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7 August

7 August

August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. There are 94 days in North Hemisphere summer, South Hemisphere winter. The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through the summer on August 7.

Events

- 1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.
- 1782 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
- 1789 - The United States War Department is established.
- 1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins: Farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
- 1819 - Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
- 1879 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
- 1927 - The Peace Bridge opens, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - U.S. Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
- 1944 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- 1945 - President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with a atomic bomb while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1947 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7000-km (4375-mile) journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
- 1947 - The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
- 1955 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first transistor radios in Japan.
- 1959 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- 1960 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.
- 1964 - Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving US President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
- 1965 - Singapore is expelled and separated from the Federation of Malaysia.
- 1966 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: The People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
- 1970 - California Judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.
- 1976 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
- 1978 - United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.
- 1981 -The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
- 1985 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
- 1988 - Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park
- 1989 - U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
- 1990 - At 12:34:56 (both AM and PM) the time and date by British reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90 i.e. 1234567890.
- 1995 - Operation Storm is officialy declared over in Croatia, resulting in total Croat victory over rebel Serb forces.
- 1997 - Fine Air Flight 101, a cargo flight from Miami to Santo Domingo crashes onto NW 72nd Ave near Miami International Airport, killing five people.
- 1998 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, kill 224 people and injure over 4,500.
- 1999 - A group of Indian army veterans launch the political party Rashtriya Raksha Dal.
- 2000 - deviantART.com is created by Scott Jarkoff, Matteo Stevens, and Angelo Sortia.
- 2005 - Russian Priz class mini-submarine AS-28 and its seven crewmembers are rescued off the Pacific coast
- 2005 - Singer Marc Cohn is shot in the head during a carjacking attempt in Denver; he survives.

Births

- 1400 - Guillaume Dufay, French composer (d. 1474)
- 1533 - Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Basque soldier and poet (d. 1595)
- 1560 - Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian serial killer (d. 1614)
- 1574 - Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick, English writer (d. 1649)
- 1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (d. 1672)
- 1726 - James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader and politician (d. 1790)
- 1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (d. 1786)
- 1779 - Louis de Freycinet, French explorer (d. 1842)
- 1779 - Carl Ritter, German geographer (d. 1859)
- 1860 - Alan Leo, British astrologer (d. 1917)
- 1867 - Emil Nolde, German painter (d. 1956)
- 1876 - Mata Hari, Dutch spy (d. 1917)
- 1877 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)
- 1885 - Billie Burke, American actress (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
- 1925 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
- 1926 - Stan Freberg, American voice comedian
- 1928 - James Randi, Canadian magician
- 1929 - Don Larsen, baseball player
- 1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopan athlete
- 1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist
- 1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
- 1942 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- 1942 - B.J. Thomas, American singer
- 1943 - Dino Valente, American musician Quicksilver Messenger Service (d. 1994)
- 1945 - Alan Page, American football player
- 1949 - Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze
- 1955 - Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
- 1958 - Bruce Dickinson, English singer (Iron Maiden)
- 1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
- 1966 - Jimmy Wales, American founder of Wikipedia
- 1973 - Danny Graves, American baseball player
- 1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
- 1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
- 1978 - Jamey Jasta, AMerican Singer (Hatebreed)
- 1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
- 1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player

Deaths

- 461 - Majorian, Roman Emperor (assassinated) (b. 420)
- 479 - Emperor Yūryaku of Japan
- 1106 - Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1050)
- 1485 - Alexander Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany, English prince
- 1613 - Thomas Fleming, English judge (b. 1544)
- 1616 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (b. 1548)
- 1635 - Friedrich von Spee, German writer (b. 1591)
- 1661 - Jin Shengtan, Chinese editor, writer and critic (b. 1608)
- 1817 - Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French industrialist (b. 1739)
- 1834 - Joseph Marie Jacquard, French weaver and inventor (b. 1752)
- 1848 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (b. 1779)
- 1855 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
- 1912 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (b. 1841)
- 1931 - Bix Beiderbecke, American musician (b. 1903)
- 1941 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- 1957 - Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (b. 1892)
- 1974 - Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (b. 1925)
- 1989 - Mickey Leland, U.S. Congressman (D-TX) (b. 1944)
- 1995 - Brigid Brophy, British author (b. 1929)
- 1999 - Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)
- 2004 - Red Adair, American firefighter (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Colin Bibby, English ornithologist (b. 1948)
- 2005 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born news anchor (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances

- The Day of railman in Russia

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050807.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- August 6 - August 8 - July 7 - September 7 -- listing of all days ko:8월 7일 ms:7 Ogos ja:8月7日 simple:August 7 th:7 สิงหาคม

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Summer

Summer is a season, defined by convention in meteorology as the whole months of June, July, and August, in the Northern hemisphere, and the whole months of December, January, and February, in the Southern hemisphere. In some Western countries, the first day of summer (in the Northern hemisphere) falls either on, or around, June 21 or on June 1 (the former is the astronomical start; the latter, the meteorological). Summer is commonly viewed as the season with the longest (and warmest) days of the year, in which the daylight predominates, through varying degrees. In the northern latitudes, twilight is known to last at least an hour, sometimes leading to the famous white nights found in St. Petersburg and Scandinavia. It is also called the season of the midnight sun near the north pole as well in Iceland.June 1 For many people in the West, the seasons are considered to start at the equinoxes and solstices in an "astronomical" sense. However, due to the phenomenon of seasonal lag, the "meteorological" start of the season precedes, by about three weeks, the start of the "astronomical" season. This time differential keeps the "meteorologial" definition more symmetrically centered around the warmest part of the year than the "astronomical one" is. Today, the "meteorological" definition is most common, but in the past the "astronomical" definition was more frequent, and some people today still prefer it. Elsewhere, however, the solstices and the equinoxes are taken to mark the mid-points, not the beginning, of the seasons. In Chinese astronomy, for example, summer starts on or around May 6, with the jiéqì (solar term) known as 立夏 (lì xià), i.e. "establishment of summer". In most countries children are out of school during this time of year, although dates vary. Some begin in June, although in the UK, from the ages of 5-16, school ends in the middle of July. Summer is also the season in which many fruits, vegetables, and other plants are in full growth.

Summer in popular culture

In the American movie industry, summer is often nicknamed the "season of the blockbuster". It is the most profitable and highly competitive time of the year in which a large number of big-budget movies (usually action or sci-fi) are released. Because of this, the summer is often viewed by both critics and audiences as the season of some of the most successful movies as well as some of the most notorious flops. The "Summer Movie Season" spans from the first week of May until the beginning of September, the weekend of the American Labor Day.

External links

- [http://www.oulu.fi/northnature/english/englanti/ajakohtkesa.html "Summer of animals and plants in Finland"] by Northern Nature Project Category:Seasons ja:夏 simple:Summer

August 7

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- The Day of railman in Russia

External links

Brigantine

:This article refers to the sailing vessel category. To see the city in New Jersey see Brigantine, New Jersey.

Description

Brigantine, New Jersey] In sailing, a brigantine is a vessel with two masts, at least one of which is square rigged. In modern parlance, a brigantine is a principally fore-and-aft rig with a square rigged foremast, as opposed to a brig which is square rigged on both masts. In the late 17th century, the Royal Navy used the term brigantine (often contracted to brig) to refer to small two-masted vessels designed to be rowed as well as to sail, rigged with square sails on both masts. By the first half of the 18th century the word had evolved to refer not to a ship type name, but rather to a particular type of rigging: square rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzen. Many sloops were "brigantine-rigged". The 1780 Universal Dictionary of the Marine by William Falconer defines brig and brigantine as follows: :BRIG, or BRIGANTINE, a merchant-ship with two masts. This term is not universally confined to vessels of a particular construction, or which are masted and rigged in a method different from all others. It is variously applied, by the mariners of different European nations, to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine. :... :Among English seamen, this vessel is distinguished by having her main-sail set nearly in the plane of her keel; whereas the main-sails of larger ships are hung athwart, or at right angles with the ship’s length, and fastened to a yard which hangs parallel to the deck: but in a brig, the foremost edge of the main-sail is fastened in different places to hoops which encircle the main-mast, and slide up and down it as the sail is hoisted or lowered: it is extended by a gaff above, and by a boom below. Later, brig and brigantine developed distinct meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary (with citations from 1720 to 1854) defines brig as: :1. a. A vessel :(a) originally identical with the brigantine (of which word brig was a colloquial abbreviation); but, while the full name has remained with the unchanged brigantine, the shortened name has accompanied the modifications which have subsequently been made in rig, so that a brig is now :(b) A vessel with two masts square-rigged like a ship's fore- and main-masts, but carrying also on her main-mast a lower fore-and-aft sail with a gaff and boom. :A brig differs from a snow in having no try-sail mast, and in lowering her gaff to furl the sail. Merchant snows are often called brigs. This vessel was probably developed from the brigantine by the men-of-war brigs, so as to obtain greater sail-power. American usage was to refer to a brigantine as a hermaphrodite brig.

Other Types of Sailing Vessel

Category:Ship types Category:Sailing vessels and rigging Category:Sailing ships

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle (November 21, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a French cleric and explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico, and claimed the entire Mississippi basin for France. La Salle was born in Rouen and was briefly a member of the Jesuit religious order, taking his vows in 1660. On 27 March, 1667, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses" in his request. La Salle travelled to America, arriving in 1667 in New France, where his brother Jean, a Sulpician priest, had moved the year before. He received land on the western end on the Island of Montreal which became known as "Lachine", in recognition of La Salle's desire to find a route to China. He led his first expedition in 1669, the results of which are unclear. He may have reached the Ohio River, but not the Mississippi, which Louis Joliet discovered in 1672. His group consisted of five canoes and fifteen men. Father Dollier de Casson travelled with him with seven men in another three canoes. In 1674, he established Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Ontario) on Lake Ontario as part of a fur trade venture. The fort was named for La Salle's patron, Louis de Baude Frontenac, governor of New France. La Salle travelled to France that year to establish his claim and to procure royal support. With Frontenac's influence, he received not only a fur trade concession, with permission to establish frontier forts, but also a title of nobility. He returned with Henri de Tonti, who would join his explorations. On 7 August, 1679, La Salle set sail on Le Griffon, which he and Tonti had constructed at Fort Conti, near Niagara Falls. Becoming the first to navigate the Great Lakes, they sailed up Lake Erie to Lake Huron and then down Lake Michigan. On November 1, he built a fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph River in present day Michigan, and waited for a party led by Tonti, who had crossed the peninsula on foot. Tonti arrived on November 20, and on December 3 the entire party set off up the St. Joseph, which they followed until they reached a portage to the Kankakee River. They followed the Kankakee to the Illinois River, where they established Fort Crèvecoeur near present-day Peoria, Illinois. LaSalle then set off on foot for Fort Frontenac for supplies. While he was gone, Louis Hennepin followed the Illinois River to its junction with the Mississippi, but was captured by a Sioux war party and carried off to Minnesota. The soldiers at the fort mutineed, destroyed the fort, and exiled Tonti, whom La Salle had left in charge. La Salle captured the mutineers on Lake Ontario and eventually rendezvoued with Tonti at Mackinaw. La Salle then reassembled his party for the expedition for which he is most remembered. Leaving Fort Crevecoeur with twenty-three Frenchmen and eighteen Native Americans, he canoed down the Mississippi River in 1682, naming the Mississippi basin Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV. At present-day Memphis, Tennessee he built a small fort, Fort Prud'homme. On April 9, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, near present-day Venice, Louisiana, La Salle buried an engraved plate and a cross, claiming the territory for France. In 1683, on his return voyage, he established Fort Saint Louis of Illinois, at Starved Rock on the Illinois River, to replace Fort Crevecoeur. Tonti was to command the fort while La Salle travelled again to France for supplies. La Salle returned with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They left France in 1684 with 4 ships and 300 colonists. The expedition was plagued by pirates, hostile Indians, and poor navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies, a second sank in the inlets of Matagorda Bay, where a third ran aground. They set up Fort Saint Louis of Texas, near Victoria, Texas. La Salle led a group eastward on foot on three occasions to try to locate the Mississippi. During the last such search his remaining 36 followers mutinied, and he was murdered near Navasota, Texas. The colony lasted only until 1688, when Karankawa-speaking Indians massacred the 20 remaining adults and took 5 children as captives. Tonti sent out search missions in 1689 when he learned of the expedition's fate, but failed to reach their fort and found no survivors. The encroachment of La Salle and other French interests in the Spanish claimed territory of Texas, led Spain to establish a fort, Presidio La Bahia, in 1721, at the site of the remains of Fort Saint Louis. La Salle's primary ship, La Belle, was discovered in the muck of Matagorda Bay in 1995 and is the site of an archeological dig. [http://www.thc.state.tx.us/belle/] [http://www.caller2.com/newsarch/lasalle1.htm] The LaSalle automobile brand and many places were named in his honor (see La Salle for a list of places, most of which were named after him). See also: French colonization of the Americas.

External links

Á ---- --68.114.102.60 23:37, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

68.114.102.60 La Salle La Salle La Salle La Salle']]]

]]La Salle Category:French North America

Niagara River

The Niagara River flows to the north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It serves as part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. The river is about 56 kilometres (35 miles) long and includes Niagara Falls along its course. The falls are thought to have moved upstream 11 kilometers (7 miles) in the last 12,000 years but modern diversion of the river for power generation has reduced the erosion to a minuscule amount. power generation Power plants on the river are the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station, built in 1954 on the Canadian side, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, built in 1961 on the American side. The sites generate 4.4 gigawatts of electricity combined. The river flow is also regulated by the International Control Works built in 1954. Shipping on the Great Lakes bypasses the Niagara River and Falls using the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, located on the Canadian side. The total drop in elevation along the river is 99 meters (326 feet). The Upper Niagara Rapids drop 15 m in the 800 m before the Falls. The Niagara Gorge extends 11.26 km (7 mi.) downstream from the Falls and includes the Niagara Whirlpool and another section of rapids. The Niagara River features two large islands, Grand Island and Goat Island, both in the United States. The western end of the Erie Canal is near Grand Island. Goat Island and the tiny Luna Island split Niagara Falls into its three sections, the Horseshoe, Bridal Veil, and American Falls. Navy Island, on the Canadian side, is near the north end of Grand Island, and Strawberry Island lies southeast of Grand Island. The Niagara River and its tributaries, Tonawanda Creek and the Welland River, formed part of the last section of the Erie Canal and Welland Canal. After leaving Lockport, New York, the Erie Canal proceeds southwest until it enters Tonawanda Creek. After entering the Niagara River, watercraft then proceed southward to the final lock, where a short section of the canal allows boats to avoid the turbulent shoal water at the river intake and enter Lake Erie. The first, second and third Welland Canals used the Welland River as a connection back to the Niagara River south of the falls, allowing water traffic to safely re-enter the Niagara River and proceed to Lake Erie. Cities on the Niagara River include:
- Buffalo, New York
- Fort Erie, Ontario
- Lewiston, New York
- Niagara Falls, New York
- Niagara Falls, Ontario
- Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
- North Tonawanda, New York
- Queenston, Ontario Several battles occurred along the Niagara River which was historically defended by Fort George (Canadian side) and Fort Niagara (American side) at the mouth of the river and Fort Erie (Canadian side) at the head of the river. These forts were important in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. The Battle of Queenston Heights took place near the river in the War of 1812. On the Canadian side of the river the Niagara Parks Commission maintains all of the shoreline property, except the sites of Fort George and Fort Erie, as a public greenspace and environmental heritage.

Crossings

The Niagara River is crossed by the following bridges from north to south:
- The Lewiston-Queenston Bridge connects I-190 at Lewiston, New York with Highway 405 at Queenston, Ontario.
- The Whirlpool Rapids Bridge connects Niagara Falls, New York with Niagara Falls, Ontario, carrying rail traffic on a lower deck. It replaced the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge in 1897.
- The Michigan Central Railway Bridge lies just south of the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, carrying only rail traffic.
- The Rainbow Bridge is the main road bridge connecting the two cities of Niagara Falls.
- The International Bridge takes rail traffic between Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario.
- The Peace Bridge connects I-190 at Buffalo with the Queen Elizabeth Way at Fort Erie. Two bridges over the east branch of the river - the South Grand Island Bridge and North Grand Island Bridge, forming part of I-190 (the Niagara Thruway) on the American side, provide a through road link across Grand Island, New York between Niagara Falls, New York and Buffalo, New York. The American Rapids Bridge and Niagara Scenic Trolley link Goat Island to the American shore.

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. They are the largest group of fresh water lakes on the earth and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system is the largest fresh-water system in the world. They are sometimes referred to as inland seas.

Lakes

inland sea The Great Lakes are (west to east, general direction of water flow):
- Lake Superior (the largest and deepest, larger than the Czech Republic)
- Lake Michigan (the only one entirely in the U.S., the second largest in volume)
- Lake Huron (the second largest in area)
- Lake Erie (the smallest in volume and shallowest)
- Lake Ontario (the smallest in area, much lower altitude than the rest) A commonly used mnemonic for remembering the names of the lakes is HOMES, for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, although this mnemonic puts the lakes in no particular order. Alternative mnemonics such as Sister Mary Hates Ecumenical Overtures or She Made Harry Eat Onions place them in west-east order. Lakes Michigan and Huron, being hydrologically intertwined, are sometimes considered to be one entity: Lake Michigan-Huron. Considered together, Michigan-Huron would be larger in surface area than Lake Superior, but smaller in total water volume. Lake Michigan-Huron A much smaller sixth lake, Lake St. Clair, is part of the Great Lakes system between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, but is not considered one of the "Great Lakes". The system also includes the rivers that connect the lakes: St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the St. Clair River between Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, and the Niagara River and Niagara Falls, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. (Lake Michigan is connected to Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac.) Large islands and a peninsula divide Lake Huron into the lake proper and Georgian Bay. The lakes are bounded by Ontario (all of the lakes but Michigan), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (all but Ontario), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Four of the five lakes straddle the U.S.-Canada border; the fifth, Lake Michigan, is entirely within the United States. The Saint Lawrence River, which marks the same international border for a portion of its course, is a primary outlet of these interconnected lakes, and flows through Quebec and past the Gaspé Peninsula to the northern Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean Sprinkled throughout the lakes are the approximately 35,000 Great Lakes islands, including Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior, the largest island in the largest lake (each island large enough to itself contain multiple lakes). The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels. However the move to wider ocean-going container ships - which do not fit through the locks on these routes - has limited shipping on the lakes. Despite their vast size, large sections of the Great Lakes freeze over in winter, and most shipping stops during that season. There are some icebreakers that operate on the lakes. The lakes have an effect on weather in the region, known as lake effect. In winter, the moisture picked up by the prevailing winds from the west can produce very heavy snowfall, especially along lakeshores to the east such as in Michigan, Ontario, and New York. The most infamous example is the Blizzard of '77 in which previous heavy snowfall and strong winds running the length of Lake Erie covered Buffalo, New York in drifting snow. The lakes also moderate seasonal temperatures somewhat, by absorbing heat and cooling the air in summer, then slowly radiating that heat in autumn. This temperature buffering produces areas known as "fruit belts", where fruit typically grown farther south can be produced in commercial quantities.

Geologic pre-history

Image:Great Lakes Lake Superior.png|Lake Superior Image:Great Lakes Lake Michigan.png|Lake Michigan Image:Great Lakes Lake Ontario.png|Lake Ontario Image:Great Lakes Lake Huron.png|Lake Huron Image:Great Lakes Lake Erie.png|Lake Erie The Great Lakes were formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet receded. When this happened, large glaciers left behind a large amount of meltwater (see Lake Agassiz) which filled up these holes, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. Because of the uneven nature of glacier erosion, some higher hills became Great Lakes islands. The Niagara Escarpment follows the contour of the Great Lakes between New York and Wisconsin -- Herbert Simon called this escarpment the spinal cord of my native land.

Economy of the Great Lakes

The lakes are extensively used for transport, though cargo traffic has decreased considerably in recent years. The Great Lakes Waterway makes each of the lakes accessible. During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. Anything and everything floated on the lakes. Some ended up on the bottom due to storms, fires, collisions and underwater hazards. (See Edmund Fitzgerald and Le Griffon.) Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. By 1848, with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes. With these two canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans. The main business of many of the passenger lines in the 1800s was transporting immigrants. Many of the larger cities owe their existence to their position on the lakes as a freight destination as well as for being a magnet for immigrants. After railroads and surface roads developed the freight and passenger businesses dwindled and, excepting ferries and a few foreign cruise ships, now has vanished. Yet, the immigration routes still have an effect today. Immigrants often formed their own communities and some areas have a pronounced ethnicity, say Dutch, German, Polish or Finnish, among many others. Since many immigrants settled for a time in New England before moving westward, many areas on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes also have a New England feel, especially in home styles and accent. Since general freight these days is transported by railroads and trucks (lorries), domestic ships mostly move bulk cargoes, such as iron ore and its derivatives, coal and limestone for the steel industry. The domestic bulk freight developed because of the nearby mines. It was more economical to transport the ingredients for steel to centralized plants rather than try to make steel on the spot. Ingredients for steel, however, are not the only bulk shipments made. Because the lake maritime community largely developed independently, it has its own language. Ships, no matter the size, are referred to as boats. When the sailing ships gave way to steamships, they were called steamboats—the same term used on the Mississippi. The ships also have a distinctive design. Ships that primarily trade on the lakes are known as lakers. Foreign boats are known as salties. One of the more common sights on the lakes is the 1,000 by 105-foot (305 by 32-meter), 60,000 U.S. long ton (60,000 metric ton) self-unloader. This is a laker with a huge conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side. Understandably, because most things go by land and the fact that one modern ship is the equivalent of many older ships, the Great Lakes fleet is a fraction of what it once was.

Modern economy

The Great Lakes are used as a major mode of transport for bulk goods. The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7, 1679. In 2002, 162 million net tons of dry bulk cargo was moved on the Lakes. This was, in order of volume: iron ore, coal, stone, grain, salt, cement and potash. The iron ore and much of the stone and coal are used in the steel industry. There is also some shipping of liquid and containerized cargo but most container ships cannot pass the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway because they are too wide. The total amount of shipping on the lakes has been on a downward trend for several years. 1679 Recreational boating and tourism are major industries on the Great Lakes. A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including a couple of sailing ships. Sport fishing, commercial fishing, and Native American fishing represent a 4 billion dollar (USD) a year industry with salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout, and walleye being major catches. The Great Lakes are used to supply drinking water to tens of millions of people in bordering areas. This valuable resource is collectively administered by the state and provincial governments adjacent to the lakes.

Passenger Traffic on the Lakes

Several ferries operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands, including Isle Royale, Pelee Island, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, both Bois Blanc Islands, Kelleys Island, South Bass Island, North Manitou Island, South Manitou Island, Harsens Island, Manitoulin Island, and the Toronto Islands. As of 2005, three car ferry services cross the Great Lakes: a steamer across Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin; a high speed catamaran on a second Lake Michigan route from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Muskegon, Michigan; and an international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto, Ontario.

Perils on the Inland Seas

Travel on the Lakes has not been without risks. Storms and reefs are a common threat, and many thousands of ships have sunk in these waters, the number estimates varying widely. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, lost November 10, 1975, was the last major freighter lost on the lakes. The greatest concentration of these wrecks lies beneath Thunder Bay (Michigan) in Lake Huron near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge. This area is prone to sudden and severe storms, particularly in the autumn from late October until early December. In one single storm, the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, at least 19 ships went down across the lakes in 2 days time, killing at least 248 sailors. Eight of these vessels lie in the vicinity of Thunder Bay. Today there is a NOAA Marine Archeology Research Station located in the [http://thunderbay.noaa.gov/ Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary]. Here divers can explore more the than 200 shipwrecks that form one of the most concentrated and best preserved marine-archeology sites in the world.

