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European Southern Observatory

The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs over 750 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €162 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes. These include the 3.6 m New Technology Telescope, an early pioneer in the use of active optics, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four individual 8.2 m telescopes and four smaller auxiliary telescopes which can all work together or separately. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array observes the universe in the millimetre and submillimetre wavelength ranges, and is the world's largest ground-based astronomy project to date. It was completed in March 2013 in an international collaboration by Europe (represented by ESO), North America, East Asia and Chile.

Currently under construction is the Extremely Large Telescope. It will use a 39.3-metre-diameter segmented mirror, and become the world's largest optical reflecting telescope when operational towards the end of this decade. Its light-gathering power will allow detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first objects in the universe, supermassive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the universe.

ESO's observing facilities have made astronomical discoveries and produced several astronomical catalogues. Its findings include the discovery of the most distant gamma-ray burst and evidence for a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. In 2004, the VLT allowed astronomers to obtain the first picture of an extrasolar planet (2M1207b) orbiting a brown dwarf 173 light-years away. The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument installed on the older ESO 3.6 m telescope led to the discovery of extrasolar planets, including Gliese 581c—one of the smallest planets seen outside the Solar System.

History
The idea that European astronomers should establish a common large observatory was broached by Walter Baade and Jan Oort at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands in spring 1953. It was pursued by Oort, who gathered a group of astronomers in Leiden to consider it on June 21 that year. Immediately thereafter, the subject was further discussed at the Groningen conference in the Netherlands. On January 26, 1954, an ESO declaration was signed by astronomers from six European countries expressing the wish that a joint European observatory be established in the southern hemisphere.

At the time, all reflector telescopes with an aperture of 2 metres or more were located in the northern hemisphere. The decision to build the observatory in the southern hemisphere resulted from the necessity of observing the southern sky; some research subjects (such as the central parts of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds) were accessible only from the southern hemisphere.

It was initially planned to set up telescopes in South Africa where several European observatories were located (Boyden Observatory), but tests from 1955 to 1962 demonstrated that a site in the Andes was preferable: When Jürgen Stock (astronomer) enthusiastically reported his observations from Chile, Otto Heckmann decided to leave the South African project on hold. ESO - at that time about to sign the contracts with South Africa - decided to establish their observatory in Chile. The ESO Convention was signed 5 October 1962 by Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Otto Heckmann was nominated as the organisation's first director general on 1 November 1962. On November 15, 1963 Chile was chosen as the site for ESO's observatory.

A preliminary proposal for a convention of astronomy organisations in these five countries was drafted in 1954. Although some amendments were made in the initial document, the convention proceeded slowly until 1960 when it was discussed during that year's committee meeting. The new draft was examined in detail, and a council member of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) highlighted the need for a convention between governments (in addition to organisations). The convention and government involvement became pressing due to rapidly rising costs of site-testing expeditions. The final 1962 version was largely adopted from the CERN convention, due to similarities between the organisations and the dual membership of some members.

In 1966, the first ESO telescope at the La Silla site in Chile began operating. Because CERN (like ESO) had sophisticated instrumentation, the astronomy organisation frequently turned to the nuclear-research body for advice and a collaborative agreement between ESO and CERN was signed in 1970. Several months later, ESO's telescope division moved into a CERN building in Geneva and ESO's Sky Atlas Laboratory was established on CERN property. ESO's European departments moved into the new ESO headquarters in Garching (near Munich), Germany in 1980.

Chilean observation sites
Although ESO is headquartered in Germany, its telescopes and observatories are in northern Chile, where the organisation operates advanced ground-based astronomical facilities:
 * La Silla, which hosts the New Technology Telescope (NTT)
 * Paranal, where the Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located
 * Llano de Chajnantor, where ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, is located

These are among the best locations for astronomical observations in the southern hemisphere. An ESO project is the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a 40-metre-class telescope based on a five-mirror design and the formerly planned Overwhelmingly Large Telescope. The ELT will be the largest visible and near-infrared telescope in the world. ESO began its design in early 2006, and aimed to begin construction in 2012. Construction work at the ELT site started in June 2014. As decided by the ESO council on 26 April 2010, a fourth site (Cerro Armazones) is to be home to ELT.

Each year about 2,000 requests are made for the use of ESO telescopes, for four to six times more nights than are available. Observations made with these instruments appear in a number of peer-reviewed publications annually; in 2017, more than 1,000 reviewed papers based on ESO data were published.

ESO telescopes generate large amounts of data at a high rate, which are stored in a permanent archive facility at ESO headquarters. The archive contains more than 1.5 million images (or spectra) with a total volume of about 65 terabytes (65,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data.

La Silla
La Silla, located in the southern Atacama Desert 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 m, is the home of ESO's original observation site. Like other observatories in the area, La Silla is far from sources of light pollution and has one of the darkest night skies on Earth. In La Silla, ESO operates three telescopes: a 3.6-metre telescope, the New Technology Telescope (NTT) and the 2.2-metre Max-Planck-ESO Telescope.

The observatory hosts visitor instruments, attached to a telescope for the duration of an observational run and then removed. La Silla also hosts national telescopes, such as the 1.2-metre Swiss and the 1.5-metre Danish telescopes.

About 300 reviewed publications annually are attributable to the work of the observatory. Discoveries made with La Silla telescopes include the HARPS-spectrograph detection of the planets orbiting within the Gliese 581 planetary system, which contains the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone outside the solar system. Several telescopes at La Silla played a role in linking gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic explosions in the universe since the Big Bang, with the explosions of massive stars. The ESO La Silla Observatory also played a role in the study of supernova SN 1987A.

ESO 3.6-metre telescope
The ESO 3.6-metre telescope began operations in 1977. It has been upgraded, including the installation of a new secondary mirror. The conventionally designed horseshoe-mount telescope was primarily used for infrared spectroscopy; it now hosts the HARPS spectrograph, used in search of extra-solar planets and for asteroseismology. The telescope was designed for very high long-term radial velocity accuracy (on the order of 1 m/s).

New Technology Telescope
The New Technology Telescope (NTT) is an altazimuth, 3.58-metre Ritchey–Chrétien telescope, inaugurated in 1989 and the first in the world with a computer-controlled main mirror. The flexible mirror's shape is adjusted during observation to preserve optimal image quality. The secondary mirror position is also adjustable in three directions. This technology (developed by ESO and known as active optics) is now applied to all major telescopes, including the VLT and the future ELT.

The design of the octagonal enclosure housing the NTT is innovative. The telescope dome is relatively small and ventilated by a system of flaps directing airflow smoothly across the mirror, reducing turbulence and resulting in sharper images.

MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
The 2.2-metre telescope has been in operation at La Silla since early 1984, and is on indefinite loan to ESO from the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, or MPG, in German). Telescope time is shared between MPG and ESO observing programmes, while operation and maintenance of the telescope are ESO's responsibility.

Its instrumentation includes a 67-million-pixel wide-field imager (WFI) with a field of view as large as the full moon, which has taken many images of celestial objects. Other instruments used are GROND (Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Near-Infrared Detector), which seeks the afterglow of gamma-ray bursts—the most powerful explosions in the universe, and the high-resolution spectrograph FEROS (Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph), used to make detailed studies of stars.

Other telescopes
La Silla also hosts several national and project telescopes not operated by ESO. Among them are the Swiss Euler Telescope, the Danish National Telescope and the REM, TRAPPIST and TAROT telescopes.
 * The Euler Telescope is a 1.2-metre telescope built and operated by the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. It is used to conduct high-precision radial velocity measurements primarily used in the search for large extrasolar planets in the southern celestial hemisphere. Its first discovery was a planet orbiting Gliese 86. Other observing programmes focus on variable stars, asteroseismology, gamma-ray bursts, monitoring active galactic nuclei (AGN) and gravitational lenses.
 * The 1.54-metre Danish National Telescope was built by Grubb-Parsons and has been in use at La Silla since 1979. The telescope has an off-axis mount, and the optics are a Ritchey-Chrétien design. Because of the telescope's mount and limited space inside the dome, it has significant pointing restrictions.

 * The Rapid Eye Mount telescope is a small rapid-reaction automatic telescope with a primary 60 cm mirror. The telescope, in an altazimuth mount, began operation in October 2002. The primary purpose of the telescope is to follow the afterglow of the GRBs detected by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission satellite.
 * The Belgian TRAPPIST is a joint venture between the University of Liège and Geneva Observatory. The 0.60-metre telescope is specialised in comets, exoplanets, and was one of the few telescopes that observed a stellar occultation of the dwarf planet Eris, revealing that it may be smaller than Pluto.
 * The Quick-action telescope for transient objects, TAROT, is a very fast-moving optical robotic telescope able to observe a gamma-ray burst from its beginning. Satellites detecting GRBs send signals to TAROT, which can provide a sub-arc second position to the astronomical community. Data from the TAROT telescope is also useful in studying the evolution of GRBs, the physics of a fireball and its surrounding material. It is operated from the Haute-Provence Observatory in France.

Paranal
The Paranal Observatory is located atop Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Cerro Paranal is a 2635 m mountain about 120 km south of Antofagasta and 12 km from the Pacific coast.

The observatory has seven major telescopes operating in visible and infrared light: the four 8.2 m telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, the 2.6 m VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and the 4.1 m Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. In addition, there are four 1.8 m auxiliary telescopes forming an array used for interferometric observations. In March 2008, Paranal was the location for several scenes of the 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Very Large Telescope
The main facility at Paranal is the VLT, which consists of four nearly identical 8.2 m unit telescopes (UTs), each hosting two or three instruments. These large telescopes can also work together in groups of two or three as a giant interferometer. The ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than those seen with the individual telescopes. The light beams are combined in the VLTI with a complex system of mirrors in tunnels, where the light paths must diverge less than 1/1000 mm over 100 metres. The VLTI can achieve an angular resolution of milliarcseconds, equivalent to the ability to see the headlights of a car on the Moon.

