Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spanish Civil War

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (4 December 1892 in Ferrol – 20 November 1975 in Madrid), commonly known as Francisco Franco (Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈθisko ˈfɾaŋko]), or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975. Franco used the title Caudillo de España, por la gracia de Dios from 1936 onwards, meaning, Leader of Spain, by the grace of God. During his almost forty year reign, Franco's governance went through various different phases, although the most common ideological features present throughout included a strong sense of Spanish nationalism and protection of the country's territorial integrity, Catholicism, anti-communism, anti-masonry and traditional values.

From a military family, originally intent on entering the Spanish Navy, Franco instead became a soldier. He participated in the Rif War in Morocco, becoming the youngest general in Europe by 1926. After returning to the Spanish mainland, he saw service supressing an anarchist-led strike in 1934; defending the stability of Alcalá-Zamora's conservative government. Following the formation of a Popular Front government, made up of Marxist, liberal republican and anarchist factions, instability heightened. Incidents of anti-clerical and anti-Catholic violence by leftist militants occured and also the assasination of José Calvo Sotelo, political leader of Acción Española.

Franco and the military participated in a coup d'état against the Popular Front government. The coup failed and devolved into the Spanish Civil War during which Franco emerged as the leader of the Nationalists against the Popular Front government. After winning the civil war with military aid from Italy and Germany—while the Soviet Union and various Internationalists aided the left—he dissolved the Spanish Parliament. He then established a right-wing authoritarian regime that lasted until 1978, when a new constitution was drafted. During the Second World War, Franco officially maintained a policy of non-belligerency and later of neutrality. However, he agreed to allow the many Spanish volunteers, known as the Blue Division to join the German Army in the fight against Communism on the Eastern Front.

After the end of World War II, Franco maintained his control in Spain through the implementation of severe measures: the systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship and coercion, the institutionalization of torture, the imprisonment of ideological enemies in concentration camps throughout the country (such as Los Merinales in Seville, San Marcos in León, Castuera in Extremadura, and Miranda de Ebro), the implementation of forced labor in prisons, and the use of the death penalty and heavy prison sentences as deterrents for his ideological enemies. During the Cold War, the United States established a diplomatic alliance with Spain, due to Franco's strong anti-Communist policy. American President Richard Nixon toasted Franco, and, after Franco's death, stated: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States." After his death Spain gradually began its transition to democracy. Today, pre-constitutional symbols from the Franco regime (such as the national flag with the Imperial Eagle) are banned by law in Spain.

Wilson Eyre(October 30, 1858 - Oct. 23, 1944)

Wilson Eyre, Jr. (October 30, 1858 - Oct. 23, 1944) was an influential American architect and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area. The son of Americans living abroad, he was born in Florence, Italy, and educated in Europe, Newport, Rhode Island, and Canada. He studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the Philadelphia offices of James Peacock Sims in 1877, and took over the firm on Sims’s death in 1882. In 1911, he entered into partnership with John Gilbert McIlvaine, and opened a second office in New York City. The firm of Eyre & McIlvaine continued until 1939.

Architect and author

Eyre is known for his deliberately informal and welcoming country houses, and for being an innovator in the Shingle Style. For his most important early houses, "Anglecot" (1883) and "Farwood" (1884-85), he used a similar plan: a line of asymmetrical public rooms stretching along a single axis, extending even outside to a piazza. Like many Shingle Style architects, he employed the open "living hall" as an organizing element in his plans. All of the main first floor rooms connected to the living hall, often through large openings. In addition, he used staircases to extend the space of the hall to the second floor. According to architectural-historian Vincent Scully: "This sense of extended horizontal plane and intensified "positive" scale evident in Eyre's work becomes later a basic component in the work of [Frank Lloyd] Wright..."Eyre collaborated with artists such as Alexander Stirling Calder and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Following his early success, Eyre became a leader in the international country life movement, traveling to England and corresponding with British and German architects. He was one of the first U.S. architects to be featured in the Arts & Crafts magazine International Studio, and he was published by Hermann Muthesius, the chronicler of the so-called "English" house of the turn of the century. Among foreign designers, Eyre was arguably the best known domestic architect in the U.S. prior to Frank Lloyd Wright's rise to prominence. His post-1890 country houses, such as "Allgates" (1910, expanded by Eyre & McIlvaine 1917) are among the most accomplished American essays in the restrained stucco cottage idiom popularized by C.F. Voysey and Ernest Newton in England. He was one of the founders and editors of House & Garden magazine.[2] He designed many distinctive gardens with his residences, and wrote extensively of the need for interaction between rooms and outdoor spaces.

Eyre was also renowned for his distinctive artistic drawings, often in watercolor. His extant drawings are now housed in the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. He was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1893. In 1917, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and was one of the founders of the T Square Club of Philadelphia in 1883.

Jimmy Carter (1924)

Achievements
Carter served as US President from 1977 to 1981. His foreign policy had some success—he mediated the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt and signed an arms treaty with the USSR—but his domestic policy was less effective, and oil-related inflation and unemployment hurt his bid for re-election. Since leaving office, Carter has been active in human-rights causes and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In 2007, Carter earned a Grammy Award for best album in what category? More... Discuss

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Prior to becoming president, Carter served two terms in the Georgia Senate followed by the governorship of the state of Georgia, from 1971 to 1975[1], and was a peanut farmer and naval officer.

As president, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II). Carter sought to put a stronger emphasis on human rights; he negotiated a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. His return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama was seen as a major concession of US influence in Latin America, and Carter came under heavy criticism for it. His term came during a period of persistent stagflation in a number of countries, including the United States, which significantly damaged his popularity. The final year of his presidential tenure was marked by several major crises, including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran and holding of hostages by Iranian students, an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. By 1980, Carter's disapproval ratings were significantly higher than his approval, and he was challenged by Ted Kennedy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980 election. Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination, but lost the election to Republican Ronald Reagan.

After leaving office, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded The Carter Center in 1982 [2], a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization that works to advance human rights. He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, observe elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Carter is a key figure in the Habitat for Humanity project,[3] and also remains particularly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As of 2009[update], Carter is the second-oldest living former president, three months and 19 days younger than George H. W. Bush.

