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Halle, Belgium

Halle (Hal, ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (arrondissement) of the province of Flemish Brabant. It is located on the Brussels–Charleroi Canal and on the Flemish side of the language border that separates Flanders and Wallonia. Halle lies on the border between the Flemish plains to the North (thick loam) and the undulating Brabant lands to the South (thinner loam). The city also borders on the Pajottenland to the west. It is about 22 km southwest of Brussels. The official language of Halle is Dutch.

The municipality comprises the city of Halle proper and the towns of Buizingen and Lembeek. The neighboring towns are: Pepingen, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Beersel, Braine-l'Alleud, Braine-le-Château, and Tubize. The population of Halle has increased from 32,758 inhabitants in 1991 to 39,536 on 1 January 2019. The mayor is Marc Snoeck of the Vooruit party.

Antiquity and Middle Ages
Borders have always played an important role in the history of Halle. Already in the prehistoric era, before the Roman conquests, a tribe of Nervii – either a Germanized Celtic people or a Celticized Germanic people – lived in this region. In the 7th century, Saint Waltrude, the daughter of an important Merovingian figure, gave some of her inherited land around Halle to the chapter of the abbey which she had just founded in Mons. From that time on and until the French Revolution, the region around Halle would depend to various degrees on the County of Hainaut. In the 8th century, Hubertus, archbishop of Tongeren, founded a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This may have been the start of the regional devotion that continues today. The town must have grown quickly since Jeanne, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut granted its freedom charters in 1225. The miraculous statue of the Virgin was sent to Halle in 1267 as a wedding gift to John II, Count of Holland and of Hainaut. The cult of Mary attracted important visitors, such as Edward I of England and Ludwig the Bavarian, making Halle an important frontier town between Hainaut and Brabant. A larger church, dedicated to Mary, was completed in the 15th century. The death of Philipe Bold, Duke of Burgundy in Halle in 1404 benefitted the city. All subsequent ruling Dukes of Burgundy paid visits here to honor the duke's grave. In 1460 Louis XI of France decided to bury his stillborn son in the Halle church.

Renaissance and modern era
After the death of Mary of Burgundy, Flanders and Brabant revolted against her husband Maximilian. Hainaut, and therefore Halle, remained loyal to the Holy Roman emperor. Two attempts by a Brussels army to conquer Halle in 1489 failed.

In the 16th century, Brussels and Halle were fighting again, this time over religion. Following the Protestant Reformation, the predominately Calvinistic Brabant tried to take over Catholic Hainaut. Again, two attempts failed, leading to an increased devotion among residents to the city's miraculous statue. In 1621, with the support of archdukes Albert and Isabella, the Jesuits were invited to establish educational institutions in the city, expanding their religious influence.

Philip IV of Spain used his stake in Halle and the surrounding area as a warrant against a loan; in 1648 he was forced to cede the city to the Duke of Arenberg. Louis XIV's wars at the end of the century resulted in serious losses. In the 18th century there was a resurgence in devotional and economic prosperity.

The French Revolution at the end of the century suppressed much religious practice. But the pilgrimage site and the statue were spared confiscation thanks to the initiative of the inhabitants. When Napoleon gained power, his government restored religious services. The tradition of Napoleon princely visits to the church of Halle continues until this day.

Today, Halle is a regional services and care center, offering trade, educational establishments, general hospital, and public services (61% of the active population works in the services sector).

A train collision in February 2010 in Buizingen killed around 18 people.

Flag and arms
The flag of Halle was adopted on 1 October 1991; it is quartered as saltire (argent and azure). Its proportions are 2:3. If you cut the flag in two vertically and flip both sides, you get a blue lozenge, hinting at Bavaria.

On the municipal coat of arms, the first quarter shows an argent-coloured Virgin with Child on an azure background. The fourth quarter is the coat of arms of the Wittelsbach family. The second and third quarters are the coat of arms of Hainaut, accentuating Halle's position on the language border.

Notable buildings

 * The Sint-Martinusbasiliek (Basilica of Saint Martin), also known as the Gothic Church of Our Lady, is a basilica in High Gothic style that has been a popular pilgrimage site since the 14th–15th century. The church contains a celebrated miraculous image of the Holy Virgin, that of a Black Madonna.
 * The former city hall on the main market square (Grote Markt) dates from the Renaissance City Hall.
 * The former college of the Jesuits houses a music and dance academy. For a period it had housed the museum described below.
 * The South-West Brabant Museum moved to Den AST in Halle in 2014. Among its holdings are items related to the life and work of Adrien-François Servais and his son-in-law, Polish sculptor Cyprian Godebski. He created the monument to Servais that stands before the town hall.

Events

 * Annually at the beginning of Lent, Carnival is celebrated for three days. This is a colourful event, where various groups make floats and costumes or perform dances. The Halle carnival has been organized since 1905 and has grown to be one of the biggest carnivals in Belgium.
 * On Easter Monday, the Sint-Veroonprocessie takes place. This is a religious procession where the relics of the saint are being carried around the village of Lembeek.
 * Halle is the site of a popular pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The present format of this devotion is at least seven centuries old.
 * The Hallerbos, the nearby forest named after the town, is known for the prolific bluebell carpet which covers the forest floor for a few weeks each spring, attracting many visitors.

Notable people

 * Jozef Cardijn (1882–1967), founder of the Young Christian Workers and cardinal
 * Justus Lipsius (1547–1606) wrote his first historical work about Halle.
 * Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (1342–1404) died in Halle.
 * Adrien-François Servais (1807–1866), composer and cellist. He is commemorated by a statue on Halle's main square. It was created by his son-in-law Cyprian Godebski, a noted Polish sculptor who taught at the Institute of Imperial Art in St. Petersburg before the Revolution.
 * Koen Wauters (born 1967), singer, television presenter and racing driver

Notable products

 * Duivelsbier, a local beer, is now brewed by the Boon Brewery.
 * The famous Lambic beer is conjectured to take its name from the village of Lembeek, now part of Halle.
 * Halle used to have its own newspaper, named the future of Halle. (l'Avenir de Hal)

Twin towns – Sister cities
Halle is twinned with:

title: Halle, Belgium


text:
Talk:2008 Summer Olympics

Broadcasting in Peru
ATV (Peruvian Network) share the rights to host the games. They will both broadcast them in Peru.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlma97~enwiki (talk • contribs) 15:23, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Broadcasting in Spain
The public Spanish network TVE has a High Definition channel TVE-HD which can be tuned in the Digital+ pay package. I can't edit the broadcaster box. Please somebody add this.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.31.89.161 (talk) 12:00, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

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List of Last of the Summer Wine episodes

The following is an episode list for the long-running BBC One sitcom Last of the Summer Wine which was broadcast from 4 January 1973 to 29 August 2010.

Overview
The pilot episode aired as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first full series of episodes premiered on 12 November the very same year. The 31st (and final) series started broadcasting on 25 July 2010. Every episode was written by Roy Clarke.

As of 29 August 2010 (the very last day of transmission), a total of 295 episodes of Last of the Summer Wine have aired. This includes the Comedy Playhouse pilot, twenty-four Christmas Specials, three New Year Specials and a Millennium Special (but not the short Christmas sketch, a comedy trial or the 25 Year and 30 Year Documentaries). Some of these have been regular episodes (often held over from the previous series, or taken from the forthcoming series), others have been dedicated festive stories. Some of these specials have also been feature-length. All episodes are 30 minutes long, unless otherwise stated.

Series 1 (1973)
The pilot episode, known as either "The Last of the Summer Wine" or "Of Funerals and Fish", which originally premiered on the BBC's Comedy Playhouse, was included as a special feature on the Series 31 & 32 disc 4 which was released on 15 August 2016.

Series 26 (2005)
Episodes in Series 26 were broadcast out of sequence. "Who's That Mouse in the Poetry Group?" was due to be broadcast on 3 April 2005, but was postponed to 17 April 2005, due to a last-minute schedule change. "Hermione (the Short Course)" was broadcast as originally planned on 10 April 2005, as the TV listings magazines had already been published for that week's programmes.


text:
Barry Gibb

Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946  ) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Along with his younger twin brothers, Robin and Maurice, he rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. Gibb is well known for his wide vocal range including a far-reaching high-pitched falsetto. Gibb's career has spanned over 60 years.

As a songwriter, he shares with John Lennon and Paul McCartney the record for most consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number ones, each having six. In total, he has written or co-written sixteen Billboard Hot 100 number ones.

In 1994, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame with his brothers. In 1997, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of the Bee Gees. In 2007, Q magazine ranked him number 38 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers". Guinness World Records lists him as the second most successful songwriter in history, behind McCartney.

Gibb was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to music and entertainment, and a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to music and charity. He was also made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia on 27 January 2022.