Invasive species

The Great Lakes have been hit economically by various invasive species, two of the most significant being the sea lamprey and zebra mussel. The mussel clogs pipes leading to the lake and causes approximately $1 billion in damages per year while destroying native species. The lamprey feeds on the sport fish of the lake, making it less attractive to fishermen. An electric fence has been set up across the mouth of the Great Lakes in order to keep an invasive species of carp out of the area.

Political issues

The International Joint Commission was established in 1909 to help prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use and quality of boundary waters and to advise Canada and the United States on questions related to water resources. Concerns over diversion of Lake water are of concern to both Americans and Canadians. Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway but the flow is limited by treaty. Possible schemes for bottled water plants and diversion to dry regions of the continent raise concerns. Under the U.S. "Water Resources Development Act"[http://www.ohiodnr.com/water/planing/greatlksgov/fedstatut.htm], diversions of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, which rarely occurs. International treaties regulate large diversions. In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 600,000 m³ (158,000,000 US gal) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. Public outcry forced the abandonment of the plan before it began. The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 limits the number of armed vessels permitted on the Great Lakes. Some are wondering if this agreement will survive the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Lake Champlain on the border between upstate New York and northwestern Vermont briefly became the sixth "Great Lake of the United States" on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. This bill, which reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program, contained a line penned by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake. Not coincidentally, this status allows neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources. Following a small uproar (and several New York Times articles), the Great Lake status was rescinded (although Vermont universities continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake.)

Great Lakes ecological challenges

The Lakes provided fish to the Native groups who lived near them or upon their shores. Early European settlers were astounded by both the variety and numbers of fish. Historically, fish populations were the early indicator of the condition of the Lakes, and have remained one of the key indicators even in our technological era of sophisticated analyses and measuring instruments. According to the bi-national (U.S. and Canadian) resource book, The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "the largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67,000 tonnes (147 million pounds)," though the beginning of environmental impacts on the fish can be traced back nearly a century prior to those years. By 1801, New York legislators found it necessary to pass regulations curtailing obstructions to the natural migrations of Atlantic salmon from Lake Erie into their spawning channels. In the early nineteenth century, Upper Canada’s government found it necessary to introduce similar legislation prohibiting the use of weirs, nets, etc. at the mouths of Lake Ontario’s tributary watercourses. Other protective legislation was passed, as well, but enforcement remained difficult and often quite spotty. On both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, the proliferation of dams and impoundments multiplied, necessitating more regulatory efforts. The decline in fish populations was unmistakable by the middle of the nineteenth century. The decline in salmon was recognized by Canadian officials and reported as virtually a complete absence by the end of the 1860s, the Wisconsin Fisheries Commission noted a reduction of roughly a quarter in general fish harvests by 1875. Overfishing was cited as responsible for the decline of the population of various whitefish, important due to their culinary desirability and, hence, economic consequence. Moreover, between 1879 and 1899, reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24.3 million to just over 9 million. Recorded sturgeon catches fell from 7.8 million pounds in 1879 to 1.7 million in 1899. There were, however, other factors in the declines besides overfishing and the problems posed by dams and other obstructions. Logging in the region removed tree cover near stream channels which provide spawning grounds, and this affected necessary shade and temperature-moderating conditions. Removal of tree cover also destabilized soil, allowing soil to be carried in greater quantity into the streambeds, and even brought about more frequent flooding. Running cut logs down the Lakes’ tributary rivers also stirred bottom sediments. In 1884, the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste (e.g., chips and sawdust) was impacting Lakes fish populations. The Great Lakes are international, and in situations that require regulation, a lack of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada might be predicted to have disastrous consequences. In the development of ecological problems in the Great Lakes, it was the influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal that led to the two federal governments attempting to work together – which proved a very complicated and troubled road. Nevertheless, despite the ever more sophisticated efforts to eliminate or minimize the lamprey, by the mid 1950s Lake Michigan and Huron’s lake trout populations were reduced by about 99%, with the lamprey deemed largely to blame. A result was the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Other ecological problems in the Lakes and their surroundings have stemmed from urban sprawl, sewage disposal, and toxic industrial effluent. These, of course, also affect aquatic food chains and fish populations. Some of these glaring problem areas are what attracted the high-level publicity of Great Lakes ecological troubles in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidence of chemical pollution in the Lakes and their tributaries now stretches back for decades. In the late 1960s, the recurrent phenomenon of the surface of river stretches (e.g., Ohio’s Cuyahoga River) catching fire, due to a combination of oil, chemicals, and combustible materials floating on the water’s surface, came to the attention of a public growing more environmentally aware. Another aspect that caught popular attention was the “toxic blobs” (expanses of lake bed covered by various combinations of such substances as solvents, wood preservatives, coal tar, and metals) found in Lake Superior, the St. Clair River, and other portions of the Great Lakes region. According to the authoritative bi-national source The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "Only pockets remain of the once large commercial fishery."

Important cities along the lakes

Lake Superior
- Duluth, Minnesota
- Thunder Bay, Ontario
- Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
- Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
- Marquette, Michigan
- Houghton, Michigan Lake Michigan
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Manitowoc, Wisconsin
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Chicago, Illinois
- Gary, Indiana
- Benton Harbor, Michigan
- Muskegon, Michigan
- Traverse City, Michigan Lake Erie
- Toledo, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Buffalo, New York
- Detroit, Michigan
- Leamington, Ontario
- Windsor, Ontario Lake Ontario
- Rochester, New York
- Hamilton, Ontario
- Kingston, Ontario
- Toronto, Ontario
- Oshawa, Ontario
- St. Catharines, Ontario Lake Huron
- Bay City, Michigan
- Port Huron, Michigan
- Mackinac Island, Michigan
- Sarnia, Ontario
- Owen Sound, Ontario
- Collingwood, Ontario

External links

- [http://www.great-lakes.net/ Great Lakes Information Network]
- [http://www.glc.org/ Great Lakes Commission]
- EPA: [http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/ Great Lakes National Program Office]
- Environment Canada—Ontario Region: [http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakes/default.asp?lang=En&n=7E5E6AF1-1 Our Great Lakes]
- [http://www.midwestlakes.org/ Midwest Lakes Policy Center]
- [http://www.ijc.org/ International Joint Commission]
- ja:五大湖 ko:오대호 simple:Great Lakes zh-min-nan:Gō·-toā-ô·

1782

1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 7 - The first American commercial bank opens (Bank of North America).
- January 15 - Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage
- February 5 - Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
- March 8 - In Ohio the Gnadenhutten massacre of Native Americans takes place in which 29 men, 27 women, and 34 children were killed by white militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.
- April 6 - Rama I succeeded King Taksin of Thailand who was overthrown in an coup d'etat.
- April 12 - A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in the West Indies.
- June 18 – In Switzerland, Anna Goldi in sentenced to death for witchcraft – the last legal witchcraft sentence
- August 7 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart".
- November 30 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris).
- London creates Foot Patrol for public security
- Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries try to cross the English Channel with a hot-air balloon
- British parliament extends James Watt's copyright for the steam engine to the year 1800

Births

- Charlotte Dacre, English author (d. 1842)
- January 18 - Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852)
- March 18 - John Calhoun, Vice President of the United States (d. 1850)
- July 3 - Pierre Berthier, French geologist (d. 1861)
- July 26 - John Field, Irish composer (d. 1837)
- October 27 - Nicolo Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1840)
- December 5 - Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862)
- William Miller, American preacher (d. 1849)

Deaths

- January 1 - Johann Christian Bach, German composer (b. 1735)
- January 4 - Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b. 1698)
- February 9 - Joseph Aloysius Assemani, Syrian orientalist (b. 1710)
- February 10 - Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)
- March 17 - Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematical physicist (b. 1700)
- April 12 - Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
- April 27 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)
- May 15 - Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese prime minister (b. 1699)
- May 16 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
- May 20 - William Emerson, English mathematician (b. 1701)
- May - Richard Wilson, Welsh painter (b. 1714)
- July 1 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1730)
- July 15 - Farinelli, Italian castrato (b. 1705)
- August 31 - George Croghan, American colonist
- December 27 - Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish advocate and philosopher (b. 1697)
- Hyder Ali, Indian general and Sultan of Mysore Category:1782 ko:1782년 ms:1782 th:พ.ศ. 2325

Badge of Military Merit

The Badge of Military Merit is considered to be the first official military combat badge of the United States Armed Forces. It is the second oldest United States military award in existence, the oldest being the Fidelity Medallion. The Badge of Military Merit was first announced in General George Washington's general orders to the Continental Army issued on August 7, 1782 at the Headquarters in Newburgh. It was intended as a military order for soldiers who displayed exceptional meritorious service in battle. The writings of General Washington quoted in part: :"The General ever desirous to cherish a virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military Merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry, but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with a due reward." The Badge of Military Merit, designed in the form of a Purple Heart, soon became known as the Order of the Purple Heart. Historical records indicate that only three people received the Badge of Military Merit during the American Revolutionary War, all of them non-commissioned officers. Those soldiers are as follows:
- Sergeant Daniel Bissell of the 2d Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line
- Sergeant William Brown of the 5th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line
- Sergeant Elijah Churchill of the 2d Continental Dragoons, which was also a Connecticut Regiment Of the three original Badges of Military Merit, the only known surviving decoration is the badge awarded to Sergeant William Brown and is in the possession of The Society of the Cincinnati, New Hampshire Branch. . After the Revolutionary War, the Badge of Military Merit fell into disuse although was never officially abolished. In 1932, the United States War Department authorized the new Purple Heart Medal for soldiers who had previously received either a Wound Chevron or the Army Wound Ribbon. At that time, it was also determined that the Purple Heart Medal would be considered the official “successor decoration” to the Badge of Military Merit. Category:Badges of the United States military

Purple Heart

The Purple Heart is a U.S. military decoration awarded in the name of the President of the United States to those who have been wounded or killed while serving in, or with, the U.S. military after April 5, 1917.

Appearance

The Purple Heart is a heart shaped medal within a Gold border, 1 3/8 inches wide, containing a profile of General George Washington. Above the heart appears a shield of the Washington Coat of Arms (a White shield with two Red bars and three Red stars in chief) between sprays of Green leaves. The reverse (which is shown to the right) consists of a raised Bronze heart with the words "FOR MILITARY MERIT" below the coat of arms and leaves. The ribbon is 1 3/8 inches wide and consists of the following stripes: 1/8 inch White 67101; 1 1/8 inches Purple 67115; and 1/8 inch White 67101.

History

The original Purple Heart, designated as the Badge of Military Merit, was established by General George Washington by order from his headquarters at Newburgh, New York, August 7, 1782. The Badge of Military Merit was only awarded to three Revolutionary War soldiers and fell into disuse following the Revolution. Although never abolished, the award of the badge was not proposed again officially until after World War I. On October 10, 1927, Army Chief of Staff General Charles P. Summerall directed that a draft bill be sent to Congress "to revive the Badge of Military Merit." The bill was withdrawn and action on the case ceased on January 3, 1928, but the Office of The Adjutant General was instructed to file all materials collected for possible future use. A number of private interests sought to have the medal reinstituted in the Army. One of these was the board of directors of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum in New York. On January 7, 1931, Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur, confidentially reopened work on a new design, involved the Washington Commission of Fine Arts. His object was medal issued on the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. Elizabeth Will, an Army heraldic specialist in the Office of the Quartermaster General, was named to redesign the newly revived medal, which became known as the Purple Heart. Using general specifications provided to her, Ms. Will created the design sketch for the present medal of the Purple Heart. Her obituary , in the February 8, 1975 edition of The Washington Post newspaper, reflects her many contributions to military heraldry. The Commission of Fine Arts solicited plaster models from three leading sculptors for the medal, selecting that of John R. Sinnock of the Philadelphia Mint in May 1931. By Order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart was revived on the 200th Anniversary of George Washington's birth, out of respect to his memory and military achievements, by War Department General Orders No. 3, dated February 22, 1932. The criteria was announced in War Department Circular dated February 22, 1932 and authorized award to soldiers, upon their request, who had been awarded the Meritorious Service Citation Certificate, Army Wound Ribbon, or were authorized to wear Wound Chevrons subsequent to April 5, 1917. Purple Heart #1 was awarded to General Douglas MacArthur. Douglas MacArthur During the early period of World War II (December 7, 1941 to September 22, 1943), the Purple Heart was awarded both for wounds received in action against the enemy and for meritorious performance of duty. With the establishment of the Legion of Merit, by an Act of Congress, the practice of awarding the Purple Heart for meritorious service was discontinued. By Executive Order 9277, dated December 3, 1942, the decoration was extended to be applicable to all services and the order required that regulations of the Services be uniform in application as far as practicable. This executive order also authorized award only for wounds received. Executive Order 10409, dated February 12, 1952, revised authorizations to include the Service Secretaries subject to approval of the Secretary of Defense. Executive Order 11016, dated April 25, 1962, included provisions for posthumous award of the Purple Heart. Executive Order 12464, dated February 23, 1984, authorized award of the Purple Heart as a result of terrorist attacks or while serving as part of a peacekeeping force subsequent to March 28, 1973. The Senate approved an amendment to the 1985 Defense Authorization Bill on June 13, 1985, which changed the precedent from immediately above the Good Conduct Medal to immediately above the Meritorious Service Medals. Public Law 99-145 authorized the award for wounds received as a result of friendly fire. Public Law 104-106 expanded the eligibility date, authorizing award of the Purple Heart to a former prisoner of war who was wounded before April 25, 1962. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-85) changed the criteria to delete authorization for award of the Purple Heart Medal to any civilian national of the United States while serving under competent authority in any capacity with the Armed Forces. This change was effective May 18, 1998.

Criteria

Award Specifications

The Purple Heart differs from all other decorations in that an individual is not "recommended" for the decoration; rather he or she is entitled upon being killed or wounded in a manner meeting the specific criteria of AR 600-8-22: # In any action against an enemy of the United States; # In any action with an opposing armed force of a foreign country in which the Armed Forces of the United States are or have been engaged; # While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party; # As a result of an act of any such enemy of opposing armed forces; # As the result of an act of any hostile foreign force; # After March 28, 1973, as a result of an international terrorist attack against the United States or a foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the Secretary of the department concerned, or jointly by the Secretaries of the departments concerned if persons from more than one department are wounded in the attack; or, # After March 28, 1973, as a result of military operations, while serving outside the territory of the United States as part of a peacekeeping force. # After December 7, 1941, by weapon fire while directly engaged in armed conflict, regardless of the fire causing the wound. # While held as a prisoner of war or while being taken captive. A "wound" is defined as an injury to any part of the body from an outside force or agent. A physical lesion is not required; however, the wound for which the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer and records of medical treatment for wounds or injuries received in action must have been made a matter of official record. Individuals wounded or killed as a result of "friendly fire" in the "heat of battle" will be awarded the Purple Heart as long as the "friendly" projectile or agent was released with the full intent of inflicting damage or destroying enemy troops or equipment.

Award Examples

Examples of enemy-related injuries which clearly justify award of the Purple Heart are as follows: #Injury caused by enemy bullet, shrapnel, or other projectile created by enemy action. #Injury caused by enemy placed mine or trap. #Injury caused by enemy released chemical, biological or nuclear agent. #Injury caused by vehicle or aircraft accident resulting from enemy fire. #Concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions.

Denial Examples

Examples of combat related injuries which do not qualify for the Purple Heart are as follows: #Developing a service connected disability, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, months or years after having been engaged in enemy combat. #Suffering environmental injuries in a combat zone, such as frostbite or sunburn #Injured while performing a mission related to combat, but not in direct contact with enemy forces. An example would be falling and breaking a bone while on a patrol or being involved in a vehicle accident while travelling through a combat zone. #A physical disability which occurred relating to combat with the enemy. An example would be a service member who suffered from hearing loss after having been shelled by enemy artillery. #An injury which occurred in combat, but was as the result of taking cover or retreating. An example would be a soldier who, while under fire from the enemy, dives into a fox hole and shatters a bone or dislocates a joint. #A malicious injury caused by another allied solider. An example would be having been shot deliberately, by another friendly forces soldier, as the result of an argument. #Injured by the enemy through sheer negligence of duty. An example would be intentionally walking into a marked enemy minefield or deliberately exposing oneself to enemy fire with a desire to be wounded or killed. Such cases are often very hard to determine, since the definition of negligence is open to interpretation. #Any self inflicted wound, even if it was during combat with an enemy. If determined to be "in the heat of the battle", such as being shot with one's own weapon while struggling hand to hand with an enemy, the Purple Heart may be authorized. The stipulation mainly applies to those who wound themselves on purpose to avoid combat duty or who seek evacuation from a dangerous area.

Presentation Procedures

negligence

Modern Day Presentations

Current active duty personnel are awarded the Purple Heart upon recommendation from their chain of command, stating the injury that was received and the action in which the service member was wounded. The award authority for the Purple Heart is normally at the level of an Army Brigade, Marine Corps Division, Air Force Wing, or Navy Task Force. While the award of the Purple Heart is considered automatic for all wounds received in combat, each award presentation must still be reviewed to ensure that the wounds received were as a result of enemy action. Modern day Purple Heart presentations are recorded in both hardcopy and electronic service records. The annotation of the Purple Heart is denoted both with the service member's parent command and at the headquarters of the military service department. An original citation and award certificate are presented to the service member and filed in the field service record.

Unrecorded Presentations

During the Vietnam War, Korean War and World War II, the Purple Heart was often awarded "on the spot", with occasional entries made into service records, but this was often not the case. In addition, during the mass demobilizations that followed each of America's major wars of the 20th century, it was a common occurrence for the Purple Heart to be omitted from service records, due to clerical errors, once the service record was closed upon discharge. An added complication is that a number of field commanders would engage in "bedside presentations" of the Purple Heart which would typically entail a General entering a hospital with a box of Purple Hearts, pinning them on the pillows of wounded service members, and then departing with no official records kept of the visit or the award of the Purple Heart. Service members, themselves, could complicate the issue by leaving hospitals unofficially, returning to their units in haste to rejoin a battle or to not appear as a malingerer. In such cases, even if a service member had received actual wounds in combat, both the award of the Purple Heart, as well as the entire visit to the hospital which treated the enemy wound, would never be recorded in official records.

Retroactive Presentations

Service members requesting retroactive awards of the Purple Heart must normally apply through the National Personnel Records Center. Following a review of service records, those Army members so qualified are awarded the Purple Heart by the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Virginia. Air Force veterans are awarded the Purple Heart by the Awards Office of Randolph Air Force Base while the Navy, Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard presents Purple Hearts to veterans through the Navy Liaison Officer at the National Personnel Records Center. Simple clerical errors, where a Purple Heart is denoted in military records but was simply omitted from a Report of Separation, are corrected on site at the National Personnel Records Center through issuance of a document known as a DD-215.

Pre-Creation Requests

As the Purple Heart did not exist prior to 1932, records of the decoration are not annotated in service histories of those veterans who were wounded or killed by enemy action prior to the establishment of the medal. The Purple Heart, however, is retroactive to 1917 meaning that it may be presented to veterans as far back as the First World War. In such cases, service departments will review service histories and all available records to determine if a veteran may be retroactively awarded the Purple Heart.

Destroyed Record Requests

Due to the 1973 National Archives Fire, a large number of retroactive Purple Heart requests are difficult to verify since all records to substantiate the award may very well have been destroyed. As a solution to this, the National Personnel Records Center maintains a separate office to deal with Purple Heart requests where service records have been destroyed in the 1973 fire. In such cases, NPRC searches through unit records, military pay records, and records of the Department of Veterans Affairs. If a Purple Heart is warranted, all available alternate records sources are forwarded to the military service department for final determination of issuance.

Last resort requests

Some veterans who have exhausted all available sources, often still feel that they should be awarded a Purple Heart, even if there are no records of the decoration. In such cases, service members may appeal directly to the military service department by way of a Defense Department Form 149, which requests an official change to military records. Usually, if the 149 is denied by the service department, there is nothing more a veteran can do and will not be awarded the Purple Heart. In some cases, however, veterans have been recommended for the Purple Heart, after the fact, by a United States Senator or Congressman. Such cases are treated as brand new award recommendations and the process for presenting the Purple Heart begins again with a review of records and interview of witnesses to the action in which a service member was wounded.

External link

- [http://www.purpleheart.org Military Order of the Purple Heart] Category:Awards and decorations of the United States military Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal

United States War Department

The United States Department of War was the military department of the United States government's executive branch from 1789 until 1949, when it became part of the United States Department of Defense. It was headed by the United States Secretary of War. It was also known as the War Office. In 1949 the War Office was renamed the United States Department of the Army and became a component of the Department of Defense. The United States Secretary of the Army is in charge of the administrative offices necessary for the Army's operations. The highest-ranking Army officer is the Army Chief of Staff who is assisted by the Vice-chief. The only difference today is that the Army Air Force was separated and formed into the US Air Force under the newly formed Department of the Air Force.

External links

- Department of War Department of War

Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion was an uprising that had its origins in 1791 and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in the Monongahela Valley in western Pennsylvania by Appalachian settlers who fought against a federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks. [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/earlyrepub/Whisk.htm] These settlers were largely of Scots-Irish descent. The ineffective government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation had been replaced by a stronger federal government under the United States Constitution in 1788. This new government inherited a huge debt from the American Revolutionary War. One of the steps taken to pay down the debt was a tax imposed in 1791 on distilled spirits. Large producers were assessed a tax of six cents a gallon. However, smaller producers, most of whom were Scottish or Irish descent located in the more remote western areas, were taxed at a higher rate of nine cents a gallon. These Western settlers were short of cash to begin with, and lacked any practical means to get their grain to market other than fermenting and distilling it into relatively portable distilled spirits. From Pennsylvania to Georgia, the western counties engaged in a campaign of harassment of the federal tax collectors. "Whiskey Boys" also made violent protests in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. [http://okok.essortment.com/whiskeyrebellio_pea.htm] In the summer of 1794, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, remembering Shays' Rebellion from just eight years before, decided to make Pennsylvania a testing ground for federal authority. Washington ordered federal marshals to serve court orders requiring the tax protesters to appear in federal district court. By the summer of 1794, the protests became a rebellion; one group disguised as women assaulted a collector, cropped his hair, coated him with tar and feathers, and stole his horse. Other forms of defiance included robbing the mail, stopping court proceedings, and threatening an assault on Pittsburgh. On August 7, 1794, Washington invoked the Militia Law of 1792 to summon the militias of Pennsylvania, Virginia and several states. The rebel force they sought was likewise composed of Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and possibly men from other states. [http://www.vahistorical.org/publications/abstract_barksdale.htm] The militia force of 13,000 men was organized, roughly the size of the entire army in the Revolutionary War. Under the personal command of Washington, Hamilton, and Revolutionary War hero Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee the army marched to Western Pennsylvania (to what is now Monongahela, Pennsylvania) and quickly suppressed the revolt. The rebels afterwards hid in the woods, but twenty barefoot civilians were captured and paraded down Market Street in Philadelphia. The men were imprisoned, where one died, while two were convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged. Washington however pardoned them on the grounds that one was a "simpleton" and the other "insane." This response marked the first time under the new Constitution that the federal government had used strong military force to exert authority over the nation's citizens. It also was one of only two times that a sitting President would personally command the military in the field; the other was after President James Madison fled the burning White House in the War of 1812. The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion also had the unintended consequence of encouraging small whiskey producers and other settlers into the then frontier lands of Kentucky and Tennessee, outside the sphere of Federal control for many years. In these frontier areas they also found good corn growing country and smooth, limestone-filtered water, with which to make whiskey. [http://www.tastings.com/spirits/american_whiskey.html] The whiskey tax was repealed in 1802, having been largely unenforceable outside of Western Pennsylvania, and never having been collected with much success. [http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=206&sortorder=articledate] Category:Rebellions in the United States Category:Pennsylvania history

Reference

- Baldwin, Leland. Whiskey Rebels: The Story of a Frontier Uprising. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1939.
- Cooke, Jacob E. "The Whiskey Insurrection: A Re-Evaluation." Pennsylvania History, 30 (July 1963), pp. 316-364.
- Kohn, Richard H. "The Washington Administration's Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion." Journal of American History, 59 (December 1972), pp. 567-584.
- Slaughter, Thomas P. The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution. Oxford University Press 1986. # ISBN: 0195051912

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of four states of the United States of America that is called a commonwealth. It has given its name to the Pennsylvanian time period in geology. Pennsylvania is called the Keystone State. Although Swedes and Dutch were the first European settlers, the Quaker William Penn named Pennsylvania for the Latin phrase meaning "Penn's Woods", in honor of his father. Today, two major cities dominate the state—Philadelphia, home of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and a thriving metropolitan area, and Pittsburgh, a busy inland river port and major center for educational and technological advances. The Pocono Mountains and the Delaware Water Gap provide popular recreational activities. Pennsylvania is one of the U.S.'s most historic states. Philadelphia is often called the cradle of the American Nation. It was here that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drawn up by the Founding Fathers. The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" region in south-central Pennsylvania is another favorite of sightseers. Pennsylvania Germans, including the Amish and the Mennonites, dominate the area around the cities of Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg, with smaller numbers extending northeast to the Lehigh Valley and up the Susquehanna River valley. Some of the Old Order Amish have left the area, but many Mennonites remain, particularly in Lancaster County. Some adherents eschew modern conveniences and use horse-drawn farming equipment and carriages, while others are virtually indistinguishable from non-Amish or Mennonites. (The term "Dutch" is a misnomer, since there were much fewer of Dutch origin; the adjective for "German", Deutsch, was misheard as "Dutch" and the name stuck.) The battleship USS Pennsylvania, damaged at Pearl Harbor, was named in honor of this state, as were several other naval vessels. It was repaired at the former Sun Ship Yard & Dry Dock in Chester City.