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tODAYS bIRTHDAY

WHO BORN TODAY

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

Ivan Pavlov (1849)

Pavlov was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, physician, and Nobel Prize recipient. In the 1890s, he was investigating the gastric function of dogs when he noticed that some of the animals began salivating before actually receiving their food. He made this phenomenon the focus of his research, thereby discovering the conditioned reflex, which has greatly influenced both science and popular culture. The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe people who do what?

BIOGRAPHY
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов, September 14, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research pertaining to the digestive system. Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon now known as classical conditioning in his experiments with dogs.

Life and research
Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia. He began his higher education as a student at the Ryazan Ecclesiastical Seminary, but then dropped out and enrolled in the University of St. Petersburg to study the natural sciences. He received his doctorate in 1879.

In the 1890s, Pavlov was investigating the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect, measure, and analyze the saliva many had in response to food under different conditions. He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food coated with chili powder was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this "psychic secretion", as he called it. He decided that this was more interesting than the chemistry of saliva, and changed the focus of his research, carrying out a long series of experiments in which he manipulated the stimuli occurring before the presentation of food. He thereby established the basic laws for the establishment and extinction of what he called "conditional reflexes" — i.e., reflex responses, like salivation, that only occurred conditionally upon specific previous experiences of the animal. These experiments were carried out in the 1890s and 1900s, and were known to western scientists through translations of individual accounts, but first became fully available in English in a book published in 1927.

Unlike many pre-revolutionary scientists, Pavlov was highly regarded by the Soviet government, and he was able to continue his researches until he reached a considerable age. Moreover, he was praised by Lenin and as a Nobel laureate he was seen as a valuable political asset.

After the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, Pavlov wrote several letters to Molotov criticizing the mass persecutions which followed and asking for the reconsideration of cases pertaining to several people he knew personally.

In later life he was particularly interested in trying to use conditioning to establish an experimental model of the induction of neuroses. He died in Leningrad. His laboratory in Saint Petersburg has been carefully preserved as a museum.

Conscious until his very last moment, Pavlov asked one of his students to sit beside his bed and to record the circumstances of his dying. He wanted to create unique evidence of subjective experiences of this terminal phase of life. The great scientific courage of Pavlov is exhibited by this story: he tried to learn, and to increase knowledge of physiology, even on his deathbed.

Reflex system research
Pavlov contributed to many areas of physiology, neurology and psychology. Most of his work involved research in temperament, conditioning and involuntary reflex actions.

Pavlov performed and directed experiments on digestion which earned him the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine[4] Experiments included surgically extracting portions of the digestive system from animals, severing nerve bundles to determine the effects, and implanting fistulas between digestive organs and an external pouch to examine the organ's contents. This research served as a base for broad research on the digestive system.

Further work on reflex actions involved involuntary reactions to stress and pain. Pavlov extended the definitions of the four temperament types under study at the time: phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, and melancholic. Pavlov and his researchers observed and began the study of transmarginal inhibition (TMI), the body's natural response of shutting down when exposed to overwhelming stress or pain. This research showed how all temperament types responded to the stimuli the same way, but different temperaments move through the responses at different times. He commented "that the most basic inherited difference. .. was how soon they reached this shutdown point and that the quick-to-shut-down have a fundamentally different type of nervous system."

Carl Jung continued Pavlov's work on TMI and correlated the observed shutdown types in animals with his own introverted and extroverted temperament types in humans. Introverted persons, he believed, were more sensitive to stimuli and reached a TMI state earlier than their extroverted counterparts. This continuing research branch is gaining the name highly sensitive persons.

William Sargant and others continued the behavioral research in mental conditioning to achieve memory implantation and brainwashing.
Legacy
Pavlov's term "conditional reflex" ("условный рефлекс") was mistranslated from the Russian as "conditioned reflex", and other scientists reading his work concluded that since such reflexes were conditioned, they must be produced by a process called conditioning. As Pavlov's work became known in the West, particularly through the writings of John B. Watson, the idea of "conditioning" as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the developing specialism of comparative psychology, and the general approach to psychology that underlay it, behaviorism. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell was an enthusiastic advocate of the importance of Pavlov's work for philosophy of mind.

Pavlov's research on conditional reflexes greatly influenced not only science, but also popular culture. The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation rather than use critical thinking. Pavlovian conditioning was a major theme in Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World, and also to a large degree in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

It is popularly believed that Pavlov always signaled the occurrence of food by ringing a bell. However, his writings record the use of a wide variety of stimuli, including whistles, metronomes, tuning forks, and a range of visual stimuli, in addition to ringing a bell.

Catania cast doubt on whether Pavlov ever actually used a bell in his famous experiments. Littman tentatively attributed the popular imagery to Pavlov’s contemporaries Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev and John B. Watson, until Thomas found several references that unambiguously stated Pavlov did, indeed, use a bell.
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Jesse Owens (1913)

Owens was an African-American track-and-field star famous for his performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, where he claimed 4 gold medals in the presence of Adolf Hitler and Nazi leaders, who had hoped the games would promote their idea of racial superiority. Though hailed as a hero, Owens faced segregation upon his return to the US, even suffering the humiliation of having to use a freight elevator to attend a post-parade reception in his honor. How did he earn a living after the Olympics?

Medal record
Men's athletics
Gold 1936 Berlin 100 m
Gold 1936 Berlin 200 m
Gold 1936 Berlin 4 x 100 m relay
Gold 1936 Berlin Long jump




Biography
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.

Early years
James Cleveland Owens was born in 1913 in Lawrence County, Alabama to Henry and Emma Owens. When Owens was eight, his parents decided to move the family to Cleveland, Ohio. Owens was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. He was often sick with what his mother reportedly called "the devil's cold". He was given the name Jesse by a teacher in Cleveland who did not understand his accent when the young boy said he was called J.C.

Life in Cleveland was not prosperous for the family. Owens had taken different jobs in his spare time: He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop.During this period Owens realized that he had a passion for running.

Throughout his life Owens attributed the success of his athletic career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior-high track coach at Fairview Junior High, who had put him on the track team (see also Harrison Dillard, a Cleveland athlete inspired by Owens). Since Owens worked in a shoe repair shop after school, Riley allowed him to practice before school instead.