Early years
Barry Alan Crompton Gibb was born at Jane Crookall Maternity Home in Douglas, Isle of Man, on 1 September 1946, to Hugh Gibb (15 January 1916 – 6 March 1992), a drummer, and Barbara Gibb ( Pass; 17 November 1920 – 12 August 2016), both Manchester natives. He has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Gibb's grandfather Hugh Gibb Sr. was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1892. He has an older sister, Lesley Evans. His second name, "Alan", was after his father's youngest brother who died in infancy. According to Hugh Gibb, in a mix of fact and fiction, his third name, "Crompton", was given to honour the Gibbs' ancestor Sir Isaac Crompton (actually Samuel Crompton).

When Gibb was born, his father was busy as a musician working at various hotels in Douglas, while his mother stayed at home looking after the children. Later, the Gibbs moved to Chapel House on Strang Road. When he was almost two years old, he was badly scalded in an accident involving a hot teapot his mother had just set on the table, which he was able to reach and knock over. He was in Nobles Hospital for about two and a half months. Gibb later commented on that incident:

"Then the gangrene set in. Because in those days, the advancement of medicine simply didn't apply to people with bad scalds, so you didn't have skin grafts, you didn't have things like that. But this was a particularly bad scald, and I think I had 20 minutes to live at some point. The incredible thing for me is that whole two years is wiped from my memory, the whole period of being in hospital. The idea of being burnt is in there somewhere, but I have no knowledge of it. I've got the scars but I have no knowledge'." In 1949, the Gibb family relocated to 50, St. Catherine's Drive. Later that year, on 22 December, Gibb's two younger brothers Robin and Maurice were born. When the twins were young, the family moved to Smedley Cottage, Spring Valley, also in Douglas.

Gibb started school on 4 September 1951, three days after his fifth birthday, attending Braddan school. In 1952, the Gibb family relocated to 43 Snaefell Road, Willaston, which became their home for the next two years. The same year, he went to Tynwald Street Infants School. On his seventh birthday in 1953, he went to Desmesne Road Boys School.

1955–1966: early performances and songwriting
In 1955, when the Gibb family moved back to their hometown of Manchester, the brothers formed the skiffle group the Rattlesnakes, consisting of Barry on vocals, lead and slide guitar, Robin and Maurice on vocals and acoustic guitar and friends/neighbours Paul Frost and Kenny Horrocks also providing vocals. By 1957, the Rattlesnakes played songs by Cliff Richard, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly, and the Everly Brothers. Gibb said that their first song played was Paul Anka's "I Love You, Baby", however, in 1968, he remembered it as the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie". The Rattlesnakes' first professional gig took place on 28 December 1957 in the Gaumont Cinema. Around 1958, Gibb's guitar was accidentally broken by Frost, who described the guitar as "broken in the middle". By May 1958 when the Gibbs moved to Northern Grove it signalled the departure of Frost and Horrocks. The brothers later changed the name of the group to Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats. Under that name, they performed regularly in Minor 15, a talent contest for under-fifteens held on Thursday nights from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Princess Club in Chorlton.

At the beginning of August 1958, the Gibb family set sail for Australia as part of an assisted migration scheme from Southampton on the ship Fairsea. Also aboard was Red Symons, future guitarist of Skyhooks, as well as Kylie Minogue's parents. The group later made a new group called the Bee Gees. In 1959, the brothers began singing between races at the Redcliffe Speedway to earn money. Their vocal talent brought them to the attention of Bill Gates, a radio deejay. Gates was also interested in Gibb's original material including "Let Me Love You" and "(Underneath the) Starlight of Love". After hearing those songs, Gates asked Gibb for more original material. Gibb quit school in September 1961 and the Gibbs moved to Surfers Paradise. The brothers spent the summers of 1961 and 1962 performing at hotels and clubs in the Gold Coast area. By September 1962, Gibb managed to audition songs to Col Joye. The Gibb family moved to Sydney at the start of 1963.

Around the same time, the Bee Gees were signed to Festival but they were assigned to Leedon. Their first single, "The Battle of the Blue and the Grey" was written by Gibb. All of the Bee Gees' singles from 1963 to 1966 were written by Gibb. In July 1963, Lonnie Lee, one of Australia's top recording stars of the time, recorded what is said to be the first rock and roll recording of a Barry Gibb song. Recorded on Leedon Records and named "I'd Like To Leave If I May", radio preferred the flip side. Also between 1963 and 1966, Gibb's songs were recorded by numerous other Australian recording artists including Trevor Gordon, Noeleen Batley, Anne Shelton, April Byron, Ronnie Burns and Lori Balmer. One of them is his composition "One Road" which hit No. 2 in Australia New South Wales Chart and No. 32 on the Kent Music Report charts for Jimmy Little in 1964. Another of his compositions, "I Just Don't Like to Be Alone" by Bryan Davies, reached No. 25 on the New South Wales chart in 1964.

In 1966, Gibb won the annual Radio 5KA award for the best composition of the year, "I Was a Lover, A Leader of Men".

1967–1970: return to UK, commercial break-out and worldwide popularity
The Bee Gees returned to the United Kingdom in early 1967. On 24 February, the group passed a live audition with Robert Stigwood and later signed to Robert Stigwood Organization also the same day that "Spicks and Specks" was released by Polydor as a single in the United Kingdom. Stigwood became the manager of the Bee Gees. Colin Petersen, drummer, and Vince Melouney, lead guitarist, later joined the group. The result was their first international LP Bee Gees' 1st. The second single from the album "To Love Somebody" – on which Gibb provided the lead vocal – has become a standard, covered by hundreds of artists consistently throughout the years since.

Around the same time, the Gibb brothers contributed backing vocals on the track "Cowman, Milk Your Cow" a song written by Gibb and Robin sung by singer Adam Faith.

In 1967, Gibb was in The Speakeasy Club, a nightclub in London where he was introduced by Pete Townshend to John Lennon. Lennon was still wearing his outfit for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band photo shoot earlier that day on 30 March 1967; after a couple of scotch and cokes, Townshend said to Gibb, "Do you want to meet John?" and he led Gibb across to a room where Lennon was holding court and Townshend said, "John. This is Barry Gibb, from the group the Bee Gees" to which Lennon replied, "Howyadoin'"."So I met John Lennon's back", Gibb says with a laugh, "I didn't meet his front". Gibb earlier said in 2010 about the meeting, "It was virtually a closed club and you went downstairs and there was a coffin and if you were someone they knew and you were supposed to go in, the wall would turn around... and in you would go. There would be [Rolling] Stones lying around all over the place. It was one of those days when I met John Lennon – from the back. It was Pete Townshend who introduced me... [Lennon said], 'Pleased to meet you', and he carried on talking to his guest."

After many stresses on their personal and professional lives, both Barry and Robin collapsed from nervous exhaustion on a flight from Australia to Turkey in 1967. On 23 December 1967, Barry and Robin left England for Australia. As Gibb explained: "But due to time difference we arrived on Christmas Day, we missed Christmas Eve altogether!". The pair celebrated Christmas with their manager Robert Stigwood's family as Gibb said: "We went on to Sydney".

At the end of 1967, fame was taking its toll and the group were at odds with each other. At the start of 1968, the Gibbs were vying for influence in determining the musical direction of the group, creating tension in the studio and on stage. Also in 1968, to promote Horizontal the group made their first appearance on U.S. television on The Smothers Brothers Show as well as The Ed Sullivan Show. The group later filmed a TV special Frankie Howerd Meets the Bee Gees with Frankie Howerd. His 1968 composition "Only One Woman" (UK No. 5) was the Marbles' most successful single up to date. The Bee Gees were invited by Hollywood manager Lee Hazlewood at his party alongside the members of the Monkees and Honey Ltd. The photos from that event were leaked, and two of the pictures showing Gibb was talking to actress Angela Cartwright, and the other, is Gibb who was shown playing guitar and the members of Honey Ltd. sing along.

In 1969, the Bee Gees released "First of May" as the A-side, with the flip side being "Lamplight" on which Robin sang the lead. Robert Stigwood chose "First of May" to be the A-side. No other songs were released from the album Odessa. Shortly after Robin announced his solo plans, the Bee Gees released their first single without him, "Tomorrow Tomorrow". Barry also worked with Samantha Sang, co-writing and producing two songs "The Love of a Woman" and the B-side "Don't Let It Happen Again" released on Parlophone. He also produced songs for P.P. Arnold including "Bury Me Down By the River" (released as a single) which were originally recorded by the Bee Gees for their 1970 album. In the summer of 1969, Petersen left the group which now only featured Barry and Maurice as the Bee Gees. Pentangle drummer Terry Cox replaced Petersen to complete another 12 songs, but only five songs were released in the album.

The film Cucumber Castle, featuring only two Bee Gees after originally including Petersen, aired on BBC2 on 26 December 1970. When the group announced that they had split at the start of December 1969, Gibb spent January 1970 writing songs to record the following month.

1970: debut as a solo artist
In February 1970, he started to record his first solo album, The Kid's No Good; he released his first solo single, "I'll Kiss Your Memory", but the rest of the songs that were supposed to be on the album were never released and only appeared in bootlegs. "I'll Kiss Your Memory" did not chart in either the U.K. or U.S. but reached No. 16 in Netherlands in five weeks. Another country ballad, "This Time", was chosen as the B-side. Bruce Eder of AllMusic stated that the songs on The Kid's No Good were of country and sentimental numbers.

