Biography.

Hasso was born in the Kungsholmen parish of Stockholm, Sweden in 1915. Her father and grandfather died when she was four, and she, her mother, grandmother and two siblings shared a single room. Her mother, a former aspiring actress herself, worked as a waffle cook.  Her acting career began by accident. When a young actress fell ill, her mother was asked if she knew of any little girl who could act. Signe Hasso later recalled, "I was 12 then and didn't want to go and neither did my sister, so my mother flipped a coin. I lost." Her audition for a Molière play was successful, and she started earning money as an actress. She performed in Royal Dramatic Theatre productions, beginning in 1927 at the age of 12, and enrolled as the youngest acting student in its history at the age of 16.  She performed on stage and in film in Sweden. In 1933, she made her first film, "Tystnadens hus", with German film director/cameraman Harry Hasso, whom she married the same year. They had a son by the time she was 19. They divorced in 1941.  In 1940, she moved to the United States, where she signed a contract with RKO Pictures, who promoted her as "the next Garbo". With few RKO roles forthcoming, she turned to the stage to make a living. According to the Internet Broadway Database, she appeared in five Broadway productions, beginning with "Golden Wings" (1941). In the mid-1940s, she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first role of note was in "Heaven Can Wait" (1943). During the 1940s, she appeared in "The Seventh Cross" (1944), "Johnny Angel" (1945), "The House on 92nd Street" (1945), "A Scandal in Paris" (1946), and "A Double Life" (1947). Her favorite role was as the ex-wife of an actor driven mad, played by Ronald Colman, in "A Double Life". By the 1950s, her Hollywood career had stalled.  In 1957, her son and only child was killed in a car accident. From then on, she divided her time between making films in Sweden and acting on stage in New York until she returned to Hollywood in the 1960s. She also acted on television, making guest appearances in several popular TV series, including "Route 66", "Bonanza", "The Outer Limits", "The Green Hornet", "Cannon", "Starsky and Hutch", "The Streets of San Francisco", "Quincy, M.E.", "Magnum, P.I.", "Trapper John, M.D." and "Hart to Hart".  In her later years, Hasso worked as a songwriter and writer and translated Swedish folk songs into English. Her debut novel, "Momo" (1977), depicts her childhood in interwar Stockholm. Hasso's second album, "Where the Sun Meets the Moon" (1979), consists of her own versions of Swedish folk tunes. In a 1995 interview, she stated she wanted to be remembered for her writing, not her acting.  She continued to act until late in her life, her last film being "One Hell of a Guy" (2000).  Hasso received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the motion picture industry. Her star ceremony was held on February 1, 1994 with the star located at 7080 Hollywood Blvd.  She died in Los Angeles at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2002, aged 86 of pneumonia, although some sources said she was 91. Hasso adhered to Lutheranism.

Awards.

In 1935, she received the Theatre League's De Wahl-stipendium and in 1939 the first Nordic nordiska Gösta Ekmanpriset. In 1972, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden named her Member 1st Class of the Royal Order of Vasa. In 1989, the Vasa Order of America named her Swedish-American of the Year. Hasso has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures, at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

Signe Hasso (born Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson, 15 August 1915 – 7 June 2002) was a Swedish actress, writer, and composer.


Playing career.

Falloon was named Memorial Cup Tournament MVP in 1991 with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL.  Falloon was drafted 2nd overall by the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He was the first-ever draft pick in the history of the San Jose Sharks organization. Ray Whitney, his teammate with the WHL's Spokane Chiefs, was the Sharks' second pick. The Sharks had thought the pair would be a natural scoring combination, but that didn't pan out. After playing in San Jose for four years, Falloon was traded November 16, 1995 to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for LW Martin Spanhel, a first-round draft choice in the 1996 Entry Draft and a third-round draft choice (these picks were later transferred to the Phoenix Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres and used to acquire Danny Briere and Mike Martone, respectively).  He was traded January 17, 1998 to the Ottawa Senators along with Václav Prospal and a second-round draft choice, in exchange for Alexandre Daigle, the first overall draft pick in 1993. He later played for both the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins.  After 2000, he was no longer an active NHL player. After playing for Davos in Switzerland for the 2000–2001 season, Falloon returned home to play in his hometown, for the Foxwarren Falcons – a team from the tiny North Central Hockey League in western Manitoba. Not surprisingly, he has been a top scorer in the league. With the Falcons, he helped them win six straight league championships from 2001–02 to 2006–07 (the Falcons also won without Falloon in 2000–01). This string of championships was broken in 2007–08 by the Roblin Northstars.  As the second overall pick, Falloon will probably always be remembered as the 'consolation prize' in the 1991 draft, since No. 1 pick Eric Lindros was easily the most coveted player available that year. Still, Falloon was considered a talented prospect in his own right, and the Sharks expected him to be one of the building blocks of their young franchise in the coming decade. Falloon delivered decent returns as a rookie, notching 59 points in 1991–92, but never topped that production for the remainder of his career, and is widely regarded as a draft bust. Future Hockey Hall-of-Famers Scott Niedermayer and Peter Forsberg were selected with the third and sixth picks respectively after Falloon went second in the 1991 draft. Later in his career Falloon became known more for his lack of conditioning.  He played 575 career NHL games, scoring 143 goals and 179 assists for 322 points.

After hockey.

Falloon became a grain farmer near Linden, Manitoba after he retired from hockey. On January 23, 2020, he was convicted of impaired driving.

Patrick J. Falloon (born ) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger who played nine seasons in the National Hockey League between 1991 and 2000. He played with the San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He would also play a season in the Swiss National League. The first player drafted by the Sharks, Falloon had a standout junior career with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, with consecutive 60 goal seasons before being drafted.


Background.

Born in the town of Bülach in the Zürcher Unterland, Meier joined the French Foreign Legion in his teens, but says he soon left and returned home. In 1965, he lost his left arm in a bus accident in Turkey. Some time later, he met and married a Greek woman, Kalliope Zafiriou, with whom he had three children. The nickname "Billy" came by way of an American friend who thought Meier's cowboy style of dress reminded her of "Billy the Kid." This anecdote was told by Meier in an interview with Bob Zanotti of Swiss Radio International in June, 1982.

Alleged extraterrestrial contacts.

Meier claims his extraterrestrial encounters began in 1942, at the age of five, when he met an elderly Plejaren man named "Sfath". After Sfath's death in 1953, Meier said, he began communicating with an extraterrestrial woman (though not a Plejaren) called "Asket". All contacts ceased in 1964, he said, then resumed on January 28, 1975, when he met "Semjase", the granddaughter of Sfath, and shortly thereafter another Plejaren man called "Ptaah". Other Plejarens, including a woman named "Nera", have since allegedly joined the dialog as well. Photographs of these two women were later proved to have been faked.  Meier founded a non-profit, tax-paying organization based on his alleged contacts with Semjase, called the "Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz- und Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologiestudien" (Free Community of Interests for the Border and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies) in the late 1970s and established his "Semjase Silver Star Center". The organization's headquarters is in Switzerland.

Photographs, films.

Meier's photographs and films are claimed by him to show alien spacecraft floating above the Swiss countryside. He calls the alleged spaceships "beamships" from Plejaren. According to Meier, the Plejaren gave him permission to photograph and film their beamships so that he could produce evidence of their extraterrestrial visitations. Some of Meier's photos are claimed by him to show prehistoric Earth scenes, extraterrestrials, and celestial objects from an alleged non-Earthly vantage point. Meier's claims are widely characterized as fraudulent by scientists, skeptics, and most ufologists, who say that his photographs and films are hoaxes.  In 1997, Meier's ex-wife, Kalliope, told interviewers that his photos were of spaceship models he crafted with items like trash can lids, carpet tacks and other household objects, and that the stories he told of his adventures with the aliens were similarly fictitious. She also said that photos of purported extraterrestrial women "Asket" and "Nera" were really photos of Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund, members of the singing and dancing troupe The Golddiggers. It was later confirmed that the women in the photographs were members of The Golddiggers performing on "The Dean Martin Show".

Eduard Albert Meier (born February 3, 1937), commonly nicknamed "Billy" is the founder of a UFO religion called the "Freie Interessengemeinschaft für Grenz- und Geisteswissenschaften und Ufologiestudien" (Free Community of Interests for the Border and Spiritual Sciences and Ufological Studies) and alleged contactee whose UFO photographs are claimed to show alien spacecraft. Meier claims to be in regular contact with extraterrestrial beings he calls the Plejaren. He also presented other material during the 1970s such as metal samples, sound recordings and film footage. Meier claims to be the seventh reincarnation after six prophets common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Enoch, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Immanuel (Jesus), and Mohammed.


History.

Contemporary dance draws on both classical ballet and modern dance, whereas postmodern dance was a direct and opposite response to modern dance. Merce Cunningham is considered to be the first choreographer to "develop an independent attitude towards modern dance" and defy the ideas that were established by it. In 1944 Cunningham accompanied his dance with music by John Cage, who observed that Cunningham's dance "no longer relies on linear elements (...) nor does it rely on a movement towards and away from climax. As in abstract painting, it is assumed that an element (a movement, a sound, a change of light) is in and of itself expressive; what it communicates is in large part determined by the observer themselves." Cunningham formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953 and went on to create more than one hundred and fifty works for the company, many of which have been performed internationally by ballet and modern dance companies.

Cunningham's key ideas.