Owens first came to national attention when, as a student of East Technical High School in Cleveland, he equalled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and long-jumped 24 feet 9 ½ inches (7.56 m) at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago.

Post Olympics
After the games had finished, Owens was invited, along with the rest of the team, to compete in Sweden. However he decided to capitalise on his success by returning to the United States to take up some of the lucrative commercial offers he was receiving. American athletic officials were furious and withdrew his amateur status, ending his career immediately. Owens was livid: "A fellow desires something for himself," he said.

With no sporting appearances to bolster his profile, the lucrative offers never quite materialised. Instead he was forced to try to make a living as a sports promoter, essentially an entertainer. He would give local sprinters a ten or twenty yard start and beat them in the 100 yd (91 m) dash. He also challenged and defeated racehorses although as he revealed later, the trick was to race a high-strung thoroughbred horse that would be frightened by the starter's pistol and give him a good jump.

He soon found himself running a dry-cleaning business and then even working as a gas station attendant. He eventually filed for bankruptcy but, even then, his problems were not over and in 1966 he was successfully prosecuted for tax evasion. At rock bottom, the rehabilitation began and he started work as a U.S. 'goodwill ambassador'. Owens traveled the world and spoke to companies like the Ford Motor Company and the United States Olympic Committee. He would always stress the importance of religion, hard work, and loyalty. In 1968, he received some criticism for supporting the racially turbulent XIX Olympic Games held that year.

The Jesse Owens Foundation provides information, materials, and direction for research on the life of Jesse Owens. It is governed by a Board of Directors with oversight provided by a Managing Director. The Foundation is supported by special events and contributions from the community at large. Since 1983, the Foundation has provided more than 350 young people throughout the country with support for their college education.

Jesse Owens was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by Gerald Ford and (posthumously) the Congressional Gold Medal by George H. W. Bush on March 28, 1990. In 1984, a street in Berlin was renamed for him, and the Jesse Owens Realschule/Oberschule (a secondary school) is in Berlin-Lichtenberg. His birthplace in Oakville dedicated a park in his honor in 1996, at the same time the Olympic Torch came through the community, 60 years after his Olympic triumph.

A pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, Owens died of lung cancer at age 66 in Tucson, Arizona. He is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.

Trivia
* The runner he beat in the 200m at the 1936 Summer Olympics was Jackie Robinson's brother, Matthew "Mack" Robinson, who also tied the world record at the time.
* In 1984 a street close to the Olympic Stadium Berlin was renamed Jesse-Owens-Allee.
* Two U.S. postage stamps have been issued to honor Owens, one in 1990 and another in 1998.
* Additionally, in Phoenix, Arizona, there is the Jesse Owens Medical Plaza, named in his honor. It is located on the southeast corner of Baseline Rd. and Jesse Owens Parkway (another namesake).
* He was portrayed by Dorian Harewood in The Jesse Owens Story (1984).
* His great-nephew, Chris Owens, an American professional basketball player, is a member of German league team ALBA Berlin.[8]
* Norwegian poet Nordahl Greig has written a poem called "Sprinterne", which is about him.
* In the movie Half Baked,Samson asked Thurgood to, "just call me Jesse Owens".

A few months before his death, Owens tried unsuccessfully to convince President Jimmy Carter not to boycott the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow, arguing that the Olympic ideal was to be a time-out from war and above politics.

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Louis XIV of France (1638)

Louis XIV of France known as the "Sun King," Louis XIV ruled over France for 72 years, longer than any other major European monarch. Reigning over a highly centralized state, he became the archetype of the absolute monarch. He fought several wars, built one of Europe's most elaborate palaces at Versailles, and was a great supporter of the arts. What influential French philosopher compared Louis XIV to the Roman emperor Augustus and called his reign an "eternally memorable age"?

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Michael Jackson "His Music Will Live Forever"

Michael Jackson, one of the most widely beloved entertainers and profoundly influential artists of all-time, leaves an indelible imprint on popular music and culture.

Five of Jackson's solo albums - "Off the Wall," "Thriller," "Bad," "Dangerous" and "HIStory," all with Epic Records - are among the top-sellers of all time and “Thriller” holds the distinction as the largest selling album worldwide in the history of the recording industry with more than 70 million units sold. Additionally, singles released from the Thriller album sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, another all time record.

During his extraordinary career, he sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide, released 13 No.1 singles and became one of a handful of artists to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Jackson as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time and "Thriller" as the Biggest Selling Album of All Time. Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and received the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award.

Michael Jackson started in the music business at the age of 11 with his brothers as a member of the Jackson 5. In the early 1980s, he defined the art form of music video with such ground-breaking videos as "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and the epic "Thriller." Jackson's sound, style and dance moves inspired subsequent generations of pop, soul, R&B and hip-hop artists.

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Mother Teresa The Nobel Peace Prize 1979

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje*, Macedonia, on August 26**, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.

On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded. In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch was established.

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.

The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charism in their families.

Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.

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Galileo's telescope reaches 400th anniversary

Galileo's telescope reaches 400th anniversary
It is 400 years since Galileo Galilei demonstrated his telescope, which would lead him to make new astronomical observations

Galileo's telescope helped the astronomer to learn more about our solar system. This is a reconstruction of the telescope. Photograph: Jim Sugar/Corbis

While many people have been loudly celebrating this year's double commemoration of 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, another scientific anniversary has crept up relatively quietly, marking an event which arguably changed human thought and the way we see ourselves even more irrevocably.

Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.

A refinement of models first devised in the Netherlands, Galileo's slim, brown stick was puny even by the standards of something one might buy in hobby shop today. But his eight-powered telescope, and the more powerful models he soon produced, when pointed skywards led Galileo to a series of groundbreaking conclusions.

The moon was not, as long believed, completely smooth. Another planet, Jupiter, also had moons. Meanwhile Venus showed a range of moon-like phases, something which could not happen if both it and the sun orbited the earth.

This latter phenomenon had been predicted by Nicolaus Copernicus when, nearly a century before, he had proposed the notion of a planetary system with the sun at the centre, not the earth.

Galileo's discoveries were, perhaps predictably, not best welcomed by the Catholic church, and he spent the final decade of his life under house arrest.