In April 1970 the album Cucumber Castle was released four months after the break-up, featuring only Barry and Maurice, as Robin was working on his solo career. For the first time as a solo artist, he appeared on the panel of judges and performed "One Bad Thing" and "The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine" on Miss Teen Princess of the World pageant in Germany in June, his reaction was "I've not appeared on stage for at least a year and three months, and I really miss people". In July 1970, Gibb travelled to Australia to act as compere for Go-Set, and on that occasion, he gave an interview on the magazine which revealed that sixteen months after the Bee Gees' break-up, he was still not ready to argue with his brothers, "Obviously, we're still brothers, but we are no longer as a group".

He considered the song "One Bad Thing" for the second single from his debut album. Atco pressed some copies of it in August 1970 with "The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine" as the B-side. It was distributed to radio stations in Canada and elsewhere, but it was decided to focus on the Bee Gees' reunion single, "Lonely Days", released around August. While Polydor planned to release "One Bad Thing" by 2 October in territories outside North America and Canada. Gibb claimed that not only had he been focusing on writing and recording songs, but he had still hoped to be an actor, "I have already had offers to play different parts but, without appearing swell headed, I haven't found the right part yet". "One Bad Thing" was later given by Gibb to his friend Ronnie Burns, a singer from Australia, and later released it as a single on Festival Records.

1970–1974: Bee Gees' reunion
In August 1970, the Bee Gees reunited and recorded together again, writing "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" at their first reunion session.

In 1971, the group released "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart", which was their first American No. 1 hit. In October 1971, Gibb recorded three songs for the Barry Gibb Fan Club. One of the songs, "King Kathy", was released as a single on Lyntone Records. Gibb had remained a constant creative force for the group and, by 1972, had set aside the idea of a parallel solo career and was ready to devote full attention to the band. To Whom It May Concern was the last album recorded fully at IBC Studios and their last album arranged by Bill Shepherd who had worked with the group since 1964. Also in 1972, Gibb moved to Los Angeles to record in the Record Plant studio. In 1973, the Bee Gees moved to Robert Stigwood's RSO Records and released their first singles for Stigwood, "Saw a New Morning" and "Life in a Tin Can". Stigwood was not ready to give up on the group, but he did not believe in the musical direction they were taking. At the suggestion of Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, Stigwood sent them to work with Atlantic producer and arranger Arif Mardin who produced the next Bee Gees album in 1974. After a United States tour early in 1974, the group started to perform at small clubs in England.

1975–1980: big success for disco works
At the start of 1975, the group moved to Miami at the suggestion of Eric Clapton to work on their new album with R&B producer Arif Mardin in Criteria Studios. The first song featuring Gibb's falsetto was 1975's "Nights on Broadway". In 1976, Gibb wrote "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", his brother Andy Gibb's first US No. 1, and provided backup vocals.

During 1976, Gibb met with Vince Melouney and wrote two songs, "Let It Ride" and "Morning Rain", that were never recorded. In November 1977, the film Saturday Night Fever was released and its soundtrack became the best-selling soundtrack of all time. During 1977, Gibb co-wrote "Emotion", the song remains Samantha Sang's best-known hit. Gibb and Galuten wrote "Save Me, Save Me" originally recorded by the group Network and later covered by Frankie Valli, Dusty Springfield, Rare Earth, and Teri DeSario. The film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, featuring Gibb as Mark Henderson was shown in July 1978. Between December 1977 and September 1978, seven songs Barry wrote would reach No. 1 in United States. Andy's third single, "Shadow Dancing", which was credited to all four Gibb brothers, was also a US No. 1 single. In 1978, Gibb wrote a title song to order for their manager Robert Stigwood's film and stage musical Grease and was later recorded by singer Frankie Valli and reached No. 1 in the US. The song contains guitar work by Peter Frampton. In February 1978, he provided background vocals for his composition "Ain't Nothing Gonna Keep Me From You" which featured Teri DeSario on vocals.

After the Bee Gees' successful 1979 Spirits Having Flown Tour to promote the album of the same name, he wrote, produced, and sang on almost all of the songs on Andy Gibb's final album, After Dark, released at the start of 1980.

1980–1983: producer for other artists
In September 1980, Gibb produced the three new songs on Andy Gibb's first compilation album, Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits. In October 1980, Barbra Streisand's Guilty was released, produced by the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson team. the lead off single, Woman In Love was released in August and within 5 weeks was #1 on the US charts. The two songs of which were vocal duets between Streisand and Gibb are "Guilty" a U.S. Top 5, and "What Kind of Fool" also reached the Top 10 in the U.S. and reached No. 1 on the US Adult contemporary chart. In 1981, the Bee Gees released Living Eyes. Songs from the album were not disco and the album was not a commercial success. In 1982, Clive Davis asked Gibb to write for Dionne Warwick, who was on his Arista label. Barry produced Warwick's Heartbreaker. The songs were all written by Gibb except "Our Day Will Come". In August 1983, after Gibb met Kenny Rogers who asked for some songs, Gibb recorded his first demo for Rogers entitled "Eyes That See in the Dark". At that time, Robin was working on his How Old Are You? album with Maurice playing instruments. The other songs intended for Kenny Rogers were written in late 1982, then at the start of 1983, Barry continued to record the demos until April 1983, while also recording songs with the Bee Gees for the film Staying Alive. In August 1983, he produced Rogers' new album Eyes That See in the Dark, which includes the song "Islands in the Stream" by Rogers and Dolly Parton which became one of the best-selling singles in country music.

1983–1986: break from the Bee Gees and switch to solo projects
In August 1983, Irving Azoff signed Gibb to the MCA Records for North America. Gibb was signed for a few million dollars to a multi-album deal. Polydor still had rights to Gibb's songs outside North America. In September 1984, his album Now Voyager was released. Two singles from the album included "Shine, Shine", a US Top 40 single that reached the Top 10 in their Adult contemporary charts, and "Fine Line" which was less successful, only reaching No. 50 on the dance charts. The film Now Voyager starring Gibb was directed by Storm Thorgerson, in which Gibb is the protagonist, with actor Michael Hordern as his guide through a confusing world between life and death. The film includes a music video on most of the songs on Now Voyager. A video for "Fine Line" featuring Gibb without his trademark beard and was filmed in black and white.

In 1985, Gibb started to record demos for Diana Ross, for her album Eaten Alive. In the same year, he co-wrote most of the songs on Robin Gibb's album Walls Have Eyes.

In late 1985 and early 1986, he wrote new songs for his next album, though his third album Moonlight Madness was not released and most of the songs on that album was later released in 1988. Producer Randy Jackson plays bass on all of the tracks. Gibb co-wrote three songs for Swedish singer Carola on her album Runaway. Also in 1985, he joined the short-lived supergroup the Bunburys with David English.

1987–2002: later activity
In early 1987, the Bee Gees started to record their first album in six years. In June and July 1987, Gibb and Maurice produced Andy Gibb's four new songs; one of them is "Arrow Through the Heart" which was released in 2010. In 1987, Gibb co-wrote "Up the Revolution" by Elton John. And in 1988, Gibb recorded two new songs for the Hawks film. In September 1988, the film soundtrack of the film was released by Polydor only in the U.K. The songs were all performed by Gibb except "Chain Reaction" (Diana Ross). The single from the soundtrack, "Childhood Days", reached only No. 60 in Germany.

Around 1990, the Bee Gees recorded High Civilization. In September 1990, Gibb played guitar and produced "Born to Be Loved by You" by Kelli Wolfe, which was released as an unreleased B-side in August 1993. Around 1992, Gibb played guitar on Lulu's "Let Me Wake Up in Your Arms", released in 1993. In 1993, the Bee Gees recorded and released Size Isn't Everything. In 1994, the Bee Gees and Polydor planned a tour to promote Size Isn't Everything, but it was off in February, due to Gibb's trouble with arthritis in the back, right hand and right knee. Gibb co-wrote "I Will Be There", which was recorded as a demo for Tina Turner and released on Turner's album Twenty Four Seven. In 2001, Gibb co-wrote "I Cannot Give You My Love" with Ashley Gibb, which was intended for Cliff Richard. In September 2001, the Bee Gees re-recorded "Islands in the Stream". However, this session featured only Robin and Maurice; Barry did not participate in the session, held at Middle Ear Studios in Miami Beach, Florida. In 2002, Gibb and Michael Jackson recorded "All in Your Name". Also in 2002, Gibb sings background vocals on Michael Bublé's version of the 1971 song "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart".

