Maria Gigova

# Maria Gigova

## Abstract

Maria Gigova (Bulgarian: Мария Гигова; born 24 April 1947) is a retired Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast and sports official. She is a three-time (1969, 1971, 1973) World All-around champion.

## Biography

She was the first gymnast to become a triple world champion in rhythmic gymnastics with her titles in 1969, 1971, and 1973. Gigova has a total of four gold medals in hoop (1967, 1969, 1971 and 1973), an achievement still unmatched by any other gymnast, as well as one title in rope (1971) and free exercise (1969). As a member of the Bulgarian Team, she also earned team titles at the rhythmic gymnastics world championships in 1969 and 1971. Gigova shared the world crown in the all-around in 1971 with Soviet Galima Shugurova, Both of their ribbon routines at this Championship were to the same music – a piece from Bizet 's ballet " Carmen ". She was Bulgaria's first World champion and helped expand and influence the growth of rhythmic gymnastics in Bulgaria.

Gigova retired from gymnastics in 1974. After she finished her education at the National Sports Academy in Sofia, She became a member of the FIG Technical Committee, a post she held from 1978 to 1992. In 1978 she was appointed vice-president of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, to become the federation's president in 1982. Gigova served on the Administrative Council of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation from 1989 to 1999 when she was elected president of the federation again. Since 2000, Gigova has again been a member of the Technical Committee of FIG.

On 4 May 2017, Gigova received the Order of Stara Planina (1st class) from president Rumen Radev for her contributions to developing Bulgarian sport.

## Achievements

- Gigova was the first rhythmic gymnast to win 3 consecutive world titles in (1969, 1971 tied with Galima Shugurova, 1973). She was later equaled by fellow countrywoman Maria Petrova (1993, 1994, 1995 tied with Ekaterina Serebryanskaya) and Russian gymnasts Evgenia Kanaeva (2009, 2010, 2011), Yana Kudryavtseva (2013, 2014, 2015) but they won their titles when the world championships were held every year.

- First Bulgarian to win the World Championships.

- In 1972 she was awarded the title of Merited Master of Sport of the USSR.


1962 in Germany

# 1962 in Germany

## Abstract

Events in the year 1962 in Germany.

## Incumbents

- President – Heinrich Lübke

- Chancellor – Konrad Adenauer

## Events

- 16 - 17 February - North Sea flood of 1962

- 2 February - Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1962

- 28 February – Oberhausen Manifesto

- 22 June – 3 July 12th Berlin International Film Festival

- 8 October – Spiegel affair begins, when an article in Der Spiegel questions the adequacy of Germany's defence capability.

- 14 December – The Fifth Adenauer cabinet, led by Konrad Adenauer, is sworn in.

## Births

- 5 January – Ralf Meister, German Lutheran theologian, former General Superintendent (regional bishop) of Berlin, and Landesbischof of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover

- 9 January – André Wohllebe, German canoeist (died 2014)

- 19 January – Monika Grütters, German politician

- 31 January – Frank Wieneke, German judoka

- 8 February – Martin Wuttke, German actor

- 13 February – Christiane Weber, German fencer

- 25 February – Birgit Fischer, German kayaker

- 4 March – Stephan Reimertz, German historian and author

- 9 March – Rolf Saalfrank, shot putter

- 10 March – Sepp Daxenberger, politician (died 2010)

- 12 March – Andreas Köpke, footballer

- 24 March – Irina Meszynski, German discus thrower

- 26 March – Susanne Daubner, German television presenter

- 1 April – Stefanie Tücking, German radio and television presenter (died 2018)

- 24 April – Heike Kemmer, equestrian

- 28 April – Susanne Klatten, German business woman

- 29 April – Stephan Burger, German bishop of Roman Catholic Church

- 18 May – Sandra, German singer

- 21 May – Uwe Rahn, German football player

- 31 May – Sebastian Koch, German actor

- 3 June – Dagmar Neubauer, German sprinter

- 10 June – Ralf Schumann, German sport shooter

- 22 June – Campino, German singer

- 24 June – Christine Neubauer, German actress

- 9 July – Jan Degenhardt, German lawyer and folk-singer

- 15 July – Jens Bullerjahn, German engineer and politician (died 2022)