It was certainly a revelation which upset the orthodoxies – and the churches – at least as much as Darwin's, and perhaps merits a bit more of fuss, although museum-goers in Philadelphia and Stockholm can view one of Galileo's very early telescopes, on loan this year from Florence. A good deal more people are likely to be alerted thanks to Google's day-long adaptation of their main page logo to a Google Doodle in honour of the event.

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Milošević, Slobodan

Milošević, Slobodan (slôbô`dän mēlô`shəvĭch'), 1941–2006, Yugoslav and Serbian political leader, president of Serbia (1989–97) and of Yugoslavia (1997–2000), b. Požarevac, Serbia. He joined the Communist party in 1959, beginning his political career in the 1960s as an economic adviser to the mayor of Belgrade and holding various posts in the party and state enterprises. He became the leader of the Belgrade Communist party in 1984 and Serbian party leader in 1986.

Initially opposed to liberalization, he was elected president of Serbia Serbia (sûr`bēə), Serbian Srbija
..... Click the link for more information. in 1989 and proceeded to transform its Communist party into the nationalistic Socialist party. Milošević called for the inclusion of Serb areas in other republics in a "greater Serbia" as the price for Yugoslavia's dissolution. He supported Serb forces in Croatia Croatia (krōā`shə), Croatian Hrvatska, officially Republic of Croatia, republic (2005 est. pop.
..... Click the link for more information. and Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina (bŏz`nēə, hĕrtsəgōvē`nə), Serbo-Croatian Bosna i Hercegovina,
..... Click the link for more information. after the two became independent and was widely blamed for the Serbs' military aggression and brutal "ethnic cleansing" policies, but he ultimately abandoned the Serbs outside Serbia, signing (1995) a peace accord.

Barred from a third term as Serbia's president, he became president of Yugoslavia in 1997. In 1999 his government's refusal to restore autonomy to Kosovo Kosovo Field, Serbo-Croatian Kosovo Polje [field of the black birds], the Turks under Sultan Murad I defeated Serbia and its Bosnian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, and other allies in 1389.
..... Click the link for more information. and its harsh tactics there led to NATO air attacks (Mar.–June) on Yugoslavia as Serbian forces deported hundreds of thousands of Albanian Kosovars; Serbia was forced to withdraw from Kosovo. As a result of Serbian actions, Milošević was charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

In 2000 the Yugoslav constitution was amended to permit the president to hold office for two terms; direct presidential elections also were instituted. The changes were designed to permit Milošević to remain in power, but when elections were held he was defeated by Vojislav Koštunica Koštunica, Vojislav (voi`släv kôsht
..... Click the link for more information. . Milošević only conceded after being forced to by strikes and demonstrations and international pressure, and remained head of the Socialist party of Serbia.

In 2001 he was arrested on charges of abuse of power and corruption and later turned over to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, which tried him (2002) on charges of war crimes in Kosovo, Croatia, and Bosnia. He died, however, before his lengthy trial concluded. His family blamed his death on foul play, but a Dutch investigation found no evidence of this. Some tribunal officials believed he manipulated the treatment of his high blood pressure in an attempt to delay his trial or win release on medical grounds; earlier in 2006 an unprescribed antibiotic that interferes with blood pressure medication was found in his blood.

John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden (August 19 O.S. August 9] 1631 – May 12 O.S. May 1] 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.
Early life
Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Oundle in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was Rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus and Mary Dryden, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh where it is also likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar where his headmaster was Dr Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe disciplinarian.[1] Recently enough re-founded by Elizabeth I, Westminster during this period embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging royalism and high Anglicanism. Whatever Dryden’s response to this was, he clearly respected the Headmaster and would later send two of his own sons to school at Westminster. Many years after his death a house at Westminster was founded in his name.

As a humanist grammar school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His years at Westminster were not uneventful, and his first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings from smallpox, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649.

In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge where he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood. The Master of Trinity was a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Hill who had been a rector in Dryden’s home village.[2] Though there is little specific information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on.

Arriving in London during The Protectorate, Dryden obtained work with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. This appointment may have been the result of influence exercised on his behalf by the Lord Chamberlain Sir Gilbert Pickering, Dryden’s cousin. Dryden was present on 23 November 1658 at Cromwell’s funeral where he processed with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas (1658), a eulogy on Cromwell’s death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the interregnum is illustrated as a time of anarchy, and Charles is seen as the restorer of peace and order.
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William Jones

William Jones Biography

William "Billy" Frank Jones, better known as Christopher Jones, is an American character actor, born August 18, 1941 in Jackson, Tennessee.

With looks and a manner strikingly reminiscent of the late James Dean, Jones came from a similar background to Dean`s, but his interest in the arts began with drawing, which earned him an Art school scholarship in his teens. Jones`s enjoyment of movies interested him in acting, and he began to study filmed performances, particularly those of James Dean (East of Eden) and Elvis Presley (Love Me Tender), whom he considered his first idol. After serving briefly in the US Army (and going AWOL to visit Dean`s family in Fairmount, Indiana), Jones studied painting in New York City, then began acting classes.

Befriended by Frank Corsaro, who had also been a friend of Dean`s, Jones (adopting the stage name Christopher) made his Broadway debut on December 17, 1961, in Tennessee Williams`s The Night of the Iguana, directed by Corsaro and starring actress Shelley Winters. Winters introduced Jones to Susan Strasberg, an actress herself, and the daughter of Method acting progenitor Lee Strasberg. Jones went on to study at Strasberg`s Actors Studio, and despite personal friction between Lee and himself, "Chris" went on to marry Susan in 1965. The couple had a daughter, named Jennifer Robin Jones, in 1966.[1]

Moving to Hollywood, Jones was cast in the title role of a television series, The Legend of Jesse James (produced by Twentieth Century-Fox), which ran for two seasons. When the series ended, he accepted the role of wife Strasberg`s lover in the movie Chubasco. Unfortunately the marriage didn`t long survive the filming, and the two were divorced in 1968.

