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Sheila Kuehl

Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941) is an American politician and retired actress, and served as the member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the 3rd District and as board chair and chair pro tem. Kuehl was California's first openly gay state legislator, having previously served in the California State Senate and the California State Assembly, where she was the Assembly's first female speaker pro tem.

Early life
Kuehl was born Sheila Ann Kuehl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father, Arthur, was an airplane construction worker at Douglas Aircraft. He was Catholic and her mother, Lillian, was Jewish. As a child actress, Kuehl performed under the stage name Sheila James.

At age seven, Kuehl began to take tap dancing lessons. In one recital, Kuehl played an assistant in a skit called "The Old Sleuth" where she sat under a table listening for clues. To indicate she was listening, Kuehl made faces, which caused the audience to laugh and encouraged her to make more faces, resulting in more laughter. The skit was ruined, but the drama teacher, Mrs. Meglin, was impressed. Kuehl later recalled that Meglin told her mother, 'The kid's pretty funny. Can she read?' And my mother said, 'Oh, yeah, she can read, she skipped two grades, she's really very good.' Mrs. Meglin said, 'There's a radio series holding interviews...at an agent's office on Sunset Boulevard. Would you be interested in taking her to the interview? All she has to do is read...' So we went for the interview and there were like 150 or 200 kids there and all you did was read. And I was called back...and eventually I got the part in what probably was the last family radio series before it went all music and news...'"

Radio
Having landed the role at the age of eight, Kuehl (billed as Sheila James) starred with radio and film veterans Penny Singleton, Gale Gordon, Bea Benaderet, and Jim Backus on the family radio program The Penny Williamson Show airing live from Studio B of the NBC studios in Hollywood. Airing in the adjacent studios were the popular drama The Cisco Kid and The Bob Hope Show with Doris Day (whom Kuehl admired). Kuehl would later cite her interaction with the other NBC radio talent as influential in forming her professionalism and comedy skills. The show centered around Singleton playing Penny Williamson, a widow selling real estate in a small town to support two daughters (played by Kuehl and Mary Lee Robb). The show was "a light-hearted pitch for women's liberation, portraying Penny and her daughters as highly competent, self-sufficient females" dealing with bungling suitors competing for Penny's affections.

Television
Due to her radio talent, Kuehl's agent convinced her parents to take her to auditions for a television role. Kuehl was signed to play Jackie, Stuart Erwin's tomboy daughter, in the television series The Stu Erwin Show (also known as Trouble with Father), which ran from 1950 to 1955. Kuehl later recalled "The same 200 kids I think were there for the interview [as had been for the radio audition] and I was called back and called back and called back and eventually I got that part. And beginning in 1950, I did that series for six years."

After The Stu Erwin Show ended, Kuehl continued to work as an actress while going to school. Her academic success allowed her to skip two grades; by sixteen she was attending the University of California, Los Angeles. As her college studies continued she moved into a sorority house and began spending summers as a counsellor for a children's camp. At the age of eighteen, while working at the camp, Kuehl met a twenty-one year-old counsellor named Kathy and fell in love. Kuehl would later recall "It was just a funny attraction that neither of us would acknowledge. Then, one night she and I were sitting together at her place. She was rubbing my back and we just, like, went to bed. It was wonderful. But then we stayed up all night wondering if we were really sick." They concluded that they were "sick" but that nothing could be done. Kuehl later recalled "There was no movement then. There was nothing to read. I knew no lesbians. We just figured this was a rare thing and that we were two women who'd fallen in love and that we had to keep it a secret because nobody would approve. We didn't dare tell a soul." After that summer, with Kathy going to school in San Diego, the two exchanged passionate letters daily for a year.

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
During this time, Kuehl began acting the role for which she is probably best known – her portrayal of teen-aged genius Zelda Gilroy, the would-be girlfriend of the title character in the television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. Zelda was originally intended to be a one-shot character in the early Dobie Gillis episode "Love is a Science," but Dobie creator Max Shulman liked Kuehl and had her signed on as a semiregular cast member.

Kuehl later recalled how she landed the part. "Well, when you're an actor with an agent, no matter how old you are, you go on interviews. I went on lots of interviews for lots of guest shots…and I had done two [episodes] on Love that Bob [The Bob Cummings Show] with Bob Cummings and Dwayne Hickman, who played his nephew, and the director Rod Amateau, so I had met all the people who eventually were going to be much of the team for Dobie Gillis. In 1959, I was at UCLA, and I went on an interview for Dobie Gillis and I walked on the set and they all said, 'Oh, hi, we know your work, you're fine. Just go across the street and meet Max Schulman [the writer director].' As it turned out, Max and I were the same height, and he was like buried behind the desk when I walked in. And he said, 'What's the first line?' And I said, 'I love you.' And he said, 'You're hired!'"

Signing a contract with Dobie producer 20th Century Fox Television required Kuehl, then 18 and in college studying theater, to change her major to English, so that Shulman, also a successful author, could act as her proctor on set to allow her to continue her studies. Kuehl earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1962, during the show's final season.

Having signed a contract in 1960 to do 21 shows for the next season of Dobie, that same year Kuehl was elected an officer in both the university student government and in her sorority. Despite this success, things became difficult that summer when love letters to Kathy that she had accidentally left at the sorority house were found by the cleaning staff and turned over to the alumnae council of the sorority. When she returned from summer vacation, the council (while speaking in coded language and carefully avoiding the word "lesbian") confronted Kuehl with the letters demanding an explanation. Kuehl later recalled that at first, she tried to deny it and failing that, "I then just clammed up and took my sorority pin off and put it on the table and left. I cried all the way home." She was officially expelled from the sorority and despite assurance that no one would be told why, she was aware that rumors were spreading. Some of the members of the sorority refused to speak to her afterwards and avoided her. Kuehl moved back in with her parents under the cover story that she was homesick, but was still a member of the sorority of which they knew she loved being a part. Whenever her parents knew of a sorority meeting taking place, to prevent discovery, Kuehl would go to a coffee shop during that time and return with a story about the events of the meeting that she had not attended.

Despite Kathy moving to Los Angeles and their being able to see each other daily, the social sacrifices Kuehl was contemplating put a strain on their relationship. Kuehl later recalled, "By then, the whole idea of being queer was so overwhelming and scary. Not the sexuality, but the loss of everything. To be that way for good meant no family, no children, no career, nor normalcy, no parents. It seemed at that point that I should really get out of it. I told [Kathy] I didn't want to see her any longer." Kuehl had seen a man casually on and off during her relationship with Kathy and began working to make it more serious. They kissed, but they did not have sex and they almost got engaged. Kuehl could not get Kathy off her mind and broke up with the man to resume the relationship with her. Kuehl's closeted relationship with Kathy continued until the beginning of the 1970s, and had lasted 12 years before they broke up.

After Dobie Gillis ended its run, Kuehl (as "Sheila James") co-starred with Kathleen Nolan, formerly of The Real McCoys, in the short-lived ABC television series Broadside, a female version of McHale's Navy, in its 1964–65 season.

Opportunities for acting work steadily diminished and Kuehl was forced to sell her Malibu house. She later recalled this period, saying, "I couldn't even get a commercial." Due to worries about her career and being closeted, she fell into a serious depression and developed a drinking problem. She was able to move forward after seeking help. She then moved in with her then-girlfriend, Kathy, and began working at the UCLA student activities office helping students organize around the rising political movements of the 1960s.

Kuehl was able to make television guest appearances on National Velvet, McHale's Navy, The Donna Reed Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Marcus Welby, M.D., and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1963 to 1970. On Petticoat Junction, Kuehl joined the Bradley sisters in a band called The Ladybugs, which was created to compete with Beatlemania. Kuehl, along with Jeannine Riley, Pat Woodell and Linda Kaye Henning appeared as moptop singers performing "I Saw Him Standing There" on a March 1964 episode of Sullivan's show, just weeks after the Beatles had performed "I Saw Her Standing There."

