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People's Crusade

People's Crusade

The People's Crusade is part of the First Crusade and lasted roughly six months from April 1096 to October. It is also known as the Popular Crusade, Peasants' Crusade, or the Paupers' Crusade.

Background

Pope Urban II planned departure of the crusade for August 15, 1096, but months before this, a number of unexpected armies of peasants and lowly knights organized and set off for Jerusalem on their own. The peasant population had been afflicted by drought, famine, and plague for many years before 1096, and some of them seem to have envisioned the crusade as an escape from these hardships. Spurring them on had been a number of coincidental meteorological occurrences beginning in 1095 that seemed to be a divine blessing for the movement: a meteor shower, aurorae, a lunar eclipse, and a comet, among other events. An outbreak of ergotism, which usually led to mass pilgrimages anyway, had also occurred just before the Council of Clermont. Millenarianism, the belief that the end of the world was imminent, popular in the early 11th century, experienced a resurgence in popularity. The response was beyond expectations: While Urban might have expected a few thousand knights, he ended up with a migration numbering up to 100,000 of mostly unskilled fighters, including women and children. A charismatic monk and powerful orator named Peter the Hermit of Amiens was the spiritual leader of the movement. He was known for riding a donkey and dressing in simple clothing. He had vigorously preached the crusade throughout northern France and Flanders. He claimed to have been appointed to preach by Christ himself (and supposedly had a divine letter to prove it), and it is likely that some of his followers thought he, not Urban, was the true originator of the crusading idea. It is often believed that Peter's army was a band of illiterate, incompetent peasants who had no idea where they were going, and who believed that every city of any size they encountered on their way was Jerusalem itself; this may have been true for some, but the long tradition of pilgrimages to Jerusalem ensured that the location and distance of the city were well-known. While the majority were unskilled in fighting, there were some well-trained minor knights leading them, such as the future chronicler Fulcher of Chartres, and Walter Sans-Avoir (also known as Walter the Penniless), who, as his name suggests, was an impoverished knight with no lord and no vassals, but was nonetheless experienced in warfare.

Walter and the French

Walter Sans-Avoir Peter gathered his army at Cologne on April 12, 1096, planning to stop there and preach to the Germans and gather more crusaders. The French, however, were not willing to wait for Peter and the Germans and under the leadership of Walter Sans-Avoir a few thousand French crusaders left before Peter reaching Hungary on May 8, passing through Hungary without incident and arriving at the river Save at the border of Byzantine territory at Belgrade. The Belgrade commander was taken by surprise having no orders on what to do with them and refused entry, forcing the crusaders to pillage the countryside for food. This resulted in skirmishes with the Belgrade garrison and to make matters worse, sixteen of Walter's men had tried to rob a market in Semlin across the river in Hungary and were stripped of their armor and clothing which was hung from the castle walls. Eventually the crusaders were allowed to carry on to Nish where they were provided with food and waited to hear from Constantinople on their allowed passage. By the end of July the army arrived in Constantinople under Byzantine escort.

Cologne to Constantinople

Peter and the remaining crusaders left Cologne on about April 20. About 20,000 followers left immediately, while another group would follow soon after (see the German Crusade). When they reached the Danube, part of the decided to continue on by boat down the Danube, while the main body continued overland and entered Hungary at Ödenburg (now Sopron). There it continued through Hungary without incident and rejoined the Danube contingent at Semlin on the Byzantine frontier. In Semlin the crusaders became suspicious, seeing Walter's sixteen suits of armor hanging from the walls, and eventually a dispute over the price of a pair of shoes in the market led to a riot, which then turned in to an all-out assault on the city by the crusaders (probably against the desires of Peter), in which 4,000 Hungarians were killed. The crusaders then fled across the river Save to Belgrade, but only after skirmishing with Belgrade troops. The residents of Belgrade fled, and the crusaders pillaged and burned the city. Then they marched for seven days, arriving at Nish on July 3. There, the commander of Nish promised to provide escort for Peter's army to Constantinople as well as food, if he would leave right away. Peter obliged, and the next morning he set out. However, a few Germans got into a dispute with some locals along the road and set fire to a mill, which escalated out of Peter's control until Nish sent out its entire garrison against the crusaders. The crusaders were completely routed, losing about a quarter of their number; the remainder regrouping further on at Bela Palanka. When they reached Sofia on July 12, they met their Byzantine escort, which brought them safely the rest of the way to Constantinople by August 1.

Leadership breakdown

Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, not knowing what else to do with such an unusual and unexpected "army", quickly ferried them across the Bosporus by August 6. It has since been debated whether he sent them away without Byzantine guides knowing full well that they could be slaughtered by the Turks, or whether they insisted on continuing into Asia despite his warnings. In any case, it is known that Alexius warned Peter not to engage the Turks, whom he believed to be superior to Peter's motley army, and to wait for the main body of crusaders who were still on the way. Peter was re-joined by the French under Walter Sans-Avoir and a number of bands of Italian crusaders who arrived at the same time. Once in Asia they began to pillage towns and reached Nicomedia where an argument broke out between the Germans and Italians on one side the French on the other. The Germans and Italians split off and elected a new leader, an Italian named Rainald, while for the French, Geoffrey Burel took command. Peter had effectively lost control of the crusade. Even though Alexius had urged Peter to wait for the Princes and main army, Peter had lost much of his authority and the crusaders spurred each other on, moving more boldly against nearby towns until finally the French reached the edge of Nicaea, a capital Turkish stronghold, where they pillaged the suburbs. The Germans, not to be outdone, marched with six thousand crusaders on Xerigordon and captured the city to use it as a base to raid the countryside. In response the Turks sent a sizeable army against Xerigordon and on September 29 captured the only water source, located outside the city walls, which the Germans had failed to notice. After eight days of drinking the blood of donkeys and their own urine the crusaders were forced to surrender. Those who remained true to Christianity were killed while those who converted were sent off into slavery.

Crisis

September 29 Back at the main crusaders' camp, Turkish spies had spread the rumor that the Germans who had taken Xerigordon had also taken Nicaea, which caused excitement to get there as soon as possible to share in the looting. Of course, the Turks had ambushed the road to Nicaea. When the real truth of what had happened at Xerigordon reached the crusaders, excitement turned to panic. Peter the Hermit had gone back to Constantinople to arrange for supplies and was due back soon, and most of the leaders argued to wait for him to return (which he never did). However Geoffrey Burel, who had popular support among the masses of the army, argued that it would be cowardly to wait, and they should move against the Turks right away. His will prevailed: On the morning of October 21 the entire army of 20,000 marched out toward Nicaea, leaving women, children, the old and the sick behind at the camp. Three miles from the camp, where the road entered a narrow, wooded valley near the village of Dracon, the Turkish ambush was waiting. Panic set in immediately and within minutes the mass of the army was in full rout back to the camp. Most of the crusaders were defeated; Children and those who surrendered were spared, however. Thousands of soldiers that attempted to fight back were all outbattled. Three thousand, including Geoffrey Burel, were lucky enough to hole up in an old abandoned castle. Eventually the Byzantines sailed over and raised the siege; these few thousand returned to Constantinople, the only survivors of the People's Crusade.

References


- Peter the Hermit and the People's Crusade: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/peterhermit.html Collected Accounts].
- Duncalf, Frederic. "The Peasants Crusade." American Historical Review 26 (1921): pg. 440-453.
- see also First Crusade Selected Sources Category:Crusades

First Crusade

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to regain control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims. What started as a minor call for aid quickly turned into a wholesale migration and conquest of territory outside of Europe. Both knights and peasants from many different nations of western Europe, with little central leadership, travelled over land and by sea towards Jerusalem and captured the city in July 1099, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states. Although these gains lasted for fewer than two hundred years, the Crusade was a major turning point in the expansion of Western power, and was the only crusade—in contrast to the many that followed—to achieve its stated goal.

Background

The origins of the Crusades in general, and of the First Crusade in particular, stem from events earlier in the Middle Ages. The breakdown of the Carolingian empire in previous centuries, combined with the relative stability of European borders after the Christianization of the Vikings and Magyars, gave rise to an entire class of warriors who now had very little to do but fight among themselves and terrorize the peasant population. Outlets for this violence took the form of campaigns against non-Christians. The Reconquista in Spain was one such outlet, which occupied Spanish knights and some mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe in the fight against the Islamic Moors. Elsewhere, the Normans were fighting for control of Sicily, while Pisa, Genoa and Aragon were all actively fighting Islamic strongholds in Mallorca and Sardinia, freeing the coasts of Italy and Spain from Muslim raids. Because of these ongoing wars, the idea of a war against the Muslims was not implausible to the European nations. Muslims occupied the centre of the Christian universe, Jerusalem, which, along with the surrounding land, was considered one giant relic, the place where Christ had lived and died. In 1074, Pope Gregory VII called for the milites Christi ("knights of Christ") to go to the aid of the Byzantine Empire in the east. The Byzantines had suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert three years previously. This call, while largely ignored, combined with the large numbers of pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the 11th century, focused a great deal of attention on the east. It was Pope Urban II who first disseminated to the general public the idea of a Crusade to capture the Holy Land with the famous words: "Deus le volt!" ("God wills it!")

The East in the late eleventh century

Western Europe's immediate neighbour to the southeast was the Byzantine Empire, who were fellow Christians but who had long followed a separate Orthodox rite. Under emperor Alexius I Comnenus, the empire was largely confined to Europe and the western coast of Anatolia, and faced enemies in the Normans in the west and the Seljuks in the east. Further east, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were all under Muslim control, but were politically and, to some extent, culturally fragmented at the time of the First Crusade, which certainly contributed to the Crusade's success. Anatolia and Syria were controlled by the Sunni Seljuks, formerly in one large empire ("Great Seljuk") but by this point divided into many smaller states. Alp Arslan had defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert in 1071 and incorporated much of Anatolia into Great Seljuk, but this empire was split apart by civil war after the death of Malik Shah I in 1092. In the Sultanate of Rüm in Anatolia, Malik Shah was succeeded by Kilij Arslan I and in Syria by his brother Tutush I, who died in 1095. Tutush's sons Radwan and Duqaq inherited Aleppo and Damascus respectively, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other, as well as towards Kerbogha, the atabeg of Mosul. These states were on the whole more concerned with consolidating their own territories and gaining control of their neighbours, than with cooperating against the crusaders. Elsewhere in nominal Seljuk territory were the Ortoqids in northeastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia. They controlled Jerusalem until 1098. In eastern Anatolia and northern Syria was a state founded by Danishmend, a Seljuk mercenary; the crusaders did not have significant contact with either group until after the Crusade. The Hashshashin were also becoming important in Syrian affairs. Egypt and much of Palestine were controlled by the Arab Shi'ite Fatimids, whose empire was significantly smaller since the arrival of the Seljuks; Alexius I had advised the crusaders to work with the Fatimids against their common Seljuk enemies. The Fatimids, at this time ruled by caliph al-Musta'li (although all actual power was held by the vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah), had lost Jerusalem to the Seljuks in 1076, but recaptured it from the Ortoqids in 1098 while the crusaders were on the march. The Fatimids did not, at first, consider the crusaders a threat, assuming they had been sent by the Byzantines and that they would be content with recapturing Syria, leaving Palestine alone; they did not send an army against the crusaders until they were already at Jerusalem.