Cunningham's key ideas include-  Other pioneers of contemporary dance (the offspring of modern and postmodern) include Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey, Mary Wigman, Pina Bausch, Francois Delsarte, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Paul Taylor, Rudolph von Laban, Loie Fuller, José Limón and Marie Rambert.

Choreographer's role.

There is usually a choreographer who makes the creative decisions and decides whether the piece is an abstract or a narrative one. Dancers are selected based on their skill and training. The choreography is determined based on its relation to the music or sounds that is danced to. The role of music in contemporary dance is different from in other genres because it can serve as a backdrop to the piece. The choreographer has control over the costumes and their aesthetic value for the overall composition of the performance and also in regards to how they influence dancers’ movements.

Dance technique.

Dance techniques and movement philosophies employed in contemporary dance may include Contemporary ballet, Dance improvisation, Interpretive dance, Lyrical dance, Modern dance styles from United States such as Graham technique, Humphrey-Weidman technique and Horton technique, Modern dance of Europe Bartenieff Fundamentals and the dance technique of Isadora Duncan (also see Free dance).  Contemporary dancers train using contemporary dance techniques as well as non-dance related practices such as Pilates, Yoga, the acting practice of Corporeal mime - Étienne Decroux technique and somatic practices such as Alexander technique, Feldenkrais Method, Sullivan Technique and Franklin-Methode, American contemporary techniques such as José Limón technique and Hawkins technique and Postmodern dance techniques such as Contact improvisation and Cunningham technique, and Release technique.  Some well-known choreographers and creators of contemporary dance created schools and techniques of their own. Paul Taylor developed a dance technique called Taylor technique, which is now taught at modern dance schools like The Ailey School in New York City.

Dance and Technology.

Reflecting the situation in society at large, contemporary dance is increasingly incorporating overtly technological elements, and, in particular, robots. Robotics engineer/dancer Amy LaViers, for example, has incorporated cell phones in a contemporary dance piece calling attention to the issues surrounding our ever-increasing dependence on technology.

Contemporary dance is a genre of dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly strong popularity in the U.S. and Europe. Although originally informed by and borrowing from classical, modern, and jazz styles, it has come to incorporate elements from many styles of dance. Due to its technical similarities, it is often perceived to be closely related to modern dance, ballet, and other classical concert dance styles.


Background.

The Dutch West India Company appointed Kieft as director without obvious experience or qualifications for the job; he might have been appointed through family political connections. He arrived in New Netherland in April 1638. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, Saybrook Colony, Mohegan Indians, and Narragansett Indians had defeated the Dutch-allied Pequot tribe during the Pequot War (1636-1638), which eased the way for the English to take over the northern reaches of New Netherland along the Connecticut River. Peter Minuit had been a director-general of New Netherland, but he left two weeks before Kieft's arrival to establish New Sweden in the poorly developed southern reaches of the colony along the Delaware Valley.  New Netherland had begun to flourish along the Hudson River. The Dutch West India Company ran the settlement chiefly for trading, with the director-general exercising unchecked corporate authority backed by soldiers. New Amsterdam and the other settlements of the Hudson Valley had developed beyond company towns into a growing colony. In 1640, the Company surrendered its trade monopoly on the colony and declared New Netherlands a free-trade zone, and Kieft was suddenly governor of a booming economy.

Skirmishing.

Kieft's first plan to reduce costs was to solicit tribute payments from the tribes living in the region. Long-time colonists warned him against this course, but he pursued it, nonetheless. Tribal chiefs rejected the idea. Pigs were stolen from the farm of David Pietersz. de Vries, so Kieft sent soldiers to raid a Raritan village on Staten Island, killing several people. The Raritan band retaliated by burning down de Vries' farmhouse and killing four of his employees, so Kieft offered bounty payments to rival tribes for the heads of Raritans. Colonists later determined that de Vries' pigs had been stolen by other colonists. In August 1641, a Weckquaesgeek Indian killed Claes Swits, an elderly Swiss immigrant who ran a public house frequented by settlers and Indians alike in Turtle Bay, Manhattan. Another incident occurred at Achter Kol along the banks of the Hackensack River. Settlers and some Hackensacks had been drinking alcohol at a trading post when a conflict arose over a missing coat which ended in the death of the post's foreman.  The colonists resisted Kieft's Indian initiatives, so he tried to use the Swits incident to build popular support for war. He created the Council of Twelve Men to advise him, and it was the first popularly elected body in the New Netherlands colony. The Council was alarmed about the consequences of Kieft's proposed crusade, as they had lived in peace with the Indians for nearly two decades, and they rejected his proposal to massacre the Weckquaesgeek village if the villagers refused to produce the Swits murderer.  The Indians were far more numerous than the colonists and could easily take reprisals against their lives and property. They also supplied the furs and pelts that were the economic lifeblood of the colony. The council sought to dissuade Kieft from war, and they began to advise him on other matters, using the new Council to carry the interests of colonists to the corporate rulers. They called for establishing a permanent representative body to manage local affairs, and Kieft responded by dissolving the Council and issuing a decree forbidding them to meet or assemble.  Kieft sent a punitive expedition to attack the village of the Indian who had murdered Swits, but the militia got lost. He then accepted the peace offerings of Weckquaesgeek elders. He then launched an attack on camps of refugee Weckquaesgeek and Tappan on February 23, 1643, two weeks after dissolving the Council. Mahican and Mohawk Indians in the north had driven them south the year before, armed with guns traded by French and English colonists, and the Tappans sought protection from the Dutch. Kieft refused aid despite the company's previous guarantees to the tribes to provide it. The refugees made camp at Communipaw in Jersey City and lower Manhattan.

Pavonia Massacre.

Colonists from New Netherland descended on the camps on February 25, 1643 and killed 120 Indians, including women and children. de Vries described the events in his journal:  Infants were torn from their mother's breasts, and hacked to pieces in the presence of their parents, and pieces thrown into the fire and in the water, and other sucklings, being bound to small boards, were cut, stuck, and pierced, and miserably massacred in a manner to move a heart of stone. Some were thrown into the river, and when the fathers and mothers endeavored to save them, the soldiers would not let them come on land but made both parents and children drown.  Historians differ on whether Kieft had planned such a massacre or a more contained raid, but all sources agree that he rewarded the soldiers for their deeds. The attacks united the Algonquian peoples in the surrounding areas against the Dutch.

Three years of war.

In the fall of 1643, a force of 1,500 Indians invaded New Netherland and killed many, including Anne Hutchinson, a chief figure in the Antinomian Controversy which ruptured the Massachusetts Bay Colony years earlier. The Indians destroyed villages and farms, the work of two decades of settlement, and Dutch forces killed 500 Weckquaesgeek Indians that winter in retaliation. New Amsterdam became crowded with destitute refugees, and the colonists increasingly resisted Kieft's rule. They flouted paying new taxes that he ordered, and many people began to leave by ship. Kieft hired Captain John Underhill, who recruited militia on Long Island to go against the Indians there and in Connecticut. His forces killed more than 1,000 Indians, including 500 to 700 in the Pound Ridge Massacre.  The colonists wrote letters to the directors of the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch Republic requesting intervention, but they produced no result. Many then banded together to formally petition for the removal of Kieft, writing: "We sit here among thousands of wild and barbarian people, in whom neither consolation nor mercy can be found; we left our dear fatherland, and if God the Lord were not our comfort we would perish in our misery." For the next two years, the united tribes harassed settlers throughout New Netherland. The sparse colonial forces were helpless to stop the attacks, but the Indians were too spread out to mount more effective strikes. The two sides finally agreed to a truce when the last of the 69 united tribes joined in August 1645.

Outcome.

The Indian attacks caused many settlers to return to Europe, and the Dutch West India Company lost confidence in its ability to control its territory in the New World. They recalled Kieft to the Netherlands in 1647 to answer for his conduct, but he died in a shipwreck near Swansea, Wales. The company named Peter Stuyvesant as his successor, and he managed New Netherland until it was ceded to the English.

Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colony of New Netherland and the Lenape Indians in New York. It is named for Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft who had ordered an attack without approval of his advisory council and against the wishes of the colonists. Dutch colonists attacked Lenape camps and massacred the inhabitants, which encouraged unification among the regional Algonquian tribes against the Dutch and precipitated waves of attacks on both sides. This was one of the earliest conflicts between settlers and Indians in the region. The Dutch West India Company was displeased with Kieft and recalled him, but he died in a shipwreck while returning to the Netherlands; Peter Stuyvesant succeeded him in New Netherland. Numerous Dutch settlers returned to the Netherlands because of the continuing threat from the Algonquians, and growth slowed in the colony.


Biography.

Early life in Britain.

Lillian May Davies was born on 30 August 1915, in Swansea, South Wales, the daughter of William John Davies and his wife Gladys Mary (née Curran). She dropped one 'l' from her first name when she became a fashion model. She was photographed for fashion magazines such as "Vogue". Her parents separated in the 1920s, but they were not divorced until 1939.  In 1940 Lilian married the Scottish actor Ivan Craig (1912–1995) in Horsham, West Sussex. Shortly after their wedding, Craig joined the British Army and left for Africa, where he saw active service during the Second World War. In his absence, Lilian worked in a factory that made radios for the Royal Navy and at a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Marriage to Prince Bertil of Sweden.

