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1950 in India

Events in the year 1950 in the Republic of India.

India got its independence from Britain in 1947, but still had a King. George VI, the King of United Kingdom was the King of India as well. Some provisions of the Indian Constitution had come into force on November 26, 1949. January 26, 1950 had been chosen as the day for full implementation of the Constitution making India a Republic and officially ending its ties to British monarchy.

Dr Rajendra Prasad was sworn in as the first President of the country on January 26, 1950.

Just a day before the birth of the Republic of India, the Election Commission of India was born.

Main body to devise and revise plans for the progress of India was envisaged, The Planning Commission.

Liaquat-Nehru Pact or Delhi Pact was signed between India and Pakistan in April. Refugees were allowed to return to their native country unmolested to dispose of their property in either country.

India and Nepal officially became friends. Though, India and Nepal has been ancient civilizations and have always had deep cultural relations, they did not have a bilateral treaty to guide their relations in the modern world. The 1950-India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship was signed. The new treaty allowed free movement of people and goods between the two countries.

Andaman and Nicobar Island's was handed over to India by England and Burma (Myanmar).

After 1947, the year of India's Independence, 1950 was indeed the next most momentous year.

Incumbents

 * King of India – George VI (until 26 Jan.)
 * Governor-General of India – C. Rajagopalachari (until 26 Jan.)
 * President of India – Rajendra Prasad took office on 26 January.
 * Prime Minister of India – Jawaharlal Nehru
 * Chief Justice of India – Sir H. J. Kania (from 26 Jan.)

Governors

 * Assam: Sri Prakasa (until 27 May), Jairamdas Daulatram (starting 27 May)
 * Bihar: Madhav Shrihari Aney
 * Bombay State: Raja Maharaj Singh
 * Odisha: Asaf Ali
 * Punjab: Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi
 * Rajasthan: Man Singh II
 * Madras state: Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji
 * Uttar Pradesh: Homi Mody
 * West Bengal: Kailash Nath Katju

Events

 * National income - ₹102,216 million
 * 25 January – Election Commission is established.
 * 26 January – The Constitution comes into force making India a republic, the day is observed as Republic Day ever since and declares Kashmir and Jammu into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, thus Kashmir becomes autonomous within the federation. India becomes the first republic in the Commonwealth of Nations.
 * 26 January – Dr. Rajendra Prasad moves into Rashtrapati Bhavan as the first President of India.
 * 8 April – Liaquat–Nehru Pact signed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in New Delhi
 * 15 August – The 8.6 Assam–Tibet earthquake shakes the region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 1,500–3,300 people.
 * 3 November - Air India Flight 245 crashed near Mont Blanc, France.
 * 13 December - A Douglas DC-3 Dakota flight of Air India having a scheduled flight between Madras and Trivandrum International Airport crashed near Kotagiri on its descent to Coimbatore International Airport killing 20 people. The wreckage was discovered only after three days. The son of Travancore–Cochin Chief minister, C. Kesavan was also killed in the accident.
 * Andaman and Nicobar Islands handed over to India by the United Kingdom and Burma

Law

 * 28 January – the Supreme Court of India is established, replacing both the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Federal Court of India at the top of India's court system.
 * 5 June – Bihar High Court struck down Bihar Management of Estates and Tenures Act, 1949 as unconstitutional.
 * 31 July – Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed

January to June

 * 1 January – Deepa Mehta, Indian-Canadian director and screenwriter
 * 5 January – Jagathy Sreekumar, comedian-actor.
 * 9 January – Y. Gee. Mahendra, dramatist, actor, singer playwright and comedian.
 * 14 January – Rambhadracharya, Hindu religious leader.
 * 9 February – Kilimanoor Chandran, author, poet and columnist.
 * 11 April – Leo Rebello, holistic health guru, author, human rights activist, world peace envoy.
 * 20 April – N. Chandrababu Naidu, politician
 * 21 April – Shivaji Satam, Indian actor
 * 4 May – Konakalla Narayana Rao, politician and member of parliament from Machilipatnam.
 * 13 May – J. M. Aaron Rashid, politician.
 * 4 June – S. P. Y. Reddy, politician and member of parliament from Nandyal. (died 2019).
 * 20 June – Madhusudhan Rao, film actor.
 * 22 June – Tom Alter, film actor. (died 2017).

July to December

 * 1 July – Ekram Ali, poet and critic.
 * 19 August – Sudha Murty, social worker and author
 * 11 September – Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
 * 17 September – Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
 * 18 September
 * Shabana Azmi, actress and social activist
 * Vishnuvardhan, Kannada actor (died 2009)
 * 24 September – Mohinder Amarnath, cricketer.
 * 26 November – Abhijit Sen, economist (died 2022)
 * 1 December – Manju Bansal, molecular biologist
 * 12 December – Rajinikanth, film actor
 * 20 December – Abul Kalam Qasmi, Urdu poet and critic (died 2021)
 * 30 December – Idris Ali, politician (died 2024)

Deaths

 * 14 April – Ramana Maharshi, Ancient Sage of the Modern Era (born 1879).
 * 24 June – Darwan Singh Negi, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1914 (born 1881).
 * 5 December – Sri Aurobindo, nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru (born 1872).
 * 15 December – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, political and social leader (born 1875).

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

title: 1950 in India


text:
Sol Hoʻopiʻi

Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai (1902 – November 16, 1953) was a Native Hawaiian lap steel guitarist. A virtuoso, he was one of the most famous original Hawaiian steel guitarists, along with Joseph Kekuku, Frank Ferera, Sam Ku West and "King" Bennie Nawahi.

Early life
He was born Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1902 into a large family – his birth making him the 21st child in the family.

Sol's family taught him to sing and play instruments by the time he could walk. He was playing the ukulele by age three. By his teenage years the Hawaiian steel guitar had become his instrument of choice.

He made his debut with Johnny Noble and his Orchestra. According to the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, at age 17 Sol and two teenage friends stowed away on the ocean liner Matsonia. They were discovered by passengers who were so charmed by their musical performances that the other passengers took up a collection to pay their fares. They landed in San Francisco, played a few club engagements, and eventually made their way to Los Angeles at the behest of Hoot Gibson to play in his country music band. Sol's friends returned to Hawaii, and Sol formed a trio with new associates.

Sol Hoʻopiʻi Trio
By 1924, Hoʻopiʻi had moved to Los Angeles, where he formed the Sol Hoʻopiʻi Trio, with Glenwood Leslie and Lani McIntyre, including sometimes additional musicians, and he successfully performed in the local and then very popular Polynesian-themed night venues. His first recordings in 1925–28 featured often jazzy improvisation.

He recorded his best known material 1933 to 1938, as Sol Hoopii's Novelty Trio, Novelty Quartette and Novelty Five on Decca Records and Brunswick Records labels, like the famous Hula Girl, Ten Tiny Toes, and many more brilliant Hawaiian hula and hapa-haole songs penned by the best Hawaiian composers like Johnny Noble and Sol Bright.

Originally favouring the acoustic lap steel guitar, he switched to electric lap steel only around 1935 and developed an original tuning, in addition to the open A or open G tunings commonly in use at the time.

He very often applied bluesy and jazzy treatments to the Tin Pan Alley standards, as well as to Hawaiian classics. His peculiar rhythmic, harmonic and melodic techniques influenced not only Hawaiian-styled musicians but also famed country and western swing steel guitarists, like Joaquin Murphy and Jerry Byrd.

Christian ministry
In 1938, Hoʻopiʻi gave up his secular career to join the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, writing and performing songs for her tours. A rare video exists of Hoʻopiʻi playing traditional hymns on his lap steel guitar, accompanied by Christian composer Phillip Stanley Kerr on the piano.

Kerr mis-pronounces Sol's name as "hope-y". (Prior to, and for years after Hawaii's statehood, many Americans mis-pronounced the state's name as How-Wah-Yah, leading to show biz jokes about the 50th state of "How Are Ya?" )

Titled Musical Moments with Sol Hoʻopiʻi and His Hawaiian Guitar, part of The Scriptures Visualized series, this was produced in 1942 by C.O. Baptista Films of Chicago. Part 2 of the video begins with Phil Kerr and Sol Hoʻopiʻi testifying about Hoʻopiʻi's Christian conversion, and contains a rare moment of Hoʻopiʻi doing a falsetto rendition of Kerr's composition I'm in Love with the Lover of my Soul.

Steel guitar history
Some historians credit Joseph Kekuku with inventing the Hawaiian steel guitar about 1889 from an acoustic Spanish guitar. This was long before Hoʻopiʻi's time. As far as the electrified lap steel, Philip Kerr mentions in the 1942 Baptista video that Hoʻopiʻi "was the originator of this electric guitar that he's playing." Hoʻopiʻi himself does not make that claim on camera and Kerr may have been saying that Hoʻopiʻi designed or made that particular guitar in his possession. However, the claim comes up again in 1950, in a Florida Newspaper announcing, "Sol Hoopii, king of the Hawaiian guitar and originator of the electric guitar..." as part of the entertainment line-up for a church anniversary. The electric lap steel guitar, in fact, was not invented by Hoʻopiʻi, but he was acquainted with its inventor, George Beauchamp, in Los Angeles. Beauchamp was a steel player who collaborated with violin repairman John Dopyera to attempt to build a steel guitar that was louder. Dopyera and Beauchamp developed a non-electric guitar prototype with a metal resonator, a large metal cone placed under the guitar bridge. They sought investors for a new company to manufacture and sell the resonator guitar. To promote their invention, they organized a lavish party hosted by millionaire Ted Kleinmeyer and asked Sol Hoʻopiʻi to demonstrate the instrument. Years later, after splitting with Dopyera, Beauchamp independently invented the first electric guitar (a lap steel), and received the patent on August 10, 1937.