By the end of the decade, acting roles had dried up for her. Though Kuehl "can't state with certainty that she was blacklisted" from further acting jobs over her sexuality, she claims that afterwards, "with few exceptions, the phone stopped ringing." A pilot for a Dobie Gillis spin-off, in which the character Zelda was the lead, was produced, but the president of CBS, Jim Aubrey, thought Kuehl was "too butch" to be a star for their network. Subsequently, the pilot was not promoted and did not sell, but Kuehl was not told about this immediately. Rather, she was informed by the director, Rod Amateau, when she arrived to shoot the following episodes. She was devastated by the news.

Kuehl's only acting roles beyond 1970 were in two Dobie Gillis reunion projects - a 1977 sitcom pilot produced by James Komack, Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?, and a 1988 television movie sequel, Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis. In both productions, Dobie had married Zelda and the two were running the Gillis family grocery store and raising a teenaged son named Georgie Gillis.

Reflecting on the lasting impact of her role as Zelda, Kuehl told an interviewer, "First, there were no smart girls on television, period. All the girls were better looking than me, but dumb. I didn't mean the actresses were dumb, but that was sort of what you had to be in those days. So, a smart girl, brash, did not know she was a loser, which was sort of the theme for all the characters on Dobie Gillis…you just keep doing what you are doing because you don't know there's anything wrong with you. And the other thing, of course, 20 years later I started getting letters from young women saying, 'You were such a role model for me,' and now that the women's movement had started, I could see why. An independent, smart girl, knew what she wanted, went after it, but not in a mean way. And always by the end of the show, if you were doing anything dishonest against your friends, you would repent, because friendship was always the most important thing."

Law
After leaving the acting profession in the early 1970s, Kuehl became an adviser to students in campus activist groups at her alma mater, UCLA, and eventually became an associate dean of students. When Kuehl was passed over for a promotion that was given to a man, Kuehl felt that her treatment had been unfair and became interested in a legal career to address the position of women in the workplace.

In 1975, at age 34, after being denied admission into UCLA, Kuehl was accepted at Harvard Law School. In her third year she was elected class marshal and president of the student council. She received her J.D. in 1978. During her final year, she chaired the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first group of women to be admitted to the law school, and became the second woman to win Harvard's prestigious Ames Moot Court Competition, judged by a panel including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Kuehl recalled that the Justice "strode over to me, clasped my hand in his two huge hands and said, 'Lady, I like your style.'" Kuehl was recognized in the ABA's Law Student Division magazine as one of the nation's top five law students.

It was while at Harvard that Kuehl came to grips with her sexuality. She later recalled: "So it wasn't until I went to [Harvard] law school in my thirties that I fell in love again with a woman after having dated lots of men in between, and I thought 'Oh, no, this is really who I am.' And by then in the mid-seventies, there was consciousness about being gay. My second partner was out…and I was still in the closet I thought, [but] I wasn't really in the closet at school. It's just sort of like you creep out a little at a time. But there was no movement, no organization, no club at Harvard, and so when we came back and lived together, it only lasted a couple of years and she left. I was so broken-hearted but I had no one to talk to. I hadn't told anyone I was even in a relationship. So I decided to come out to my sister and then my friends and very shortly thereafter my parents. And that was probably '79, so I was 38. So I knew I was gay when I fell in love with a woman for the second time. It wasn't an aberration for me…."

After law school, Kuehl became an associate at Richards, Watson & Gershon in Los Angeles, where her practice focused on municipal law. She later became an associate at Bersch & Kaplowitz in Beverly Hills, practicing family, anti-discrimination, and civil rights law.

While working in private practice in Los Angeles Kuehl began fund-raising for the Sojourn Center for Battered Women (which she eventually served as chair). Staff from other shelters soon began asking Kuehl for legal advice and training in domestic-violence law. Kuehl later recalled this time saying "I had to learn what there was, which wasn't much." She then joined a handful of other lawyers in trying to assist in crafting legislation on the issue which included a bill that required judges in custody cases to consider evidence of domestic violence.

In the 1980s Kuehl became an adjunct law professor at the University of Southern California, and later an associate professor at Loyola Law School where she taught courses on family law, sex discrimination, and education.

During her 1986 inauguration as president of the Women Lawyers' Association of Los Angeles, Kuehl introduced Torie Osborn as her partner in the same manner that previous presidents had introduced their husbands. The incident became the lead story of California's daily law journal. (The pair would later separate in 1991, but remained close friends).

In 1989, along with Abby Leibman and Jenifer McKenna, Kuehl formed the California Women's Law Center to promote gender issues, including expanding the rights of divorced women and reforming hiring procedures in male-dominated professions, such as law enforcement.

California State Assembly
Kuehl was elected to the California State Assembly in 1994, becoming the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature. While running for office, Kuehl found she was able to offset some negative stereotypes people had about lesbians thanks to their familiarity with her role as Zelda. She told an interviewer, "When people know gay people personally, they tend to feel differently about the whole community. And all of a sudden, here's a person that they knew very well that they found out was lesbian."

In office, Kuehl became a founding member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. She recalled "My Democratic colleagues were enormously welcoming. I mean it was more than I could have expected. I walked into my first Democratic caucus and Antonio Villaraigosa, Kevin Murray, Barbara Friedman, John Burton, and probably three or four other folks came up to me and said, 'We don't want you to have to eat lunch by yourself, so we are the honorary Gay and Lesbian Caucus.' It was lovely."

When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994, a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for congressional and senatorial seats. Kuehl recalled, "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So, it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"

One of the first acts Kuehl did while in the Assembly was to introduce a bill (The Dignity for All Students Act – AB 222) to protect public-school students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill was supported by most of her fellow Democrats whom Kuehl later recalled were brought "into a space where they were in a civil rights movement where they had never been at their age and they were feeling it and felt good about themselves when they would stand up and support me." The debate was cited by the media, such as the LA Times, for its moving speeches, most notably Assemblyman Tom Torlakson's support of the bill which included a here-to unknown revelation that his brother had been bisexual and died of AIDS. The bill failed to pass the Assembly by one vote (it was opposed by 37 lawmakers, including seven Democrats). Supporters of the bill blamed "a state-wide public relations campaign by anti-gay groups aimed at moderate Democrats" which "featured mailers, newspaper ads and protests largely targeted at Latino lawmakers." Kuehl's opponents also held that the "proposal would open the door to a sweeping gay agenda in public schools." Republican Assemblyman Bruce Thompson claimed the bill wasn't about "civil rights, but it's about special rights [for homosexuals]," and it's "the issue that will divide this state and country more than any other."

While in the assembly, Kuehl served as speaker pro tempore during the 1997–98 legislative session, becoming the first woman in California history to hold the position. Kuehl served three full terms (six years) in the California Assembly, which was the maximum allowed under term limits that had been adopted in 1990.

California State Senate
After three terms in the Assembly, she was elected to the California State Senate in 2000, beating Assemblyman Wally Knox in the Democratic primary and becoming the first openly gay person elected to the Senate. Re-elected in 2004 with 65.7% of the vote, she was repeatedly voted the "smartest" member of the California Legislature.

In 2002 Kuehl co-authored the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act that defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons. The bill went on to pass the state legislature – the first time a state legislative body in the USA voted to approve same-sex marriage rather than respond to a court order to do so. The bill was vetoed on September 7, 2005, by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. who held that the matter should be decided by the courts or by popular referendum.

In 2004, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, held that denying homosexuals the right to marry was a violation of the due process clause in the California Constitution and allowed them to go forward (until a later Court order was made). After the mayor's announcement Kuehl presided over a number of same-sex marriages on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall rotunda. Among those whose wedding she officiated was Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg (who authored AB 205, a sweeping domestic partner benefits law) and her partner for twenty-eight years Sharon Stricker (a poet and activist). The couple's newly married son and daughter-in-law were in attendance. Kuehl also officiated over the weddings of Torie Osborn and her partner, Lydia Vaias; Jehan Agrama and Dwora Fried; Patti Giggans and Ellen Ledley; Barrie Levy and Linda Garnets; and Avi Rose and Ron Strochlic. Assemblymember Mark Leno (who had recently introduced a bill to change the family code to allow marriage equality) also attended the ceremonies giving a blessing in English and Hebrew to the couples.