2003–2012: Maurice's death and semi-retirement of the Bee Gees
Maurice died suddenly on 12 January 2003. Ten months later, in November of that year, Gibb produced and contributed background vocals and guitar to two songs performed by Cliff Richard, "I Cannot Give You My Love" and "How Many Sleeps?"; Maurice's keyboard work from a 2001 demo version was included in this 2003 version. On 2 May 2004, Barry and Robin Gibb received the CBE award at Buckingham Palace; their nephew Adam accepted his father Maurice's posthumous award. Also in 2004, Gibb co-wrote and sang background vocals on his son Steve Gibb's solo single "Living in the Rain". In January 2005, along with many artists, Gibb and his brother Robin recorded vocal parts for the charity single "Grief Never Grows Old" on behalf of victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. In April and May 2005, Barbra Streisand recorded songs for her new album produced by Gibb. In August 2006, two Gibb singles, "Doctor Mann" and "Underworld", were released on iTunes. "Underworld" was featured on the film soundtrack of Arctic Tale but not in the film. On 7 December 2006, Gibb joined 4,500 other musicians in a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times newspaper, calling for the British Government to extend the existing 50-year copyright protection of sound recordings in the United Kingdom. The fair play for musicians advertisement proposed that the copyright be extended to the American standard of 95 years and was a direct response to the Gowers Review (published by the British Government on 6 December 2006), which recommended the retention of the 50-year protection for sound recordings.

In 2007, "Drown On the River" was released as a single on iTunes. The song later appeared on the soundtrack of Deal. Also in the same year, Gibb sang background vocals on Jamie Jo's song "U Turn Me On" and wrote the theme music for ITV's Grease Is the Word. Gibb also appeared as a mentor in season six of American Idol.

On 14 March 2009, Gibb teamed with Olivia Newton-John to present the one-hour finale performance at a star-studded 12-hour live concert at Sydney's Sydney Cricket Ground, part of Sound Relief, a fundraiser to aid victims of the February 2009 Victorian Bushfires that devastated large tracts of heavily wooded and populated south-eastern Australia, where the Gibb family once lived. The concert was televised live nationally across Australia on the Max TV cable network. On 10 July 2009, Gibb was made a Freeman of the Borough of Douglas (Isle of Man). The award was also bestowed upon his brother Robin and posthumously upon his brother Maurice. In late 2009, Barry and Robin announced plans to record and perform together once again as the Bee Gees.

In 2010, Gibb withdrew from a planned appearance on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach which was released in March. In December 2011, his two songs, "Grey Ghost" and "Daddy's Little Girl" were released. On 21 February 2012, Gibb performed his first solo concert in the U.S. at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe in Florida. He sang "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" with Maurice's daughter, Samantha Gibb, who is a singer in her own band. Barry's son Steve was also on stage as lead guitarist and sang a Maurice composition, "On Time". On 20 May 2012, Robin Gibb died, making Barry the sole surviving Gibb brother.

2012–present

Gibb made his debut performance at the Grand Ole Opry on 27 July 2012, performing three songs with Ricky Skaggs. Skaggs later recorded "Soldier's Son" on which Gibb added vocals for Skaggs' album Music to My Ears released in 2012.

He commenced a world tour in 2013 in Australia called Mythology Tour, featuring the Bee Gees anthology set album of the same name. He was joined on stage by his son Steve and Maurice's daughter Samantha. On that tour, for the first time on stage, Gibb performed "Playdown" (1966), "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" (1967), "I Started a Joke" (1969) and "With the Sun in My Eyes" (1968). Also, for the first time, the music video of the Bee Gees' 2001 song "Technicolor Dreams", written by Gibb, was shown before the show began. This short tour inspired Festival Records to release a box set of the Bee Gees' three Australian albums, The Festival Albums Collection, 1965–1967, and a 'best of' compilation of the group's Australian era songs titled Morning of My Life.

On 27 October 2013, Gibb appeared at the Country Music Hall of Fame with Kenny Rogers and Bobby Bare; Gibb performed "Islands in the Stream" with Kelly Lang. In October, Gibb performed at the Grand Ole Opry for the second time with Ricky Skaggs. On 21 December 2013, Barry Gibb made a surprise appearance on the US television show Saturday Night Live at the end of the "Barry Gibb Talk Show" skit with Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake and Madonna. Also appearing that night was Sir Paul McCartney who shared the stage with Gibb during the closing credits where they embraced each other.

On 27 January 2014, Gibb appeared on the American television show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to announce the start of his first solo tour of the US. He performed "You Should Be Dancing" with help from Fallon's backing band, the Roots. Gibb and Fallon sang some Everly Brothers songs, including "Bye Bye Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie". Gibb also sang "To Love Somebody" as a bonus online performance. On 28 January, Gibb was interviewed by CNN about his brothers and, in that same interview, Gibb talked about Justin Bieber, saying he is "heading for a brick wall". In a Mirror interview with Gibb on 11 July 2014 he said he was still mourning following the death of Robin and credits his wife Linda, and Paul McCartney for helping him to recover. Gibb appeared on a McCartney tribute album, The Art of McCartney, released on 18 November 2014 performing "When I'm Sixty-Four". Gibb's friend, country singer TG Sheppard, said in an interview with Gary James that Gibb just moved to Nashville and was going into country music.

On 8 February 2015 at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Gibb, along with the group Pentatonix, presented the category of Best Pop Vocal Album. On 26 March 2015, Gibb was one of the headlining acts on a music festival called the Hard Rock Rising Miami Beach Global Music Festival alongside Andrea Bocelli, Gloria Estefan, Flo Rida, Jon Secada and Wyclef Jean.

On 26 June 2016, Gibb was scheduled to perform the "legend" spot at the Glastonbury Festival in England, but pulled out due to a family illness. He did, however, appear with Coldplay as a guest performer singing "To Love Somebody" and "Stayin' Alive".

On 28 June 2016, it was announced that Gibb had signed to Columbia Records and would release his second solo album, In the Now, on 7 October 2016. The album was Gibb's first album with all new material since the Bee Gees' final studio album, This Is Where I Came In (2001). In the Now was co-written by his sons Stephen and Ashley and produced with John Merchant.

On 25 June 2017, Gibb performed the "legend" spot at the Glastonbury Festival in England. He had joined Coldplay on stage during the same festival in 2016.

On 6 November 2020, Gibb announced his latest album entitled Greenfields which is a duets album featuring country artists Dolly Parton, Little Big Town, Alison Krauss and others. The album contains 11 Bee Gees tracks and one unreleased Gibb track, re-imagined as country songs. The song "Words of a Fool" featuring Jason Isbell was released the same day as a preview. The song was originally written by Gibb in 1986 for an unreleased album. Barry was honored at the 46th Annual Kennedy Center Honors in December 2023.

Personal life
Gibb's first marriage was to Maureen Bates, whom he married on 22 August 1966 when he was 19 years old. The couple lived together for only a short time and were divorced in July 1970.

During the taping of the BBC's Top of the Pops in London, Gibb met the former Miss Edinburgh, Linda Gray. On 1 September 1970 (his 24th birthday), they were married. Together, they have five children – Stephen (born 1973), Ashley (born 1977), Travis (born 1981), Michael (born 1984) and Alexandra (born 1991) – and seven grandchildren. Gibb and his wife became U.S. citizens in 2009, while retaining their UK citizenship.

In his 11 July 2014 interview with The Mirror, Gibb said he became friends with Michael Jackson: "He would come to Miami and stay in our house. He'd sit in the kitchen and watch the fans outside his hotel on TV, just giggling – 'Hee hee!' He lived upstairs for a while, right before his child-molestation trial. We never discussed the case. We would just sit around and write and get drunk. Michael liked wine – there were a few nights when he just went to sleep on the floor", adding that he misses Jackson.

Gibb owns a home in the UK, but has lived primarily in Miami since 1974. In January 2006, Gibb purchased the former home of the late country singers Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee, US intending to restore it and turn it into a songwriting retreat. The house was destroyed by fire on 10 April 2007 while under renovation, and a new house was built. The property was sold in 2014.

On 10 July 2009, Gibb was made a Freeman of the Borough of Douglas (Isle of Man). The award was also bestowed upon his brother Robin and posthumously upon his brother Maurice.

Influences
Gibb's influences when he was in the Rattlesnakes were Tommy Steele, the Mills Brothers, the Everly Brothers, Paul Anka, and Cliff Richard. The Bee Gees acknowledged that they would sing in the style of the Everlys and then add a third harmony; the result was "New York Mining Disaster 1941" (1967). When Gibb heard Roy Orbison's song "Crying", he said: "That was it. To me that was the voice of God."

Gibb also praises the vocal skills of Frankie Valli as one of his influences: "Frankie Valli has become one of the hallmark voices of our generation. He created a style that we all still strive to emulate." Gibb was also influenced by country music as his songs on the 1970 unreleased The Kid's No Good show: "Country music always inspired us. I love Nashville and I love this music. Since my brothers passed, I've been able to be self-indulgent. I've been able to go where I love the music".

Legacy
In 2007 Gibb was ranked by Q magazine at No. 38 on its list of '100 Greatest Singers'.

Gibb had a highly successful career as a member of the Bee Gees, a group near the top of the all-time top-sellers list. When the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, their citation read 'Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees.' The trio's contribution to Saturday Night Fever pushed the film's soundtrack past the 50 million mark in sales. It reigned as the top-selling album until Michael Jackson's Thriller. They are the only group in pop history to write, produce and record six straight No. 1 hits. They have also had 16 Grammy nominations and nine Grammy wins.