In 1943, she met the Swedish Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, in London, reportedly at a cocktail party for her 28th birthday. Soon after their meeting, they became lovers although she was still married to Craig. When she and her husband were reunited after the war, Craig expressed his wish to marry another woman, and they were amicably divorced on 7 November 1947.  Bertil's older brother, Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, was second-in-line to the Swedish throne; but he died in 1947. As Gustaf Adolf's son, Carl Gustaf, was less than one year old, it seemed likely that, when the king died, Bertil would have to serve as regent (other heirs having given up their places in the line of succession because of marriages not acceptable to the king). For this reason, Bertil chose not to marry Lilian, so the couple simply lived together discreetly for more than thirty years. In 1946, Prince Bertil acquired a house in Sainte-Maxime, France, that became their private retreat.  Bertil never had to become regent, since his father, the king (who ascended the throne in 1950), lived long enough to see his grandson, Carl Gustaf, come of age. Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden ascended the throne in 1973, and, having married a commoner himself, he approved Bertil's and Lilian's marriage, meaning that Bertil would be able to keep his titles and place in the line of succession, and that Lillian would become a princess. They were married on 7 December 1976 at the church of Drottningholm Palace in the presence of the king and the queen.

Widowhood.

Prince Bertil died on 5 January 1997 in their home. From 1997 until 2010 Lilian continued to represent the royal family at various engagements and other occasions. She was the patron of many organizations. In 2000, Lilian released a biography of her life with Bertil.  In August 2008, Lilian fell and broke her femur in her apartment; and, in February 2009, she again suffered a fall in her home. It was announced on 3 June 2010, that Lilian was afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and was no longer able to appear in public. She lived out her final years at Villa Solbacken, her longtime home in the Djurgården area of Stockholm, attended by three nurses.  Lilian died in Stockholm on 10 March 2013 at age 97, sixteen years after her husband. The Royal Palace did not give a cause of death, but Lilian had been in poor health for several years. Her death came as the royal family was preparing for Princess Madeleine's wedding, and the family interrupted what they were doing to spend her last moments with her.  Her 16 March funeral was broadcast live on SVT. It was attended by her nephew and niece-in-law the King and the Queen of Sweden; her nieces the Queen of Denmark, Princess Margaretha, Princess Birgitta, Princess Désirée, and Princess Christina; her grandnieces Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine; and her grandnephew and grandnephew-in-law Prince Carl Philip and Prince Daniel. Princess Astrid of Norway was also in attendance, as were her friends Roger Moore and his Swedish wife Kiki Tholstrup.

Princess Lilian of Sweden, Duchess of Halland (born Lillian May Davies, later Craig; 30 August 1915 – 10 March 2013), was a British fashion model who became a member of the Swedish royal family through her 1976 marriage to Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland (1912–1997). As such, she was a paternal aunt of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and a maternal aunt of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.


Early life.

Nettles was born in St Austell, Cornwall, in 1943. His birth mother was an Irish nurse who came to work in Great Britain during the Second World War. He was adopted at birth by carpenter Eric Nettles and his wife Elsie. As a youth he attended St Austell Grammar School. In 1962, he studied history and philosophy at the University of Southampton. There he first performed as an actor, and after graduation he joined the Royal Court Theatre.

Acting career.

Nettles played Laertes to Tom Courtenay's Hamlet in 1969 at the University Theatre for 69 Theatre Company in Manchester. From 1969 to 1970, he was in repertory at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, and in the latter year had his first screen role in the film "One More Time". The following year he played Dr. Ian Mackenzie in the period drama "A Family at War", a role he continued until 1972. Following that he had small parts in many TV programmes including "The Liver Birds", "Dickens of London", "Robin of Sherwood" and an episode of "Enemy at the Door" called "Officers of the Law", first broadcast in March 1978. The latter was set in Guernsey during the Second World War German occupation and Nettles played a police detective ordered to work for the Germans and anguished over the conflict between his duty and collaborating with the enemy. He played fraudster Giles Sutton in ITV's "Heartbeat".  In 1981, Nettles won the role that made him a household name in the UK, that of Jim Bergerac in the Jersey-set crime drama "Bergerac". This ran for 87 episodes until 1991. Following the end of "Bergerac" Nettles did five seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in "The Winter's Tale", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Julius Caesar", "Richard III" and "The Devil is an Ass". In 1992, he appeared in an episode of "Boon", and in 1993 appeared as Jim Bergerac in the spoof police comedy "The Detectives".  In 1995, Nettles was approached by Brian True-May to play Tom Barnaby in a new murder mystery series he was to produce called "Midsomer Murders". This was to be the second major role of his career, again playing a policeman. "Midsomer Murders" made him a household name across the world. In 2003, he played Barnaby in the Boxing Day episode of "French & Saunders". Nettles appeared in a 2001 episode of "Heartbeat". In 2007, he appeared in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series "Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac" alongside comedian Will Smith about an obsessive fan of the series.  In February 2009, it was announced that Nettles had decided to leave "Midsomer Murders" after two further series were made. His final appearance on-screen was on 2 February 2011, by which time he had appeared in 81 episodes. About his departure, he commented, "It’s always wise to leave people wanting more, rather than be booed off the stage because you bored them."  In 2016 and 2017, Nettles had a recurring role as Ray Penvenen in the second and third seasons of the popular historical drama "Poldark".

Other television work.

Nettles narrated the BBC documentary series "Airport" from 1996 to 2005.  In 1987, Nettles was Raoul (the 4th man) in the "Agatha Christie Hour" story "The Fourth Man".  In the 90's, Nettle narrated the BBC documentary "X Cars" following Greater Manchester Police's stolen car squad during the height of the UK wide joy riding crime wave.  In early 2010, Nettles wrote, presented and produced a three-part documentary, "Channel Islands at War", to mark the 70th anniversary of the German invasion and subsequent occupation of the Channel Islands. He received threatening letters from some residents of Jersey, accusing him of implying that islanders were collaborators. He defended the documentary saying: "There is no possible way you could have avoided collaboration with the occupying power who had power over the civilian population. If you had not toed the line you would have been shot." This view was supported by local historians and members of the Channel Islands Occupation Society.  In 2020, Nettles took over as the narrator on the Channel 4 television show "Devon and Cornwall", a sister show to the network's "The Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes" programme.

Books.

During the filming of "Bergerac", filmed on the island of Jersey, he wrote "Bergerac's Jersey" (BBC Books, 1988; ), a travel guide to filming locations in the series. He followed up with "John Nettles' Jersey: A Personal View of the People and Places" (BBC Books, 1992; ) about the island's landscape, personalities and history.  In 1991 he wrote the semi-autobiographical "Nudity in a Public Place: Confessions of a Mini Celebrity" (Robson Books; ) about becoming a "reluctant heartthrob" to female viewers of "Bergerac". This was re-released as a Kindle version on Amazon in 2014 following the reruns of Bergerac on BBC2 as part of their afternoon nostalgia collection.  In 2012 Nettles wrote "Jewels and Jackboots" (Hardback ) about the German occupation of the Channel Islands. It sold out in a matter of weeks, and was republished in 2013 as a paperback and on Kindle.

Personal life.

In 1966, Nettles married his first wife, Joyce. Their daughter, Emma Martins, was born in 1970 and later moved to Jersey together with her father. After they divorced in 1979, Joyce Nettles later became a casting director on 23 episodes of "Midsomer Murders". He married his second wife, Cathryn Sealey, in July 1995 in Evesham, Worcestershire.

Honours.

Nettles was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. On 21 September 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Plymouth. He also agreed to be patron of Devon charity The Mare and Foal Sanctuary in July 2014.  He received an honorary degree from the University of Southampton, where he once studied.

John Vivian Drummond Nettles, OBE (born 11 October 1943) is a British actor and writer. He is best known for playing the lead roles in the long-running television series "Bergerac" and "Midsomer Murders".


Biography.

Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was born in the town of Shchigry, Kursk gubernia, Russia. He graduated from the Kharkov University in 1896 and became a full professor in 1907. He worked as a researcher in the Askania-Nova natural reserve, also for the State Experimental Veterinary Institute (1917–1921, 1924–1930), for the Central Experimental Station for Researching Reproduction of Domestic Animals (1921-1924), and for the Moscow Higher Zootechnic Institute (1928–1930).  Around the start of the 20th century, Ilya Ivanov perfected artificial insemination and its practical usage for horse breeding. He proved that this technology allows one stallion to fertilize up to 500 mares (instead of 20–30 by natural fertilization). The results were sensational for their time, and Ivanov's station was frequented by horse breeders from many parts of the world.  In the course of a general political shakeup in the Soviet scientific world, Ivanov and a number of scientists involved in primate research and experiments lost their positions. In the spring of 1930, Ivanov came under political criticism at his veterinary institute. Finally, on December 13, 1930, Ivanov was arrested. He was sentenced to five years of exile to Alma Ata, where he worked for the Kazakh Veterinary-Zoologist Institute until his death from a stroke on 20 March 1932. The renowned physiologist and psychologist Ivan Pavlov wrote an obituary for him.

Human-ape hybridization experiments.

The most controversial of Ivanov's studies was his attempt to create a human-ape hybrid. As early as 1910, he had given a presentation to the World Congress of Zoologists in Graz in which he described the possibility of obtaining such a hybrid through artificial insemination.  In the 1920s, Ivanov carried out a series of experiments to create a human/nonhuman ape hybrid. Three female chimpanzees were inseminated with human sperm, he failed to create a pregnancy. In 1929 he organized a set of experiments involving nonhuman ape sperm and human volunteers, but was delayed by the death of his last orangutan.

Orango opera.