Also in 2004, Kuehl authored Senate Bill 1234, an omnibus act intended to protect Californians from hate crimes, which the bill defined as criminal acts committed in whole or in part because of the victims' actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or association with persons with any of those characteristics. The bill targeted crimes, not First Amendment-protected speech. It also protected undocumented immigrants from deportation due to reporting hate crimes, increased civil protections from discrimination, and provided for law enforcement training concerning crimes against homeless persons and law enforcement response to homelessness; the bill was later enacted into law.

In 2006, Kuehl sponsored a bill to prohibit the adoption by any school district in California of any instructional material that discriminates against persons based on their gender or sexual orientation.

Throughout her career as a legislator, Kuehl took a leadership role on health care policy. Her foremost objective was securing passage of legislation to establish a single-payer health care system in California. SB 840 passed both houses of the legislature in 2006, but was vetoed by Schwarzenegger; it was reintroduced in 2007. SB 840 passed both houses of the California legislature in August 2008 and was, again, vetoed by Schwarzenegger.

On January 28, 2008, The New York Times reported that Kuehl planned to vote against a health care plan sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger and supported by a majority of Democrats in the Assembly, while opposed by a majority of Republicans. Her opposition along with the opposition of Senator Leland Yee led the Times to predict that California's widely touted healthcare bill – widely but inaccurately called "universal" coverage – would be effectively killed. However, by the time the bill came to the Senate Health Committee, chaired by Kuehl, all but one of the Democratic Senators on the committee had grave doubts about the bill and, after an eleven-hour hearing on the bill and an intervening week to caucus, on January 28, 2008, one Democrat voted yes, three abstained and three (including Kuehl), along with all Republicans, voted in opposition.

During her time in the state Legislature Kuehl authored bills pertaining to domestic violence, child support services, family leave, and discrimination based on gender, disability and sexual orientation. Later when speaking to an interviewer she reflected "I was a women's rights attorney and a law professor. My interest was primarily issues of equality on the basis of gender, whether it was workplace discrimination, protection from domestic violence and sexual assault, child care, custody issues for married women. That was my area of expertise, so we started with that. I had participated in writing virtually all of the domestic violence laws, and then brought bills to expand them once I was [in Sacramento]. I knew, that as the only gay person, it would fall to me to bring protective bills. And I chose the most difficult one first, because anything having to do with children is a flashpoint for the opposition. And so it was very difficult."

Kuehl served in the California Senate for two terms (eight years) the maximum allowed under term limits adopted in 1990.

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
On November 4, 2014, Supervisor Kuehl was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She assumed office on December 1, 2014, thus becoming the first openly LGBTQ person to ever serve on the Board. As the representative of Los Angeles County's 3rd Supervisorial District, she serves nearly two million residents, and is responsible for managing 431 square miles of land stretching from the Pacific ocean to Los Feliz, and from Venice up to San Fernando. In 2018, she served as chair of the Board of Supervisors.

In her capacity as Supervisor, she serves as chair of the Board of Commissioners of First 5 LA, First Vice Chair of the board of directors of LA Metro, and sits on the Board of the new Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) known as the Clean Power Alliance.

In her first three years on the Board, she has undertaken or collaborated in a number of initiatives and motions. A partial list of her work includes raising the minimum wage, creating a Citizens' Oversight Commission for the Sheriff's Department, providing funding and services for LA County's homeless population and those trying to find and keep affordable housing. She terms out in 2022.

Kuehl previously had a ten-year romantic relationship with Torie Osborn, who served as a deputy mayor in L.A. Osborn went on to support Kuehl's run for Supervisor and joined her staff as principal deputy for strategy and policy.

Los Angeles County limits its Supervisors to three consecutive four-year terms in accord with a 2002 measure. When running for the office she was asked if she missed acting and responded that the camaraderie in public service mirrored her favourite aspect of acting, and then stated "I suppose if I get to be a supervisor and then I'm termed out, I'll be, you know, fairly elderly but still able to do things, and then I guess my ambition would be to be Betty White for a couple of years."

Reflecting on her political career Kuehl told an interviewer, "I was very proud of the fact that I wasn't too frightened to run for office as a gay person. [You imagine] people making anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night to tell you you're a horrible person only in worse language than that, or imagine getting spat at. It's the same thing people go through about coming out. But it turns out to be much better than you expect."

On November 24, 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to uphold the county ban on outdoor dining, with Kuehl voting in favor of the ban and referring to the ongoing situation as a "serious health emergency." On November 30, 2020, the media received reports that within hours after voting in favor of the outdoor dining ban, Kuehl was spotted dining outdoors at an Italian restaurant, Il Forno Trattoria, in Santa Monica.

In 2022, UCLA named her the Edward A. Dickson Alum of the Year.

On September 14, 2022, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department served Kuehl with a search warrant. The warrant is related to an investigation into Kuehl's involvement with an alleged "pay to play" scheme; a former County official claimed that Kuehl and others improperly awarded a series of contracts for sexual harassment training programs.

title: Sheila Kuehl


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Patrick Swayze

Patrick Wayne Swayze (August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter known for playing distinctive lead roles, particularly romantic, tough, and comedic characters. He was also known for his media image and looks; People magazine named Swayze the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.

Swayze received three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, for his roles in the romance/dance film Dirty Dancing (1987), the paranormal romance film Ghost (1990), and the road comedy film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995). He also acted in action films, such as Road House (1989) and Point Break (1991). He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.

Swayze co-wrote and recorded the popular song "She's Like the Wind" and was posthumously awarded the Rolex Dance Award in 2012. In 2009, Swayze died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.

Early life
Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas, the second child of Patsy Swayze (née Karnes; 1927–2013), a dancer, choreographer, and dance instructor, and Jesse Wayne Swayze (1925–1982), an engineering draftsman. He had an older sister, Vickie (1949–1994), two younger brothers, actor Don (born 1958) and Sean (born 1962), and a younger sister, Bambi, who was adopted (born 1966). Swayze's paternal ancestor was Englishman John Swasey (1619–1706) from Bridport in Dorset. During the Puritan migration to New England between 1620 and 1640, Swasey traveled aboard the Recovery, ultimately arriving in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He married Katherine Kinge from Essex and eventually had seven children. Their grandson, Samuel, a judge, was among the first to use the Swayze spelling.

Until age 20, Swayze lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston, where he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, Oak Forest Elementary School, Black Middle School, Waltrip High School, and San Jacinto College Central. During this time, he pursued multiple artistic and athletic skills, such as ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He also played football during high school, hoping to receive a football scholarship for college until a knee injury ended his career. He concurrently practiced martial arts such as Wushu, Taekwondo, and Aikido, which he used to channel his "self-deprecating rage." In 1972, he moved to New York City to complete his formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet schools.

The American choreographer Eliot Feld planned a ballet for Swayze and Mikhail Baryshnikov, prevented by Swayze's knee reconstruction.

1980s
Patrick Swayze's first professional appearance was as a dancer for the Disney Theatrical Group in a show called Disney on Parade. He then starred in the role of Danny Zuko in one of the replacement casts for the long-running Broadway production of Grease. In 1979, he made his film debut as Ace in Skatetown, U.S.A. At the height of the popularity of disco, he starred in a Pabst Blue Ribbon commercial of him going on a date at a disco-themed nightclub with Pabst's then-jingle set to disco music. He appeared in the M*A*S*H episode "Blood Brothers" in 1981 as Private Sturgis, whose wounds are minor, but who is found to be terminally ill with leukemia. That same year, he appeared in the TV movie Return of the Rebels with Barbara Eden, and then in 1983, had a brief stint on the short-lived TV series The Renegades, playing a gang leader named Bandit.