Final days and death
For the last few years of his life Hoʻopiʻi was blind, but he continued to play, compose, and teach. Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai died November 16, 1953. His place of death has been listed alternately as Los Angeles, California, or Seattle, Washington.

Bud Tutmarc, a Christian Hawaiian steel guitar player based in Seattle, was a close personal friend of Sol's and stated that Sol died in Seattle. On May 27, 1953, only 6 months before Sol's death, the two friends recorded a live Seattle performance of Indiana March (Sol on steel guitar); a three-in-one gospel medley (Sol and Bud steel guitar duet) – Mansion Over the Hilltop, It Is No Secret and Aloha Oe; a medley of At Calvary and Power In The Blood (Sol solo ukulele instrumental); and I'll Go With Him (ukulele and Sol vocals).

Tutmarc died December 4, 2006, and his web site photo page has a snapshot of Sol and Bud having what looks like a one-on-one jam session. (photo #6 of the "Middle Years" gallery)

Steel guitarist George de Fretes, who died in 1981, considered Hoʻopiʻi to be his idol, and is buried next to him.

In popular culture
The Sol Hoʻopiʻi Trio appears as a house band wearing "...pink shirts and matching trousers, with red cummerbunds and leis..." in the 1998 novel Damned in Paradise.

Sol Hoʻopiʻi's guitar and memorabilia make an appearance in the 2004 novel The Celestial Jukebox.

Garrison Keillor does a brief tip of the hat to "Sol Hoʻopiʻi and his Royal Hawaiians" in his 2004 novel Love Me.

Author Simon Leng likens George Harrison's slide guitar work with the Traveling Wilburys to "a 1990s Sol Hoʻopiʻi" in his 2006 book on the works of the British legend.

Awards
In 1996, Hoʻopiʻi became an honoree in the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame inducted Hoʻopiʻi in 1979.

In 2012 Hoʻopiʻi's recording of the Gershwin standard "Fascinating Rhythm" was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

Soundtracks
Hoʻopiʻi performed in a number of Hollywood "jazz" movies like His Jazz Bride, and later he was involved in the exotic movies craze, appearing notably in Bird of Paradise, Waikiki Wedding, and even some Charlie Chan mystery movies. He also performed in the soundtrack for the Betty Boop cartoon Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle.

Brunswick Sessions 1933–34

 * Hula Girls – Brunswick 6768
 * King Kamehameha – Brunswick 6873
 * Ten Tiny Toes, One Baby Nose – Brunswick 6687
 * King's Serenade – Brunswick 6950

Decca Sessions 1938

 * Twilight Blues – Decca 2560
 * Stack O' Lee – Decca 2241
 * Fascinatin' Rhythm – Decca 2280
 * Farewell Blues – Decca 2241

Compilation CD

 * Sol Hoʻopiʻi in Hollywood Grass Skirt

Filmography

 * Radio Kisses (1930)
 * Divorced Sweethearts (1930)
 * Flirtation Walk (1934)
 * High Tension (1936)
 * Hawaiian Nights (1939)

title: Sol Hoʻopiʻi


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NYNEX

NYNEX Corporation was an American telephone company that served five states of New England (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as most of the state of New York from January 1, 1984 to August 14, 1997.

History
Formed on January 1, 1984 as the result of the breakup of the Bell System, NYNEX was a Regional Bell Operating Company which was made up of former subsidiaries of AT&T, these being New York Telephone and New England Telephone. The name NYNEX was an acronym for New York and New England while X represented "the future".

Bell Atlantic
NYNEX merged with Bell Atlantic on August 14, 1997, in what was at the time the second-largest merger in corporate history in America. Although the surviving company was Bell Atlantic, the merged company moved from the headquarters of Bell Atlantic in Philadelphia to the headquarters of NYNEX in New York City.

Bell Atlantic acquired GTE on June 30, 2000 to form Verizon Communications, the merger being first announced in April 2000. NYNEX also operated cable television and telephone services in the United Kingdom with offices in Waterlooville (Hampshire), Baguley (Manchester), Shoreham-by-Sea (West Sussex), Leatherhead (Surrey) and Antrim (Northern Ireland).

Virgin Media
In 1996, NYNEX's UK assets were merged with the subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, Mercury Communications, as well as cable operators Vidéotron and Bell Cablemedia, and the new business was subsequently renamed Cable & Wireless Communications.

Cable & Wireless’ cable assets were sold to NTL in July 1999. The acquisition was completed in May 2000. NTL then merged with Telewest in March 2006 to form NTL:Telewest, and was later rebranded on February 8, 2007 as Virgin Media.

Criticism
The State of New York impounded $4.1 million of regulated fees collected by NYNEX in August 1996 for failing to meet specific service metrics that had been set by the public utility commission in its order setting service rates.

In 1995, the state of New York proposed a new turnaround plan intended to help NYNEX improve its customer service. However, there were concerns that it would not work and that the rate reductions proposed by the plan would be too inconsistent.

title: NYNEX


text:
Power loom

A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed and patented in 1785 by Edmund Cartwright. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by the Howard and Bullough company made the operation completely automatic. This device was designed in 1834 by James Bullough and William Kenworthy, and was named the Lancashire loom.

By the year 1850, there were a total of around 260,000 power loom operations in England. Two years later came the Northrop loom which replenished the shuttle when it was empty. This replaced the Lancashire loom.

Shuttle looms

The main components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses, shuttle, reed, and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations.

With each weaving operation, the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a filling stop motion which will brake the loom, if the weft thread breaks.
 * Shedding. Shedding is the raising of the warp yarns to form a loop through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted. The shed is the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.
 * Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn is inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.
 * Battening. As the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, it also passes through openings in another frame called a reed (which resembles a comb). With each picking operation, the reed presses or battens each filling yarn against the portion of the fabric that has already been formed. The point where the fabric is formed is called the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 200 picks per minute

Operation
Operation of weaving in a textile mill is undertaken by a specially trained operator known as a weaver. Weavers are expected to uphold high industry standards and are tasked with monitoring anywhere from ten to as many as thirty separate looms at any one time. During their operating shift, weavers will first utilize a wax pencil or crayon to sign their initials onto the cloth to mark a shift change, and then walk along the cloth side (front) of the looms they tend, gently touching the fabric as it comes from the reed. This is done to feel for any broken "picks" or filler thread. Should broken picks be detected, the weaver will disable the machine and undertake to correct the error, typically by replacing the bobbin of filler thread in as little time as possible. They are trained that, ideally, no machine should stop working for more than one minute, with faster turnaround times being preferred.

Operation of this needs more than 2 people because of the way it works.

History
The first ideas for an automatic loom were developed in 1784 by M. de Gennes in Paris and by Vaucanson in 1745, but these designs were never developed and were forgotten. In 1785 Edmund Cartwright patented a power loom which used water power to speed up the weaving process, the predecessor to the modern power loom. His ideas were licensed first by Grimshaw of Manchester who built a small steam-powered weaving factory in Manchester in 1790, but the factory burnt down. Cartwright's was not a commercially successful machine; his looms had to be stopped to dress the warp. Over the next decades, Cartwright's ideas were modified into a reliable automatic loom. These designs followed John Kay's invention of the flying shuttle, and they passed the shuttle through the shed using levers. With the increased speed of weaving, weavers were able to use more thread than spinners could produce.

Series of initial inventors
A series of inventors incrementally improved all aspects of the three principal processes and the ancillary processes.
 * Grimshaw of Manchester (1790): dressing the warp
 * Austin (1789, 1790): dressing the warp, 200 looms produced for Monteith of Pollockshaws 1800
 * Thomas Johnson of Bredbury (1803): dressing frame, factory for 200 steam looms on Manchester in 1806, and two factories at Stockport in 1809. One at Westhoughton, Lancashire (1809).
 * William Radcliffe of Stockport (1802): improved take up mechanism
 * John Todd of Burnley (1803): a heald roller and new shedding arrangements, the healds were corded to treadles actuated by cams on the second shaft.
 * William Horrocks of Stockport (1803): The frame was still wooden but the lathe was pendant from the frame and operated by cams on the first shaft, the shedding was operated by cams on the second shaft, the take up motion was copied from Radcliffe.
 * Peter Marsland (1806): improvements to the lathe motion to counteract poor picking
 * William Cotton (1810): improvements to the letting off motion
 * William Horrocks (1813): Horrocks loom, modifications to the lathe motion, improving on Marsland
 * Peter Ewart (1813): a use of pneumatics
 * Joseph and Peter Taylor (1815): double beat foot lathe for heavy cloths
 * Paul Moody (1815): produces the first power loom in North America. Exporting a UK loom would have been illegal.
 * John Capron and Sons (1820): installed the first power looms for woolens in North America at Uxbridge, Massachusetts.
 * William Horrocks (1821): a system to wet the warp and weft during use, improving the effectiveness of the sizing
 * Richard Roberts (1830): Roberts Loom, These improvements were a geared take up wheel and tappets to operate multiple heddles
 * Stanford, Pritchard and Wilkinson: patented a method to stop on the break of weft or warp. It was not used.
 * William Dickinson of Blackburn: Blackburn Loom, the modern overpick