The first of the UTs had its first light in May 1998, and was offered to the astronomical community on 1 April 1999. The other telescopes followed suit in 1999 and 2000, making the VLT fully operational. Four 1.8-metre auxiliary telescopes (ATs), installed between 2004 and 2007, have been added to the VLTI for accessibility when the UTs are used for other projects.

Data from the VLT have led to the publication of an average of more than one peer-reviewed scientific paper per day; in 2017, over 600 reviewed scientific papers were published based on VLT data. The VLT's scientific discoveries include imaging an extrasolar planet, tracking individual stars moving around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way and observing the afterglow of the furthest known gamma-ray burst.

At the Paranal inauguration in March 1999, names of celestial objects in the Mapuche language were chosen to replace the technical designations of the four VLT Unit Telescopes (UT1–UT4). An essay contest was prior arranged for schoolchildren in the region concerning the meaning of these names which attracted many entries dealing with the cultural heritage of ESO's host country. A 17-year-old adolescent from Chuquicamata, near Calama, submitted the winning essay and was awarded an amateur telescope during the inauguration. The four unit telescopes, UT1, UT2, UT3 and UT4, are since known as Antu (sun), Kueyen (moon), Melipal (Southern Cross), and Yepun (Evening Star), with the latter having been originally mistranslated as "Sirius", instead of "Venus".

Survey telescopes
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the VLT, sharing observational conditions. VISTA's main mirror is 4.1 m across, a highly curved mirror for its size and quality. Its deviations from a perfect surface are less than a few thousandths the thickness of a human hair, and its construction and polishing presented a challenge.

VISTA was conceived and developed by a consortium of 18 universities in the United Kingdom led by Queen Mary, University of London, and it became an in-kind contribution to ESO as part of the UK's ratification agreement. The telescope's design and construction were managed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council's UK Astronomy Technology Centre (STFC, UK ATC). Provisional acceptance of VISTA was formally granted by ESO at the December 2009 ceremony at ESO headquarters in Garching, which was attended by representatives of Queen Mary, University of London and STFC. Since then the telescope has been operated by ESO, capturing quality images since it began operation.

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is a state-of-the-art, 2.6 m telescope equipped with OmegaCAM, a 268-megapixel CCD camera with a field of view four times the area of the full moon. It complements VISTA by surveying the sky in visible light. The VST (which became operational in 2011) is the result of a joint venture between ESO and the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte (Naples), a research centre at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics INAF.

The scientific goals of both surveys range from the nature of dark energy to assessing near-Earth objects. Teams of European astronomers will conduct the surveys; some will cover most of the southern sky, while others will focus on smaller areas. VISTA and the VST are expected to produce large amounts of data; a single picture taken by VISTA has 67 megapixels, and images from OmegaCam (on the VST) will have 268 megapixels. The two survey telescopes collect more data every night than all the other instruments on the VLT combined. The VST and VISTA produce more than 100 terabytes of data per year.

Llano de Chajnantor
The Llano de Chajnantor is a 5100 m plateau in the Atacama Desert, about 50 km east of San Pedro de Atacama. The site is 750 m higher than the Mauna Kea Observatory and 2400 m higher than the Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal. It is dry and inhospitable to humans, but a good site for submillimetre astronomy; because water vapour molecules in Earth's atmosphere absorb and attenuate submillimetre radiation, a dry site is required for this type of radio astronomy. The telescopes are:
 * Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT; not operated by ESO)
 * Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (Operated on behalf of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR))
 * Atacama Large Millimeter Array
 * Q/U Imaging Experiment (QUIET; not operated by ESO)
 * POLARBEAR (on the Huan Tran Telescope; not operated by ESO)

ALMA is a telescope designed for millimetre and submillimetre astronomy. This type of astronomy is a relatively unexplored frontier, revealing a universe which cannot be seen in more-familiar visible or infrared light and ideal for studying the "cold universe"; light at these wavelengths shines from vast cold clouds in interstellar space at temperatures only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Astronomers use this light to study the chemical and physical conditions in these molecular clouds, the dense regions of gas and cosmic dust where new stars are being born. Seen in visible light, these regions of the universe are often dark and obscure due to dust; however, they shine brightly in the millimetre and submillimetre portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This wavelength range is also ideal for studying some of the earliest (and most distant) galaxies in the universe, whose light has been redshifted into longer wavelengths from the expansion of the universe.

Atacama Pathfinder Experiment
ESO hosts the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, APEX, and operates it on behalf of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR). APEX is a 12 m diameter telescope, operating at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves.

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
ALMA is an astronomical interferometer initially composed of 66 high-precision antennas and operating at wavelengths of 0.3 to 3.6 mm. Its main array will have 50 12 m antennas acting as a single interferometer. An additional compact array of four 12-metre and twelve 7 m antennas, known as the Morita array is also available. The antennas can be arranged across the desert plateau over distances from 150 metres to 16 km, which will give ALMA a variable "zoom". The array will be able to probe the universe at millimetre and submillimeter wavelengths with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, with vision up to ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. These images will complement those made with the VLT Interferometer. ALMA is a collaboration between East Asia (Japan and Taiwan), Europe (ESO), North America (US and Canada) and Chile.

The scientific goals of ALMA include studying the origin and formation of stars, galaxies, and planets with observations of molecular gas and dust, studying distant galaxies towards the edge of the observable universe and studying relic radiation from the Big Bang. A call for ALMA science proposals was issued on 31 March 2011, and early observations began on 3 October.

Outreach

Outreach activities are carried out by the ESO education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD).

ePOD also manages the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, an astronomy centre located at the site of the ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München, which was inaugurated 26 April 2018.

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Maasmechelen

Maasmechelen (Mechele) is a municipality located on the Meuse in the Belgian province of Limburg.

It comprises the former municipalities of Mechelen-aan-de-Maas, Vucht, Leut, Meeswijk, Uikhoven, Eisden, Opgrimbie, Boorsem, and Kotem.

As a result of both Maasmechelen's location near the border and its coalmining history, quite a few of its current inhabitants are of Dutch, German, Polish or Mediterranean (mainly Italian) origin.

Prehistoric and Roman times
The plateau of Campine was built up during the ice age with deposits of sand and other material that the Meuse river had eroded in the upstream Ardennes region. The higher elevation and the proximity of fertile river clay made this location an attractive one for the prehistoric tribes who established themselves here in the 2nd millennium BC and for the Celtic peoples who moved in the area in the 1st millennium BC.

In Roman times, this region was at the border between the provinces of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior. The main Roman road crossed the river near Maastricht, to the south. Settlements were built where Maasmechelen lies today to service the garrison that was maintained to protect the bridge in Maastricht.

Middle Ages
The few centuries that followed the fall of the Roman Empire were marked by a sharp decline in travel and trade. The Franks were now the new masters of the land. International commercial activities resumed on the river around the 7th century. This was also a time when the river progressively moved eastward. The Roman colonies that were originally built on the right bank of the river now found themselves on the left bank. The abundance of streams and wetlands favoured stockbreeding over agriculture. The feudal system and the practice of paying civil servants with land resulted in endless territory subdivisions. Some parcels, including Mechelen-aan-de-Maas and parts of Opgrimbie, were given to the abbey of Saint Servatius in Maastricht. Other parcels came into the hands of local lords, who pledged allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor. Yet other parts of the territory came into the possession of local religious communities. Churches and cloisters were built and enlarged to accommodate a growing population.

19th and 20th century
The aftermath of the French Revolution brought a series of dramatic changes that include the dismantlement of most religious organizations, the closing of churches, and the reorganization of the territory into new administrative entities. During the 19th century, the area had still an unmistakable rural character.

On May 20, 1901, André Dumont found commercial-grade coal in neighbouring As. This led to the exploitation of coal mines in Eisden from 1923 to 1987. A garden city and a new church dedicated to Saint Barbara, also known as the mining cathedral, were built there. The industrial development attracted workers from all over Europe, which accounts for the numerous international restaurants still found today in Eisden.

Attractions

 * The largest part of the natural reservation Nationaal Park Hoge Kempen is located on Maasmechelen's territory. It was established to protect the unique fauna and flora of the plateau of Campine.
 * The Eisdense cité, a 20th-century garden city with typical cottage-like houses in a park setting, still bear witness to the city's mining history. One of the houses has been converted into a museum.
 * Maasmechelen Village, an outlet shopping center was built near the old mining district. In 2010, 2.5 million visitors were counted.
 * A functional windmill dating from 1801 was recently restored and is open to the public every other Sunday.
 * A small carnival museum can also be visited right next to the city's main square.

Events

 * The carnival and parade, where masked people entertain numerous visitors, occur every year on November 11, starting at 11:11 am.

Sports

 * Well known sports personalities from the Maasmechelen region are:
 * athlete Patrick Stevens, a sprinter (olympic finalist on 200 meters in 1996)
 * judoka Heidi Rakels.
 * Maasmechelen hosts the football club named K. Patro Maasmechelen.
 * The town is also the home of the Duivelsbergcircuit (Devils Hill Circuit) at Opgrimbie, a well attended international Rallycross venue.

Famous inhabitants

 * Katerine Avgoustakis, singer and winner of “Star Academy” in 2005 (b. 1983)
 * Logan Bailly, footballer
 * Ruben Bemelmans, tennis player
 * Luca Brecel, snooker player
 * Nico Claesen, former footballer
 * Davy De Fauw, footballer
 * Heidi Rakels, judoka
 * Murat Selvi, professional footballer
 * Dré Steemans, TV host
 * Leandro Trossard, professional footballer

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Maasmechelen


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Riemst

Riemst (Riems) is a small town and a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. Riemst is in the Flemish speaking area of Belgium.

On January 1, 2018 Riemst had a total population of 16,665. The total area is 57.88 km² which gives a population density of 276 inhabitants per km².

Riemst was the site of the Battle of Lauffeld, fought in 1747.

The bridge in the Borough Vroenhoven was part of the start of WW2, when the Germans launched a coordinated attack on the area.

Paul Schiepers (born in 1919) was the last mayor of the borough of Riemst before it joined with the other boroughs to form the current town of Riemst. He died on August 18, 1978.