Swayze became better known to the film industry after appearing in The Outsiders in 1983 as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. In the same year, Swayze played a Marine Corps trainer in Vietnam rescue film Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman. The following year, Swayze, Howell, and Howell's friend and fellow The Outsiders actor, Darren Dalton, reunited in Red Dawn, along with Jennifer Grey. In 1986, Lowe and Swayze reunited in Youngblood. Swayze's first major dramatic success was in the 1985 television miniseries North and South, set during the American Civil War.

Swayze starred in 1987's Dirty Dancing, a low-budget movie, planned for only a one-week release, after which it was to go to video. Swayze played resort dance instructor Johnny Castle, alongside his frequent co-star, Jennifer Grey. The story enabled Swayze to dance and romance Grey and showcase his professional dance training. In addition to acting and dancing, Swayze co-composed and sang one of the songs on the soundtrack for Dirty Dancing, "She's Like the Wind." The song became a top 10 hit that has since been covered by other artists. Swayze had originally co-written the song with Stacy Widelitz for the film Grandview, U.S.A. in 1984. Dirty Dancing's coming-of-age story first became a surprise hit, and then achieved enormous international success. It was the first film to sell one million copies on video and, as of 2009, it had earned over $214 million worldwide. The film also generated several alternative, or derivative, versions, ranging from a television series to stage productions to a computer game. Swayze received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role. After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself in great demand and appeared in several films, including Road House in 1989 with Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, and Kelly Lynch.

1990s
In the supernatural romantic thriller Ghost (1990), Swayze starred as Sam Wheat opposite Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, and Tony Goldwyn. Ghost was the highest grossing film of 1990 and the most rented videocassette of 1991. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Swayze earned another Golden Globe nomination for his acting. It was also Swayze who convinced the producers to hire Goldberg, who thanked Swayze in her acceptance speech when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The scene where he and Moore use a pottery wheel has become an iconic moment. In the following year, he starred alongside Youngblood castmate Keanu Reeves in another major action hit, Point Break, and People magazine named him the "Sexiest Man Alive."

For his contributions to the film industry, Swayze was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997. Swayze was injured in May 1997 while filming HBO's Letters from a Killer near Ione, California, when he fell from a horse and hit a tree. Both of his legs were broken, and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months. The film aired in 1998, and Swayze slowly recovered from his injuries, but he had trouble resuming his career until 2000, when he co-starred in Forever Lulu, with Melanie Griffith.

In 1995, Swayze appeared in the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, starring alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo as three drag queens whose car breaks down on a cross-country trip, leaving them stranded in a small town.

2000s
In 2001, he appeared in Donnie Darko, where he played a motivational speaker who is revealed to be a closeted pedophile. The film later obtained a cult following. After this, he co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton and Charlize Theron in Waking Up in Reno, which focuses on two redneck couples taking a road trip from Little Rock to Reno to see a monster truck rally. In 2004, he played Allan Quatermain in King Solomon's Mines and had a cameo appearance in the Dirty Dancing prequel Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights as an unnamed dance instructor.

In 2003, Swayze co-produced and also starred in the fictional dance film One Last Dance, along with his real-life wife Lisa Niemi. The story revolves around an actual dance production, Without a Word, which was choreographed by Alonzo King. Swayze and Niemi also produced the film, starred in it, and composed some of the music.

Swayze made his debut in London's West End in the musical Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit on July 27, 2006,  alongside Neil Jerzak and Jordan McGhee, and remained in the role until November 25, 2006. His previous appearances on the Broadway stage included productions of Goodtime Charley in 1975 and Chicago (as Billy Flynn). Swayze also provided the voice for Cash the country music band dog in The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006), and in 2007 he starred in the film Christmas in Wonderland. Swayze played an aging rock star in Powder Blue (2009), co-starring his younger brother Don in their first film together.

In his final role, Swayze starred as FBI agent Charles Barker in the A&E drama The Beast, which was filmed in Chicago. Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer shortly after filming the pilot episode, but continued working on the show while receiving treatment. The Beast premiered on January 15, 2009, and ran for one season. Reviewer Alan Sepinwall wrote: "[When] you watch Swayze in The Beast, [you] realize that this is the best performance of his career—that the opportunity to play a part like this, and to play it as well as he is, may be fueling his ability to keep fighting against the cancer. And you realize, in an odd silver lining, that the cancer may, in turn, be fueling the performance."

Personal life
Swayze was married to Lisa Niemi for 34 years from June 12, 1975, until his death. They had no children, but Lisa had suffered one miscarriage. They met in 1970 when Swayze was 18 years old. Niemi, 14 at the time, was taking dance lessons from Swayze's mother. In a 2008 interview, Swayze stated that Niemi was the inspiration for his song "She's Like the Wind" (1987).

In 1989, Swayze said, "I've always felt there was something different in there (my personality), but I was scared to look. For I fear I wouldn't find anything. That's the reason I got into Soka Gakkai Buddhism, and earlier in life took EST training, was into therapy, into transcendental meditation. I was trying to support that side of myself. But, you know, in Texas, there isn't much support for that part of you. I finally found what I was looking for in the Soka Gakkai tradition of Buddhist practice." Swayze said he loved looking into various belief systems and faiths, how it matters to other people, and how respecting other religious teachings is important to him.

Swayze publicly recounted his 10-year battle with alcoholism after his father's death. He entered rehabilitation in the 1990s, and after recovery, Swayze temporarily withdrew from show business, staying on his ranches in California and Las Vegas, New Mexico, to breed Arabian horses. His best-known horse was Tammen, a chestnut Arabian stallion.

Swayze, who was an FAA-licensed pilot with an instrument rating, made the news on June 1, 2000, while flying with his dogs in his twin-engined Cessna 414 N414PS, from Van Nuys, California, to Las Vegas, New Mexico. His plane developed a pressurization problem, causing Swayze to make a precautionary landing on a dirt road in a housing complex in Prescott Valley, Arizona. The plane's right wing struck a light pole, but Swayze was unharmed. According to the police report, witnesses said that Swayze appeared to be extremely intoxicated and asked for help to remove evidence from the crash site, namely an open bottle of wine and a 30-pack of beer. He made himself unavailable to police for several hours. It was later determined that the alcohol in question was not in the cabin, but stored in external storage compartments inaccessible in flight, and the probable cause of the accident was Swayze's physical impairment due to the cumulative effects of carbon monoxide from engine exhaust byproducts, carbon monoxide from heavy tobacco use, and the loss of an undetermined amount of cabin pressurization, resulting in hypoxia.

On December 27, 2006, Swayze and Niemi, who was also a licensed pilot, experienced a second incident while flying a Cessna 414 together en route to their New Mexico ranch. During the climb from their origin airport, they experienced a loss of power followed by a total failure of their right engine. Niemi, who was in the pilot's seat for the flight, successfully landed the plane in Van Nuys. After this second incident, the couple decided to sell it in favor of a Beechcraft Super King Air, N400KW, which they purchased through their company Prop Jocks Inc. in June 2007.

Illness and death
In late December 2007, just after filming the pilot episode for The Beast, Swayze began to suffer a burning feeling in his stomach caused by a blockage of his bile ducts. Three weeks later, in mid-January 2008, he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He traveled to the Stanford University Medical Center for chemotherapy and treatment with the experimental drug vatalanib, which doctors hoped would cut off the blood supply to the tumor.

On March 5, 2008, a Reuters article reported that Swayze "has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far." Swayze's doctor confirmed that the actor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but insisted he was not as close to death as reports suggested. Despite repeated tabloid claims that his death was imminent, Swayze continued to actively pursue his career.

In early May 2008, a number of tabloids reported that Swayze underwent surgery to remove part of his stomach after the cancer had spread. Reports also stated that he rewrote his will, transferring his property to his wife. In a statement made on May 28, Swayze said he continued to respond well to treatment at Stanford University Medical Center. In late May 2008, he was seen at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, his first public appearance since his diagnosis. In June 2008, he reportedly said, "My treatments are working and I am winning the battle."

