text
stringlengths 2
255k
|
|---|
the final success in leuven was the 1551 celestial globe the partner of his terrestrial globe of 1541 the records of the plantin press show that several hundred pairs of globes were sold before the end of the century despite their high price in 1570 they sold at 25 carolus guilders for a pair celestial globes were a necessary adjunct to the intellectual life of rich patrons and academics alike for both astronomical and astrological studies two subjects which were strongly entwined in the sixteenth century twenty two pairs are still in existence |
in 1552 mercator moved from leuven flanders habsburg netherlands to duisburg in the duchy of cleves in modern day germany at age 40 where he spent the rest of his life he never gave his reasons for the move but several factors may have been involved not having been born in brabant he could never be a full citizen of leuven catholic intolerance of religious dissidents in the low countries was becoming ever more aggressive and a man suspected of heresy once would never be trusted the erasmian constitution and the religious tolerance of cleves must have appeared attractive there was to be a new university in duisburg and teachers would be required he was not alone over the years to come many more would flee from the oppressive catholicism of brabant and flanders to tolerant cities such as duisburg |
the peaceful town of duisburg untroubled by political and religious unrest was the perfect place for the flowering of his talent mercator quickly established himself as a man of standing in the town an intellectual of note a publisher of maps and a maker of instruments and globes mercator never accepted the privileges and voting rights of a burgher for they came with military responsibilities which conflicted with his pacifist and neutral stance nevertheless he was on good terms with the wealthier citizens and a close friend of walter ghim the twelve times mayor and mercator s future biographer |
mercator was welcomed by duke wilhelm who appointed him as court cosmographer there is no precise definition of this term other than that it certainly comprehends the disciplines of geography and astronomy but at that time it would also include astrology and chronology as a history of the world from the creation all of these were among mercator s accomplishments but his patron s first call on his services was as a mundane surveyor of the disputed boundary between the duke s territory of the county of mark and the duchy of westphalia |
around this time mercator also received and executed a very special order for the holy roman emperor a pair of small globes the inner fist size earth was made of wood and the outer celestial sphere was made of blown crystal glass engraved with diamond and inlaid with gold he presented them to the emperor in brussels who awarded him the title imperatoris domesticus a member of the imperial household the globes are lost but mercator describes them in to philip melanchthon in which he declares that the globes were rotated on the top of an astronomical clock made for charles v by juanelo turriano janellus the clock was provided with eight dials which showed the positions of the moon stars and planets the illustration shows a similar clock made by the german craftsman baldewein at roughly the same time |
earlier mercator had also presented charles v with an important pamphlet on the use of globes and instruments and his latest ideas on magnetism declaratio insigniorum utilitatum quae sunt in globo terrestri coelesti et annulo astronomico a description of the most important applications of the terrestrial and celestial globes and the astronomical ring the first section is prefaced by mercator s ideas on magnetism the central thesis being that magnetic compasses are attracted to a single pole not a dipole along great circles through that pole he then shows how to calculate the position of the pole if the deviation is known at two known positions leuven and corvo in the azores he finds that it must be at latitude 73 2 and longitude 169 34 remarkably he also calculates the longitude difference between the pole and an arbitrary position he had solved the longitude problem if his theory had been correct further comments on magnetism may be found in an earlier letter to perrenot and on the later world map in the hogenberg portrait below his dividers are set on the position of the magnetic pole |
in 1554 mercator published the long awaited wall map of europe dedicating it to his friend now cardinal antoine perrenot he had worked at it for more than twelve years collecting comparing collating and rationalising a vast amount of data and the result was a map of unprecedented detail and accuracy it attracted more praise from scholars everywhere than any similar geographical work which has ever been brought out it also sold in large quantities for much of the rest of the century with a second edition in 1572 and a third edition in the atlas of 1595 |
the proposed university in duisburg failed to materialise because the papal licence to found the university was delayed twelve years and by then duke wilhelm had lost interest it was another 90 years before duisburg had its university on the other hand no papal permit was required to establish the akademisches gymnasium where in 1559 mercator was invited to teach mathematics with cosmography one year later in 1560 he secured the appointment of his friend jan vermeulen molanus as rector and then blessed vermeulen s marriage to his daughter emerantia his sons were now growing to manhood and he encouraged them to embark on his own profession arnold the eldest had produced his first map of iceland in 1558 and would later take over the day to day running of mercator s enterprises bartholemew his second son showed great academic promise and in 1562 aged 22 he took over the teaching of his father s three year long lecture course after mercator had taught it once only much to mercator s grief bartholemew died young in 1568 aged 28 rumold the third son would spend a large part of his life in london s publishing houses providing for mercator a vital link to the new discoveries of the elizabethan age in 1587 rumold returned to duisburg and later in 1594 it fell to his lot to publish mercator s works posthumously |
in 1564 mercator published his map of britain a map of greatly improved accuracy which far surpassed any of his previous representations the circumstances were unusual it is the only map without a dedicatee and in the text engraved on the map he pointedly denies responsibility for the map s authorship and claims that he is merely engraving and printing it for a very good friend the identity of neither the author nor the friend has been established but it has been suggested that the map was created by a scottish catholic priest called john elder who smuggled it to french clergy known to antoine perrenot mercator s friend mercator s reticence shows that he was clearly aware of the political nature of the pro catholic map which showed all the catholic religious foundations and omitted those created by protestant henry viii moreover it was engraved with text demeaning the history of england and praising that of catholic ireland and scotland it was invaluable as an accurate guide for the planned catholic invasion of england by phillip ii of spain |
as soon as the map of britain was published mercator was invited to undertake the surveying and mapping of lorraine lotharingia this was a new venture for him in the sense that never before had he collected the raw data for a new regional map he was then 52 already an old man by the norms of that century and he may well have had reservations about the undertaking accompanied by his son bartholemew mercator meticulously triangulated his way around the forests hills and steep sided valleys of lorraine difficult terrain as different from the low countries as anything could be he never committed anything to paper but he may have confided in his friend ghim who would later write the journey through lorraine gravely imperiled his life and so weakened him that he came very near to a serious breakdown and mental derangement as a result of his terrifying experiences mercator returned home to convalesce leaving bartholemew to complete the survey no map was published at the time but mercator did provide a single drawn copy for the duke and later he would incorporate this map into his atlas |
the trip to lorraine in 1564 was a set back for his health but he soon recovered and embarked on his greatest project yet a project which would extend far beyond his cartographic interests the first element was the chronologia a list of all significant events since the beginning of the world compiled from his literal reading of the bible and no less than 123 other authors of genealogies and histories of every empire that had ever existed mercator was the first to link historical dates of solar and lunar eclipses to julian dates calculated mathematically from his knowledge of the motions of the sun moon and earth he then fixed the dates of other events in babylonian greek hebrew and roman calendars relative to the eclipses that they recorded the time origin was fixed from the genealogies of the bible as 3 965 years before the birth of christ this huge volume 400 pages was greeted with acclaim by scholars throughout europe and mercator himself considered it to be his greatest achievement up to that time on the other hand the catholic church placed the work on the index librorum prohibitorum list of prohibited books because mercator included the deeds of martin luther had he published such a work in louvain he would again be laying himself open to charges of heresy |