Chronological sequence of the Crusade

The Council of Clermont

Main article: Council of Clermont In March of 1095 Alexius I sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to ask Urban for aid against the Turks. The emperor's request met with a favourable response from Urban, who hoped to heal the Great Schism of 40 years prior and re-unite the Church under papal supremacy as "chief bishop and prelate over the whole world" (as he referred to himself at Clermont, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html#Fulcher]), by helping the Eastern churches in their time of need. At the Council of Clermont, assembled in the heart of France in November 1095, Urban gave an impassioned sermon to a large audience of French nobles and clergy. He summoned the audience to wrest control of Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslims. France, he said, was overcrowded and the land of Canaan was overflowing with milk and honey. He spoke of the problems of noble violence and the solution was to turn swords to God's own service: "let robbers become knights." [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html#Fulcher] He spoke of rewards both on earth and in heaven, where remission of sins was offered to any who might die in the undertaking. The crowd was stirred to frenzied enthusiasm with cries of "Deus le volt!" ("God wills it!"). Urban's sermon is among the most important speeches in European history. There are many versions of the speech on record, but all were written after Jerusalem had been captured, and it is difficult to know what was actually said and what was recreated in the aftermath of the successful crusade. However, it is clear that the response to the speech was much larger than expected. For the rest of 1095 and into 1096, Urban spread the message throughout France, and urged his bishops and legates to preach in their own dioceses elsewhere in France, Germany, and Italy as well. Urban tried to forbid certain people (including women, monks, and the sick) from joining the crusade, but found this to be nearly impossible. In the end the majority of those who took up the call were not knights, but peasants who were not wealthy and had little in the way of fighting skills, but whose millennial and apocalyptic yearnings found release from the daily oppression of their lives, in an outpouring of a new emotional and personal piety that was not easily harnessed by the ecclesiastical and lay aristocracy.

The People's Crusade

Main article: People's Crusade Urban planned the departure of the crusade for August 15, 1096, but months before this a number of unexpected armies of peasants and lowly knights organized and set off for Jerusalem on their own. They were led by a charismatic monk and powerful orator named Peter the Hermit of Amiens. The response was beyond expectations: while Urban might have expected a few thousand knights, he ended up with a migration numbering up to 100,000 mostly unskilled fighters including women and children. Lacking military discipline, and in what likely seemed to the participants a strange land (eastern Europe) with strange customs, those first Crusaders quickly landed in trouble, in Christian territory. The problem was one of supply as well as culture: the people needed food and supplies, and they expected host cities to give them the foods and supplies - or at least sell them at prices they felt reasonable. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, the locals did not always agree, and this quickly led to fighting and skirmishing. On their way down the Danube, Peter's followers looted Hungarian territory and were attacked by the Hungarians, the Bulgarians, and even a Byzantine army near Nis. About a quarter of Peter's followers were killed, but the rest arrived largely intact at Constantinople in August. Constantinople was big for that time period in Europe, but so was Peter's "army", and cultural difference and a reluctance to supply such a large number of incoming people led to further tensions. In Constantinople, moreover, Peter's followers weren't the only band of crusaders—they joined with other crusading armies from France and Italy. Alexius, not knowing what else to do with such a large and unusual (and foreign) army, quickly ferried them across the Bosporus. After crossing into Asia Minor the Crusaders began to quarrel and the armies broke up into two separate camps. The Turks were experienced, savvy, and had local knowledge; most of the People's Crusade—a bunch of amateur warriors—was massacred upon entering Seljuk territory. Peter survived, however, and would later join the main Crusader army. Another army of Bohemians and Saxons did not make it past Hungary before splitting up.

The German Crusade

Main article: German Crusade, 1096 German Crusade, 1096 The First Crusade ignited a long tradition of organized violence against Jews in European culture. While anti-Semitism had existed in Europe for centuries, the First Crusade marks the first mass organized violence against Jewish communities. Setting off in the early summer of 1096, a German army of around 10,000 soldiers led by Gottschalk, Volkmar, and Emicho, proceeded northward through the Rhine valley, in the opposite direction to Jerusalem, began a series of pogroms which some historians call "the first Holocaust" (1991, Jonathan Riley-Smith, pg. 50). The preaching of the crusade inspired further anti-Semitism. According to some preachers, Jews and Muslims were enemies of Christ, and enemies were to be fought or converted to Christianity. The general public apparently assumed that "fought" meant "fought to the death", or "killed". The Christian conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of a Christian emperor there would supposedly instigate the End Times, during which the Jews were supposed to convert to Christianity. In parts of France and Germany, Jews were perceived as just as much of an enemy as Muslims: they were thought to be responsible for the crucifixion, and they were more immediately visible than the far-away Muslims. Many people wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already non-believers closer to home. The crusaders moved north through the Rhine valley into well-known Jewish communities such as Cologne, and then southward. Jewish communities were given the option of converting to Christianity or be slaughtered. Most would not convert and as news of the mass killings spread many Jewish communities committed mass suicides in horrific scenes. Thousands of Jews were massacred, despite some attempts by local clergy and secular authorities to shelter them. The massacres were justified by the claim that Urban's speech at Clermont promised reward from God for killing non-Christians of any sort, not just Muslims. Although the papacy abhorred and preached against the purging of Muslim and Jewish inhabitants during this and future crusades, there were numerous attacks on Jews following every crusade movement. Cologne

The Princes' Crusade

The First Crusade did not end with the disasters of the People's Crusade and the massacres of Jewish people. The Princes' Crusade, also known as the Barons' Crusade, set out later in 1096 in a more orderly manner, led by various nobles with bands of knights from different regions of Europe. The three most significant of these were the papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy; Raymond IV of Toulouse, who represented the knights of Provence; and Bohemund of Taranto, representing the Normans of southern Italy with his nephew Tancred. Other contingents were Lorrainers under the brothers Godfrey of Bouillon, Eustace and Baldwin of Boulogne; Flemings under Count Robert II of Flanders; northern French Robert of Normandy (older brother of King William II of England), Stephen, Count of Blois, and Hugh of Vermandois (younger brother of King Philip I of France, who was forbidden from participating as he was under a ban of excommunication).

The march to Jerusalem

Leaving Europe around the appointed time in August, the various armies took different paths to Constantinople and gathered outside its city walls in December of 1096, two months after the annihilation of the People's Crusade by the Turks. Accompanying the knights were many poor men (pauperes) who could afford basic clothing and perhaps an old weapon. Peter the Hermit, who joined the Princes' Crusade at Constantinople, was considered responsible for their well-being, and they were able to organize themselves into small groups, perhaps akin to military companies, often led by an impoverished knight. One of the largest of these groups, consisting of the survivors of the People's Crusade, named itself the "Tafurs". The Princes arrived with little food and expected provisions and help from Alexius I. Alexius was understandably suspicious after his experiences with the People's Crusade, and also because the knights included his old Norman enemy Bohemund. In return for food, Alexius I requested the leaders to swear fealty to him and promise to return to the Byzantine Empire any land recovered from the Turks. Without food or provisions they eventually had no choice but to take the oath, though not until all sides had agreed to various compromises, and only after warfare had almost broken out in the city. Only Raymond avoided swearing the oath, instead allying with Alexius against their common enemy Bohemund. Alexius agreed to send out a Byzantine army to accompany the crusaders through Asia Minor. Their first objective was Nicaea, an old Byzantine city, but now the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rüm under Kilij Arslan I. The city was subjected to a lengthy siege, which was somewhat ineffectual as the crusaders could not blockade the lake on which the city was situated, and from which it could be provisioned. Arslan, from outside the city, advised the garrison to surrender if their situation became untenable. Alexius, fearing the crusaders would sack Nicea and destroy its wealth, secretly accepted the surrender of the city; the crusaders awoke on the morning of June 19, 1097 to see Byzantine standards flying from the walls. The crusaders were forbidden to loot it, and were not allowed to enter the city except in small escorted bands. This caused a further rift between the Byzantines and the crusaders. The crusaders now began the journey to Jerusalem. Stephen of Blois wrote home, stating he believed it would take five weeks. In fact, the journey would take two years. The crusaders, still accompanied by some Byzantine troops under Taticius, marched on towards Dorylaeum, where Bohemund was surrounded by Kilij Arslan. At the Battle of Dorylaeum on July 1, Godfrey broke through the Turkish lines, but he too was surrounded, and the two crusader armies were saved only by the timely appearance of the troops led by the legate Adhemar, who defeated the Turks and looted their camp. Kilij Arslan withdrew and the crusaders marched almost unopposed through Asia Minor towards Antioch, except for a battle in September in which they again defeated the Turks. The march through Asia was unpleasant. It was the middle of summer and the crusaders had very little food and water; many men died, as did many horses. Christians, in Asia as in Europe, sometimes gave them gifts of food and money, but more often the crusaders looted and pillaged whenever the opportunity presented itself. Individual leaders continued to dispute the overall leadership, although none of them were powerful enough to take command; still, Raymond and Adhemar were generally recognized as the leaders. After passing through the Cilician Gates, Baldwin of Boulogne set off on his own towards the Armenian lands around the Euphrates. In Edessa early in 1098, he was adopted as heir by King Thoros, a Greek Orthodox ruler who was disliked by his Armenian subjects. Thoros was soon assassinated and Baldwin became the new ruler, thus creating the County of Edessa, the first of the crusader states.