Swayze appeared on the ABC, NBC, and CBS simulcast of Stand Up to Cancer in September 2008 to appeal to the general public for donations for the initiative. Swayze said to a standing ovation, "I dream that the word 'cure' will no longer be followed by the words 'it's impossible.' Together, we can make a world where cancer no longer means living with fear, without hope, or worse." After the show ended, Swayze remained onstage and talked to other cancer patients; executive producer Laura Ziskin (herself battling advanced breast cancer, which claimed her own life) said, "He said a beautiful thing: 'I'm just an individual living with cancer.' That's how he wants to be thought of. He's in a fight, but he's a fighter." On December 2, 2008, Swayze denied claims made by tabloids that the cancer had spread to his liver.

In an interview with Barbara Walters, which aired in January 2009, Swayze admitted that he had "a tiny little mass" in his liver, but told Walters that he wanted the media to report that he was "kicking it." When Walters asked him if he was using any holistic or alternative methods of treatment besides chemotherapy, Swayze said he was using some Chinese herbs. He then voiced his opposition to the unsupported claims made by proponents of alternative therapies.

On January 9, 2009, Swayze was hospitalized with pneumonia, which was said to be a complication of chemotherapy for his cancer. On January 16, he was released from the hospital to rest at home with his wife. On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that the cancer had again metastasized to his liver. Swayze was a smoker for 40 years, and he once made reference to smoking 60 cigarettes a day. He stated that his chain smoking probably "had something to do with" the development of his disease, and continued to smoke cigarettes while undergoing treatment for cancer.

Swayze died with family at his side on September 14, 2009, at the age of 57. Swayze's death occurred 20 months after his cancer diagnosis. Swayze's publicist confirmed to CNN that he had died of pancreatic cancer. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered over his New Mexico ranch.

Awards and nominations
Swayze received multiple awards and nominations throughout his career for his work both film and television. During his film career he received three Golden Globe award nominations for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his roles in Dirty Dancing, Ghost and To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything!, Julie Newmar. In 1996, he was immortalized when Swayze received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to Motion Picture, located at 7018 Hollywood, Blvd.

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

title: Patrick Swayze


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Robert Sheldon, Baron Sheldon

Robert Edward Sheldon, Baron Sheldon PC (born Isaac Ezra Shamash; 13 September 1923 – 2 February 2020) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton under Lyne from 1964 to 2001.

Early life and career
Isaac Ezra Shamash was born in Manchester to a family of Jewish immigrants from Iraq. His parents were Jack, a textile exporter, and Betty Shamash. His family always called him Bobby and so he changed his name by deed poll in 1943.

Sheldon was educated at Upper Latimer School, trained in engineering at Burnley and Stockport technical colleges, and awarded an external degree from the University of London. He joined the Labour Party in 1945 and later served as a Manchester City Councillor. Sheldon worked as director of his family textile firm.

Political career
Sheldon first stood for Parliament in Manchester Withington at the 1959 general election and was elected as MP for Ashton under Lyne at the 1964 general election a post he held until 2001.

He was one of the four directors of the Left Wing Coffee House from 1959 to 1963 in Manchester as well as Joel Barnett, and Edmund Dell, in addition to the chief funder, Harold Lever.

Sheldon caused difficulty for the first Wilson government in his support for devaluation of the pound, which the Prime Minister and Chancellor strongly opposed. When Chancellor James Callaghan refused to answer his question on the issue in Parliament, there was a run on the pound.

He was also staunchly pro-EU, supporting Britain's entry into the European Common Market and later advocating for membership of the European Monetary Union. Sheldon was known for his association with fellow MPs Joel Barnett and Edmund Dell, the three of whom met in Manchester during their youth.

He briefly served as Civil Service Minister after Labour returned to power in 1974 but was appointed as a Treasury Minister later in the same year. Sheldon was promoted to Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1975 to 1979 and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1977.

He served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1981 until 1983, when he became Chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). In his final term in the House of Commons, Sheldon stepped down from the PAC to chair both the Liaison Committee and Standards and Privileges Committee.

He stood down from the Commons at the 2001 general election, and was created a life peer as Baron Sheldon, of Ashton-under-Lyne in the County of Greater Manchester, on 22 June 2001. Sheldon retired from the House of Lords on 18 May 2015.

Personal life
Sheldon married his first cousin Eileen Shamash in 1945, with whom he had a son and daughter. Eileen died in 1969 and he married again to Mary Shield in 1971. His daughter, Gillian Sargeant, later became a Labour Councillor on Barnet London Borough Council.

In 2000, he collapsed on the street of a heart attack and was resuscitated by a passer-by, who happened to be former Olympic swimmer Duncan Goodhew. He eventually died of a heart attack on 2 February 2020.

title: Robert Sheldon, Baron Sheldon


text:
Janosik

Janosik can refer to:
 * Janosik (1921 film), a Slovak film
 * Janosik (film 1974), a Polish adventures film
 * Janosik (TV series), a Polish TV series
 * Janosik. Prawdziwa historia, a Polish historical film
 * Jánošík (disambiguation)

title: Janosik


text:
Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian/Croatian: Vijeće ministara Bosne i Hercegovine, Савјет министара Босне и Херцеговине), often called Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vlada Bosne i Hercegovine, Влада Босне и Херцеговине), is the executive branch of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also called the Cabinet.

According to Article V, Section 4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers is nominated by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and confirmed by the national House of Representatives. The Chairman then appoints other ministers.

Decision of the Constitutional Court
On 11 February 1999, Mirko Banjac, at the time Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, instituted a request for, among other issues, the evaluation of the constitutionality of the Law on the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Ministries of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. 4/97) which foresaw the existence of two Co-Chairs and a Vice-Chair of the Council of Ministers. In its decision the Court had, among other things, stated the following:

"Article V.4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina defines the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is composed of the Chair of the Council of Ministers and a certain number of ministers as may be appropriate, who are responsible for the implementation of the policy and the decisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina from within the competencies of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina appoints the Chair of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who assumes the office upon the approval by the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Chair of the Council of Ministers appoints the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Foreign Trade and other ministers as may be appropriate (no more than two thirds of the ministers may be appointed from the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), who assume the office upon the approval by the House of Representatives; also, the Chair appoints deputy ministers (who may not be from the same constituent people as their ministers), who assume the office upon the approval by the House of Representatives. It follows from what has been stated above that the challenged provisions of the law defining the Co-Chairs and the Vice-Chair of the Council of Ministers are not in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the Constitution clearly establishes the traditional function of a Prime Minister designate who also appoints the ministers according to Article V.4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina."

The Court gave the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina a three-month period from the date of publication of its decision on this matter in the "Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina" to bring the contested provisions of the Law in conformity with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the Parliamentary Assembly failed to do that, the Court, acting upon the request of the applicant and pursuant to its decision of 14 August 1999 and the legal standpoint exemplified in the reasons of the decision, established that certain provisions of the Law on Ministers and Ministries shall cease to be valid.