the chronologia developed into an even wider project the cosmographia a description of the whole universe mercator s outline was 1 the creation of the world 2 the description of the heavens astronomy and astrology 3 the description of the earth comprising modern geography the geography of ptolemy and the geography of the ancients 4 genealogy and history of the states and 5 chronology of these the chronology had already been accomplished the account of the creation and the modern maps would appear in the atlas of 1595 his edition of ptolemy appeared in 1578 but the ancient geography and the description of the heavens never appeared |
as the chronologia was going to press in 1569 mercator also published what was to become his most famous map nova et aucta orbis terrae descriptio ad usum navigantium emendate accommodata a new and more complete representation of the terrestrial globe properly adapted for use in navigation as mariners had started to explore the oceans in the age of discovery the problem of accurate navigation had become more pressing their locations could be a hundred miles out after a long voyage because a course of constant direction at sea a rhumb line did not correspond to a straight line on their chart mercator s solution was to make the scale of his chart increase with latitude in a very special way such that the rhumb lines became straight lines on his new world map exactly how he arrived at the required solution is not recorded in any of his own written works but modern scholars suggest that he used the tables of rhumbs devised by pedro nunes the large size of what was a wall map meant that it did not find favour for use on board ship but within a hundred years of its creation the mercator projection became the standard for marine charts throughout the world and continues to be so used to the present day on the other hand the projection is clearly unsuitable as a description of the land masses on account of its manifest distortion at high latitudes and its use is now deprecated other projections are more suitable although several hundred copies of the map were produced it soon became out of date as new discoveries showed the extent of mercator s inaccuracies of poorly known lands and speculations for example on the arctic and the southern continent |
around this time the marshall of j lich approached mercator and asked him to prepare a set of european regional maps which would serve for a grand tour by his patron s son the crown prince johannes this remarkable collection has been preserved and is now held in the british library under the title atlas of europe although mercator never used such a title many of the pages were assembled from dissected mercator maps and in addition there are thirty maps from the theatrum orbis terrarum of abraham ortelius |
apart from a revision of the map of europe in 1572 there would be no more large wall maps and mercator began to address the other tasks that he had outlined in the cosmographia the first of these was a new definitive version of ptolemy s maps that he should wish to do so may seem strange given that at the same time he was planning very different modern maps and other mapmakers such as his friend abraham ortelius had forsaken ptolemy completely it was essentially an act of reverence by one scholar for another a final epitaph for the ptolemy who had inspired mercator s love of geography early in his life he compared the great many editions of the ptolemy s written geographia which described his two projections and listed the latitude and longitude of some 8000 places as well as the many different versions of the printed maps which had appeared over the previous one hundred years all with errors and accretions once again this self imposed diligence delayed publication and the 28 maps of ptolemy appeared in 1578 after an interval almost ten years it was accepted by scholars as the last word literally and metaphorically in a chapter of geography which was closed for good |
in 1589 at the age of 77 mercator had a new lease of life he took a new wife gertrude vierlings the wealthy widow of a former mayor of duisburg and at the same time he arranged the marriage of rumold to her daughter a second collection of 22 maps was published covering italy greece and the balkans this volume has a noteworthy preface for it includes mention of atlas as a mythical king of mauretania i have set this man atlas explained mercator so notable for his erudition humaneness and wisdom as a model for my imitation a year later mercator had a stroke which left him greatly incapacitated he struggled with the assistance of his family trying to complete the remaining maps the ongoing theological publications and a new treatise on the creation of the world this last work which he did succeed in finishing was the climax of his life s activities the work which in his own opinion surpassed all his other endeavours and provided a framework and rationale for the complete atlas it was also his last work in a literal sense for he died after two further strokes in 1594 |
mercator was buried in the church of st salvatore in duisburg where a memorial was erected about fifty years after his death the of the epitaph is a summary of his life lauding him as the foremost mathematician of his time who crafted artistic and accurate globes showing the heaven from the inside and the earth from the outside greatly respected for his wide erudition particularly in theology and famous on account of his piety and respectability in life in addition on the base of the memorial there is an epigram |
following mercator s death his family prepared the atlas for publication in four months it was hoped for source of the income that was needed to support them this work entailed supplementing the maps of the 1585 and 1589 with 28 unpublished maps of mercator covering the northern countries creating four maps of the continents and a world map the printing of mercator s account of the creation and finally the addition of eulogies and walter ghim s biography of mercator the title itself provides mercator s definition of a new meaning for the word atlas atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura which may be translated as atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the fabric of the world and the figure of the fabrick d or more colloquially as atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe and the universe as created over the years mercator s definition of atlas has become simply a collection of maps in a volume |
the atlas was not an immediate success one reason may have been that it was incomplete spain was omitted and there were no detailed maps outside europe rumold avowed that a second volume would attend to these deficiencies but it was not forthcoming and the whole project lost momentum rumold who was 55 years old in 1595 was in decline and died in 1599 his family did produce another edition in 1602 but only the text was reset there were no new maps another reason for the failure of the atlas was the strength of the continuing sales of the theatrum orbis terrarum of abraham ortelius alongside the sumptuous maps of that book mercator s un ornamented new maps looked very unattractive despite the death of ortelius in 1598 the theatrum flourished in 1602 it was in its thirteenth latin edition as well as editions in dutch italian french german and spanish the mercator atlas seemed destined for oblivion |
the family was clearly in some financial difficulty for in 1604 mercator s library of some 1 000 books was sold at a public auction in leiden netherlands the only known copy of the sale catalogue perished in the war but fortunately a manuscript copy had been made by van raemdonck in 1891 and this was rediscovered in 1987 of the titles identified there are 193 on theology both catholic and lutheran 217 on history and geography 202 on mathematics in its widest sense 32 on medicine and over 100 simply classified by basson as rare books the contents of the library provide an insight into mercator s intellectual studies but the mathematics books are the only ones to have been subjected to scholarly analysis they cover arithmetic geometry trigonometry surveying architecture fortification astronomy astrology time measurement calendar calculation scientific instruments cartography and applications only one of his own copies has been found a first edition of copernicus s de revolutionibus orbium coelestium annotated in mercator s hand this is held by glasgow university |
the sale catalogue doesn t mention any maps but it is known that the family sold the copper plates to jodocus hondius in 1604 he transformed the atlas almost 40 extra maps were added including spain and portugal and in 1606 a new edition appeared under his name but with full acknowledgement that most maps were created by mercator the title page now included a picture of hondius and mercator together although they had never met hondius was an accomplished business man and under his guidance the atlas was an enormous success he followed by his son henricus and son in law johannes janssonius produced 29 editions between 1609 and 1641 including one in english in addition they published the atlas in a compact form the atlas minor which meant that it was readily available to a wide market as the editions progressed mercator s theological comments and his map commentaries disappeared from the atlas and images of king atlas were replaced by the titan atlas by the final edition the number of his maps in the atlas declined to less than 50 as updated new maps were added eventually the atlas became out of date and by the middle of the seventeenth century the publications of map makers such as joan blaeu and frederik de wit took over |