History

Before the state existed, the area was home to the Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape), Susquehanna, Iroquois, Eriez, Shawnee, and other Native American tribes. In 1643, the southeastern portion of the state, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was settled by Sweden, but control later passed to the Netherlands, and then to England (later Great Britain). On March 4 1681, Charles II of England granted a land charter to William Penn for the area that now includes Pennsylvania. Penn then founded a colony there as a place of religious freedom for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and named it for the Latin phrase meaning "Penn's woods". A large tract of land north and west of Philadelphia, in Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties, was settled by Welsh Quakers and called the "Welsh Tract". Even today many cities and towns in that area bear the names of Welsh municipalities. The western portions of Pennsylvania were among disputed territory between the colonial British and French during the French and Indian War. The French established numerous fortifications in the area, including the pivotal Fort Duquesne on top of which the city of Pittsburgh was built. The colony's reputation of religious freedom also attracted significant populations of German and Scots-Irish settlers who helped to shape colonial Pennsylvania and later went on to populate the neighboring states further west. In 1704 the "three lower counties" of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex gained a separate legislature, and in 1710 a separate executive council, to form the new colony Delaware. Pennsylvania and Delaware were two of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution of 1776. Pennsylvania became the second state on 12 December, 1787 (five days after Delaware became the first). Pennsylvania also saw the Battle of Gettysburg, near Gettysburg. Many historians consider this battle the major turning point of the American Civil War. Dead from this battle rest at Gettysburg National Cemetery, site of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. oil (kerosene) industry was born in western Pennsylvania, which supplied the vast majority of U.S. kerosene for years thereafter, and saw the rise and fall of oil boom towns. During the 20th century Pennsylvania's existing iron industries expanded into a major center of steel production. Shipbuilding and numerous other forms of manufacturing flourished in the eastern part of the state, and coal mining was also extremely important in many regions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Pennsylvania received very large numbers of immigrants from Europe seeking work; dramatic, sometimes violent confrontations took place between organized labor and the state's industrial concerns. Pennsylvania was hard-hit by the decline of the steel industry and other heavy U.S. industries during the late 20th century.

Law and government

Like all American states, Pennsylvania has a government which is separated into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, the powers and duties of which are established by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The capital of Pennsylvania is in Harrisburg.

Executive branch

The head of the executive branch is the Governor, who is currently Democrat Edward G Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia. The other elected officials composing the executive branch are the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Auditor General, and State Treasurer. The Governor's cabinet consists of the eighteen appointed heads of Pennsylvania state agencies: the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Adjutant General, Secretary of Education, Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of Banking, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Health, State Police Commissioner, Secretary of Labor and Industry, Secretary of Public Welfare, Secretary of Revenue, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Community Affairs, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Environmental Resources, Secretary of General Services, Secretary of Aging, and the Secretary of Corrections.

Legislative branch

Pennsylvania has had a bicameral legislature since 1790. The Pennsylvania General Assembly consists of a Senate with 50 members and a House of Representatives with 203. Notable General Assembly members include Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer (R), Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R), Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow (D), Speaker of the House of Representatives John M. Perzel (R), House Majority Leader Samuel H. Smith (R), House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese (D), and Senate Minority Appropriations Chairman Vincent Fumo (D).

Judicial branch

Pennsylvania is divided into 60 judicial districts[http://www.courts.state.pa.us/Index/CommonPleas/Judicialdistricts.asp], most of which (save Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties) have district justices (formerly called justices of the peace), who preside mainly over minor criminal offenses and small civil claims. The Philadelphia Municipal Court and the Pittsburgh police magistrate court have similar jurisdiction, but are limited to those locations. As Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, the Pittsburgh police magistrate court is the only true city-level court in the state. The general trial courts in which most criminal and civil cases originate are the Courts of Common Pleas. They also serve as appellate courts to the district justices and for local agency decisions. The Courts of Common Pleas serving the larger Pennsylvania counties are divided into specialized divisions. The state has two intermediate-level appellate courts: the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. The fifteen judges of the Superior Court hear all appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas not expressly designated to the Commonwealth Court or Supreme Court. It also has original jurisdiction to review warrants for wiretap surveillance. The jurisdiction of the nine-judge Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas. The Commonwealth Court also functions as a trial court in some civil suits, including cases that involve the state or its officers as parties, and cases regarding statewide elections. Pennsylvania's entire judicial system is under the supervision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which is also the final appellate court for both the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. It also hears appeals directly from the Courts of Common Pleas in certain cases, including from murder convictions in which the death penalty has been imposed, the right to public office, criminal contempt, and any case in which the Court of Common Pleas ruled that a state law was unconstitutional. Like all judges in Pennsylvania, the seven justices of the Supreme Court are chosen by public election; the chief justice is the justice with the most seniority.

Representation in the federal government

Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators are Rick Santorum (Republican) and Arlen Specter (Republican). Pennsylvania's 19 representatives in the House are Robert Brady (D, 1st District); Chaka Fattah (D, 2nd District); Phil English (R, 3rd District); Melissa Hart (R, 4th District); John E. Peterson (R, 5th District); Jim Gerlach (R, 6th District); Curt Weldon (R, 7th District); Michael Fitzpatrick (R, 8th District); Bill Shuster (R, 9th District); Don Sherwood (R, 10th District); Paul E. Kanjorski (D, 11th District); John Murtha (D, 12th District); Allyson Schwartz (D, 13th District); Mike Doyle (D, 14th District); Charlie Dent (R, 15th District); Joe Pitts (R, 16th District); Tim Holden (D, 17th District); Tim Murphy (R, 18th District); and Todd Russell Platts (R, 19th District).

Politics in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is considered a swing state as its politics are not dominated by any single party. As of 2005, the Republican Party holds both houses of the state legislature, both United States Senate seats and a majority of the state's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the Democratic Party holds the governor's seat and their candidate has won the state in the past four presidential elections. Bill Clinton carried the state twice, Al Gore won here in 2000 as did John Kerry in 2004 with a slim 50.9% of the vote. The state is divided into heavily left leaning areas along the sides. Democrats are the majority in the Philadelphia area, as well as around Allentown, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in the east, and in the southwestern part of the state, the Pittsburgh area in the west and Erie in the northwest. The northern and central part of the state, nicknamed the Republican 'T, is more rural and tends to be very conservative. James Carville, the outspoken Democratic strategist, summed up Pennsylvania politics as "Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, with Alabama in the middle."
- U.S. presidential election, 2004, in Pennsylvania
Geography
See: List of Pennsylvania counties List of Pennsylvania counties Pennsylvania's nickname "The Keystone State" is quite apt, as the state forms a geographic bridge both between the Northeastern states and the Southern states, and between the Atlantic seaboard and the Midwest. It is bordered on the north and northeast by New York, on the east, across the Delaware River by New Jersey, on the south by Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, on the west by Ohio, and on the northwest by Lake Erie. The Delaware, Susquehanna, Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers are the major rivers of the state. The Youghiogheny River and Oil Creek are smaller rivers which have played an important role in the development of the state. The capital is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is 180 miles (290 km) north to south and 310 miles (500 km) east to west. The total land area is 44,817 square miles (119,283 km²), 739,200 acres (2,990 km²) of which are bodies of water. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States. The highest point of 3,213 feet (979 m) above sea level is at Mount Davis. Its lowest point is at sea level on the Delaware River. Pennsylvania is in the Eastern time zone. It sometimes helps to consider the western third of the state a separate large geophysical unit, which is so distinctive that it can often best be described on its own. Several important, complex factors set Western Pennsylvania apart in many respects from the east, such as the initial difficulty of access across the mountains, an orientation to the Mississippi drainage system of rivers, and above all, the complex economics involved in the rise and decline of the American steel industry centered around Pittsburgh. Other factors, such as a markedly different style of agriculture, the rise of the oil industry, timber exploitation and the old wood chemical industry, and even, in linguistics, the local dialect, all make this large area sometimes seem a virtual "state within a state". Pennsylvania is bisected diagonally by ridges of the Appalachian Mountains from southwest to northeast. To the northwest of the folded mountains is the Allegheny Plateau, which continues into southwestern and south central New York. This plateau is so dissected by valleys that it also seems mountainous. The Plateau is underlain by sedimentary rocks of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age, which bear abundant fossils, as well as natural gas and petroleum. In 1859 near Titusville Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in the USA into these sediments. Similar rock layers also contain coal to the south and east of the oil and gas deposits. In the metamorphic (folded) belt, anthracite (hard coal) is mined near Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. These fossil fuels have been an important resource to Pennsylvania. Timber and dairy farming are also sources of livelihood for midstate and western Pennsylvania. Along the shore of Lake Erie in the far northwest are orchards and vineyards. Lake Erie Pennsylvania has 89 miles of shoreline along the Delaware River estuary but is a landlocked state with no coastline bordering the Atlantic Ocean. (The difference between the coast (the shore of an ocean) and the shore (a protected bay, bayou, estuary, or sound) and how these concepts are measured is explained at length in an extended footnote under "Miscellaneous" in the article on New Hampshire.) Pennsylvania is the only truly landlocked state of the original thirteen states, although Connecticut, located on the Long Island Sound, also has no actual coastline. Pennsylvania has one of the largest seaports in the U.S. on its narrow shore, the Port of Philadelphia. In the west the Port of Pittsburgh is also very large and even exceeds Philadelphia in rank by annual tonnage, due to the large volume of bulk coal shipped by barge down the Ohio River. Chester, downstream from Philadelphia, and Erie, the Great Lakes outlet on Lake Erie in the Erie Triangle, are smaller but still important ports. Pennsylvania has been the site of some of the most horrendous ecological disasters experienced in the USA. In 1889 the South Fork Dam, impounding a recreational mountain lake for sportsmen, burst after a heavy rain and destroyed the downstream factory town of Johnstown, killing over 2,200 inhabitants in the notorious Johnstown Flood (the town was later rebuilt and is a reasonably large community today in the central mountains). In 1961 an exposed seam of coal at Centralia, Pennsylvania caught fire and forced eventually almost the entire community to abandon their settlement; the coal fire is still burning today and is estimated to last 100 years more. Finally, in 1979 the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Incident near the state capital of Harrisburg, while not as destructive to the community, nevertheless cost close to $1 billion to clean up and changed the national public perception of nuclear power to a much less favorable viewpoint.
Economy
Three Mile Island Pennsylvania's 1999 total gross state product was $383 billion, placing it 6^th in the nation and its 2000 Per Capita Personal Income was $29,539, 18^th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are dairy products, poultry, cattle, nursery stock, mushrooms, hogs, and hay. Its industrial outputs are food processing, chemical products, machinery, electric equipment, and tourism. Pennsylvania has a large, diverse group of manufacturing companies and within this group are some whose products have come to be household words, symbolic of ordinary American life. Among these products are Hershey bars from the Hershey Chocolate Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Heinz ketchup and Heinz-57 sauce from the H. J. Heinz Company in Pittsburgh; Crayola products from Binney & Smith, Inc., in Easton; and Zippo lighters from Zippo Manufacturing in Bradford. Other corporations based in Pennsylvania are : Comcast, Sunoco, Pep Boys, Utz/ Herr's/ Wise Potato Chips, and many others, especially insurance, pharmaceutical, and steel corporations. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is well know for its quality wood products such as furniture, sheds, gazebos and play sets. Such items are shipped all over the country (and the world) out of Lancaster County. Most of these are produced by Amish and Mennonite craftsmen. On Lake Erie some freshwater commercial fishing exists, the principal catch being yellow perch.
Taxation
The two largest sources of state revenue are income taxes on individuals and businesses and the state sales tax. In addition, the state imposes other taxes and fees on businesses and collects fees for various licenses and permits. There is also an inheritance tax, taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and taxes and fees on certain other goods and services. There is also a tax on the transfer of real property. Pennsylvania is one of only five American states to employ a flat tax on personal income. Unlike the others, Pennsylvania's is a pure flat tax with no personal exemptions. As of 2005, the income tax rate for individuals is 3.07% of earned income. The state assesses a 6% sales tax on taxable goods and services. Counties may add additional sales tax charges, but as of 2005, only Philadelphia and Allegheny counties charge an additional sales tax rates. Items such as unprepared food (not ready-to-eat), most clothing, shoes, drugs, textbooks, and residential heating fuels are exempt from sales tax. The state government does not levy or collect taxes on real estate or personal property. Most counties, municipalities, and school districts do levy taxes on real estate. In addition, some local bodies assess a wage tax on personal income. Generally, the total wage tax rate is capped at 1% of income but some municipalities with home rule charters may charge more than 1%. Thirty-two of the state's sixty-seven counties levy a personal property tax on stocks, bonds, and similar holdings. In addition to taxes collected on liquor, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is the sole retail distributor of liquor in the state through its government owned Wine and Spirits Stores. Profits from these retail operations are used to fund a number of programs including the Pennsylvania State Police. (Source PA Dept. of Revenue)
Demographics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2004, Pennsylvania's population was 12,406,292 placing it 6th in population in the country. The Commonwealth has one of the fastest growing Asian and Hispanic populations in the nation with percentage increases well over a 100%. Most of the Asian immigrants are Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Arab. The Hispanic immigration mostly consists of people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central and South America. During the 1970s and 1980s, Pennsylvania grew sluggishly. In the 1990s and into 2000, more people from other states (migrants) started moving to Pennsylvania. Foreign immigration has also picked up for the first time since World War II. Pennsylvania is mainly white in certain areas such as the far northeast, north central, and some areas around Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia Metro and the surrounding counties and the state as a whole are a true melting pot with large numbers of Blacks, Hispanics, South Asians, East Asians, and Arabs. Race and ancestry
The racial makeup of the state is:
- 84.1% White
- 10.0% Black
- 3.2% Hispanic
- 1.8% Asian
- 0.1% Native American
- 1.2% Mixed race Population estimates predict Pennsylvania's population to be around 77.2% White in 2010, or lower. This rapid decrease of the state's white population is due to huge growth in the state's non-white population. Most of this diversity growth is concentrated in the Philadelphia Metro, and the Lehigh Valley, but large non-white growth is statewide. The five largest ancestry groups in Pennsylvania are: German (25.4%), Irish (16.1%), Italian (11.5%), African American (10%), English (7.9%). Pennsylvanians of German ancestry live in most areas of the state outside of Philadelphia. Northeastern Pennsylvania has residents of British ancestry on the New York border and there are many Polish-Americans in the Scranton area. Philadelphia has a black plurality and smaller black populations are located in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Irish-Americans are the single largest ancestry group in Delaware county and the overall Philadelphia metropolitan area. Pennsylvania has more Slovaks and Welsh than any other state. Pennsylvania also has among the largest populations of Germans, Irish, Italians, and Russians of any state, and the most Ukrainians of any state besides New York. Also the state has one of the largest Asian Indian, Korean, Puerto Rican, and Vietnamese populations in the nation. 5.9% of Pennsylvania's population were reported as under 5, 23.8% under 18, and 15.6% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.7% of the population.
Religion
Historically, the Quakers pursued a policy of religious toleration at the founding of Penn's colony (Pennsylvania), which benefited other older groups, such as Lutherans from the New Sweden settlement, and which also attracted religious refugees from the European continent, such as Amish and Mennonites. Other groups also settled, including the Moravian Bretheren, who founded and named today's large city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who settled on the frontier. This was a fairly diverse group of denominations by Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century standards, and testifies to the benign administration of Penn. Later, after industrialization, immigrants from the Catholic countries of Europe started coming in large numbers to Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia today stands a shrine to and the burial place of Saint John Neumann, himself a Czech immigrant, who worked for the betterment of the new arrivals and who founded the American parochial school system. Pennsylvania has one of the largest Jewish populations in the country, with about 440,000. Immigration to Pennsylvania in the past 20 years has brought large numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs to the state. The current religious affiliations of the people of Pennsylvania are:
- Christian – 83%
- Protestant – 55%
- Methodist – 10%
- Baptist – 10%
- Lutheran – 9%
- Presbyterian – 5%
- United Church of Christ – 2%
- Amish/Pietist – 1%
- Other Protestant or general Protestant – 18%
- Roman Catholic – 27%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Jewish (religious only) – 2%
- Other Religions – 2%
- Non-Religious – 13%
Important cities and municipalities
JewishPennsylvania has only one incorporated town, Bloomsburg, the county seat of Columbia County. All other municipalities are incorporated as cities, boroughs or townships. It is technically incorrect to refer to any municipality in Pennsylvania other than Bloomsburg as a town. Major cities and boroughs: The area including Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton is sometimes referred to as the "ABE tri-town area", from which derives the IATA airport code for Lehigh Valley International Airport. Top and bottom 10 locations by per capita income: per capita income
Education

Colleges and universities

State symbols

- State animal: Whitetail Deer
- State beverage: Milk
- State cookie: Chocolate Chip
- State bird: Ruffed Grouse
- State capital: Harrisburg
- State dog: Great Dane
- State fish: Brook Trout
- State flower: Mountain Laurel
- State fossil: the trilobite Phacops rana
- State insect: Firefly
- State song: Pennsylvania
- State tree: Hemlock
- State toy: Slinky
- State ship: United States Brig Niagara
- State electric locomotive: Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4849 Locomotive
- State steam locomotive: Pennsylvania Railroad K4s Locomotive
- State beautification plant: Crown vetch
Notable Pennsylvanians

- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) one of the more important figures in Pennsylvania and United States history. Although he was born in Boston, Massachusetts he came to Philadelphia as a young man. He founded the University of Pennsylvania in 1742, had the distinction of signing both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and is buried with his wife Deborah in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia.
- Stephen Foster was born in Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826. He was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of his era. Many of his songs, such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", and "Beautiful Dreamer", are still popular over 150 years after their composition.
- James Buchanan (1791–1868) was born and lived in Pennsylvania until his death. He was the 15th President of the United States and the only President from that state.
- George M. Dallas (1792–1864) of Philadelphia served as the 11th Vice President of the United States under James K. Polk and is the only Pennsylvanian to hold the office. He also served as U.S. Minister to Great Britain and Russia, as Mayor of Philadelphia and in the Senate.
- Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) was a key Pennsylvania state legislator in establishing and maintaining Pennsylvania's early system of public education. As a U.S. Congressman and leading "Radical Republican", he helped draft the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing "equal protection of the laws" to all Americans.
- Rachel Carson (1907–1964) born near Springdale, was a pioneer environmentalist and author of Silent Spring
- Winfield Scott Hancock (1824–1886) was born in Montgomery Square. He commanded Union troops during the American Civil War, most notably during the Battle of Gettysburg.
- Ida Tarbell (1857–1944) was born in Erie and was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was a pioneering "muckraker" journalist and one of the few female journalists in the country during her time. In 1906, she joined with Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker to establish the radical American Magazine. She also wrote several books on the role of women including The Business of Being a Woman (1912) and The Ways of Women (1915).
- Smedley Butler (1880–1940) born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. Butler was awarded the Medal of Honor twice during his career
- Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh. The Andy Warhol Museum is located in Pittsburgh's North Side, and he is buried in nearby Bethel Park.
- Kurt Angle (1968—) was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Angle won the Gold Medal in freestyle Roman/Greco wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, before signing with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment, where he has won the WWE Championship on four different occasions. Angle is one of only two wrestlers in the WWE to have participated in the Olympics, and is the only one to have won gold medals.
- K. Leroy Irvis (1918—) was born near Albany, New York, but came to Pennsylvania to head Pittsburgh's Urban League in the 1940s. Fired under pressure after leading a successful boycott of Pittsburgh's department stores for discriminating against African-Americans, Irvis enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh law school, graduated with honors, became Pittsburgh's first black judicial law clerk, then an assistant district attorney, then a state legislator. Serving 30 years in the Pennsylvania House (1958–1988), 26 of them as an elected Democratic leader, Irvis became the first 20th Century African-American Speaker in 1977. He was a major force behind numerous successful efforts to expand educational opportunities in Pennsylvania.
- General of the Army George C. Marshall (1880–1959) of Uniontown, led the United States Army as Chief of Staff during the Second World War. He later served as Secretary of State and authored the Marshall Plan.
- Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (1770–1840) A Russian prince turned Roman Catholic missionary priest known as Apostle of the Alleghenies. He emigrated to the United States in 1792 and studied theology under Bishop John Carroll. In 1795, he became the first Catholic to receive all the orders of priesthood in the United States. In 1799 he used his own fortune to purchase 20,000 acres in Cambria County to form a Catholic community, the nucleus of the modern Roman Catholic Church west of the Allegheny Mountains. A prolific writer and apologist, he was declared a Servant of God in 2005, the first step on the road toward possible canonization.
- Tom Ridge, The former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1945-), was Governor of Pennsylvania between 1995 and 2003. Prior to that, he was a US Representative from Erie between 1982 and 1995.
- Eugene W. Hickok, The former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education from 2004–2005, and prior to that, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education from 1995–2001.
- Marian Anderson, of Philadelphia, world-reknowned contralto, who, after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing at Constitution Hall because she was African-American, was famously invited to sing at the Lincoln Memorial by Eleanor Roosevelt.
- James J. Davis, U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1921 to 1932 and U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1946.
Movies set in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has been the setting for dozens of major films, including Rocky (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), All the Right Moves (1983), Flashdance (1983) and The Sixth Sense (1999).
Pennsylvania in popular music
Pennsylvania has given birth to some of the nation's leading popular and rock music groups, including Anti-Flag, Christina Aguilera, Bloodhound Gang, Boyz II Men, Vanessa Carlton, CKY, Coolio, Fuel, Hall & Oates, Joan Jett, Live, Patti LaBelle, Pink, Poison, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Rusted Root, The Roots, Jill Scott, Shanice, Will Smith, The Clarks, The Dead Milkmen, and The Juliana Theory to name a few.
Pennsylvanians in film, television, and theater
Many Pennsylvanians have found success in film, television, and the theater including:
- F. Murray Abraham - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Kevin Bacon - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- John Barrymore - Philadelphia
- Lionel Barrymore - Philadelphia
- Peter Boyle - Philadelphia
- Charles Bronson - Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania
- Bill Cosby - Philadelphia
- Tina Fey - Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
- Larry Fine - Philadelphia
- Scott Glenn - Pittsburgh
- Seth Green - Philadelphia
- Russell Johnson - Ashley, Pennsylvania
- Shirley Jones - Charleroi, Pennsylvania
- Gene Kelly - Pittsburgh
- Grace Kelly - Philadelphia
- Jamie Kennedy - Upper Darby
- Jayne Mansfield - Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
- Henry Mancini - Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
- Larry Mendte - Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
- Dennis Miller - Pittsburgh
- Bam Margera - West Chester, Pennsylvania
- Cheri Oteri - Upper Darby
- Jack Palance - Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania
- M. Night Shyamalan - Philadelphia (immigrated from India as a child)
- Jimmy Stewart - Indiana, Pennsylvania
- Mr. Rogers - Latrobe, Pennsylvania
- David O. Selznick - Pittsburgh
- Fritz Weaver - Pittsburgh
- Michael Keaton - Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
- Sharon Stone - Meadville, Pennsylvania
- Will Smith - Philadelphia
See also

- List of Pennsylvania-related topics
- List of people from Pennsylvania
- List of Pennsylvania counties
- List of hospitals in Pennsylvania
External links

- [http://www.state.pa.us Official state government site]
- [http://www.dot.state.pa.us Penna. Dept. of Transportation]
- [http://pittsburgh.about.com/library/weekly/aa_visit_pennsylvania.htm Pennsylvania Visitor's Guide]
- [http://obit.obitlinkspage.com/pa.htm Pennsylvania Obituary Links Page]
- [http://www.genealogybuff.com/pa/ GenealogyBuff.com - Pennsylvania Library Files]
- [http://www.HavenWorks.com/pennsylvania Pennsylvania News, Searches, Sources, and Reference.]
- [http://atlasworld.info/atlasfinder/Pennsylvania Road Atlases of Pennsylvania]
- [http://www.mapsofpa.com/home.htm Historical Maps of Pennsylvania]
- [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42000.html U.S. Census Bureau]
- Category:States of the United States ko:펜실베이니아 주 ja:ペンシルバニア州 simple:Pennsylvania

Liquor

:Spirits redirects here. For other uses of the word, see spirit (disambiguation). :Liquor redirects here. For the cartoon character, see George Liquor. George Liquor A distilled beverage, also called spirits or liquor, is a preparation for consumption containing ethyl alcohol purified by distillation from a fermented substance such as wine, malt, or grain. Distilled beverage is usually restricted to alcoholic beverages.