Siege of Antioch

Main article: Siege of Antioch The crusader army, meanwhile, marched on to Antioch, which lay about half way between Constantinople and Jerusalem. They arrived in October, 1097 and set it to a siege which lasted almost 8 months. Antioch was so large that the crusaders did not have enough troops to fully surround it, and thus it was able to stay partially supplied. As the siege dragged on, it was clear that Bohemund wanted the city for himself. In May 1098 Kerbogha of Mosul approached Antioch to relieve the siege. Bohemund bribed the Armenian guard of the city to open the gates, and in June the crusaders entered the city and killed most of the inhabitants. However, only a few days later the Muslims arrived, laying siege to the former besiegers. At this point a minor monk by the name of Peter Bartholomew claimed to have discovered the Holy Lance in the city, and although some were skeptical, this was seen as a sign that they would be victorious. On June 28 the crusaders defeated Kerbogha in a pitched battle outside the city, as Kerbogha was unable to organize the different factions in his army. While the crusaders were marching towards the Muslims, the Fatimid section of the army deserted the Turkish contingent, as they feared Kerbogah would become too powerful if he were to defeat the Crusaders. According to legend, an army of Christian saints came to the aid of the crusaders during the battle. Bohemund argued that Alexius had deserted the crusade and thus invalidated all of their oaths to him. Bohemund asserted his claim to Antioch, but not everyone agreed, and the crusade was delayed for the rest of the year while the nobles argued amongst themselves. It is a common historiographical assumption that the Franks of northern France, the Provencals of southern France, and the Normans of southern Italy considered themselves separate "nations" and that each wanted to increase its status. This may have had something to do with the disputes, but personal ambition is more likely to blame. Meanwhile a plague (perhaps typhus) broke out, killing many, including the legate Adhemar. There were now even fewer horses than before, and Muslim peasants refused to give them food. In December, the capture of the Arab town of Ma'arrat al-Numan took place, and with it the first known incident of cannibalism by the crusaders. The minor knights and soldiers became restless and threatened to continue to Jerusalem without their squabbling leaders. Finally, at the beginning of 1099 the march was renewed, leaving Bohemund behind as the first Prince of Antioch.

Siege of Jerusalem

Prince of Antioch Main article: Siege of Jerusalem Proceeding down the coast of the Mediterranean, the crusaders encountered little resistance, as local rulers preferred to make peace with them and give them supplies rather than fight. On May 7 the crusaders reached Jerusalem, which had been recaptured from the Seljuks by the Fatimids of Egypt only the year before. Many Crusaders wept on seeing the city they had journeyed so long to reach. As with Antioch the crusaders put the city to a lengthy siege, in which the crusaders themselves suffered many casualties, due to the lack of food and water around Jerusalem. Of the estimated 7,000 knights who took part in the Princes' Crusade, only about 1,500 remained. Faced with a seemingly impossible task, their morale was raised when a priest by the name of Peter Desiderius claimed to have had a divine vision instructing them to fast and then march in a barefoot procession around the city walls, after which the city would fall in nine days, following the Biblical example of Joshua at the siege of Jericho. On July 8, 1099 the crusaders performed the procession as instructed by Desiderius. Meanwhile, siege engines were constructed and seven days later on July 15, the crusaders were able to end the siege by breaking down sections of the walls and entering the city. Over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning, the crusaders murdered almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem. Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians were all massacred. Although many Muslims sought shelter in Solomon's Temple (known today as Al-Aqsa Mosque), the crusaders spared few lives. According to the anonymous Gesta Francorum, in what some believe to be an exaggerated account of the massacre which subsequently took place there, "...the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles..."[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-jlem.html#gesta2]. Other accounts of blood flowing up to the bridles of horses are reminiscent of a passage from the Book of Revelation (14:20). Tancred claimed the Temple quarter for himself and offered protection to some of the Muslims there, but he was unable to prevent their deaths at the hands of his fellow crusaders. According to Fulcher of Chartres: "Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared."[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-jlem.html#fulcher1] In the days following the massacre, Godfrey of Bouillon was made Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Protector of the Holy Sepulchre), refusing to be named king in the city where Christ had died. In the last action of the crusade, he led an army which defeated an invading Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon. Godfrey died in July, 1100, and was succeeded by his brother, Baldwin of Edessa, who took the title of "King of Jerusalem".

The Crusade of 1101 and the establishment of the kingdom

Main article: Crusade of 1101 Having captured Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the crusading vow was now fulfilled. However, there were many who had gone home before reaching Jerusalem, and many who had never left Europe at all. When the success of the crusade became known, these people were mocked and scorned by their families and threatened with excommunication by the clergy. Many crusaders who had remained with the crusade all the way to Jerusalem also went home; according to Fulcher of Chartres there were only a few hundred knights left in the newfound kingdom in 1100. In 1101 another crusade set out, including Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois, both of whom had returned home before reaching Jerusalem. This crusade was mostly annihilated in Asia Minor by the Seljuks, but the survivors helped reinforce the kingdom when they arrived in Jerusalem. In the following years assistance was also provided by Italian merchants who established themselves in the Syrian ports, and from the religious and military orders of the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitaller which were created during Baldwin I's reign.

Analysis of the First Crusade

Aftermath

The success of the First Crusade was unprecedented. Newly achieved stability in the west left a warrior aristocracy in search of new conquests and patrimony, and the new prosperity of major towns also meant that money was available to equip expeditions. The Italian naval towns, in particular Venice and Genoa, were interested in extending trade. The Papacy saw the Crusades as a way to assert Catholic influence as a unifying force, with war as a religious mission. This was a new attitude to religion: it brought religious discipline, previously applicable to monks, to soldiery—the new concept of a religious warrior and the chivalric ethos. The First Crusade succeeded in establishing the "Crusader States" of Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Tripoli in Palestine and Syria (as well as allies along the Crusaders' route, such as Cilician Armenia). Back at home in western Europe, those who had survived to reach Jerusalem were treated as heroes. Robert of Flanders was nicknamed "Hierosolymitanus" thanks to his exploits. The life of Godfrey of Bouillon became legendary even within a few years of his death. In some cases the political situation at home was greatly affected by absence on the crusade: while Robert Curthose was away, Normandy had passed to his brother Henry I of England, and their conflict resulted in the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106. Meanwhile the establishment of the crusader states in the east helped ease Seljuk pressure on the Byzantine Empire, which had regained some of its Anatolian territory with crusader help, and experienced a period of relative peace and prosperity in the 12th century. The effect on the Muslim dynasties of the east was gradual but important. The instability of the Muslim territories in the east had at first prevented a coherent defense against the aggressive and expansionist Latin states. Cooperation between them remained difficult for many decades, but from Egypt to Syria to Baghdad there were calls for the expulsion of the crusaders, culminating in the relative unity of the eastern Muslim world and the recapture of Jerusalem under Saladin later in the century.

The pilgrims

Although it is called the First Crusade, no one saw himself as a "crusader." The term crusade is an early 12th century term that first appears in Latin over 100 years after the "first" crusade. Nor did the "crusaders" see themselves as the first, since they did not know there would be more. They saw themselves simply as pilgrims (peregrinatores) on a journey (iter), and were referred to as such in contemporary accounts.

Popularity of the Crusade

What started as a minor call for military aid turned in to a mass migration of peoples. The call to go on crusade was very popular. Two medieval roles, holy warrior and pilgrim, were merged into one. Like a holy warrior in a holy war, one would carry a weapon and fight for the Church with all its spiritual benefits, including the privilege of an indulgence or martyrdom if one died in battle. Like a pilgrim on a pilgrimage, one would have the right to hospitality and personal protection of self and property by the Church. The benefits of the indulgence were therefore twofold, both for fighting as a warrior of the Church and for travelling as a pilgrim. Thus, an indulgence would be granted regardless of whether one lived or died. In addition, there were feudal obligations, as many crusaders went because they were commanded by their lord and had no choice. There were also family obligations, with many people joining the crusade in order to support relatives who had also taken the crusading vow. All of these motivated different people for different reasons and contributed to the popularity of the crusade.

Spiritual versus earthly rewards

Older scholarship on this issue asserts that the bulk of the participants were likely younger sons of nobles who were dispossessed of land and influenced by the practise of primogeniture, and poorer knights who were looking for a new life in the wealthy east. However, current research suggests that although Urban promised crusaders spiritual as well as material benefit, the primary aim of most crusaders was spiritual rather than material gain. Moreover, recent research by Jonathan Riley-Smith instead shows that the crusade was an immensely expensive undertaking, affordable only to those knights who were already fairly wealthy, such as Hugh of Vermandois and Robert Curthose, who were relatives of the French and English royal families, and Raymond of Toulouse, who ruled much of southern France. Even then, these wealthy knights had to sell much of their land to relatives or the church before they could afford to participate. Their relatives, too, often had to impoverish themselves in order to raise money for the crusade. As Riley-Smith says, "there really is no evidence to support the proposition that the crusade was an opportunity for spare sons to make themselves scarce in order to relieve their families of burdens." (The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, pg. 47) As an example of spiritual over earthly motivation, Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin settled previous quarrels with the church by bequeathing their land to local clergy. The charters denoting these transactions were written by clergymen, not the knights themselves, and seem to idealize the knights as pious men seeking only to fulfill a vow of pilgrimage. Further, poorer knights (minores, as opposed to the greater knights, the principes) could go on crusade only if they expected to survive off of almsgiving, or if they could enter the service of a wealthier knight, as was the case with Tancred, who agreed to serve his uncle Bohemund. Later crusades would be organized by wealthy kings and emperors, or would be supported by special crusade taxes.

Selected sources and further reading

Primary sources


- Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolymitana
- Anna Comnena, Alexiad
- Guibert of Nogent, Dei gesta per Francos
- Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana
- Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (anonymous)
- Peter Tudebode, Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere
- Raymond of Aguilers, Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem
- Ibn al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades

Primary sources online


- Selected letters by Crusaders:
  - Anselme of Ribemont, [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1stCrusade1.htm Anselme of Ribemont, Letter to Manasses II, Archbishop of Reims] (1098)
  - Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1stcrusade2.html Letter to his wife, Adele] (1098)
  - Daimbert, Godfrey and Raymond, [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1stcru3.html Letter to the Pope], (1099)
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.html#The%20First%20Crusade Online primary sources] from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
  - Peter the Hermit and the Popular Crusade: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/peterhermit.html Collected Accounts].
  - The Crusaders Journey to Constantinople: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-tocp.html Collected Accounts].
  - The Crusaders at Constantinople: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-atcp.html Collected Accounts].
  - The Siege and Capture of Nicea: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-nicea.html Collected Accounts].
  - The Siege and Capture of Antioch: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-antioch.html Collected Accounts].
  - The Siege and Capture of Jerusalem: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/cde-jlem.html Collected Accounts].
- Fulcher of Chartres: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/fulk2.html The Capture of Jerusalem], 1099.
- Ekkehard of Aura: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ekkehard-aur1.html On the Opening of the First Crusade].
- Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews.html Emico and the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews].
- Soloman bar Samson: [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews-mainz.html The Crusaders in Mainz], attacks on Rhineland Jewry.
- Ali ibn Tahir Al-Sulami (d. 1106): [http://www.arts.cornell.edu/prh3/447/texts/Sulami.html Kitab al-Jihad] (extracts). First known Islamic discussion of the concept of jihad written in the aftermath of the First Crusade.