Further useful improvements
There now appear a series of useful improvements that are contained in patents for useless devices At this point the loom has become automatic except for refilling weft pirns. The Cartwight loom weaver could work one loom at 120-130 picks per minute- with a Kenworthy and Bullough's Lancashire Loom, a weaver can run four or more looms working at 220-260 picks per minute- thus giving eight (or more) times more throughput.
 * Horny, Kenworthy and Bullough of Blackburn (1834): the vibrating or fly reed
 * John Ramsbottom and Richard Holt of Todmorden (1834): a new automatic weft stopping motion
 * James Bullough of Blackburn (1835): improved automatic weft stopping motion and taking up and letting off arrangements
 * Andrew Parkinson (1836): improved stretcher (temple).
 * William Kenworthy and James Bullough (1841): trough and roller temple (became the standard), A simple stop-motion.
 * James Henry Northrop (1894) invented a self-threading shuttle and shuttle spring jaws to hold a bobbin by means of rings on the butt. This paved the way to his automatic filling and changing battery of 1891, the basic feature of the Northrop Loom. The principal advantage of the Northrop loom was that it was fully automatic; when a warp thread broke, the loom stopped until it was fixed. When the shuttle ran out of thread, Northrop's mechanism ejected the depleted pirn and loaded a new full one without stopping. A loom operative could work 16 or more looms whereas previously they could only operate eight. Thus, the labor cost was halved. Mill owners had to decide whether the labor saving was worth the capital investment in a new loom. In all 700,000 looms were sold. By 1914, Northrop looms made up 40% of American looms. Northrop was responsible for several hundred weaving related patents.

Looms and the Manchester context
The development of the power loom in and around Manchester was not a coincidence. Manchester had been a centre for Fustians by 1620 and acted as a hub for other Lancashire towns, so developing a communication network with them. It was an established point of export using the meandering River Mersey, and by 1800 it had a thriving canal network, with links to the Ashton Canal, Rochdale Canal the Peak Forest Canal and Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal. The fustian trade gave the towns a skilled workforce that was used to the complicated Dutch looms, and was perhaps accustomed to industrial discipline. While Manchester became a spinning town, the towns around were weaving towns producing cloth by the putting out system. The business was dominated by a few families, who had the capital needed to invest in new mills and to buy hundreds of looms. Mills were built along the new canals, so immediately had access to their markets. Spinning developed first and, until 1830, the handloom was still more important economically than the power loom when the roles reversed. Because of the economic growth of Manchester, a new industry of precision machine tool engineering was born and here were the skills needed to build the precision mechanisms of a loom.

Adoption

 * {| class=wikitable

 * +Number of Looms in UK
 * Year||1803||1820||1829||1833||1857
 * Looms||2,400||14,650||55,500||100,000||250,000
 * }
 * }

Draper' strategy was to standardize on a couple of Northrop Loom models which it mass-produced. The lighter E-model of 1909 was joined in the 1930 by the heavier X-model. Continuous fibre machines, say for rayon, which was more break-prone, needed a specialist loom. This was provided by the purchase of the Stafford Loom Co. in 1932, and using their patents a third loom the XD, was added to the range. Because of their mass production techniques they were reluctant and slow to retool for new technologies such as shuttleless looms.

Decline and reinvention
Originally, power looms used a shuttle to throw the weft across, but in 1927 the faster and more efficient shuttleless loom came into use. Sulzer Brothers, a Swiss company had the exclusive rights to shuttleless looms in 1942, and licensed the American production to Warner & Swasey. Draper licensed the slower rapier loom. Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximise production for specific types of material. The most common of these are Sulzer shuttleless weaving machines, rapier looms, air-jet looms and water-jet looms.

Social and economic implications
Power looms reduced demand for skilled handweavers, initially causing reduced wages and unemployment. Protests followed their introduction. For example, in 1816 two thousand rioting Calton weavers tried to destroy power loom mills and stoned the workers. In the longer term, by making cloth more affordable the power loom increased demand and stimulated exports, causing a growth in industrial employment, albeit low-paid. The power loom also opened up opportunities for women mill workers. A darker side of the power loom's impact was the growth of employment of children in power loom mills.

Dangers
There are a number of inherent dangers in the machines, to which inattentive or poorly trained weavers can fall victim. The most obvious is the moving reed, the frames which hold the heddles and the "pinch" or "sand" roll utilized to keep the cloth tight as it passes over the front of the machine and onto the doff roll. The most common injury in weaving is pinched fingers from distracted or bored workers, though this is not the only such injury found. There are numerous accounts of weavers with long hair getting it tangled in the warp itself and having their scalp pulled away from the skull, or large chunks of hair pulled off. As a result of this, it has become industry standard for companies to require weavers to either keep hair up and tied, or to keep their hair short so as not to allow it to become tangled. Also, due to possible pinch points on the front of machines, loose, baggy clothing is prohibited. In addition, there is a risk of the shuttle flying out of the loom at a high-speed (200+ mph/322 kmh) and striking a worker if the moving reed encounters a thread/yarn or other mechanical jam/error. One complication for weavers, in the terms of safety, is the loud nature in which weave mills operate (115dB+). Because of this, it is nearly impossible to hear a person calling for help when entangled. This has led OSHA to outline specific guidelines for companies to mitigate the chances of such accidents occurring. However, even with such guidelines in place, injuries in textile production due to the machines themselves, are still commonplace.

title: Power loom


text:
The Heartbreakers

The Heartbreakers, sometimes referred to as Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, were an American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1975. The band spearheaded the first wave of punk rock.

History
Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) gained fame in the pioneering proto-punk band the New York Dolls. By early 1975, the Dolls were disintegrating amid poor record sales and tensions within the band, and Thunders and Nolan quit during a tour of Florida in March 1975. Coincidentally, that same week Richard Hell (vocals/bass) left Television. After returning to New York, Thunders and Nolan invited Hell to join their new band, and Hell agreed. As Hell said, "I was fed up with Television because it was getting so pretentious...so I thought, this is perfect – we'll make a really good rock & roll band that's dealing with interesting subjects." The three dubbed their new band the Heartbreakers. Their first gig was on May 30 of that year, at the Coventry, a rock club in Queens. (Tom Petty's band was also named the Heartbreakers, but they did not begin gigging until 1976.) The trio auditioned several candidates for a second guitarist, and soon added Walter Lure to the lineup. Lure, who had previously played with a glam-punk band called the Demons, played his first show with the Heartbreakers on July 4, 1975, at CBGB.

The band quickly became one of the most popular and well-known underground bands in New York City, headlining shows at CBGB, Mother's (located across from the Chelsea Hotel), and Max's Kansas City. In the band's early days, each member took turns on vocals, with Hell bringing in songs (such as "Blank Generation") originally written for Television, and Thunders contributing new material as well. Lure began singing lead on some songs and co-writing with Nolan. The combination of the style-conscious Nolan and Thunders with the beatnik Hell and gangly Lure made for a visually arresting and musically powerful group. As Blondie's Clem Burke said, "You could call them the punk rock Beatles. Each person really stood out." Although popular, the early lineup could not get a recording contract, in no small part due to the band's well-known heroin use – as vividly described in their best-known song, "Chinese Rocks" (which was actually written by Dee Dee Ramone with contributions from Hell). Live recordings of the Thunders/Hell/Nolan/Lure lineup were eventually released on the LP Live at Mother's, and studio demos were released in 2019.

Although initially the band members shared songwriting and singing, Hell increasingly attempted to impose his will on the band. At a rehearsal in early 1976, Hell laid down an ultimatum – he would sing most of the songs in the set, with Thunders relegated to one or two songs per set. Thunders walked out, and Nolan and Lure followed; with all three united against him, Hell wound up leaving the band. His final show was on May 14, 1976, at the Rathskeller in Boston. After auditioning several bass players, the band settled on Boston transplant Billy Rath. Hell went on to form his own band, Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

Replacing Hell with Rath solidified the Heartbreakers sound, firmly rooted in 1950's rock and rhythm 'n' blues, but with the energy, volume, and attitude of punk. Rath was a better bassist than Hell, meshing with Nolan to form a formidable rhythm section, and was also content with playing a supporting role in the band without seeking the spotlight. Now managed by Leee Black Childers, the band also consciously emphasized their New York street-tough image, abandoning the glam rock look Thunders and Nolan had flaunted in the New York Dolls in favor of short hair and '50's style suits. The first gigs with the new lineup took place on July 23 and 24, 1976 at Max's Kansas City and earned rave reviews. The band continued to gig regularly in New York City throughout the summer and fall, and played several shows in Boston in September. Despite Childers' efforts and a reputation as a must-see live act, no recording contract was forthcoming, a situation that became increasingly frustrating. Lure wrote that "the kind of deals being offered were laughable, sleazy 50-50 splits that the bands could never, ever hope to profit from." Although the band regularly drew packed crowds at Max's and other venues, by this point Thunders, Nolan, and Lure were heroin addicts (Rath preferred methamphetamine), so money was tight.