Background

Beer and wine are generally limited to a maximum alcohol content of about 15 percent by volume, beyond which yeast is adversely affected and cannot ferment; although in recent years high alcohol tolerant yeast strains have been used with special brewing techniques to increase this maximum up to about 23%. Alcohol levels higher than 15% have historically been obtained in a number of ways. Wine heated in an animal bladder draws out water and leaves alcohol behind (the bladder has a natural property which removes water), but there is no evidence this method was used before modern times. Another method, called freeze distillation, involves freezing the alcoholic beverage and removing water crystals, a method which has been known to have been in use in central Asia, known as the "Mongolian still", as early as the 7th century (Needham, 1980). In Europe and North America, this method was used to make applejack from cider. However the freezing method had limitations in geography and implementation and thus did not have widespread use. This leaves the method of distillation from which most of the history of potable spirits is drawn.

Distillation history

Ancient

In a basic form the technique of distillation goes back to Babylonia in the fourth millennium BC when specially shaped clay pots, it is thought, were used to extract some small amounts of distilled alcohol through natural cooling, for the manufacture of perfumes. It is unlikely this device ever played a meaningful role in the history of the development of the still. Distillation seems to have been known by alchemists in Alexandria, around the 3rd century AD, who used alcohol only for the coloring of metal and sublimation and was not widely known.

Middle East

The development of the still with cooled collector — necessary for the distillation of spirits — was an invention of Arab and Persian alchemists in the 8th or 9th centuries. In particular, Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan, 721–815) invented the alembic still, from which he observed heated wine released a flammable vapor, which he described as "of little use, but of great importance to science". Not much later the Al-Razi (864–930) described the distillation of alcohol and its use in medicine. By that time, distilled spirits were not just chemical products, but fairly popular beverages: the poet Abu Nuwas (d. 813) describes a wine that "has the color of rain-water but is as hot inside the ribs as a burning firebrand". The terms "alembic" and "alcohol", and possibly the metaphors "spirit" and aqua vitæ ("life-water") for the distilled product, can be traced to Middle Eastern alchemy. Names like "life water" have continued to be the inspiration for the names of several types of beverages, like Gaelic whisky, French eaux-de-vie and possibly vodka. Also, the Scandinavian akvavit spirit gets its name from the Latin phrase aqua vitae.

Europe

Alcohol appears first in Europe in the mid 12th century among alchemists, who were more interested in medical "elixirs" than making gold from lead. It first appears under the name aqua ardens (burning water) in the Compendium Salerni from the medical school at Salerno. The recipe was written in code suggesting it was kept a secret. Taddeo Alderotti in his Consilia medicinalis refers to the "serpente" which is believed to have been the coiled tube of a still. Paracelsus gave alcohol its modern name, taking it from the Arabic word which means "finely divided", in reference to what is done to wine. His test was to burn a spoonful without leaving any residue. Other ways of testing were to burn a cloth soaked in it without actually harming the cloth. In both cases to achieve this effect the alcohol had to have been at least 95 percent. Claims on the origins of alcoholic beverages are controversial, often invoking national pride, but they are plausible after the 12th century when Irish whiskey, German Hausbrand and German Brandy can all be safely said to have arrived. These beverages would have had much lower alcohol content, around 40 percent, and had "universal" medicinal elixir application. After the mid 14th century, when distilled liquors were commonly applied as remedies for the Black Death, consumption of liquor rose dramatically in Europe. Around 1400 it was discovered how to distill spirits from beer and grain spirits (corn, barley, rye) and even sawdust was used to make alcohol, a much cheaper option than grapes. Thus began the "national" drinks of Europe: jenever (Belgium and the Netherlands), gin (England), schnapps (Germany), aquavit (Scandinavia), vodka (Russia and Poland), rakia (Balkans). The actual names only emerged in the 16th century but the drinks were well known.

References

- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, V, pt.4 (1980).
- Robert Forbes, Short History of the Art of Distillation, 1948.
- Robert Multhauf, The Origins of Chemistry, 1966.
- [http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1114796842.html History of Alcohol and Drinking Around the World] Category:Alcohol Category:Distillation ja:蒸留酒

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (July 24, 1783 – December 17, 1830) was a South American revolutionary leader. Credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia, he is revered as a hero in these countries and throughout much of the rest of Latin America. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He later married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa. She died of yellow fever, and he never remarried. He was the first president of Bolivia when it became independent from Spain in 1824. Bolivar is known as the George Washington of South America. In Spanish he is known as "El Libertador" (as written in the picture to the right).

Family Heritage and Early life

The Bolívar aristocratic bloodline derives from La Puebla de Bolibar (or Bolíbar), a small village in Basque country of Biscay, the origin of their surname. A portion of their wealth by the 1600s came from the Aroa River gold and copper mines in Venezuela. By the 1500s, vague information about existence of gold was rumored around the rivers Yaracuy, Santa Cruz, and Aroa. In 1605, more precise locations of ores became known, particularly in a small valley lateral to the Aroa River next to La Quebrada de Las Minas. In 1632, gold was first mined, leading to further discoveries of extensive copper deposits. Towards the later 1600s, copper was exploited with the name "Cobre Caracas". These mines became property of Simon Bolivar's family. Later in his revolutionary life, Bolivar used part of the mineral income to finance the South American revolutionary wars. However, their family's prominence seems important before their wealth. For example, the Cathedral of Caracas, founded in 1575, has a side chapel dedicated to Simon Bolivar's family. [http://www.xs4all.nl/~jorbons/souterrains/art/venezcol.html] In this context, Simon Bolívar was born in Caracas, in modern-day Venezuela, into an aristocratic family, and educated by different tutors after his parents died. Among his tutors was Simón Rodríguez, whose great ideas and educational style heavily influenced the young man. Following the death of his parents, he went to Spain in 1799 to complete his education. There he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa in 1802, but on a brief return visit to Venezuela in 1803, she succumbed to yellow fever. Bolívar returned to Europe in 1804 and for a time was part of Napoleon's retinue.

El Libertador

Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807 and, when Napoleon made Joseph King of Spain and its colonies in 1808, he participated in the resistance juntas in South America. The Caracas junta declared its independence in 1810, and Bolívar was sent to England on a diplomatic mission. Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1811. But in July 1812, junta leader Francisco de Miranda surrendered, and Bolívar had to flee to Cartagena de Indias. In this period, Bolívar wrote his Cartagena Manifesto. In 1813, after acquiring a military command in New Granada under the direction of the Congress of Tunja, he led the invasion of Venezuela on May 14. This was the beginning of the famous Campaña Admirable, the Admirable Campaign. He entered Mérida on May 23, following the occupation of Trujillo on June 9. Six days later, on June 15, dictated his famous Decree of War to the Death (Decreto de Guerra a Muerte). Caracas was retaken on August 6, 1813, where he was proclaimed as El Libertador, thus proclaiming the Second Venezuelan Republic. Due to the rebellion of José Tomás Boves in 1814 and the fall of the republic, he returned to New Granada, where he then commanded a Colombian nationalist force and entered Bogotá in 1814, recapturing the city from the dissenting republican forces of Cundinamarca. He intended to march into Cartagena and enlist the aid of local forces in order to capture Royalist Santa Marta. However, after a number of political and military disputes with the government of Cartagena, Bolívar fled in 1815 to Jamaica, where he requested the Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion for aid. In 1816, with Haitian help, Bolívar landed in Venezuela and captured Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar). A victory at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819 added Colombia to the territories free from Spanish control, and in September 7, 1821 the Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) was created, with Bolívar as president and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president. Further victories at the Carabobo in 1821 and Pichincha in 1822 consolidated his rule over Venezuela and Ecuador respectively. After a meeting in Guayaquil on July 26 and 27 1822 with Argentine General José de San Martín, who had received the title of Protector of Peruvian Freedom in August 1821 after having partially liberated Peru from the Spanish, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. The Peruvian congress named him dictator of Peru on February 10 1824, which allowed Bolívar to completely reorganize the political and military administration. Bolívar, assisted by Antonio José de Sucre, decisively defeated the Spanish cavalry on August 6 1824 at Junín. Sucre destroyed the still numerically superior remnants of the Spanish forces at Ayacucho on December 9. On August 6 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru, the Republic of Bolivia was created in honour of Bolívar, who drafted a new constitution for the new nation. This constitution reflected the influence of the French and Scottish Enlightenment on Bolívar's political thought, as well as that of classical Greek and Roman authors. A great admirer of the North American Revolution (and a great critic of the French Revolution), Bolívar described himself in his many letters as a classical "liberal" and defender of the free market economic system. Among the books he traveled with when he wrote the Bolivian Constitution were Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Bolívar's many speeches and writings reveal him to be an adherent of limited government, the separation of powers, religious freedom, property rights, and the rule of law. Bolívar had great difficulties maintaining control of the vast Gran Colombia. During 1826, internal divisions had sparked dissent throughout the nation and regional uprisings erupted in Venezuela, thus the fragile South American coalition appeared to be on the verge of collapse. An amnesty was declared and an arrangement was reached with the Venezuelan rebels, but political dissent in New Granada grew as a consequence of this. In an attempt to keep the republic together as a single entity, Bolívar called for a constitutional convention at Ocaña during April 1828. He had seen his dream of eventually creating an American Revolution-style federation between all the newly independent republics, with a government ideally set-up solely to recognize and uphold individual rights, succumb to the pressures of particular interests throughout the region, which rejected that model and allegedly had little or no allegiance to classical liberal principles. For this reason, and to prevent a break-up, Bolivar wanted to implement in Gran Colombia a more centralist model of government, including some or all of the elements of the Bolivian constitution he had written (which included a lifetime presidency with the ability to select a successor, though this was theoretically held in check by an intricate system of balances). This move was considered controversial and was one of the reasons why the deliberations met with strong opposition. The convention almost ended up drafting a document which would have implemented a radically federalist form of government which would have greatly reduced the powers of the central administration. Unhappy with what would be the ensuing result, Bolívar's delegates left the convention. After the failure of the convention due to grave political differences, Bolívar proclaimed himself dictator on August 27 1828 through the "Organic Decree of Dictatorship". He considered this as a temporary measure, as a means to reestablish his authority and save the republic, though it increased dissatisfaction and anger among his political opponents. An assassination attempt in September 1828 failed. Although he emerged physically intact, this nevertheless greatly affected Bolívar. Dissident feelings continued, and uprisings occurred in New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador during the next two years. Bolívar finally resigned his presidency on April 27 1830, intending to leave the country for exile in Europe, possibly in France. He had already sent several crates (containing his belonging and his writings) ahead of him to Europe. He died before setting sail, after a painful battle with tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, in [http://www.simon-bolivar.org/bolivar/san_pedro_alejandrino.htm "La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino",] in Santa Marta, Colombia. On his deathbed, Bolivar asked his aide-de-camp Daniel O'Leary to burn the extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. O'Leary disobeyed the order and his writings survived, providing historians with a vast wealth of information about Bolivar's classical liberal philosophy and thought. His remains were moved from Santa Marta to Caracas in 1842, where a monument was set up for his burial. [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11917&pt=Simon%20Bolivar] Simón Bolívar has no direct descendants. His bloodline lives on through his sister Juana Bolívar y Palacios who married Dionisio Palacios y Blanco (Simón and Juana's maternal uncle) and had two children: Guillermo and Benigna. Guillermo died when fighting alongside his uncle in the battle of La Hogaza in 1817. Benigna Palacios y Bolívar married Pedro Amestoy. Their great-grandchildren, Pedro (94) and Eduardo (90) Mendoza-Goiticoa live in Caracas. They are Simón Bolívar's closest living relatives. [http://www.simon-bolivar.org/bolivar/biografias_familia_sb.html#JuanaNepomucena]

Honours

Bolívar was ranked #48 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

External links

- [http://www.bolivarmo.com/history.htm History of Simon Bolivar]
- [http://www.crystalbeach.com/history.htm The Life of Simon Bolivar] Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón Bolívar, Simón ja:シモン・ボリバル simple:Simón Bolívar

Spain

The Kingdom of Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma). To west (and, in Galicia, south), it borders Portugal. To south, it borders Gibraltar and Morocco. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strait of Gibraltar, known as Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine islands, the "rocks" (peñones) of Vélez and Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil (disputed). In the Northeast along the Pyrenees, a small exclave town called Llívia in Catalonia is surrounded by French territory.

History

Main article: History of Spain

Prehistory

The aboriginal peoples of the Iberian peninsula, consisting of a number of separate tribes, are given the generic name of Iberians. This may have included the Basques, the only pre-Celtic people in Iberia surviving to the present day as a separate ethnic group. The most important culture of this period is that of the city of Tartessos. Beginning in the 9th century BC, Celtic tribes entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees and settled throughout the peninsula, becoming the Celtiberians. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries. Around 1,100 BC Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern Empúries), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro in Spanish). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).

Roman Empire

The Romans arrived in the Iberian peninsula during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century BC, and annexed it under Augustus after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies becoming the province of Hispania. It was divided in Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic; and, during the Roman Empire, Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest. Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan were born in Spain. The Spanish Bishops held the Council at Elvira in 306. Many of Spain's present languages, religion, and laws originate from this period.

Muslim Spain

Main articles: Al-Andalus and Reconquista In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula, which had been under Visigothic rule, was quickly conquered (from 711), by Muslims (the Moors), who had crossed over from North Africa, as part of the conquests of the Christian kingdoms there by the religiously inspired Umayyad empire. Only three small counties in the north of Spain kept their independence: Asturias, Navarra and Aragon, which eventually became kingdoms. Very soon the Muslim emirate split into small kingdoms. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves, with the Christians driving the Moorish forces out of the northern most parts of the peninsula within a few decades. The Muslim taifa kings competed in patronage of the arts, and the Jewish population of Iberia set the basis of Sephardic culture. Much of Spain's distinctive art originates from this seven-hundred-year period, and many Arabic words made their way into Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan, and from them to other European languages. The Moorish capital was Córdoba, in the southern portion of Spain known as Andalucía. During the time of Arab occupation, large populations of Jews, Christians and Muslims living in close quarters, and at its peak some non-Muslims were appointed to high offices. Though its tolerance has been exaggerated and romanticised by 19th century scholars it did produce some real achievements. At its best it produced great architecture, art, and Muslim and Jewish scholars played a great part in reviving the study of ancient western culture and philosophy, making their own important contributions to it, and becoming one of the most important ways by which these studies were revived in Europe. However there were also restrictions and imposts on non-Muslims, which tended to grow after the death of Al-Hakam II in 976, and worsened after the fall of Al-Andalus in 1031. Later invasions of stricter Muslim groups from north Africa even led to persecutions of non-Muslims, forcing some (including some Muslim scholars) to seek safety in the then still relatively tolerant city of Toledo after its Christian reconquest in 1085. 1085] The long, convoluted period of expansion of the Christian kingdoms, beginning in 722, only eleven years after the Moorish invasion, is called the Reconquista. As early as 739, the northwestern region of Galicia, which became one of the most important centres of western medieval Christian pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela, had been liberated from Moorish occupation by forces from neighbouring Asturias. The 1085 conquest of the central city of Toledo had largely brought to an end the reconquest of the northern half of Iberia. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 heralded the collapse, within a few decades, of the great Moorish strongholds, such as Seville and Córdoba, in the south-west. By the middle of the thirteenth century most of the Iberian peninsula had been reconquered, leaving only Granada as a small tributary state in the south. It ended in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand captured the southern city of Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain. The Treaty of Granada [http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html] guaranteed religious toleration toward Muslims while Jews were expelled that year. At Ferdinand's insistance the Spanish Inquisition had been established and Tomás de Torquemada was appointed as its first Inquisitor General in 1482. Behind much of the real religious intolerance was always the ever present fear that the Muslims might assist another Muslim invasion. Furthermore Aragonese labourers were angered by the use of Moorish workers by landlords to undercut them. A 1499 Muslim uprising was crushed and was followed by the first of the expulsions of Muslims, in 1502. The year 1492 was also marked by the discovery of the New World. Isabel I funded the voyages of Columbus. In their contests with the French army, Spanish forces relied more on well trained, highly mobile, regular soldiers and eventually achieved success with the organised tactical use of hand guns against armoured French knights, in the Italian Wars from 1494. Already considerable powers, these wars saw the emergence of the new combined Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon as a European great power.

From the Renaissance to the 19th Century

Until the late of the 15th century, Castile and Léon, Aragon and Navarre were independent states, with independent languages, monarchs, armies and, in the case of Aragon and Castile, two empires: the former with one in the Mediterranean and the latter with a new, rapidly growing, one in the Americas. The process of political unification continued into the early sixteenth century. It was the unification of these separate Iberian empires that became the base of what is in now referred to as the Spanish Empire. By 1512, most of the kingdoms of present-day Spain were politically unified, although not as a modern, centralized state (in contemporary minds, "Spain" was a geographic term meaning Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal, not the present-day state called Spain). The grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor but called in Spain Carlos I, extended his crown to other places in Europe and the rest of the world. The unification of Iberia was complete when Charles V's son, Philip II, became King of Portugal in 1580, as well as of the other Iberian Kingdoms (collectively known as "Spain" at that time). During the 16th century, under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe. The Spanish Empire covered most territories of South and Central America, Mexico, some of Eastern Asia (including The Philippines), the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire from 1580), southern Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. It was a time of daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonization. Not only did this lead to the arrival of ever increasing quantities of precious metals, spices and luxuries, and new agricultural plants, that had a great influence on the development of Europe, but the explorers, soldiers, traders and missionaries also brought back with them a flood of knowledge that radically transformed the European understanding of the world, ending conceptions inherited from medieval times. The treasure fleet across the Atlantic and the Manila galleons across the Pacific made it the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe, but the rapidly rising influx of silver and gold from the colonies in the Americas throughout the 16th century ultimately resulted in economically damaging rampant inflation and led to economic depression by the 17th century. Religious and dynastic wars supported by the Spanish crown, especially in the Netherlands, also greatly burdened the empire's economy. 17th century] In 1640, under Philip IV, the centralist policy of the Count-Duke of Olivares provoked wars in Portugal and Catalonia. Portugal became an independent kingdom again, taking with it its empire, and Catalonia enjoyed some years of French-supported independence but was quickly returned to the Spanish Crown, except Roussillon. A series of long and costly wars and revolts followed in the early 17th century, and began a steady decline of Spanish power in Europe from the 1640s. Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the country and much of Europe during the first years of the 18th century (see War of the Spanish Succession). It was only after this war ended and a new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed that a true Spanish state was established when the absolutist first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain in 1707 dissolved the parliamentarist Aragon court and unified the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon into a single, unified Kingdom of Spain, abolishing many of the regional privileges and autonomies (fueros) that had hampered Habsburg rule. The British abandoned the conflict after Utrecht (1713), which led to Barcelona's easy defeat by the absolutists in 1714. The National Day of Catalonia still commemorates this defeat. Of note during the 17th century was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age. Historically, the period of the mid 17th century to the mid 20th century was a failure for Spain compared to north western Europe. The extended, lingering decline of the Spanish empire was due in large part, ironically, to its spectacular successes in the 15th and 16th centuries that led to the centuries of the treasure fleets bringing back silver and gold into the country from the American mines. These shipments engendered inflation (a fact noticed by the School of Salamanca) that ate away at Spanish trades and commerce by causing local goods to be uncompetitive, and eventually making the country almost totally dependant upon imports by the mid seventeenth century, which proved disasterous as the silver mines became exhausted. Greatly worsening matters were the constant wars defending the world empire against envious European rivals, internal successions and the European wars (Eighty Years War and Thirty Years War), where Spain's resources were constantly drained defending the Habsburg's dynastic and religious interests, including the Counter Reformation. From the early 17th century the government sought to meet its needs by tampering with the silver content of the currency, leading to severe bouts of inflation and deflation. The terrible burden of taxes on the productive classes of the country, and the financial instability led to the collapse of the Castilian economy to the point where people reverted to bartering in the 1620s. A severe decline in food production ensued. The result was a steep real economic and demographic decline during the 17th century, especially in empire's overburdened lynchpin, Castile, aggravated by failed harvests and plagues. Habsburg policies that entrenched the privileges and exemptions of the nobility (with its roots back in the Castilian War of the Communities) and the Church (as part of support of the Counter Reformation), with a great extension of Church lands, also played a decisive part in the undermining the Spanish economy and in curtailing the spread of modern thought. This was in stark contrast to the diminishing status of both institutions in rivals France, England and the Netherlands. The resentment of ordinary peasants and labourers would find expression in implicating the nobility of Moorish ancestory and the churchmen of hypocrisy. These accusations found their way into the theatre and literature of the time. The beggary that grew rapidly from the late 16th century forced many to live by their wits and inspired the popular picaresque genre of literature. Following the wars of Spanish succession at its commencment, the 18th century saw a long, slow recovery, with an expansion of the iron and steel industries in the Basque country, some increase in trade and a recovery in food production and population. The Bourbons drew on the French system in trying to modernise the administration and economy, in which it was more successful in the former than the latter. However in the last two decades of the century there was a rapid growth (from a relatively low base) in general trade after the opening up of free trade within the empire (ending the south's monopoly), and even the beginnings of an industrialisation of the textile industry in Catalonia. But this promising late eighteenth century surge was shortlived, being totally disrupted by the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, that preceeded the loss of the vast mainland American territories and plunged the country into endemic political instability, which lasted until 1939. The Napoleonic incursion led to a fierce guerilla war (Peninsular War) and saw the first wide spread appearance of Spanish nationalism. In the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish Catalonia became a center of Spain's industrialization. Pockets of relative modernity in Catalonia and the north would appear, but Spain's relative economic and political decline overall mirrored in general the fate of other regions of southern Europe such as Portugal, the Italian states, the Balkans, and much of central and eastern Europe, as much of the rapidly growing global oceanic trade, pioneered by the Iberian countries, was diverted to northwestern Europe. Spain lost all of its remaining old colonies in the Caribbean region and Asia-Pacific region at the end of the 19th century, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and a large number of Pacific islands to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898. However "the Disaster" of 1898, as Spanish-American War was called, led to Spain's cultural revival (Generation of '98) in which there was much critical self examination, and relieved it from the burden of its last major colonies. However political stability in such a dispersed and variegated land, caught between pockets of modernity and large areas of extreme rural backwardness and strongly differentiated regional identities would elude the country for some decades yet, and was ultimately imposed only by a brutal dictatorship in 1939.