His work was one of the sources of inspiration for the unfinished satirical opera, "Orango" whose "Prologue" was sketched in 1932 by Dmitri Shostakovich with a libretto by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy and Alexander Osipovich Starchakov but the whole was later abandoned and discarded. The manuscript was found by Olga Digonskaya, a Russian musicologist, in the Glinka Museum, Moscow in 2004 and orchestrated by Gerard McBurney; this work was premiered on 2 December 2011 in Los Angeles, California by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor) and staged by Peter Sellars (director).

In popular culture.

The first season, episode one, of the 2011 sci-fi and horror dramatized documentary television series, "", features a segment, titled "Ape-Man Army", in which the theories of Ivanov on human-ape hybridization are dramatized.

Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (, – March 20, 1932) was a Russian and Soviet biologist who specialized in the field of artificial insemination and the interspecific hybridization of animals. He is famous for his controversial attempts to create a human-ape hybrid by inseminating three female chimpanzees with human sperm (with no result).


Life.

She was a daughter of John of Rožmitál and his wife Ludmilla of Strakonicz.

Marriage.

Joanna married George of Poděbrady in 1450 (the marriage was probably arranged by Joanna's brother, Jaroslav Lev Rosenthal because her father had died in her childhood), a year after the death of his first wife Kunigunde, by whom he had six children.  Shortly after the marriage, in 1452, George became adept with the provincial administrator of Ladislaus the Posthumous. When Ladislaus died in 1457 of leukemia, people questioned who would succeed the childless King in Bohemia and Hungary; the main candidates to succeed were Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and George. George was eventually selected and they were crowned in 1458.  Both of Joanna's surviving children went on to have their own children.  Joanna actively supported her husband in politics; she was not only a mentor, but she was personally involved in state affairs, being part of her husband's political agenda. Joanna, however gained recognition as an esteemed wife and mother. George later brought his children with Joanna and her stepchildren to court. Joanna's stepdaughter Catherine was even married off to George's old rival Matthias Corvinus. Joanna's brother lent her passport to travel to Western Europe in the years 1465–1467. She left her husband for making the prayer book of King George. When the Pope cursed George, this applied even to his wife and all their children. In August, 1470 she led the Czech armies fighting Matthias Corvinus for Bohemia, when all peace was broken after the premature death of Catherine.

Widowhood.

George died in 1471, and was succeeded by Vladislas II of Hungary. In 1473 Joanna and Vladislas launched a land assembly in Benešov, where they sought to remind those present of the political legacy of Joanna's husband and his attempt to compromise between Catholicism and Utraquism.  After 1473 Joanna moved to the traditional place of Bohemian widowed queens, Mělník. The local Royal Chapter St. Peter and Paul referred six thousand talents of silver to Joanna.  Joanna died on November 12, 1475, at Mělník. According to her last will she wished to rest in the church beneath the town, but other sources indicate that she was buried in St. Vitus alongside George. Her funeral was also attended by Vladislas II.  Of her four children, only Henry and Ludmila lived to adulthood.

Family.

Joanna and George had the following children, only two of them lived to adulthood:  Joanna zu Rozmital had collateral descendants, through her brother of the house of Lev, among Catholic Germans named Loewe who became the Catholic Lolwings of Wisconsin.

Joanna of Rožmitál (c. 1430 – 12 November 1475) was the Queen consort of Bohemia as the second wife of George of Poděbrady.


Toilet paper.

The use of toilet paper for post-defecation cleansing first started in China. It became widespread in Western culture.  In some parts of the world, especially before toilet paper was available or affordable, the use of newspaper, telephone directory pages, or other paper products was common. The widely distributed Sears Roebuck catalog was also a popular choice until it began to be printed on glossy paper (at which point some people wrote to the company to complain). With flush toilets, using newspaper as toilet paper is likely to cause blockages.  This practice continues today in parts of Africa; while rolls of toilet paper are readily available, they can be fairly expensive, prompting poorer members of the community to use newspapers.  People suffering from hemorrhoids may find it more difficult to keep the anal area clean using only toilet paper and may prefer washing with water as well.  Although wiping from front to back minimizes the risk of contaminating the urethra, the directionality of wiping varies based on sex, personal preference, and culture.  Some people wipe their anal region standing, others wipe theirs sitting.

Water.

Water with soap cleansing is a reliable and hygienic way of removing fecal remnants.

Muslim societies.

The use of water in Muslim countries is due in part to Islamic toilet etiquette which encourages washing after all instances of defecation. There are flexible provisions for when water is scarce: stones or papers can be used for cleansing after defecation instead.  In Turkey, all Western-style toilets have a small nozzle on the centre rear of the toilet rim aiming at the anus. This nozzle is called "taharet musluğu" and it is controlled by a small tap placed within hand's reach near the toilet. It is used to wash the anus after wiping and drying with toilet paper. Squat toilets in Turkey do not have this kind of nozzle (a small bucket of water from a hand's reach tap or a bidet shower is used instead).  Another alternative resembles a miniature shower and is known as a "health faucet", bidet shower, or "bum gun". It is commonly found to the right of the toilet where it is easy to reach. These are commonly used in the Muslim world. In the Indian subcontinent, a lota vessel is often used to cleanse with water, though the shower or nozzle is common among new toilets.

Indian subcontinent.

In India and the Indian subcontinent, over 95% of the population use water for cleansing the anal area after defecating. Use of toilet paper is rare in this region and is seen only in some urban settings. Toilets commonly also have bidet sprayers. Even when toilet paper is used water-based cleansing is considered essential. The cleaning of hands with soap/ liquid soap after this cleansing process is very important. In places where soap is not available, soil, ash or sand is used to clean the hands. Simpler toilet rooms may not have running water for anal cleansing and hand washing, but buckets, bails, and mugs are used for storage of water and for the purpose of cleaning.

Southeast Asia.

In Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, house bathrooms usually have a medium size wide plastic dipper (called "gayung" in Indonesia, "tabo" in the Philippines, "ขัน" (khan) in Thai) or large cup, which is also used in bathing. In Thailand, the "bum gun" is ubiquitous. Some health faucets are metal sets attached to the bowl of the water closet, with the opening pointed at the anus. Toilets in public establishments mainly provide toilet paper for free or dispensed, though the dipper (often a cut up plastic bottle or small jug) is occasionally encountered in some establishments. Owing to its ethnic diversity, restrooms in Malaysia often feature a combination of anal cleansing methods where most public restrooms in cities offer toilet paper as well as a built in bidet or a small hand-held bidet shower (health faucets) connected to the plumbing in the absence of a built-in bidet.  In Vietnam, people often use a bidet shower. It is usually available both at general households and public places.

East Asia.

The first "paperless" toilet seat was invented in Japan in 1980. A spray toilet seat, commonly known by Toto's trademark Washlet, is typically a combination of seat warmer, bidet and drier, controlled by an electronic panel or remote control next to the toilet seat. A nozzle placed at rear of the toilet bowl aims a water jet to the anus and serves the purpose of cleaning. Many models have a separate "bidet" function aimed towards the front for feminine cleansing. The spray toilet seat is common only in Western-style toilets, and is not incorporated in traditional style squat toilets. Some modern Japanese bidet toilets, especially in hotels and public areas, are labeled with pictograms to avoid language problems, and most newer models have a sensor that will refuse to activate the bidet unless someone is sitting on the toilet.

Europe and the Americas.

The bidet is common in predominantly Catholic countries where water is considered essential for anal cleansing, Some people in Europe and the Americas use bidets for anal cleansing with water. Bidets are common bathroom fixtures in many Western and Southern European countries and many South American countries, while bidet showers are more common in Finland. The availability of bidets varies widely within this group of countries. Furthermore, even where bidets exist, they may have other uses than for anal washing. In Italy, the installation of bidets in every household and hotel became mandatory by law in 1975.

Other materials.

Wet wipes and gel wipes.

When cleaning babies' buttocks during diaper changes wet wipes are often used, in combination with water if available. As wet wipes are produced from plastic textiles made of polyester or polypropylene, they are notoriously bad for sewage systems as they do not decompose, although the wet wipe industry maintains they are biodegradable but not "flushable".  A product of the 21st century, special foams, sprays and gels can be combined with dry toilet paper as an alternatives to wet wipes. A moisturizing gel can be applied to toilet paper for personal hygiene or to reduce skin irritation from diarrhea. This product is called gel wipe.

Cloths and paper.

Rags or washcloths are sometimes used. They are then washed similarly to cloth diapers and used again. Newspaper may be used instead of toilet paper.

Natural materials.

In rural areas of developing countries or during camping trips, stones, leaves, corn cobs and similar are also used for anal cleansing. This can be due to the unavailability of toilet paper or water.

History.

Ancient Greeks were known to use fragments of ceramic known as "pessoi" to perform anal cleansing.  Roman anal cleansing was done with a sponge on a stick called a "tersorium" (). The stick would be soaked in a water channel in front of a toilet, and then stuck through the hole in front of the toilet for anal cleaning. The "tersorium" was shared by people using public latrines. To clean the sponge, they washed it in a bucket with water and salt or vinegar. This became a breeding ground for bacteria, causing the spread of disease in the latrine.  In ancient Japan, a wooden skewer known as "chuugi" was used for cleaning after defecation.

Anal hygiene or anal cleansing refers to hygienic practices that are performed on a person's anus, usually shortly after defecation. The anus and inner buttocks may be wiped (typically with toilet paper, wet wipes, or gel wipes) or washed in order to remove remnants of fecal matter.