Boroughs
Genoelselderen, Herderen, Kanne, Membruggen, Millen, Riemst, Val-Meer, Lafelt, Vlijtingen, Vroenhoven, Heukelom and Zichen-Zussen-Bolder

title: Riemst


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Tongeren

Tongeren (Tongres ; Tongern ; Tóngere ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital within the country's borders. As a Roman city, it was inhabited by the Tungri, and known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, it was the administrative centre of the Civitas Tungrorum district.

Atuatuca Tungrorum
The Romans referred to Tongeren as Aduatuca Tungrorum or Atuatuca Tongrorum, and it was the capital of the large Roman province of Civitas Tungrorum, an area which covered modern Belgian Limburg, and at least parts of all the areas around it. Before the Roman conquests, this area was inhabited by the group of Belgic tribes known as the Germani cisrhenani. (Despite being known as the Germani, whether they spoke a Germanic language is debated, and the names of their tribes and their leaders were Celtic.) Specifically the Eburones were the largest of these tribes and the one living around Tongeren.

Caesar referred to the fort of the Eburones as Aduatuca, and this has led to a widely accepted proposal that this can be equated to Tongeren. There are counter arguments that the word "Aduatuca" was probably a general word for a fort in this region, meaning that there might have been more places with the same name, and that Tongeren shows no signs of pre-Roman occupation, nor the hilly terrain described by Caesar. There was also a distinct tribe in the area known as the Aduatuci. On the other hand, it has the same name and function as a local capital, and is in generally the right area. If it is not Tongeren itself, the Aduatuca of the Eburones might be the ancient fortification of Caestert in nearby Riemst.

During Julius Caesar’s campaigns in this part of Gaul in the first century BC, the Belgae revolted against the campaign of Caesar, led by the Eburones. They destroyed a legion that had demanded the right to winter among them in 54 BC. Caesar reported that he sold the Aduatuci into slavery, and annihilated the name of the Eburones, many of whom however he reported having fled successfully, including Ambiorix the leader of the revolt. Instead of risking Roman lives to pursue them he invited tribes from over the Rhine, such as the Sigambri to come and plunder. This back-fired when Eburones pointed out to the Sigambri that the Romans had all the booty at Aduatuca, and were the more attractive target.

The Tungri, not mentioned by Caesar, came to dominate this area in the Roman era, and are the reason for the name of the modern name Tongeren. Tacitus says that Tungri was a new name for the original tribes who had previously been called the Germani. But many modern writers believe that the Gallo-Roman population of the area contained a significant amount of more recent Germanic immigrants from across the Rhine. Located on the important road linking Cologne to Bavay via the relay of Liberchies, and surrounded by the fertile lands of the Hesbaye region, Roman Tongeren quickly became one of the largest Gallo-Roman administrative and military towns in the first century. It suffered from a destructive fire during the Batavian siege in 70 AD, which was part of the Batavian revolt. In the second century, it erected a defensive wall, portions of which can still be seen today. Typical Roman buildings were built in town, while villas and mound graves (tumuli) dotted the surrounding area.

In 358 the future emperor Julian met, in Tongeren, a delegation of Salian Franks who had recently settled in Toxandria (the modern Campine region), to the north of Tongeren. They wanted peace but spoke "as if the ground they had seized were rightfully their own". Julian gave ambiguous replies and then after the meetings sent a surprise attack along the Maas or Meuse river, and "they met him with entreaties rather than with resistance, he received the submission of them and their children". They became increasingly important after this time. Zosimus reports that Julian used them as part of his forces in fights against other Germanic tribes.

Middle Ages

Already in the fourth century, just as the Salian Franks were settling to the north, the city became the center of a Christian diocese under the influence of Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongeren, who died in 384 AD. In the meantime, the Franks to the north and east were pagan and so many areas had to be reconverted over the course of the following centuries, with several missionaries becoming martyrs. The seat of the Tungrian bishopric however eventually moved to nearby Maastricht, after Saint Servatius was buried near the Roman towns there. Much later, Liège became the seat of what would become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège, the church equivalent to the Civitas Tungrorum. This was the resting place of Saint Lambert of Maastricht, one of the last missionaries in the area, who died about 700 AD. Aduatuca Tungrorum may have been destroyed by the Huns in 451 AD. Tongeren therefore lost some importance during this period.

Waves of Germanic settlers and invaders changed the area significantly. The Merovingian period between the fifth and the eighth century is not well documented. The building of a new church and the foundation of a chapter of canons took place in Carolingian times, at the very place where the old bishops’ houses stood, and where the basilica still stands today. The construction of the current basilica started at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the prevalent Gothic style of that period. Other buildings were added to the religious core of the city, including new commercial areas, hospitals and artisans quarters. The thirteenth century also saw the building of the medieval defensive wall, several new churches and cloisters, and the beguinage. The city became one of the “bonnes villes” ("good cities") of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

From seventeenth century until contemporary age
In 1677, the city was burned almost entirely by Louis XIV’s troops, a catastrophe from which Tongeren never completely recovered. The rebirth of the city dates from after 1830.

In 1977 the neighbouring municipalities of Berg, Diets-Heur, Henis, 's-Herenelderen, Koninksem, Lauw, Mal, Neerrepen, Nerem, Overrepen, Piringen, Riksingen, Rutten, Sluizen, Vreren and Widooie merged into Tongeren.

Tongeren is currently the judicial capital of the province of Belgian Limburg.

Main sights

 * The Béguinage, founded in 1257, has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. Its enclosure wall was destroyed in the 19th century: it separated the beguinage from the rest of the city and thus guaranteed peace and quiet for the small religion-inspired community. In the 17th century, the beguinage counted some 300 beguines; it was also able to survive the 1677 fire that destroyed most of the city.
 * The Basilica of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Basiliek), built in Gothic style in the 13th century, where recent excavations have produced some of the richest archaeological finds in Flanders. Archaeological excavations have proven the presence of an edifice here starting from the 4th century, while a Carolingian prayer house existed here in the 9th century. The building of the choir of the present basilica began in 1240. Nave, transepts and side chapels were added between the 13th and 15th century. The original Romanesque tower was replaced by the present, 64 m Gothic tower from 1442 until 1541. The basilica's interior is home to the statue of Our Lady of Tongeren, erected in 1475. The treasury is housed in the former hall of the Chapter and comprises one of the richest collections of religious art in Belgium. The bell tower was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site in 1999.
 * Church of St. Catherine, built in Gothic style in 1294, but modified later in different styles. Works of art include the 1711 pulpit by Robrecht Verburgh, the main altarpiece by Gaspar de Crayer (17th century) and a sculpture of the Suffering Christ, donated by the beguine Anna de Floz.
 * The Gallo-Roman Museum, which houses Celtic gold, Roman glassware, Merovingian filigree work, and a Roman dodecahedron, an unusual Gallo-Roman object found during excavations
 * The original Roman wall, dating from the second century, still visible for more than 1,500 m.
 * Some of the medieval defensive towers, also still visible today.
 * Statue of Ambiorix, erected in 1866.
 * Several Tumuli are found around the city.
 * The Pliniuspark features the Plinius spring, a natural spring described by Pliny the Elder in 77-79 a.d.
 * At the location of a former Roman temple in the Keverstraat, a modern representation of that temple can be found. Because no drawings, apart from the floor plans, of the original temple exist, everything has been rebuilt up to 1 m high.
 * Partly 3 m below the Basilica of Our Lady and partly inside the Basilica, the Teseum-museum shows the archaeological findings at the location of the Basilica, as well as exhibitions about the history of the church.
 * Tongeren houses a youth detention center.

Events

 * The Kroningsfeesten (“Coronation Celebrations”) are organized every seven years in commemoration of the crowning of the miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Bishop Doutreloux in 1890. This religious procession, the largest and one of the most impressive in Belgium, took place for the seventeenth time in 2009. The eighteenth edition took place in July 2016.
 * A well-attended antiques fair takes place every Sunday. It is the largest of its kind in the Benelux.

Sports

 * Women's volleyball club Datovoc Tongeren plays at the highest level of the Belgian league pyramid.
 * Tongeren's best known football club is K.S.K. Tongeren.

Famous inhabitants
Ancient times

 * Ambiorix, prince of the Eburones and rebel leader against the Roman invaders. Although his statue stands on the central square of Tongeren, it is unknown where he lived exactly and Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico is the only source to mention him (1st century BC)
 * Saint Servatius, bishop of Tongeren, introduced Christianity in the Netherlands (4th century)
 * Saint Helier, ascetic hermit and patron saint of Jersey (6th century)
 * Radulph of Rivo, historian and liturgist (d. 1403)

Modern times

 * Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French politician (1749–1791)
 * Valentinus Paquay, Roman Catholic beatified priest, also known as "het heilig Paterke van Hasselt" (the holy priest [diminutive] of Hasselt) (1828–1905)
 * Philippe Boesmans, composer (b. 1936)
 * Robert Cailliau, co-inventor of the World Wide Web, together with Tim Berners-Lee (b. 1947)
 * Cyriel Dessers, football player (b. 1994)
 * Patrick Dewael, politician, former Minister President of Flanders, and mayor (b. 1955)
 * Wilfried Nelissen (1970), Road racing cyclist
 * Jef Vliers (1932 – 1994), (football player and coach)
 * Zoon van snooK, songwriter/musician (b. 1978)
 * Freddy Loix, rally driver (b. 1970)
 * Jules Castro, racing driver (b. 2004)

title: Tongeren


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Voeren

Voeren (Fourons ) is a Flemish Dutch-speaking municipality with facilities for the French-speaking minority, located in the Belgian province of Limburg. Bordering the Netherlands to the north and the Wallonia region's Liège Province (Luik) to the south, it is geographically detached from the rest of Flanders, making Voeren an exclave of Flanders. Voeren's name is derived from that of a small right-bank tributary of the Meuse, the Voer, which flows through the municipality.

The current municipality of Voeren was established by the municipal reform of 1977. On 1 January 2008, Voeren had a total population of 4,207. Its total area is 50.63 km2, giving a population density of 83 PD/sqkm. About 25% of the population is made up of foreign nationals, most of whom have Dutch nationality.