Jones`s next acting job, as rock star and Presidential wannabe Max Frost in the 1968 cult classic Wild in the Streets (costarring Shelley Winters), propelled Jones to the peak of his stardom. He appeared later that same year with Yvette Mimieux, in the sex comedy Three in the Attic. Jones also became friends with actress Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski. He claimed later to have had an affair with Tate (while she was pregnant with Polanski`s child), and to have had a premonition of her death, before she was murdered by members of the Manson family.[2]

After two films in Europe with Pia Degermark (The Looking Glass War and Brief Season), Jones was cast by legendary movie director David Lean in Ryan`s Daughter. Jones proved out of his element working with Lean, and with the two men frustrated by each other, production of the film took months longer than expected. This and the death of Sharon Tate took a personal toll on Jones, who returned from Ireland to California after filming ended (staying for a time in the caretaker`s cottage behind the house where Tate had died), and abandoned his acting career.

Living off his earnings, Jones resumed painting, and fathered another five children. He spurned offers to return to the screen, even after his personal fortunes and health declined, and passed on the role of Zed in Quentin Tarantino`s groundbreaking Pulp Fiction in 1994. Jones made a brief return to film in 1996, with a small part in former co-star Larry Bishop`s Mad Dog Time, but has no other plans for acting roles.

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Francis Gary Powers

Francis Gary Powers

Francis Gary Powers was born on Saturday, August 17, 1929 in Jenkins and he was a famous military from United States.
Life in Brief:
- Being born on Aug 17, Francis Gary was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: White.
He attended the Milligan College, TN.
Francis Gary dated Claudia Edwards 'Sue' Powers (wife).
He died on Monday, August 01, 1977, in Encino; cause of death: accident - helicopter.
Famous Why : U2 shot down over the Soviet Union.

Early life
Powers was born in Jenkins, Kentucky, with Melungeon ancestry, and raised in Pound, Virginia, on the Virginia-Kentucky border. After graduating from Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1950. Upon completing his training (52-H) he was assigned to the 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia as an F-84 Thunderjet pilot. He was assigned to operations in the Korean War, but (according to his son) was recruited by the CIA because of his outstanding record in single engine jet aircraft, soon after recovering from an illness. [2] By 1960, the 31-year old Powers was already a veteran of many covert aerial reconnaissance missions.
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Walther von Reichenau

Walther von Reichenau was born on Saturday, August 16, 1884 in Karlsruhe and he was a famous military from Germany.

Life in Brief:
- Being born on Aug 16, Walther von was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: White.
Walther von dated Alexandrine (wife).
He died on Saturday, January 17, 1942, in Poltawa; cause of death: accident - airplane.
Famous Why : Nazi general.

History
Reichenau was born in Karlsruhe to a Prussian general and joined the German Army in 1902. During World War I he served on the Western Front. He was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and by 1918 had been promoted to the rank of Captain.

Reichenau stayed in the army under the Weimar Republic as a General Staff officer. From 1931 he was Chief of Staff to the Inspector of Signals at the Reichswehr Ministry, and later served with General Werner von Blomberg in East Prussia. His uncle, an ardent Nazi, introduced him to Adolf Hitler in 1932 and von Reichenau became a convert, joining the Nazi Party soon after. Doing so was a violation of army regulations, which forbade army members from joining political parties.

Reichenau's family was quite wealthy, descended from a long line of German nobility. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the von Reichenau family owned and operated one of the largest furniture factories in Germany. In 1938, records indicate that the family "donated" the factory to the Nazi cause, transforming it into a munitions plant. During Allied attacks in 1945, the factory (located just outside Karlsruhe, Germany) was destroyed in an air raid, the last remaining vestiges of the von Reichenau family's wealth and prominence obliterated in the process.

When Hitler came to power in January 1933, Blomberg became Minister of War and von Reichenau was appointed head of the Ministerial Office, acting as liaison officer between the Army and the Nazi Party. He played a leading role in persuading Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler that the power of Ernst Röhm and the SA must be broken if the Army was to support the Nazi regime. This led directly to the "Night of the Long Knives" of 30 June 1934.

In 1935 von Reichenau was promoted to lieutenant-general and was appointed Commander in Munich. By 1938, after the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair in which General Werner von Fritsch was forced out of the Army command, von Reichenau was Hitler's first choice to succeed him, but older leaders such as Gerd von Rundstedt and Ludwig Beck refused to serve under him, and Hitler backed down. Von Reichenau's enthusiastic Nazism repelled many of the generals who would not oppose Hitler but who did not care for the Nazi ideology.
In September 1939, von Reichenau commanded the 10th Army during the invasion of Poland. In 1940 he led the 6th Army during the invasion of Belgium and France, and in July Hitler promoted him to field marshal.
During the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, von Reichenau again commanded the 6th Army, which captured Kiev and Kharkov. Politically, von Reichenau was an active anti-Semite and supported the work of the SS Einsatzgruppen in exterminating the Jews in the occupied Soviet territories. He encouraged his soldiers to commit atrocities against the Jews, telling them: "...In this eastern theatre, the soldier is not only a man fighting in accordance with the rules of the art of war...For this reason the soldier must learn fully to appreciate the necessity for the severe but just retribution that must be meted out to the subhuman species of Jewry...".

During the offensive, Reichenau inspected every single Russian tank he came across. He would enter each tank and, using a ruler, he would examine the thickness of the armor. Upon examining a T-34 Tank, he told his officers, "If the Russians ever produce this tank on an assembly line, we will have lost the war."

A few historians such as Walter Görlitz have sought to defend von Reichenau, summarizing his October 1941 "Reichenau Order" as "demanding that the troops keep their distance from the Russian civilian population."

On 19 December 1941 Hitler sacked Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief and tried to appoint von Reichenau to the post. But again the senior Army leaders rejected von Reichenau as being "too political" and Hitler appointed himself instead.

In January 1942 von Reichenau suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and it was decided to fly him from Poltava to a hospital in Leipzig, Germany. He is often said to have been killed in a plane crash in Russia, though Görlitz writes that the plane merely made an emergency landing in a field, and that von Reichenau actually died of a heart attack.
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Thomas Sumter

Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734 – June 1, 1832)
Thomas Sumter was born on Saturday, August 14, 1734 in Hanover County and he was a famous military from United States.
Life in Brief:
- Being born on Aug 14, Thomas was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: White.
- his mother's name: Elizabeth Sumter.
- his father's name: William Sumter.
- Brothers : William Sumpter, John Sumpter, Edmund Sumpter.
- Sisters : Patience Sumpter, Anna Sumter.