History.

Cesi wanted his academicians to adhere to a research methodology based upon observation, experimentation, and the inductive method. He thus called his academy "dei lincei" because its members had "eyes as sharp as lynxes," scrutinizing nature at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. The leader of the first academy was the famous scientist Galileo Galilei.  Academy of Lynxes was dissolved after the death of its founder, but was re-created by Pope Pius IX in 1847 and given the name Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"). It was later re-founded in 1936 by Pope Pius XI and given its current name. Pope Paul VI in 1976 and Pope John Paul II in 1986 subsequently updated its statutes.  Since 1936, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has been concerned both with investigating specific scientific subjects belonging to individual disciplines and with the promotion of interdisciplinary co-operation. It has progressively increased the number of its academicians and the international character of its membership. The Academy is an independent body within the Holy See and enjoys freedom of research. The statutes of 1976 express its goal: "The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has as its goal the promotion of the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences, and the study of related epistemological questions and issues."

Activities.

Since the Academy and its membership is not influenced by factors of a national, political, or religious character it represents a valuable source of objective scientific information which is made available to the Holy See and to the international scientific community. Today the work of the Academy covers six main areas:  The disciplines involved are sub-divided into eight fields: the disciplines of physics and related disciplines; astronomy; chemistry; the earth and environmental sciences; the life sciences (botany, agronomy, zoology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, the neurosciences, surgery); mathematics; the applied sciences; and the philosophy and history of sciences.  Principal among the many publications produced by the Academy are:  With the goal of promoting scientific research, the Pius XI Medal is awarded by the Academy every two years to a young scientist who is under the age of 45 and shows exceptional promise. A few of the winners have also become members of the Academy.

Goals and hopes of the Academy.

The goals and hopes of the Academy were expressed by Pope Pius XI in the "motu proprio "In multis solaciis"" which brought about its re-foundation in 1936:  Forty years later (10 November 1979), John Paul II once again emphasized the role and goals of the Academy, on the 100th anniversary (centenary) of the birth of Albert Einstein:  On 8 November 2012 Pope Benedict XVI told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences:

Members.

The new members of the Academy are elected by the body of Academicians and chosen from men and women of every race and religion based on the high scientific value of their activities and their high moral profile. They are then officially appointed by the Roman Pontiff. The Academy is governed by a President, appointed from its members by the Pope, who is helped by a scientific Council and by the Chancellor. Initially made up of 80 Academicians, 70 who were appointed for life. In 1986 John Paul II raised the number of members for life to 80, side by side with a limited number of Honorary Academicians chosen because they are highly qualified figures, and others who are Academicians because of the posts they hold, including: the Chancellor of the Academy, the Director of the Vatican Observatory, the Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives.

President.

The president of the Academy is appointed from its members by the Pope. The current president is Joachim Von Braun, as of 21 June 2017. who takes over from Nobel laureate Werner Arber, who is a Nobel Prize Laureate and was the first Protestant to hold the position.

Nobel Prize-winning members.

During its various decades of activity, the Academy has had a number of Nobel Prize winners amongst its members, many of whom were appointed Academicians before they received this prestigious international award.  Other eminent Academicians include Padre Agostino Gemelli (1878–1959), founder of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and President of the Academy after its re-foundation until 1959, Mons. Georges Lemaître (1894–1966), one of the fathers of contemporary cosmology who held the office of President from 1960 to 1966, and Brazilian neuroscientist Carlos Chagas Filho.

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (, ) is a scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI, and thriving with the blessing of the Papacy ever since. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences and the study of related epistemological problems. The Academy has its origins in the Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), founded in 1847 as a more closely supervised successor to the Accademia dei Lincei ("Academy of Lynxes") established in Rome in 1603 by the learned Roman Prince, Federico Cesi (1585–1630), who was a young botanist and naturalist, and which claimed Galileo Galilei as its president. The Accademia dei Lincei survives as a wholly separate institution.


Life.

Louis Wirth was born in the small village of Gemünden in the Hunsrück, Germany. He was one of seven children born to Rosalie Lorig (1868–1948, from Butzweiler/Eifel) and Joseph Wirth. Gemünden was a pastoral community, and Joseph Wirth earned a living as a cattle dealer. The family was Jewish and both of his parents were religiously active. Louis left Gemünden to live with his older sister at his uncle's home in Omaha, Nebraska in 1911. Soon after arriving in the United States, Louis met and married Mary Bolton. The couple had two daughters, Elizabeth (Marvick) and Alice (Gray).

Research.

Wirth studied in the United States and became a leading figure in Chicago School Sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behaviour and mass media and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists. Wirth's major contribution to social theory of urban space was a classic essay "Urbanism as a Way of Life", published in the "American Journal of Sociology" in 1938. In this essay Wirth used Weber’s notion of the ideal type, seeing the urban and the rural as constituting two distinct types of community at opposite ends of a continuum.  His research was mostly concerned with how Jewish immigrants adjusted to life in urban America, as well as the distinct social processes of city life. Wirth was a supporter of applied sociology, and believed in taking the knowledge offered by his discipline and using it to solve real social problems.  Wirth writes that urbanism is a form of social organisation that is harmful to culture, and describes the city as a "“Substitution of secondary for primary contacts, the weakening of bonds of kinship, the declining social significance of the family, the disappearance of neighbourhood and the undermining of traditional basis of social solidarity”". Wirth was concerned with the effects of the city upon family unity, and he believed urbanization leads to a ‘low and declining urban reproduction rates... families are smaller and more frequently without children than in the country’. According to Wirth, marriage tends to be postponed, and the proportion of single people is growing, leading to isolation and less interaction.  But Wirth also stressed the positive effects of city life: "the beginning of what is distinctively modern in our civilization is best signalized by the growth of great cities“; "metropolitan civilization is without question the best civilization that human beings have ever devised“; "the city everywhere has been the center of freedom and toleration, the home of progress, of invention, of science, of rationality“ or: "the history of civilization can be written in terms of the history of cities“.  The profound social understanding of minority groups that Wirth obtained first-hand as a Jewish immigrant in America, can equally be applied to understanding the problems of other minority groups in society, such as ethnic minorities, the disabled, homosexuals, women and the elderly, all of whom have also suffered, and/or continue to suffer prejudice, discrimination and disenfranchisement from the more numerically dominant members of a host society. It is in this respect that Wirth's path-breaking and insightful work still amply rewards detailed study even today, some seventy years after his original investigations.  A good example of Wirth's work, which includes a comprehensive bibliography, is "On Cities and Social Life", published in 1964.

Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban sociologists.


Biography.

Pierre Charron was born in Paris, one of the twenty-five children of a bookseller. After studying law at Orléans and Bourges he practiced as an advocate, for a few years. He then entered the church and soon became a popular priest, rising to become a canon.  He moved to the southwest of France, invited by Arnaud de Pontac, Bishop of Bazas. He was appointed priest in ordinary to Marguerite de Valois, wife of Henry IV of Navarre. In about 1588, Charron decided to become a monk, but being rejected by both the Carthusians and the Celestines, he returned to his old profession. He delivered a course of sermons at Angers, and in the next year moved to Bordeaux, where he formed a famous friendship with Michel de Montaigne. On Montaigne's death, in 1592, Charron was requested in the will to bear the Montaigne arms.  From 1594, he used his own name; he spent from 1594 to 1600 under the protection of Antoine Hérbrard de Saint-Sulpice, Bishop of Cahors, who appointed him grand vicar and theological canon. His first book led to his being chosen deputy to the general assembly of the clergy, for which he became chief secretary.  Charron retired to Condom in 1600; he died suddenly of a stroke; his works were then receiving attention.

Works.

Charron first published his works anonymously. Later he wrote under the name of "Benoit Vaillant, Advocate of the Holy Faith." While Charron's reading of Montaigne is now considered dogmatic and indeed something of a distortion, it was important in its time and during the 17th century as a whole.

"Les Trois Vérités".

In 1594, he published a long work, "Les Trois Vérités," in which Charron sought to prove that there is a God and a true religion, that the true religion is Christianity, and that the true church is Roman Catholicism. It was a response to the Protestant work "Le Traité de l'Eglise," by Philippe de Mornay. In the second edition (1595), there is an elaborate reply to criticisms of the third "Vérité" by a Protestant writer. "Les Trois Vérités" ran through several editions.

"Discours chretiens".

Then followed, in 1600, "Discours chretiens," a book of sermons with a similar tone, half of which is about the Eucharist.

"De la sagesse".