Responsibilities

The Council is responsible for carrying out the policies and decisions in the fields of:
 * foreign policy
 * foreign trade policy
 * customs policy
 * monetary policy
 * finances of the institutions and for the international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * immigration, refugee, and asylum policy and regulation
 * international and inter-Entity criminal law enforcement, including relations with Interpol
 * establishment and operation of common and international communications facilities
 * regulation of inter-Entity transportation
 * air traffic control
 * facilitation of inter-Entity coordination
 * other matters as agreed by the Entities

Standing Bodies of the Council of Ministers

 * General Secretariat
 * Economic Directorate
 * Internal Politics Directorate
 * Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * Bureau for Legal Matters

Current cabinet
The Cabinet is structured into the offices for the chairwoman of the Council of Ministers, the two vice chairs and 9 ministries.


text:
Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson may refer to:

Entertainment

 * Peter Robinson (sideshow artist) (1873–1947), American actor and sideshow performer, known for his appearance in film Freaks (1932)
 * J. Peter Robinson (born 1945), British musician and film score composer
 * Peter Robinson (conductor) (born 1949), British conductor
 * Peter Robinson (novelist) (1950–2022), British-born Canadian crime writer.
 * Peter Charles Robinson or Pete McCarthy (1951–2004), British comedian
 * Peter Robinson (poet) (born 1953), British poet and professor
 * Peter Robinson (New Zealand musician) (1958–2016), New Zealand musician
 * Peter Robinson (artist) (born 1966), New Zealand artist of Maori descent
 * Peter Robinson (Australian musician), founder of Australian band The Strangers
 * Peter Manning Robinson, film score composer, see The Maddening
 * Peter Robinson or Marilyn (singer) (born 1962), British pop singer

Politics

 * Peter Robinson (Canadian politician) (1785–1838)
 * Peter Robinson (speaker) (1791–1841), American politician in New York state
 * Peter Robinson (Northern Ireland politician) (born 1948), Northern Irish politician
 * Pete Robinson (Georgia state politician), in 138th to 140th Georgia General Assembly (1985–90)

Sports

 * Peter Robinson (Australian footballer) (born 1953), Australian rules footballer
 * Peter Robinson (cricketer, born 1929), English cricketer
 * Peter Robinson (cricketer, born 1943), English cricketer
 * Pete Robinson (drag racer) (1933–1971), American drag racer
 * Peter Robinson (footballer, born 1922) (1922–2000), English footballer
 * Peter Robinson (footballer, born 1957), English footballer
 * Peter Robinson (rugby league) (born 1976), Australian rugby league footballer and commentator

Other professions

 * Peter D. Robinson (born 1969), English bishop
 * Peter Frederick Robinson (1776–1858), British architect
 * Peter Robinson (chancellor), Canadian academic, see List of Canadian university leaders
 * Peter Robinson (computer scientist) (born 1952), English academic and computer scientist
 * Peter Robinson (journalist) (born 1977), British music journalist
 * Peter Robinson (lawyer) (born 1953), American lawyer
 * Peter Robinson (priest) (born 1961), Archdeacon of Lindisfarne
 * Peter Robinson (speechwriter) (born 1957), American speechwriter and interviewer
 * Peter Robinson (1804–1874), British founder of the Peter Robinson department store chain

Other uses

 * Peter Robinson (department store)

title: Peter Robinson


text:
Plate armour

Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, especially in the context of the Hundred Years' War, from the coat of plates (popular in late 13th and early 14th century) worn over mail suits during the 14th century, a century famous for the Transitional armour, in that plate gradually replaced chain mail.

In Europe, full plate armour reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. The full suit of armour, also referred to as a panoply, is thus a feature of the very end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. Its popular association with the "medieval knight” is due to the specialised jousting armour which developed in the 16th century.

Full suits of Gothic plate armour and Milanese plate armour were worn on the battlefields of the Burgundian Wars, Wars of the Roses, Polish–Teutonic Wars, Eighty Years' War, French Wars of Religion, Italian Wars, Hungarian–Ottoman Wars, Ottoman–Habsburg wars, Polish–Ottoman Wars, a significant part of the Hundred Years' War, and even the Thirty Years' War. The most heavily armoured troops of the period were heavy cavalry, such as the gendarmes and early cuirassiers, but the infantry troops of the Swiss mercenaries and the Landsknechts also took to wearing lighter suits of "three quarters" munition armour, leaving the lower legs unprotected.

The use of plate armour began to decline in the early 17th century, but it remained common both among the nobility (e.g., the Emperor Ferdinand II, Louis XIII, Philip IV of Spain, Maurice of Orange and Gustavus Adolphus) and the cuirassiers throughout the European wars of religion. After the mid-17th century, plate armour was mostly reduced to the simple breastplate or cuirass) worn by cuirassiers, with the exception of the Polish Hussars that still used considerable amounts of plate. This was due to the development of the musket, which could penetrate armour at a considerable distance. For infantry, the breastplate gained renewed importance with the development of shrapnel in the late Napoleonic Wars. The use of steel plates sewn into flak jackets dates to World War II, and was replaced by more modern materials such as fibre-reinforced plastic, since the mid-20th century.

Mail armour is a layer of protective clothing worn most commonly from the 9th to the 13th century, though it would continue to be worn under plate armour until the 15th century. Mail was made from hundreds of small interlinking iron or steel rings held together by rivets. It was made this way so that it would be able to follow the contour of the wearer's body, maximizing comfort. Mail armour was designed mainly to defend against thrusting and cutting weapons, rather than bludgeons. Typical clothing articles made of mail at the time would be hooded cloaks, gloves, trousers, and shoes. From the 10th to the 13th century, mail armour was so popular in Europe, that it was known as the age of mail.

Early history

Partial plate armour, made out of bronze, which protected the chest and the lower limbs, was used by the ancient Greeks, as early as the late Bronze Age. The Dendra panoply protected the entire torso on both sides and included shoulder and neck protections. Less restrictive and heavy armour would become more widespread in the form of the muscle cuirass during classic antiquity before being superseded by other types of armour. Parthian and Sassanian heavy cavalry known as Clibanarii used cuirasses made out of scales or mail and small, overlapping plates in the manner of the manica for the protection of arms and legs. Plate armour in the form of the Lorica segmentata was used by the Roman empire between the 1st century BC and 4th century AD.

Single plates of metal armour were again used from the late 13th century on, to protect joints and shins, and these were worn over a mail hauberk. Gradually the number of plate components of medieval armour increased, protecting further areas of the body, and in barding those of a cavalryman's horse. Armourers developed skills in articulating the lames or individual plates for parts of the body that needed to be flexible, and in fitting armour to the individual wearer like a tailor. The cost of a full suit of high quality fitted armour, as opposed to the cheaper munition armour (equivalent of ready-to-wear) was enormous, and inevitably restricted to the wealthy who were seriously committed to either soldiering or jousting. The rest of an army wore inconsistent mixtures of pieces, with mail still playing an important part.

Japan

In the Kofun period (250–538), iron plate cuirasses (tankō) and helmets were being made. Plate armour was used in Japan during the Nara period (646–793); both plate and lamellar armours have been found in burial mounds, and haniwa (ancient clay figures) have been found depicting warriors wearing full armour.

In Japan, the warfare of the Sengoku period (1467–1615) required large quantities of armour to be produced for the ever-growing armies of foot soldiers (ashigaru). Simple munition-quality chest armours (dō) and helmets (kabuto) were mass-produced.

In 1543, the Portuguese brought matchlock firearms (tanegashima) to Japan. As Japanese swordsmiths began mass-producing matchlock firearms and firearms became used in war, the use of Lamellar armour (ō-yoroi and dō-maru), previously used as samurai armour, gradually decreased. Japanese armour makers started to make new types of armour made of larger iron plate and plated leather. This new suit of armour is called tōsei gusoku (gusoku), which means modern armour. The type of gusoku, which covered the front and back of the body with a single iron plate with a raised center and a V-shaped bottom like plate armour, was specifically called nanban dou gusoku ("Western style gusoku) and was used by some samurai. Japanese armour makers designed bulletproof plate armour called tameshi gusoku ("bullet tested"), which allowed soldiers to continue wearing armour despite the heavy use of firearms in the late 16th century.

In the 17th century, warfare in Japan came to an end, but the samurai continued to use plate armour until the end of the samurai era in the 1860s, with the known last use of samurai armour occurring in 1877, during the Satsuma rebellion.