Thomas dated Cantey Gemstone (wife).
He died on Friday, June 01, 1832, in South Mount; cause of death: unspecified.
Famous Why : Revolutionary War general.

Detailed Biography
Sumter was born in Virginia in 1734. His father was an emigrant from Wales. He came to South Carolina at age 30, and settled in Stateburg in the Claremont (now Sumter) district. He married the widow Mary Jameson in 1767, and together they opened several small businesses and became successful plantation owners. Due to his wealth and the respect in the community, he was able to form a local militia group.

In February 1776, he was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Regiment of Riflemen. He participated in several battles in the early months of the war, including the campaign to prevent an invasion of Georgia. He died June 1, 1832 at South Mount.

He acquired the nickname, "The Carolina Gamecock" during the American Revolution for his fierce fighting tactics, regardless of his size. A British General commented that Sumter "fought like a gamecock." The town of Sumter, South Carolina was named after him, and is even dubbed "The Gamecock City." "Gamecock" is one of the several traditional nicknames for a native of South Carolina. The University of South Carolina's official nickname is the "Fighting Gamecocks," though since 1903 the teams have been simply known as the "Gamecocks."

Vladimir Odoevsky

Vladimir Odoevsky


Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky (Russian: Владимир Федорович Одоевский) (August 13 O.S. August 1] 1803 – March 11 O.S. February 27] 1869) was a prominent Russian philosopher, writer, music critic, philanthropist and pedagogue. He became known as "Russian Hoffmann" on account of his keen interest in fantasmagoric tales and musical criticism.
Life
The last of his race, Prince Odoevsky was genealogically the most senior member of the House of Rurik. Considered by his contemporaries as a typical Muscovite, he was educated at the Nobility School of the Moscow University in 1816-22. In the mid-1820s, Odoevsky presided over the Lyubomudry Society, where he and his fellow students met to discuss the ideas of Friedrich Schelling and other German philosophers. At that period, he came to know many future Slavophiles and Westernizers, but refused to identify himself with any of these movements.

Since 1824, Odoevsky was active as a literary critic and journalist. Perhaps most famously, he co-edited the Sovremennik with Alexander Pushkin in the mid-1830s. In 1826, he moved to St Petersburg, where he joined the staff of the Imperial Public Library. Two decades later, he was put in charge of the Rumyantsev Museum. Odoevsky finally returned to Moscow in 1861 but continued to serve as a senator until his death. He is buried in the Donskoy monastery necropolis.

More About.... Vladimir Odoevsky

Christian III of Denmark

Christian III (August 12, 1503 – January 1, 1559), king of Denmark and Norway, was the son of Frederick I of Denmark and his first consort, Anna of Brandenburg.

His earliest teacher, Wolfgang von Utenhof, who came straight from Wittenberg, and the Lutheran Holsatian Johann Rantzau, who became his tutor, were both able and zealous reformers. In 1521 Christian travelled in Germany, and was present at the diet of Worms, where Luther's behaviour profoundly impressed him. On his return he found that his father had been elected king of Denmark in the place of Christian II, and the young prince's first public service was the reduction of Copenhagen, which stood firm for the fugitive Christian II. He made no secret of his Lutheran views, and his outspokenness brought him into collision, not only with the Catholic Rigsraad, but also with his cautious and temporizing father. At his own court at Schleswig he did his best to introduce the Reformation, despite the opposition of the bishops. Both as stadtholder of the Duchies in 1526, and as viceroy of Norway in 1529, he displayed considerable administrative ability, though here too his religious intolerance greatly provoked the Catholic party. There was even some talk of passing him over in the succession to the throne in favour of his half-brother Hans, who had been brought up in the old religion. On his father's death 1533 Christian was next year proclaimed king at the local diet of Viborg, and took an active part in the "Grevens Fejde" or "Count's War" in which he defeated his foreign and domestic enemies.

The triumph of so fanatical a reformer as Christian brought about the fall of Catholicism, but the Catholics were still so strong in the council of state that Christian was forced to have recourse to a coup d'état, which he successfully accomplished by means of his German mercenaries (August 12 1536), an absolutely inexcusable act of violence loudly blamed by Luther himself, and accompanied by the wholesale spoliation of the church. Christian's finances were certainly readjusted thereby, but the ultimate gainers by the confiscation were the nobles, and both education and morality suffered grievously in consequence. The circumstances under which Christian III ascended the throne exposed Denmark to the danger of foreign domination. It was with the help of the gentry of the duchies that Christian had conquered Denmark. German and Holsatian noblemen had led his armies and directed his diplomacy. A mutual confidence between a king who had conquered his kingdom and a people who had stood in arms against him was not attainable immediately, and the first six years of Christian III's reign were marked by a contest between the Danish Rigsraad and the German counsellors, both of whom sought to rule "the pious king" exclusively. Though the Danish party won a signal victory at the outset, by obtaining the insertion in the charter of provisions stipulating that only native-born Danes should fill the highest dignities of the state, the king's German counsellors continued paramount during the earlier years of his reign. The ultimate triumph of the Danish party dates from 1539, the dangers threatening Christian III from the emperor Charles V and other kinsmen of the imprisoned Christian II convincing him of the absolute necessity of removing the last trace of discontent in the land by leaning exclusively on Danish magnates and soldiers. The complete identification of the Danish king with the Danish people was accomplished at the Herredag of Copenhagen, 1542, when the nobility of Denmark voted Christian a twentieth part of all their property to pay off his heavy debt to the Holsatians and Germans.

The pivot of the foreign policy of Christian III was his alliance with the German Evangelical princes, as a counterpoise to the persistent hostility of Charles V, who was determined to support the hereditary claims of his nieces, the daughters of Christian II, to the Scandinavian kingdoms. War was actually declared against Charles V in 1542, and, though the German Protestant princes proved faithless allies, the closing of the Sound against Dutch shipping proved such an effective weapon in King Christian's hand that the Netherlands compelled Charles V to make peace with Denmark at the diet of Speyer, on May 23, 1544. The foreign policy of Christian's later days was regulated by the peace of Speyer. He carefully avoided all foreign complications; refused to participate in the Schmalkaldic war of 1546; mediated between the emperor and Saxony after the fall of Maurice of Saxony at the battle of Sievershausen in 1553, and contributed essentially to the conclusion of peace. King Christian III died on New Year's Day 1559 and was interred in Roskilde Cathedral.