In 1601, Charron published in Bordeaux his third work, "De la sagesse," a system of moral philosophy that develops ideas of Montaigne. Charron also connected Montaigne's scepticism with the anti-rational strand in Christianity. It received the support of Henry IV and of magistrate Pierre Jeannin. A second revised edition appeared in 1603, supported by Claude Dormy, the second Bishop of Boulogne.  "De la sagesse" also was attacked, in particular by the Jesuit François Garasse (1585–1631), who described Charron as an atheist.  A summary and defence of the book, written shortly before his death, appeared in 1606. In 1604, Charron's friend Michel de la Roche prefixed a "Life" to an edition of "De la sagesse," which depicts Charron as an amiable man of good character. His complete works, with this contribution by de la Roche, were published in 1635. An abridgment of the "Sagesse" is given in Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann's "Philosophie", vol. ix. An edition with notes by A. Duval appeared in 1820. It was translated into English as "Of Wisdome" (1612) by Samson Lennard; and again by George Stanhope (1697).  Apart from the major influence of Montaigne, Charron took from Raymond of Sabunde (Sibiuda). Another influence was neostoicism, as handled by Justus Lipsius.  According to Charron, the soul, located in the ventricles of the brain, is affected by the temperament of the individual; the dry temperament produces acute intelligence; the moist, memory; the hot, imagination. Dividing the intelligent soul into these three faculties, he writes the branches of science corresponding with each. On the nature of the soul, he quotes opinions. The belief in its immortality, he says, is the most universal of beliefs, but the most feebly supported by reason. As to a human's power of attaining truth, he declares that none of our faculties enable us to distinguish truth from error. In comparing humans with animals, Charron insists that there are no breaks in nature. Though inferior in some respects, in others, animals are superior. Namely, humanity's essential qualities are vanity, weakness, inconstancy, and presumption.  Charron writes that all religions teach that God is to be appeased by prayers, presents, vows, but especially, and, most irrationally, by human suffering. Each religion is said by its devotees to have commenced by divine inspiration. A human is a Christian, Jew, or Muslim, before he or she knows that they are persons. Furthermore, he writes that one religion is built upon another.

Views.

While Charron declares religion to be "strange to common sense," the practical result at which he arrives is that one is not to sit in judgment on his or her faith, but to be "simple and obedient," and to submit to public authority. He writes that this is one rule of wisdom with regard to religion. Another equally important is to avoid superstition, which he defines as the belief that God is like a hard judge who, eager to find fault, narrowly examines our slightest act, that he is vengeful and hard to appease, and that, therefore, he must be flattered and won over by pain and sacrifice.  Charron states that true piety, which is the first of duties, is the knowledge of God and of one's self; the latter knowledge being necessary to the former. The belief that what God sends is all good, and that all the bad is from ourselves is the abasing of humanity and the exalting of God. It leads to spiritual worship, for external ceremony is merely for our advantage, not for his glory.  Charron is a founder of modern secularism. He declares the sovereign to be the source of law, and asserts that popular freedom is dangerous.

Pierre Charron (; 1541 – 16 November 1603) was a French 16th-century Catholic theologian and philosopher, and a disciple and contemporary of Michel de Montaigne.


Early life.

Bragaglia was born in Frosinone, Lazio. In 1906 Bragaglia went to work as an assistant director of a Roman movie studio managed by his father Francesco. He gained a great deal of technical and artistic experience there, learning from directors Mario Caserini and Enrico Guazzoni. His younger siblings Arturo (actor) and Carlo Ludovico (film director) were both involved in Italian cinema from the 1930s to mid-1960s.

Futurism.

In 1911 he published the treatise "Fotodinamismo" and began lecturing on the concept. In the same year he became the chief editor of the art and theater newspaper "L'Artista". He published two Futurist manifestos, "Fotodinamica Futurista" (1912) and "Manifesto of Futurist Cinema" (1916). In 1916 he founded the "avant garde" magazine "Cronache di Attualità", which examined politics, music, theater and art from a Futurist standpoint. In the same year he founded the film studio "Novissima-Film", and produced some visionary Futurist films including "Thais", "Perfido incanto", and "Il mio cadavere".  In 1918 he opened an art gallery, the "Casa d'Arte Bragaglia", which became a nexus of "avant garde" artists and exhibitions. It displayed the work of such modernists as Balla, Depero, De Chirico, Boccioni, Klimt and Kandinsky. In 1919 he directed plays by Rosso di San Secondo and Pirandello.  From 1921 to 1924 Bragaglia published the satirical pamphlet "Index Rerum Virorumque Prohibitorum" ("Index of Forbidden Things and Men"). In 1922 he opened the "Teatro Sperimentale degli Indipendenti" which he directed till 1936. The same year he founded his own theater company ("Company Bragaglia Shows"), which also became a focal point for the Italian "avant garde". In 1932, he was named advisor to the "Corporazione dello Spettacolo" (Enteratainment Guild). The "Teatro" closed in 1936, and from 1937 to 1943 he was director of the foundation "Teatro delle Arti".  Bragaglia described his theories on the theater in "Maschera mobile" (1926), "Del teatro teatrale ossia del teatro" (1927), and "Il segreto di Tabarrino" (1933). He directed more than fifty productions. From 1926 until 1960, he also wrote a number of articles and books about art, the theater and motion pictures.  Bragaglia died in Rome on 15 July 1960.

Anton Giulio Bragaglia (11 February 1890 – 15 July 1960) was a pioneer in Italian Futurist photography and Futurist cinema. A versatile and intellectual artist with wide interests, he wrote about film, theatre, and dance.


Biography.

Early life.

Nikolay Ivanovich Bobrikov was born on January 15, 1839, and attended the 1st Cadet Corps. Upon graduation, he became a lieutenant and served in the Imperial Guards. After which he served in the Kazan military district and as divisional chief-of-staff in Novgorod. He became a colonel in 1869. A year later he was transferred to Saint Petersburg for special duties in the Imperial guard. This gave Bobrikov access to the Imperial court. In 1878 he became a major general.

Governor-General of Finland.

In 1898, Tsar Nicholas II appointed Bobrikov as the Governor-General of Finland as well as the Finnish Military District.  Upon appointment, he introduced a Russification programme into the Grand Duchy, the 11 main points were:  Bobrikov quickly became very unpopular and hated in Finland as he was an adamant supporter of the curtailing of the grand principality's extensive autonomy, which had in the late 1800s come into conflict with Russian ambitions of a unified and indivisible Russian state. In 1899, Nicholas II signed the "February Manifesto" which marks the beginning of the first "Years of Oppression" () from the traditional Finnish perspective. In this manifesto the Tsar decreed that the Diet of the Estates of Finland could be overruled in legislation if it was in Russian imperial interests. Half a million Finns, considering the decree a coup against the Finnish constitution, signed a petition to Nicholas II requesting to revoke the manifesto. The Tsar didn't even receive the delegation bringing the petition.  In 1900, Bobrikov issued orders that all correspondence between government offices was to be conducted in Russian and that education in the Russian language was to be increased in schools. The Finnish army was abolished in 1901, and Finnish conscripts could now be forced to serve with Russian troops anywhere in the Russian empire. To the first call-up in 1902, only 42% of the conscripts showed up. In 1905, conscription in Finland was abolished since Finns were seen as unreliable. In 1903, Bobrikov was given dictatorial powers by the Tsar so that he could dismiss government officials and close newspapers.

Assassination.

On June 16, 1904, Bobrikov was assassinated by Eugen Schauman in Helsinki. Schauman shot Bobrikov three times and then himself twice. Schauman died instantly and Bobrikov was mortally wounded, he died at the hospital in the early hours of the following morning. It was described as the following:

Nikolay Ivanovich Bobrikov (; in St. Petersburg – June 17, 1904 in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland) was a Russian general and politician. He was the Governor-General of Finland and the Finnish Military District from to during the early reign of Emperor Nicholas II, and was responsible for the Russification of Finland. After appointment as the governor-general, he quickly became very unpopular and was assassinated by Eugen Schauman, a Finnish nationalist from Kharkov.


Early life.

Fonseca was born the third child of a large military family on 5 August 1827 in Vila Madalena, Alagoas, a town that now bears his name as Marechal Deodoro, in Northeast Brazil. He was the son of Manuel Mendes da Fonseca Galvão (1785–1859) and his wife, Rosa Maria Paulina de Barros Cavalcanti (1802–1873). During the Brazilian Empire, his older brother, Severino Martins da Fonseca, was nominated the first Baron of Alagoas. Another notable relative was the Portuguese humanist Francisco de Holanda (d. 1585), his remote uncle. Fonseca pursued a military career that was notable for his suppression of the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco in 1848, Brazil's response to the European year of failed liberal revolutions. He also saw action during the Paraguayan War (1864–1870), attaining the rank of captain. In 1884 he was promoted to the rank of field marshal, and he later achieved the rank of full marshal. His personal courage, military competence, and manly personal style made him a national figure.

Political career.

As Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Fonseca was courted by republican intellectuals such as Benjamin Constant and Rui Barbosa in the café society of São Paulo. In 1886, alerted that the imperial government was ordering the arrest of prominent republicans, Fonseca went to Rio de Janeiro and assumed leadership of the army faction that supported the abolition of slavery in Brazil.  Emperor Pedro II had advocated the abolition of slavery for decades, freeing his own slaves in 1840, but he believed slavery should be done away with slowly to avoid damaging the Brazilian economy. The government, nominally headed by his daughter, Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil, abolished slavery entirely in 1888, during her third regency while her father was away from the country. Enraged oligarchs played a role in the subsequent coup d'état. Fonseca's prestige placed him at the head of the military coup that deposed the emperor on 15 November 1889, and he was briefly the head of the provisional government that called a Constituent Congress to draft a new constitution for a United States of Brazil. Soon, however, he was in conflict with the civilian republican leaders. His election as president on 25 February 1891, by a narrow plurality, was backed with military pressure on Congress.

Presidency.