Late Middle Ages

By about 1420, complete suits of plate armour had been developed in Europe. A full suit of plate armour would have consisted of a helmet, a gorget (or bevor), spaulders, pauldrons with gardbraces to cover the armpits as was seen in French armour, or besagews (also known as rondels) which were mostly used in Gothic Armour, rerebraces, couters, vambraces, gauntlets, a cuirass (breastplate and backplate) with a fauld, tassets and a culet, a mail skirt, cuisses, poleyns, greaves, and sabatons. The very fullest sets, known as garnitures, more often made for jousting than war, included pieces of exchange, alternate pieces suiting different purposes, so that the suit could be configured for a range of different uses, for example fighting on foot or on horse. By the Late Middle Ages even infantry could afford to wear several pieces of plate armour. Armour production was a profitable and pervasive industry during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

A complete suit of plate armour made from well-tempered steel would weigh around 15 –. The wearer remained highly agile and could jump, run and otherwise move freely as the weight of the armour was spread evenly throughout the body. The armour was articulated and covered a man's entire body completely from neck to toe. In the 15th and 16th centuries, plate-armoured soldiers were the nucleus of every army. Large bodies of men-at-arms numbering thousands, or even more than ten thousand men (approximately 60% to 70% of French armies were men-at-arms and the percentage was also high in other countries), were fighting on foot, wearing full plate next to archers and crossbowmen. This was commonly seen in the Western European armies, especially during the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses or the Italian Wars.

European leaders in armouring techniques were Northern Italians, especially from Milan, and Southern Germans, who had somewhat different styles. But styles were diffused around Europe, often by the movement of armourers; the Renaissance Greenwich armour was made by a royal workshop near London that had imported Italian, Flemish and (mostly) German craftsmen, though it soon developed its own unique style. Ottoman Turkey also made wide use of plate armour, but incorporated large amounts of mail into their armour, which was widely used by shock troops such as the Janissary Corps.

Effect on weapon development

Plate armour gave the wearer very good protection against sword cuts, as well against spear thrusts, and provided decent defense against blunt weapons.

The evolution of plate armour also triggered developments in the design of offensive weapons. While this armour was effective against cuts or strikes, their weak points could be exploited by thrusting weapons, such as estocs, poleaxes, and halberds. The effect of arrows and bolts is still a point of contention with regard to plate armour. The evolution of the 14th-century plate armour also triggered the development of various polearms. They were designed to deliver a strong impact and concentrate energy on a small area and cause damage through the plate. Maces, war hammers, and pollaxes (poleaxes) were used to inflict blunt force trauma through armour. Strong blows to the head could result in concussion, even if the armour is not penetrated.

Fluted plate was not only decorative, but also reinforced the plate against bending under striking or blunt impact. This offsets against the tendency for flutes to catch piercing blows. In armoured techniques taught in the German school of swordsmanship, the attacker concentrates on these "weak spots", resulting in a fighting style very different from unarmoured sword-fighting. Because of this weakness, most warriors wore a mail shirt (haubergeon or hauberk) beneath their plate armour (or coat-of-plates). Later, full mail shirts were replaced with mail patches, called gussets, which were sewn onto a gambeson or arming jacket. Further protection for plate armour was the use of small round plates called besagews, that covered the armpit area and the addition of couters and poleyns with "wings" to protect the inside of the joint.

Renaissance
German so-called Maximilian armour of the early 16th century is a style using heavy fluting and some decorative etching, as opposed to the plainer finish on 15th-century white armour. The shapes include influence from Italian styles. This era also saw the use of closed helms, as opposed to the 15th-century-style sallets and barbutes. During the early 16th century, the helmet and neckguard design was reformed to produce the so-called Nürnberg armour, many of them masterpieces of workmanship and design.

As firearms became better and more common on the battlefield, the utility of full armour gradually declined, and full suits became restricted to those made for jousting which continued to develop. The decoration of fine armour greatly increased in the period, using a range of techniques, and further greatly increasing the cost. Elaborately decorated plate armour for royalty and the very wealthy was being produced. Highly decorated armour is often called parade armour, a somewhat misleading term as such armour might well be worn on active military service. Steel plate armour for Henry II of France, made in 1555, is covered with meticulous embossing, which has been subjected to blueing, silvering and gilding.

Such work required armourers to either collaborate with artists or have artistic skill of their own; another alternative was to take designs from ornament prints and other prints, as was often done. Daniel Hopfer was an etcher of armour by training, who developed etching as a form of printmaking. Other artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger produced designs for armour. The Milanese armourer Filippo Negroli, from a leading dynasty of armourers, was the most famous modeller of figurative relief decoration on armour.

Infantry
Reduced plate armour, typically consisting of a breastplate, a burgonet, morion or cabasset and gauntlets, however, also became popular among 16th-century mercenaries, and there are many references to so-called munition armour being ordered for infantrymen at a fraction of the cost of full plate armour. This mass-produced armour was often heavier and made of lower quality metal than fine armour for commanders.

Jousting

Specialised jousting armour produced in the late 15th to 16th century was heavier, and could weigh as much as 50 kg, as it was not intended for free combat, it did not need to permit free movement, the only limiting factor being the maximum weight that could be carried by a warhorse of the period.

The medieval joust has its origins in the military tactics of heavy cavalry during the High Middle Ages. Since the 15th century, jousting had become a sport (hastilude) with less direct relevance to warfare, for example using separate specialized armour and equipment.

During the 1490s, emperor Maximilian I invested a great deal of effort in perfecting the sport, for which he received his nickname of "The Last Knight". Rennen and Stechen were two sportive forms of the joust developed during the 15th century and practiced throughout the 16th century. The armours used for these two respective styles of the joust were known as Rennzeug and Stechzeug, respectively. The Stechzeug in particular developed into extremely heavy armour which completely inhibited the movement of the rider, in its latest forms resembling an armour-shaped cabin integrated into the horse armour more than a functional suit of armour. Such forms of sportive equipment during the final phase of the joust in 16th-century Germany gave rise to modern misconceptions about the heaviness or clumsiness of "medieval armour", as notably popularised by Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

The extremely heavy helmets of the Stechzeug are explained by the fact that the aim was to detach the crest of the opponent's helmet, resulting in frequent full impact of the lance to the helmet.

By contrast, the Rennen was a type of joust with lighter contact. Here, the aim was to hit the opponent's shield. The specialised Rennzeug was developed on the request of Maximilian, who desired a return to a more agile form of joust compared to the heavily armoured "full contact" Stechen. In the Rennzeug, the shield was attached to the armour with a mechanism of springs and would detach itself upon contact.

Early modern period
Plate armour was widely used by most armies until the end of the 17th century for both foot and mounted troops such as the cuirassiers, London lobsters, dragoons, demi-lancers and Polish hussars. The infantry armour of the 16th century developed into the Savoyard type of three-quarters armour by 1600.

Full plate armour was expensive to produce and remained therefore restricted to the upper strata of society; lavishly decorated suits of armour remained the fashion with 18th-century nobles and generals long after they had ceased to be militarily useful on the battlefield due to the advent of inexpensive muskets.

The development of powerful firearms made all but the finest and heaviest armour obsolete. The increasing power and availability of firearms and the nature of large, state-supported infantry led to more portions of plate armour being cast off in favour of cheaper, more mobile troops. Leg protection was the first part to go, replaced by tall leather boots. By the beginning of the 18th century, only field marshals, commanders and royalty remained in full armour on the battlefield, more as a sign of rank than for practical considerations. It remained fashionable for monarchs to be portrayed in armour during the first half of the 18th century (late Baroque period), but even this tradition became obsolete. Thus, a portrait of Frederick the Great in 1739 still shows him in armour, while a later painting showing him as a commander in the Seven Years' War (c. 1760) depicts him without armour.

Modern body armour
Body armour made a brief reappearance in the American Civil War with mixed success. During World War I, both sides experimented with shrapnel armour, and some soldiers used their own dedicated ballistic armour such as the American Brewster Body Shield, although none were widely produced. The heavy cavalry armour (cuirass) used by the German, British, and French empires during the Napoleonic Wars, were actively used until the first few months of World War I, when French cuirassiers went to meet the enemy dressed in armour outside of Paris. The cuirass represents the final stage of the tradition of plate armour descended from the Late Middle Ages. Meanwhile, makeshift steel armour for protection against shrapnel and early forms of ballistic vests began development from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Plate armour was also famously used in Australia by the Kelly Gang, a group of four bushrangers led by Edward "Ned" Kelly, who had constructed four suits of improvised armour from plough mouldboards and whose crime spree culminated with a violent shootout with police at the town of Glenrowan in 1880. The armour was reasonably effective against bullets and made Kelly seem almost invincible to the policemen, who likened him to an evil spirit or Bunyip with one constable reporting that "[I] fired at him point blank and hit him straight in the body. But there is no use firing at Ned Kelly; he can't be hurt", however it left sections of the groin and limbs exposed; during the infamous "Glenrowan Affair", gang member Joe Byrne was killed by a bullet to the groin, Kelly was captured after a fifteen-minute last stand against police (having sustained a total of 28 bullet wounds over his body), and the remaining two members are thought to have committed suicide shortly after. Although the recovered suits were almost immediately mismatched, they have since been reorganized and restored and today remain as a powerful symbol of the Australian outback.