Secondary sources


- Asbridge, Thomas. The First Crusade: A New History. Oxford: 2004. ISBN 0195178238.
- Bartlett, Robert. The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Exchange, 950–1350. Princeton: 1994. ISBN 0691037809.
- Chazan, Robert. In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews. Jewish Publication Society, 1997. ISBN 0827605757.
- Hillenbrand, Carole. The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0415929148.
- Holt, P.M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. Longman, 1989. ISBN 0582493021.
- Mayer, Hans Eberhard. The Crusades. John Gillingham, translator. Oxford: 1988. ISBN 0198730977.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. University of Pennsylvania: 1991. ISBN 0812213637.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan, editor. The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford: 2002. ISBN 0192803123.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusaders, 1095–1131. Cambridge: 1998. ISBN 0521646030.
- Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades: Volume 1, The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge: 1987 ISBN 052134770X
- Setton, Kenneth, editor. A History of the Crusades. Madison: 1969–1989 ([http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/HistCrusades/ available online]).

Bibliographies


- [http://www.deremilitari.org/biblio/firstcrusade.htm Bibliography of the First Crusade (1095-1099)] compiled by Alan V. Murray, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds. Extensive and up to date as of 2004. Category:Crusades Category:1090s ja:第1回十字軍

1096

Events


- Bernhard becomes Bishop of Brandenburg
- First documented teaching at the University of Oxford
- Beginning of the People's Crusade, the German Crusade, and the First Crusade
- Vital I Michele is Doge of Venice
- Peter I, King of Aragon, conquers Huesca
- Phayao, now a province of Thailand, is founded as a kingdom

Births


- Hugh of St. Victor, scholar
- King Stephen of England (d. 1154)

Deaths


- Eudocia Macrembolitissa, empress of Byzantine Emperor Constantine X (b. 1021)
- William of St. Carilef, bishop of Durham and chief counsellor of William II of England
- Walter the Penniless, a leader of the First Crusade Category:1096 ko:1096년

Pope Urban II

Urban II, né Otho of Lagery (or Otto or Odo) (1042 - July 29, 1099), was a pope from 1088 to July 29, 1099. He is most known for starting the First Crusade and setting up the modern day Roman Curia, in the manner of a royal court, to help run the Church. He was born into nobility in France at Lagery (near Châtillon-sur-Marne) and was church-educated. He was archdeacon of Reims when, under the influence of St. Bruno his teacher, he resigned and entered the cloister at Cluny where he rose to be prior. In 1078, Gregory VII summoned him to Italy and made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He was one of the most prominent and active supporters of the Gregorian reforms, especially as legate in Germany in 1084, and was among the few whom Gregory nominated as possible successors to be Pope. Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino (who took the name Victor III) was chosen Pope initially, but after his short reign Odo was elected by acclamation (March 1088) at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina. He took up the policies of Pope Gregory VII, and while pursuing them with determination showed greater flexibility and diplomatic finesse. At the outset he had to reckon with the presence of the powerful Antipope Clement III in Rome; but a series of well-attended synods held in Rome, Amalfi, Benevento, and Troia supported him in renewed declarations against simony, lay investiture, and clerical marriages, and a continued opposition to Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. In accordance with this last policy, the marriage of the countess Matilda of Tuscany with Guelph of Bavaria was promoted, Prince Conrad was helped in his rebellion against his father and crowned King of the Romans at Milan in 1093, and the empress (Adelaide or Praxedes) encouraged in her charges against her husband. In a protracted struggle also with Philippe I of France, whom he had excommunicated for his adulterous marriage to Bertrade de Montfort, Urban II finally proved victorious.

Crusades

Bertrade de MontfortUrban's crusading movement took its first public shape at the Council of Piacenza, where in March 1095 Urban received an ambassador from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, asking for help against the Muslims. A great council met, attended by numerous Italian, Burgundian, and French bishops in such vast numbers it had to be held in the open air outside the city. At the Council of Clermont held in November of the same year, Urban's sermon proved the most effective single speech in European history, as he summoned the French people to wrest the Holy Land from the hands of the Turks. France, he said, was already overcrowded and the holy lands of Canaan were overflowing with milk and honey. He asked the Frenchmen to turn their swords in favour of God's service, and the assembly replied Dieu le veut! -- "God wills it!" Urban II died on July 29, 1099, fourteen days after the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders, but before news of the event had reached Italy; his successor was Paschal II.

Urban II and Sicily

Far more subtle than the Crusades, but far more successful over the long run, was Urban's program of bringing Campagna and Sicily firmly into the Catholic sphere, after generations of control from the Byzantine Empire and the hegemony of Arab emirs in Sicily. His agent in the Sicilian borderlands was the Norman ruler Roger I. In 1098 Urban bestowed on Roger extraordinary prerogatives, some of the very same rights that were being withheld from temporal sovereigns elsewhere in Europe. Roger was to be free to appoint bishops ("lay investiture"), free to collect Church revenues and forward them to the papacy (always a lucrative middle position), and free to sit in judgment on ecclesiastical questions. Roger was to be virtually a legate of the pope within Sicily. In re-Christianizing Sicily, seats of new dioceses needed to be established, and the boundaries of sees established, with a church hierarchy re-established after centuries of Muslim domination. Roger's Lombard consort Adelaide brought settlers from the valley of the Po to colonize eastern Sicily. Roger as secular ruler seemed a safe proposition, as he was merely a vassal of his kinsman the Count of Apulia, himself a vassal of Rome, so as a well-tested military commander it seemed safe to give him these extraordinary powers, which were later to come to terminal confrontations between Roger's Hohenstaufen heirs and the 13th century Papacy. Category:Crusades Urban II Urban II Urban II Urban II ko:교황 우르바노 2세 ja:ウルバヌス2世 (ローマ教皇) nb:Urban II

August 15

August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining.

Events


- 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland is killed
- 927 - The Saracens conquered and destroyed Taranto
- 1057 - King MacBeth of Scotland is killed during the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of King Malcolm III.
- 1185 - The cave city of Vardzia was consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia
- 1309 - The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquartes on the island, and rename themselves as the Knights of Rhodes.
- 1517 - Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernao Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
- 1519 - Panama City, Panama is founded
- 1534 - The Society of Jesus is founded by Ignatius of Loyola with Francis Xavier and other students
- 1535 - Asuncion, Paraguay is founded
- 1540 - Arequipa, Peru is founded
- 1549 - Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
- 1620 - The Mayflower departs Southampton, England.
- 1824 - Freed American slaves form Liberia.
- 1843 - The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
- 1843 - Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 1863 - The Satsuma war begins between the Satsuma clan and Britain (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
- 1877 - Thomas Edison makes the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
- 1914 - The Panama Canal opens to traffic
- 1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw - Poles defeat the Red Army.
- 1942 - World War II: Operation Pedestal - The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island defenses.
- 1944 - World War II: Operation Anvil - Allied forces land in southern France.
- 1945 - World War II: Victory over Japan Day - Japan surrenders.
- 1945 - World War II: Korean Liberation Day
- 1947 - India gains independence from Britain. Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India
- 1948 - The Republic of Korea is established south of 38th Parallel
- 1960 - Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) declares its independence from France
- 1961 - Construction begins on the Berlin Wall, Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany.
- 1965 - John Coltrane plays in Chicago, Illinois for the Downbeat Jazz Festival with Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner.
- 1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
- 1971 - President Richard Nixon ends convertibility of U.S. dollar into gold
- 1973 - Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends
- 1974 - Yook Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea is killed amid an apparent assassination attempt upon President of the South Korea, Park Chung-hee, during the anniversarial ceremony of the Liberation day.
- 1975 - Military coup in Bangladesh
- 1975 - Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by a sitting prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
- 1977 - The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by The Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" for notation made by a volunteer on the project.
- 1978 - Foundation of Mirapuri - The City of Peace and Future Man
- 1998 - Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, becoming the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles
- 1999 - Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

Births


- 1001 - King Duncan I of Scotland (d. 1040)
- 1171 - King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)
- 1195 - Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
- 1432 - Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)
- 1613 - Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)
- 1717 - Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
- 1769 - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
- 1785 - Thomas De Quincey, English author (d. 1859)
- 1813 - Jules Grévy, President of France (d. 1891)
- 1856 - Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
- 1858 - E. Nesbit, English author (d. 1924)
- 1872 - Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer, nationalist, philosopher, and guru (d. 1950)
- 1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)
- 1879 - Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)
- 1887 - Edna Ferber, American novelist (d. 1968)
- 1883 - Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)
- 1890 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
- 1892 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1893 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
- 1896 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
- 1896 - Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
- 1900 - Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)
- 1912 - Julia Child, American cook (d. 2004)
- 1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
- 1916 - Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer
- 1917 - Jack Lynch, fourth President of Ireland (d. 1999)
- 1919 - Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Lukas Foss, German-born composer
- 1923 - Rose Marie, American actress
- 1924 - Robert Bolt, English screenwriter (d. 1995)
- 1925 - Mike Connors, American actor
- 1925 - Willie Jones, baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1925 - Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist
- 1928 - Nicolas Roeg, English film director
- 1933 - Jim Lange, American game show host
- 1935 - Vernon Jordan Jr., U.S. Presidential advisor
- 1935 - Lionel Taylor, American football player
- 1938 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
- 1944 - Linda Ellerbee, American journalist
- 1944 - Sylvie Vartan, French pop singer
- 1945 - Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, Indian guru
- 1945 - Begum Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
- 1946 - Jimmy Webb, American musician and composer
- 1947 - Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
- 1948 - Uschi Digard, American actress and model
- 1949 - Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
- 1950 - Princess Anne of the United Kingdom
- 1951 - Daba Diawara, Malian politician
- 1958 - Victor Shenderovich, Russian satirist
- 1965 - Rob Thomas, author and screenwriter
- 1968 - Debra Messing, American actress
- 1972 - Ben Affleck, American actor
- 1974 - Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress
- 1977 - Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast
- 1975 - Kara Wolters, American basketball player
- 1976 - Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
- 1978 - Tim Foreman, American bassist (Switchfoot)
- 1978 - Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast

Deaths


- 778 - Roland, Frankish commander (killed in battle)
- 1040 - King Duncan I of Scotland (b. 1001)
- 1057 - King Macbeth I of Scotland
- 1118 - Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)
- 1196 - Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)
- 1274 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (b. 1201)
- 1369 - Philippa of Hainault, queen of Edward III of England
- 1528 - Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)
- 1552 - Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
- 1621 - John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)
- 1666 - Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1714 - Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)
- 1728 - Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (b. 1656)
- 1799 - Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
- 1907 - Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)
- 1909 - Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)
- 1935 - Wiley Post, American pilot (b. 1898)
- 1935 - Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (b. 1879)
- 1936 - Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
- 1951 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
- 1953 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
- 1959 - Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901
- 1962 - Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)
- 1967 - René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)
- 1971 - Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)
- 1975 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1920)
- 1975 - Clay Shaw, John F. Kennedy assassination investigator (b. 1913)
- 1982 - Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- 1990 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
- 1995 - John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)
- 1999 - Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)
- 2001 - Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (brain tumour) (b. 1972)
- 2003 - Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
- 2004 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 2004 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)
- 2005 - James Dougherty, first husband of Marilyn Monroe (leukemia)