Though not perhaps a great, he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a good ruler. A strong sense of duty, genuine piety, and a cautious but by no means pusillanimous common-sense coloured every action of his patient, laborious and eventful life. But the work he left behind him is the best proof of his statesmanship. He found Denmark in ruins; he left her stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before.

Achievements
Christian III was king of Denmark and Norway from 1534 to 1559. Early in his reign, he allied with Sweden to defeat the German city of Lübeck, which had invaded Denmark in an attempt to reinstate the deposed Christian II. That victory broke the power of the Hanseatic League and made the Danish fleet supreme in northern waters. As ruler, Christian established Lutheranism in Denmark and laid the foundation for the absolutist Danish monarchy of the 17th century. On what holiday did Christian die? More... Discuss

David Rice Atchison{August 11, 1807}

David Rice Atchison was born on Tuesday, August 11, 1807 in Frogtown and he was a famous politician from United States. He is probably best known for the one day (March 4, 1849) that he was President of the United States.
Life in Brief:
- Being born on Aug 11, David Rice was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: White.
- his mother's name: Catherine Allen.
- his father's name: William Atchison.
- Sister : Patsy Rollings Atchison.
He attended the Transylvania University, Lexington, KY (in 1825).
He died on Tuesday, January 26, 1886, in Gower; cause of death: unspecified.

Famous Why : US Senator from Missouri.

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Early life
Atchison was born to William Atchison and his wife Catherine Allen in Frogtown (later Kirklevington), which is now part of Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky. He was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, where his classmates included five future Democratic Senators (Solomon Downs of Louisiana, Jesse Bright of Indiana, George W. Jones of Iowa, Edward Hannegan of Indiana, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi). Atchison was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1829.
Missouri lawyer and politician
In 1830 he moved to Liberty in Clay County in western Missouri, and set up practice there. He also farmed. Atchison's law practice flourished, and his best-known client was Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr.. Atchison represented Smith in land disputes with non-Mormon settlers in Caldwell County and Daviess County

Atchison was elected to the Missouri General Assembly in 1834. He worked hard for the Platte Purchase, which extended the northwestern boundary of Missouri to the Missouri River in 1837.

When the earlier disputes broke out into the so-called Mormon War of 1838, Atchison was appointed a general in the state militia and took part in suppression of the violence by both sides.

In 1838 he was re-elected to the Assembly. Three years later, he appointed a circuit court judge for the six-county area of the Platte Purchase. In 1843 he was named a county commissioner in Platte County, where he now lived.
Senate career
In October 1843, Atchison was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the death of Lewis F. Linn.He thus became the first senator from western Missouri. At age 36, he was the youngest senator from Missouri up to that time. Later in 1843, Atchison was elected to serve the remainder of Linn's term, and was re-elected in 1849.

Atchison was very popular with his fellow Senate Democrats. When the Democrats took control of the Senate in December 1845, they chose Atchison as President Pro Tempore, placing him second in succession for the Presidency, and also giving him the duty of presiding over the Senate when the Vice President was absent. He was then only 38 years old and had served in the Senate just two years. In 1849 Atchison stepped down as President Pro Tempore in favor of William R. King. King in turn yielded the office back to Atchison in December 1852, since King had been elected Vice President of the United States. Atchison continued as President Pro Tempore till December 1854.

As a Senator, Atchison was a fervent advocate of slavery and territorial expansion. He supported the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. Atchison and Missouri's other Senator, the venerable Thomas Hart Benton became rivals and finally enemies, though both were Democrats. Benton declared himself to be against slavery in 1849, and in 1851 Atchison allied with the Whigs to defeat Benton for re-election.

Benton, intending to challenge Atchison in 1854, began to agitate for territorial organization of the area west of Missouri (now the states of Kansas and Nebraska) so it could be opened to settlement. To counter this, Atchison proposed that the area be organized and that the section of the Missouri Compromise banning slavery there be repealed in favor of popular sovereignty, under which the settlers in each territory would decide themselves whether slavery would be allowed.

At Atchison's request, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which embodied this idea, in November 1853. The Act became law on in May 1854, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.
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Herbert Hoover (1874)

Achievements
At the outbreak of World War I, Hoover devoted himself to humanitarian efforts, arranging the return of Americans stranded abroad and securing supplies for civilians of war-devastated Europe. Elected president of the US in 1928, his administration was dominated by the economic depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash. Believing the economy would regenerate spontaneously, he was reluctant to extend federal activities. What event spurred Hoover to order federal troops to the capital?
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History

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). Besides his political career, Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States. The nation was prosperous and optimistic at the time, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith.
Hoover deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement (a major component of the Progressive Era), arguing that a technical solution existed for every social and economic problem. That position was challenged by the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that took place less than eight months after his taking office, and the Great Depression that followed it which gained momentum in 1930. Hoover tried to combat the Depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward economic spiral, compounded by popular opposition to prohibition. Other electoral liabilities were Hoover's lack of charisma in relating to voters, and his poor skills in working with politicians. As a result of these factors, Hoover is typically ranked very poorly among former U.S. presidents.

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Izaak Walton(09Augest1593)

Izaak Walton (Izaac Walton) was born on Monday, August 09, 1593 in Stafford and he was a famous author from England.
Life in Brief

- Being born on Aug 09, Izaak was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: White.
- his father's name: Jervis Walton.

Izaak dated Rachel Floud (wife) and amongst other amorous encounters was Anne Ken (wife).
He died on Wednesday, December 15, 1683, in Winchester; cause of death: unspecified.

Famous Why : The Compleat Angler.
Izaak Walton was an English writer, author of The Compleat Angler.

Walton was born at Stafford; the register of his baptism gives his father's name as Gervase. His father, who was an innkeeper as well as a landlord of a tavern, died before Izaak was three. His mother then married another innkeeper.

He settled in London where he began trading as an ironmonger in a small shop in the upper story of Thomas Gresham's Royal Burse or Exchange in Cornhill. In 1614 he had a shop in Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane in the parish of St Dunstan's. At about this time he became friendly with Dr John Donne, then vicar of the parish church.