The three Gibb brothers were appointed Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002. On 2 May 2004, Barry and Robin received their awards at Buckingham Palace, along with their nephew Adam, who collected the award on behalf of his father Maurice, who had died in January 2003. Gibb was also awarded a knighthood in the 2018 New Year Honours. He was also made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia on 27 January 2022 in the 2022 Special Honours for eminent service to the performing arts as a musician, songwriter and record producer, to the advancement of Australian music artists and to philanthropy. In 2023, He became a Kennedy Center Honoree for contributions to American culture & for being a "pop music pioneer".

Gibb is also a prolific and successful songwriter and a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. In 1977, Gibb saw five of his songs simultaneously enter the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and, for one week in March, four of the top five songs were written by him. His songs were No. 1 for 27 out of 37 weeks from 24 December 1977 to 2 September 1978. Gibb also holds a very unusual record, in that he is the only songwriter in history to write four successive US No. 1 hits: in 1978, the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" was replaced at number one by Andy's single, "Love Is Thicker Than Water", followed by the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" for their longest run, seven weeks. This was then replaced by the Bee Gee's "If I Can't Have You", recorded by Yvonne Elliman. He is the only male artist to have 10 songs on the 600 biggest songs of the Hot 100 Billboard in its history, having co-written, co-produced or performed them.

As a songwriter, Gibb has had No. 1 songs in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, when "Islands in the Stream" became No. 1 in the UK as the Comic Relief single for 2009. His compositions for the Bee Gees have been recorded by numerous artists, including José Feliciano, Celine Dion, Al Green, Wyclef Jean, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Little, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Nina Simone, Barbra Streisand, Samantha Sang, Tina Turner, Conway Twitty, Frankie Valli, Luther Vandross, Sarah Vaughan, Jennifer Warnes, Dionne Warwick and Andy Williams. Australian musician David Campbell, praising Gibb, compared the Beach Boys and the Bee Gees: 'And like Brian Wilson, Barry Gibb's melodies made the songs timeless.'

Gibb's solo songs have been recorded by number of artists, including Lou Reizner, Samantha Sang, P. P. Arnold, Ronnie Burns, Jerry Vale and many others. As a record producer, Gibb produced albums for Andy Gibb, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross.

title: Barry Gibb


text:
Talk:Zelhem

is halle in belgium or netherlands or both?
 * "Both" seems strange to me. Those are probably two different cities. BTW, there is also more than one Halle in Germany. -- JeLuF
 * When I wrote "both", I was referring to the weird, discontinuous border between Belgium and the Netherlands - one house is in both countries, a town might be divided... -- Hotlorp

 * Halle in the municipality of Zelhem is a small agricultural village, Halle in Belgium is a sizable town. The two are indeed separate. -Scipius 19:55 Jan 12, 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Zelhem


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Mark Wallinger

Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is an English artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation State Britain. His work Ecce Homo (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2001. Labyrinth (2013), a permanent commission for Art on the Underground, was created to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground. In 2018, the permanent work Writ in Water was realized for the National Trust to celebrate where Magna Carta was signed at Runnymede.

Education and artistic career
Wallinger was born in Chigwell, Essex, on 25 May 1959. He trained at the Chelsea School of Art in London, from 1978 to 1981, before studying for an MA from Goldsmiths, University of London from 1983 to 1985. After graduating in 1985, most of his degree show was exhibited by the Anthony Reynolds Gallery, and he continued to teach part-time at Goldsmiths.

Awards
In 1998, Wallinger won the Henry Moore Fellowship, British School at Rome, an award offered to outstanding scholars and artists with the opportunity to work in Rome for 3 to 12 months. In 2001, Wallinger was honored with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, one of the world's most respected artist-in-residence programmes for established artists working in the fine arts, film, literature and music. The following year he received an Honorary Fellowship from the London Institute.

In 2003, Wallinger was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Central England in Birmingham, UK. In 2007, he was awarded the Turner Prize. In 2009, Goldsmith College honoured Wallinger for his achievements which reflect the values important to the Goldsmiths community. In the same year Wallinger’s design was selected from a three-strong shortlist for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project Commission. In 2010, he presented Sinema Amnesia in Çanakkale as part of “My City”, a project which invited five artists from five European countries to produce installations in different Turkish cities.

As part of the Transported by Design programme of activities, on 15 October 2015, after two months of public voting, Mark Wallinger's Labyrinth work was elected by Londoners as one of the 10 favourite transport design icons.

In 2019, Writ in Water, a major architectural artwork by Mark Wallinger, in collaboration with Studio Octopi, for the National Trust at Runnymede, Surrey, was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. In the same year, the project won the RIBA South East Award, the RIBA National Award, the Civic Trust Awards Commendation, MacEwen Award Shortlisting and EUMies Award Nomination, and the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Fountains or Water features by The Public Statues and Sculptures Association in 2021.

Turner Prize
Mark Wallinger was awarded the 2007 Turner Prize for State Britain, a direct meticulous replica and reconstruction of Brian Haw’s protest peace camp outside the Houses of Parliament against policies towards Iraq. The installation occupied the entire length of Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries, consisting of more than 600 banners, flags, teddy bears, peace signs, Haw’s tarpaulin shelter, and other materials amassed by Haw over his years of protest. The original display consisted of donations from the public, including paintings, banners and toys. This had been confiscated by the police under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. He also put a black line on the floor of the Tate and through the middle of his exhibit to mark part of a 1 kilometre exclusion zone from Parliament Square. The jury applauded the work for its “immediacy, visceral intensity and historic importance” integrating “a bold political statement with art’s ability to articulate fundamental human truths”. The art historian Yve-Alain Bois described State Britain as “one of the most remarkable political works of art ever”.

On speaking to the BBC about the award, Wallinger added, "I am indebted to all those people who contributed to the making of State Britain. Brian Haw is a remarkable man who has waged a tireless campaign against the folly and hubris of our government’s foreign policy. For six-and-a-half years he has remained steadfast in Parliament Square, the last dissenting voice in Britain. Bring home the troops, give us back our rights, trust the people."

In 2011 the artwork was exhibited for the first time in the Netherlands at the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art.

Venice Biennale
In 2001, the British Council revealed that they had selected Mark Wallinger to produce a solo show of new and past artworks for the British Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale. The show included sculpture, video, painting, and photography.

Wallinger presented the site-specific work, Facade (2001), which wrapped the front of the British Pavilion with an identical size replica colour photograph of the Pavilion itself printed on vinyl-coated material attached from scaffolding. In front of the pavilion Oxymoron (1996) was flying from a flagpole, a flag with the British Union Jack replaced by green and orange of the Irish flag colours. In addition to Angel (1997), Threshold to the Kingdom (2000), Life Class (2001), Ghost (2001), and Time and Relative Dimensions in Space (2001), the sculpture Ecce Homo (1999-2000), first presented on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, in 2000, welcomed visitors into the main gallery.

Ghost (2001) continued with Wallinger’s fixation and exploration of British horse racing traditions. It consisted of a negative reproduction image in a lightbox showing the famous 18th-century oil painting, Whistlejacket (c.1762) by George Stubbs, but altered by adding a horn on its head, thus turning it into a unicorn. In contrast, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space (2001) referred to the space-traveling machine from the British show Doctor Who. Recreated especially for the biennale, Wallinger delivered a reflective mirrored replica of the famous police box.

Later work
Wallinger's later work appears to have largely turned away from his earlier preoccupations, instead apparently focusing on religion and death and the influence of William Blake. "Angel" is a video played in reverse showing the artist walking backwards at the bottom of the down escalator at Angel Underground Station while reciting the opening lines of the Gospel of John in the King James Bible. At the conclusion of the video the music of Zadok the Priest that forms part of the British Coronation ceremony can be heard as Wallinger 'ascends' up the stairs. No Man's Land, a show at the Whitechapel Gallery included several works on these subjects. Threshold to the Kingdom (2000), for example, is a slow motion video of people coming through automatic double doors at international arrivals at an airport. The video is accompanied by a recording of the famous Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. Wallinger has said that the title might be taken as a double meaning: arrival at the United Kingdom, but also at the kingdom of heaven, with a security guard playing the part of St. Peter.

The largest work in the No Man's Land show was Prometheus. This piece is in two parts – on the outside, in a dark corridor, is a video of Wallinger (or rather his alter-ego, "Blind Faith") sitting in an electric chair and singing Ariel's song from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. From the corridor, automatic double doors give access to a brightly lit room which has an electric chair bolted to one of the walls, giving a top-down "God's-eye view" of it. On two facing walls are large photos of fists with the words "LOVE" and "HATE" written on them, a reference to the preacher played by Robert Mitchum in the film, The Night of the Hunter, who had similar tattoos on his knuckles. A circular steel loop gives out a continuous buzzing sound.