20th century

The 20th century initially brought little peace; colonization of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea was attempted. A period of dictatorial rule (1923 - 1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country and Catalonia and gave voting rights to women. However, in July 1936, against a backdrop of increasing political polarization, anti-clericalism and pressure from all sides, coupled with growing and unchecked political violence, the Republic was faced with an attempted military coup d'etat led by right-wing army generals. Although the coup initially failed, the ensuing Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the victory of the nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the United States of America, increasingly concerned about communism. The Republican side received tepid support from European democracies, which left the Soviet Union and idealist voluntary International Brigades as the only supporters of the legitimate democratic Republican rule. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War. After the civil war, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically. During the Second World War Franco, under extreme pressure (Hitler had brought his army to the border of Spain after invading France), opted to remain neutral arguing that Spain could not afford a new war, but, as a concession to his civil war backer, authorised volunteers to go to the Russian front to fight the Soviet Union in an anti-Communist crusade in what came to be known as the Blue Division. The resentment of Franco's brutality towards the more modern pro-Republican regions of Catalonia and the Basque country, whose distinctive languages and identity he suppressed during his long reign, continues to fuel strong separatist movements to this day. The only official party in Spain at the time of Franco´s regime was the Falange party founded by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Primo de Rivera denied his party was fascist, calling fascism fundamentaly false. His political philosophy was based on Catholicism, saying that man "carries eternal values" and carries "a soul that is capable of damning or saving itself". He called for "the greatest respect for...human dignity, for the integrity of man and for his liberty." Primo de Rivera called for what he called "organic democracy". Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in Alicante in 1936. After World War II, being one of few surviving fascist regimes in Europe, Spain was politically and economically isolated and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when it became strategically important for U.S. president Eisenhower to establish a military presence in the Iberian peninsula. This opening to Spain was aided by Franco's opposition to communism. In the 1960s, more than a decade later than other western European countries, Spain began to enjoy economic growth and gradually transformed into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector. Growth continued well into the 1970s, with Franco's government going to great lengths to shield the Spanish people from the effects of the oil crisis. Upon the death of the dictator General Franco in November 1975, his personally-designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, some regions — Basque Country, Navarra— were given complete financial autonomy, and many — Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia— were given some political autonomy, which was then soon extended to all Spanish regions, resulting in a quite decentralized territorial organization in Western Europe. Remaining dysfunctionalities, such as unlimited financial strain on contributor regions such as Catalonia make their people aim for a more equilibrated system, such as those enjoyed in Germany, where finantial contribution to the whole can never exceed 4% of a Land's GDP. In the Basque Country pro-peace Basque and Spanish nationalisms coexist with radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA, which remains one of the biggest problems faced by Spanish citizens. Adolfo Suárez González, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Bustelo, after an attempted coup d'état in 1981, Felipe González Márquez (when Spain joined NATO and European Union), José María Aznar López and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have been prime ministers of Spain.

21st century

On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. These resulted in 191 people dead and 1,460 wounded. It also had a significant effect on the upcoming elections in Spain, due in part to the ruling government's insistence that the ETA was the prime suspect in the bombings, even as the evidence of Muslim extremist terrorism rapidly emerged from the police investigation and the international press. see the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings article for more information :See also: List of Spanish monarchs, Kings of Spain family tree

Politics

Main article: Politics of Spain Politics of Spain.]] Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections. The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms. Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997. The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians and police. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments. On 17 May 2005, all the parties in the Congress of Deputies, except the PP, passed the Central Government's motion of beginning peace talks with the ETA with no political concessions and only if it gives up all its weapons. PSOE, CiU, ERC, PNV, IU-ICV, CC and the mixed group -BNG, CHA, EA y NB- supported it with a total of 192 votes, while the 147 PP parliamentaris objected. On February 20th 2005, Spain became the first country to allow its people to vote on the European Union constitution that was signed in October 2004. The rules states that if any country rejects the constitution then the constitution will be declared void. The final result was very strongly in affirmation of the constitution, making Spain the first country to approve the constitution via referendum (Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia approved it before Spain, but they did not hold referenda).

Administrative divisions

Administratively, Spain is divided into 50 provinces, grouped into 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities with high degree of autonomy.

Autonomous communities

autonomous communities Main article: Autonomous communities of Spain Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas) and 2 autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas; Ceuta and Melilla).
- Andalusia (Andalucía)
- Aragon (Aragón)
- Principality of Asturias (Principáu d'Asturies in Asturian/Principado de Asturias in Spanish)
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears in Catalan / Islas Baleares in Spanish)
- Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque/País Vasco in Spanish)
- Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
- Cantabria
- Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
- Castile and Leon (Castilla y León in Spanish)
- Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan/Cataluña in Spanish/ Catalunha in Aranese)
- Extremadura
- Galicia (Galicia or Galiza in Galician)
- La Rioja
- Madrid
- Murcia
- Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque/Navarra in Spanish)
- Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana in Valencian /Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, as official denominations).

Provinces

Main article: Provinces of Spain The Spanish kingdom is also divided into 50 provinces (provincias). Autonomous communities group provinces (for instance, Extremadura is made of two provinces: Cáceres and Badajoz). The autonomous communities of Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarre, Murcia, and Madrid (the nation's capital) are each composed of a single province. Traditionally, provinces are usually subdivided into historic regions or comarcas (main article: Comarcas of Spain).

Places of sovereignty

There are also five enclaves (plazas de soberanía) on and off the African coast: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are administered as autonomous cities, an intermediate status between cities and communities; the islands of the Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are under direct Spanish administration. The Canary islands, Ceuta and Melilla, although not officially historic communities, enjoy a special status.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Spain Geography of Spain Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tajo, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, Júcar and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found. Spain's climate can be divided in four areas:
- The Mediterranean: mostly temperate in the eastern and southern part of the country; rainy seasons are spring and autumn. Mild summers with pleasant temperatures. Hot records: Murcia 47.2 °C, Malaga 44.2 °C, Valencia 42.5 °C, Alicante 41.4 °C, Palma of Mallorca 40.6 °C, Barcelona 39.8 °C. Low records: Gerona -13.0 °C, Barcelona -10.0 °C, Valencia -7.2 °C, Murcia -6.0 °C, Alicante -4.6 °C, Malaga -3.8 °C.
- The interior: Very cold winters (frequent snow in the north) and hot summers. Hot records: Sevilla 47.0 °C, Cordoba 46.6 °C, Badajoz 45.0 °C, Albacete and Zaragoza 42.6 °C, Madrid 42.2 °C, Burgos 41.8 °C, Valladolid 40.2 °C. Low records: Albacete -24.0 °C, Burgos -22.0 °C, Salamanca -20.0 °C, Teruel -19.0 °C, Madrid -14.8 °C, Sevilla -5.5 °C.
- Northern Atlantic coast: precipitations mostly in winter, with mild summers (slightly cold). Hot records: Bilbao 42.0 °C, La Coruña 37.6 °C, Gijón 36.4 °C. Low records: Bilbao -8.6 °C, Oviedo -6.0 °C, Gijon and La Coruña -4.8 °C.
- The Canary Islands: subtropical weather, with mild temperatures (18 °C to 24 °C Celsius) throughout the year. Hot records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 42.6 °C. Low records: Santa Cruz de Tenerife 8.1 °C.

Most populous metropolitan areas

Celsius Celsius # Madrid 5 603 285 # Barcelona 5 328 395 # Valencia 1 465 423 # Sevilla 1 294 081 # Málaga 1 019 292 For a more complete list, see List of cities in Spain List of cities in Spain

Territorial disputes

Territories claimed by Spain

Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar, a tiny British possession on its southern coast. It changed hands during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704 and was ceded to Britain in perpetuity in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Spanish territories claimed by other countries

Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the uninhabited Vélez, Alhucemas, Chafarinas, and Perejil islands, all on the Northern coast of Africa. Morocco points out that those territories were obtained when Morocco could not do anything to prevent it and has never signed treaties ceding them. Portugal does not recognize Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza. Spain and Portugal disagree on the interpretation of the outputs of the Congress of Vienna (1815), which according to Portugal stated the return of the territory to Portugal. Spain claims it is a de jure sovereignty according to International law.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Spain Economy of Spain Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 87% that of the four leading West European economies. The centre-right government of former Prime Minister Aznar successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency, the euro, on 1 January 1999. The Aznar administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization, and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the Aznar administration but remains high at 9.8% as of August 2005 - but this (still unacceptable) level must be seen in the light of levels of over 20% at the start of the 1990s. Growth of 2.4% in 2003 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European economy, and has steadied since at an annualised rate of about 3.3% in mid 2005. The Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero, whose party won the election three days after the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, plans to reduce government intervention in business, combat tax fraud, and support innovation, research and development, but also intends to reintroduce labour market regulations that had been scrapped by the Aznar government. Adjusting to the monetary and other economic policies of an integrated Europe - and reducing unemployment - will pose challenges to Spain over the next few years. According to [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP.pdf World Bank GDP figures]from 2004, Spain has the 8th largest economy in the world. There is general concern that Spain's model of economic growth (based largely on mass tourism, the construction industry, and manufacturing sectors) is faltering and may prove unsustainable over the long term. The first report of the Observatory on Sustainability (Observatorio de Sostenibilidad) - published in 2005 and funded by Spain's Ministry of the Environment and Alcalá University - reveals that the country's per capita GDP grew by 25% over the last ten years, while greenhouse gas emissions have risen by 45% since 1990. Although Spain's population grew by less than 5% between 1990 and 2000, urban areas expanded by no less than 25% over the same period. Meanwhile, Spain's energy consumption has doubled over the last 20 years and is currently rising by 6% per annum. This is particularly worrying for a country whose dependence on imported oil (meeting roughly 80% of Spain's energy needs) is one of the greatest in the EU. Large-scale unsustainable development is clearly visible along Spain's Mediterranean coast in the form of housing and tourist complexes, which are placing severe strain on local land and water resources.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain Demographics of Spain The Spanish Constitution, although affirming the sovereignty of the Spanish Nation, recognizes historical nationalities. The Castilian-derived Spanish (called both español and castellano in the language itself) is the official language throughout Spain, but other regional languages are also spoken. Without mentioning them by name, the Spanish Constitution recognizes the possibility of regional languages being co-official in their respective autonomous communities. The following languages are co-official with Spanish according to the appropriate Autonomy Statutes.
- Catalan (català) in Catalonia (Catalunya), the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), Valencia (València) and Aragon's eastern strip (Aragó).
- Basque (euskara) in Basque Country (Euskadi), and parts of Navarre (Nafarroa). Basque is not known to be related to any other language.
- Galician (galego) in Galicia (Galicia or Galiza).
- Occitan (the Aranese dialect). Spoken in the Vall d'Aran in Catalonia. Catalan, Galician, Aranese (Occitan) and Spanish (Castilian) are all descended from Latin and have their own dialects, some championed as separate languages by their speakers (the Valencià of València, a dialect of Catalan, is one example). There are also some other surviving Romance minority languages: Asturian / Leonese, in Asturias and parts of Leon, Zamora and Salamanca, and the Extremaduran in Caceres and Salamanca, both descendants of the historical Astur-Leonese dialect; the Aragonese or fabla in part of Aragon; the fala, spoken in three villages of Extremadura; and some Portuguese dialectal towns in Extremadura and Castile-Leon. However, unlike Catalan, Galician, and Basque, these do not have any official status. In the touristic areas of the Mediterranean costas and the islands, German and English are spoken by tourists, foreign residents and tourism workers. Many linguists claim that most of the Spanish language variants spoken in Latin America (Mexican, Argentinian, Colombian, Peruvian, etc. variants) descended from the Spanish spoken in southwestern Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura and Canary Islands).

Identities

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation. But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting. Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros). The opposite is the case of a large part of Catalans, Basques and, in some measure, Galicians, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. For example, according to the last CIS survey, 44% of Basques identify themselves first as Basques (only 8% first as Spaniards); 40% of Catalans do so with their autonomous community (20% identify firstly with Spain), and 32% Galicians with Galicia (9% with Spain). Even more remarkable, almost all comunities have a majority of people identifying as much with Spain as with the Autonomous Community (except Madrid, where Spain is the primary identity, and Catalonia, Basque Country and Balearics, where people tend to identity more with their Autonomous Community). Even Castille-Leon has 57% of people regarding themselves as much Spaniards as they are Castillians. The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands. Spain became a unified crown with the union of Castile and Aragon in 1492 and the annexation of Navarre in 1515. Until 1714, Spain was a loose confederation of kingdoms and statelets under one king, until King Philip V (Felipe V) removed the autonomous status of the Aragonese crown. Navarre and the Basque Provinces, however, kept a high degree of autonomy within their legal and financial system (Fueros). Moreover, the creation of a unified state in the 19th and 20th centuries has led to the present situation, which is apparently simple, but sometimes extremely confusing. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936), Catalonia and the Basque country were given limited self-government, which was lost after the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and restored in 1978 during the transition to democracy. [http://www.cis.es/File/ViewFile.aspx?FileId=1712 Survey of the latest CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) survey from which concrete data of this article have been extracted]

Minority groups

Since the 16th century, the most important minority group in the country have been the Gitanos. Other historical minorities are Mercheros (or Quinquis) and Vaqueiros de alzada. The latter, meaning "Mountain cow-breeders" dwell in mountain ranges in the Principality of Asturias and have kept historically apart from the valley dwellers. The number of immigrants or foreign residents has tripled to 3.69 million in less than five years, according the latest figures (2005) of National Statics Institute. They currently make up around 8.5 per cent of the official total population. The rise of population in Spain in recent years was largely due to them. Nearly half of all immigrants have neither residence nor work permits. According to [http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/hispanic/world_international/pns_immigration_shift_1204.asp Imdiversity.com (2003 statistics)], the largest foreign minorities are Romanian(500,000 - 1,000,000 unnoficially) Ecuadorians (375 000), Moroccans (365 846), Argentines (300,000) Colombia

1879

1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-March

- January - The current constitution of The State of California, US was ratified.
- January 2 - Fred Spofforth claims the first Hat-trick in test cricket.
- January 11 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
- January 22 - Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting.
- February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
- February 14 - At Antofagasta, Chile: Chilean troops disembark in this port, then Bolivian. This is the beginning of the War of the Pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Peru and Bolivia.
- February 15 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
- February 22 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
- March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created
- March 13 - Marriage of The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, to Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.
- March 14 - Albert Einstein: German-born physicist who would go on to revolutionize modern Physics.
- March 29 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

May-December

- May 26 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
- May 30 - New York City's Gilmores Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
- May 30 - A F4 tornado struck Irving, Kansas, killing 18 people and injuring 60.
- July 4 - Taughannock Giant unearthed on the shore of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York (later proven to be a hoax).
- July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots-up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
- August 21 - Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared in Knock to local people.
- October 7 - Dual Alliance formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary
- October 21 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
- December 28 - The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
- December 30 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
- December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time (Menlo Park, New Jersey).

Unknown dates

- Hall effect discovered by Dr. Edwin Hall.
- Somerville College founded.
- Stefan-Boltzmann law discovered by Jožef Stefan.
- Football first played in Shepshed.
- Irish Lang League convinces tenants of Charles Boycott and neighboring townsfolk to isolate him by noncooperation - first boycott
- Ferdinand Cheval begins to build his Palais Idéal in France

Births

January-April

- January 1 - E. M. Forster, English writer (d. 1970)
- January 3 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
- January 12 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (d. 1968)
- January 13 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (d. 1961)
- January 28 - Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d. 1953)
- February 22 - J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (d. 1947)
- February 26 - Frank Bridge, English composer (d. 1941)
- March 8 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- March 14 - Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
- March 26 - Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born engineer (d. 1965)
- March 30 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)
- April 20 - Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)
- April 26 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- April 29 - Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor (d. 1961)

May-December

- May 6 - Bedřich Hrzony´, Czech orientalist and linguist (d. 1952)
- May 17 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)
- May 19 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)
- May 19 - Viscount Waldorf Astor, British businessman and politician (d. 1952)
- May 22 - Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born stage and film actress (d. 1945)
- May 23 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d. 1966)
- May 25 - Max Aitken, Canadian-born statesman and newspaper baron (d. 1964)
- July 1 - Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
- July 5 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (d. 1959)
- August 13 - John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
- August 31 - Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd Emperor of Japan (d. 1926)
- September 2 - An Jung-geun, assassin of the Japanese politician Ito Hirobumi (d. 1910)
- September 14 - Margaret Sanger, American birth control advocate (d. 1966)
- September 15 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1939)
- September 20 - Victor Sjöström, Swedish film actor and director (d. 1960)
- October 2 - Wallace Stevens, American poet (d. 1955)
- October 3 - Warner Oland, Swedish-born actor (d. 1938)
- October 5 - Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1970)
- October 9 - Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
- October 21 - Joseph Canteloube, French composer and singer (d. 1957)
- October 29 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (d. 1940)
- November 10 - Patrick Pearse Irish patriot (d. 1916)
- November 26 - Charles W. Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (d. 1951)
- December 3 - Nagai Kafu, Japanese writer (d. 1959)
- December 10 - Jouett Shouse, American politician.
- December 18 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist (d. 1940)
- December 28 - Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (d. 1936)

Deaths

- February 11 - Honoré Daumier, French caricaturist and painter (b. 1808)
- February 25 - Charles Peace, British criminal (executed) (b. 1832)
- March 1 - Joachim Heer, Swiss politician (b. 1825)
- March 30 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)
- April 30 - Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (b. 1788)
- June 1 - Napoleon Eugene, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (b. 1856)
- August 30 - John Bell Hood, America Confederate general (b. 1831)
- November 5 - James Clark Maxwell, Scottish physicist (b. 1831) Category:1879 ko:1879년 ms:1879 simple:1879 th:พ.ศ. 2422

Manchester

Manchester is a city in the North West of England. The place is named from the old British name Mamucium plus ceaster, derived from the old Latin ‘Castra’. Manchester is a metropolitan borough with city status. The city has a population of 437,000 and is situated in the county of Greater Manchester which has a population of 2,539,000. It is one of England’s core cities and is regarded by some as England’s second city, a title also claimed by Birmingham. The name ‘Manchester’ is often used to refer to the entire metropolis, much as ‘London’ is usually used to mean Greater London, but many of the constituent parts of this conurbation are substantial and separate towns (a city in the case of Salford) that retain strong identities. People from Manchester are called Mancunians.

Geography and climate

Manchester is situated in a bowl shaped land area, bordered to the north and east by the Pennine moors and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. The city centre is located on the River Irwell, near the confluence of two other rivers, the River Medlock and the River Irk. The River Mersey also flows through the south of the city. Much of the inner city is flat, offering extensive views of the moors from the floors of many tall buildings. It has some geographic features which were influential in its early development as an industrial city. These are its climate, its proximity to a sea port at Liverpool, the availabilty of water power from its rivers, and nearby coal reserves. Manchester has a damp climate and a reputation as a rainy city. The average annual rainfall is 809 mm, meaning that this reputation is relatively undeserved. This total is less than Plymouth, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Edinburgh for example. In international terms, Manchester receives substantially less rain than New York City, which receives 1200 mm of rain in an average year and the average annual rainfall total is comparable with that of Rome.

History

Rome]

Earlier history

The Manchester area was settled in Roman times: General Agricola called a fort he set up there Mamucium, meaning ‘breast-shaped hill’. A facsimile of a Roman fort exists in Castlefield, in the city centre. In the 14th century, Manchester became home to a community of Flemish weavers who settled in the town to produce wool and linen, beginning the tradition of cloth manufacture. Manchester remained a small market town until the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 18th century. Its damp climate was ideal for cotton processing and with the development of steam-powered engines for spinning and weaving, the cotton industry quickly developed throughout the region (eg. Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire). Manchester quickly grew into the most important industrial centre in the world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Manchester was an important seat of radical, reformist politics. A famous meeting, held in furtherance of parliamentary reform, took place in St Peter’s Field on 16 August 1819. This resulted in a civil commotion and the deaths of eleven people with over four hundred injured, as local magistrates, fearful of a large crowd, ordered cavalry armed with sabres to clear the area. The so-called Peterloo massacre became a cause célèbre for the reformers of that era. Manchester was a focus of the movement to reform the Corn Laws (the Anti Corn Law League (ACLL), set up in 1836 by Cobden and Bright) and later the Free Trade movement known as ‘The Manchester School’ or 'Manchesterism'. Manchester’s population exploded as people moved away from the surrounding countryside and into the city seeking new opportunities. Its growth was also aided by its proximity to Liverpool’s ports and the emerging canal and rail networks. Manchester became the world’s first industrial city and the model for industrial development throughout the western world. In 1838 Manchester, like many of the largest towns during this period, was incorporated as a municipal borough. City status for the borough was conferred in 1853. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy. In 1974 the county borough was abolished and the Metropolitan Borough of Manchester was created.

Recent history

At 11.20 am on Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA detonated a large bomb in the city centre. Whilst this bomb caused over 200 injuries, it caused no deaths and the principal damage was to the physical infrastructure of nearby buildings. The consequent reconstruction spurred a massive regeneration of the city centre, with complexes such as the Printworks and the Triangle creating new city focal points for both shopping and entertainment. This regeneration took almost a decade to complete, with the last part of the Arndale centre to be renovated opening in the Autumn of 2005. In 2002, the city successfully hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games, earning praise from many sources. The city has twice failed in its bid to host the Olympic Games, losing to Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. Rapidly developing institutions always attract crime and disorder, and Manchester is no exception (see main article crime and policing in Manchester). Since the regeneration after the 1996 PIRA attack and leading up to the XVII Commonwealth Games Manchester has changed significantly. Old 1960s focal points in the city centre were torn down in favour of a new more modern, upmarket look. Some areas, like Hulme, have undergone extensive regeneration programmes and many million-pound lofthouse apartments have since been developed to cater for its growing business class community.

Culture

Hulme]

Art

There are many art galleries in Manchester, notably:
- The Lowry in Salford Quays, which houses works by the Salford painter L. S. Lowry
- The Athenaeum
- Salford Museum and Art Gallery
- Manchester Art Gallery
- The Whitworth Art Gallery
- The Chinese Arts Centre
- Cornerhouse
- The Castlefield Gallery
- Cube Gallery
- Comme Ca Art Gallery
- The Barn Gallery

Museums

Museums in Manchester include:
- Greater Manchester Police Museum
- Imperial War Museum North
- Manchester Jewish Museum
- Manchester Museum
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Pankhurst Centre
- People’s History Museum
- Urbis, a museum of city life

Classical music

Manchester is home to two symphony orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. There is also a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata. For many years the city’s main classical venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street. Since 1996, however, Manchester has had a modern 2,500 seat concert venue called the Bridgewater Hall, which is also home to the Hallé Orchestra. The hall is one of the country’s most technically advanced classical music and lecture venues, with an acoustically designed interior and suspended foundations for an optimum sound. Other venues for classical concerts include the RNCM, the Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester Cathedral. Manchester is a centre for musical education, being home to the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music. In the 1950s the city was home to the so-called ‘Manchester School’ of classical composers, which comprised Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr.