Holidays and observances


- Eastern Orthodoxy – Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the commemoration of the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
- RC Saints – Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Holy Day of Obligation. Public Holiday in: Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Greece, India, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Poland, Portugal, Seychelles, Slovenia and Spain.
- Acadie – National Day
- Egypt – Flooding of the Nile Day
- Hawaii – Toro Nagashi (Floating Lantern Ceremony) to commemorate the end of the second world war
- India – Independence Day (from Britain, 1947)
- Italy – "Ferragosto", remembrance of an ancient Roman holiday in honor of Augustus (Feriae Augusti)
- Korea – Liberation Day
- Ancient Latvia – Māras
- Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein Day
- Poland – Polish Armed Forces Day
- Jamaica– Jamaican national dance Day(Bianca Day)
- Tuva – Tuva Republic Day, Naadym

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/15 BBC: On This Day] August 14 - August 16 - July 15 - September 15 -- listing of all days ko:8월 15일 ms:15 Ogos ja:8月15日 simple:August 15 th:15 สิงหาคม

Jerusalem

Jerusalem (; Hebrew: ; Yerushalayim; Arabic: al-Quds; official Israeli Arabic: أُورْشَلِيم Urshalim; see also names of Jerusalem) is an ancient Middle Eastern city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The State of Israel has its capital at Jerusalem. With a population of 704,900 (as of December 31, 2004 [http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2004/tab_3.pdf]), it is a richly heterogeneous city, representing a wide range of national, religious, and socioeconomic groups. The section called the "Old City" is surrounded by walls and consists of four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim. The status of the city is hotly disputed. The 1949 cease-fire line between Israel and Jordan, also known as the Green Line, cuts through the city. Since its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has controlled the entire city and claims sovereignty over it. According to an Israeli law from January 1950 Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. A Basic Law of Israel enacted in 1980 (the Jerusalem Law) affirmed that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and is the center of Jerusalem District; indeed, since 1950, it serves as the country's seat of government and its capital. The UN Security Council Resolution 478 condemned the Jerusalem Law as "a violation of international law" and most countries prefer to keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Name

See also names of Jerusalem. The origin of the name of the city is uncertain. It is possible to understand the name (Hebrew Yerushalayim) as either "Heritage of Salem" or "Heritage of Peace" - a contraction of "heritage" (yerusha) and Salem (Shalem literally "whole" or "in harmony") or "peace" (shalom). (See the Biblical commentator the Ramban for explanation.) "Shalem" is the original name used in Genesis 14:18 for the city. Similarly the Amarna Letters call the city Uru Salim in Akkadian, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem ("city of Salem"). Some consider a connection between the name and Shalim -- the deity personifying dusk known from Ugaritic myths and offering lists. The ending -ayim or -im has the appearance of the Hebrew dual or plural suffix respectively. It has been argued that it is a dual form representing the fact that the city lies on two hills however the treatment of the ending as a suffix makes the rest of the name incomprehensible in Hebrew. A Midrashic interpretation comes from Genesis Rabba, which explains that Abraham came to "Shalem" after rescuing Lot. Upon arrival, he asked the king and high priest Melchizedek to bless him, and Melchizedek did so in the name of the Supreme God (indicating that he, like Abraham, was a monotheist). According to exegetes, God immortalizes this encounter between Melchizedek and Abraham by renaming the city in honor of them: the name "Yeru" (derived from "Yireh", the name Abraham gives to Mount Moriah after unbinding Isaac, and explained in Genesis as meaning that God will be revealed there) is placed in front of "Shalem". The plural ending implies the community of all believers in the One God who testify to the city's holiness.

History

Antiquity (prehistory - 6 CE)

Isaac's time]] This city has known many wars, and various periods of occupation. According to one Jewish tradition, it was founded by Abraham's forefathers Shem and Eber. According to Genesis 14:18, "Salem" was ruled by Melchizedek, a priest of God -- in some traditions, identical with Shem. Later it was controlled by the Jebusites. After this it came under Israelite control. The Bible records that King David defeated the Jebusites in war and captured the city without destroying it. David then expanded the city to the south, and declared it the capital city of the united Kingdom of Israel. Later, according to the Bible, the First Jewish Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The Temple became a major cultural center in the region, eventually overcoming other ritual centers such as Shilo and Bethel. Near the end of the reign of King Solomon, the northern ten tribes split off to form the Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria. Jerusalem then became the capital of the southern kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah. By the end of the "First Temple Period," Jerusalem was the sole acting religious shrine in the kingdom and a center of regular pilgrimage. Although recent archaeological finds may push the date yet earlier (see Tel Dan Stele), clear historical records begin to corroborate some of the Biblical history from around the 9th century BCE, the kings of Judah become historically identifiable, and the significance the Temple had in Jewish religious life is clear. Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah for some 400 years. It had survived (or, as some historians claim, averted) an Assyrian siege in 701 BCE by Sennacherib -- unlike Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, that had fallen some twenty years previously. However, the city was overcome by the Babylonians in 597 BCE, who then took the young king Jehoiachin into Babylonian captivity, together with most of the aristocracy. The country rebelled again under Zedekiah, prompting the city's repeated conquest and destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 587/586 BCE. The temple was burnt, and the city's walls were ruined, thus rendering what remained of the city unprotected. After several decades of captivity and the Persian conquest of Babylonia, Cyrus II of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the city's walls and the Temple. It continued to be the capital of Judah and center of Jewish worship, as a province under the Persians, Greek and Romans, with a relatively short period of independence under the Hasmonean Kingdom. The Temple complex was upgraded and the Temple itself rebuilt under Herod the Great, a Jewish client-king under Roman rule, around 19 BCE. That structure is known as the Second Temple, and was the most important of the many improvements Herod made to the city. After Herod's death, the province and city came under direct Roman rule in 6 CE.

Roman rule (6 CE - 638)

Second Temple: "Shekel Israel, year 3". Reverse: "Jerusalem the Holy"]] Reverse Jerusalem became the birthplace of Christianity in the first century CE. According to the Bible it is the location of both the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After a brief period of Roman rule, the city was ruined when a civil war, accompanied by the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in Judea, led to the city's sack yet again, at the hands of Titus in 70 CE. The Second Temple was burnt and all that remained was a portion of an external (retaining) wall that became known as the Western Wall. After the end of this first revolt, Jews continued to live in Jerusalem in significant numbers, and were allowed to practice their religion. In the second century, the Roman Emperor Hadrian began to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city while restricting some Jewish practices. Angry at this affront, the Judeans again revolted, led by Simon Bar Kokhba. Hadrian responded with overwhelming force, putting down the revolution, killing as many as a half million Jews, and resettling the city as a pagan polis under the name Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to enter the city but for a single day of the year, Tisha B'Av, (the Ninth of Av, see Hebrew calendar), when they could weep for the destruction of their city at the Temple's only remaining wall. For the next 150 years, the city remained a relatively unimportant Roman town. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine, however, rebuilt Jerusalem as a Christian center of worship, building the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335. Jews were still banned from the city, except during a brief period of Persian rule from 614-629.

Arab Caliphates, Christian Crusaders, and early Ottoman rule (638-1800s)

Church of the Holy Sepulcher, according to Arab geographers such as al-Muqaddasi.]] Although the Qur'an does not mention the name "Jerusalem", the hadith specify that it was from Jerusalem that Muhammad ascended to heaven in the Night Journey, or Isra and Miraj. The city was one of the Arab Caliphate's first conquests in 638 CE; according to Arab historians of the time, the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab personally went to the city to receive its submission, cleaning out and praying at the Temple Mount in the process. Sixty years later, the Dome of the Rock was built, a structure in which there lies the stone where Muhammad is said to have tethered his mount Buraq during the Isra. This is also reputed to be the place where Abraham went to sacrifice his son (Isaac in the Jewish tradition, Ishmael in the Muslim one.) Note that the octagonal and gold-sheeted Dome is not the same thing as the Al-Aqsa Mosque beside it, which was built more than three centuries later. Umar ibn al-Khattab also allowed the Jews entry into the city and full freedom to live and worship after 400 hundred years. Jews were allowed to move back into their homes. Al-Aqsa Mosque Under the early centuries of Muslim rule, especially during the Umayyad (650-750) and Abbasid (750-969) dynasties, the city prospered; the geographers Ibn Hawqal and al-Istakhri (10th century) describe it as "the most fertile province of Palestine", while its native son the geographer al-Muqaddasi (born 946) devoted many pages to its praises in his most famous work, The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Climes. The early Arab period was also one of religious tolerance. However, in the early 11th century, the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of all churches and synagogues in Jerusalem, a policy reversed by his successors. Reports of this were one cause of the First Crusade, which marched off from Europe to the area, and, on July 15, 1099, Christian soldiers took Jerusalem after a difficult one month siege. They then proceeded to slaughter most of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. Raymond d'Aguiliers, chaplain to Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, wrote: :Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious ceremonies were ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle-reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. The city was filled with corpses and blood. (Edward Peters, The First Crusade: The chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and other source materials, p. 214) Jerusalem became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a feudal state, of which the King of Jerusalem was the chief. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until 1291; however, Jerusalem itself was recaptured by Saladin in 1187, who permitted worship of all religions (see Siege of Jerusalem (1187). In 1173 Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem. He described it as a small city full of Jacobites, Armenians, Greeks, and Georgians. Two hundred Jews dwelt in a corner of the city under the Tower of David. In 1219 the walls of the city were taken down by order of the Sultan of Damascus; in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, Jerusalem came into the hands of Frederick II of Germany. In 1239 he began to rebuild the walls; but they were again demolished by Da'ud, the emir of Kerak. Kerak In 1243 Jerusalem came again into the power of the Christians, and the walls were repaired. The Kharezmian Tatars took the city in 1244; and they in turn were driven out by the Egyptians in 1247. In 1260 the Tatars under Hulaku Khan overran the whole land, and the Jews that were in Jerusalem had to flee to the neighboring villages. Hulaku Khan In 1244, Sultan Malik al-Muattam razed the city walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the city's status. In the middle of the 13th century, Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mameluks. In 1517, it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire and enjoyed a period of renewal and peace under Suleiman the Magnificent - including the rebuilding of magnificent walls of what is now known as the Old City (however, some of the wall foundations are remains of genuine antique walls). The rule of Suleiman and the following Ottoman Sultans brought an age of "religious peace"; Jew, Christian and Muslim enjoyed the freedom of religion the Ottomans granted them and it was possible to find a synagogue, a church and a mosque in the same street. The city remained open to all religions, although the empire's faulty management after Suleiman meant slow economical stagnation. In 1482, the visiting Dominican priest Felix Fabri described Jerusalem as a dwelling place of diverse nations of the world, and is, as it were, a collection of all manner of abominations. As abominations he listed Saracens, Greeks, Syrians, Jacobites, Abyssianians, Nestorians, Armenians, Gregorians, Maronites, Turcomans, Bedouins, Assassins, a sect possibly Druze, Mamelukes, and the most accursed of all, Jews. Only the Latin Christians long with all their hearts for Christian princes to come and subject all the country to the authority of the Church of Rome. (A. Stewart, Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, Vol 9-10, p. 384-391)