mercator s editions of ptolemy and his theological writings were in print for many years after the demise of the atlas but they too eventually disappeared and it was the mercator projection which emerged as his sole and greatest legacy his construction of a chart on which the courses of constant bearing favoured by mariners appeared as straight lines ultimately revolutionised the art of navigation making it simpler and therefore safer mercator left no hints to his method of construction and it was edward wright who first clarified the method in his book certaine errors 1599 the relevant error being the erroneous belief that straight lines on conventional charts corresponded to constant courses wright s solution was a numerical approximation and it was another 70 years before the projection formula was derived analytically wright published a new world map based on the mercator projection also in 1599 slowly but steadily charts using the projection appeared throughout the first half of the seventeenth century and by the end of that century chart makers all over the world were using nothing but the mercator projection with the aim of showing the oceans and the coastlines in detail without concern for the continental interiors at some stage the projection made the unfortunate leap to portrayal of the continents and it eventually became the canonical description of the world despite its manifest distortions at high latitudes recently mercator s projection has been rejected for representations of the world but it remains paramount for nautical charts and its use stands as his enduring legacy |
many cities have a statue of mercator his name has been attached to ships buildings universities insurance companies small businesses pizzerias streets schools and more there is a belgian bank note there is a german coin and incorrect postage stamp showing a construction which is not the mercator projection he has been modelled in sand and giant figures there is a venomous snail and a beetle an asteroid is named for him on 5 march 2015 google celebrated his 503rd birthday with a google doodle |
many of the most notable jokes are based on sexual attraction especially arlo s desire for janis despite having been a couple since meeting in college in 1973 a backstory revealed in a series of strips that also functioned as a parody of the book and film gone with the wind arlo and janis are still besotted with each other the libidinous content of the strip can be surprisingly overt to readers accustomed to more sanitized newspaper comics and in a medium where long marriages are often presented as either sexless or antagonistic the lockhorns andy capp etc these strips that show the couple s love and ongoing attraction to each other offer an alternative |
arlo s envy of the cat ludwig s idyllic lifestyle sometimes veiled as criticism fuels many strips i make it a rule to draw one cat cartoon a week johnson writes i draw a cat cartoon every fifth or sixth sunday other than that i don t plan it sometimes a cat cartoon will run late in the week then on sunday then again early the next week inevitably i will get mail of the ilk i hate your stupid cat cartoons that s all you do anymore why don t you throw yourself under a bus you loser if i were a cat i d steer clear of those types johnson s readers submit many stories of cute cats to his blog |
the ifba is responsible for facilitating the world broomball championships held biennially every two years in international locations using the skills and expertise of various host cities and member associations as the vast majority of broomball players and teams are based in canada or the usa most of the championships to date have been held in this part of the world the 1998 world broomball championship was held in bolzano italy and the 2010 version was held in innsbruck and telfs austria were organised and run directly by the board of the ifba |
the film opens in 1099 at the end of the first crusade depicting christian crusaders sacking jerusalem and slaughtering the local population a flemish christian knight named charles le vaillant jean claude van damme becomes demoralized by the horrors of war and decides to create a new religious order this new order brings together members from the three main religions of the region christians jews and muslims as a self declared leader and messiah charles writes the sacred texts of the order while traveling to syria his camp is attacked by the christian knights who kill le vaillant the last chapter from their religious text buried by le vaillant in a secret place becomes lost in the desert after the attack |
in the modern day rudy cafmeyer jean claude van damme a thief and smuggler of valuable historical artifacts breaks into a high security building and steals a precious faberg egg he triggers an alarm in the process and is forced to fight his way out of the building finding no car to meet him because the getaway driver yuri was forced to leave by police his problems are compounded when a potential buyer attempts to steal the egg and falls on it destroying it |
it is revealed that rudy s father is archaeologist and museum curator oscar ozzie cafmeyer vernon dobtcheff ozzie travels to israel in search of a secret he has discovered and is kidnapped while on the phone with rudy who travels to jerusalem to rescue him ozzie s associate professor walt finley charlton heston gives rudy the key to a safe deposit box in east jerusalem before being gunned down by unknown assailants rudy opens the safe deposit box and finds an ancient map showing a series of tunnels and a treasure room beneath jerusalem |
israeli police chief ben ner ben cross views rudy s arrival with hostility and takes steps to have rudy deported appointing lt dalia barr sofia milos to ensure that rudy does not escape lt barr escorts rudy to the airplane but ben ner calls and demands their return claiming that rudy is smuggling an artifact lt barr knows that rudy has been searched and is not in possession of any artifacts so she unlocks rudy s handcuffs and lets him escape in a feigned struggle meeting up with him again after he escapes from the airport in a stolen ramp towing vehicle lt barr reveals that she was once a disciple of the order but that she left when she was 18 together they visit yuri who translates the map and explains that it leads to treasure but thieves break in and steal the map shooting and killing yuri in the process rudy steals a motorcycle and pursues the thief who has the map he catches up with him and shoots him causing the thief to drop the map but is also shot and injured |
rudy hides from the police and is found by lt barr who drives him to be helped back to health by her old friend avram who is still a member of the order lt barr gives rudy papers left by his father in which ozzie explains he had discovered the lost manuscripts of the order lost since the crusades and that the new sect within the order does not wish for them to be revealed because they show the location of a mythical jewish treasure rudy shows it to avram who insists that the treasure is merely a metaphor for the wisdom of the ancient sages and says that its location in the order s monastery cannot be accessed by outsiders anyway with avram s aid rudy and lt barr pose as foreign members of the order visiting on a pilgrimage in order to gain access to the monastery during a massive assembly of the members now led by cyrus |
in the catacombs rudy finds the remaining manuscripts as well as his imprisoned father and a large bomb ben ner arrives and explains to rudy and lt barr that he joined the order when he found out about the treasure cyrus arrives and forces ozzie to lead him through the tunnels in order to detonate the bomb under the temple mount during ramadan to maximize casualties and make martyrs of the israeli lt barr and american rudy cafmeyer in order to trigger world war iii rudy saves avram from falling into a pit trap before they reach a room loaded with treasure next to the chamber underneath the well of souls ben ner attempts to delay the detonation in order to collect more treasure leading to a standoff with cyrus s followers rudy and lt barr use the opportunity to escape but ozzy is injured and avram is killed lt barr shoots ben ner and helps ozzie out of the catacombs rudy catches cyrus in the treasure room and kills him with one of the swords found there rudy moves the bomb from under the well of souls and drops it into the pit trap ben ner jumps at rudy but only grabs his shirt and tears it off as he falls into the pit rudy races away from the pit as the bomb explodes worshipers above hear the explosion but continue praying |
in sydney charles joined the empire newspaper and learnt to be a compositor in 1860 he went to maryborough queensland and established the maryborough chronicle selling it four years later buzacott then went to the clermont goldfield and started the peak downs telegram which he edited in 1869 buzacott sold his interest in the telegram and moved to gladstone where he took over the observer in 1870 charles joined his brother william on the rockhampton bulletin which the latter had established in 1861 |
having been returned to the assembly again in january 1879 he became postmaster general in mcilwraith s first ministry and was responsible for the drafting of the divisional boards measure which was the foundation of later queensland local government acts he was an active minister and during his two years of office he united the previously separate post and telegraph departments and succeeded in having tenders called for a torres straits service between brisbane and london the telephone was also introduced during his period |
the rhondda valley is located in the upland or blaenau area of glamorgan the landscape of the rhondda was formed by glacial action during the last ice age as slow moving glaciers gouged out the deep valleys that exist today with the retreat of the ice sheet around 8000 bc the valleys were further modified by stream and river action this left the two river valleys of the rhondda with narrow steep sided slopes which would dictate the layout of settlements from early to modern times |