Ecce Homo was the first work to occupy the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. This work is a life-sized statue of a Christ figure, naked apart from a loin cloth, and with his hands bound behind his back. He wears a crown of barbed wire. The sculpture was placed at the very front edge of the massive plinth, emphasising its vulnerability and relative smallness. It was quite popular with the public and was later shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001, where Wallinger was Britain's representative.

He was one of the five artists shortlisted for the Ebbsfleet Landmark Project in January 2008, and in February 2009 it was announced that his design had won the competition. Wallinger's design is of a giant white horse modelled on another of his own racehorses, 'Riviera Red', and has been described by his supporters as "an absolutely mesmerising conflation of old England and new, of the semi-mythical, Tolkienesque past and the six-lanes, all-crawling present".

He curated the exhibition "The Russian Linesman: Frontiers, Borders and Thresholds" at the Hayward Gallery in London, which lasted from February to May 2009. In April 2011, it was announced that Mark Wallinger would be one of three artists (along with Chris Ofili and Conrad Shawcross) to collaborate with the Royal Ballet and the National Gallery to create a piece based on works by the Renaissance painter Titian. Titian Metamorphosis, which documented the entire project from conception to finished performances, was published by London-based publisher Art / Books in two editions in January 2013.

In February 2013, it was announced that Wallinger had created Labyrinth a set of 270 enamel plaques of unicursal labyrinth designs, one for every London tube station, to mark the 150th anniversary of the London Underground; each will be numbered according to its position in the route taken by the contestants in the 2009 Guinness World Record Tube Challenge. In October 2014, Art / Books published Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Mark Wallinger, a comprehensive photographic book of all 270 labyrinth designs in situ in the Underground stations.

In 2019 Wallinger displayed his sculpture entitled The World Turned Upside Down at the London School of Economics. The artwork attracted controversy for showing the island of Taiwan as a sovereign entity, rather than as part of the People’s Republic of China. After dueling protests by students from both the PRC and ROC and reactions by third party observers (which included the President of Taiwan, Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the co-chairs of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group in the House of Commons ) the university decided later that year that it would retain the original design which chromatically displayed the PRC and ROC as different entities but with the addition of an asterisk beside the name of Taiwan and a corresponding placard that clarified the institution's position regarding the controversy.

In October 2019, Wallinger featured in a group show at Tension Fine Art alongside artists Julian Lowe and Stuart Elliot. The show "You Can't Tell By Looking" was curated by Kate Love.

title: Mark Wallinger


text:
Sewage sludge

Sewage sludge is the residual, semi-solid material that is produced as a by-product during sewage treatment of industrial or municipal wastewater. The term "septage" also refers to sludge from simple wastewater treatment but is connected to simple on-site sanitation systems, such as septic tanks.

When fresh sewage or wastewater enters a primary settling tank, approximately 50% of the suspended solid matter will settle out in an hour and a half. This collection of solids is known as raw sludge or primary solids and is said to be "fresh" before anaerobic processes become active. The sludge will become putrescent in a short time once anaerobic bacteria take over, and must be removed from the sedimentation tank before this happens.

This is accomplished in one of two ways. Most commonly, the fresh sludge is continuously extracted from the bottom of a hopper-shaped tank by mechanical scrapers and passed to separate sludge-digestion tanks. In some treatment plants an Imhoff tank is used: sludge settles through a slot into the lower story or digestion chamber, where it is decomposed by anaerobic bacteria, resulting in liquefaction and reduced volume of the sludge.

The secondary treatment process also generates a sludge largely composed of bacteria and protozoa with entrained fine solids, and this is removed by settlement in secondary settlement tanks. Both sludge streams are typically combined and are processed by anaerobic or aerobic treatment process at either elevated or ambient temperatures. After digesting for an extended period, the result is called "digested" sludge and may be disposed of by drying and then landfilling.

"Biosolids" is a term often used in conjunction with reuse of sewage solids after sewage sludge treatment. Biosolids can be defined as organic wastewater solids that can be reused after stabilization processes such as anaerobic digestion and composting. Opponents of sewage sludge reuse reject this term as a public relations term.

Quantities produced
The amount of sewage sludge produced is proportional to the amount and concentration of wastewater treated, and it also depends on the type of wastewater treatment process used. It can be expressed as kg dry solids per cubic metre of wastewater treated. The total sludge production from a wastewater treatment process is the sum of sludge from primary settling tanks (if they are part of the process configuration) plus excess sludge from the biological treatment step. For example, primary sedimentation produces about 110–170 kg/ML of so-called primary sludge, with a value of 150 kg/ML regarded as being typical for municipal wastewater in the U.S. or Europe. The sludge production is expressed as kg of dry solids produced per ML of wastewater treated; one mega litre (ML) is 103 m3. Of the biological treatment processes, the activated sludge process produces about 70–100 kg/ML of waste activated sludge, and a trickling filter process produces slightly less sludge from the biological part of the process: 60–100 kg/ML. This means that the total sludge production of an activated sludge process that uses primary sedimentation tanks is in the range of 180–270 kg/ML, being the sum of primary sludge and waste activated sludge.

United States municipal wastewater treatment plants in 1997 produced about 7.7 million dry tons of sewage sludge, and about 6.8 million dry tons in 1998 according to EPA estimates. As of 2004, about 60% of all sewage sludge was applied to land as a soil amendment and fertilizer for growing crops. In a review article published in 2012, it was reported that a total amount of 10.1 million tn DS/year were produced in EU-27 countries. Worldwide it is estimated that as much as 75 Million Mg of dry sewage sludge per year.

Production of sewage sludge can be reduced by conversion from flush toilets to dry toilets such as urine-diverting dry toilets and composting toilets.

Pathogens
Bacteria in Class A sludge products can actually regrow under certain environmental conditions. Pathogens could easily remain undetected in untreated sewage sludge. Pathogens are not a significant health issue if sewage sludge is properly treated and site-specific management practices are followed.

Micro-pollutants
Micro-pollutants are compounds which are normally found at concentrations up to microgram per liter and milligram per kilogram in the aquatic and terrestrial environment, respectively, and they are considered to be potential threats to environmental ecosystems. They can become concentrated in sewage sludge. Each of these disposal options comes with myriad potential—and in some cases proven—human health and environment impacts. Several organic micro-pollutants such as endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals and per-fluorinated compounds have been detected in sewage sludge samples around the world at concentrations ranging up to some hundreds mg/kg of dried sludge. Sterols and other hormones have also been detected.

Heavy metals
One of the main concerns in the treated sludge is the concentrated metals content (lead, arsenic, cadmium, thallium, etc.); certain metals are regulated while others are not. Leaching methods can be used to reduce the metal content and meet the regulatory limit.

In 2009 the EPA released the Targeted National Sewage Sludge Study, which reports on the level of metals, chemicals, hormones, and other materials present in a statistical sample of sewage sludges. Some highlights include:
 * Lead, arsenic, chromium, and cadmium are estimated by the EPA to be present in detectable quantities in 100% of national sewage sludges in the US, while thallium is only estimated to be present in 94.1% of sludges.
 * Silver is present to the degree of 20 mg/kg of sludge, on average, while some sludges have up to 200 milligrams of silver per kilogram of sludge; one outlier demonstrated a silver lode of 800–900 mg per kg of sludge.
 * Barium is present at the rate of 500 mg/kg, while manganese is present at the rate of 1 g/kg sludge.

Other hazardous substances
Sewage treatment plants receive various forms of hazardous waste from hospitals, nursing homes, industry and households. Low levels of constituents such as PCBs, dioxin, and brominated flame retardants, may remain in treated sludge. There are potentially thousands of other components of sludge that remain untested/undetected disposed of from modern society that also end up in sludge (pharmaceuticals, nano particles, etc.) which have been proven to be hazardous to both human and ecological health.

In 2013 in South Carolina PCBs were discovered in very high levels in wastewater sludge. The problem was not discovered until thousands of acres of farm land in South Carolina were discovered to be contaminated by this hazardous material. SCDHEC issued emergency regulatory order banning all PCB laden sewage sludge from being land applied on farm fields or deposited into landfills in South Carolina.

Also in 2013, after DHEC request, the city of Charlotte decided to stop land applying sewage sludge in South Carolina while authorities investigated the source of PCB contamination. In February 2014, the city of Charlotte admitted PCBs have entered their sewage treatment centers as well.

Contaminants of concern in sewage sludge are plasticizers, PDBEs, PFASs ("forever chemicals"), and others generated by human activities, including personal care products and medicines. Synthetic fibers from fabrics persist in treated sewage sludge as well as in biosolids-treated soils and may thus serve as an indicator of past biosolids application.

Pollutant ceiling concentration
The term "pollutant" is defined as part of the EPA 503 rule. The components of sludge have pollutant limits defined by the EPA. "A Pollutant is an organic substance, an inorganic substance, a combination of organic and inorganic substances, or a pathogenic organism that, after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into an organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food chain, could, on the basis of information available to the Administrator of EPA, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunction in reproduction), or physical deformations in either organisms or offspring of the organisms." The maximum component pollutant limits by the US EPA are:

Treatment
Sewage sludge treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater. Sewage sludge is produced from the treatment of wastewater in sewage treatment plants and consists of two basic forms — raw primary sludge and secondary sludge, also known as activated sludge in the case of the activated sludge process.