The band got what seemed like a break when the Sex Pistols invited the band to open for them on the ill-fated Anarchy Tour (the Sex Pistols at this time were managed by Malcolm McLaren, who had previously managed The New York Dolls). Arriving for the tour just as the UK punk scene was building momentum, the Heartbreakers quickly developed a following in and around London despite most of the shows on the tour being canceled. As Childers said, "The Heartbreakers blew everyone away, for no more reason than they were just more experienced – they had their roots in rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll...no matter how anarchic an audience thinks it is, if the bass player can actually play, and the drummer is Jerry Nolan, suddenly they're going 'this is GREAT'!" At Childers' behest, the band stayed in London after the conclusion of the tour in order to play more gigs and earn a recording contract. Sold-out gigs at London clubs Dingwalls and the Roxy established the band as one of the top groups in the nascent punk scene, and eventually they signed a contract with Track Records in the spring of 1977, earning a substantial advance and beginning work on their debut album.

By this point, the band members' addictions were out of control, despite being enrolled in the British methadone program. Nolan later acknowledged that "everything we did revolved around drugs." Recording sessions for the new album were derailed by drug use – on the part of band members as well as producer Speedy Keen – leading to innumerable attempts at recording and mixing at different studios. The first release from the sessions was the single "Chinese Rocks" b/w "Born To Lose", released in May 1977, which sold well despite being criticized for its poor sound. Nolan admitted "I think it's okay, but not great," and Lure added "The record wasn't really up to par production wise." Band members continued to attempt to remix the album at various studios in London throughout the summer of 1977, but the problems persisted. In the studio, the band could not seem to capture the power of their live shows – the recordings sounded muddy and lifeless, especially Nolan's drums.

As a live act, at this point the Heartbreakers were second to none – a summer tour of the UK was very successful, with a New Musical Express review describing one gig as "the nearest thing I ever saw to Beatlemania." In August, the band returned to New York City to play three nights at the Village Gate, their first shows in their hometown in nearly a year. Recalled Lure, "It was probably the best shows we ever played in New York, only because we were so tight from touring for six months." These now-legendary shows – which one observer called some of the best rock shows ever – were eventually released as a live album in 2015.

After the Village Gate shows, the band returned to England to attempt to finalize the album, entitled L.A.M.F. (New York gang slang for "like a motherfucker".) Nolan was most vocal about his dissatisfaction with the recordings, and attempted to remix the album himself – but with no better results. Track Records pressured the band to release the album by October 1977 in order to get it in stores for the holiday season; Nolan threatened to quit if the album was released as is, and when the other three members agreed to Track's demands, Nolan followed through and left the band. Upon its release, the album received excellent reviews, but still drew criticism for its poor sound – especially compared to the Clash and the Sex Pistols albums released the same year. Much of the blame went to Keen, who was not a trained recording engineer, but problems with the mastering process likely affected the record as well. L.A.M.F. would ultimately be remixed and rereleased multiple times to try to extract the band's raw power from the master tapes. As Childers said, the album's failure to capture the Heartbreakers' live sound was "the biggest, hugest fuck-up in the history of rock 'n' roll."

With Nolan out of the band, Thunders, Lure, and Rath recruited the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook to play drums on a fall tour of the UK, but soon asked Nolan to rejoin as a hired musician. Nolan finished the tour, but then left again to start a new band, the Idols. The Heartbreakers did a short European tour in November and December with Terry Chimes on drums, after which Lure and Rath returned to New York to attempt to recruit a permanent replacement on drums. The band again found themselves without a recording contract when Track Records went bankrupt – fortunately, due to a provision Childers had inserted in their contract, they were able to recover the master tapes for L.A.M.F. as well as other live recordings. But without a new recording contract, Thunders decided to attempt a solo career, and the band ultimately broke up in early 1978.

Thunders remained in London, playing shows with various musicians, and recording his solo debut So Alone (which featured Lure and Rath on a few tracks.) That summer, the three found themselves in New York and decided to play some "farewell" shows – as Lure acknowledged, "we were all strung out, we were all in town, and we all needed money." Minus Nolan, the band booked a series of shows at Max's Kansas City with drummer Ty Styx sitting in. Realizing that the band would not last much longer, Max's booker Peter Crowley arranged for the shows on September 16, 1978, to be recorded for a live album, The eventual release, Live at Max's Kansas City '79, would become an immediate classic, capturing the band's live energy as L.A.M.F. had conspicuously failed to do.

Nolan eventually rejoined the band in March 1979, and the reunited quartet continued to play regularly in New York throughout 1979 and 1980. But there was no attempt to write new songs or record new material – the gigs were purely "rent parties" to help the members stay afloat financially (and pay for their addictions.) In 1984, the band was able to rerelease a remixed version of L.A.M.F., and did a reunion tour of Europe in 1984 that led to a live video and album recorded at The Lyceum Ballroom London on March 25, 1984. Billy Rath left the band and the music business after the reunion tour, and was replaced by Tony Coiro. Thunders and Nolan continued their careers solo and (in Nolan's case) with other bands; they toured together in 1986 and 1987. Lure formed his own band, the Waldos, as well as occasionally playing with Thunders at New York gigs.

The Heartbreakers' final show was on November 30, 1990, at the Marquee in New York City, with Coiro on bass. Although both Thunders and Nolan were in deteriorating health by this point, the show went well.

Post-Heartbreakers
Johnny Thunders died in April 1991. His body was found in a hotel room in New Orleans. While Thunders' death may have been drug-related, there is some controversy surrounding the facts of his death as the level of methadone in Thunders' body may not have constituted a fatal dose. Thunders also suffered from various health problems, with his autopsy showing evidence of advanced leukemia. In June 1991, a memorial concert was held for Thunders' family, at which Lure, Jerry Nolan, Coiro, and Joey Pinter played a set of Heartbreakers songs.

Jerry Nolan died in 1992 following a stroke he suffered in hospital, while being treated for meningitis and pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with HIV several years prior to his death.

Walter Lure had an unconventional post-Heartbreakers career, working as a stock broker on Wall Street. He remained active in the music world with his Heartbreakers-style band the Waldos, who played regularly in New York City; Lure would also do an international tour once or twice a year. Lure was diagnosed in July 2020 with liver and lung cancer, which spread rapidly, and he died from complications related to the cancer on August 21, 2020, at the age of 71.

Billy Rath disappeared from the music scene after leaving the Heartbreakers in the mid-1980s, and he undertook a period of rehabilitation to recover from the effects of sustained abuse of drugs and alcohol. Rath then went on to study for a degree in psychology and a postgraduate qualification in theology, working as a substance use disorder counselor. After being persuaded to attend the Max's Kansas City reunion gig in September 2010, Rath reentered the music world and briefly fronted a new band, the Street Pirates. He died on August 16, 2014, aged 66.

L.A.M.F. is now considered one of the most influential albums of the first wave of punk. The album has been remixed multiple times; a 4-CD "Definitive Edition" was released in 2012, which included two remixes of the original LP along with demos and rare tracks. Multiple live recordings have been released as well, from both the early lineup with Hell and the L.A.M.F. lineup.

Band members

 * Johnny Thunders – vocals, guitar (1975–1990; died 1991)
 * John Felice – guitar, vocals (Memorial Day weekend 1975)
 * Walter Lure – guitar, vocals (1975–1990; died 2020)
 * Jerry Nolan – drums, backing vocals (1975–1977, 1979–1990; died 1992)
 * Richard Hell – bass, vocals (1975–1976)
 * Billy Rath – bass (1976–1980, 1984; died 2014)
 * Terry Chimes – drums (1977)
 * Ty Styx – drums (1978)
 * Tony Machine – drums (1978–1979)
 * Tony Coiro – bass (1980–1990; died 1995)

Discography

 * Studio album
 * L.A.M.F. (1977)

 * Demos album
 * Yonkers Demo 1976 (2019)

 * Live albums
 * Live at Max's Kansas City (1979)
 * D.T.K. Live at the Speakeasy (1982)
 * Live at the Lyceum Ballroom 1984 (1985)
 * Live at Mothers (1991)
 * What Goes Around (1991)
 * Vive La Révolution (Live In Paris – Le Bataclan – December 8, 1977) (1992)
 * Thunderstorm in Detroit (Live at the Silverbird 21/12/80) (2002)
 * Down to Kill (2005)

title: The Heartbreakers


text:
Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright (24 April 1743 – 30 October 1823) was an English inventor. He graduated from Oxford University and went on to invent the power loom. Married to local Elizabeth McMac at 19, he was the brother of Major John Cartwright, a political reformer and radical, and George Cartwright, explorer of Labrador.

Life
He was the fourth son of William Cartwright and his wife Anne née Cartwright, born at Marnham, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. He matriculated in 1760 at University College, Oxford, where he had studied under-age from 1757. He graduated B.A. in 1764, M.A. in 1766, elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1764. He was awarded the degree of DD in 1806.

Ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1765, and priest in 1767, Cartwright was appointed rector of Kilvington in 1767. With other livings, in 1779 he became also rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire, and in 1783, he was elected a prebendary at Lincoln Cathedral.

For a time Cartwright served as chaplain to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and acted as tutor to the Duke's son, the future Prime Minister Lord John Russell. Following the award of the parliamentary grant, Cartwright purchased a small farm in Kent, where he spent the rest of his life.