Villages
The municipality consists of the six villages of 's-Gravenvoeren (Fouron-le-Comte), Sint-Pieters-Voeren (Fouron-Saint-Pierre), Sint-Martens-Voeren (Fouron-Saint-Martin), Moelingen (Mouland), Teuven and Remersdaal (Rémersdael, Rèbiévå). 's-Gravenvoeren is the most important and most populous village of the municipality. Locally, the three villages are named Sint-Marten (Saint-Martin), Sint-Pieter (Saint-Pierre), and Voeren (Fouron) for 's-Gravenvoeren.

History
Since the 11th century, two-thirds of the territory of the present municipality of Voeren was in the county of Dalhem, which was a possession of the dukes of Brabant, and the remaining one-third in the Duchy of Limburg, which also belonged to Brabant after 1288. Both of these duchies were part of the Holy Roman Empire but they developed a relatively independent regime ruled by powerful dynasties. They successively became part of the Burgundian Netherlands, the Habsburg Netherlands, and after the Dutch Revolt, part of the Spanish, later Austrian controlled, Southern Netherlands.

During the French occupation (1794–1815), the old boundaries of the "ancien regime" were rejected and the French "département" of Ourthe was created. After the defeat of France and the end of Napoleonic wars, this became the modern Belgium's Liège Province until 1963 when the Voer Region was detached from Liège, and became part of the province of Limburg, within Flanders.

Linguistic and political issues
Most native people in Voeren speak a variant of Limburgish, a regional language related to Dutch (in the Netherlands referred to as a separate language; in Flanders treated as a Dutch dialect), and German. The same Germanic dialect is also spoken in the neighbouring Walloon municipalities of Blieberg, Welkenraedt and Baelen and has been recognised by the French Community of Belgium as a regional language since 1990.

Voeren is economically dependent on the surrounding provinces of Liège and Dutch Limburg and standard Dutch and French are also generally spoken.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, language use in the area was mixed. People spoke the local dialect in daily life. The government institutions used French, while church and school used German or Dutch. However, some influential inhabitants, such as the local priest, Hendrik Veltmans, argued that Voeren was culturally Flemish and actively tried to bring Voeren into Flanders.

In 1932, with the introduction of new language laws, the linguistic alignment of Voeren was determined (as for all other towns along the language border in Belgium) on the basis of the results of the census of 1930. According to this census, 81.2% of the population of the six villages that now make up Voeren spoke Dutch, and 18.8% declared that they spoke French. Administrative changes were made as a result. The results of the next census, held in 1947, were only made public in 1954 and gave a totally different outcome, with only 42.9% stating that they spoke Dutch and 57.1% French. According to the 1932 legislation, this would have meant that the linguistic status of the villages would have changed from Dutch speaking with a French minority to French speaking with a Dutch-speaking minority. At that time, however, due to the rising political controversy between the Dutch- and French-speaking communities in Belgium, a parliamentary committee (the so-called centrum Harmel, named after Pierre Harmel) was established to fix, amongst other things, the language boundary once and for all. This committee proposed, notwithstanding the 1947 results (strongly disputed by the Flemish and recognised by the Belgian parliament as useless for determining the language border since the consultation was found to be rigged by nationalist francophones which is why the 1947 results were published in 1954 ), that the six villages were Dutch speaking with special regulations for the French-speaking minority to be decided after discussion with the town councils.

In 1962 the work of the committee resulted in a law proposed by the French-speaking Minister of the Interior, Arthur Gilson, whereby Voeren would be officially Dutch speaking with language facilities for the French-speaking community, but would remain part of the French-speaking Liège Province. The proposal included a similar system for Mouscron and Comines-Warneton which would be officially French-speaking with language facilities for the Dutch-speaking community, but would remain part of the Dutch-speaking province of West-Flanders.

After fierce debate in parliament, the proposal of minister Gilson was approved but subject to the amendment that Voeren would become part of the Dutch-speaking province of Limburg and Mouscron and Comines-Warneton become part of the French-speaking Hainaut province.

This amendment was introduced by the Walloon socialist politician and former mayor of Liège, Paul Gruselin, who wanted to transfer the Flemish towns with a Francophone majority Comines-Warneton and Mouscron to the Walloon province of Hainaut and offered to transfer the Voer region to the Dutch-speaking province of Limburg as compensation.

In order to understand this proposal of the Walloon socialists of Liège and Mouscron, one must take into account the fact that almost everyone at the time considered that a Dutch dialect was spoken in the Voer Region and that, consequently, their inhabitants would willingly accept this change. The 75,000 inhabitants of the towns Mouscron and Comines-Warneton brought one extra deputy's seat while the 4,000 inhabitants of the villages of the Voer Region were far from being worth as much.

This switch from Liège to Limburg was received badly by many local people because of the region's dependence on Liège. Francophones in particular campaigned for the region to be returned to the province of Liège. Similarly in Comines-Warneton and Mouscron, the city councils and a large majority of the population wanted to remain part of the Dutch-speaking province of West Flanders or at the very least become a new francophone province together with the city of Tournai, the Tournaisis because they identified as Frenchified Flemings, having shared a history with the other regions of the former County of Flanders and felt culturally closer to French Flanders than to the Hainaut Province.

On 1 January 1977, the six small municipalities were merged into the present-day Voeren municipality. The Francophone and Flemish movements could organize themselves politically more effectively as there was now one, instead of six, municipal council. This resulted in political and linguistic strife between the Francophone Retour à Liège (Return to Liège) party and the Flemish Voerbelangen (Voeren's Best Interests) party. The Retour à Liège faction won a majority in the new council. There were also action committees on both sides and gangs who daubed place-name signs and took part in violent demonstrations. The language struggle in Voeren became a national issue, and people from outside the region became involved.

The linguistic struggle came to a head when José Happart was put forward as mayor in 1983. For one thing, he was alleged to have supported the Francophone gangs in Voeren. However, the main problem was the constitutional question of whether someone who could not speak Dutch could become mayor of a Flemish municipality. Happart was dismissed as mayor for refusing to take a Dutch-language test, but appealed against his dismissal, and the question dragged on for years, ultimately causing the Belgian government Martens VI to fall on 19 October 1987.

In 1988, concessions to the Francophone inhabitants were made. The powers of the provincial government of Limburg were curtailed, and more autonomy was given to the municipality. The government of the Walloon Region was allowed to build facilities for Francophones in Voeren.

In the 1994 municipal elections, the Dutch-speaking party (Voerbelangen) won a seat more than in earlier elections but was still a minority on the council. In 1995, Mayor Happart was forced to leave office. The national court of arbitration (now Belgian Constitutional Court) declared some of the 1988 concessions unconstitutional (e.g. the Walloon building rights).

EU nationals were given suffrage at the municipal level in 1999. This factor was decisive in the 2000 municipal elections, because of the significant number of Dutch citizens living in Voeren (about 20% of the total population): Voerbelangen won a majority of 53% of the votes and 8 out of 15 local council seats. However, the new majority faced budgetary difficulties, since large debts had been incurred by the previous administration. The council had to sell several items of municipal property, such as forests and goods to stabilise its finances. As from 2003 to 2004 the council is viable again, and new projects are being started to fulfill the promises made during the elections. In the 2006 municipal elections Voerbelangen won again, gaining 61% of the votes and 9 out of 15 council seats. For the first time, Voerbelangen also won the majority of the seats in the council of the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare), the social affairs department of the municipality, for which nationals of other EU countries may not vote. Though the violence of the 1970s and 1980s has subsided, some activists still daub graffiti on place-name signs. In December 2006, the Flemish Government decided to abolish all official French translations in Flemish municipalities and villages, including municipalities with language facilities. Thus the French names of the Voeren municipality and villages will no longer be used on place-name signs, traffic signs and by municipality and other governments in official documents.

Results of the linguistic censuses of 1930 and 1947 per village
Precise figures on the ethnic composition of Belgium are impossible to obtain, for the language question is so controversial that the Belgian census has not included data on linguistic composition of communes since 1947.

title: Voeren


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Wellen

Wellen (Wille) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On 1 January 2018, Wellen had a total population of 7,402. The total area is 26.72 km2 with a population density of 266 inhabitants per km2.

The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Wellen, Berlingen, Herten and Ulbeek. Other population centres and hamlets include: Bos, Beurs, Kukkelberg, Langenakker, Oetersloven, Overbroek, Russelt, and Vrolingen.

History
Archaeological findings suggest the place was inhabited already during the Frankish period (5th to 7th century). Debris from the river Herk on that spot made the soil fertile for farming. However, any mention of the name Wellene or Welnis doesn't occur until the second half of the 12th century.

The name Wellen derives from the Middle Dutch "wellene", meaning "source" or "pit" or, alternately, from Latin terra Villina, "agricultural holding". Wellen was long associated with the abbey of Munsterbilzen, founded around 670.

title: Wellen


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Toul

Toul is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

It is a sub-prefecture of the department.

Geography
Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, and the river Moselle and Canal de la Marne au Rhin.

Climate
Toul has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb). The average annual temperature in Toul is 9.8 C. The average annual rainfall is 761.1 mm with June as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 18.6 C, and lowest in January, at around 1.3 C. The highest temperature ever recorded in Toul was 37.9 C on 11 August 1998; the coldest temperature ever recorded was -17.8 C on 9 January 1985.

History
Toul was known to the Romans as Tullum Leucorum, and was the capital of the Gaulish tribe of the Leuci.

In 550, King Theudebald convoked a synod at Toul. In 612, King Theudebert II of Austrasia was defeated by King Theuderic II of Burgundy near Toul. By the Treaty of Meerssen of 870, Toul became part of East Francia, the later Holy Roman Empire. During the High Middle Ages, it became a Free Imperial City. Toul was annexed to France by King Henry II in 1552; this was recognized by the Holy Roman Empire in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. It then was a part of the French province of the Three Bishoprics.

Toul was the seat of the bishops of Toul; the diocese was founded around 365 and existed until 1807.

During the siege of 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, the last time that Toul's defenses were used as a classic fortress, 64 guns opened fire at 6:00 a.m. on 23 September, and the fortress surrendered at 3:00 p.m. after 2,433 shells had been fired.