Sewage sludge is usually treated by one or several of the following treatment steps: lime stabilization, thickening, dewatering, drying, anaerobic digestion or composting. Some treatment processes, such as composting and alkaline stabilization, that involve significant amendments may affect contaminant strength and concentration: depending on the process and the contaminant in question, treatment may decrease or in some cases increase the bioavailability and/or solubility of contaminants. Regarding sludge stabilization processes, anaerobic and aerobic digestion seem to be the most common used methods in EU-27.

Following treatment, sewage sludge is either landfilled, dumped in the ocean, incinerated, applied on agricultural land or, in some cases, retailed or given away for free to the general public. According to a review article published in 2012, sludge reuse (including direct agricultural application and composting) was the predominant choice for sludge management in EU-15 (53% of produced sludge), following by incineration (21% of produced sludge). On the other hand, the most common disposal method in EU-12 countries was landfilling.

Classes of sewage sludge after treatment (United States)
In the United States, the following classes of sewage sludge after treatment are defined:

 * Class A sludge is typically dried and pasteurized, and is also known as "exceptional" quality.
 * Class B includes all sludge not classified as Class A. Class B sludge is typically "undigested" and is volatile.

Both classes of sludge may still contain radioactive or pharmaceutical wastes.

Disposal
After treatment, and dependent upon the quality of sludge produced (for example with regards to heavy metal content), sewage sludge is most commonly either disposed of in landfills, dumped in the ocean or applied to land for its fertilizing properties, as pioneered by the product Milorganite.

Landfill
Sewage sludge deposition in landfills can circulate human-virulent species of Cryptosporidium and Giardia pathogens. Sonication and quicklime stabilization are most effective in inactivation of these pathogens; microwave energy disintegration and top-soil stabilization were less effective. A Texas county has launched a first-of-its-kind criminal investigation into waste management giant Synagro over PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge it is selling to Texas farmers as a cheap alternative to fertilizer.

Ocean dumping
It used to be common practice to dump sewage sludge into the ocean, however, this practice has stopped in many nations due to environmental concerns as well to domestic and international laws and treaties. Ronald Reagan signed the law that prohibited ocean dumping as a means of disposal of sewage sludge in the US in 1988.

Land application
Biosolids is a term widely used to denote the byproduct of domestic and commercial sewage and wastewater treatment that is to be used in agriculture. National regulations that dictate the practice of land application of treated sewage sludge differ widely and e.g. in the US there are widespread disputes about this practice.

Depending on their level of treatment and resultant pollutant content, biosolids can be used in regulated applications for non-food agriculture, food agriculture, or distribution for unlimited use. Treated biosolids can be produced in cake, granular, pellet, or liquid form and are spread over land before being incorporated into the soil or injected directly into the soil by specialist contractors. Such use was pioneered by the production of Milorganite in 1926.

Use of sewage sludge has shown an increase in level of soil available phosphorus and soil salinity.

The findings of a 20-year field study of air, land, and water in Arizona, concluded that use of biosolids is sustainable and improves the soil and crops. Other studies report that plants uptake large quantities of heavy metals and toxic pollutants that are retained by produce, which is then consumed by humans.

A PhD thesis studying the addition of sludge to neutralize soil acidity concluded that the practice was not recommended if large amounts are used because the sludge produces acids when it oxidizes.

Studies have indicated that pharmaceuticals and personal care products, which often adsorb to sludge during wastewater treatment, can persist in agricultural soils following biosolid application. Some of these chemicals, including potential endocrine disruptor triclosan, can also travel through the soil column and leach into agricultural tile drainage at detectable levels. Other studies, however, have shown that these chemicals remain adsorbed to surface soil particles, making them more susceptible to surface erosion than infiltration. These studies are also mixed in their findings regarding the persistence of chemicals such as triclosan, triclocarban, and other pharmaceuticals. The impact of this persistence in soils is unknown, but the link to human and land animal health is likely tied to the capacity for plants to absorb and accumulate these chemicals in their consumed tissues. Studies of this kind are in early stages, but evidence of root uptake and translocation to leaves did occur for both triclosan and triclocarban in soybeans. This effect was not present in corn when tested in a different study.

A cautionary approach to land application of biosolids has been advocated by some for regions where soils have lower capacities for toxics absorption or due to the presence of unknowns in sewage biosolids. In 2007 the Northeast Regional Multi-State Research Committee (NEC 1001) issued conservative guidelines tailored to the soils and conditions typical of the northeastern US.

Use of sewage sludge is prohibited for produce to be labeled USDA-certified organic. In 2014 the United States grocery chain Whole Foods banned produce grown in sewage sludge.

Treated sewage sludge has been used in the UK, Europe and China agriculturally for more than 80 years, though there is increasing pressure in some countries to stop the practice of land application due to farm land contamination and negative public opinion. In the 1990s there was pressure in some European countries to ban the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer. Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, and others introduced a ban. Since the 1960s there has been cooperative activity with industry to reduce the inputs of persistent substances from factories. This has been very successful and, for example, the content of cadmium in sewage sludge in major European cities is now only 1% of what it was in 1970.

Incineration
Sludge can also be incinerated in sludge incineration plants which comes with its own set of environmental concerns (air pollution, disposal of the ash). Pyrolysis of the sludge to create syngas and potentially biochar is possible, as is combustion of biofuel produced from drying sewage sludge or incineration in a waste-to-energy facility for direct production of electricity and steam for district heating or industrial uses.

Thermal processes can greatly reduce the volume of the sludge, as well as achieve remediation of all or some of the biological concerns. Direct waste-to-energy incineration and complete combustion systems (such as the Gate 5 Energy System) will require multi-step cleaning of the exhaust gas, to ensure no hazardous substances are released. In addition, the ash produced by incineration or incomplete combustion processes (such as fluidized-bed dryers) may be difficult to use without subsequent treatment due to high heavy metal content; solutions to this include leaching of the ashes to remove heavy metals or in the case of ash produced in a complete-combustion process, or with biochar produced from a pyrolytic process, the heavy metals may be fixed in place and the ash material readily usable as a LEEDs preferred additive to concrete or asphalt. Examples of other ways to use dried sewage sludge as an energy resource include the Gate 5 Energy System, an innovative process to power a steam turbine using heat from burning milled and dried sewage sludge, or combining dried sewage sludge with coal in coal-fired power stations. In both cases this allows for production of electricity with less carbon-dioxide emissions than conventional coal-fired power stations.

Health risks
In 2011, the EPA commissioned a study at the United States National Research Council (NRC) to determine the health risks of sludge. In this document the NRC pointed out that many of the dangers of sludge are unknown and unassessed.

The NRC published "Biosolids Applied to Land: Advancing Standards and Practices" in July 2002. The NRC concluded that while there is no documented scientific evidence that sewage sludge regulations have failed to protect public health, there is persistent uncertainty on possible adverse health effects. The NRC noted that further research is needed and made about 60 recommendations for addressing public health concerns, scientific uncertainties, and data gaps in the science underlying the sewage sludge standards. The EPA responded with a commitment to conduct research addressing the NRC recommendations.

Residents living near Class B sludge processing sites may experience asthma or pulmonary distress due to bioaerosols released from sludge fields.

A 2004 survey of 48 individuals near affected sites found that most reported irritation symptoms, about half reported an infection within a month of the application, and about a fourth were affected by Staphylococcus aureus, including two deaths. The number of reported S. aureus infections was 25 times as high as in hospitalized patients, a high-risk group. The authors point out that regulations call for protective gear when handling Class B biosolids and that similar protections could be considered for residents in nearby areas given the wind conditions.

In 2007, a health survey of persons living in close proximity to Class B sludged land was conducted. A sample of 437 people exposed to Class B sludge (living within 1 mi of sludged land) - and using a control group of 176 people not exposed to sludge (not living within 1 mi of sludged land) reported the following: ""Results revealed that some reported health-related symptoms were statistically significantly elevated among the exposed residents, including excessive secretion of tears, abdominal bloating, jaundice, skin ulcer, dehydration, weight loss, and general weakness. The frequency of reported occurrence of bronchitis, upper respiratory infection, and giardiasis were also statistically significantly elevated. The findings suggest an increased risk for certain respiratory, gastrointestinal, and other diseases among residents living near farm fields on which the use of biosolids was permitted."" Although correlation does not imply causation, such extensive correlations may lead reasonable people to conclude that precaution is necessary in dealing with sludge and sludged farmlands.

Harrison and Oakes suggest that, in particular, "until investigations are carried out that answer these questions (...about the safety of Class B sludge...), land application of Class B sludges should be viewed as a practice that subjects neighbors and workers to substantial risk of disease." They further suggest that even Class A treated sludge may have chemical contaminants (including heavy metals, such as lead) or endotoxins present, and a precautionary approach may be justified on this basis, though the vast majority of incidents reported by Lewis, et al. have been correlated with exposure to Class B untreated sludge and not Class A treated sludge.