Edmund Cartwright died in Sussex after a lingering illness and was buried at Battle.

Power loom
Cartwright designed his first power loom in 1784 and patented it in 1785, after some contact with textile men from Manchester; its value was only in proof of concept, but the type of design continued into the 20th century. Subsequent research and development work by others is now given much of the credit for a practical powered loom. In 1809 Cartwright obtained a grant of £10,000 from parliament for his invention.

In 1789, Cartwright patented another loom which served as the model for later inventors to work upon. For a mechanically driven loom to become a commercial success, either one person would have to be able to attend to more than one machine, or each machine must have a greater productive capacity than one manually controlled. He added improvements, including a positive let-off motion, warp and weft stop motions, and sizing the warp while the loom was in action. He commenced to manufacture fabrics in Doncaster using these looms, and discovered many of their shortcomings. He attempted to remedy these in a number of ways: by introducing a crank and eccentric wheels to actuate its batten differentially, by improving the picking mechanism, by means of a device for stopping the loom when a shuttle failed to enter a shuttle box, by preventing a shuttle from rebounding when in a box, and by stretching the cloth with temples that acted automatically. His mill was repossessed by creditors in 1793.

In 1792, Cartwright obtained his final patent for weaving machinery; this provided his loom with multiple shuttle boxes for weaving checks and cross stripes. All his efforts were unavailing, however; it became apparent that no mechanism, however perfect, could succeed so long as warps continued to be sized while a loom was stationary. His plans for sizing them while a loom was in operation, and before being placed in a loom, failed. These problems were resolved in 1803, by William Radcliffe and his assistant Thomas Johnson, by their inventions of the beam warper, and the dressing sizing machine.

In 1790 Robert Grimshaw of Gorton, Manchester erected a weaving factory at Knott Mill which he intended to fill with 500 of Cartwright's power looms, but with only 30 in place the factory was burnt down, probably as an act of arson inspired by the fears of hand loom weavers. The prospect of success was not sufficiently promising to induce its re-erection.

In May 1821, Cartwright was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Other inventions

Cartwright patented a wool combing machine in 1789 and a cordelier (machine for making rope) in 1792. He also designed a steam engine that used alcohol instead of water.

Works
Cartwright had John Langhorne as a tutor, and developed as a minor poet. He published the poem Armine and Elvira in 1770, which was followed by The Prince of Peace in 1779, directed against the American Revolutionary War. His Sonnets to Eminent Men (1783) included an ode to Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham, a conspicuous supporter of American independence.

Family
Cartwright married in 1772, Alice Whitaker, daughter of Alderman Richard Whitaker of Doncaster, who died in 1785. Their second daughter Elizabeth (1780–1837) married the Reverend John Penrose and wrote books under the pseudonym "Mrs Markham". Their daughter Mary married Henry Eustatius Strickland, a younger son of Sir George Strickland, 5th Baronet, and was mother of Hugh Edwin Strickland. She was her father's biographer, publishing A Memoir of the Life, Writings, and Inventions, of Edmund Cartwright, D.D. FRS (1843) which incorporated a memoir by Cartwright.

Their son the Rev. Edmund Cartwright (1773–1833) was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries of London. The youngest child of the marriage was Frances Dorothy Cartwright, poet and biographer of her uncle the radical Major John Cartwright.

Cartwright married secondly, in 1790, Susannah Kearney, daughter of John Kearney. He was survived by her and the four children above from his first marriage. Growing up he also had many siblings, including the famous John Cartwright.

title: Edmund Cartwright


text:
User:Jmabel/Sandbox

For future article on Jews in Romania

Yad Vashem PDF on "Righteous Gentiles" during the WWII period in Romania http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/what_new/data_whats_new/pdf/english/15%20Ch.%2011.pdf

 * Voudouris, Monica Săvulescu and Camil Fuchs, Jewish identity after the Second World War. Editura Hasefer, Bucharest, 1999, ISBN 9739235735.

30: In 1947 Zionism was officially attacked as "a bridgehead of the Jewish bourgeiosie, supported by Americans"

30: "In 1952... emigration to Israel was forbidden. Nonetheless, one could receive an isolated individual approval on the principle of counter-service [contra-serviciilor].

30:Ceausescu era: $5000 per emigrant

48:Romanian experience of anti-Semitism (people aged 20-35) compared to Dutch: "Do you experience anti-Semitism in the following areas" (weighted scores 0-100) In politics 25.0 60.8 In the media 28.3 69.2 At school 29.2 53.3 At work 22.5 33.3 In the street 32.5 44.2 In the family 19.2 17.5

49: "Have you personally experienced anti-Semitism" Directly 30% 70% Indirectly 30% 95%

56: Difference in the nature of attachment to Jewish identity. A typical Dutch Jew might describe his or her Jewish identity simply as "I was born Jewish," while a typical Jew in Romania would say, "I consider any form of denying as a proof of cowardice."

Possibly interesting items (some on other topics) in their bibliography:
 * Ido Abram, Joodse Identiteit (The Jewish Identity), Kok, 1993, in Dutch
 * R. Cohen, The Jewish Nation in Suriname, Amsterdam, 1982
 * St. Fischer-Galatzi, Fascism, Communism, and the Jewish Question in Romania, 1974
 * F.P. Karner, The Sephardics of Curaçao Amsterdam, 1969
 * S. Manuila and W. Friedman, ed. The Jewish Population in Romania, Fundaţia Culturală, Română, 1994
 * R. Vago, Antisemitism and the New Romania, SICSA, 1991
 * L. Volovich, Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism: the case of Romanian intellectuals in the 30's, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1991
 * L. Volovich, Antisemitism in Post Communist Eastern Europe: A Marginal or a Central Issue?, SICSA, 1994

 * Riff, Michael, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present with personal memoirs by Hugo Gryn, Stephen Roth, Ben Helfgott and Hermy Jankel; epilogue by Rabbi Moses Rosen. Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, ISBN 0853032203.

"The Recipe" Moses Rosen, writing in 1987, 215-221: 215 compares Iron Curtain to the legendary river Sambation (covered in Lost Ten Tribes) "the ten tribes of Israel live, lost in the terra incognita. "The little red Jews".

216 "Almost 4000" lunch daily in ritual restaurants. 500 persons in "modern and beautiful" old people's homes. "Jewish bi-monthly journal in Romanian, Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, published regularly since 1956", in ten thousand copies, mailed legally to the Soviet Union, where it is xeroxed in thousands of copies" Visits from leading Israelis and other prominent Jews (incl. an Israeli Prime Minister), tens of thousands of Israeli tourists annually.

400,000 Romanian Jews survived the Holocaust.

Approx 22,000 in Romania as of 1987. (p.217: "Most of them aged.") About 400,000 in Israel. (p.217: 1400-1500 leaving annually)

Western visitors "had expected to find there a disaster, assimilation, the disappearance of Judaism".

217 "Can everything we have sen be like Potemkin's villages? If not, what is the recipe?"

Problem # 1 of our times: "the consolidation and development of the State of Israel." Problem #2: the situation of the millions of Jews living "in Eastern Europe, in a socialist society. No matter if one likes this or not, it represents a reality... Can they, somehow remain Jewish? The answer given by the past 40 years of the life led by a Jewish community in socialist Romania is categorical and irrefutable. Yes, indeed. They can. "Our 'balance-sheet' proves that, without making any noise, demonstrations or rows, we have succeeded in making Romania's interests correspond to ours..."

"I was young and inexperienced when, in 1948, I was given the responsibility of the destiny of the 400,000 Jews who were 'remnants' of the Holocaust'."

"Give and take" Quotes de Gaulle: "I have no enemies, I have no friends, I have interests."

218 "I succeeded in convincing the Romanian Government that, by doing good to the Jews, by meting out justice to them, it could obtain advantages in matters of favourable public opinion, trade relations, political sympathies... The 'business transaction' was profitable to both sides."

"If we limit ourselves to 'Let my people go!' we are resorting to a slogan that may be of any kind: touristic (i.e. let us travel), political (i.e. we want to leave a socialist country), but in no case Zionist."

"If you want Olim, you need Jews." "More than 90 per cent of the Romanian Jews reached Lod. They did not 'lose their way' heading for other continents..."

Criticized failure of Soviet Jews to take advantage of legislation that would have let them, like Orthodox, Caltholics, Protestants, Muslims establish a legal organization.

219 In USSR, "There are great possibilities of bringing about - if not with the official approval of the authorities, then with their tacit consent - the creation of the beginning og Jewish cultural and religious life, of organising communities at least in the big cities in each of which hundreds of thousands of Jews live."

220 Contra refuseniks, quotes a Moscow Jew: "We, sho do not leave, who cannot leave... or... who do not want to leave, are we not Jews?... Is no voice reaised so that we may remain Jews?"

"...this experience which, at a certain moment, in the years of Stalinism, could have proed fatal to me..."

221 Afterword, post-1989, published 1992

"The excuse can no longer be made that Soviet Jewry cannot be saved because of the terror in Russia. Soviet Jews now have the choice: to affirm their identity as Jews, or not. And... the furhter choice: to go on Aliya, either now or later.

Talks about the economics of Israel absorbing Jews, that many will be left behing, that Jewish life in Russia remains an issue. "On the brink of disappearing into the anonymity of assimilation. We need now to declare a Jewish glasnost..."