- 21 July – Gabi Bauer, German journalist

- 28 July – Torsten Gütschow, German football player

- 9 August – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German politician

- 23 August – Jürgen Tonkel, German actor

- 9 October – Durs Grünbein, German poet

- 25 October – Martin Haase, German linguist

- 30 October – Stefan Kuntz, German football player

- 1 November – Ulf Timmermann, German athlete

- 6 November – Georg Uecker, German actor

- 28 November – Andreas Behm, German weightlifter

- 30 November – Heinrich Deichmann, German entrepreneur

- 1 December – Detlev Buck, German actor, film producer and screenwriter

- 5 December – Marion Kracht, German actress

- 14 December – Bela B., German singer and musician

- 31 December – Katy Karrenbauer, German actress

## Deaths

- 1 January – Hans von Salmuth, German general (born 1888)

- 7 February – Clara Nordström, Swedish-born German writer and translator (born 1886)

- 8 March – Hans Felber, Wehrmacht general and Knight's Cross recipient (born 1889)

- 5 April – Käte Selbmann, German politician (b. 1906)

- 11 May – Hans Luther, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1879)

- 18 May – Sandra, singer

- 19 May – Gabriele Münter, German painter (born 1877)

- 26 May – Karl Rapp, German founder and owner of the Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH in Munich.(born 1882)

- 1 June – Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) (born 1906)

- 15 June – Wolrad, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, German nobleman (born 1887)

- 18 June – Friederich-Karl Burckhardt, German World War I flying ace (born 1889)

- 9 August – Hermann Hesse, German writer (born 1877)

- 20 August – Kurt Schumacher, German politician (born 1895)

- 1 September – Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, German general (born 1889)

- 10 September – Rudolf Petersen, German politician (born 1878)

- 25 September – Herbert Koch, German archaeologist (born 1880)

- 21 October – Karl Elmendorff, German conductor (born 1891)

- 14 November – Wilhelm Lachnit, German painter (born 1899)

- 13 December – Rudolf Wissell, German politician (born 1869)


Louis Semple Clarke

# Louis Semple Clarke

## Abstract

Louis Semple Clarke, or Semple Clarke or simply LS, (1866–1957) was a pioneering businessman and engineer in the American automotive industry. One of the central founders of The Autocar Company, Clarke was also an inventor who made numerous contributions to the development of modern motor vehicles, including innovations in the use of the drive shaft, circulating motor oil, sparkplugs, and the American convention of placing a vehicle's steering wheel on the left.

## Family

Thomas Shields Clarke started out with a single river boat the “Beaver” in 1832, then by 1842 he and his brother in law William Thaw started Clarke and Co and by 1855 his son Charles joined the firm. Originally the firm was called Clarke and Thaw and over 15 years operated a fleet of steam boats which traveled all the way to New Orleans and was the designate shipping firm for all shipping west of Pittsburgh for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Louis was born into an influential family at an influential time in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, a time of great economic expansion and innovation for the region and country. The names with which the Clarkes associated themselves were Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick all of whom were also members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The club's dam broke in May 1889 causing the largest man-made disaster in US history at the time, the Johnstown flood.

Louis was inspired at this time of innovation and took a keen interest in new inventions and technologies. Louis's inventive nature propelled him to build a handmade camera, with which he took many of the photos which are now part of the county's historical treasure trove. As an avid photographer he was the primary person who documented the SFFHC activities prior and after the dam's collapse in May 1889. The glass plates used to take the pictures surfaced 100 years later when his granddaughter in 1991 found them in the attic. At the time she called Charles Guggenheim who had just finished a documentary on the Johnstown flood and would win an Academy Award for short documentary in 1991. Additionally, the film was narrated by David McCullough who had also written a book The Johnstown Flood in 1968 with various pictures including a picture of Louis.

Louis was probably the last man at the age of 22 to join the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, as his membership stock certificate is dated April 1889, although he attended the club under his father's membership since his father and various other members had founded the club in May 1879. He and other younger members were energetic about all things mechanical and given the times they placed a small steam engines on boats to cruise across Lake Conemaugh and often LS would dress up as a sailor and “man” his station.