Revival of Jerusalem (1800s-1917)

Mameluke]] The modern history of Jerusalem began in the mid-nineteenth century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the city was a backwater, with a population that did not exceed 8,000. Nevertheless, it was, even then, an extremely heterogeneous city because of its significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The population was divided into four major communities--Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian--and the first three of these could be further divided into countless subgroups, based on precise religious affiliation or country of origin. An example of this would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was meticulously partitioned between the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. Tensions between the groups ran so deep that the keys to the shrine were kept with a 'neutral' Muslim family for safekeeping. At that time, the communities were located mainly around their primary shrines. The Muslim community surrounded the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount (northeast), the Christians lived mainly in the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (northwest), the Jews lived mostly on the slope above the Western Wall (southeast), and the Armenians lived near the Zion Gate (southwest). In no way was this division exclusive, however, it did form the basis of the four quarters during the British Mandate period (1917-1948). Zion Gate Several changes occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, which had long-lasting effects on the city: their implications can be felt today and lie at the root of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem. The first of these was a trickle of Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and Eastern Europe which shifted the balance of population so that Jews formed the largest religious group in the city by the 1844 census. The first such immigrants were Orthodox Jews: some were elderly individuals, who came to die in Jerusalem and be buried on the Mount of Olives; others were students, who came with their families to await the coming of the Messiah, and adding new life to the local population. At the same time, European colonial powers also began seeking toeholds in the city, hoping to expand their influence pending the imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This was also an age of Christian religious revival, and many churches sent missionaries to proselytize among the Muslim and especially the Jewish populations, believing that this would speed the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, the combination of European colonialism and religious zeal was expressed in a new scientific interest in the biblical lands in general and Jerusalem in particular. Archeological and other expeditions made some spectacular finds, which increased interest in Jerusalem even more. proselytize] By the 1860s, the city, with an area of only 1 square kilometer, was already overcrowded. Thus began the construction of the New City, the part of Jerusalem outside of the city walls. Seeking new areas to stake their claims, the Russian Orthodox Church began constructing a complex, now known as the Russian Compound, a few hundred meters from Jaffa Gate. The first attempt at residential settlement outside the walls of Jerusalem was begun by Jews, who built a small complex on the hill overlooking Zion Gate, across the Valley of Hinnom. This settlement, known as Mishkenot Sha’ananim, eventually flourished and set the precedent for other new communities to spring up to the west and north of the Old City. In time, as the communities grew and connected geographically, this became known as the New City.

British Mandate (1917-1948)

Mishkenot Sha’ananim The British were victorious over the Turks in the Middle East and with victory in Palestine, General Sir Edmund Allenby, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force entered Jerusalem on foot, out of respect for the Holy City, on December 11th, 1917. By the time General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottomans in 1917, the new city was a patchwork of neighborhoods and communities, each with a distinct ethnic character. This continued under British rule, as the New City of Jerusalem grew outside the old city walls and the Old City of Jerusalem gradually emerged as little more than an impoverished older neighborhood. One of the British bequests to the city was a town planning order requiring new buildings in the city to be faced with sandstone and thus preserving some of the overall look of the city, even as it grew. During the 1930s, two important new institutions, the Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University were founded in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus. Mount ScopusBritish rule marked a period of growing unrest. Arab resentment at British rule and the influx of Jewish immigrants (by 1948 1 in 6 Jews in Palestine lived in Jerusalem) boiled over in anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem in 1920, 1929, and the 1930s that caused significant damage and several deaths. The Jewish community organized self-defense forces in response to the Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920 and later disturbances; while other Jewish groups carried out bombings and attacks against the British, especially in response to suspected complicity with the Arabs and restrictions on immigration during World War II imposed by the White Paper of 1939. The level of violence continued to escalate throughout the 1930s and 1940s. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan which partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. Each state would be composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads, plus an Arab enclave at Jaffa. The Greater Jerusalem area would fall under international control. After partition, the fight for Jerusalem escalated, with heavy casualties among both fighters and civilians on the British, Jewish, and Arab sides. By the end of March, 1948, just before the British withdrawal, and with the British increasingly reluctant to intervene, the roads to Jerusalem were cut off by Arab irregulars, placing the Jewish population of the city under siege. The siege was eventually broken, though massacres of civilians occurred on both sides, before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began with the end of the British Mandate in May of 1948.

Jerusalem and the Arab-Israeli conflict (1948-)

Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jerusalem was divided. The Western half of the New City became part of the new state of Israel, while the eastern half, along with the Old City, was annexed by Jordan. Jordan did not allow Jewish access to the Western Wall (also known to non-Jews as the Wailing Wall) and Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest sites, in the Old City, though it had agreed to under the cease fire agreement. Temple Mount (right); General Uzi Narkiss (left), entering Old Jerusalem in June 1967]] The United Nations proposed, in its 1947 plan for the partition of Palestine, for Jerusalem to be a city under international administration. However, on January 23, 1950 the Knesset passed a resolution that stated Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. The city recovered from the Arab seige of 1948 and became the second largest city in the country, after Tel Aviv. Growth was limited in that the city was surrounded on three sides by hostile Arabs, and the major highway linking the city to the rest of the country fell into Arab hands in 1948 and a smaller, newly built roadway was now the only way to reach the city. East Jerusalem was captured by Israel Defense Force following the Six Day War in 1967. Most Jews celebrated the event as a liberation of the city; a new Israeli holiday was created, Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim), and the most popular secular Hebrew song, "Jerusalem of Gold" (Yerushalayim shel zahav), became popular in celebration. Following this the medieval Moroccan Quarter containing several hundred homes was demolished and their Palestinian inhabitants expelled, and a huge public plaza was built in its place adjoining the Western Wall, to accommodate the influx of Jewish worshippers to their holy site. Moroccan Quarter plaza]] Many large state gatherings of the State of Israel take place there now, including the official swearing-in of different Israel army officers units, national ceremonies such as memorial services for fallen Israeli soldiers on Yom Hazikaron, huge celebrations on Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut), huge gatherings of tens of thousands on Jewish religious holidays, and ongoing daily prayers by regular attendees. It is also a major high-point for tourists visiting Jerusalem. Under Israeli control, members of most religions are largely granted access to their holy sites. The major exceptions being the limitations placed on Palestinian Muslims and Christians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from accessing holy sites due to their inadmissibility to Jerusalem, as well as limitations on Jews from visiting the Temple Mount due to both politically-motivated restrictions (where they are allowed to walk on the Mount in small groups, but are forbidden to pray or study while there) and religious edicts that forbid Jews from trespassing on what may be the site of the Holy of the Holies. Concerns have been raised about attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the last of which was a serious fire in 1969 (arson by an Australian tourist), and tunnels opened near the Mount, discovered in 1981, 1988 and 1996. The status of East Jerusalem remains a highly controversial issue.

Current status

Israeli law designates Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; only a few countries recognize this designation. See Status as Israel's capital. According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international city, not part of either the proposed Jewish or Arab state. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel, while East Jerusalem (including the Old City) was occupied by Jordan, along with the West Bank. The Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) was not internationally recognized, except by the United Kingdom and Pakistan. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem, and began taking steps to unify the city under Israeli control. In three legal measures passed by the Knesset on 27 and 28 June 1967 Israel extended its laws to 6.4 km² of Jordanian Jerusalem and 64 km² of the nearby West Bank, effectively annexing them (see [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/3.stm Maps of Jerusalem pre- and post-1967]). Residents of the annexed territory were offered Israeli citizenship on condition they renounce their Jordanian citizenship, which most of them refused to do. In 1988, Jordan withdrew all its claims to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem is also controversial. The Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have a 'permanent resident' status, which allows them to move within Israel proper. However should they move out of Israel proper (e.g. into the Palestinian territories), this status will be lost and they will not be able to return. Since many have extended families in the West Bank, only miles away, this often implies enormous hassles. By Israel's Citizenship Law, they are entitled to Israeli citizenship, which they can receive automatically or almost automatically, provided that they do not have any other citizenship. Thus, many Palestinians who would like to hold their Jordanian passports have to retain the status of permanent residents. Some Palestinians decline to accept citizenship since they consider it equivalent to accepting Israel's annexation. Another issue is the status of family members not recorded in the census preceding the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem. They must apply for entry into East Jerusalem for family reunification with the Ministry of the Interior. Palestinians complain that such applications have been arbitrarily denied for purposes of limiting the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem, while Israeli authorities claim they treat Palestinians fairly. These and other aspects have been a source of criticism from Palestinians and Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem.

Status as Israel's capital

B'Tselem In 1980, the Israeli Knesset confirmed Jerusalem's status as the nation's "eternal and indivisible capital", by passing the Basic Law: Jerusalem — Capital of Israel. All the branches of Israeli government (Presidential, Legislative, Judicial, and Administrative) are seated in Jerusalem. The Knesset building is well known in Jerusalem. As of 2004, only two states, Costa Rica and El Salvador, have their embassies in Jerusalem (since 1984). Other foreign consulates such as Consulate General of Greece as well as those of the United Kingdom and the United States are based there and primarily serve the Palestinian population in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Consul-Generals of those countries do not submit their letters of credintials to the Israeli President or foreign ministry, but to the administrative governor of the city. Additionally, Bolivia and Paraguay have their embassies in Mevasseret Zion, a suburb of Jerusalem. The Netherlands hold an office in Jerusalem that serves almost exclusively Israelis.

Palestinian aspirations

Palestinian groups claim either all of Jerusalem (Al-Quds) or East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

UN position

The position of the United Nations on the question of Jerusalem is contained in General Assembly resolution 181(11) and subsequent resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council concerning this question. The UN Security Council, in UN Resolution 478, declared that the 1980 Jerusalem Law declaring Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital was "null and void and must be rescinded forthwith" (14-0-1, with United States abstaining). The resolution instructed member states to withdraw their diplomatic representation from the city as a punitive measure. Before this resolution, thirteen countries maintained their embassies in Jerusalem: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Netherlands, Panama, Uruguay, Venezuela. Following the UN resolution, all thirteen moved their embassies to Tel Aviv. Costa Rica and El Salvador moved theirs back to Jerusalem in 1984.