Popular music

For Mancunians, the popular musical heritage of the city has always been a source of great pride. The city’s eclectic mix of music has created the sense among its inhabitants that Manchester is the most important city in world music. Local groups have included The Hollies, 10cc, Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order (both on local label Factory Records), The Smiths, The Fall, M People, Oasis and the "Madchester" scene bands the Happy Mondays, The Inspiral Carpets, James and The Stone Roses. Manchester’s main popular music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, which seats over 21,000 and is the largest arena of its type in Europe, going on to be voted International Arena of the Year, beating New York’s Madison Square Garden. Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. The many smaller venues throughout the city, such as the Bierkeller, the Roadhouse and Night and Day Cafe, ensure that Manchester’s music scene is always vibrant and interesting.

Literature

Famous writers from the Manchester area include Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess, the author of A Clockwork Orange. W. G. Sebald lived in Manchester when he first came to England, and the city features prominently in his novel The Emigrants. Jeff Noon, the author of Vurt, writes novels which take place in Manchester. Charles Dickens was known to visit the city, and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are known to have found much to inspire their thoughts and writing when visiting the city during the Industrial Revolution. Manchester is home to the Manchester Metropolitan University Writers School, one of the top creative writing schools in the country. The Writer's Bureau - a private company set up to help new freelance writers through its home-study courses - also runs its offices from the city.

Theatre

Manchester is noted for its excellent theatres. Larger venues include the Opera House, a commercial theatre promoting large scale touring shows which regularly plays host to touring West End shows, the Palace Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre, a large producing theatre located in Manchester’s former cotton exchange. The Library Theatre is a small producing theatre situated in the basement of the city’s central library and the Lowry is a large touring venue in Salford. Smaller sites include the Green Room, which focuses on fringe productions and Contact Theatre, a theatre for young people with a bold contemporary design. The Dancehouse is a theatre dedicated to dance productions. The city is also home to two highly-regarded drama schools; The Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre and the Arden School of Theatre. In addition the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has 4 theatre spaces especially noted for its opera and classical music productions.

Media

Television and radio

ITV franchisee Granada Television has its original headquarters on Quay Street in the Castlefield area of the city. The city is the main UK television production centre outside London and is where programmes including Coronation Street and many Children’s ITV presentations are produced. The BBC has its headquarters for Northern England in New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in the south of the city. Programmes including A Question of Sport, Mastermind and Real Story are made from here, and the BBC intend to braodcast several more programmes from Manchester by 2010, once they have found larger offices and relocated staff. Manchester has its own television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group and operated since 2000. It has several local radio stations including BBC GMR, Key 103, Galaxy, Piccadilly Magic 1152, 105.4 Century FM , 100.4 Smooth FM, Capital Gold 1458 and Xfm. There is also a community radio network coordinated by Radio Regen, and with stations covering the South Manchester communities of Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (ALL FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2)

Newspapers

The Guardian newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Its head office is in Manchester, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964. It still shares a Manchester office on Deansgate with its sister publication, the Manchester Evening News, Manchester’s biggest-selling daily paper. Free commuting papers include Manchester Evening News Lite and Metro North West, both of which are available from Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations across the city at rush-hour.

Gay and lesbian

Manchester has the UK’s largest gay population outside of London, and is renowned for its gay village; centred around the Canal Street area the gay village is home to various gay shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. On the last weekend in August it hosts the Manchester Pride Festival (previously known as Mardi Gras and Gayfest). Manchester’s gay culture was brought to mainstream attention in 1999 by the acclaimed and controversial Channel 4 drama series Queer as Folk, which was set in the village. The year round [http://www.manchesterpride.com/whatson.asp?ID=96 gay and lesbian heritage trail] exhibits Manchester’s gay history. Manchester’s claim to status of gay capital of the UK was strengthened in 2003 when it played host city to the annual Europride festival.

Education

Universities

Manchester is home to two universities: The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. The former is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in Britain, and was created in autumn 2004 by the merger between the former Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. Within nearby Salford is the University of Salford, which is within 2 miles of Manchester City Centre. Together with the University of Bolton and the Royal Northern College of Music nearby, these give the area a student population in excess of 73,000, one of the largest in Europe. Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music are grouped together on the southern side of the city centre, and effectively form one large campus.

Sport

Royal Northern College of Music Sport and especially football are an important part of Manchester culture. Two major football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, bear the city’s name. Manchester City play at the City of Manchester Stadium, while Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground, the largest club football ground in England, is just outside the city proper in the borough of Trafford. These football teams are just two examples: according to the Urbis centre, Greater Manchester has the highest concentration of football clubs per capita of anywhere in the world. Other football teams in Greater Manchester include Oldham Athletic, Stockport County, Bury, Wigan Athletic, Rochdale, Bolton Wanderers and F.C. United of Manchester. Many first class sporting facilities were built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, including the Manchester Velodrome, the City of Manchester Stadium, the National Squash Centre and the Manchester Aquatics Centre. Old Trafford cricket ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club, hosts many first-class cricket and important international matches including Test Matches. The Manchester area is also represented in rugby union by Sale Sharks, who currently play their home games at Edgeley Park in Stockport and Manchester R.C.; and in Rugby League by Wigan Warriors, who share the JJB Stadium with Wigan Athletic, and Salford City Reds, who are currently in the process of constructing a new state-of-the-art stadium not far from Manchester City Centre.

Transport and infrastructure

Salford City Reds

Air

Manchester International Airport, formerly Manchester Ringway Airport, is the third busiest airport in the UK in terms of passengers per year and is served by a dedicated railway station. In 2002 the airport handled 19 million passengers and provided direct flights to over 180 destinations worldwide by over 90 airlines. The airport has been voted the best airport in the UK by: Which Consumer Magazine, Travel Weekly Globe, Business Magazines International and in the Airport World’s Service Excellence Awards (European runner up, 2nd only to Copenhagen).

Road

The main roads serving Manchester are the M56, M6, M61, M62 and M66 motorways. Most of these routes link onto the M60, Manchester’s orbital motorway.

Railway

The city has two main city centre stations, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly, linking Manchester to other places in the United Kingdom. High speed trains to London are run from Manchester Piccadilly by Virgin Trains. There are also several smaller stations around the city centre, including Manchester Oxford Road, Deansgate and Salford Central. The urban and suburban areas are covered by a sizeable network of rail lines, including lines to Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wilmslow.

Metrolink

Manchester has a tram system called Metrolink. Operated by Serco, Metrolink links the city centre to Altrincham, Eccles and Bury. It is a high-frequency service, with trams running every 6–12 minutes. It carries nearly 20 million passengers each year. Plans to extend Manchester Metrolink were resurrected after an election-time U-turn by the Labour government which had rejected the plans months earlier. GMPTE (the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for the Greater Manchester area) is leading the fight to ensure that the extensions are built, with significant support from local councils and community. If the desired system (nicknamed the big bang) is completed, passenger numbers will more than double to an estimated 50 million per year.

Buses

Manchester and the surrounding area have an extensive bus network, with regular services in and out of the city connecting to all the satellite towns and villages. Maps of bus routes and a public transport journey planner for the Greater Manchester can be found on the [http://www.gmpte.com GMPTE website]. The city’s buses are operated by a range of companies including First, Stagecoach (incorporating the lower-cost Magicbus), Finglands, UK North, and R. Bullock. Most major routes are well provided for, including Oxford Road/Wilmslow Road, one of the busiest routes in Europe, bringing large numbers of students from Fallowfield and Withington to the two universities that have campuses scattered around the city centre. First Manchester also operates free Metroshuttle services which link important areas of the city like Manchester Victoria, Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations with Chinatown, Deansgate, Salford Central, and Albert Square. These services are very successful and therefore often busy. They run every 5-10 Minutes and are divided in to three routes, complement the Metrolink and National Rail services and link them with the city’s car parks, tourist attractions and Bus Termini. High frequency bendy bus routes include the Bury-Manchester 135 service and the Bolton-Manchester 8 service, which operate every six minutes.

Water

One legacy of the industrial revolution is an extensive network of canals: the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal, Rochdale Canal, Manchester Ship Canal which provides access to the sea, Bridgewater Canal, Ashton Canal and the Leigh Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Today, most of these canals are used for recreation. The Manchester is supplied by water by the numerous artificial lakes, built on the former small rivers around the city. In some cases these lakes form a long chains, as in Longdendale. In the past, this city also had a ‘pressurised water’ power supply system, a predecessor of the modern electricity network.

Commerce

Shopping

Manchester is one of the main retail centres of the North. There are two large shopping centres; the Arndale Centre in the middle of the city and the out-of-town Trafford Centre which includes food hall, multi-screen cinema and Namco games centre. Other shopping centres include the Triangle (formerly known as the Corn Exchange Building) which caters for a more youthful and upmarket clientele and the Royal Exhange Centre. The city also contains two Selfridges, a Harvey Nichols, and the UK’s flagship Marks and Spencer store. There is a large John Lewis department store situated to the south at Cheadle. There is also a range of designer clothing stores, with the Triangle centre housing several. Affleck’s Palace is a building providing low-cost stalls for independent traders and creatives. Affleck’s is located on Oldham Street, in the Northern Quarter, along with a range of independent music, clothing and other shops.

Food and drink

Manchester has a vibrant and exciting range of restaurants, bars and clubs, spanning the famous curry mile in Rusholme to traditional ‘grub’, China Town, modern bars and bistros at Deansgate Lock in the city centre. Regional favourites include the Eccles cake and the traditional pie capital of the UK is supposedly at the heart of Wigan, 15 miles outside the city. There is a Hard Rock Cafe, chain restaurants such as Wagamama and bars that include Waxy O’Connors and The Living Room. The coffee chain Starbucks has 12 outlets in a 2 mile radius. Other, independent restaurants, bars and clubs can be found in the Northern Quarter area of the city centre. Manchester is also famous for its beer. Although ‘The Cream of Manchester’, Boddingtons has left the city, there are still many international, local and independent breweries operating in the Greater Manchester area. The scene set in Coronation Street of real northern life with a traditional English pub can also be found in the region.

Places of interest

Architecture

Coronation Street found in Manchester and is the home of [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/ Manchester City Council] ]] Coronation Street Coronation Street Coronation Street Manchester has a wide variety of buildings mainly from Victorian architecture through to modern. Much of the architecture in the city harks back to its former days as a global centre for the cotton trade. Many warehouses have now been converted for other uses but the external appearance remains mostly unchanged so the city maintains much of its original character. Structures of interest in Manchester include:
- The Corn Exchange (now the Triangle shopping centre)
- The G-Mex Centre
- Imperial War Museum North by Daniel Libeskind and Lowry Footbridge
- Beetham Tower, due for completion in 2006
- John Rylands Library, Deansgate
- London Road Fire Station
- Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, by E. Vincent Harris
- Manchester Town Hall by Alfred Waterhouse, extended by E. Vincent Harris
- Midland Bank building (now HSBC), King Street by Sir Edwin Lutyens
- The Midland Hotel
- Piccadilly Gardens by Tadao Ando
- The Portico Library
- The Royal Exchange
- South Manchester Synagogue
- Strangeways Prison by Waterhouse
- Sunlight House
- Trinity Bridge over River Irwell by Santiago Calatrava
- Victoria Station
- The Victoria Baths

Skyline

The tallest skyscraper in the United Kingdom outside London is currently under construction in Manchester: the 47 storey Beetham Hilton tower, on Deansgate is due for completion in late 2006. As of 2005, the tallest building in Manchester is the CIS Tower. Another skyscraper, even taller than the Beetham Hilton tower, has been approved and will be built near Manchester Piccadilly station.

Public monuments

Within Manchester there are monuments to several people and events that have helped to shape the city and influence the wider community. The Alan Turing Memorial situated in Sackville Park close to Canal street remembers the farther of modern computing and the Albert Memorial, Albert Square, by Thomas Worthington is in memory of Queen Victoria’s consort. Queen Victoria is also remembered by Edward Onslow Ford’s Queen Victoria statue in Piccadilly Gardens. The success of the 2002 Commonwealth Games is commemorated by B of the Bang, Britain’s tallest sculpture, located near the City of Manchester Stadium. A monument to Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Square marks the cotton famine of 1861 - 1865.

Streets and plazas

Manchester has a number of busy squares, plazas and shopping streets. In the city center Deansgate has many shops, including the department store House of Fraser (formerly Kendals), along with pubs and bars, while King Street is an affluent shopping area with many original notable buildings preserved in a conservation area. Canal Street, is the center of Manchesters Gay Village and home to may pubs and bars. Two large squares, Albert Square, in front of Manchester Town Hall, and Piccadilly Gardens, the original site of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, are public plazas that hold many of Manchester’s public monuments. To the south of the city center, Wilmslow Road is the hub of much student life and is home to Manchester’s curry mile. Other notible places in Manchester include:
- Exchange Square featuring a BBC Big Screen
- Portland Street
- Great Northern Square
- Spring Gardens
- Cathedral Gardens
- Market Street
- St Peters Square
- St Ann’s Square
- New Cathedral Street

Religion

The Anglican Diocese of Manchester was established in 1847. Manchester lies within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford (part of the Archdiocese of Liverpool). Manchester is in the Central North Division of the Salvation Army. Manchester has the largest Jewish community outside of the capital and there is a large Muslim population.
- See also: The Salvation Army in Manchester

Government

Greater Manchester

The metropolitan county of Greater Manchester is made up of 10 metropolitan boroughs:
- Trafford
- Tameside
- Bury
- Bolton
- Oldham
- Wigan
- Rochdale
- Stockport
- City of Manchester
- City of Salford Towns in the Manchester urban area include Salford, Sale, Altrincham, Cheadle, Stockport, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Glossop, Stockport, Middleton and Stretford. Places like Trafford and Salford can be considered part of the Manchester urban area in a way that Wigan or Bolton are not. The centre of Salford is adjacent to the centre of Manchester, with only the River Irwell separating the two.

Political divisions

The City of Manchester is divided into 32 wards. See Manchester City Council.

Law enforcement

Manchester and its metropolitan conurbation are policed by Greater Manchester Police who are based at Manchester’s Chester House Police Station. Manchester’s railways are policed by the nationwide British Transport Police.

References

Print

- Manchester architecture
- Manchester. Clare Hartwell. Pevsner Architectural Guides ISBN 0300096666
- Manchester: A guide to recent architecture. David Hands and Sarah Parker. Ellipsis. ISBN 1899858776
- Manchester - an Architectural History John Parkinson Bailey. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719056063
- General
- The City Life Guide to Manchester: 6th edition. ISBN 0954446070
- The Mancunian Way Published by Clinamen Press ISBN 1903083818
- Manchester - a Celebration. Brian Redhead. André Deutsch Limited, London. ISBN 0233988165
- Victorian Manchester & Salford. Published in 1988 by Ryburn Publishing Limited. ISBN 1853310069
- Manchester culture
- Morrissey's Manchester: The Essential Smiths Tour Phil Gatenby ISBN 1901746283
- Manchester, England. The story of the pop cult city. Dave Haslam ISBN 1841151467
- And God Created Manchester. Sarah Champion. Wordsmith. ISBN 1873205015
- The Hacienda Must be Built. Edited by Jon Savage. International Music Publications ISBN 0863598579
- Shake, Rattle and Rain - Popular Music in Manchester 1955-1995. CP Lee ISBN 1843820498
- Like The Night - Bob Dylan and the road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall. CP Lee ISBN 1900924331

Online

- [http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ Manchester Online]
- [http://www.mori.com/ Market & Research Opinion International (MORI) official website]
- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ National Statistics Online]

Notes

# # # # This has since been converted into the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre, better known as G-Mex. # See [http://www.radioregen.org/ www.radioregen.org] # The busier airports are Heathrow and Gatwick. # Defined as a habitable building of whose height is at least 150m.

External links

- [http://www.visitmanchester.com Visit Manchester] Official tourist board for Greater Manchester
- [http://www.agma.gov.uk AGMA] The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities
- [http://www.manchester.gov.uk Manchester City Council]
- [http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk Manchester Online] Manchester Online by the Manchester Evening News: cinema, travel, tourist information and accommodation guide.
- [http://www.manchesterguide.com Manchester Guide] Manchester Guide, for everything that's going on in Manchester
- [http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/ Welcome to Manchester, England] Manchester the City and Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester
- [http://www.aidan.co.uk/photos1-.php Photos of Manchester, Salford & conurbation]
- [http://www.manchester-forum.co.uk/ Manchester Community Forum] Discuss all aspects of Manchester life
- [http://www.manchester.com/ Virtual Manchester] club, pub, restaurant, cinema guides, news and features about Manchester
- [http://www.manchestercivic.org.uk/ Manchester Civic Society] a charitable civic society ‘fostering a sense of pride in Manchester’
- [http://www.manchestercityhotels.co.uk/ Manchester Hotels]
- [http://www.manchester-eating.com/ Manchester Restaurant Guide]
- [http://www.lovemytown.co.uk/CityProfiles/Manchester/index.htm LoveMyTown - City of Manchester] civic pride facts and organisations in Manchester
- [http://manchester.openguides.org Open Guide to Manchester] another wiki guide to Manchester
- [http://www.itchymanchester.co.uk Itchy Manchester] Tourist guide catering for younger visitors
- [http://www.itsahotun.com/ homage to the Mancunian Films Studios]
- [http://www.touchmanchester.co.uk/ Manchester business directory]
- [http://www.manchestercomedy.com/ ManchesterComedy.com] Information about Manchester's busy comedy scene. Category:Cities in England Category:Railway towns in England Category:Metropolitan boroughs ja:マンチェスター zh-cn:曼彻斯特

Peace Bridge

The Peace Bridge () is an arch bridge that consists of five arched spans over the Niagara River and a Parker through-truss which spans the Black Rock Canal on the American side of the river. The total length of this bridge is 5,800 feet (1,770 m). The material used in the construction included 3,500 feet of steel work, 9,000 tons of structural steel and 800 tons of reinforcing steel in the concrete abutments. It was constructed as a highway bridge to address the needs of pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic which could not be accommodated by the International Railway Bridge that had been built in 1873. The Peace Bridge is an international bridge between Canada and the United States located at the north end of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River about 20 km (13 mi.) above Niagara Falls. It connects the City of Buffalo, New York and the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario It is operated by the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority. Ontario The building of the Peace Bridge was approved by the International Joint Commission on August 6, 1925. A major obstacle to building the bridge was the swift river current which averages 7.5 to 12 miles per hour. Construction began in 1925 and was completed in the spring of 1927. On June 1, 1927 the bridge was opened to the public although the official ceremony was held on August 7, 1927. The Peace Bridge was named to commemorate 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada. When the bridge opened Buffalo became the chief port of entry to Canada from the United States. At the time it was the only vehicular bridge on the Great Lakes from Niagara Falls to Minnesota. The bridge remains one of North America's important commercial ports. Four thousand trucks cross the Peace Bridge daily. The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority in 1997 announced plans for the building of a twin second bridge to be situated to the north of and beside the existing Peace Bridge. It is expected the new Peace Bridge will alleviate traffic congestion and increase daily vehicle traffic by at least 33 per cent. Legal challenges as well as concerns about the design and how costs will be paid have delayed the start of construction. Other nearby bridges that allow passage between the United States and Canada include the Rainbow Bridge, the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge. On the New York side, Interstate 190 has a direct northbound off-ramp (Exit 9) onto the Peace Bridge. On the Ontario side, the Queen Elizabeth Way begins after Canadian Customs. See also: List of bridges

External link

- [http://www.peacebridge.com/ Peace Bridge Authority] Category:Arch bridges Category:Bridges in Canada Category:Bridges in New York Category:Toll bridges in New York Category:Bridges completed in 1927 Category:Niagara River Category:Buffalo, New York Category:Buildings and Structures in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is an American city in western New York. With about 300,000 residents, it is the state's second-largest city, after New York City, and is the county seat of Erie County. (Coords: ) The Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan area has a population of 1.1 million. Despite its cold, industrial image, Buffalo is home to a diverse population and thriving arts, cultural, and nightlife scenes. Buffalo has gathered several nicknames over the years. The most common - The Queen City - refers to its position at the turn of the 20th century as the second-largest city on the Great Lakes, after Chicago, Illinois. Buffalo has also been called The Nickel City due to the appearance of a buffalo on the back of american nickels in the early part of the 20th century. The City of Good Neighbors refers to the spirit of its inhabitants. Distancing itself from its industrial past, Buffalo was named by Reader's Digest as the third cleanest city in America in 2005. In 2001 USA Today named Buffalo the winner of its "City with a Heart" contest, proclaiming it the nation's "friendliest city."

History

Origin of name

Curiously, the city's name arose not from the same-named animal, but from its location at the origin of the Niagara River. Some claim the name comes from the French "beau fleuve" ("beautiful river"). Other historians cite the fact that Buffalo Creek was so-named long before the naming of the city, and they suggest that the city's name more likely honors the Seneca Indian after whom this small waterway was named.

Early history of Buffalo

Most of western New York was granted by Charles II of England to the Duke of York (later known as James II of England), but the first European settlement in what is now Erie County was by the French, at the mouth of Buffalo Creek in 1758. Its buildings were destroyed a year later because of an impending British attack. The British took control of the entire region in 1763, at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. The first American to settle in present day Buffalo was Cornelius Winney, who set up a log cabin store there in 1789 for trading with the Native American community. Dutch investors purchased the area as part of the Holland Land Purchase, and parcels were sold through the Holland Land Company's office in Batavia, New York, starting in 1801. The village was initially called New Amsterdam. In 1808, the new Niagara County, New York was formed (including what is now Erie County), and newly renamed Buffalo became its county seat. By 1811, the predominantly Anglo-American village had grown to 500 people. village

The 19th century

Around 1804 the future city was planned by Joseph Ellicott, a principal agent of the Holland Land Company. His plan for the city included a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown and is one of only three completed radial street patterns in the U.S.A. In 1810 the Town of Buffalo was formed from the western part of the Town of Clarence while still part of Niagara County. On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, British troops and their Native American allies captured the village of Buffalo and burned much of it to the ground. Buffalo was rebuilt and re-established as a town in 1816. In 1818 the eastern part of the town was lost to form the Town of Amherst, and in 1839, the northern part of the Town of Buffalo became the Town of Black Rock. Upon the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo became the western end of the 524-mile waterway starting at New York City. At the time Buffalo had a population of about 2,400 people; with the increased commerce of the canal, the population boomed and Buffalo became a city in 1832. Buffalo was re-incorporated as a city in 1853, at which time it had some 10,000 people. The re-incorporation included the Village and Town of Black Rock, which had been Buffalo's early rival for the canal terminus. After the Canal's completion, thousands of pioneers to western United States debarked from Erie Canalboats to begin their western adventure from Buffalo. During their hiatus in Buffalo, many partook of the pleasures of Buffalo's infamous Canal Street district. Buffalo was a terminus of the Underground Railroad, an informal series of safe houses for runaway slaves who had escaped from the U. S. South in the mid-19th century. After hiding at the Michigan Street Baptist Church, the slaves could take a ferry to Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada and freedom. Several U.S. presidents have connections with Buffalo. Millard Fillmore took up permanent residence in Buffalo in 1822 before he became America's 13th president; he was also the first chancellor of the University of Buffalo (later University at Buffalo). Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, lived in Buffalo from 1854 until 1882, and served as Buffalo's mayor from 1882–1883. William McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and died in Buffalo on the 14th. Theodore Roosevelt was then sworn in on September 14th, 1901 at the Wilcox Mansion (now the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site), becoming one of the few presidents to be sworn in outside of Washington, D.C.. John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, was also born in Buffalo. Other historical personages of note include Nobel laureate Herbert Hauptmann, Iroquois leader Red Jacket, Wells Fargo founder William G. Fargo and Wilson Greatbatch, Inventor of the Pacemaker. Chief Justice of the United States

The 20th century

At the turn of the century, Buffalo was a growing city with a burgeoning economy. Immigrants came from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Poland to work in the steel and grain mills which had taken advantage of the city's critical location at the junction of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal. Hydroelectric power harnessed from nearby Niagara Falls made Buffalo the first American city to enjoy widespread electric power. Niagara Falls The opening of the Peace Bridge linking Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario on 7 August, 1927 was an occasion for significant celebrations. Those in attendance included Edward, Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII of the United Kingdom), his brother Prince Albert George (later George VI), British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, US Vice President Charles G. Dawes, and New York governor Alfred E. Smith. Buffalo's new City Hall was dedicated on July 1, 1932. The city's importance declined in the later 20th Century for several reasons, perhaps the most devastating being the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1957. Goods which had previously passed through Buffalo could now bypass it using a series of canals and locks, reaching the ocean via the St. Lawrence River. Another major toll on the city was the suburban migration trend, which occurred in many American cities at the time. The city, which boasted over half a million people at its peak, has seen its population decline by some 50 percent, as industries shut down and people left the Rust Belt for the more moderate winters and air-conditioned summers of the South and Southwest. The metropolitan area as a whole has not shrunk by nearly as much, but it is still one of the few metropolitan areas of over 1 million population that has been losing population. In November of 2005, Byron Brown was elected the first African-American Mayor of Buffalo. See also: List of mayors of Buffalo, New York

Geography

Buffalo is located on the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the beginning of the Niagara River, which flows northward over Niagara Falls and into Lake Ontario. It is located at 42°54'17" North, 78°50'58" West (42.904657, -78.849405). The city is geographically closer to Toronto, Canada than it is to any major US city. The city is opposite Fort Erie, Ontario in Canada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 136.0 km² (52.5 mi²). 105.2 km² (40.6 mi²) of it is land and 30.8 km² (11.9 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 22.66% water.