## The Autocar Company

LS was an educated engineer and in the 1890s started working with his brother Charles developing motorized vehicles resulting in the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Company supported by brothers, John S. and James K. Clarke along with their father Charles and friend William Morgan in 1897. Initial production included a motorized tricycle and a small car, which the brothers called “The Pittsburgher.”

In 1899, the name of the company was changed to “The Autocar Company,” and operations were relocated to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia. In 1901 they produced what is considered to be this country's first multi-cylinder, shaft driven car. Initial sales brochures touted that it “cannot blow up or burn up” as well as its ease of control, to the point he taught his wife to drive, making her the first known woman driver in the county.

The new design was driven from Ardmore to the Madison Square Garden, New York City, in six hours and fifteen minutes, where it was exhibited in the New York Automobile Show of December 1901. The first eight hundred cars were equipped with steering levers, but new innovations helped the Autocar to generate another revolution in innovative design, placing the steering wheel on the left hand side of the car thus establishing the reason we currently drive on the right hand side of the road. Under the Clarke brothers, the company was an early innovator, developing the first American porcelain-insulated spark plugs – a process patented and later sold to Champion, and which still remains the basis for today's spark plugs. Other early developments included the first American shaft-driven vehicle, double-reduction gear drives, and the recirculating lube–oil system. They Clarkes contributed their engineering abilities toward the war effort as Louis also designed a naval bomb fuse which was adopted as standard and also adapted for army use. His son Louis Phillips, or LP, during the war was responsible for detonating bombs in the US and France. “For approximately the first ten years of the Autocar company's existence Clarke was president and chief engineer of the company. In later years he served the company as vice-president and consulting engineer. He sold his interest in the Autocar Co. in 1929 and retired at that time.”

## Palm Beach

Charles John Clarke (1833–1899) was one of the pioneers of Palm Beach, where he established a winter residence in the early 1880s. Louis's father may have been a winter visitor to the Lake Worth area as early as 1885 when he appeared in a photo with hunting and fishing party near Jupiter lighthouse. He was from Pittsburgh, where he operated a fleet of boats providing transportation between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with his partner and brother-in-law, William Thaw. Charles liked the area so much from his first visit that he and Louisa spent the winter of 1890 - 1891 at Elijah N. Dimick's “Cocoanut Grove House” Palm Beach's only hotel at the time. The following winter, Clarke bought the hotel along with about 50 acres (200,000 m) of land from the Lake Trail to the ocean beach. He also bought 10 acres (40,000 m) more on the South Lake Trail, where the Society of the Four Arts stands today. This estate he named "Primavera" ('Springtime'). He then had constructed Palm Beach's first non-wooden residence, the first to have a genuine tile roof instead of wooden shingles, with white stucco outer walls instead of the usual shingles or clapboard. When the house was completed and landscaped at No. 8 South Lake Trail, he and Louisa moved in.

Louis also bought property in Palm Beach in 1892. Located on his father's estate, he named it “Dulciora", located on Lake Trail South, which is one of the most attractive estates at Palm Beach. His kept his summer home in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Additionally, his brother's Thomas Shields Clarke a famous artist of the time, John and James also purchased property and helped to establish the new community of West Palm Beach where they entertained their affluent friends from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. By the 1920s West Palm had become the oasis of the East for the wealthy including the Kennedys.

## Late life

After retirement LS lived and died in West Palm Beach on January 6, 1957, survived by his two children and a multitude of grand and great-grandchildren.

## Sources

- https://web.archive.org/web/20070803161623/http://www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com/f.eSon ed_truck.shtml

- hassan web.archive.org/web/20080509095109/http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/club.pdf

- https://web.archive.org/web/200816 numerous significant ttp://www.pennhighlands.edu/library/digital/clark.htm

- http://www.nps.gov/archive/jofl/home.htm

- https://web.archive.org/web/20090108233543/http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/7/1992_7_120.shtml

- http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_1273.html

- http://www.lwpa.org/pioneer_charles_john_clarke.html

- https://web.archive.org/web/20080627020450/http://graylocke.tripod.com/tsclarke/id12.html