The city was also the primary base of the Air Service, United States Army, a predecessor organization of the United States Air Force during World War I. As such, it was a base for many of the 45 wartime squadrons of the First Army Air Service, including the squadrons of the 1st Pursuit Group, First Army Observation Group and others. The Americans referred to the area around Toul as the Toul Sector. Two large operations were launched from this area: the St. Mihiel Offensive and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, both in September 1918. During World War II, the American 358th Fighter Group used Toul-Croix De Metz Airfield (A-90) during the fall of 1944 and spring of 1945, and Toul-Rosières Air Base (BA 136) was an American NATO air base during the 1950s and 1960s.

Sights
The most striking features are the impressive stone ramparts. Those that exist today are the work of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Louis XIV's military engineer. In 1698 he designed a new enclosure and work began in 1699-1700. Several of Vauban's fortifications in France are listed as a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the fortifications at Toul are not in that list they do follow the general defiladed fortification pattern for which Vauban is known. There appears to have been a fortified town at this location since the earliest recorded history. Today, the ramparts encircle and define the old town. They are built of dressed white stone, and topped with grass, and in places are over five metres high.

There is a great deal of Roman archaeology in the area and allegedly some in the town. The Roman fortified town of Grand is some 30 km away, with its great amphitheatre and temple to the Cult of Apollo.

The old town's architecture is dominated by past glories in various states of decay, including a major Gothic cathedral, which is in a poor condition and is being slowly restored. Many of the houses were built as canonical residences in the Late Middle Ages and bear vestiges in the form of ornamental stonework. The gothic chapel of the Knights Templar Commandery of Libdeau is undergoing a major restoration.

There is no trace of the monastery, however its wine-cellars still exist, under the shops on the north side of the Rue Gambetta. (Access is possible via the Camera Shop).

Transportation
Toul is at the intersection of the river Moselle (which divides into the river proper and the Moselle Canalisée just outside the town) with the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, and was once, consequently, an important port. The barges known as péniches still navigate these watercourses commercially, typically carrying steel, though in the summer much more of the water traffic is for pleasure.

There is a main-line railway station at Toul, the last major station before the (once vast, and still very large) marshalling yards at Nancy. However, the Paris-Strasbourg TGV line, completed in 2016, passes about 20 km north of Toul, approximately midway between Metz and Nancy.

Economy
The surrounding countryside is a wine-growing region, in which the AOC Côtes de Toul vintage is produced. Particularly notable is the Gris de Toul.

Administration
Toul is the seat and part of the canton of Toul, and of the arrondissement of Toul.

Twin towns

 * 🇩🇪 Hamm, Germany, since 1987
 * 🇵🇱 Ostrołęka, Poland, since 2006

Notable people

 * Saint Gerard of Toul, bishop
 * Antoine Augustin Calmet, monk
 * Marcel Bigeard, French Army General
 * Anne-Laure Blin, politician
 * Mickaël Causse, Neuroscientist
 * Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr, military leader
 * Rachid Hamdani, footballer
 * Louis Majorelle, furniture designer and manufacturer
 * Pascal Vigneron, musician and director of the Bach Toul Festival

title: Toul


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Talk:Toul

I live in Toul, and my wife has a Bookshop here. Any additions/corrections you could make would be very gratefully received.

T

Hi T. Would be best to open the article by saying what Toul is & where.

Ah. Mmm. Not a bad point.

T

I speak and write in British English and use British English spellings. If spelling from American English is preferred, I don't mind using them.

Somebody changed 'Cult of Apollo' to 'worship of Apollo.' This just isn't the same thing. The 'Cult of Apollo' is a specific Politico-Religious cult much like Freemasonry that grew steadily in power towards the end of the Roman Empire. Linking to an article about the classical 'Apollo' is therefore nonesense. I will add an article about the cult later, bit in the mean time, I shall add a cross ref to the historical Apollo...

T

Toul's history, prior to the Franco-Prussian War is something of a forgotten subject locally.

Interesting choice of words. Could this awkwardness have anything to do with the fact that Toul used to be a part of the medieval German empire? Bastie 20:00, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Possible additions to this entry
I hail from Dommartin-les-Toul, was educated in the English speaking world, and have made many sentimental return visits there.

The cathedral is in appalling condition, but was used for Catholic worship and concerts as recently as the 1970s. It was heavily damaged in 1940 (as was most of Toul within the ramparts), but restored in the 1950s. Its current dilipated condition is wholly the result of the neglect of recent decades, presumably a consequence of the huge recent decline in Christian faith. Europe is on the brink of ceasing to be Christian in any sense other than that it is not anything else. Within our lifestimes, Islam will become the largest single religion in western Europe.

I suggest that the entry should mention the following facts.

Toul sits on a sharp bend in the Moselle River. Until some time in the Pleistocene, the Moselle upstream from Toul was the upper reaches of the Meuse River. Then the Moselle carved a new bed for itself, joining the Meurthe River north of Nancy. This is an instance of stream capture.

The region about Toul, the "Toulois," is not renowned for its scenery or gastronomy. Local wine production is insignificant, in part because summers are cooler than in the wine growing parts of France having a similar latitude, namely Alsace and the Champagne district. Toul contains almost no traces of the feudal and manorial eras, because there was no local lord. Until France annexed it in 1552, Toul was one of the "Three Bishoprics" of eastern France, where the bishop was also the temporal leader.

Toul was the nearest small city and bishopric to Domremy, where Joan of Arc grew up.

The ramparts were built in the late 17th century, and designed by Vauban.

Toul indeed sits on the east-west canal connecting Paris and Strasbourg, and the maximum barge size that can navigate the Moselle River was substantially increased in the 1970s. Nevertheless, canal barge traffic is light. The fate of France's remarkable canal network is in tourist cruises and as a houseboat highway. Much more important is that since 1855, Toul has been a stop on the Paris-Strasbourg railway line. Trains from Metz and Nancy to Dijon, Lyons, and Marseilles also stop in Toul. When France laid out its system of numbered highways early in the 19th century, the highway from Paris to Strasbourg (now the Nationale 4), was routed through Toul. Since 1972, a motorway connects Toul and Nancy, making it easy to reside in Toul and commute to greater Nancy.

Toul was long perceived as a strategic location, because of a persistent French fear of an invasion from the East. Hence Toul and its environs have been the location of many forts, barracks, and military bases. Germany defeated the French army in Toul during the Franco-Prussian War. In World War I, the front got within 20km north of Toul, which thereby became a major staging area and supply depot, and the site of a major military hospital (where my great-grandfather was a surgeon). Between the wars, the population of greater Toul was about half military personnel and their dependents. Unlike most French cities during the Blitzkrieg of May-June 1940, Toul was heavily damaged by a full scale German assault.

After the war, the feared enemy changed from German to Russian, but the Cold War in no way diminished the perceived strategic importance of the Toul region, which was only 300km or so from the Fulda Gap. Toul became the site of a new French air base (Ochey) and several American NATO bases (Toul-Rosières Air Base). The American bases became French ones in 1966 and American military personnel were sent packing, both at the request of the French government. With the end of the Cold War, the military importance of Toul's location is perhaps less than at any time since the outbreak of the Thirty Year's War in 1618.123.255.62.9 (talk) 15:37, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Toul


text:
ESO (disambiguation)

The European Southern Observatory is an astronomical research organisation.

ESO may also refer to:
 * Employee stock option (also: executive stock option)
 * Ether Saga Odyssey, a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game
 * The Elder Scrolls Online, a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game
 * Existential second-order logic
 * ESO (motorcycles)
 * Eso (town), Orhionmwon, Edo State, Nigeria

Organisations

 * European Standardisation Organisations: CEN (European Committee for Standardization), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute)
 * Ensemble Studios Online
 * Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
 * Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra in Taiwan
 * Eteläsuomalainen osakunta, a student nation at the University of Helsinki
 * Libyan External Security Organisation
 * External Security Organisation, the Ugandan external secret service
 * École secondaire d'Oka, a public high school in Oka, Quebec, Canada
 * National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), British electricity transmission network operator

Music

 * English Symphony Orchestra and English String Orchestra, two related classical orchestral ensembles
 * Eso-Charis, Christian metal band (and self-titled album)
 * Bliss n Eso, Australian hip hop group

title: ESO (disambiguation)


text:
Maximilian Steiner

Maximilian Steiner (27 August 1830 – 29 May 1880) was an Austrian actor and theater director and manager. He is known particularly for his leadership of Vienna's Theater an der Wien from 1869 to 1880, a period during which the theater reduced the importance of folk plays (dialect drama) and was prominent in developing and promoting the fashion of a Viennese style of operetta.

Life and career
Steiner was born in Ofen, near Budapest in Hungary, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the early 1850s, he began work in the stage crew of the theatre in Temeswar (now in Romania). In 1854, he was engaged by the theater director Friedrich Strampfer as an actor in the German-language theater. He continued to act in that theater and others in the region till 1862, gaining both acting and directing experience, when he followed Strampfer to Vienna, where Steiner became secretary (an executive role) in the Theater an der Wien. Strampfer gave him considerable leeway to develop his own career, and in August 1869 Steiner became manager after Strampfer stepped down. Till 1875 Steiner was co-manager with the actress and singer Marie Geistinger; together, they "set a tone for the repertoire that lasted until the end of the century," despite criticism from the conservative press. When Geistinger left for Berlin, Steiner led the theater on his own, with help from his sons Franz and Gabor, till his death in 1880. Steiner's business acuity helped the Theater stay open after the stock market crash in 1873, but he did lose control for several months in 1877 due to another set of financial difficulties; he gained control again later in the same year with the help of friends and other backers.

Although he and Geistinger came to emphasize operetta more and more, Steiner still built the theater's seasons by emphasizing variety: the typical fare included folk plays, burlesques with music, and operetta. He gradually phased out spoken-word dramas, contributing fundamentally to the Viennese operetta boom that continued till well into the twentieth century. He produced both well-proven and new stage works by Offenbach but also discovered young talent such as the playwright Ludwig Anzengruber, the last prominent author of folk plays, and the composer Carl Millöcker, who became the Theater's Kapellmeister in 1869.