the earliest evidence of man s presence in these upper areas of glamorgan was found in 1963 at craig y llyn a small chipped stone tool found at the site recorded as possibly being of creswellian type or at least from the early mesolithic period places human activity on the plateau above the valleys many other mesolithic items have appeared in the rhondda mainly in the upper areas around blaenrhondda blaencwm and maerdy and relating to hunting fishing and foraging which suggests seasonal nomadic activity though no definite mesolithic settlements have been located the concentration of finds at the craig y llyn escarpment suggests the presence of a temporary campsite in the vicinity |
although little evidence of settlement has been found in the rhondda for the neolithic to bronze age periods several cairns and cists have appeared throughout the length of both valleys the best example of a round cairn was found at crug yr afan near the summit of graig fawr west of cwmparc it consisted of an earthen mound with a surrounding ditch 28 metres in circumference and over 2 metres tall although most cairns discovered in the area are round a ring cairn or cairn circle exists on gelli mountain known as the rhondda stonehenge it consists of ten upright stones no more than 60 cm in height encircling a central cist all the cairns found within the rhondda are located on high ground many on ridgeways and may have been used as waypoints |
with the exception of the neolithic settlement at cefn glas there are three certain pre medieval settlement sites in the valley maendy camp hen dre r gelli and hen dre r mynydd the earliest of these is maendy camp a hillfort whose remains lie between ton pentre and cwmparc although its defences would have been slight the camp made good use of the natural slopes and rock outcrops to its north east face it consisted of two earthworks an inner and outer enclosure when the site was excavated in 1901 several archaeological finds led to the camp being misidentified as bronze age these finds mainly pottery and flint knives were excavated from a burial cairn discovered within the outer enclosure but the site has since been classified as from the iron age |
the 5th century saw the withdrawal of imperial roman support from britain and succeeding centuries saw the emergence of national identity and of kingdoms the area which would become the rhondda lay within glywysing which incorporated the modern area of glamorgan and was ruled by a dynasty founded by glywys this dynasty was replaced by another founded by meurig ap tewdrig whose descendant morgan ap owain would give glamorgan its welsh name morgannwg with the coming of the norman overlords after the 1066 battle of hastings south east wales was divided into five cantrefi the rhondda lay within penychen a narrow strip running between modern day glyn neath and the coast between cardiff and aberthaw each cantref was further divided into commotes with penychen made up of five such commotes one being glynrhondda |
relics of the dark ages are rare in the glamorgan area and secular monuments still rarer the few sites found have been located in the bro or lowlands leaving historians to believe the blaenau were sparsely inhabited maybe only visited seasonally by pastoralists a few earthwork dykes are the only structural relics in the rhondda area from this period no carved stones or crosses exist to indicate the presence of a christian shrine in the early middle ages communities were split between bondmen who lived in small villages centred on a court or llys of the local ruler to whom they paid dues and freemen with higher status who lived in scattered homesteads the most important village was the mayor s settlement or maerdref maerdy in the rhondda fach has been identified as such mainly on the strength of the name though the village did not survive past the middle ages the largest concentration of dwellings from the period mainly platform houses have been found around gelli and ystrad in the rhondda fawr |
after the death of william lord of glamorgan his extensive holdings were eventually granted to gilbert de clare in 1217 the subjugation of glamorgan begun by fitzhamon was completed by the powerful de clare family although gilbert de clare had now become one of the great marcher lords the territory was far from settled hywel ap maredudd lord of meisgyn captured his cousin morgan ap cadwallon and annexed glynrhondda in an attempt to reunify the commotes under a single native ruler this conflict was unresolved by the time of de clare s death and the area fell under royal control |
little evidence exists of settlements within the rhondda in the norman period unlike the communal dwellings of the iron age the remains of medieval buildings discovered in the area follow a pattern similar to modern farmsteads with separate holdings spaced out around the hillsides the evidence of medieval welsh farmers comes from remains of their buildings with the foundations of platform houses being discovered spaced out through both valleys when the sites of several platform houses at gelligaer common were excavated in the 1930s potsherds from the 13th to 14th centuries were discovered |
the rhondda also has remains of two medieval castles the older is castell nos located at the head of the rhondda fach overlooking maerdy the only recorded evidence of castle nos is a mention by john leland who stated castelle nose is but a high stony creg in the top of an hille the castle comprises a scarp and ditch forming a raised platform and on the north face is a ruined dry stone building its location and form do not appear to be norman and it is thought to have been built by the welsh as a border defence which would date it before 1247 when richard de clare seized glynrhondda the second castle is ynysygrug close to what is now tonypandy town centre little remains of this motte and bailey earthwork defence as much was destroyed when tonypandy railway station was built in the 19th century ynysygrug is dated around the 12th or early 13th century and has been misidentified by several historians notably owen morgan in his history of pontypridd and rhondda valleys who recorded it as a druidic sacred mound iolo morganwg erroneously believed it to be the burial mound of king rhys ap tewdwr |
in the mid 16th century the rhondda then known as the vale of rotheney belonged to the large but sparsely inhabited parish of ystradyfodwg st tyfodwg s vale it was divided administratively into three hamlets the upper or rhigos hamlet to the north the middle or penrhys hamlet and the lower or clydach hamlet through the post medieval period the rhondda was heavily wooded and its main economic staple the rearing of sheep horses and cattle the historian rice merrick in describing the upland area of the vale of glamorgan noted there was always great breeding of cattle horses and sheep but in elder time therein grew but small store of corn for in most places there the ground was not thereunto apt the english cartographer john speed described cattle rearing as the best means unto wealth that the shire doth afford as there was no fair held in the rhondda the beasts were taken to neighbouring markets at neath merthyr llantrisant ynysybwl and llandaff however to be self supporting farmers in the area grew crops such as oats corn and barley in small quantities crops were grown in the lower part of the rhondda on narrow meadows adjoining riversides though during the napoleonic wars scarce supplies forced cultivation of upland areas such as carn y wiwer and penrhys merrick described the diet of the upland inhabitants as consisting of bread made of wheat and ale and bear and over 200 years later benjamin malkin showed how little the diet had changed when he wrote that the people still ate oatmeal bread with a relish of miserable cheese and the beer where they have any is worse than none |
in the first half of the 17th century rising costs of consumable goods and successive bad harvests brought economic change in glamorgan those wealthy enough could seize chances created by the unsettled conditions and set about enlarging and enclosing farmlands the enclosure of freehold lands begun in the later middle ages now gained momentum and farms once owned by individual farmers passed to groups of wealthy landowners by the 19th century most rhondda farms and estates were owned by absentee landlords such as the marquis of bute earl of dunraven crawshay bailey of merthyr and the de winton family of brecon |
the acts of union in the mid 16th century and the english civil war in the mid 17th century brought much rebuilding in the kingdom of england to which wales was now annexed this appears in the structures built in the rhondda valley the fluctuating economy of the late tudor period resulted in farmers taking in more land creating higher levels of surplus goods and so producing higher profits these were reflected in new farmhouses built in the rhondda and for the first time an emphasis on domestic comfort apparent in the design of dwellings many new farm buildings were simple structures of two or three small rooms but of a much sturdier more permanent quality than the medieval platform houses a popular style was the dartmoor longhouse which combined the house and cowshed into one building by 1840 the rhondda had at least 160 farms but most were destroyed with the growth of the mining industry of the few survivors those of note include tynewydd new house in tynewydd a 17th century house thought to have given its name to the neighbouring village of tynewydd and of tyntyle in ystrad dated around 1600 |