A 2005 report by the state of North Carolina concluded that "a surveillance program of humans living near application sites should be developed to determine if there are adverse health effects in humans and animals as a result of biosolids application."

The chain of sewage sledge to biosolids to fertilizers has resulted in PFASs ("forever chemicals") contamination of farm produce in Maine in 2021 and beef raised in Michigan in 2022. The EPA PFAS Strategic Roadmap initiative, running from 2021 to 2024, will consider the full lifecycle of PFAS including health risks of PFAS in wastewater sludge.

European Union
European legislation on dangerous substances has eliminated the production and marketing of some substances that have been of historic concern such as persistent organic micro-pollutants. The European Commission has said repeatedly that the "Directive on the protection of the environment, and in particular of the soil, when sewage sludge is used in agriculture" (86/278/EEC) has been very successful in that there have been no cases of adverse effect where it has been applied.

The EC encourages the use of sewage sludge in agriculture because it conserves organic matter and completes nutrient cycles. Recycling of phosphate is regarded as especially important because the phosphate industry predicts that at the current rate of extraction the economic reserves will be exhausted in 100 or at most 250 years. Phosphate can be recovered with minimal capital expenditure as technology currently exists, but municipalities have little political will to attempt nutrient extraction, instead opting for a "take all the other stuff" mentality.

European countries that joined the EU after 2004 favor landfills as a means of disposal for sewage sludge. In 2006, the predicted sewage sludge growth rate was 10 million tons of sewage sludge per year. This increase in the amount of sewage sludge accumulation in the EU can be due to the increase in the number of households that are connected to the sewage system. The EU has directives in place to encourage the use of sewage sludge in agriculture, in a way that will not harm the soil, humans, and the environment are not harmed. A guideline the EU has put into place it that sewage sludge should not be added to fruit and vegetable crops that are in season. In Austria, in order to dispose of the sewage sludge in a landfill, it must first be treated in a way that reduces its biological reactivity. Sweden no longer allows sewage sludge to be disposed in the land fills. In the EU, regulations regarding sewage sludge disposal differ because legislation regarding landfill disposal in not in the national regulations for the EU.

United States
According to the EPA, biosolids that meet treatment and pollutant content criteria of Part 503.13 "can be safely recycled and applied as fertilizer to sustainably improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth." However, they can not be disposed of in a sludge only landfill under Part 503.23 because of high chromium levels and boundary restrictions.

Biosolids that meet the Class B pathogen treatment and pollutant criteria, in accordance with the EPA "Standards for the use or disposal of sewage sludge" (40 CFR Part 503), can be land applied with formal site restrictions and strict record keeping. Biosolids that meet Class A pathogen reduction requirements or equivalent treatment by a "Process to Further Reduce Pathogens" (PFRP) have the least restrictions on use. PFRPs include pasteurization, heat drying, thermophilic composting (aerobic digestion, most common method), and beta or gamma ray irradiation.

The EPA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) completed two assessments in 2000 and 2002 of the EPA sewage sludge program. The follow-up report in 2002 documented that "the EPA cannot assure the public that current land application practices are protective of human health and the environment." The report also documented that there had been an almost 100% reduction in EPA enforcement resources since the earlier assessment. This is probably the greatest issue with the practice: under both the federal program operated by the EPA and those of the several states, there is limited inspection and oversight by agencies charged with regulating these practices. To some degree, this lack of oversight is a function of the perceived (by the regulatory agencies) benign nature of the practice. However, a greater underlying issue is funding. Few states and the US EPA have the discretionary funds necessary to establish and implement a full enforcement program for biosolids.

As detailed in the 1995 Plain English Guide to the Part 503 Risk Assessment, the EPA's most comprehensive risk assessment was completed for biosolids.

Prior to 1991
Since 1884 when sewage was first treated the amount of sludge has increased along with population and more advanced treatment technology (secondary treatment in addition to primary treatment). In the case of New York City, at first the sludge was discharged directly along the banks of rivers surrounding the city, then later piped further into the rivers, and then further still out into the harbor. In 1924, to relieve a dismal condition in New York Harbor, New York City began dumping sludge at sea at a location in the New York Bight called the 12-Mile Site. This was deemed a successful public health measure and not until the late 1960s was there any examination of its consequences to marine life or to humans. There was accumulation of sludge particles on the seafloor and consequent changes in the numbers and types of benthic organisms. In 1970 a large area around the site was closed to shellfishing. From then until 1986, the practice of dumping at the 12-Mile Site came under increasing pressure stemming from a series of untoward environmental crises in the New York Bight that were attributed partly to sludge dumping. In 1986, sludge dumping was moved still further seaward to a site over the deep ocean called the 106-Mile Site. Then, again in response to political pressure arising from events unrelated to ocean dumping, the practice ended entirely in 1992. Since 1992, New York City sludge has been applied to land (outside of New York state). The wider question is whether or not changes on the sea floor caused by the portion of sludge that settles are severe enough to justify the added operational cost and human health concerns of applying sludge to land.

Since 1991
After the 1991 Congressional ban on ocean dumping, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) instituted a policy of digested sludge reuse on agricultural land. The US EPA promulgated regulations – 40 CFR Part 503 – that continued to allow the use of biosolids on land as fertilizers and soil amendments which had been previously allowed under Part 257. The EPA promoted biosolids recycling throughout the 1990s. The EPA's Part 503 regulations were developed with input from university, EPA, and USDA researchers from around the country and involved an extensive review of the scientific literature and the largest risk assessment the agency had conducted to that time. The Part 503 regulations became effective in 1993.

Court cases in the United States

 * In 2009, James Rosendall of Grand Rapids, MI was sentenced by United States District Judge Avern Cohn to 11 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bribery. Rosendall was the former president of Synagro of Michigan, a subsidiary of Synagro Technologies. His duties included obtaining the approval of the City of Detroit to process and dispose of the city's wastewater.
 * In 2011, Travis County Commissioners declared that Synagro's solid waste disposal activities would be inappropriate and prohibited land use according to the towns already established ordinances.
 * A battle between the home rule of local government and states rights/commerce rights has been waged between the small town of Kern County, California, and Los Angeles, California. Kern county passed an ordinance "Keep Kern Clean" ballot initiative which banned sludge from being applied in Kern County. Los Angeles sued and after a protracted verdict, won the case in 2016.
 * In 2012, two families won a $225,000 tort lawsuit against a sludge company that contaminated their properties.
 * In 2013 in Pennsylvania, the case Gilbert vs. Synagro, a judge barred a nuisance, negligence and trespass lawsuit under Pennsylvania's Right to Farm Act.
 * Scientists, testing the potential of sewage sludge to protect against lead-poisoned soil, did not inform test participants of possible dangers.

title: Sewage sludge


text:
Veterans Day

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. It began, and now coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are commemorated in other countries, marking the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May: Veterans Day commemorates the service of all U.S. veterans, while Memorial Day specifically honors those who have died while in military service. Another military holiday that also occurs in May, Armed Forces Day, honors those currently serving in the U.S. military. Additionally, Women Veterans Day is recognized by a growing number of U.S. states that specifically honor women who have served in the U.S. military.

History
On November 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued a message to his countrymen on the first Armistice Day, in which he expressed what he felt the day meant to Americans:

"A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and more just set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.

With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.

Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.

To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations."

The United States Congress adopted a resolution on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue annual proclamations calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made November 11 in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.

In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the "Father of Veterans Day".

US Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954. It had been eight and a half years since Weeks held his first Armistice Day celebration for all veterans.

Congress amended the bill on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

The National Veterans Award was also created in 1954. Congressman Rees of Kansas received the first National Veterans Award in Birmingham, Alabama, for his support in offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday.

Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October (October 25, 1971; October 23, 1972; October 22, 1973; October 28, 1974; October 27, 1975; October 25, 1976, and October 24, 1977). In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then federal government employees and a number of organizations will instead take the day off on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.

Observance
Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday, whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday. When it falls on the weekend many private companies offer it as a floating holiday where employees can choose some other day. A Society for Human Resource Management poll in 2010 found that 21 percent of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011.

Legally, two minutes of silence is recommended to be observed at 2:11pm Eastern Standard Time.

Non-essential federal government offices are closed. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday; those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive holiday pay for that day in addition to their wages.

Armistice Day
In his Armistice Day address to Congress, Wilson was sensitive to the psychological toll of the lean War years: "Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness," he remarked. As Veterans Day and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps (November 10, 1775) are only one day apart, that branch of the Armed Forces customarily observes both occasions as a 96-hour liberty period.

Election Day is a regular working day, while Veterans Day, which typically falls the following week, is a federal holiday. The National Commission on Federal Election Reform called for the holidays to be merged, so citizens can have a day off to vote. They state this as a way to honor voting by exercising democratic rights.

Spelling of Veterans Day
While the holiday is commonly printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs website states that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling "because it is not a day that 'belongs' to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans."

title: Veterans Day