The Fonseca administration, divided by political and personal animosity between Fonsenca and Vice President Floriano Peixoto and encountered strong opposition within the Congress, which chose a policy of obstruction. During the first months of his presidency, he permitted his ministers almost unrestricted control of their ministries. Arbitrary presidential decrees, such as the concession of the port of Torres to a private company and Decree 528, which that opened the country to further immigration except by Africans, as well as the disastrous conduct of economic policy during the bubble of the Encilhamento strengthened the resistance in Congress, which coalesced around Peixoto and soured public opinion. That also caused republicans in the South to withdraw their support from the marshal and provisional government. The situation reached a crisis stage when Fonseca dissolved the National Congress and declared a "state of emergency" on 3 November 1891. A group of deputies opposed the decision and found support among the high-ranking officers of the Navy, including Admiral Custódio José de Melo. The marshal found himself on the brink of a civil war. On 23 November 1891, he signed a resignation to no one in particular and turned over the presidency to Peixoto.

Death.

He died in Rio de Janeiro on 23 August 1892. He was stricken with perilous bouts of dyspnea, popularly referred to as "shortness of breath," and was buried in a family grave in the Caju Cemetery. However, in 1937, his remains were unearthed and transferred to a monument in Praça Paris, Rio de Janeiro.

In popular culture.

Fonseca has been portrayed twice by Brazilian actor and voice actor Castro Gonzaga in the miniseries "Abolição" (1988) and "República" (1989) respectively.

Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca (; 5 August 1827 – 23 August 1892) was a Brazilian politician and military officer who served as the first President of Brazil. He took office after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and proclaimed the Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire, and stepped down little more than two years later, in 1891, under great political pressure. He is therefore the first Brazilian President to have resigned from office.


History.

Ancient Greece and Rome.

The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC. Thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition.  While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato. In his "Symposium", he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom; if he attains wisdom, he would be a sage. Therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed. These disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition. As the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in a manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world.  Among the last of these philosophers was Marcus Aurelius, who is widely regarded as a philosopher in the modern sense, but personally refused to call himself by such a title, since he had a duty to live as an emperor.

Transition.

According to the Classicist Pierre Hadot, the modern conception of a philosopher and philosophy developed predominately through three changes:  The first is the natural inclination of the philosophical mind. Philosophy is a tempting discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe and abstract theory.  The second is the historical change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the philosophical way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life. Philosophy was then the servant to theology.  The third is the sociological need with the development of the university. The modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty. Therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life.

Medieval era.

In the fourth century, the word philosopher began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake "the distractions of material life" for a life of philosophy.  Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher – thus, the Philosopher's Stone.

Early modern era.

Many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. With the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent. Many of the esteemed philosophers of the eighteenth century and onward have attended, taught, and developed their works in university. Early examples include: Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.  After these individuals, the Classical conception had all but died with the exceptions of Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. The last considerable figure in philosophy to not have followed a strict and orthodox academic regime was Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Modern academia.

In the modern era, those attaining advanced degrees in philosophy often choose to stay in careers within the educational system as part of the wider professionalisation process of the discipline in the 20th century. According to a 1993 study by the National Research Council (as reported by the American Philosophical Association), 77.1% of the 7,900 holders of a PhD in philosophy who responded were employed in educational institutions (academia). Outside academia, philosophers may employ their writing and reasoning skills in other careers, such as medicine, bioethics, business, publishing, free-lance writing, media, and law.

Key thinkers.

French social thought.

Some known French social thinkers are Claude Henri Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, and Émile Durkheim.

British social thought.

British social thought, with thinkers such as Herbert Spencer, addressed questions and ideas relating to political economy and social evolution. The political ideals of John Ruskin were a precursor of social economy ("Unto This Last" had a very important impact on Gandhi's philosophy).

German social thought.

Important German philosophers and social thinkers included Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and Martin Heidegger.

Chinese social thought.

Important Chinese philosophers and social thinkers included Shang Yang, Lao Zi, Confucius, Mencius, Wang Chong, Wang Yangming, Li Zhi, Zhu Xi, Gu Yanwu, Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, Kang Youwei, Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping.

Italian sociology.

Important Italian social scientists include Antonio Gramsci, Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Franco Ferrarotti, Elena Cornaro Piscopia.

Indian philosophers.

Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, Chanakya, Buddha, Mahavira, Śāntarakṣita, Dharmakirti, Nagarjuna.

Women philosophers.

Women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field's history. While there have been women philosophers since ancient times, and a relatively small number were accepted as philosophers during the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary eras, particularly during the 20th and 21st century, almost no woman philosophers have entered the philosophical Western canon. One notable woman philosopher was Hypatia.

Prizes in philosophy.

Various prizes in philosophy exist. Among the most prominent are:  Certain esteemed philosophers, such as Henri Bergson, Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre, have also won the Nobel Prize in Literature.  The John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity, created by the Library of Congress to recognize work not covered by the Nobel Prizes, was given to philosophers Leszek Kołakowski in 2003, Paul Ricoeur in 2004, and Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor in 2015.

A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy. The term "philosopher" comes from the Ancient Greek, ("philosophos"), meaning "lover of wisdom". The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras (6th century BC).


Background.

Before European exploration, the Kingston area was inhabited by the Esopus people, a Lenape tribe which was estimated to number around 10,000 people living in small village communities by 1600.  In 1609, Henry Hudson explored the river which was named after him, leading to the first contact between the Esopus people and Europeans. Dutch settlers built a factorij (trading post) in Kingston, New York in 1614. The Esopus tribe used the land for farming, and they destroyed the post and drove the settlers back to the south. Colonists established a new settlement in 1652 at Kingston, but the Esopus drove them out again. The settlers returned once again in 1658, as they believed the land to be good for farming. They built a stockade (at ) to defend the village and named the colony "Wiltwijck". Skirmishes continued, but the Esopus were not able to repel the settlers, and they eventually granted the land to them.

First Esopus War.

The First Esopus War was a short-lived conflict between Dutch settlers and the Esopus Indians from September 20, 1659 and July 15, 1660. An incident occurred where a group of Dutch settlers opened fire on a group of Esopus around a campfire, who had been celebrating with brandy given as payment for farm work. Esopus reinforcements raided Dutch settlements outside the stockade, destroying crops, killing livestock, and burning buildings. The war party later besieged the walled settlement of Wiltwijck.  The colonists were outnumbered and had little hope of winning through force, but they managed to hold out and make some small attacks, including burning the Indians' fields to starve them out. They received reinforcements from New Amsterdam. The war concluded July 15, 1660, when the Indians agreed to trade land for food. Tensions remained between the Esopus and the settlers, however, eventually leading to the second war.

Second Esopus War.

Emissaries from the colony contacted the tribe on June 5, 1663 and requested a meeting in hopes of making a treaty. The Indians replied that it was their custom to conduct peace talks unarmed and in the open, so the settlers kept the gates open into "Wiltwijck". The Indians arrived on June 7 in great numbers, many claiming to be selling produce, thereby infiltrating deep into the town as scouts. Meanwhile, Esopus warriors completely destroyed the neighboring village of "Nieu Dorp" (Hurley, New York) unbeknownst to the colonists in Wiltwijck. The Indian scouts had spread themselves around the town and suddenly began their own attack. They took the settlers completely by surprise and soon controlled much of the town, setting fire to houses and kidnapping women before being driven out by the settlers. The attackers escaped, and the settlers repaired their fortifications. On June 16, Dutch soldiers transporting ammunition to the town were attacked on their way from Rondout Creek, but they repelled the Indians.  Throughout July, colonial forces reconnoitered the Esopus Kill. They were unable to distinguish one tribe from another, and they captured some traders from the "Wappinger" tribe, one of whom agreed to help them. He gave them information about various Indian forces and served as a guide in the field. In spite of his help, the colonists were unable to make solid contact with the Esopus, who used guerilla tactics and could disappear easily into the woods. After several unproductive skirmishes, the colonists managed to gain the help of the Mohawk, who served as guides, interpreters, and warriors. By the end of July, the colonists had received sufficient reinforcements to march for the Esopus stronghold in the mountains to the north. However, their ponderous equipment made progress slow, and the terrain was difficult. They recognized their disadvantage and burned the surrounding fields in the hope of starving them out, rather than making a direct attack on the Indian force.  For the next month, scouting parties went out to set fire to the Esopus fields but found little other combat. In early September, another colonial force tried to engage the Esopus on their territory, this time successfully. The battle ended with the death of Chief Papequanaehen and several others. The Indians fled, and the colonists led by Captain Martin Cregier pillaged their fort before retreating, taking supplies and prisoners. This effectively ended the war, although the peace was uneasy.

Outcome.

The Dutch settlers remained suspicious of all Indians with whom they came into contact and expressed misgivings about the intentions of the Wappingers and even the Mohawks, who had helped them defeat the Esopus. Colonial prisoners taken captive by the Indians in the Second Esopus War were transported through regions that they had not yet explored, and they described the land to the colonial authorities who set out to survey it. Some of this land was later sold to French Huguenot refugees who established the village of New Paltz.  In September 1664, the Dutch ceded New Netherland to the English. The English colonies redrew the boundaries of Indian territory, paid for land that they planned to settle, and forbad any further settlement on the established Indian lands without full payment and mutual agreement. The new treaty established safe passage for both settler and Indians for purposes of trading. It further declared "that all past Injuryes are buryed and forgotten on both sides," promised equal punishment for settlers and Indians found guilty of murder, and paid traditional respects to the "sachems" and their people. Over the course of the next two decades, Esopus lands were bought up and the Indians moved out peacefully, eventually taking refuge with the Mohawks north of the Shawangunk mountains.

References.

The definitive and most detailed history of the Esopus Indian Wars (First Esopus War and Second Esopus War, as they're known) can be found in chapters 3-6 of The Early History of Kingston & Ulster County, N.Y. by Marc B. Fried (published 1975). This book is still in print.