the south wales coalfield is the largest continuous coalfield in britain extending some from pontypool in the east to st brides bay in the west covering almost this took in most of glamorgan and the entirety of the rhondda within it although neighbouring areas such as merthyr and aberdare had already sunk coal mines it was not until walter coffin initiated the dinas lower colliery in 1812 that coal was exported from the rhondda valleys on any commercial scale this was originally taken by packhorse before the extension of dr griffiths private tramline to pontypridd and then by the glamorganshire canal to the port at cardiff the lack of transportation links was one of the main problems that curtailed exploitation of the rhondda valley coalfields along with the belief that they lay too deep for economic working it was therefore seen as an expensive risk exploration of the rhondda was undertaken by the bute trustees agents of the third marquess of bute who not only owned large tracts of valley farmland but also possessed a large financial interest in the cardiff docks which would export the coal the trustees sank the bute merthyr colliery in october 1851 at the top of the rhondda fawr in what would become treherbert the bute merthyr began producing coal in 1855 as the first working steam coal colliery in the rhondda |
along with the sinking of the first colliery at the head of the rhondda a second issue transportation was tackled with the extension of the taff vale railway tvr royal assent was given in 1836 the original line was laid from cardiff to abercynon and by 1841 a branch was opened to link cardiff with dinas via pontypridd this allowed easier transportation for walter coffin s dinas mine an unsurprising addition as coffin was a director of the tvr in 1849 the tvr extended into the rhondda fach and by 1856 the railway had reached the furthest areas of the fach and fawr valleys at maerdy and treherbert for the first time the rhondda valley was linked by a major transportation route to the rest of wales and exploitation of its coalfields could begin |
the tvr line dominated coal transportation through the rhondda s industrial history its monopoly was a bone of contention the absence of rivals precluded colliery owners from negotiating lower haulage rates attempts were made to break the monopoly included the opening of the rhondda and swansea bay railway between 1885 and 1895 which linked blaenrhondda at the head of the rhondda fawr to the prince of wales dock to achieve this the rhondda tunnel was dug through mynydd blaengwynfy to blaengwynfi at the time the longest railway tunnel in wales |
initially the shallower pits at aberdare proved a bigger attraction to prospective mine owners but once aberdare became fully worked by the 1860s the rhondda saw rapid growth during the 1860s and the 1870s 20 rhondda valley collieries opened with the leading owner in the rhondda fach being david davis of aberdare and david davies in the rhondda fawr in 1865 the coal output from the rhondda valley was roughly one quarter of that of aberdare ten years later the rhondda was producing over two million tons more than the aberdare valleys these figures would later be dwarfed by massive excavation rates in the last quarter of the 19th century and up to the first world war in 1913 rhondda valley output was 9 6 million tons |
by 1893 there were more than 75 collieries in the rhondda valleys initially most were owned by a small group of individuals but the trend changed towards the start of the 20th century as companies began buying up existing collieries the widespread adoption of limited liability status began a trend towards concentration of ownership reducing some of the economic risks involved in coal mining unstable coal prices inflated acquisitions geological difficulties and large scale accidents the emerging companies were formed by the individuals and families who sank the original collieries but by the start of the 20th century they were no more than principal shareholders the firms included the davies s ocean coal company archibald hood s glamorgan coal company and david davis son |
at the start of the first world war the economic prospects in south wales were good although production fell after the 1913 high demand was still strong enough to push the coalfields to their limit in february 1917 coal mining came under government control and demand increased as the war intensified ensuring a market for sufficient supplies after the war the picture began to change initially the british coal industry was buoyed by a series of fortuitous economic events such as the american coal miners strike and by 1924 unemployment for miners was below the national average but the belief that the mining industry would experience a permanent demand for coal was shattered by the depression when the rhondda experienced a massive increase in unemployment the situation worsened in 1926 when in response to coalowners reducing pay and lengthening working hours of miners the tuc called a general strike in defence of the miners locked out following a j cook s call not a penny off the pay not a minute on the day the tuc called off the strike just nine days later without resolving the miners cut in wages the miners disagreed and stayed on strike for a further seven months until they were starved into surrender the rhondda saw many schemes set up by miners to aid their plight such as soup kitchens and f tes and joy days to support them while in maerdy the local miners set up a rationing system by the time the miners returned to work there was little desire for further action which saw a decline in the popularity of the fed and greater emphasis on solving problems by political and parliamentary means |
with the great depression employment in the rhondda valleys continued to fall this in turn led to a decline in public and social services as people struggled to pay rates and rents one outcome of the lack of funds was a fall in health provisions which in rhondda lead to a shortage of medical and nursing staff a failure to provide adequate sewage works and a rise in deaths from tuberculosis by 1932 the long term unemployment figure in the rhondda was put at 63 per cent and in ferndale at almost 73 per cent |
the coalmining industry of the rhondda was artificially buoyed in the war years and there were expectations of a return to the pre 1939 industrial collapse after the end of the second world war there was a sense of salvation when the government announced the nationalisation of the british coal mines in 1947 but subsequent decades saw continual output reductions from 15 000 miners in 1947 rhondda had just a single pit within the valleys producing coal in 1984 located at maerdy the decline in coal mining after world war ii was a countrywide issue but south wales and rhondda were more gravely affected than other areas oil had superseded coal as the fuel of choice in many industries and there was political pressure behind the oil supply from the few industries still reliant on coal the demand was for high quality especially coking coal for the steel industry by then 50 per cent of glamorgan coal was supplied to steelworks with the second biggest market being domestic heating the smokeless fuel of the rhondda became once again fashionable after publication of the clean air act these two markets controlled the fate of the mines in the rhondda and as demand fell from both the effect was further contraction in addition exports to other areas of europe such as france italy and the low countries experienced sharp decline from 33 per cent of output around the start of the 20th century to some 5 per cent by 1980 |
other major factors in the decline of coal related to massive under investment in the rhondda mines over the previous decades most mines in the valleys had been sunk between the 1850s and 1880s so that they were far smaller than most modern mines the rhondda mines were comparatively antiquated in their methods of ventilation coal preparation and power supply in 1945 the british coal industry was cutting 72 per cent of its output mechanically whereas in south wales the figure was just 22 per cent the only way to ensure financial survival of the mines in the valleys was massive investment by the ncb but its plan for coal paper drawn up in 1950 was overly optimistic about future demand which was drastically reduced after an industrial recession in 1956 and with increased availability of oil |
british and welsh employment bodies funded and subsidised external businesses to locate replacement ventures in the valleys the first attempt to bring in business unconnected to coal began in the 1920s when david jones town clerk of the rhondda urban council gained government support for so doing arrivals included alfred polikoff s clothing factory messrs jacob beatus manufacturing cardboard boxes and electrical and musical industries ltd after the second world war 23 firms were set up in the rhondda valleys 18 of them sponsored by the board of trade most had periods of growth followed by collapse notably thorn emi in the 1970s and burberry in the 2000s |
the commote of glynrhondda was coterminous with the earlier parish of ystradyfodwg but little is known of the celtic saint tyfodwg or dyfodwg after whom the parish is named he is thought to have lived around ad 600 although the parish bears his name there are now no religious monuments or places of worship named after him within the rhondda boundaries although two churches outside the area are named after him y tre sant in llantrisant and saint tyfodwg s in ogmore vale |
the earliest known religious monument is the catholic holy well in penrhys first mentioned in the 15th century though it may have been a place of pagan worship before this pilgrimage site was identified as a manor belonging to the cistercian abbey of llantarnam and was seen as one of the most important religious sites in wales due to its marian shrine this holy site was the main reason people would pass through the commote it was even thought to be the main reason why the first bridges were built over the river rhondda |