Climate

Buffalo has a perhaps undeserved reputation for severe weather. In fact, Buffalo is the sunniest and driest of any major city in the Northeast in the summer, but still receives enough rain to keep vegetation green and lush. Of course, this causes the area to be quite humid in late summer, which is why many residents have backyard pools and air conditioners, a fact that surprises many visitors, who expect Buffalo is all about snow and cold. A little known fact about air conditioning, is that it was invented in Buffalo at the Buffalo Forge Company on Broadway Street. Mr. Carrier worked for Buffalo Forge at the turn of the century and in 1904, he came up with the idea of passing forced air across a series of water misters to create conditioned air, which was then delivered throughout a building via air ducts. Mr. Carrier broke off his employment with Buffalo Forge after he perfected the air condenser which is how we condition air today, and moved his operation to Syracuse, New York where the Carrier Company still operates successfully. Winters are a bit longer than in other areas, and due to the lake effect, Buffalo averages more snowfall than most northern cities, but they are not extremely cold and include frequent thaws and rain as well. Ski country south of Buffalo receives about twice the amount of snow as the metro area each winter, making it one of the best winter recreation centers in the northeastern USA. The occasionally heavy snowfall in the region is caused by below-freezing winds blowing over the warmer water of Lake Erie. Often the resulting meandering "snow belts" are only ten or fifteen miles wide, with sun shining in one spot and raging lake effect snow falling only a mile or two away. Lake Erie is much shallower than the other Great Lakes, and portions often freeze over in the winter. When this occurs, lake effect snowfall ends. Perhaps the best known snow storm in Buffalo history is the Blizzard of '77. The city is an annual competitor for the Golden Snowball Award between large Upstate cities. Often obscured by media frenzy over winter snowstorms is the fact that Buffalo benefits from the moderating influence of Lake Erie. Its summers are delightful, with cooling southwest breezes from the lake tempering the warmest days. Buffalo's official weather station has never in recorded history logged a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more, one of only three major US city weather stations to have never recorded a triple-digit temperature (ironically, the other two are Miami, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii). The city has the highest per-capita number of private swimming pools of any major American city; and sailing, waterskiing, and swimming are popular summer pastimes, not to mention sport fishing, which has at its disposal one of the greatest varieties of fresh-water fish in the nation, in the Niagara River, Lake Erie, and tributary streams. These include walleye, perch, large- and small-mouth bass, trout and steelhead, northern pike, muskellunge, and imported salmon.

Demographics

Honolulu, Hawaii As of the census of 2000,the city had a total population of 292,648. Erie and Niagara Counties have a combined population of 1,170,111 (2000). At that time there were 292,648 people, 122,720 households, and 67,005 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,782.4/km² (7,205.8/mi²). There are 145,574 housing units at an average density of 1,384.1/km² (3,584.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 54.43% White, 37.23% African American, 0.77% Native American, 1.40% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 3.68% from other races, and 2.45% from two or more races. 7.54% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 122,720 households out of which 28.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.6% are married couples living together, 22.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 45.4% are non-families. 37.7% of all households are made up of individuals and 12.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.29 and the average family size is 3.07. In the city the population included 26.3% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 19.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 88.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.5 males. The median income for a household in the city is $24,536, and the median income for a family is $30,614. Males have a median income of $30,938 versus $23,982 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,991. 26.6% of the population and 23.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 38.4% of those under the age of 18 and 14.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Education

Buffalo is home to two State University of New York institutions, each the largest of their type in the system. Buffalo State College, a comprehensive college, and the University at Buffalo, the flagship university center of the State University of New York. The city also is home to Bryant and Stratton College, Daemen College, D'Youville College, Medaille College, Canisius College, and Trocaire College. A campus of Erie Community College and a site of Empire State College are also located in the downtown area. The Buffalo Public Schools are in a transitional phase in 2005. Many of the buildings are under renovation, while some schools will close. Declining enrollment due to charter schools have contributed to a failing system. Newly appointed Superintendent James Williams will be working to reverse this trend. The Buffalo Public School System also boasts the best academically performing high school in Western New York, the City Honors School. Originally built in 1912 as Masten Park High School, it sits atop the foundation of the original school that was built in 1895, but burned in 1912. The name was later changed in 1927 to Fosdick-Masten Park High School in honor of the first principal Frank Fosdick. The building was used as a girls vocational school from 1953 until 1980 when the City Honors School was moved from P.S. 17 on Main Street over to the current location.

Culture

Food

The Buffalo area's cuisine reflects Irish, Polish, Greek and American influences. Beef on Weck, Sahlen's hot dogs, Pierogi, and Haddock Fish Fries are among the local favorites. Teressa Bellissimo, the chef/owner of the city's Anchor Bar, first prepared the now-widespread chicken wing (Buffalo Wing) there on October 3,1964. Buffalo pizza is also of unique design; perhaps because Buffalo is geographically located halfway between New York City and Chicago, Illinois, the pizza made there is likewise about halfway between thin-crust New York style and deep-dish Chicago style. Several websites exist that will ship Buffalo pizza (and other local foods) anywhere in the country. Buffalo also has several specialty grocery stores in old ethnic neighborhoods and is home to an eclectic collection of cafes and restaurants that serve more cosmopolitan faire. Buffalo is home to several well-known food products companies. Whipped topping, later imitated by Cool Whip, was invented in Buffalo in 1945 by Robert E. Rich, Sr. The food company that produced this first whipped topping, Rich Products Corporation, is today a major employer in Buffalo. General Mills was organized in Buffalo, and Gold Medal brand flour, Wheaties, Bisquick, Betty Crocker mixes and Cheerios are produced there. Freezer Queen Foods, a well-known producer of frozen food dinners, also operates from the Buffalo waterfront.

Art

Buffalo is home to over 50 private and public art galleries, most notably the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, home to an world-class collection of Modern art. The local art scene is also serviced by the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, and countless small galleries and studios. Two street festivals - the Allentown Arts Festival and the Elmwood Festival of the Arts - bring thousands of people to the city to browse and purchase original artwork.

Architecture

Elmwood Festival of the Arts A plethora of architectural treasures exist in Buffalo, including: The largest intact system of parks and parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the country, including Delaware Park, said to be a model for Olmsted's Central Park in NYC. Buildings by famed American architects August Esenwein and Henry Hobson Richardson. The Guaranty Building, by Louis Sullivan, was one of the first steel-supported, curtain-walled buildings in the world, and its thirteen stories made it, at the time it was built, the tallest building in Buffalo.
The H.H. Richardson Complex is also located in Buffalo, originally The State Asylum for the Insane and Romanesque in style. Though currently in a state of serious disrepair, negotiations are underway to preserve this treasure.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, by Gordon Bunshaft. The creme-de-la-creme of Buffalo architecture, however, are several buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Darwin Martin House, George Barton House, William Heath House, The Graycliff Estate, as well as the now demolished Larkin Administration Building.

Nightlife

Last call is 4 am in Buffalo. Several distinct and thriving nightlife districts have grown around clusters of bars and nightclubs in the City. The most visible nightlife district is Chippewa Street, between Main Street and South Elmwood Avenue, home to high-energy dance clubs, crowded bars, trendy coffehouses, a sex shop, and restaurants. Bohemian Allentown, where bars are as numerous but the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed, is a 20-minute walk to the North. Allentown has other "alternative" fare, such as the film-arts organization, Squeaky Wheel, and several tattoo parlors. The Chippewa Strip and Allentown hold nearly all of Buffalo's gay bars, a number of which are popular among the "straight" crowd as well, due to the music and atmosphere. Another 20-minute walk north on Elmwood Avenue from Allentown is the Elmwood Strip, which runs from about Bryant and Elmwood to Elmwood and Forrest. Most Elmwood Strip places are more bars than clubs, crowds tending to preppy, or college students.

Famous Entertainers

Buffalo has a thriving theater and music scene that has spawned several national acts worth noting. Famous historical musicians of note include Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., seminal 1940s harmonic group the Modernaires, all graduates of Lafayette High School (the city's oldest public high school), singer-songwriter Willie Nile, and songwriters Harold Arlen and Jack Yellen. (Arlen's career was recently commemorated in Buffalo's twenties-era theatre, Shea's Buffalo Theater), and Nino Tempo & April Stevens. Popular modern musicians from Buffalo include funk singer Rick James, keyboardist Stan Szelest, bassist Billy Sheehan (of Mr. Big and Talas fame), folk singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco,"American Idol" contestant and recording artist John Stevens, The Goo Goo Dolls (colloquially known as "The Goos"), 10,000 Maniacs (Natalie Merchant is from nearby Jamestown), and hardcore scenesters Snapcase and Every Time I Die. Spyro Gyra started in Buffalo and included many natives in its original lineup. Musical theater director and choreographer Michael Bennett is also from Buffalo, as is Vincent Gallo, who cast a jaundiced eye on the city and its sports obsession in his film Buffalo 66. Television news hosts Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer were raised in the greater Buffalo area, as were Howdy Doody host Buffalo Bob Smith and political satirist Mark Russell. Several prominent actors and actresses also hail from the Buffalo area, including William Sadler, William Fichtner, Jeffrey Jones, James Whitmore, Christine Baranski, Chad Michael Murray, Wendie Malick, Nick Bakay, Tom Mardirosian and both John Schuck and Amanda Blake, who were graduates of nearby Amherst High School. Noted TV writers Tom Fontana, David Milch and Charles LeFevre also hail from the Buffalo area. Lucille Ball hailed from nearby Jamestown.

Other famous residents

Several well known authors emerged from the Buffalo area, including Paul Horgan, Joyce Carol Oates, Taylor Caldwell, and playwrights Ruben Santiago-Hudson ("Lackawanna Blues") and A.R. Gurney (The Dining Room and Love Letters). Mark Twain lived in Buffalo as a part-owner and managing editor of The Buffalo Express from 1869 to 1871. While not technically a Buffalonian, he's remembered by his readers for his time in Buffalo due to his stories "A Day at Niagara Falls" and "The Diaries of Adam and Eve", the latter being a humorous play on the nearby town of Eden. Other writers who lived in Buffalo included Leslie Fiedler, John Barth and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee. In addition, Charles Burchfield, among the most important water color painters, lived in Buffalo for many years. Noted twentieth-century architect Gordon Bunshaft was a native of Buffalo, attending the same high school (Lafayette) as famed science-fiction cover artist Kelly Freas, Fran Striker, the creator of the radio serial "The Lone Ranger", and Bruce Shanks, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist for the Buffalo Evening News. Actress Katharine Cornell, for whom a theatre is named at her alma mater, the University of Buffalo, was born in Berlin but raised in Buffalo. Anthropologists Marvin Opler and Morris Opler were born in Buffalo. Marvin Opler later taught at the State University of Buffalo. Astronaut Edward Gibson, astronaut support crew, a capcom for the Apollo 12 lunar landing, science-pilot of Skylab 4. Astronaut James Pawelczyk, STS-90 Neurolab mission aboard space shuttle Columbia. Buffalo's best-known athlete is probably baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn. In the early 20th century, Buffalo was a boxing mecca, and spawned world champions including light-heavyweight Jimmy Slattery and lightweight Jimmy Goodrich. Buffalo also was the home to NBA Hall of Famer Bob Lanier who attended nearby St. Bonaventure University.
Points of interest

- Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
- Erie Canal
- Martin House
- McKinley Monument
- Niagara Falls
- USS Little Rock (CG-4) in Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park
Sports teams
Current Teams
Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park The Buffalo Bills, a charter team of the American Football League (1960-1969), now in the National Football League.
National Football League The Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League.
National Hockey League The Buffalo Bisons of Minor Leauge Baseball's International League, AAA team for the Cleveland Indians.
Cleveland Indians The Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League.
National Lacrosse League The Buffalo Rapids of the American Basketball Association.
Former Teams
American Basketball Association The Buffalo Braves played in the NBA from 1970–1978
1978 The Buffalo Destroyers of the Arena Football League from 1999–2003
2003 The Buffalo Blizzard of the defunct National Professional Soccer League from 1992–2001.
2001 The Buffalo Stallions of the defunct Major Indoor Soccer League from 1979–1984.
1984 The Buffalo Bills from 1947–1949 and Buffalo Bisons in 1946 of the defunct All-America Football Conference.
Baseball pitchers Warren Spahn and Orel Hershiser are originally from Buffalo.
Transportation
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, or NFTA, operates public transit throughout the Buffalo area. The NFTA runs a number of buses throughout the city and suburbs, as well as a 6-mile Metro Rail light rail rapid transit system in the city. The NFTA also operates Buffalo Niagara International Airport and Niagara Falls International Airport. The Metro Rail is unique in that unlike most urban rail systems it is at/above ground in the downtown area and underground in the outer areas instead of the other way around. The underground portion also means that Buffalo is the smallest city in the U.S. to have a subway. The city is served by Buffalo-Depew (Amtrak) and Buffalo-Exchange Street (Amtrak) stations. Downtown Buffalo is also served by [http://www.buffalobiketaxi.com The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co.]
References

- "Names on the Land", by George Rippey Stewart
- "A Short History of Buffalo", from the "Buffalonian"
- "Mark Twain: A Biography", by Albert Bigelow Paine; Harper & Brothers, New York, 1912
- In the film Bruce Almighty, most of the action is set in Buffalo.
External links

- [http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us/ City of Buffalo webpage]
- [http://www.buffalonian.com/history History of Buffalo]
- [http://www.buffalo.com/ Buffalo.com - Everything Buffalo]
- [http://www.1buffalo.com/index2.shtml WNY Crawler Local Search Engine]
- [http://www.surfbuffalo.com/ Surf Buffalo - News, Sports Weather & Local information]
- [http://www.classicbuffalo.com/ ClassicBuffalo.com ]
- [http://www.Buffalonews.com/ The Buffalo News]
- [http://www.buffalomusic.org/ Buffalo Music Hall of Fame]
- [http://www.buffalopundit.com/ BuffaloPundit]
- [http://www.fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/ Fix Buffalo Today]
- [http://www.buffaloflickr.blogspot.com/ Buffalo Flickr]
- [http://www.wnymedia.net/ WNY Media Network]
- [http://ah.bfn.org/ Buffalo Architecture and History]
- [http://www.buffaloresearch.com/ buffaloresearch.com]
- [http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=15223&pageIndex=3 Reader's Digest List of Clean Cities]
- [http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/bufclifo.htm Buffalo Climate Information from NOAA]
- [http://www.buffalorising.com/ Buffalo Rising] Category:All-America City Category:Cities in New York Category:Erie Canal ja:バッファロー (ニューヨーク州)

1942

This article is about the year. For the 1984 Capcom arcade game, see 1942 (video game). 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

- January 1 - World War II: The term "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
- January 2 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
- January 5 - Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary - assumed drowned
- January 6 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
- January 7 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins
- January 11 - World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
- January 11 - World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
- January 12 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
- January 13 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car
- January 16 - Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother
- January 19 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
- January 20 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
- January 25 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom
- January 26 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

February

- February 9
- World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
- Daylight-saving time goes into effect in the United States.
- February 11 - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them
- February 15 - World War II: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
- February 19
- World War II: 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
- World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
- February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace
- February 22 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
- February 23 - Japanese submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
- February 24 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
- February 25 - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
- February 26 - Coal dust explosion in Honkeika mine in China - 1549 dead
- February 27 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes off Java.

March

- March 9 - The Secretary of War reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces

April-June

Army Service Forces.]]
- April 3 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
- April 5 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
- April 9 - Second World War: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
- April 27 - World War II: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
- May - first test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto
- May 6 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
- May 8 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
- May 8/May 9 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
- 1942 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
- May 15 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
- May 20 - First colored seamen taken into US Navy
- May 27 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague
- June 4 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague due to the assassination by Czechoslovak paratroopers (Operation Anthropoid)
- June 4-June 7 - World War II: The Battle of Midway.
- June 7 - World War II- Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
- June 9 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
- June 10 - World War II: the Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliztion for the killing of a Nazi official.
- June 12 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
- June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.

July

- July 1 - July 27 - World War II: the First Battle of El Alamein
- July 9 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
- July 13 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
- July 16 - Holocaust: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
- July 16 - Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp
- July 18 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
- July 19 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
- July 22 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
- July 31 - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded

August-September

- August 7 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
- August 8 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
- August 8 - Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across India
- August 9 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
- August 13-14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays
- August 16 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp
- August 19 - World War II: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France.
- August 22 - World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
- September 3 -
- Francisco Franco fires foreign minister Serrano Súñer
- An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising.
- September 24 - Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.

October

- October 2 - British cruiser Curacao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned
- October 3 - First successful launch of A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
- October 9 - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
- October 11 - World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
- October 14 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
- October 16 - Hurricane and flooding in Bombay - 40,000 dead
- October 23 - November 4 - World War II: the Second Battle of El Alamein
- October 28 - The Alaska Highway is completed.
- October 29 - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

November

Jew
- November 3 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
- November 8 - World War II: Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
- November 8 - World War II: French resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralized the vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and from there in the whole French North Africa.
- November 9 - World War II: U.S serviceman Edward Leonswki hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May
- November 10 - World War II: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
- November 12 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.
- November 13 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese heavy cruiser BB- Hiei.
- November 15 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.
- November 19 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
- November 21 - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the "highway" was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).
- November 22 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th army is surrounded.
- November 23 - German U-boat sinks SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued April 3 1943
- November 27 - World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
- November 28 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
- November 28 - The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna begins.

December

- December 2 - Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
- December 4 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews.

Undated

- Catavi massacre - Bolivian soldiers shoot miners
- Serial killer Singing Strangler in Melbourne
- Grand Coulee Dam finished in Columbia River
- DDT first used as a pesticide

Ongoing events

- World War II (1939-1945)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- 1942 in art
- 1942 in film
- Mrs. Miniver
- Bambi
- Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
- Quattro passi fra le nuvole by Alessandro Blasetti.
- 1942 in literature
- Mythology
- 1942 in music
- "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby
- 1942 in rail transport
- 1942 in sports
- 1942 in television
- April 13 - The FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.

Births

Unknown date

- Roger Angleton, American murderer (d. 1998)
- Priscilla Davis, American socialite (d. 2001)

January

- January 1 - Martin Frost, American politician
- January 1 - Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
- January 2 - Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- January 3 - John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)
- January 5 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
- January 5 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host
- January 7 - Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter
- January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist
- January 8 - Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
- January 8 - Yvette Mimieux, American actress
- January 8 - George Passmore, English artist (Gilbert and George)
- January 15 - Charo, American singer and actress
- January 17 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer
- January 17 - Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d. 1985)
- January 17 - Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
- January 17 - Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
- January 19 - Michael Crawford, singer and actor
- January 25 - Carl Eller, American football player
- January 25 - Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
- January 31 - Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d. 1994)

February

- February 1 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
- February 2 - Graham Nash, English musician
- February 5 - Roger Staubach, American football player
- February 9 - Carole King, American singer and composer
- February 12 - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
- February 13 - Peter Tork, American musician and actor
- February 19 - Paul Krause, American football player
- February 20 - Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
- February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer
- February 24 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician
- February 27 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 28 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)

March

- March 2 - John Irving, American author
- March 2 - Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist
- March 4 - Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander
- March 5 - Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician
- March 7 - Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist
- March 7 - Michael Eisner, American film studio executive
- March 9 - John Cale, Welsh composer and musician
- March 13 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer
- March 16 - James Soong, Taiwan politician
- March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)
- March 23 - Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure
- March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer
- March 25 - Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer
- March 26 - Erica Jong, American author
- March 27 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- March 27 - Michael York, English actor

April

- April 2 - Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef
- April 3 - Marsha Mason, American actress
- April 3 - Wayne Newton, American singer
- April 5 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh filmmaker
- April 5 - Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor
- April 6 - Barry Levinson, American film producer and director
- April 14 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)
- April 14 - Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
- April 26 - Bobby Rydell, American singer
- April 26 - Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat

May

- May 2 - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president
- May 5 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)
- May 9 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
- May 12 - Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)
- May 17 - Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist
- May 18 - Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer
- May 18 - Nobby Stiles, English footballer
- May 19 - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)
- May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
- May 22 - Calvin Simon, American musician (P Funk)
- May 26 - Levon Helm, American musician (The Band)
- May 28 - Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

June

- June 3 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)
- June 10 - Preston Manning, Canadian politician
- June 12 - Bert Sakmann, German physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 17 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- June 18 - Roger Ebert, American film critic
- June 18 - Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (The Beatles)
- June 18 - Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor

July

- July 4 - Floyd Little, American football player
- July 4 - Prince Michael of Kent
- July 7 - Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress
- July 10 - Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut
- July 10 - Ronnie James Dio, American singer
- July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
- July 13 - Roger McGuinn, American musician
- July 15 - Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
- July 17 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English radio and television personality
- July 23 - Myra Hindley, English murderer
- July 24 - Chris Sarandon, American actor
- July 27 - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
- July 29 - Tony Sirico, American actor

August

- August 1 - Jerry Garcia, American musician (d. 1995)
- August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean writer
- August 4 - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
- August 7 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
- August 19 - Fred Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor
- August 20 - Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor
- August 26 - Dennis Turner, British politician
- August 28 - Sterling Morrison, American musician (d. 1995)

September

- September 1 - John Lange, American scientist
- September 19 - Freda Payne, American singer and actress
- September 22 - David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association
- September 28 - Marshall Bell, American actor
- September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
- September 29 - Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
- September 30 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (d. 1968)

October

- October 11 - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
- October 12 - Melvin Franklin, American musician (d. 1995)
- October 13 - Jerry Jones, American football team owner
- October 19 - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
- October 20 - Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
- October 20 - Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 21 - Elvin Bishop, American musician
- October 22 - Annette Funicello, American actress
- October 23 - Michael Crichton, American author
- October 26 - Bob Hoskins, British actor

November

- November 1 - Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
- November 8 - Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
- November 8 - Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
- November 10 - Robert F. Engle, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 10 - Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor
- November 13 - John P. Hammond, American singer
- November 15 - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor
- November 17 - Martin Scorsese, American film director
- November 20 - Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
- November 27 - Henry Carr, American athlete
- November 27 - Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d. 1970)
- November 28 - Paul Warfield, American football player
- November 29 - Michael Craze, British actor (d. 1998)
- November 29 - Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone

December

- December 4 - Gemma Jones, British actress
- December 6 - Peter Handke, Austrian novelist
- December 7 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host
- December 9 - Dick Butkus, American football player
- December 11 - Donna Mills, American actress
- December 17 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
- December 20 - Bob Hayes, American athlete
- December 21 - Carla Thomas, American singer
- December 29 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor

Unknown date

- Moammar Al Qadhafi, leader of Libya

Deaths

- January 6 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
- January 14 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b. 1883)
- January 16 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
- January 26 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b. 1868)
- February 19 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
- February 28 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b. 1889)
- March 1 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b. 1873)
- March 8 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
- March 10 - William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- March 21 - J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
- April 15 - Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b. 1880)
- April 17 -

Battle of Guadalcanal

The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the most important battles of World War II. The assault on the Japanese-occupied island of Guadalcanal by the Allied navies and 16,000 United States troops on 7 August, 1942, was the first offensive by US land forces in the Pacific Campaign. Additional amphibious attacks simultaneously assaulted the islands of Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo.