United States position

The United States Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by Congress in 1995, states that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999". Since then, the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv is being suspended by the President semi-annually, each time stating that "[the] Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem". As a result of the Embassy Act, official U.S. documents and web sites refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Section 214 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 2003 states: :"The Congress maintains its commitment to relocating the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and urges the President [...] to immediately begin the process of relocating the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem". [http://www.mideastweb.org/jeruembassy2002.htm] However, President Bush has argued that this section is merely "advisory", stating that it "impermissibly interferes with the President's constitutional authority". [http://www.state.gov/m/rm/rls/rm/2002/13888.htm] The U.S. Constitution reserves the conduct of foreign policy to the President and acts of Congress which make foreign policy are arguably invalid for that reason. The U.S. Congress, however, has the "power of the purse," and could prohibit the president from expending any funds on any embassy that is located outside Jerusalem. It has not done so.

United Kingdom position

UK government statement [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1076522475865] :"In line with the Declaration of Principles of 13 September 1993 and the Interim Agreement of 28 September 1995, both agreed by Israel and the PLO, the Government regards the status of Jerusalem as still to be determined in permanent status negotiations between the parties. Pending agreement, we recognise de facto Israeli control of West Jerusalem but consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory. We recognise no sovereignty over the city." :"Jerusalem has a unique religious and cultural importance for Christians, Jews and Muslims, and we attach great importance to ensuring access to Jerusalem and freedom of worship there for those of all faiths." It should be noted that whilst the United Kingdom maintains a Consulate-General in Jerusalem, this is not accredited to Israel. It administers the UK's relations with the Palestinian Authority and looks after the interests of British citizens in the occupied territories and Jerusalem. Israelis and British citizens in Israel proper must deal with the UK's embassy in Tel Aviv.

Arguments for and against internationalization

The proposal that Jerusalem should be under international administration is still made at times by Christians, whose population in the city is much smaller than the Muslim and Jewish populations. (Internationalization is the solution favored by the Holy See.) However, most negotiations regarding the future status of Jerusalem have been based on partition; for example, one scheme would have Israel keep the Jewish quarter and the Western Wall (the "Wailing Wall"), with the rest of the Old City and the Temple Mount being transferred to a new Palestinian state. Some Israelis are opposed to any division of Jerusalem, based on cultural, historic, and religious grounds. Others believe that areas such as the Old City which are sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam should be under international or multilateral control. Palestinians have argued for an open city, though its feasibility has been challenged given the existence of mutual distrust.

Religious significance

Jerusalem plays an important role in three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Jerusalem, Jews and Judaism

major religions of peace (shalom) with the Western Wall's blocks in the background]]

Jerusalem in Torah and Tanakh

Jerusalem has long been embedded into the religious consciousness of the Jewish people. Jews have always studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs.

Jerusalem and the Jewish religious calendar

Book of Psalms Two major Jewish festivals observed by most Jews conclude with the words: "Next Year in Jerusalem" ("l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim") or "Next Year in the Rebuilt Jerusalem" ("l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim hab'nuyah"):
- At the conclusion of the Passover Seder on each night, participants break out into joyous, repetitious singing of "Next Year in Jerusalem".
- The holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, also concludes the synagogue service with the exclamation and singing of "Next Year in Jerusalem". Each of these days has an associated holy text, the Hagada for Pesach (Passover) and the Machzor for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), which stresses the desire to return to Jerusalem. Today, with over a quarter million Jews practicing Orthodox Judaism living in Jerusalem, the Jewish festivals come to life in the Old and New Cities. The Western Wall, as well as synagogues throughout the city, host tens of thousands of fervent worshippers and celebrants. Western Wall.]] The saddest day on the Jewish religious calendar is the Ninth of Av, when Jews traditionally spend the day mourning over the loss of their two Holy Temples and the destruction of Jerusalem. In accordance with Jewish mourning custom, hundreds of people come to the Western Wall, site of the former Temples, throughout the night and day of this 24-hour fast to sit on the ground and cry over the destruction. Besides the Ninth of Av, two minor, dawn to dusk fast days also commemorate aspects of the destruction of Jerusalem. On the Tenth of Tevet, Jews mourn the time when Babylonia laid siege to the First Temple. On the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the mourning recalls the day that the army of Rome broke through the outer walls of the Second Temple. The words used when Jews console any mourner during the customary Seven Days of Mourning are: :"May God comfort you among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem"

Jerusalem and prayer

Seven Days of Mourning, at the Western Wall Plaza, a huge yeshiva building used for Torah study and prayers is built today]] The daily prayers, recited by religious Jews three times a day over the last two thousand years, mention Jerusalem and its functions multiple times. Some examples from the siddur and the amidah are: :(Addressing God): "And to Jerusalem, your city, may you return in compassion, and may you rest within it, as you have spoke. May you rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and may you speedily establish the throne of (King) David within it. Blessed are you God, the builder of Jerusalem...May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in compassion. Blessed are you God, who restores his presence to Zion." Additionally when partaking of a daily meal with bread, the following is part of the required "Grace After Meals" which must be recited: :"Have mercy Lord our God, on Israel your people, on Jerusalem your city, on Zion the resting place of your glory, on the monarchy of (King David) your anointed, and on the great and holy (Temple) house upon which your name is called...Rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city, soon in our days. Blessed are you God who rebuilds Jerusalem in his mercy, amen." After partaking of a light meal, the thanksgiving blessing states: :"...Have mercy, Lord, our God, on Israel, your people; on Jerusalem, your city; and on Zion, the resting place of your glory; upon your altar, and upon your temple. Rebuild Jerusalem, the city of holiness, speedily in our days. Bring us up into it and gladden us in its rebuilding and let us eat from its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness and bless you upon it in holiness and purity. For you, God, are good and do good to all and we thank you for the land and for the nourishment..." When the Jews were exiled, first by the Babylonian Empire about 2,500 years ago and then by the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, the great rabbis and scholars of the mishnah and Talmud instituted the policy that each synagogue should replicate the original Jewish temple. Moreover, it should be constructed in such a way that all prayers in the siddur (prayer book) would be recited while facing Jerusalem, as that was where the ancient temple stood and that location was the only permissible place for the sacrificial offerings. Thus synagogues in Europe face south, synagogues in North America face east, synagogues in countries to the south of Israel, such as Yemen or South Africa, face north, and synagogues in countries to the east of Israel, such as India or Thailand, face west. Even when a Jew prays privately, he faces Jerusalem, as mandated by Jewish law compiled by the rabbis in the Shulchan Aruch. In Jerusalem itself, he should face the direction of the Western Wall in the Old City, and when he is standing at the Western Wall, he turns slightly to the left to face the location of the Holy of Holies (which is currently covered by the Dome of the Rock.

Customs in remembrance of Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock today, center, with right foot raised, about to break glass cup (covered by a small white cloth) with his right heel, recalling Jerusalem's destruction]] In some circles, a tiny amount of ash is touched to the forehead of a Jewish groom before he goes to stand beneath the bridal canopy. This symbolically reminds him not to allow his own rejoicing to be "greater" than the ongoing need to recall Jerusalem's destruction. The well-known custom of the groom breaking a glass with the heel of his shoe after the wedding ceremony is also related to the subject of mourning for Jerusalem. The groom recites the sentence from Psalms, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." (Psalms 137:5). The translation given is from the KJV, the italicized words are not present in the Hebrew. All traditional Jewish commentators, however, agree with this translation; it was common in Biblical Hebrew to not explicitly express any possible negative consequence. Another ancient custom is to leave a patch of interior wall opposite the door to one's home unpainted, as a remembrance of the destruction (zecher lechurban), of the Temples and city of Jerusalem.

Western Wall in Jerusalem

The Western Wall, in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, is generally considered to be the only remains of the Second Temple from the era of the Roman conquests. There are said to be esoteric texts in Midrash that mention God's promise to keep this one remnant of the outer temple wall standing as a memorial and reminder of the past. Hence the significance of the "Western Wall" (kotel hama'aravi) - also called the "Wailing Wall" by non-Jews, attesting to their perception of Jews' propensity to cry whenever they came before it.

Rabbis and Jerusalem

The Talmud records that the rabbinical leader Yohanan ben Zakkai (c. 70 C.E.) urged a peaceful surrender, in order to save Jerusalem from destruction, but was not heeded as the city was under the control of the Zealots. An early expression of the Jewish desire to "return to Zion" is the journey of Yehuda Halevi, who died in about 1140. Jewish legend relates that as he came near Jerusalem, overpowered by the sight of the Holy City, he sang his most beautiful elegy, the celebrated "Zionide" Tzion ha-lo Tish'ali and that at that instant he was ridden down and killed by an Arab. 1140 He was followed by Nahmanides, the Ramban, who, in 1267 emigrated to the land of Israel, and came for a short stay to live in Jerusalem. He wrote that he found barely ten Jews, as it had been desolated by the Crusades, nevertheless, together they built a synagogue that is the oldest that still stands to this day, known as the "Ramban Synagogue". Both Elijah ben Solomon (d. 1797) known as the Vilna Gaon, and Israel ben Eliezer (d. 1760) known as the Ba'al Shem Tov instructed and sent small successive waves of their disciples to settle in Jerusalem then under Turkish Ottoman rule. They created a Jewish religious infrastructure that remains the core of the Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem to this day. The British Mandate of Palestine authorities created the new offices of "Chief Rabbi" in 1921 for both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews with central offices in Jerusalem. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (d. 1935) moved to Jerusalem to set up this office, associated with the "Religious Zionist" Mafdal group, becoming the first modern Chief Rabbi together with Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yaakov Meir. The official structure housing the Chief Rabbinate was completed in 1958 and is known as Heichal Shlomo. Jerusalem is also home to a number of the world's largest yeshivot (Talmudical and Rabbinical schools), and has become the undisputed capital of Jewish scholarly, religious and spiritual life for most of world Jewry.

Jerusalem in the Tanakh and (Old Testament)

Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Torah and Tanakh, and Old Testament, a text sacred to both Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism it is considered the Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia (list of Jewish prayers and blessings). In Christianity, it is considered as the account of God's relationship with His chosen people - the original covenant - and the essential prelude to the events narrated in the New Testament, including both universal commandments (eg the Ten Commandments) and obsolete or Judaism-specific ones. For example, the book of Psalms, which has been frequently recited and memorized by Jews and Christians for centuries, says: (etc.)
- "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1)
- "For there they that carried us away captive required of us

Meteor shower

From earliest times, humankind has noticed flurries of meteors that seemed to emanate from particular points in the sky at particular times of the year. These flurries, now called meteor showers, are produced by small fragments of cosmic debris entering the earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed. When the number of meteors is large, it is called a meteor storm. Each time a periodic comet swings by the Sun, it produces large amounts of small particles which will eventually spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid "stream". If the Earth's orbit and the comet's orbit intersect at some point, then the Earth will pass through this stream for a few days at roughly the same time each year, producing a meteor shower. The parent bodies (comets) of most known meteor showers have now been identified. Most meteors seen in meteor showers are caused by particles smaller than a grain of sand. As a result it is very rare to have any meteorites hit the ground during a typical meteor shower. Because meteor shower particles are all traveling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all appear to radiate from a single point in the sky to an observer below. This radiant point is caused by the effect of perspective, similar to railroad tracks converging at a single vanishing point on the horizon when viewed from the middle of the tracks. Any other solar system body with a reasonably transparent atmosphere can also have meteor showers. For instance, Mars is known to have meteor showers, although these will be different than the ones seen on Earth because the different orbits of Mars and Earth will intersect with orbits of comets in different ways. On March 7, 2004, the panoramic camera on Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recorded a streak which is now believed to have been caused by a meteor from a Martian meteor shower associated with comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. A strong display from this shower is expected on December 20 2007, although it is unlikely that Spirit or Opportunity will still be operational at that time to observe it.