despite the importance of the anglican church to parishioners the growing strength of nonconformity made itself felt in the 18th century in 1738 the reverend henry davies formed the independent cause in cymmer and five years later a ty cwrdd or meeting house was opened there although attracting families from as far away as merthyr and the parish of eglwysilan there were no other nonconformist causes until david williams began preaching in the rhondda in 1784 in 1785 six people were baptised in the river near melin yr om and in 1786 ynysfach was opened in ystrad as a new house for religious services this was the first baptist chapel in the rhondda and later became known as nebo ystrad rhondda cymmer and ynysfach chapel would be the forerunners in a new religious movement in the valley for the next 150 years in the early 19th century there were only three places of worship in the rhondda the parish church now dedicated to st john the baptist and the cymmer and ynysfach chapels this changed rapidly after 1855 as coalmining brought an influx of population and by 1905 there were 151 chapels in the valley |
chapel life was central to valley life throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries but as with many communities throughout britain the post war periods saw a decline in regular membership to an extent the number of places of worship declined with the population but this was exacerbated in the rhondda by a swift decline in the number of welsh speakers welsh language chapels in particular saw a sharp drop in membership from the 1950s and many closed in the next half century by 1990 the rhondda had less than 50 places of worship and many premises had been demolished |
as part of the redistribution act of 1885 the rhondda was granted its first seat in parliament which was won by a moderate trade union leader william abraham who was notably the only working class member elected in wales socialism and syndicalism grew in the 20th century and industrial struggle reached a crescendo in the 1910 1911 tonypandy riots a year later tonypandy saw the publication of noah ablett s pamphlet the miners next step tonypandy was at the centre of further public disorder when on 11 june 1936 at dewinton field a crowd gathered to confront an open air address by tommy moran propaganda officer of the british union of fascists the crowd recorded as 2 000 6 000 strong turned violent and police had to protect moran s blackshirt bodyguard seven local people were arrested |
the rhondda also has a strong history of communist sympathy with the rhondda socialist society being a key element in the coalition that founded the communist party of great britain by 1936 there were seven communists on rhondda urban district council and the branch was publishing its own newspaper the vanguard in the 1930s maerdy became such a hotspot of communist support known as little moscow producing left wing activists such as merthyr born arthur horner and marxist writer lewis jones the rhondda miners were also active in socialist activities outside the valleys in the 1920s and 1930s the rhondda and the surrounding valleys provided the principal support of some of the largest hunger marches while in 1936 more rhondda federation members were serving in spain as part of the international brigades than the total number of volunteers from all the english coalfields |
during the mid 19th century the influx of immigrants from older mining towns such as aberdare and merthyr brought the game of rugby with them at treherbert it took a five month lockout in 1875 to see the game establish itself at the various collieries where the amalgamated association of miners held their meetings in 1877 penygraig rugby football club was formed followed by treherbert in 1879 ferndale in 1882 ystrad rhondda in 1884 treorchy in 1886 and tylorstown in 1903 in the late 19th and early 20th century the rhondda forward was a key player in many wales teams the heavy industrial worker was a prime aggressive attack figure in early welsh packs typified by the likes of treherbert s dai tarw bull jones who at 6 foot 1 inch 185 5 cm and in weight was seen as an animal of a man |
the mid 19th century brass bands had a poor relationship with the nonconformist chapels mainly due to the heavy social drinking that came hand in hand with being a member this changed towards the end of the 19th century when on becoming more respectable many bands had actually joined the temperance movement two rhondda brass bands which both started as temperance bands are the cory band from ton pentre who started life as ton temperance in 1884 and the parc and dare band formerly the cwmparc drum and fife temperance band the oldest in rhondda is the lewis merthyr band formerly cymmer colliery band founded as the cymmer military band in or before 1855 |
for most of its history the rhondda valleys were an exclusively welsh speaking area only in the early 20th century did english began to supplant welsh as the first language of social intercourse in 1803 english historian benjamin heath malkin mentioned that while travelling through ystradyfodwg he had met only one person with whom he could talk and then with the help of an interpreter this experience was repeated by john george wood who on a visit complained of the awkwardness of understanding the particular dialects and idioms used by the native speakers which were difficult for other welsh speakers to understand this dialect was once called tafodiaith gw r y gloran the dialect of gloran men |
as industrialisation began there was still little shift in the use of welsh initial immigrants were welsh it was not until the 1900s that english workers began settling in any great numbers and in any case it was not these new workers who changed the language the erosion of welsh had begun in the 1860s in the school classrooms the educational philosophy accepted by schoolmasters and governmental administrators was that english was the language of scholars and welsh a barrier to moral and commercial prosperity in 1901 35 4 per cent of rhondda workers spoke only english but by 1911 this had risen to 43 1 per cent while welsh speaking monoglots had fallen from 11 4 to 4 4 per cent in the same period |
though the population of the rhondda was embracing english as its first language a literary and intellectual movement formed in the rhondda in the 1940s that would produce an influential group of welsh language writers the group formed during the second world war by egyptologist j gwyn griffiths and his german wife k the bosse griffiths was known as the cadwgan circle and met at the griffiths house in pentre welsh writers who made up the movement included pennar davies rhydwen williams james kitchener davies and gareth alban davies |
two main roads service the area the a4058 runs through the rhondda fawr and the a4233 services the rhondda fach the a4058 starts at pontypridd runs through porth before ending at treorchy where it joins the a4061 to hirwaun the a4233 begins outside rhondda at tonyrefail heading north through porth and through the rhondda fach to maerdy where the road links up with the a4059 at aberdare two other a roads service the area the a4119 is a relief road known as the tonypandy bypass the other is the a4061 which links treorchy to the ogmore vale before reaching bridgend |
the two main sports with which the rhondda appeared to produce quality participants were rugby union and boxing one of the first true rugby stars to come from the rhondda was willie llewellyn who not only gained 20 caps for wales scoring 48 points but was also the first rhondda born member of the british lions such was llewellyn s fame that during the tonypandy riots his pharmacy was left unscathed by the crowds due to his past sporting duties many players came through the rhondda to gain international duty and after the split between amateur rugby union and the professional northern league many were also tempted to the north of england to earn a wage for their abilities amongst the new league players was jack rhapps aberaman born but living in the rhondda when he went north to become the world s first dual code international rugby player |
the most famous rugby player from the rhondda in the latter half of the 20th century is cliff morgan morgan was born in trebanog and gained 29 caps for wales four for the british lions and was one of the inaugural inductees of the international rugby hall of fame another notable player is billy cleaver from treorchy a member of the 1950 grand slam winning team maurice richards born in tynntyla road ystrad rhondda was a welsh international and british lion of note still known today for his scoring achievements playing in this code |
during the 20th century the rhondda supplied a steady stream of championship boxers percy jones was not only the first world champion from the rhondda but the first welshman to hold a world title when he won the flyweight belt in 1914 after jones came the rhondda s most notable boxer jimmy wilde also known as the mighty atom who took the ibu world flyweight title in 1916 british champions from the valleys include tommy farr who held the british and empire heavyweight belt and llew edwards who took the british featherweight and australian lightweight titles |
although association football was not so popular as rugby in the rhondda in the early 20th century after the 1920s several notable players emerged from the area two of the most important came from the village of ton pentre jimmy murphy was capped 15 times for wales and in 1958 managed both the welsh national team and manchester united roy paul also from ton pentre led manchester city to two successive fa cup finals in 1955 and 1956 and gained 33 welsh caps alan curtis who was best known for representing swansea city and cardiff city came from the neighbouring village of pentre and in an 11 year international career won 35 caps for wales scoring six goals |