-- "Memories of Hungary" Stephen Roth p. 125-141

Born in Gyoengyoes

126 After 1956, Jews were an estimated 10% of the 200,000 emigres.

Present (1990) estimates 80,000-100,000 Jews in Hungary, >80% of them in Budapest

"While some claim that the 'official estimates' given by the community are somewhat inflated for the purpose of obtaining social and cultural benefits from abroad, others believe that there are in fact many more Jews but that they are so assimilated and distanced from their Jewish identity that they cannot easily be detected, let alone quantified. Either theory may be valid." Some older Jews "...will have nothing to do with the Jewish community but their friends and bridge partners remain Jews."

127 Before WWII, 200,000 Jews in Budapest, 400,000 in Hungary; another 325,000 in the territories annexed during the war. 600,000 of these 725,000 killed in the Nazi era. "The Communist regime must be complimented for maintaining and supporting what exists. At the same time, however, the negative Communist approach to religion... inevitably lessened the demand for Jewish facilities."

1990: only remaining rabbinical seminary in central or eastern Europe, 10-12 students at a formerly great institution. (p.140: Alexander Scheiber, died circa 1990, charismatic, started Friday night gatherings.)

1990: one Jewish secondary school (Anne Frank Gymnasium); before WWII, 11 secondary schools, 144 elementary, 2 teacher-training institutions. 1990: small Jewish hospital in Budapest, subsidiary of the Pre-WWII hospital that had 670 beds, 14,000 patients/year.

Pre-WWII: Orthodox and Neologs, the latter being comparable to "the more traditional wing of US Conservatives". Communist gov't forced them to unite ("semi-autonomous Orthodox section"). This was among factors resulting in a decline of Jewish institutions.

128 "Bureaucratism had replaced volunataristic communitarianism."

129-130 "My parents' social contact was only with Jews" (except for the mayor, who played cards at the Jewish social club "partly for sound electoral reasons, but partly because he had a special liking for Jews"). State gymnasium: most teachers were "known antisemites" (knwon to have made remarks, but not unfair as teachers).

131 "an alien minority... we lived reconciled to the fact that der Jid is in Goles, the Jew lives in exile. Within this limitation, and by 'knowing one's place' among the majority population of the country, one could be reasonably happy... And in purely material terms, Jews could do very well."

132 "We were enriched in our Jewish environment by the very best of Hungarian culture..."

"Hungarian Jews were opposed to Zionism because they hoped that somehow they could achieve equality with other Hungarian citizens, not just in law but in fact, and that they could be integrated into the country as Hungarian Israleites. The word 'Israelite' denoted only religious affiliation and was free from the ethnic or national conotation attached to the word 'Jew', which they therefore regarded almost as a derogatory term. Hungarian Jews did attain remarkable achievements in industry, in culture, some even in politics. But even the most successful Jew was not accepted by the majority of the Magyars as one of them -- as the Hungarian reaction to the Nazi invasion of the country has so tragically demonstrated."

Every year "at the beginning of the academic year, there were student demonstrations organised by the right-wing unions, when the Jews were at best thrown out of the university building or frequently cruelly insulted and beaten up.

133 Zionist body: Maccabeah. Roth active in that and in the Jewish student union. Later a leader of Hanoar Hatzioni. vs. very assimilationist Jews who Magyarised therir names: "Hungarian-Israelite patriotism", "lamentably weak liberal, democrativ, or social-democratic parties... the equally weak and illegal Communist Party."

134 Because of loss of territory after WWI, Hungary resented minorities: recognized Jews only as a religious group, not a national minority (in contrast to Cz, Pol, Rom, Yugo). Persisted post-WWII. Did have some advantages: anti-religious Hungarian communism never set up a specific "Jewish section". However, detrimental to "cultural work of a secular character... Jewish history, literature, or art... in the case of a national religion like Judaism, the national elements cannot be divorced from religion." These policies eased over time.

135 "A medley of Nazi parties... to show off their separate Hungarian identity... variations of the swastika: the Scythe Cross, the Clubbed Cross and the most infamous Arrow Cross." Appeasement of Nazis by anti-Jewish laws began spring 1938. (Roth could no longer head towards being a lawyer).

Refugees from Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Poland. Mostly illegal, many interned. Zionists and Orthodox more directly in contact with illegals than "official" Jewish groups. Vaadat Ezra v'Hazala (Aid and Rescue Committee "established at the initiative of Jerusalem." His German let him talk to Yiddish-speaking escapees from Poland; he picked up Yiddish. "Hungary was then an island in the Nazi ocean." 40,000 Jews perished in the labour service, but still relatively free. '43 Roth started compiling documentary material.

136 19 March 1944, "the Germans marched in". Zionist & Aid and Rescue Committee began smuggling Jews out to Romania; Roth had to burn his archives. A few months later, the Gestapo got his name from a captured and presumably tortured refugee. He was arrested, questioned and...

137 ... beaten for 36 hours; 3 months of imprisonment and interrogation, sent to Auschwitz "with special designation" (i.e. intent was "straight into the gas ovens"). Elaborate story not recounted here of escape of the transport due to intervention of Admiral Horthy (still head of state). Roth returned to Zionist underground. Swiss embassy cover: representing UK, had 7800 certificates for emigration to Palestine and would issue "protective passports" (Swedish invention, later pursued on a larger scale by Sweden's Raul Wallenberg). Used "by the Zionist underground under the Swiss flag. Its activists became 'Swiss Embassy officials' who not only issued the permitted number of 7,800 protective passports byt forged their own documents ten times over."

One supporter was a plate-glass merchant; built a glass house (in a city that was being bombed!), donated as a Swiss Embassy branch office for "representation of foreign interests". Arrow Cross gained power 15 Oct 1944; Zionist "Swiss officials" & their families retreated to the "extraterritorial safety" of the glass house. Ultimately some 3,000 people in appalling conditions.

138 Held out until Russians came 18 Jan 1945.

Glass house was (and is?) in the Vadász-utca.

"I like Budapest today" (just before and just after fall of communism) both the reconstruction and...

139 ... museums, opera, (etc.) but also "deeper values"... "openness" even among party members about "political and social problems, with a healthy self-criticism...

1967: Jewish question still taboo, blamed on Germans. Beginning mid-1970s, and especially after 1984 began to face Hungary's own role. Contacts w/Jewish historians abroad. Although there is still antisemitism, "but not at governmental or administrative levels".

141 New organizations w/ the new regime. Hungarian Zionist Federation revived, first Zionist body in "liberalised Eastern Europe". Offices in Budapest for World Jewish Congress, World Zionist Organization. Additional school planned. But freedom also means freedom for anti-semites.

-- Riff, on Rosen p.202

"An ex-officio Member of Parliament and called by some the 'Red Rabbi' for his good relations with the Romanian Communist leadership, he has been an indefatigable defender of Jewish interests in his country. It was largely his influence that prevented Communist Party members from holding leadership posts in the community.

- Riff. 12 migration of Jews westward & southward from the Polish lands begins c. 1650.

Most of the Jews of other parts of Eastern & East Central Europe got there this way:
 * Romania
 * Hungary
 * Czechoslovakia

Esp. Northeastern Slovakia, Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Transylvania, where the social structure was similar: Jewish publicans, shopkeepers, produce merchants, and later industrialists "played a conspicuously disproportionate role"; with non-Jewish teachers and officials, constituted the middle class.

Transyl & Sub-Carpat developed density of Jews comparable to Galicia.

Chmielnicki Rovolt of 1648 triggered initial migration.

Major migration in 2nd half of 18th century triggered by Poland's political decline.

13 many other Jews "led marginal existences as petty traders or even day labourers and farmers", esp. in Sub-Carpat w/ highest per capita Jewish population in Europe.

Religion Orthodox and Hassidic, although Zionists and the Left made inroads.Yiddish-speakers. The elite learned Hungarian from late 19th century.

title: User:Jmabel/Sandbox


text:
Sosondowah

The Iroquois mythic hero Sosondowah was a great hunter known for stalking a supernatural elk, Oh-je-a-neh-doh. Sosondowah was captured by Dawn, a goddess who needed him as a watchman. He fell in love with Gendenwitha ("she who brings the day", also spelled Gendewitha), a human woman. He tried to woo her by singing to her in spring as a bluebird, in summer as a blackbird and in autumn as a hawk, who then tried to take Gendenwitha with him to the sky. Dawn tied him to her doorpost and then changed Gendenwitha into the Morning Star, so he could watch her all night but never be with her.

title: Sosondowah


text:
Heather Headley

Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian-born American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the title role of Aida. She also won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album for her album Audience of One. In 2018, she recurred as Gwen Garrett on the NBC medical drama television series Chicago Med.

Personal life
Headley was born in Trinidad, the daughter of Hannah and Eric Headley (Barbadian). In 1989, she moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the United States at the age of fifteen with her mother and brother Eric Junior when her father was offered a job as pastor of McKee Street Church of God with headquarters in Anderson, Indiana. Headley attended Northrop High School, and was a member of their resident show choir, Charisma, and starred as Fanny Brice in the school's production of Funny Girl. After graduating from high school, Headley attended Northwestern University from 1993 to 1996, to study musical theatre until the last day of her junior year, when she made the decision to become a part of the musical Ragtime and leave school.