When the first wife of Johann Strauss, jr., brought some of the composer's musical sketches to Steiner, he took on himself responsibility for encouraging Strauss to write operetta. As it happened, Strauss, piqued by the Viennese successes of Jacques Offenbach, had already started working on an operetta, a project that fell through when it was discovered that his intended lead, Josefine Gallmeyer, was unavailable. Steiner then collaborated with Strauss on Indigo and the Forty Thieves, which premiered on 10 February 1871 and for which Steiner wrote the libretto. Strauss's second operetta, Die Fledermaus (1874) became a fixture of German-language theaters and has remained in the canon of operetta to this day. The initial production starred Geistinger as Rosalinde. Second and third productions followed in 1875 and 1876. The latter is notable for introducing, as Dr. Falke, Alexander Girardi, who stayed with the Theater's company for twenty two years and was a central figure in many successful operetta productions.

Steiner organized a playwright's guild, staged yearly benefit shows, and at the time of his death was one of the most popular figures in Vienna. With his wife, Rosa (Kollinsky), he had two sons: Franz Steiner, who took over his functions in the theater in 1880 and remained until 1884; and Gabor Steiner, who also became a theater manager and operator of a music hall. Gabor's son was Max Steiner, who worked in London theaters, then in New York, and after 1929 was a Hollywood film composer.

Some notable premieres during Steiner's tenure at the Theater an der Wien

 * 1871 – Johann Strauss, jr., Indigo und die 40 Räuber (Indigo and the Forty Thieves)
 * 1871 – Ludwig Anzengruber, Der Meineidbauer (The Perjurer)
 * 1872 – Ludwig Anzengruber, Die Kreuzelschreiber (The Cross-writer)
 * 1874 – Johann Strauss, jr., Die Fledermaus (The Bat)
 * 1874 – Ludwig Anzengruber, Der G’wissenswurm (Bad Conscience)
 * 1875 – Johann Strauss, jr., Cagliostro in Wien (Cagliostro in Vienna)
 * 1876 – Carl Zeller, Joconde
 * 1877 – Richard Genée, Nanon
 * 1878 – Carl Millöcker, Das verwunschene Schloss (The Enchanted Castle)
 * 1879 – Carl Millöcker, Gräfin Dubarry (Countess Dubarry)
 * 1879 – Jacques Offenbach, Madame Favart

title: Maximilian Steiner


text:
Ath

Ath (Aat, ; Ât; Ate) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Arbre, Ath, Bouvignies, Ghislenghien, Gibecq, Houtaing, Irchonwelz, Isières, Lanquesaint, Ligne, Maffle, Mainvault, Meslin-l'Évêque, Moulbaix, Ormeignies, Ostiches, Rebaix, Villers-Notre-Dame, and Villers-Saint-Amand.

Ath is known as the "City of Giants" after the Ducasse d'Ath festivities which take place every year on the fourth weekend in August. Huge figures representing Goliath, Samson, and other allegoric figures are paraded through the streets, and Goliath's wedding and his famous fight with David are re-enacted.

Ath is the point of origin of the river Dender from the merger of its Eastern and Western branches.

Pre–1500
Archeological records show the existence of several Gallo-Roman settlements in the Ath area. The origin of the city of Ath, however, dates from around 1160, when Count Baudouin IV of Hainaut, bought some territory from his liegeman, Gilles de Trazegnies. A few years later, Baldwin built the Burbant Tower – which can still be seen today – to protect his new acquisition. The new city was soon given privileges and its newly built (1325) market hall on the Grand-Place began to attract residents.

Ath was the setting of the "Peace of Ath", signed on June4, 1357, to end the question of the Brabant succession. By then, the weekly Ath market, which took place – and still takes place – on Thursdays, had started attracting sellers from a much larger region. The production of linen, cloth, hide, and luxury items such as gold ware, cabinets, and sculptures was growing fast. The population growth necessitated the building of a second wall, which was completed at the end of the 14th century. In 1416, the city built a school for the study of Latin, which Justus Lipsius attended. The city counted then about 5,000 people.

1501–present
In 1667, Ath was conquered in a single day by the army of Louis XIV and became the first French city of the Spanish Netherlands. Soon after, Vauban built new fortifications, which included eight bastions. The city suffered again at the hands of the French army in 1745. At the end of the 18th century, Ath counted about 7,300 inhabitants but the population count decreased in the first half of the 19th century.

In 1816, two military engineering surveys concluded that Ath defences should be improved, the British survey recommended a garrison of 3,000 troops and the building cost would be £143,599. The Dutch wished to spend an additional £266,000. The Duke of Wellington agreed to the Dutch plan. The funding was paid for by England (30%), Holland (30%) and by French war reparations (40%). In 1824, the Dutch under King William I, built the Féron Fort, and the city once more gained strategic value.

A treaty drafted in London on 15 November 1831, which the Netherlands refused to sign, was followed by the Treaty of London (1839), which created the Kingdom of Belgium. Part of the terms of the treaty required the fort, amongst others, to be dismantled.

The freed up land assisted the town for the activities of a growing population. A new growth period took place between 1850 and 1914 driven by the forestry, agricultural (breweries, mills) and textile industries.

In the 20th century, most of these industries went into decline and were replaced by commercial, administrative and educational activities. In the last 30 years, several neighbourhoods have been revitalized and developed, and the city's monuments renovated or restored.

July 30, 2004 explosions
The Ghislenghien industrial park near Ath was the scene of one of Belgium's worst ever industrial disasters on July 30, 2004. Around 8:30 am local time, workers constructing a new factory for abrasives firm Diamant Boart (a subsidiary of the Electrolux Group) reported a strong smell of gas. It is believed the gas was escaping from a high-pressure underground pipeline conveying natural gas from Zeebrugge to France, operated by gas transportation company Fluxys. Firefighters were soon on the scene and were attempting to clear the area when at least two explosions occurred at around 9:00 am. The strongest of these demolished the partly built Diamant Boart structure, and fires were started in several other buildings. 24 people were killed, with over 120 injured. Five volunteer firemen and one police officer were among the dead.

Sights

 * The 12th-century Burbant tower was built by Baudouin IV and named after the neighbouring Landgraviate of Brabant.
 * The town hall dates from the 17th century.
 * The church of Saint Julien, rebuilt after a fire in the 19th century, still keeps a Gothic tower and apsidal chapel, as well as a famous 16th-century carillon.
 * The church of Saint Martin and the exterior oak calvary both date from the 16th century.

Festivities
The “Ducasse” originated from a yearly procession developed in the 15th century (first mentioned in 1399) as a celebration of the consecration of the local Saint Julien church. This procession illustrated stories from the Old Testament, New Testament, Golden Legend, and Carolingian cycle. Today, the “Ducasse” is a very popular celebration that includes various festivities and lasts several days spanning the end of August and beginning of September. The highlight is the cortege of giants (in French: Cortège des géants), with David and Goliath as the most famous characters. In 2008, the Ducasse was listed by UNESCO among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It was delisted in 2022 following complaints about one of the characters that appears in the procession: a 'savage', depicted by a white person in blackface, wearing a nose ring and chains.

Transportation
Ath is located along the N56 road.

People born in Ath

 * Arnold Caussin, born about 1510. Musician, composer. Student in the University of Cracow in 1526.
 * Michael Baius, theologian
 * Julien-Joseph Ducorron, painter (1770–1848)
 * Eugène Defacqz, politician (1797–1871)
 * Jean Taisner, musician, mathematician and astrologer (1508-1562)
 * Louis Hennepin, Catholic priest and missionary, and explorer of the interior of North America (17th century).
 * Fanny Heldy, opera soprano (19th century)
 * Joseph Jules Descamps, politician (1820–1892).
 * Ernest F. Cambier, Belgian colonial pioneer (1844–1921)
 * Henri Vernes, novelist (20th century)
 * Guy Spitaels, politician (20th century)
 * Olivier Dupuis, politician (20th century)
 * Pierre Descamps, politician (20th century)
 * Anders Tang, humorist (20th century)
 * Julian the Hospitaller, legendary saint, was according to one tradition born in Ath
 * Jacques de Saint-Luc, lutenist and composer (1616 – c. 1710)

title: Ath


text:
Beloeil, Belgium

Belœil (Baileul; Beleul) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

It is around 10 km south of Ath. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 13,347 inhabitants. The total area is 61.55 km², giving a population density of 217 inhabitants per km².

The municipality consists of the following districts: Aubechies, Basècles, Belœil, Ellignies-Sainte-Anne, Grandglise, Quevaucamps, Ramegnies, Stambruges, Thumaide, and Wadelincourt.

The municipality is named after the château of Belœil, once the seat of Charles-Joseph, 7th Prince of Ligne, a military officer and man of letters who corresponded with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire.

History
The history of the chateau is nebulous but the original construction of a fort or castle at the site is generally thought to date to the 14th century. This site was the seat of the barons of the Ligne family originating from Ligne in Hainault, a place about 8 kilometres from Beloeil. The earliest recorded baron of the House of Ligne was Fastré de Ligne, signatory to a charter dated 1047 and others of the name mentioned in a charter of Baudouin IV, count of Hainaut, dated to 1123.

Postal history
Post-offices opening dates before 1910:

- Beloeil on 28 June 1858. It used a Distribution postal code 8 with bars (before 1864), and 35 with points before 1874. - Basècles on 21 April 1862. It used a Distribution postal code 126 with bars (before 1864), and 30 with points before 1874. - Quevaucamps on 13 March 1876. - Stambruges on 12 November 1888. - Ramegnies-Chin on 27 June 1896.