children s national hospital formerly children s national health system dc children s hospital children s national medical center is a nationally ranked freestanding 323 bed pediatric acute care children s hospital located in washington d c it is affiliated with the george washington university school of medicine and the howard university college of medicine the hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants children teens and young adults aged 0 21 throughout the region the hospital features an acs verified level i pediatric trauma center the only in the district its regional pediatric intensive care unit and neonatal intensive care units serve the region the hospital also has a rooftop helipad for critical pediatric transport |
children s national infectious disease division the division of infectious disease has renown physicians and fellows providing care to the area with lyme disease zika and other complicated infectious disease issues in the hospital the division also contains a separate transplant infectious disease division which cares for critically ill transplant patients including heart bone marrow kidney and gastrointestinal tract a partnership also exists with the national institute of allergy and infectious disease and id division where internal medicine pediatric infectious disease fellows rotate and collaborate with research projects |
after the collapse of the soviet union came a new threat there is little forest in china and chinese entrepreneurs due to the lack of woods and fuelled by strong economic growth began to show interest in obtaining the woods from rf high levels of corruption and some other reasons allowed them to achieve their goal a new law adopted was federal law 473 fz which protects the rights of foreign companies in rf and chinese lumberjacks began to destroy all the trees on the leased land and far beyond too there have been numerous attempts of deforestation in the protected floodplain of the rivers because of the large environmental damage their activities caused protests by local residents and the world wide fund for nature the actions of the chinese companies pose a threat to the native population of siberia and the far east evenks udege et al depriving them of their habitat and traditional ways of life total deforestation by chinese companies creates an additional threat to rare and endangered species such as the siberian tiger amur leopard east siberian brown bear et al |
during 1989 and 1990 a new control tower was built on the west side of the runway the old one was demolished and at the same time a new passenger terminal was built in july 1992 instead of iberia bintercanarias started to operate the route from tenerife north to el hierro with an atr 72 for that reason the runway had to be extended to 1205 metres 3953 ft length this extension allowed an increase in the number of passengers and operations it has a short 1250 m 4100 ft runway which limits the airport to handling regional turboprop aircraft however if required it can handle a 737 or a320 family jet |
briggs fought against lineal champion george foreman on november 22 1997 at the trump taj majal hotel casino in atlantic city new jersey coming into the fight briggs sported a 29 1 record with 24 of his wins coming by way of knockout collectively he fought a total of 86 rounds however despite his record his one loss had been a third round knockout against darroll doin damage wilson on hbo the previous year which halted his momentum and hurt his status as one of the premier up and coming heavyweights however realizing that a win over foreman would get him back into contention briggs vowed to be ready for the fight stating that he was confident that i can go in and fight for 12 rounds and win a decision |
foreman spent much of the fight as the aggressor while briggs spent a lot of the fight retreating in the later rounds foreman s power punches seemed to take a toll on the younger briggs as he began slowing down and all but abandoned his tactic of moving away from foreman and was hit from some heavy shots as a result in the 12th and final round foreman tried hard for a knockout victory and was able to break briggs nose but was unable to score a knockdown as a result the result went to the judge s scorecards |
after lennox lewis successfully defended his wbc title in a dominating first round knockout victory over andrew golota he agreed to defend his title against the winner between briggs foreman in the elimination bout organized by the wbc to determine who would become lewis next opponent though foreman s promoters protested the result and lewis instead turned his attention to a potential unification match with evander holyfield lewis ultimately agreed to defend his wbc championship against lineal champion briggs in a fight billed as march badness |
on may 3 2016 it was announced that briggs would fight 6 7 inch former european heavyweight champion alexander dimitrenko 38 2 27 kos his opponent was changed a few days before the fight to jakov gospic 17 14 12 kos and then to emilio ezequiel zarate 20 16 3 11 kos briggs stopped zarate in the first round of a scheduled 10 round bout with devastating body shots the fight was stopped at 2 22 of the round the win for briggs had meant he could be fighting david haye next the card which was shown live on free to air dave was watched by over 1 million viewers |
despite winning on the undercard a fight between briggs and haye didn t materialize brigg s continued to call out haye asking him to honor his end of the agreement briggs also chased haye down in brooklyn when both were in attendance for the frampton vs santa cruz fight in october haye spoke out about the fight not taking place due to the fact that briggs wanted the fight to be on ppv because the fight can t happen on pay per view i like people thinking i m running from him and ducking him because when i do get in the ring with him which i really think i will do i think it will make it a bigger fight but at the moment the fight can t happen because he will only fight me if the fight is on pay per view i would fight him on terrestrial channel dave but he doesn t want to do that |
on november 2 2016 the wba ordered briggs to fight australian heavyweight lucas browne for the wba regular title the title became vacant after browne defeated ruslan chagaev in march 2016 but was later stripped after he tested positive for drugs the fight was ordered to take place before the end of 2016 the wba and browne came to a legal settlement which said he would fight for a world title next browne was due to fight fres oquendo who hadn t fought since 2014 however that fight could not be made due to oquendo recovering from an injury the wba ordered the winner of this bout to fight oquendo in a mandatory defense within 120 days |
on december 26 2016 alexander ustinov s manager vladimir hryunov announced that he would be fighting for the wba regular title on february 25 2017 against either briggs or fres oquendo oquendo s trainer nate jones later confirmed a fight with briggs was in the works on january 4 2017 the wba ordered for a deal to be reached between briggs and oquendo within 30 days or they would force a purse bid briggs told sky sports he wanted the fight to take place in the uk after his increasing fan base mostly due to briggs spending a lot of time there pursuing a fight with david haye |
a deal wasn t reached by february 2 and the wba ordered a purse bid to take place on february 13 2017 although some promoters were interested in the fight there were issues raised around the minimum bid of 1 million being too high a bid of 400 000 was made by the heavyweight factory representative henry rivalta on behalf of briggs however not being valid due to not meeting the minimum requirement the wba ordered another purse bid to take place on february 23 |
on february 23 square ring promotions and hitz entertainment corporation announced that a deal had been reached for the briggs vs oquendo fight ceo of square ring promotions john wirt told world boxing news we are really excited that we were able to reach an agreement with kris lawrence and henry rivalta of the heavyweight factory on march 16 briggs announced via his social media accounts the fight would take place june 3 2017 at the hard rock hollywood in florida the fight was being billed as backyard brawl |
on may 21 2017 it was reported that briggs had failed a drug test he tested positive for dramatically increased levels of testosterone it was revealed that briggs collected sample had almost 8 times the regular amount of testosterone for a man of his age and weight it was said that the fight would be called off although no official decision was made the sample was taken on may 14 and tested on may 16 it was also said that the fight was likely to be postponed after briggs promoters failed to secure tv rights for the fight a day later hitz boxing and the heavyweight factory announced the fight was officially off and they would not reschedule a new date |
on march 20 2019 briggs and applied biosciences had agreed a partnership deal applied biosciences a cannabinoid therapeutics company focused on medical bioceutical testing and pet health industries briggs stated i have partnered with applied biosciences to develop and market champ organics because their products are made with the highest quality ingredients and all natural cbd i am a firm believer in the benefits that cbd delivers for joint pain and headaches since i have incorporated cbd to my daily supplements i have been surprised by the positive impact it has had on my overall quality of life |
the mnc was founded in 1958 as an african nationalist party within the belgian congo the party was a united front organization dedicated to achieving independence within a reasonable time and bringing together members from a variety of political backgrounds in order to achieve independence the mnc was created around a charter which was signed by among others patrice lumumba cyrille adoula and joseph il o joseph kasa vubu notably refused to sign accusing the party of being too moderate by the end of 1959 it claimed to have 58 000 members |