In 2003, Headley married Brian Musso, an investment advisor who briefly played for the New York Jets. Both attended Northwestern University. On December 1, 2009, they welcomed their first child John David. Headley had her second son Jordan Chase August 18, 2014. In April 2019, the couple welcomed a third child, a daughter.

Headley regularly performs with Vertical Church Band, the worship team from Harvest Bible Chapel. She is featured in their song "How Great Is The Love" and "All Glory".

Career
Headley's stage career began in 1996 when she was cast as a member of the ensemble in the original Toronto production of the musical Ragtime where she was an understudy for Audra McDonald in the role of Sarah. Her breakthrough came the following year when she originated the role of Nala in the Broadway musical The Lion King. Headley's performance was well received, and she then originated the title role in the Broadway adaptation of Aida, earning the Tony Award for Best Actress in 2000. In 1999, she appeared in the Encores! staged concert production of Do Re Mi, with Nathan Lane, Randy Graff, and Brian Stokes Mitchell. She starred in an Actors' Fund of America benefit concert version of the musical Dreamgirls alongside McDonald and Lillias White in 2001.

In the autumn of 2006, Heather performed Hal David and Burt Bacharach's song "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", from the 1968 musical Promises, Promises, for "The Kennedy Center Presents: The 2006 Mark Twain Prize", honoring playwright Neil Simon. The ceremony was later broadcast on PBS.

On July 5, 2007, Headley made a guest appearance for Andrea Bocelli's Vivere Live in Tuscany concert in Lajatico, Italy. They performed Vivo Per Lei and The Prayer. Headley sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (also known as "America") with Josh Groban on January 18, 2009, during the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. On March 12, 2009, Headley sang "I Wish" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

From November 2012 until August 2013, Headley played the role of Rachel Marron, in the musical adaptation of Whitney Houston's 1992 movie, The Bodyguard at London's Adelphi Theatre. She was nominated for an Olivier Award and a What's On Stage Award for this performance.

Heather joined the Andrea Bocelli UK Tour playing Glasgow Hydro on November 23 and at the Leeds First Direct Arena on November 24, 2013.

On May 10, 2016, Headley assumed the role of Shug Avery from Jennifer Hudson in the recent Broadway revival of The Color Purple, which closed on January 8, 2017, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

In May 2022, Headley played the Witch in the Encores! version of Into the Woods. She starred alongside Sara Bareilles, Neil Patrick Harris, Gavin Creel, and Denée Benton.

Music
Headley released her debut album, This Is Who I Am, in October 2002 with RCA Records. Although its first single, "He Is", was not very successful, the second single, "I Wish I Wasn't", achieved moderate success. The work on this album earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and for Best New Artist making her the first Tony Award winner to be nominated for this award.

Her second album, In My Mind (2006) was delayed due to the various executive shake-ups associated with RCA parent BMG's merger with Sony. Under BMG North America chairman/CEO Clive Davis for the first time, Headley released her second album In My Mind in January 2006. The title track "In My Mind" (written and produced by India.Arie collaborator Shannon Sanders) was released as the first single; and its music video was directed by Diane Martel. The song reached number-one on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The second single "Me Time" was sent to Urban AC radio only. An album track, "Am I Worth It", served to promote Headley's New March of Dimes Educational Campaign "I Want My 9 Months".

In 2009, Headley, along with Al Green, released a version of the song "People Get Ready" on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.

In January 2010 she won her first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album for Audience of One on the EMI Gospel label.

In December 2010, Headley performed a duet version of "Blue Christmas" and "My Prayer" with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli on his "My Christmas" tour in 5 US cities. At the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, on December 4, 2010, the audience insisted on a second encore with Bocelli. Bocelli had to summon the detail to go and bring her back on stage.

Headley released her album Only One in the World on September 25, 2012, with the lead single "A Little While".

In September 2013, Headley appeared on America's Got Talent with Il Divo and sang "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from The Lion King. She also appeared with Il Divo on Broadway for a limited concert run in 2013.

Television and Film
Starting in 2017, Headley appeared in a recurring role on the TV series She's Gotta Have It as Dr. Jamison. In 2018, she appeared in a recurring role as Gwen Garrett on the TV series Chicago Med.

In 2019, Headley was cast as one of the three leads in the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias. She also voiced the part of Fikiri as Makini's Mother in The Lion Guard.

In 2021, Headley starred as gospel legend Clara Ward in Respect, the Aretha Franklin biopic.

title: Heather Headley


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Sister Hazel

Sister Hazel is an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida, whose style blends elements of jangle pop, folk rock, classic rock, and Southern rock. They are best known for their 1997 single "All for You."

History
Sister Hazel formed in Gainesville, Florida, in 1993 and was named for Sister Hazel Williams, a local missionary who ran a homeless shelter. The group released its self-titled debut album in 1994, through its independent record label Croakin' Poets. Shortly after its release, singer/guitarist Ryan Newell and drummer Mark Trojanowski joined the band. Newell played on the album before officially joining the group.

The band's second album ...Somewhere More Familiar was released in 1997 and sold approximately 30,000 copies through its initial pressing, prompting Universal Records to sign the band. Universal re-released ...Somewhere More Familiar in late 1997. A single from the album All For You hit No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains the band's most successful single.

The band's third album Fortress was released in 2000 by Universal. The band worked with producers Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Heart), Richie Zito (Cheap Trick), and Paul Ebersold (3 Doors Down). The album featured minor pop hits "Champagne High" and "Change Your Mind." The album's title track was featured as the outro of Valparaiso University radio station WVUR's weekly Saturday night program during the 2000–01 academic year.

In 2003, after the band split from Universal, they released their fourth studio album, Chasing Daylight, on the Sixthman label and toured throughout the year to promote the album. The band's internet presence emerged during this time period, and hardcore fans dubbing themselves "Hazelnuts" studied setlists, shared bootleg concert recordings, and initiated a promotion scheme with the band through their official website. 2003 also saw the simultaneous release of Live*LIVE, a two-disc live album, and A Life in the Day, a live DVD.

In 2004, Sister Hazel released their next studio album, Lift. Songs from Lift were re-recorded for 2005's Lift: Acoustic Renditions, an EP of studio acoustic takes on five of the songs, offered exclusively through Apple's iTunes Store. In July 2005, the Sister Hazel album was re-issued again by Sixthman, in response to claims that the album had become difficult to find in stores.

Sister Hazel then promoted their album, Absolutely, which was released on October 10, 2006. The band also continued to tour and hold annual fan gathering events, The Rock Boat and The Rock Slope. Absolutely is the band's highest-charting album on the Billboard charts following Fortress and it received 4 out of a possible 5 stars from Allmusic, a tie with Fortress's score.

On June 5, 2007, Sister Hazel released a "hybrid" album, BAM! Volume 1. It contains B-sides from the Absolutely recording sessions and some from previous albums. Sister Hazel also released a holiday album called Santa's Playlist on September 25, 2007.

On February 9, 2008, the band performed a live concert at Daytona International Speedway for the Budweiser Shootout. They released a live acoustic album on June 17, 2008, Before the Amplifiers, Live Acoustic on Croakin' Poets/Rock Ridge Music. The record features 16 tracks, including the band's hits, fan favorites, and live concert staples, all in a stripped-down, acoustic format. The album was recorded on January 12 at Nickel & Dime Studios in Atlanta (other bands who have recorded there in the past include Indigo Girls, The B-52's, Shawn Mullins) in front of a hundred fans who were chosen at random from more than five thousand entries.

At the July 18, 2008, concert at Wolf Trap Farm Park, drummer Mark Trojanowski took paternity leave for his newborn child. Former Vertical Horizon and current Doobie Brothers drummer Ed Toth played in his absence.

On July 9, 2009 Ford Motor Company announced a collaboration with Sister Hazel to promote the company's new Sync technology, available on many Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles. The band was featured on a Ford website, syncmyride.com.

The band released their seventh studio album of original songs (tenth album overall) on August 18, 2009. The album, entitled Release, contains 12 tracks and is on the Rock Ridge Music label. On the day of release, Release was the number one album on iTunes.

Less than six months after releasing Release, the band returned to the studio to work on their new album, Heartland Highway, was released on October 12, 2010. Its first radio single was "Stay a While".

The band's ninth studio album, Lighter in the Dark, was announced in the later part of 2015. It is their first country album, and was released on February 19, 2016. The lead single from the album is "We Got It All Tonight". Two songs, "We Got It All Tonight" and "Karaoke Song", which features country artist Darius Rucker, were made available for instant download for those who pre-ordered the album.

The band's namesake Dr. Hazel Kirkland Williams died on July 16, 2016, at age 91 in Gainesville.

The band released an EP Water on February 9, 2018, which featured the lead single "Roll On Bye". Less than a week after the release of Water, the band announced they had begun recording a follow-up EP in Nashville, Tennessee. The EP Wind was released on September 7, 2018. The next EP in the "Elements" series, Fire, was released on February 8, 2019. The final installment in the "Elements" series, Earth, was released on September 6, 2019. Each of the EPs in the series included a portion of a song at the end, intended to be linked together in a future release. On November 26, 2019, all the EPs were combined into a single release, Elements. The 25-song, double-disc set includes the final "Elements" song pieced together.