In 1916, General Adrian of the French army provided an abdominal shield which was light in weight (approx. one kilogram) and easy to wear. A number of British officers recognised that many casualties could be avoided if effective armour were available.

The first usage of the term "flak jacket" refers to the armour originally developed by the Wilkinson Sword company during World War II to help protect Royal Air Force (RAF) air personnel from flying debris and shrapnel. The Red Army also made use of ballistic steel body armour, typically chestplates, for combat engineers and assault infantry.

After World War II, steel plates were soon replaced by vests made from synthetic fibre, in the 1950s, made of either boron carbide, silicon carbide, or aluminium oxide. They were issued to the crew of low-flying aircraft, such as the UH-1 and UC-123, during the Vietnam War. The synthetic fibre Kevlar was introduced in 1971, and most ballistic vests since the 1970s are based on kevlar, optionally with the addition of trauma plates to reduce the risk of blunt trauma injury. Such plates may be made of ceramic, metal (steel or titanium) or synthetic materials.

title: Plate armour


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Boris Rosing

Boris Lvovich Rosing (Борис Львович Розинг; 5 May 1869 – 20 April 1933) was a Russian scientist and inventor of television.

Biography
Boris Rosing was born in Saint Petersburg into the family of a government official. His father, Lev Nikolaevich Rozing, served on the commission for military service (conscription) under Czar Alexander II. Rozing was a descendant of the noble Rozing family, founded by Dutch immigrant Peter Rozing. Lev developed an interest mathematics and technology, including recent inventions, which he communicated to his son. From 1879 to 1887, Boris studied at St. Petersburg's Vvdensky gymnasium, from which he graduated with a gold medal. There, he distinguished himself in his studies of the exact sciences, literature and music. He then studied physics and mathematics at St. Petersburg University, which was a major research center. The distinguished faculty included the chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and the mathematicians Pafnuty Chebyshev and Andrey Markov. After graduating with honors in 1891, he remained at the university to pursue graduate studies in physics. The subject of his dissertation was magnetic hysteresis. He discovered hysteresis in the lengths of iron wires in the presence of cyclic magnetic fields, a phenomenon that was discovered independently by the Japanese investigator Hantaro Nagaoka. He subsequently became a physics instructor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. Starting in 1894, he also taught physics at the Konstantinovsky Artillery School, and from 1906, he lectured on electrical and magnetic measurements as part of women's polytechnic courses. During 1894–1900, he continued his studies of magnetism but also worked on several practical electrical problems. He taught at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology until 1918. He then conducted research at the Leningrad Experimental Electrotechnical Laboratory from 1924 to 1928 and at the Central Laboratory for Wire Communications from 1928 to 1931.

Television
Rosing's interest in television — or the "electric telescope", as he called it — began in 1897. Others had tried to develop a mechanical version of television. Rosing recognized the shortcomings of mechanical television; he thought that the image should be displayed electrically on a cathode ray tube (CRT). By 1902, Rosing began actual experimentation to test his ideas: he constructed a simple apparatus for electrically deflecting the beam of a CRT, which allowed him to draw figures on the tube's screen. At that time, mechanical devices scanned an image onto a selenium photoresistor, the resistance of which varied in response to the light striking it. However, selenium photoresistors responded to changes in light levels too slowly to accurately reproduce moving images. Therefore, Rosing used a photocell, a piece of alkaline metal in a vacuum tube which emitted electrons in response to light. Once Rosing had developed a rudimentary working television that incorporated his two innovations — a photocell detector and a CRT display — he filed a patent application in Russia on 25 July 1907 and — on the improved version of his system, which included magnetic deflection coils around the CRT — on 2 March 1911. He followed up with a demonstration of which a report was published in the Scientific American with diagrams and full description of the invention's operation. During 1912–1914, he did theoretical and experimental work on magnetic lenses. In 1918, he co-founded the North Caucasian Polytechnic Institute, now the Kuban State Technological University. In the early 1920s he resided in Krasnodar (formerly: Ekaterinodar), near the Black Sea. There, in 1920, he co-founded the Ekaterinodar Physical-Mathematical Society and became its chairman, and in 1923, he wrote his booklet The Electric Telescope: Vision at a distance.

Rosing's invention expanded on the designs of Paul Nipkow and his mechanical system of rotating lenses and mirrors. Accordingly, Rosing's system employed a mechanical camera device, but used very early cathode ray tube (developed in Germany by Karl Ferdinand Braun) as a receiver. Rosing's Braun Tubes consisted of two parallel metal plates that were used to electrically shift the electron beam itself before it was scanned and reached the screen. These two plates were connected electrically to the photoelectric cell in the camera. Depending on the output of the photoelectric cells, the beam would be deflected up or down before entering the concentrating plate. Since this movement increased or decreased the number of electrons passing between the plates, it had the effect of varying the brightness of the electron beam. The system was primitive, but it was definitely one of the first experimental demonstrations where the cathode ray tube was employed for the purposes of television. V. K. Zworykin, who pioneered television in the United States and Germany, was a pupil of Rosing and assisted him in some of his laboratory work. In 1925, B. Rosing advised and helped young inventor Boris Grabovsky apply for a patent (issued under No 5592) of a fully electronic TV set, called Telefot.

Rosing continued his television research until 1931 when he was exiled as a counter-revolutionary to Kotlas without right to work, but in 1932 was moved to Archangelsk, where took up physics at the Forestry Technology Institute. Rosing died in exile in 1933 of cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried in the Arkhangelsk Vologda (formerly: Kuznechevskaya) cemetery.

title: Boris Rosing


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Lockheed WP-3D Orion

The Lockheed WP-3D Orion is a highly modified P-3 Orion used by the Aircraft Operations Center division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The aircraft are operated by officers of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps. Only two of these aircraft exist, each incorporating numerous features for the role of collecting weather information. During the Atlantic hurricane season, the WP-3Ds are deployed for duty as hurricane hunters. The aircraft also support research on other topics, such as Arctic ice coverage, air chemistry studies, and ocean water temperature and current analysis.

Design
The WP-3Ds are equipped with three weather radars, C band radar in the nose and on the lower fuselage, and an X-band radar in the aircraft's tail. They are also equipped with the ability to deploy dropsondes into storm systems, and have onboard temperature sensors, and other meteorological equipment. While the aircraft are not specially strengthened for flying into hurricanes, their decks were reinforced to withstand the additional equipment load.

It has a barber's pole sampler (named for its red and white stripes) that protrude from the aircraft's front, a tail Doppler weather radar, and other unique-looking instruments hanging from the wing.

Operational history
NOAA currently operates two WP-3Ds nicknamed Miss Piggy and Kermit, and their logos feature the characters created by Jim Henson Productions. NOAA's other hurricane hunting aircraft, the Gulfstream IV-SP, is named Gonzo; they complement the fleet of WC-130 aircraft operated by the United States Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. As of 2014, the two Orions had each flown more than 10,000 hours and flown into more than 80 hurricanes. NOAA plans to replace these two aircraft with C-130s, and they are scheduled to be retired by 2030.

Between 2015 and 2017, the aircraft received major overhauls, costing a total of $35 million. This work was performed by the United States Navy's Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville Florida. The work included new wings and engines and upgraded radars and avionics. NOAA anticipates that these changes will allow the aircraft to fly until between 2032 and 2037.

title: Lockheed WP-3D Orion