Treaty of Fort Harmar, but many native leaders had not been invited to participate in the negotiations, or had refused to do so. Rather than settling the Native Americans' claims, the treaty provoked them to further resistance in what is also sometimes known as the "Northwest Indian War" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Mutual hostilities led to a campaign by General Josiah Harmar, whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by the Native Americans in October 1790.
In March 1791, St. Clair succeeded Harmar as commander of the United States Army and was commissioned as a major general. He personally led a punitive expedition involving two Regular Army regiments and some militia. In October 1791 as an advance post for his campaign, Fort Jefferson (Ohio) was built under the direction of General Arthur St. Clair. Located in present-day Darke County in far western Ohio, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a supply depot; accordingly, it was originally named Fort Deposit.
One month later, near modern-day Fort Recovery, his force advanced to the location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River, but on November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket. They were aided by British collaborators Alexander McKee and Simon Girty. More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, which has since borne the name "St. Clair's Defeat", also known as the "Battle of the Wabash", the "Columbia Massacre," or the "Battle of a Thousand Slain". It remains the greatest defeat of a US Army by Native Americans in history, with about 623 American soldiers killed in action and about 50 Native Americans killed. The wounded were many, including St. Clair and Capt. Robert Benham.
Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair resigned his army commission in March 1792 at the request of President Washington, but he continued to serve as Governor of the Northwest Territory.
A Federalist, St. Clair hoped to see two states made of the Ohio Territory in order to increase Federalist power in Congress. However, he was opposed by Ohio Democratic-Republicans for what were perceived as his partisanship, high-handedness, and arrogance in office. In 1802, St. Clair remarked the U.S. Congress had no power to interfere in the affairs of those in the Ohio Territory. He also stated the people of the territory "are no more bound by an act of Congress than we would be bound by an edict of the first consul of France." This led President Thomas Jefferson to remove him from office as territorial governor. He thus played no part in the organizing of the state of Ohio in 1803.
The first Ohio Constitution provided for a weak governor and a strong legislature, in part as a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance.
Family life
St. Clair met Phoebe Bayard, a member of one of the most prominent families in Boston, and they were married in 1760. Miss Bayard's mother's maiden name was Bowdoin and she was the sister of James Bowdoin, colonial governor of Massachusetts.
His eldest daughter was Louisa St. Clair Robb, a mounted messenger and scout, and known as a beautiful huntress.
Like many of his Revolutionary era peers, St. Clair suffered from gout as noted in correspondence with John Adams.
Death
In retirement St. Clair lived with his daughter, Louisa St. Clair Robb, and her family on the ridge between Ligonier and Greensburg.
Arthur St. Clair died in poverty in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on August 31, 1818, at the age of 81. His remains are buried under a Masonic monument in St. Clair Park in downtown Greensburg. St. Clair had been a petitioner for a Charter for Nova Caesarea
Lodge #10 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1791. This Lodge exists today, as Nova Caesarea Harmony #2. His wife Phoebe died shortly after and is buried beside him.
Legacy
A portion of the Hermitage, St. Clair's home in Oak Grove, Pennsylvania (north of Ligonier), was later moved to Ligonier, Pennsylvania, where it is now preserved, along with St. Clair artifacts and memorabilia at the Fort Ligonier Museum.
An American Civil War steamer was named USS St. Clair.
Lydia Sigourney included a poem in his honor, in her first poetry collection of 1815.
The site of Clair's inauguration as Governor of the Northwest Territory is now occupied by the National Start Westward Memorial of The United States, commemorating the settlement of the territory.
Places named in honor of Arthur St. Clair include:
In Pennsylvania:
Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania
St. Clairsville, Pennsylvania
St. Clair Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
St. Clair Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
East St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
West St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
The St. Clair neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
St. Clair Hospital, Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania
In Ohio:
St. Clair Township in Butler County, Ohio
St. Clair Township in Columbiana County, Ohio,
St. Clairsville, Ohio
St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio
St. Clair Street in Dayton, Ohio
St. Clair Street in Toledo, Ohio
St. Clair Street in Marietta, Ohio
Fort St. Clair in Eaton, Ohio
Other States:
St. Clair County, Illinois
St. Clair Street in Indianapolis, Indiana
St. Clair County, Missouri
St. Clair County, Alabama
St. Clair Street in Frankfort, Kentucky, was named for the St. Clair by Gen. James Wilkinson, who laid out the town that became the state capital. The street's north end is at the Old Capitol, and near its south end is the Franklin County Court House; both were designed by Gideon Shryock.
In Scotland:
The three-star St Clair Hotel in Sinclair St, Thurso, Caithness, is named after him.
References
Notes
Books
Kopper, Kevin Patrick. "Arthur St. Clair and the Struggle For Power in the Old Northwest, 1763–1803" (Dissertation. Kent State University, 2005) online
External links
Ohio Memory
Ohio History Central
The Hermitage – home of Arthur St. Clair
1737 births
1818 deaths
Adjutants general of the United States Army
Continental Army generals
Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania
Continental Army personnel who were court-martialed
Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania
18th-century American politicians
19th-century American politicians
Governors of Northwest Territory
Politicians from Cincinnati
People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
American people of the Northwest Indian War
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
British military personnel of the French and Indian War
People from Thurso
Royal American Regiment officers
British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
Commanding Generals of the United States Army |