Postal codes in 1969:

- Aubechies 7672 - Basècles 7660 - Beloeil 7970 - Ellignies-Sainte-Anne 7671 - Quevaucamps 7670 - Ramegnies 7663 - Ramegnies-Chin 7721 - Stambruges 7980 - Thumaide 7662 - Wadelincourt 7661

Since at least October 1990: - 7520 Ramegnies-Chin - 7970 Beloeil - 7971 Basècles, Ramegnies, Thumaide, Wadelincourt - 7972 Aubechies, Ellignies-Sainte-Anne, Quevaucamps - 7973 Grandglise, Stambruges

Famous inhabitants
Apart from many members of the House of Ligne, living in the castle, other famous people to have lived here include:
 * Émilie Dequenne, actress
 * Pierre Descamps, politician
 * Baron Empain, entrepreneur and Egyptologist

Twin towns

 * 🇫🇷 Crosne, France
 * 🇬🇧 Maybole, Scotland, UK
 * 🇩🇪 Schotten, Germany

title: Beloeil, Belgium


text:
Bernissart

Bernissart (Bernissåt) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2006, Bernissart had a total population of 11,458. The total area is 43.42 km2, which gives a population density of 264 inhabitants per km2.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Blaton, Bernissart, Harchies, Pommerœul, and Ville-Pommerœul.

The Iguanodon mine
In 1878, dozens of Iguanodon skeletons were discovered in a coal mine, at a depth of 322 m (1,056 ft). At the time, their proximity was considered proof that some dinosaurs were herd animals. They were mounted by Louis Dollo and set the standard that was followed for over a century. Nine of the twenty-nine skeletons are currently on display at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and one at the Bernissart Museum. The two museums even made an error they acknowledge with humour: they displayed the skeletons "standing", suggesting that the dinosaurs were bipedal, which is not the case. Found alongside the Iguanodon skeletons were the remains of plants, fish, and other reptiles, including the crocodyliform Bernissartia. The sediments are considered to belong to the Sainte-Barbe Clays Formation.

title: Bernissart


text:
Brugelette

Brugelette (Brujlete; Brudjlete) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2006, Brugelette had a total population of 3,284. The total area is 28.40 km2 which gives a population density of 116 pd/sqkm.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Attre, Brugelette, Cambron-Casteau, Gages, and Mévergnies-lez-Lens.

title: Brugelette


text:
Chièvres

Chièvres (Chieve) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On January 1, 2018, Chièvres had a total population of 6,899. The total area is 46.91 km2 which gives a population density of 150 inhabitants per km2. Chièvres Air Base is located in the municipality.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Chièvres, Grosage, Huissignies, Ladeuze, Tongre-Saint-Martin, and Tongre-Notre-Dame.

In 1918 the town was delivered by the 5th Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders from four years of military occupation during the First World War. The event was commemorated by the naming of one of the town's main streets as Rue Dudley Gordon after the battalion's Lieutenant-Colonel, the Lord Dudley Gordon, who was presented with the key to the town of Chièvres. In return, a present was made to the town of the flag under which the 5th Battalion had fought since 1915.

title: Chièvres


text:
Ellezelles

Ellezelles (Elzele; Elzîle; Elziele) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

It consists of the following districts: Ellezelles, Lahamaide, and Wodecq. Bordering Flanders, the town is home to a minority of Dutch-speakers.

The village archives contain a document "attesting" to the birth of Hercule Poirot on 1 April 1850.

Notable people

 * Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavere (1522 in La Hamaide near Ellezelles – executed in 1568) a general and statesman in the Spanish Netherlands just before the start of the Eighty Years' War.
 * Richard Ely (born 1974 in Ellezelles) a Belgian writer, journalist and ethnobotanist.

title: Ellezelles


text:
Flobecq

Flobecq (Vloesberg, ; Flôbek) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It borders to the municipalities of Ellezelles (to the west) and Lessines (to the east) in the same province and to Brakel in the province of East Flanders, on the other side of the language border.

On January 1, 2018, Flobecq had a total population of 3,420. The total area is 23 km2 which gives a population density of 150 pd/sqkm.

Flobecq is a tourist village. Each year, on the nearest Friday to 17 January, there is a marvelous local feast based on the adoration of Saint Antony.

Flobecq offers language facilities for Dutch speakers.

History
Flobecq was initially under strong influence of Tournai and, as in Tournai, Picard was spoken there. Since the 13th century, the area was continuously disputed between the County of Flanders and the County of Hainaut. Therefore, the region (including neighbouring places like Lessines, Ellezelles, ...) was often called "debate land" (Dutch: debattenland; French: terre des débats).

In 1963, when the language border was fixed, within the municipality of Flobecq, only the village of La Houppe/D'Hoppe was Dutch-speaking. However, the village was not transferred to Dutch-speaking East Flanders and remained in French-speaking area. Instead, Flobecq as a whole became a municipality with language facilities for Dutch.

title: Flobecq


text:
Frasnes-lez-Anvaing

Frasnes-lez-Anvaing (Fraine-lez-Anvégne; Fraine-dilé-Anvegn) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

On 1 January 2018 the municipality had 11,740 inhabitants. The total area is 112.44 km², giving a population density of 100 inhabitants per km².

The municipality consists of the following districts: Anvaing, Arc-Ainières, Buissenal, Cordes, Dergneau, Forest, Frasnes-lez-Buissenal, Hacquegnies, Herquegies, Montrœul-au-Bois, Moustier, Œudeghien, Saint-Sauveur, and Wattripont.

In August 2012, the funeral of Countess Alix de Lannoy, mother of Stéphanie de Lannoy, was held in Frasnes, attended by members of the Luxembourg and Belgian royal families.

title: Frasnes-lez-Anvaing


text:
François Ravaillac

François Ravaillac (1578 – 27 May 1610) was a French Catholic who assassinated King Henry IV of France in 1610.

Early life and education
Ravaillac was born in 1578 at Angoulême to an educated family; his grandfather François Ravaillac, was the prosecutor in Angoulême, and two of his maternal uncles were canons of the Angoulême Cathedral. His father Jean Ravaillac was a violent man whose many misdeeds caused a public scandal and led to legal difficulties, while his mother Françoise Dubreuil was known for her Catholic piety. He first began working as a servant, later becoming a school teacher. Obsessed with religion, he sought admission to the ascetic Feuillants order, but after a short probation, he was dismissed for being "prey to visions." An application in 1606 for admission to the Society of Jesus was also unsuccessful.

Regicide

In 1609, Ravaillac claimed to have experienced a vision instructing him to convince King Henry IV to convert the Huguenots to Catholicism. Between Pentecost 1609 and May 1610, Ravaillac made three separate trips to Paris to tell his vision to the king, and lodged with Charlotte du Tillet, mistress of Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, duc d'Épernon. Unable to meet the king, Ravaillac interpreted Henry's decision to invade the Spanish Netherlands as the start of a war against the Pope. Determined to stop him, he decided to kill the king.

On 14 May 1610, Ravaillac lay in wait on Rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris (now south of the Forum des Halles); when the king passed, his carriage was halted by a blockage in the street, Ravaillac seized his opportunity, climbed into the coach and stabbed Henry to death. Pierre de l'Estoile, the chronicler, stated of the king:

"His coach, entering from St Honoré to Ferronnerie Street, was blocked on one side by a cart filled with wine and on the other by a cart filled with hay... Ravaillac climbed on the wheel of the above-named coach and with a knife trenchant on both sides stabbed him between the second and third ribs."

Hercule, Duke of Montbazon, riding with Henry, was wounded in the attack. Ravaillac was immediately seized by police and taken to the Hôtel de Retz to avoid a mob lynching. He was transferred to the Conciergerie.

Trial and execution
During interrogation, Ravaillac was frequently tortured to make him identify accomplices, but he denied that he had any and insisted that he had acted alone. His knowledge of the king's route and the blockage of traffic that put the king within reach excited speculation. The king was on his way to visit Maximilien de Béthune, who lay ill in the Arsenal; his purpose was to make final preparations for imminent military intervention in the War of the Jülich Succession after the death of Duke John William. Intervention on behalf of a Calvinist candidate would have brought France into conflict with the Catholic Habsburg dynasty. Ravaillac seems to have learned of the plans; in his tortured mind, "he had seen that the king wanted to make war on the Pope, in order to transfer the Holy See to Paris".

At the start of the interrogation, Ravaillac said;

"'I know very well he is dead; I saw the blood on my knife and the place where I hit him. But I have no regrets at all about dying, because I've done what I came to do.'"

On May 27 he was taken to the Place de Grève in Paris and was tortured one last time before being pulled apart by four horses, a method of execution reserved for regicides. Alistair Horne describes the torture Ravaillac suffered:

"'Before being drawn and quartered... he was scalded with burning sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin, his flesh then being torn by pincers.'"

Following his execution, Ravaillac's parents were forced into exile, and the rest of his family was ordered never to use the name "Ravaillac" again.

In January 1611, Jacqueline d'Escoman, who had known Ravaillac, denounced Jean Louis de Nogaret as the one responsible for the death of Henry IV; she was jailed for the rest of her life. Philippe Erlanger, in his book L'Étrange Mort de Henri IV (1957, rev. 1999), reveals Épernon's association with Ravaillac through his mistress. He concludes that Ravaillac, the King's mistress Henriette d'Entragues and Charlotte du Tillet planned the assassination. The contrary view, that Ravaillac had no accomplices but his confessors in the church, is expressed by Roland Mousnier in L'Assassinat d'Henri IV: 14 mai 1610 (Paris, 1964).

title: François Ravaillac


text:
Integrated services

In computer networking, integrated services or IntServ is an architecture that specifies the elements to guarantee quality of service (QoS) on networks. IntServ can for example be used to allow video and sound to reach the receiver without interruption.

IntServ specifies a fine-grained QoS system, which is often contrasted with DiffServ's coarse-grained control system.

Under IntServ, every router in the system implements IntServ, and every application that requires some kind of QoS guarantee has to make an individual reservation. Flow specs describe what the reservation is for, while RSVP is the underlying mechanism to signal it across the network.

Flow specs
There are two parts to a flow spec:

TSPECs include token bucket algorithm parameters. The idea is that there is a token bucket which slowly fills up with tokens, arriving at a constant rate. Every packet which is sent requires a token, and if there are no tokens, then it cannot be sent. Thus, the rate at which tokens arrive dictates the average rate of traffic flow, while the depth of the bucket dictates how 'bursty' the traffic is allowed to be.
 * What does the traffic look like? Done in the Traffic SPECification part, also known as TSPEC.
 * What guarantees does it need? Done in the service Request SPECification part, also known as RSPEC.