The Esopus Wars were two conflicts between the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians (Delaware) and New Netherlander colonists during the latter half of the 17th century in Ulster County, New York. The first battle was instigated by settlers; the second war was the continuation of a grudge on the part of the Esopus tribe.


History.

Historian Johannes Lucius added to the "Dalmatia Pale" (somewhat similar to the "English Pale" in Ireland, as boundary of Roman local laws) of the Dalmatian City-States the city of "Fiume", after the year 1000 when Venice started to take control of the region. Indeed Fiume was the former Roman "Tarsatica": the city of that medieval period was a small fortified town under the Italian Aquileia (and Pola) bishops, enclosed within the town walls which had several defense towers. The town, called Flumen, was granted autonomy in the 11th century by the bishop and was divided into two parts: in the upper part, there was a medieval castle/formerly Roman fort and the church of St. Vitus (thus the name 'Flumen Sancti Viti'), while in the lower part - the popular- there was a neolatin commercial and trading center where around the year 1000 many Italian merchants settled.  Fiume gained autonomy for the first time in 1719 when it was proclaimed a free port of the Holy Roman Empire in a decree issued by the Emperor Charles VI. In 1776, during the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa, the city was transferred to the Kingdom of Hungary and in 1779 gained the status of "corpus separatum" within that Kingdom. The city briefly lost its autonomy in 1848 after being occupied by the Croatian "ban" (viceroy) Josip Jelačić, but regained it in 1868 when it rejoined the Kingdom of Hungary, again as a "corpus separatum". Fiume's status as an exclave of Hungary meant that, despite being landlocked, the Kingdom had a port. Until 1924, Fiume existed for practical purposes as an autonomous entity with elements of statehood.  In the 19th century, the city was populated mostly by Italians, and as minorities by Croats and Hungarians, and other ethnicities. National affiliations changed from census to census, as at that time "nationality" was defined mostly by the language a person spoke. The special status of the city, being placed between different states, created a local identity among the majority of the population. The official languages in use were Italian, Hungarian, and German; most of the business correspondence was carried out in Italian, while most families spoke a local dialect, a blend of Venetian with a few words of Croatian. In the countryside outside the city, a particular kind of Croatian Chakavian dialect with many Italian and Venetian words was spoken.

Politics.

After the First World War and the demise of Austria-Hungary, the question of the status of Fiume became a major international problem. At the height of the dispute between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later called Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy, the Great Powers advocated the establishment of an independent buffer state. President Woodrow Wilson of the U.S. became the arbiter in the Yugoslav-Italian dispute over the city. He suggested that Fiume be set up as an independent state, and indeed as the potential home for the League of Nations organisation.  The dispute led to lawlessness, and the city changed hands between a South-Slav National Committee and an Italian National Council, leading finally to the landing of British and French troops who took over the city. The National Council over-stamped Austro-Hungarian notes – the Fiume Kronen – which were used as official currency. This confusing situation was exploited by the Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio, who entered the city on 12 September 1919 and began a 15-month period of occupation. A year later after failure of negotiations with the Italian government, d'Annunzio proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro. On 12 November 1920, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rapallo by which both parties agreed to acknowledge "the complete freedom and independence of the State of Fiume and oblige to respect it in perpetuity". With this act the eternal "Free State of Fiume" was created, which, it turned out, would exist as an independent state for about one year "de facto", and four years "de jure". The newly created state was immediately recognized by the United States, France and the United Kingdom. D'Annunzio refused to acknowledge the Agreement and was expelled from the city by the regular forces of the Italian Army, in the "Bloody Christmas" actions from 24 to 30 December 1920.  In April 1921, the electorate approved the plan for a free state and for a consortium to run the port. The first parliamentary elections were held, contested between the autonomists and the pro-Italian National Bloc. The Autonomist Party, which was supported by votes from the majority of the Croats, gained 6,558 votes, while the National Bloc, composed of Fascist, Liberal and Democratic parties, received 3,443 votes. The leader of the Autonomist Party, Riccardo Zanella, became the President.  Control over the Free State was in an almost constant state of flux. Following the departure of d'Annunzio's troops in December 1920, the Italian National Council of Fiume re-assumed control and appointed a provisional government. A pact with the local Italian commander handed control to the military on 18 January 1921, but this lasted just three days before a nationalist rebellion. They appointed an extraordinary government, which fell two days later. In June 1921 an Italian Royal Commissioner was appointed, whose control lasted two weeks.  A group of d'Annunzio loyalists seized part of the town until they were in turn pushed out in September. In October the autonomist Riccardo Zanella was appointed provisional president; his rule lasted until 3 March 1922, when Italian Fascists carried out a "coup d'état" and the legal government escaped to Kraljevica. On 6 March, the Italian government was asked to restore order and Italian troops entered the city on 17 March. They returned control to the minority of the constituent assembly, who were loyal to the Italian annexationists.  After the proclamation of the Rapallo Treaty, the Communist Party of Fiume (Partito Comunista di Fiume – Sezione della III.a Internazionale) was instituted in November 1921. The Communist Party of Fiume was the smallest Communist Party in the world. It was founded following the principles of the Third International, according to which each sovereign state had to have its own Communist Party organization.  In January 1924, the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes signed the Treaty of Rome (27 January 1924), agreeing to the annexation of Fiume by Italy and the absorption of Sušak by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; this took effect on 16 March. The government-in-exile of the Free State considered this act invalid and non-binding under international law and continued its activities.

Aftermath.

With the surrender of Italy in the Second World War, the "Fiume-Rijeka" issue resurfaced. In 1944 a group of citizens issued the Liburnia Memorandum, in which it was recommended that a confederate state be formed from the three cantons of Fiume, Sušak and Ilirska Bistrica. The islands of Krk (Veglia), Cres (Cherso) and Lošinj (Lussino) would enter the common condominium as well. President Zanella of the government-in-exile still sought the re-establishment of the Free State.  The Yugoslavian partisan authorities, who took possession of the city from German occupation on 3 May 1945, objected to these plans, and took concrete steps to settle the dispute. The leaders of the autonomists – Nevio Skull, Mario Blasich and Sergio Sincich – were murdered. President Zanella went into hiding. With the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, Fiume (now called Rijeka) and Istria officially became part of Yugoslavia.

The Free State of Fiume () was an independent free state that existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of comprised the city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia) and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to the Kingdom of Italy.


Early life.

Elena and her three surviving older brothers, Kirill, Boris, and Andrei, had an English nanny and spoke English as their first language. The young Elena had a temper and was sometimes out of control. When she posed for an artist at age four, she grabbed a paper knife and threatened her nurse, who hid behind the artist. "The little lady then transferred her attentions to me, her black eyes ablaze with fury," recalled the artist. Elena, raised by a mother who was highly conscious of her social status, was also considered snobbish by some. "Poor little thing, I feel sorry for her," wrote her mother's social rival, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, "for she is really quite sweet, but vain and pretty grandiose."

Marriage and children.

She was initially engaged to Prince Max of Baden, but Max backed out of the engagement. Elena's mother was furious and society gossiped about Elena's difficulty in finding a husband. At one point in 1899, the seventeen-year-old Elena was reputedly engaged to Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, however this came to nothing as he fell in love with Countess Sophie Chotek.  Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, the third son of George I of Greece, first proposed in 1900, but Elena's mother was reluctant to allow her daughter to marry a younger son with no real fortune or prospects of inheriting a throne. She finally agreed to let Elena marry Nicholas, who was Elena's second cousin through his mother Olga Constantinovna of Russia and her father Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, in 1902 after it became clear that no other offers were on the horizon.  The couple were married on 29 August 1902 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. Like many imperial weddings, it was a grand affair, and was attended by the Emperor and Empress of Russia, the King and Queen of the Hellenes, among other royals and nobility of Russia.  The Dowager Empress wrote that Elena "has a very brusque and arrogant tone that can shock people" and expected trouble in the marriage. Elena's "grand manner" did irritate some people at the court, but her marriage was a happy one.  Prince and Princess Nicholas had three daughters:  Grand Duchess Elena suffered from ill health after the birth of Princess Marina, which caused her husband anguish.

Life in exile.

The family was later affected by the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent turmoil in Greece, which became a republic and resulted in the family living in France for a time.  While living in France Grand Duchess Elena became deeply involved in charity work for Russian exiles, particularly children. Short of money due to their exile from Greece and the loss of their Russian income, Prince Nicholas and his family lived in reduced, but elegant, circumstances. Grand Duchess Elena's fabulous jewel collection, as well as Prince Nicholas' own artwork, were their sources of income.  Princess Olga of Greece married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia; Princess Elizabeth of Greece married Count Karl Theodor zu Toerring-Jettenbach, son of Duchess Sophie in Bavaria and scion of an old and rich Bavarian mediatized family; and Princess Marina of Greece married the Prince George, Duke of Kent in November 1934.  Grand Duchess Elena became a widow early in 1938, as Prince Nicholas suffered a heart attack and died suddenly. She remained in Greece throughout the Second World War, dying there in 1957. She bequeathed her personal library to the Anavryta School.

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (17 January 1882 – 13 March 1957), sometimes known as Helen, Helena, Helene, Ellen, Yelena, Hélène, or Eleni, was a Russian grand duchess as the only daughter and youngest child of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Her husband was Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and they were both first cousins of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. She was also first cousins with Juliana of the Netherlands and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen Consort of Denmark.