Use in media
The band has had music featured in several movies and soundtracks including Major League: Back to the Minors, The Wedding Planner, Clay Pigeons, Bedazzled and 10 Things I Hate About You. Sister Hazel also appear on the Fleetwood Mac tribute album, Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours with their cover version of "Gold Dust Woman". In 1999, they recorded a cover of "September Gurls" for the Big Star tribute album, Big Star, Small World. However, the track was not included when the album was released in 2006. The song "Where Do You Go" was featured on Scrubs (Season 6, Episode 4, "My House"). "All For You" was featured in episode 7 of the first season of The Way Home (TV series)

Influences
While some of the band members feel like their sounds are simply Sister Hazel, Ryan Newell has cited Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Page, Van Halen, and Eric Clapton as his influences. The band has certainly been influenced by other southern rock and folk music.

Philanthropy
Lyrics for Life is a non-profit organization for the benefit of pediatric cancer. Sister Hazel had a benefit concert to support the Sarah Jones Scholarship Fund.

Band members

 * Ken Block – lead vocals, acoustic guitar (1993–present)
 * Jett Beres – bass, harmony vocals (1993–present)
 * Andrew Copeland – rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards (1993–present)
 * Ryan Newell – lead and slide guitar, harmony vocals (1993–present)
 * Mark Trojanowski – drums (1993–present)

Touring musicians
 * Dave LaGrande – keyboards, saxophone (2012–2023)

Other releases

 * 99.3 The Zone – Collector's Edition 1997 – 1997
 * "Let Your Love Flow" – Clay Pigeons Soundtrack – 1998
 * Live*LIVE – Live Double Album – March 2003
 * A Life in the Day – Live DVD – March 2003
 * Chasing Daylight – Acoustic EP – August 2004 (downloadable exclusive)
 * Lift: Acoustic Renditions – April 2005 (downloadable exclusive)
 * BAM! Volume 1 – June 5, 2007 (B-Sides Album)
 * Santa's Playlist – September 25, 2007 (Holiday Album)
 * Before the Amplifiers, Live Acoustic – Live Album – June 17, 2008
 * 20 In '10 Collection – Compilation Album – February 8, 2010 (Amazon.com downloadable exclusive)
 * Threeve – EP – June 1, 2010 (iTunes downloadable exclusive)
 * 11411 – Compilation/Sampler – January 3, 2011 (Amazon.com downloadable exclusive)
 * This Is Gator Country – 2011 (featured on a special compilation CD titled "You're in Gator Country," sold exclusively by the University of Florida Athletic Association)
 * 20 Stages – Live Double Album [CD or Limited Edition Vinyl LP] – October 7, 2014
 * 20 Stages – Live DVD – October 7, 2014
 * Live From Daryl's House Club – Live CD – December 9, 2016
 * Live From Daryl's House Club – Live DVD – December 9, 2016
 * Before the Amplifiers 2 – Live Album – December 10, 2021

title: Sister Hazel


text: Talk:BlackBerry Limited

title: Talk:BlackBerry Limited


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Agogo (album)

Agogo is a rarities album by KMFDM. Agogo comprises numerous tracks either previously unreleased, released on other compilations, or otherwise not widely available. The only KMFDM album (from the so-called 'Classic' Era of 1984 to 1999) to never be re-released in any other way or format (including mp3), possibly due to copyright concerns.

title: Agogo (album)


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Talk:Indochina War

This page is full of errors, and need a lot of work, for example, the article sustain that the U.S. intervention starts AFTER the golf of tonkin incident......  Maybe is better to delete because the topisc are well covered  in the first indochina war and vietnam war articles. Milton 18:48, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Indochina War


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User:Herbee/Sandbox

By name
 These tables were compiled by a program. If you edit here, I will probably not notice and overwrite your edit next time. If you notice something amiss, drop me a note on my talk page.

title: User:Herbee/Sandbox


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Gold medal

A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.

Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have been awarded in the arts, for example, by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, usually as a symbol of an award to give an outstanding student some financial freedom. Others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including various academic societies.

While some gold medals are solid gold, others are gold-plated or silver-gilt, like those of the Olympic Games, the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and the Nobel Prize medal. Nobel Prize medals consist of 18 karat green gold plated with 24 karat gold. Before 1980, they were struck in 23 karat gold.

Military origins
Before the establishment of standard military awards, e.g., the Medal of Honor, it was common practice to have a medal specially created to provide national recognition for a significant military or naval victory or accomplishment. In the United States, Congress would enact a resolution asking the President to reward those responsible. The commanding officer would receive a gold medal and his officers would get silver medals.

Competition medals
Medals have historically been given as prizes in various types of competitive activities, especially athletics.

Traditionally, medals are made of the following metals:

 * 1) Gold (or another yellow metal, e.g., brass)
 * 2) Silver (or another grey metal, e.g., steel)
 * 3) Bronze

Occasionally, Platinum medals can be awarded.

These metals designate the first three Ages of Man in Greek mythology: the Golden Age, when men lived among the gods, the Silver Age, where youth lasted a hundred years, and the Bronze Age, the era of heroes.

The custom of awarding the sequence of gold, silver, and bronze medals for the first three highest achievers dates from at least the 19th century, with the National Association of Amateur Athletes in the United States awarding such medals as early as 1884.

This standard was adopted for Olympic competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. At the 1896 event, silver was awarded to winners and bronze to runners-up, while in 1900 other prizes were given, not medals.

Olympic Games

At the modern Olympic Games, winners of a sporting discipline receive a gold medal in recognition of their achievement.

At the Ancient Olympic Games, only one winner per event received an award, which was a kotinos, an olive wreath made of wild olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Aristophanes in Plutus makes a remark why victorious athletes are crowned with wreaths made of wild olive instead of gold. Herodotus describes a story that explains why there were only a few Greek men at the Battle of Thermopylae since "all other men were participating in the Olympic Games" and that the prize for the winner was "an olive-wreath". When Tigranes, an Armenian general, learned this, he uttered to his leader: "Good heavens! What kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour".

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, winners received a silver medal and the second-place finisher received a bronze medal. In 1900, most winners received cups or trophies instead of medals. The next three Olympics (1904, 1908, 1912) awarded the winners solid gold medals, but the medals themselves were smaller. The use of gold rapidly declined with the onset of the First World War and also with the onset of the Second World War. The last series of Olympic medals to be made of solid gold were awarded at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.

Olympic gold medals are required to be made from at least 92.5% silver, and must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold. All Olympic medals must be at least 70mm in diameter and 3mm thick. Minting the medals is the responsibility of the Olympic host. From 1928 through 1968 the design was always the same: the obverse showed a generic design by Florentine artist Giuseppe Cassioli of Greek goddess Nike with Rome's Colosseum in the background and text naming the host city; the reverse showed another generic design of Nike saluting an Olympic champion.

From the 1972 Summer Olympics through 2000, Cassioli's design (or a slight modification) remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassioli's design showed a Roman amphitheater for what originally were Greek games, a new obverse design was commissioned for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics medals had a diameter of 70mm and were 6mm thick, with the front displaying a winged figure of victory and the back showed a Beijing Olympics symbol surrounded by an inset jade circle.

Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design. The silver and bronze medals have always borne the same designs.

Other gold medal awards
The award of a gold medal, often coupled with the award of silver and bronze medals to the next place finishers, has been adopted in other sports competitions and in other competitive fields, such as music and writing, as well as some competitive games. Typically bronze medals are awarded only to third place, but in some contests there is some variety, such as International barbershop music contests where bronze medals are awarded for third, fourth, and fifth place.

title: Gold medal


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Talk:Sergei Stepashin

Untitled
I recall he was brought into government to fill the "technical" post of Energy Minister and then Yeltsin made him PM to have more control. Then within a few months he was sacked in mid 1998 in an attempt to restore Cherynomodyn (or however it is spelt) which the Duma refused to pass and so Yeltsin appointed someone else and only appointed Putin in mid 1999.

Or am I thinking of someone else? There seem to have been rather a lot of Russian PMs. Timrollpickering 18:53, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * LOL. You were thinking about Sergei Kirienko. --Ghirla | talk 12:05, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

"Stepashin had, for example, presented leaders of the separatist regime in Chechnya with monogrammed pistols"
Is the paragraph really adequately sourced? We have a BLP article here. These are very serious claims, and if wrong, then they would constitute slur. --Dorpater (talk) 19:55, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Temporary Appointment to PM Disputed
I dispute the claim that Yeltin made it very clear that Stepashin's appointment to PM was only temporarily. For example this source indicates that firing Stephashin (and the entire cabinet) was unexpected. It also cites Stephashin for saying he was not given a reason for having been removed from the position. If this notion is not challenged I'll rephrase the entire statement in the wiki article. Thanks. Gretchen Mädelnick (talk) 12:47, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

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Some edits may be very biased/dubious claims are contained within.
for example:

the article states: "Stepashin's attitude towards the Chechen conflict was markedly different from that of Vladimir Putin. Stepashin had, for example, presented leaders of the separatist regime in Chechnya with monogrammed pistols, praised the activities of the religious extremists who had taken over several Dagestani villages, and had proclaimed publicly: "We can afford to lose Dagestan!".[2]"

whereas this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/415087.stm) contemporary article has him quoted as saying: "today the situation in Dagestan is very difficult. I think we could really lose Dagestan."

I find it dubious that one person would say two things as utterly contradictory as what is being suggested here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.89.186.255 (talk) 03:26, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sergei Stepashin