TSPECs typically just specify the token rate and the bucket depth. For example, a video with a refresh rate of 75 frames per second, with each frame taking 10 packets, might specify a token rate of 750 Hz, and a bucket depth of only 10. The bucket depth would be sufficient to accommodate the 'burst' associated with sending an entire frame all at once. On the other hand, a conversation would need a lower token rate, but a much higher bucket depth. This is because there are often pauses in conversations, so they can make do with less tokens by not sending the gaps between words and sentences. However, this means the bucket depth needs to be increased to compensate for the traffic being burstier.

RSPECs specify what requirements there are for the flow: it can be normal internet 'best effort', in which case no reservation is needed. This setting is likely to be used for webpages, FTP, and similar applications. The 'Controlled Load' setting mirrors the performance of a lightly loaded network: there may be occasional glitches when two people access the same resource by chance, but generally both delay and drop rate are fairly constant at the desired rate. This setting is likely to be used by soft QoS applications. The 'Guaranteed' setting gives an absolutely bounded service, where the delay is promised to never go above a desired amount, and packets never dropped, provided the traffic stays within spec.

RSVP
The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) is described in RFC 2205. All machines on the network capable of sending QoS data send a PATH message every 30 seconds, which spreads out through the networks. Those who want to listen to them send a corresponding RESV (short for "Reserve") message which then traces the path backwards to the sender. The RESV message contains the flow specs.

The routers between the sender and listener have to decide if they can support the reservation being requested, and, if they cannot, they send a reject message to let the listener know about it. Otherwise, once they accept the reservation they have to carry the traffic.

The routers then store the nature of the flow, and also police it. This is all done in soft state, so if nothing is heard for a certain length of time, then the reader will time out and the reservation will be cancelled. This solves the problem if either the sender or the receiver crash or are shut down incorrectly without first cancelling the reservation. The individual routers may, at their option, police the traffic to check that it conforms to the flow specs.

Problems
In order for IntServ to work, all routers along the traffic path must support it. Furthermore, many states must be stored in each router. As a result, IntServ works on a small-scale, but as the system scales up to larger networks or the Internet, it becomes resource intensive to track of all of the reservations.

One way to solve the scalability problem is by using a multi-level approach, where per-microflow resource reservation (such as resource reservation for individual users) is done in the edge network, while in the core network resources are reserved for aggregate flows only. The routers that lie between these different levels must adjust the amount of aggregate bandwidth reserved from the core network so that the reservation requests for individual flows from the edge network can be better satisfied.

title: Integrated services


text:
Act of Uniformity 1662

The Act of Uniformity 1662 (14 Cha. 2. c. 4) is an Act of the Parliament of England. (It was formerly cited as 13 & 14 Cha. 2. c. 4, by reference to the regnal year when it was passed on 19 May 1662.) It prescribed the form of public prayers, administration of sacraments, and other rites of the Established Church of England, according to the rites and ceremonies prescribed in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Adherence to this was required in order to hold any office in government or the church, although the new version of the Book of Common Prayer prescribed by the Act was so new that most people had never even seen a copy. The Act also required that the Book of Common Prayer "be truly and exactly Translated into the British or Welsh Tongue". It also explicitly required episcopal ordination for all ministers, i.e. deacons, priests and bishops, which had to be reintroduced since the Puritans had abolished many features of the Church during the Civil War. The act did not explicitly encompass the Isle of Man.

A few sections of this Act were still in force in the United Kingdom at the end of 2010.

Great Ejection
As an immediate result of this Act, over 2,000 clergymen refused to take the oath and were expelled from the Church of England in what became known as the Great Ejection of 1662. Although there had already been ministers outside the established church, this created the concept of non-conformity, with a substantial section of English society excluded from public affairs for a century and a half.

Clarendon Code
The Act of Uniformity itself is one of four crucial pieces of legislation, known as the Clarendon Code, named after Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Charles II's Lord Chancellor. They are:

 * The Corporation Act 1661 – This first of the four statutes which made up the Clarendon Code required all municipal officials to take Anglican communion, and formally reject the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The effect of this act was to exclude nonconformists from public office. This legislation was rescinded in 1828.
 * The Act of Uniformity 1662 – This second statute made use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory in religious service. Upwards of 2000 clergy refused to comply with this act, and were forced to resign their livings.
 * The Conventicle Act 1664 – This act forbade conventicles (a meeting for unauthorized worship) of more than 5 people who were not members of the same household. The purpose was to prevent dissenting religious groups from meeting.
 * The Five Mile Act 1665 – This final act of the Clarendon Code was aimed at Nonconformist ministers, who were forbidden from coming within five miles of incorporated towns or the place of their former livings. They were also forbidden to teach in schools. This act was not rescinded until 1812.

Combined with the Test Act, the Corporation Acts excluded all nonconformists from holding civil or military office, and prevented them from being awarded degrees by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

Quakers Act 1662
Another Act, the Quaker Act 1662, required subjects to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, which Quakers did not do out of religious conviction. It set out specific penalties for first (a fine of up to £5, or three months' imprisonment with hard labour), second (a fine of up to £10, or six months imprisonment with hard labour), and third (transportation) offence. It also allowed that should the defendant subsequently agree to swear oaths and not attend unlawful assemblies (as defined by the Act) then all penalties would be cancelled.

Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer introduced by Charles II was substantially the same as Elizabeth's version of 1559, itself based on Thomas Cranmer's earlier version of 1552. Apart from minor changes this remains the official and permanent legal version of prayer authorised by Parliament and Church.

Act of Toleration
The Toleration Act 1688 allowed certain dissenters places and freedom to worship, provided they accept to subscribe to an oath.

Modified in 1872
The provisions of the Act of Uniformity 1662 were modified and partly revoked by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act 1872. This has been repealed by the General Synod.

title: Act of Uniformity 1662


text:
Five Mile Act 1665

The Five Mile Act, or Oxford Act, or Nonconformists Act 1665, was an Act of the Parliament of England (17 Cha. 2. c. 2), passed in 1665 with the long title "An Act for restraining Non-Conformists from inhabiting in Corporations". It was one of the English penal laws that sought to enforce conformity to the established Church of England, and to expel any who did not conform. It forbade clergymen from living, visiting or preaching within five miles (8 km) of a parish from which they had been expelled, or to come within five miles of any city, town or borough that sends Members to Parliament unless they swore an oath never to resist the king, or attempt to alter the government of Church or State. The latter involved swearing to obey the 1662 prayer book. Thousands of ministers were deprived of a living under this act.

As an example, Theodosia Alleine and her husband Joseph Alleine were obliged to move to Taunton after her husband's conviction as a non-conformist. They moved, but they were still harassed and had to move and live with friends to escape their critics.

title: Five Mile Act 1665


text:
Talk:Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Add informations about Memorials
Please add informations about Memorials in Warsaw. What was new in 2023 on the memorialday? Save2asdfj (talk) 10:56, 25 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Source? Slatersteven (talk) 11:34, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

 * hi Slatersteven, there were Andrzej Duda, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Issac Herzog speaking:

 * Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: German president draws Putin-Nazi parallels - BBC 19 April 2023
 * 80 Jahre Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto'' (Text of the very first speech, of the german president at this place - Website bundespraesident.de, german)
 * --Save2asdfj (talk) 22:33, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 10 May 2023
The Jews believing that the transports in July 1942 are to labor camps is not true, in the diary of the Warsaw ghetto from Ziedman is written throughout the whole book that they knew exactly they were taken to their death's, except for illusionist, see https://archive.org/details/nybc207587/page/n59/mode/2up?view=theater&q=. The reason they didn't make an uprising is because the revold leaders believed they wood be saved from the deportation's due to there being in the work shops, see https://archive.org/details/nybc207587/page/n341/mode/2up?view=theater&q=. Please change the paragraph "When the deportations first began, members of the Jewish resistance movement met and decided not to fight the SS directives, believing that the Jews were being sent to labour camps and not to be murdered.[citation needed] But by the end of 1942, ghetto inhabitants learned that the deportations were part of an extermination process. Many of the remaining Jews decided to revolt." to "When the deportations first began, the Jewish resistance movement decided not to fight the SS directives, believing that they would be excluded from the deportations being signed up as workers in the shops and community members. In the beginning of 1943 the Nazis announced the liquidation of the ghetto saying they would be going to the area of Lublin to continue working. Not believing them and realizing they would be murdered anyway, many of the Jews decided to revolt." חוזה (talk) 03:14, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I am not sure we can make this change, as this is one source. But maybe remove the line as uncited. Slatersteven (talk) 12:17, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. M.Bitton (talk) 14:00, 10 May 2023 (UTC)
 * What exactly do I have to do, what's a "consensus"? חוזה (talk) 07:28, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

correct apparent typo "noarea" to "area"
In the section titled "Background", the first paragraph contains the noun phrase, "a densely packed, 3.3 km2 noarea of Warsaw".

I interpret the word "noarea" as a typographic error and propose to correct it to the word, "area". Antonkast (talk) 19:31, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 16 November 2023
The article states that Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum was the leader of the ŻZW, but the linked Wikipedia page claims that he is a hoax whose existence has been disproven. There are many grammatical errors on his page that gave me pause, but my search for reliable confirmation of his existence was unsuccessful. Perhaps someone who speaks Polish can check the many Polish sources linked on Apfelbaum's Wikipedia page. Hilaryous14 (talk) 03:45, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I removed the part about the fabricated character. M.Bitton (talk) 19:11, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 2 April 2024
Why is Hans Dehmke mentioned at all? He seems to have no relevance; mentioned only once in a parenthetical way. I suggest you remove the reference/text. 65.57.135.100 (talk) 22:43, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Please provide the exact text you want to be removed and then reactivate this edit request by changing the Answered parameter in the template from "answered=yes" to "answered=no" Shadow311 (talk) 20:47, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Warsaw Ghetto Uprising