Background

Guadalcanal is situated in the middle of the long Solomon Islands chain, north-east of Australia. The location of the Solomons made them a key to Japanese plans for cutting off shipping between the US and Australia. Japan held a major base on the northern end of the chain, at Rabaul, but the Solomons are so long that aircraft from Rabaul could not patrol the entirety of the island chain. The Imperial Japanese Navy intended to turn the Solomons into a major strategic base, and in 1942 started a program of occupying islands all along the chain and building airbases for land-based patrol bombers. Guadalcanal was to be the major base in the middle of the chain, just within ferry range of Rabaul. If this had succeeded, Allied shipping would have been forced to take long detours to the south. The Allies, aware of the Japanese plans, decided that Guadalcanal would serve just as well as a base for operations against Rabaul, so the US, Australian and New Zealand navies formed an invasion fleet.

Operation Watchtower

On August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division performed an amphibious landing east of the Tenaru River. Initially, only unarmed Japanese construction and support personnel occupied Guadalcanal itself, allowing the Americans to come ashore almost unhindered. A nearby muddy airstrip was captured and renamed to Henderson Field after Major Lofton Henderson was killed at the Battle of Midway. Because of the invasion, Japanese reinforcements were dispatched to the island from Rabaul to destroy the Americans and take back the airstrip (Operation Ka-Go). The Japanese build-up would be under the command of the Japanese 17th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Hyakutake Haruyoshi. Hyakutake Haruyoshi The first significant battle occurred at the Tenaru River on August 20th when a battalion-sized force of Japanese named the Ichiki Detachment attacked the Marines across the river sand bars. The attackers were killed almost to the last man. The destruction was so stunning that the Japanese commander, Kiyonao Ichiki, committed seppuku shortly afterwards. At this time the first American aircraft began operating from Henderson Field, dubbed "an unsinkable aircraft carrier". As "Cactus" was the Allied code-name for the island, they quickly became known as the "Cactus Air Force". The aviators provided air cover for the island and played a significant role in actions against the Japanese Navy. Much of the land combat to follow hinged on control of this strategic airfield. The following month, 6,000 Japanese troops mounted a night assault against 1,000 Marines from the south with the goal of taking back the airfield. The "Battle of Edson's Ridge" began on September 11th and continued until the 14th before the attack was finally beaten back by the Marines. On September 23rd the Marines began a drive to establish defensive positions along the Mantanikau River. A land attack was combined with a small amphibious landing on the flank, but the operation was repulsed by the Japanese. A lull in the fighting occurred as the Japanese prepared for a new attack. The Japanese navy shelled the airfield on October 13th and 14th in an attempt to suppress the aircraft operating from the base. The airfield suffered heavy damage, but was returned to service. Finally on October 23, with the addition of more troops, the Japanese made another attempt to capture Henderson Field from the south of the salient. The newly arrived US Army's 164th Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion 7th Marines defended this position, and after a determined battle the attack was finally repulsed after committing the U.S. reserves. In November the Japanese sent reinforcements in the form of the 38th Infantry Division. In the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, however, the transports carrying this reinforcement were badly damaged and the division was reduced to the strength of a regiment. Through November offensive actions were continued by the American forces in an attempt to push the perimeter out beyond artillery range of the airfield. The Mantanikau River area was finally cleared after overcoming strong Japanese resistance. By December the weary 1st Marine Division was withdrawn for recuperation, and over the course of the next month the U.S. XIV Corps took over operations on the island. This Corps consisted of the 2nd Marine Division, the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, and the Americal Division. Japanese strength on the island was on the wane due to attrition and shortages of supplies brought on by the build-up of Allied ships and aircraft. The U.S. XIV Corps began offensive operations on January 10th, 1943, and by February 8th they had forced the remaining Japanese to be evacuated from Cape Esperance. American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February, 1943, after more than six months of combat. The lack of supply on both sides meant that combat was especially intense and characterized by extreme desperation. The Japanese used fear as a tactic by placing the severed heads of dead Americans on pikes and planting them around the Marine perimeter. And neither side often took prisoners. Disease also played a significant role in the ground campaign, as both the Japanese and American forces were weakened by malaria in the insect-infested jungles. Both sides had difficulty maintaining their supplies to the island, the Japanese particularly, to the extent that island became also known as 'Starvation Island' to them. See also Operation Ke, and Operation Shoestring.

Naval battles

These convoys and the land battle on Guadalcanal became magnets for naval activity on both sides. This resulted in seven naval battles:
- Savo Island on 9 August
- Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August
- Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 & 12 October
- Battle of Santa Cruz Island on 26 & 27 October
- Naval Battle of Guadalcanal - two separate naval engagements fought on the nights of 11 November-12 November and 14 November-15 November
- Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November. Due to the significant number of vessels sunk in the approaches to Guadalcanal island, the stretch of water between Guadalcanal and Florida Island to the north became known as Ironbottom Sound. These naval battles did not produce a victor, but the Japanese were unable to replace their losses. Ironbottom Sound

Aftermath & historical significance

Although the Battle of Midway is widely considered to be the turning point in the Pacific theater, it was really only a naval defeat. Australian land forces defeated Japanese marines at the Battle of Milne Bay, rather than the Imperial Japanese Army. When US soldiers finally captured Guadalcanal, it was the first step in a long string of invasions that would eventually lead to the invasion of Japanese islands and victory. The capture of the island was the first breach of the perimeter that Japan had established during the first six months of the Pacific War. Because of this, Guadalcanal is considered the turning point for the Imperial Japanese Army.

External link

- [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Paci-_N84545.html The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, 1939–1945; The Pacific (Volume); "The Turning Point" (1952) ] Guadalcanal ja:ソロモン海戦

Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal can mean:
- Guadalcanal, Spain: a town in Andalusia in Spain.
- Guadalcanal (Pacific Ocean island) in the Solomon Islands. The Battle of Guadalcanal was there. Named after the previous. Ships named Guadalcanal:
- USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), a World War II escort carrier.
- USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7), an amphibious assault ship.

1944

1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

World War II

January

- January 4 - The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
- January 5 - Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munk.
- January 14 - The Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
- January 17 - British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River.
- January 17 - Meat Rationing ends in Australia.
- January 20 - The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin. The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River.
- January 22 - Allies begin Operation Shingle, the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months.
- January 27 - The two year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
- January 29 - The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
- January 30 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
- January 31 - American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

February

- February 1 - United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.
- February 3 - United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
- February 7 - In Anzio, Italian forces launch a counteroffensive.
- February 14 - Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- February 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - the monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
- February 17 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ended in an American victory on February 22.
- February 20 - "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
- February 20 - The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- February 29 - The Admiralty Islands are invaded in the American General Douglas MacArthur-led Operation Brewer.

March

- March - The Japanese launch an offensive in central and south China.
- March 1 - USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge laid down.
- March 1 - Anti-fascist strike in northern Italy.
- March 2 - Train stalls inside a railway tunnel outside Salerno, Italy - 426 choke to death
- March 3 - The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov were instituted in USSR
- March 10 - In Britain the Education Act lifts the ban on women teachers marrying.
- March 12 - The Creation of the politic Committee of national liberation in Greece.
- March 15 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
- March 15 - The National Counsil of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
- March 17 - The hitlerists assassinate at Rîbniţa almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians.
- March 18 - German forces occupy Hungary.
- March 20 - RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany and he has to bail out without a parachute from the height of over 4000 meters. Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow

May

- May 5 - Mohandas Gandhi released in India.
- May 9 - Soviet troops liberate Sevastopol.
- May 12 - Soviet troops finalize the liberation of Crimea.
- May 18 - Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
- May 18 - Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government.

June

Soviet Union].
- June 2 - The provisional French government is established.
- June 4 - A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
- June 4 - American, English and French troops enter Rome.
- June 5 - Rome falls to the Allies. It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall.
- June 5 - More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
- June 6 - Battle of Normandy begins - Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
- June 9 - Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
- June 10 - 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
- June 13 - Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
- June 15 - Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
- June 17 - The proclamation of the Republic of Iceland.
- June 22 - Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
- June 25 - The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
- June 26 - American troops enter Cherbourg.

July

- July 3 - Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
- July 9 - British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
- July 10 - Soviet troops start the operations for freeing the Baltic countries.
- July 13 - Liberation of Vilnius.
- July 17 - The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
- July 17 - SS E.A.Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes in the Port Chicago naval base - 320 dead
- July 18 - Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
- July 20 - Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt. See Claus von Stauffenberg
- July 21 - Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
- July 21 - The creation of the Polish Committee for national liberation.
- July 25 - Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.

August

- August 1 - Warsaw Uprising begins.
- August 2 - Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
- August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- August 12 - Allies capture Florence, Italy.
- August 12 - World's first undersea oil pipeline laid, between England and France in Operation Pluto
- August 15 - Operation Dragoon lands Allies in southern France. U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division participates in its fourth assault landing at St. Maxime, spearheading the drive for the Belfort Gap.
- August 19 - (August 25) Victorious insurrection in Paris.
- August 23 - Ion Antonescu, prime minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government is established. Romania exits the war against Russia joining the Allies.
- August 24 - Allies enter Paris.
- August 25 - Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
- August 29 - Slovak National Uprising begins

September

- September 1 - In Bulgaria, the Bagrianov government resigns.
- September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
- September 3 - Allies liberate Brussels.
- September 4 - The British 11th Armored Division liberates the city of Antwerp in Belgium.
- September 4 - Finland breaks off relations with Germany.
- September 5 - The Soviets declare war on Bulgaria.
- September 7 - The Belgian government returns from exile in Britain.
- September 8 - London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
- September 8 - The French town of Menton is liberated from Germany.
- September 9 - Insurrection in Sofia.
- September 11 - Northern and southern France invasion forces link up near Dijon.
- September 17 - Operation Market Garden begins.
- September 19 - Armistice between Finland and Soviet Union signed. (End of the Continuation War)
- September 24 - The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division takes the strongly defended city of Epinal before crossing the Moselle River and entering the western foothills of the Vosges.
- September 26 - Operation Market Garden ends in an Allied withdrawal.

October

- October 2 - Warsaw Uprising ends.
- October 5 - Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.
- October 9 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
- October 12 - The Allies land at Athens.
- October 13 - Riga, the capital of Latvia is liberated by the Red Army.
- October 14 - German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
- October 18 - Volkssturm founded on Hitler's orders.
- October 20 - Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
- October 20 - LNG explosion destroys a square mile (2.6 km²) of Cleveland, Ohio
- October 21 - Aachen is the first German city to fall.
- October 23 - Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines begins (lasts until October 26).
- October 25 - Florence Foster Jenkins recital in the Carnegie Hall
- October 25 - Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated from German occupation.
- October 31 - Mass murderer Marcel Petiot is apprehended in Paris metro station

November-December

- November 6 - Two Lehi assassins kill Lord Moyne in Cairo
- November 12 - East Turkestan Republic declared
- November 12 - The Royal Air Force carries out one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of the war, sinking the German battleship Tirpitz off the coast of Norway.
- November 19 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
- November 24 - Bombing of Tokyo - The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo from the east and by land was made by 88 American aircraft.
- November 25 - A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, killing 160 shoppers.
- November 26 - Gas chambers at Auschwitz and Stutthof are destroyed.
- November 29 - Albania is liberated from German occupation.
- December 16 - Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later to become known as Battle of the Bulge.
- December 16 - General George C. Marshall becomes the first Five-Star General
- December 17 - German troops carry out the Malmédy massacre.
- December 24 - The Bulge reaches its deepest point at Celles.
- December 26 - American troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
- December 31 - Hungary declares war on Germany

Other events

January-July

- January 5 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- February 26 - - Shooting begins of the Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
- March 1 - USS Tarawa laid down
- March 4 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.
- March 24 - In the Polish village of Markowa, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their six children and eight Jewish people they were hiding.
- April 25 - The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
- May 30 - Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne resigns from her rights in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, later reigning Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
- June 17 - Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
- July 1 - Start of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
- July 6 - A fire broke out during a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in Hartford, Connecticut, resulting in the deaths of 168 people, most of them children. See Hartford Circus Fire
- July 17 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.
- July 22 - End of Bretton Woods conference and signing of Agreements.

August-November

- August 4 - Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
- August 5 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
- August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
- August 9 - The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time.
- September 2 - Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz. They arrive three days later.
- October 2 - Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
- October 8 - The radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
- October 10 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp
- November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term.
- November 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King introduces conscription in Canada (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).

December

- December 3 - Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
- December 1 - Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, by filling the seat left by the Cordell Hull.
- December 26 - The play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was first publicly performed.
- December 30 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.

Unknown dates

- In Sweden, the law of 1864 that criminalizes homosexuality is abolished.
- Swedish author of children's books Astrid Lindgren publishes her first book Pippi Longstocking.
- In Sweden, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
- Barbados General election - Grantley Adams, black lawyer, first majority party leader in the House of Assembly, as leader of Barbados Labour Party
- Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger's Syndrome
- The Mad Gasser of Mattoon carries out a series of mysterious attacks in Mattoon, Illinois.
- National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence established.

Ongoing events

- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- Second World War (1939-1945)

Births

For more 1944 births see :Category:1944 births

January

- January 2 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
- January 6 - Bonnie Franklin, American actress
- January 6 - Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- January 9 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
- January 12 - Joe Frazier, American boxer
- January 17 - Françoise Hardy, French singer
- January 18 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
- January 23 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
- January 24 - Neil Diamond, American singer
- January 26 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
- January 27 - Mairead Corrigan, Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 27 - Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)

February

- February 3 - Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)
- February 5 - Al Kooper, American musician (Blood, Sweat, and Tears)
- February 5 - Michael Mann, American film, director, writer, producer
- February 9 - Alice Walker, American writer
- February 10 - Vernor Vinge, American writer
- February 11 - Michael G. Oxley, American politician
- February 13 - Stockard Channing, American actress
- February 13 - Jerry Springer, English-born television host
- February 14 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
- February 14 - Alan Parker, English-born film director, actor, and writer
- February 16 - Richard Ford, American writer
- February 17 - Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
- February 20 - Willem van Hanegem, Dutch football player and coach
- February 22 - Jonathan Demme, American film director, producer, and writer
- February 22 - Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
- February 23 - Johnny Winter, American musician
- February 24 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)
- February 28 - Sepp Maier, German footballer

March

- March 1 - John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
- March 1 - Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)
- March 2 - Uschi Glas, German actress
- March 6 - Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano
- March 11 - Don MacLean, British comedian
- March 15 - Sly Stone, American singer
- March 17 - John Sebastian, American singer and songwriter (The Lovin' Spoonful)
- March 19 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
- March 19 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy
- March 24 - R. Lee Ermey, U.S. Marine and actor
- March 26 - Diana Ross, American singer
- March 28 - Rick Barry, American basketball player
- March 29 - Denny McLain, baseball player

April

- April 3 - Tony Orlando, American musician
- April 4 - Craig T. Nelson, American actor
- April 6 - Felicity Palmer, English soprano
- April 7 - Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany
- April 8 - Odd Nerdrum, Norwegian painter
- April 11 - John Milius, American film director, producer, and screenwriter
- April 19 - James Heckman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 22 - Steve Fossett, American millionaire adventurer
- April 28 - Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, Belgian politician
- April 29 - Richard Kline, American actor and television director
- April 30 - Jill Clayburgh, American actress

May

- May 1 - Suresh Kalmadi, Indian politician
- May 5 - John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
- May 8 - Gary Glitter, English singer
- May 9 - Richie Furay, American musician (Poco and Buffalo Springfield)
- May 10 - Jim Abrahams, American film director
- May 13 - Armistead Maupin, American author
- May 12 - Sara Kestelman, British actor
- May 14 - George Lucas, American film director and producer
- May 20 - Joe Cocker, British singer
- May 20 - Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer
- May 20 - Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman
- May 21 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
- May 25 - Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director
- May 28 - Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York City
- May 28 - Gladys Knight, American singer
- May 30 - Meredith MacRae, American actress (d. 2000)

June-October

- June 3 - Edith McGuire, American sprinter
- June 5 - Tommie Smith, American athlete
- June 6 - Phillip Allen Sharp, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 8 - Mark Belanger, baseball player (d. 1998)
- June 24 - Jeff Beck, British musician
- June 29 - Gary Busey, American actor
- June 30 - Raymond Moody, parapsychologist
- July 13 - Ernő Rubik, Hungarian inventor
- July 17 - Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricket captains
- July 21 - Tony Scott, English film director
- July 21 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
- July 27 - Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)
- July 31 - Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
- July 31 - Robert Carhart Merton, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 2 - Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)
- August 4 - Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
- August 8 - Brooke Bundy, American actress
- August 9 - Sam Elliott, American actor
- August 11 - Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
- August 21 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
- August 23 - Saira Banu, Indian actress
- August 26- Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
- September 1 - Leonard Slatkin, American conductor
- September 2 - Al Matthews, American actor (d. 2002)
- September 7 - Earl Manigault, American basketball player (d. 1998)
- September 7 - Bora Milutinovic, Serbian football coach
- September 12 - Leonard Peltier, U.S. Presidential candidate
- September 12 - Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
- September 21 - Hamilton Jordan, Carter's 1ST Chief of Staff
- September 22 - Frazer Hines, British actor
- September 25 - Michael Douglas, American actor
- September 26 - Anne Robinson, British television host
- October 9 - John Entwistle, English bassist (The Who) (d. 2002)
- October 9 - Nona Hendryx, singer (LaBelle)
- October 9 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican singer and musician (d. 1987)
- October 15 - David Trimble, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 28 - Dennis Franz, American actor
- October 28 - Ian Marter, British actor (d. 1986)

November-December

- November 1 - Rafik Bahaa Edine Hariri, Lebanese Prime Minister 1992 - 1998 (d. 2005).
- November 9 - Melvin Maskin, American teacher
- November 10 - Silvestre Reyes, American politician
- November 12 - Booker T. Jones, American musician, singer, and songwriter (Booker T. and the M.G.'s)
- November 12 - Al Michaels, American sportscaster
- November 17 - Danny DeVito, American actor
- November 17 - Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
- November 17 - Lorne Michaels, American film producer
- November 17 - Tom Seaver, baseball player
- November 21 - Dick Durbin, American politician
- November 25 - Ben Stein, American law professor, actor, and author
- December 7 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist
- December 17 - Jack L. Chalker, American novelist (d. 2005)
- December 21 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor
- December 22 - Steve Carlton, baseball player
- December 23 - Wesley Clark, U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander
- December 25 - Jairzinho, Brazilian football player
- December 28 - Kary Mullis, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths

For more 1944 deaths see :Category:1944 deaths

January-May

- January 1 - Charles Turner, Australian cricketer (b. 1862)
- January 11 - Edgard Potier, Belgian spy (b. 1903)
- January 20 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
- January 31 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
- January 31 - William Allen White, American journalist (b. 1868)
- February 1 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
- February 4 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (b. 1867)
- February 11 - Carl Meinhof, German linguist (b. 1857)
- February 21 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
- February 23 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
- March 5 - Max Jacob, French poet (b. 1876)
- March 22 - Pierre Brossolette, journalist and French Resistance fighter (b. 1903)
- March

The Three-Penny Opera

The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) was a revolutionary piece of musical theatre written (in German) by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with the composer Kurt Weill in 1928. It directly challenges the audience by breaching the "fourth wall" with what he called Verfremdung, or alienation technique. For example, slogans are projected on the back wall and the characters sometimes carry picket signs, or stand at times with their backs to the audience. The play challenges conventional notions of property as well as theater. It asks the central rhetorical question, "Who is the bigger criminal: He who robs a bank or he who founds one?" Despite the title and alienating techniques, it is as much a musical comedy as it is an opera. Except for the "Overture", the songs are relatively simple in form and the orchestra is a distinctly jazzy small combo. The score, by Kurt Weill, was deeply influenced by jazz. The opening song, "Die Morität von Mackie Messer", was adopted by Louis Armstrong as "Mack the Knife", which later became a pop hit for Bobby Darin. The opera is based on the English poet John Gay's 1728 operatic satire, The Beggar's Opera - which explains the setting of this quintessentially German work in London's Soho. The central character in both is MacHeath, who is an elegant highwayman in Gay's work and a vicious and violent anti-heroic criminal who sees himself as a businessman in the Brecht-Weill version. In homage to the earlier work, the opening number of the First Act , Morgenchoral des Peachum, is set to the music used in Gay's original. In the Threepenny Opera, MacHeath (Mack the Knife) marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, Jonathan Peachum, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have MacHeath hanged. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the chief of police, Tiger Brown, is an old friend of MacHeath's. Peachum exerts considerable political influence, and eventually MacHeath is arrested and imprisoned, escapes, then imprisoned once more. At the point of execution, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a hard-riding messenger from the Queen (Victoria) dramatically arrives at the last minute, and MacHeath is pardoned and given a baronetcy. (Another Brecht-Weill work is titled Happy End.) In 1954, Lotte Lenya won a Tony Award for her role as Jenny in a somewhat softened version of the Threepenny Opera by Marc Blitzstein that played on and off Broadway for many years. Blitzstein translated the work into English, and Lenya, who was married to Weill, had also played the role of the "Pirate Jenny" in the original German production. Her ballad fantasizing leaving her work as a barmaid to lead a pirate assault on the city is the second best known song in the work with its chorus, "And the ship with black sails, and with 50 cannons, will besiege the city". (Und das Schiff mit acht Segeln und mit fünfzig Kanonen wird die Stadt beschießen.) The original German version was very popular. It was performed more than 10,000 times and translated into 18 languages. Interestingly, when this play was translated into French, it was given a name in French that means "The Fourpenny Opera", L'Opéra de quat'sous. It has been translated into English several times. The best-known is Blitzstein's 1954 translation; other translations include Ralph Mannheim and John Willett's 1979 translation, noted Irish playwright and translator Frank McGuinness's in 1992, and Jeremy Sams's for a production at London's Donmar Warehouse in 1997. There have been at least four film versions. German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst made German- and French-language versions simultaneously (a common practice in the early days of sound films) in 1931. Another version was directed by Wolfgang Staudte in West Germany in 1962 (scenes with Sammy Davis, Jr. were added for the American release). The most recent one was an American version (renamed Mack the Knife) in 1990, directed by Menahem Golan, with Raúl Juliá as Mackie and Roger Daltrey as the Streetsinger. Nick Dear adapted the Threepenny Opera for the National Theatre in a play called The Villians Opera in 2002

Discography

- Die Dreigroschenoper, 1958 CBS MK 42637. In German. Lotte Lenya, who also supervised the production, Soloists, Chorus, Orchestra from German radio, conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Ruggeberg
- The Threepenny Opera, 1997 CDJAY 1244. Donmar Warehouse production. Translated by Robert David Macdonald (Lyrics translated by Jeremy Sams).
- The Threepenny Opera, 1990/2000 Decca 289 430 075-2. Ute Lemper, René Kollo, Milva, RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta, John Mauceri. Translated by Ralph Mannheim and John Willett. Threepenny Opera, The Threepenny Opera, The Threepenny Opera, The Threepenny Opera, The Threepenny Opera, The Category:Bertolt Brecht

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