Walton's first wife was Rachel Floud (married December 1626), a great-great-niece of Archbishop Cranmer. She died in 1640. He married again soon after, his second wife being Anne Ken — the pastoral Kenna of The Angler's Wish—stepsister of Thomas Ken, afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells.

After the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor, Walton retired from his trade. He went to live near his birthplace in Stafford, where he had bought some land; but by 1650 he was again living in Clerkenwell. The first edition of his famous book The Compleat Angler was published in 1653. His second wife died in 1662, and was buried in Worcester Cathedral, where there is a monument to her memory. One of his daughters married Dr Hawkins, a prebendary of Winchester.

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Emiliano Zapata{08Aug1879}

There are 117 famous people born on August 8

1 Activists 6 Actors 29 Actresses 2 Business People 1 Country Musicians 1 Diplomats 1 Encyclopaedists 2 Film Directors 1 Football Players 1 Military Personalities 1 Musicians 61 NFL Players 1 Physicists 1 Poets
5 Politicians 1 Radio Personalities 2 Singers

Emiliano Zapata (Emiliano Zapata Salazar) was born on Friday, August 08, 1879 in Anenecuilco and he was a famous activist from Mexico.

Life in Brief:
- Being born on Aug 08, Emiliano was a Leo.
- his ethnicity: Hispanic.
- his mother's name: Cleofas Salazar.
- his father's name: Gabriel Zapata.
- Brothers : Pedro, Loreto, Eufemio.
- Sisters : Celsa, Romana, María de Jesús, María de la Luz, Jovita, Matilde.
He died on Thursday, April 10, 1919, in Chinameca; cause of death: assassination.

Famous Why : Mexican patriot.
Achievements
During the Mexican Revolution, Zapata led the Liberation Army of the South, whose slogan, "Land and Liberty," represented its goal of repossessing the indigenous Mexican lands taken by the Spanish. Though Zapata's family lived comfortably on their own land, he was a born leader who keenly felt the injustices suffered by his people. Zapata's soldiers, mainly peasants recruited from plantations and villages, occupied Mexico City three times between 1914 and 1915. How was Zapata killed?
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Mata Hari{07 August}

Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle (7 August 1876, Leeuwarden – 15 October 1917, Vincennes), a Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I.
Biography
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland in the Netherlands, the eldest of four children of Adam Zelle and first wife Antje van der Meulen. She had two brothers and one sister. Her father owned a hat store, made successful investments in the oil industry, and became affluent enough to give Margaretha a lavish early childhood. Thus, Margaretha attended only exclusive schools until age 13.

However, Margaretha's father went bankrupt in 1889, her parents divorced soon thereafter, and Margaretha's mother died in 1891.Her father remarried in Amsterdam on 9 February, 1893 Susanna Catharina ten Hoove, with whom he had no children. The family had come apart and she moved to live with her godfather, Heer Visser, at Sneek. At Leiden, she studied to be a kindergarten teacher, but when the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously, she was removed from the institution by her offended godfather. After only a few months, she fled to her uncle's home in The Hague.

During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Margaretha Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she travelled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention. She was a courtesan to many high-ranking allied military officers during this time.On one occasion, when interviewed by British intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story. It is unclear if she lied on this occasion, believing the story made her sound more intriguing, or if French authorities were using her in such a way, but would not acknowledge her due to the embarrassment and international backlash it could cause.

In January 1917, the German military attaché in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. Unusually, the messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving some historians to suspect that the messages were contrived.

Trial and execution

On 13 February, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. She was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October, 1917, at the age of 41.

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Sir Alexander Fleming {06 Aug}

Alexander Fleming (1881)
Biography
Sir Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield near Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881. He attended Louden Moor School, Darvel School, and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Polytechnic. He spent four years in a shipping office before entering St. Mary's Medical School, London University. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St. Mary's under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy. He gained M.B., B.S., (London), with Gold Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914. He served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, being mentioned in dispatches, and in 1918 he returned to St.Mary's. He was elected Professor of the School in 1928 and Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology, University of London in 1948. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943 and knighted in 1944.

Early in his medical life, Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues. In 1921, he discovered in «tissues and secretions» an important bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme. About this time, he devised sensitivity titration methods and assays in human blood and other body fluids, which he subsequently used for the titration of penicillin. In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin.

Sir Alexander wrote numerous papers on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy, including original descriptions of lysozyme and penicillin. They have been published in medical and scientific journals.

Fleming, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (England), 1909, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), 1944, has gained many awards. They include Hunterian Professor (1919), Arris and Gale Lecturer (1929) and Honorary Gold Medal (1946) of the Royal College of Surgeons; Williams Julius Mickle Fellowship, University of London (1942); Charles Mickle Fellowship, University of Toronto (1944); John Scott Medal, City Guild of Philadelphia (1944); Cameron Prize, University of Edinburgh (1945); Moxon Medal, Royal College of Physicians (1945); Cutter Lecturer, Harvard University (1945); Albert Gold Medal, Royal Society of Arts (1946); Gold Medal, Royal Society of Medicine (1947); Medal for Merit, U.S.A. (1947); and the Grand Cross of Alphonse X the Wise, Spain (1948).

He served as President of the Society for General Microbiology, he was a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Science and Honorary Member of almost all the medical and scientific societies of the world. He was Rector of Edinburgh University during 1951-1954, Freeman of many boroughs and cities and Honorary Chief Doy-gei-tau of the Kiowa tribe. He was also awarded doctorate, honoris causa, degrees of almost thirty European and American Universities.

In 1915, Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland, who died in 1949. Their son is a general medical practitioner.

Fleming married again in 1953, his bride was Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Voureka, a Greek colleague at St. Mary's.

In his younger days he was a keen member of the Territorial Army and he served from 1900 to 1914 as a private in the London Scottish Regiment.

Dr Fleming died on March 11th in 1955 and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Courtesy

From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964.
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Achievements
Motivated by the devastating infection he saw in battlefield hospitals during World War I, Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist, set about searching for an effective antiseptic. In 1922, he discovered lysozyme, an antibacterial enzyme present in saliva, nasal secretions, and tears. In 1928, he isolated the antibiotic substance penicillin, a finding that earned him a Nobel Prize and has forever changed modern medicine. In what accidental way did Fleming discover penicillin?

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