however the country quickly plunged into the congo crisis facing mutinies among the soldiers and separatism in katanga led by moise tshombe and south kasai led by albert kalonji in september lumumba and kasa vubu fell out and kasa vubu dismissed lumumba and instead appointed joseph il o a member of the kalonji party as prime minister in turn lumumba declared the president deposed while il o failed to gain parliamentary approval the stalemate was ended when lumumba s aide and partisan colonel joseph mobutu arrested lumumba who was later transported to katanga and killed there under dubious circumstances |
mnc members remained a major players on different sides albert kalonji remained in control of kasai in december lumumba s deputy antoine gizenga formed another rebel government at stanleyville and in february 1961 il o was again appointed prime minister at l opoldville in august following protracted negotiations between all factions kasa vubu appointed the moderate cyrille adoula as prime minister and gizenga to rejoined the central government relations soon broke down again and in january 1962 gizenga was arrested adoula remained prime minister until 1964 when kasa vubu appointed former separatist moise tshombe to the post to quell another revolt in the east |
the chorus performs annually during convocation first year parents weekend homecoming senior week commencement and reunion weekend in addition to the concerts on campus the chorus also has experience in professional settings working under the baton of nadia boulanger eugene ormandy erich leinsdorf michael tilson thomas julius rudel and karel husa on the stages of carnegie hall lincoln center the kennedy center the philadelphia academy of music and the saratoga performing arts center the chorus has also been featured on two nationwide broadcasts a special half hour on cbs radio and an appearance on pbs s macneil lehrer news hour as part of an artistic feature on former director susan davenny wyner the chorus has collaborated with world musician samite of uganda participated in a production of richard einhorn s voices of light with anonymous 4 and performed several major works with the syracuse symphony orchestra including bach s mass in b minor beethoven s symphony no 9 and lili boulanger s du fond de l ab me with the cornell symphony orchestra |
the states rights democratic party whose members are often called the dixiecrats was a short lived segregationist political party in the united states active primarily in the south it arose due to a southern regional split in opposition to the democratic party after president harry s truman a member of the democratic party ordered integration of the military in 1948 and other actions to address civil rights of african americans many southern conservative white politicians who objected to this course organized themselves as a breakaway faction the dixiecrats were determined to protect southern states rights to maintain racial segregation |
despite the dixiecrat s success in several states truman was narrowly re elected after the 1948 election its leaders generally returned to the democratic party the dixiecrats presidential candidate strom thurmond became a republican in 1964 the dixiecrats represented the weakening of the solid south this referred to the southern democratic party s control of presidential elections in the south and most seats in congress partly through decades of disenfranchisement of blacks since the turn of the century blacks had formerly been aligned with the republican party before being excluded from politics in the region but during the great migration african americans had found the democratic party in the north and west more suited to their interests |
since the beginning of reconstruction southern white voters supported the democratic party by overwhelming margins in both local and national elections the few exceptions include minor pockets of republican electoral strength in appalachia east tennessee in particular gillespie and kendall counties of central texas forming what was known as the solid south even during the last years of reconstruction democrats used paramilitary insurgents and other activists to disrupt and intimidate republican freedman voters including fraud at the polls and attacks on their leaders the electoral violence culminated in the democrats regaining control of the state legislatures and passing new constitutions and laws from 1890 to 1908 to disenfranchise most blacks and many poor whites they also imposed jim crow a combination of legal and informal segregation acts that made blacks second class citizens confirming their lack of political power through most of the southern united states the social and economic systems of the solid south were based on this structure although the white democrats retained all the congressional seats apportioned for the total population of their states |
with the entry of the united states into the second world war jim crow was indirectly challenged two million black americans would serve in the u s military during world war ii where they received equal pay while serving within segregated units and were equally entitled to receive veterans benefits after the war tens of thousands of black civilians at home were recruited in the labor starved war industries across many urban centers in the country mainly due to the promotion of executive order 8802 which required defense industries not to discriminate based on ethnicity or race |
after roosevelt died the new president harry truman established a highly visible president s committee on civil rights and issued executive order 9981 to end discrimination in the military in 1948 a group of southern governors including strom thurmond of south carolina and fielding l wright of mississippi met to consider the place of southerners within the democratic party after a tense meeting with democratic national committee dnc chairman and truman confidant j howard mcgrath the southern governors agreed to convene their own convention in birmingham if truman and civil rights supporters emerged victorious at the 1948 democratic national convention in july the convention re nominated truman and adopted a plank proposed by northern liberals led by hubert humphrey calling for civil rights 35 southern delegates walked out the move was on to remove truman s name from the ballot in the southern united states this political maneuvering required the organization of a new and distinct political party which the southern defectors from the democratic party chose to brand as the states rights democratic party |
prior to their own states rights democratic party convention it was not clear whether the dixiecrats would seek to field their own candidate or simply try to prevent southern electors from voting for truman many in the press predicted that if the dixiecrats did nominate a ticket arkansas governor benjamin travis laney would be the presidential nominee and south carolina governor strom thurmond or mississippi governor fielding l wright the vice presidential nominee laney traveled to birmingham during the convention but he ultimately decided that he did not want to join a third party and remained in his hotel during the convention thurmond himself had doubts about a third party bid but party organizers convinced him to accept the party s nomination with fielding wright as his running mate wright s supporters had hoped that wright would lead the ticket but wright deferred to thurmond who had greater national stature the selection of thurmond received fairly positive reviews from the national press as thurmond had pursued relatively moderate policies on civil rights and did not employ the fiery rhetoric used by other segregationist leaders |
the states rights democrats did not formally declare themselves as being a new third party but rather said that they were only recommending that state democratic parties vote for the thurmond wright ticket the goal of the party was to win the 127 electoral votes of the solid south in the hopes of denying any candidate an overall majority of electoral votes and thus throwing the election to the united states house of representatives once in the house the dixiecrats hoped to throw their support to whichever party would agree to their segregationist demands even if the republicans won an outright majority of electoral votes as many expected in 1948 the dixiecrats hoped that their third party run would help the south retake its dominant position in the democratic party in implementing their strategy the states rights democrats faced a complicated set of state election laws with different states having different processes for choosing presidential electors the states rights democrats eventually succeeded in making the thurmond wright ticket the official democratic ticket in alabama louisiana mississippi and south carolina in other states they were forced to run as a third party ticket |
on election day in 1948 the thurmond wright ticket carried the previously solidly democratic states of alabama louisiana mississippi and south carolina receiving 1 169 021 popular votes and 39 electoral votes progressive party nominee henry a wallace drew off a nearly equal number of popular votes 1 157 172 from the democrats left wing although he did not carry any states the splits in the democratic party in the 1948 election had been expected to produce a victory by gop nominee dewey but truman defeated dewey in an upset victory |
high rock lake is a reservoir located on the yadkin river in central north carolina in the counties of davidson and rowan built in 1926 27 by the tallassee power company a wholly owned subsidiary of the aluminum company of america alcoa the lake is the northernmost of a series of four hydroelectric projects designed at the time to support the company s badin works a large aluminum smelting operation located 16 miles downstream in the community of badin after the permanent closing of the badin works in 2007 alcoa continued to operate its yadkin hydroelectric facilities until selling them to cube hydro carolinas in 2016 |