See also


- Meteor
- Leonids
- Geminids
- Perseids
- Star Jelly
- List of meteor showers
- Asteroid
- Zenith hourly rate

External links


- [http://www.imo.net/ The International Meteor Organisation]
- [http://www.amsmeteors.org/index.html The American Meteor Society]
- [http://comets.amsmeteors.org/index.html Comets & Meteor Showers ], by Gary W. Kronk
- [http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_91_2.asp Meteor Showers], by Sky and Telescope
- [http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_588_1.asp Upcoming Meteor Showers], by Sky and Telescope
- [http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_98_1.asp Basics of Meteor Observing], by Sky and Telescope
- ko:유성우 ja:流星群 simple:Meteor shower th:ฝนดาวตก

Aurorae

The term aurorae has several meanings:
- the plural noun of aurora
- Aurorae is an alias of American band Aurora Heads

Lunar eclipse

An eclipse occurs whenever the Sun, Earth and Moon line up exactly. If this occurrence is at the time of a full moon where the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow, it is called a lunar eclipse. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depends upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital node. Image:Lunareclipsediagram1.gif Image:Lunareclipsediagram1.gif

Types of lunar eclipses

Image:Lunareclipsediagram1.gif A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon only passes through the Earth's penumbra, the outer portion of the Earth's shadow. The penumbra does not cause a noticeable darkening of the Moon's surface. A special type of penumbral eclipse is a total penumbral eclipse. At a total penumbral eclipse the Moon is completely in the penumbra of the Earth, but not in the umbra. At a total penumbral eclipse the parts of the Moon closest to the umbra are a bit darker than the rest of the Moon. Total penumbral eclipses are a rare type of lunar eclipse. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon travels completely into the Earth's umbra, the dark inner portion of the shadow. The Moon's speed through the shadow is about one kilometer per second, and the totality may last up to nearly 107 minutes. However, the time between the Moon's first contact with the shadow and last contact, when it has completely exited the shadow, may be up to 6 h 14 min or so. If only part of the Moon enters the umbra, it is called a partial lunar eclipse. The Moon doesn't completely disappear as it passes through the umbra because of the refraction of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere. The amount of refracted light depends on the amount of clouds or dust in the atmosphere blocking the light. This causes the Moon to glow with a coppery-red hue that varies from one eclipse to the next. The following scale was devised by André Danjon for rating the overall darkness of lunar eclipses: :0. Very dark eclipse; Moon almost invisible, especially in midtonality :1. Dark eclipse; gray or brownish coloration; details distinguishable only with difficulty :2. Deep red or rust-colored eclipse, with a very dark central part in the umbra and the outer rim of the umbra relatively bright :3. Brick-red eclipse, usually with a bright or yellow rim to the umbra :4. Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse, with a bluish, very bright umbral rim Because the Moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined 5° with respect to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, lunar eclipses do not occur at every full moon. For an eclipse to occur, the Moon must be near its orbital node —the intersection of the orbital planes. Passing through the shadow at or very close to the node results in a total or partial eclipse. The relative distance of the Moon from the Earth at the time of the eclipse can affect the eclipse's intensity. Specifically, a totally-eclipsed Moon being concomitantly at or near apogee will lengthen the duration of totality for two reasons: first, the Moon will appear to move more slowly across the umbra, and second, the Moon will appear smaller as seen from Earth and therefore remain inside the umbra longer. Lunar nodes Every year there are at least two lunar eclipses. If you know the date and time of an eclipse, you can predict the occurrence of other eclipses using eclipse cycles. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed in a certain relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of the Earth. If you were on the Moon's surface during a lunar eclipse you would witness a solar eclipse, with the Earth passing in front of the Sun. solar eclipse

Lunar eclipses in 2003

Two total lunar eclipses occurred in 2003. The eclipse on May 15 grazed the northern edge of the earth's shadow, and the eclipse on November 8 grazed the southern edge. These images show the eclipse in November was much brighter as the bottom rim of the Moon did not darken as much after completely entering the umbra. The color and brightness of the Moon during an eclipse varies according to the amount of light refracted by the Earth's atmosphere.

]]

Lunar eclipse predictions 2005-2006

Lunar eclipses (time data in UTC):

Longest total lunar eclipse between 1900 and 2100

The longest total lunar eclipse between 1000BC and 3000AD took place on May 31 318. Its total phase had a duration of 1h47m14s.

History

Ancient Greek astronomers noticed that during lunar eclipses the edge of the shadow was always circular; they thus concluded that the Earth was spherical. In 1504, while stranded on Jamaica, Christopher Columbus predicted a lunar eclipse, thereby intimidating the island's natives into continuing to provision him and his men and thus saving them from death by starvation.

References


- Alan MacRobert, "October's Ideal Lunar Eclipse", Sky and Telescope (October 2004), p. 74. (Danjon numbers)

See also


- eclipse
- solar eclipse
- Pharaoh (historical novel by Bolesław Prus, incorporating a solar-eclipse scene likely inspired by Christopher Columbus' use of a lunar-eclipse prediction).

External links

; Prediction :
- [http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html U.S. Navy Lunar Eclipse Computer] :
- [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html NASA Eclipse home page] :
- [http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html Lunar Eclipses for Beginners] ; Eclipse photos :
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041030.html APOD 10/30/04 Total Lunar Eclipse on 10/28/04] :
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031121.html APOD 11/21/03 Total Lunar Eclipse on 5/16/03] :
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030522.html APOD 5/22/03 Composite Lunar Eclipse images from 11/9/03] :
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010118.html APOD 1/18/01 Total Lunar Eclipse on 1/9/01] :
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000726.html APOD 7/26/00 Total Lunar Eclipse photo from 7/16/00] ; Fiction :
- [http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/04nov_lunareclipse2105.htm Lunar Eclipse 2105 - NASA fictional story of eclipse observed from the moon] Category:Eclipses Category:Solar System ko:월식 ja:月食 th:จันทรุปราคา

Ergotism

Ergotism is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, classically due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus which infects rye and other cereals, and more recently by the action of a number of ergoline-based drugs. It is also known as ergotoxicosis or ergot poisoning.

Causes

The toxic ergoline derivatives are found in ergot-based drugs (such as methylergometrine, ergotamine or, previously, ergotoxine). The deleterious side-effects occur either under high dose or when moderate doses interact with potentiators such as azithromycin. Classically, eating cereals or cereal-based products contaminated with the fungus Claviceps purpurea also caused ergotism. Finally, the alkaloids can also pass through lactation from mother to child, causing ergotism in infants.

Symptoms

The symptoms can be roughly divided into convulsive symptoms and gangreneous symptoms.

Convulsive symptoms

Convulsive symptoms include diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, seizures, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Usually the gastrointestinal effects precede CNS effects. As well as seizures there can be hallucinations and mental effects including mania or psychosis. The convulsive symptoms are caused by clavine alkaloids.

Gangrenous symptoms

The dry gangrene is a result of vasoconstriction induced by the ergotamine-ergocristine alkaloids of the fungus. It affects the more poorly vascularized distal structures, such as the fingers and toes. Symptoms include desquamation, weak peripheral pulse, loss of peripheral sensation, edema and ultimately the death and loss of affected tissues.

History

Epidemics of the disease were identified throughout history, though the references in classical writers are inconclusive. Rye, the main vector for transmitting ergotism, was not grown much around the Mediterranean. When Fuchs [1834] separated references to ergotism from erysipelas and other afflictions he found the earliest reference to ergotism in the Annales Xantenses for the year 857: "a Great plague of swollen blisters consumed the people by a loathsome rot, so that their limbs were loosened and fell off before death." In the Middle Ages the gangrenous poisoning was known as ignis sacer ("holy fire") or "Saint Anthony's fire", named for the 4th century hermit of Egypt. The 12th century chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois recorded the mysterious outbreaks in the Limousin region of France, where the gangrenous form of ergotism was associated with the local Saint Martial as much as Saint Anthony. The blight, named from the cock's spur it forms on grasses, was identified and named by Denis Dodart reported the relation between ergotized rye and bread poisoning in a letter to the French Royal Academy of Sciences in 1676 (John Ray mentioning ergot for the first time in English the next year), but "ergotism" in this modern sense was first recorded in 1853. Research by Linnda Caporael (1976) suggests that many of the people whose accusations resulted in the 1692 Salem witch trials in Massachusetts were genuinely suffering hallucinations and other symptoms of convulsive ergotism. Similar eruptions of ergotism also occurred in Essex and Fairfield counties in Connecticut that damp and cool season, though in Connecticut no one went to the stake. Notable epidemics of ergotism, at first seen as a punishment from God, occurred up into the 19th century. Fewer outbreaks have occurred since then, because in developed countries rye is carefully monitored. When milled the ergot is reduced to a red powder, obvious in lighter grasses but easy to miss in dark rye flour. The last reported outbreak in an industrialized country, which caused more than 200 cases and 4 deaths, occurred in 1951 in Pont St. Esprit, France. In less wealthy countries ergotism still occurs: there was an outbreak in Ethiopia in mid-2001 from contaminated barley. Whenever there is a combination of moist weather, cool temperatures, delayed harvest in lowland crops and rye consumption an outbreak is possible. Russia has been particularly afflicted.

See also


- Ergot
- Ergolines

References


- [http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/ergot_and.html George Barger, "Ergot and ergotism," 1931]. Abstract.
- Linnda Caporael. Ergotism: the Satan loosed in Salem? Science 1976;192:21-6. [http://web.utk.edu/~kstclair/221/ergotism.html Fulltext.] PMID 769159.
- John Grant Fuller, The Day of St Anthony's Fire 1968. Pont St. Esprit incident of 1951. Category:Toxicology Category:Neurology

Council of Clermont

The Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Roman Catholic Church, which was held in November 1095 and triggered the First Crusade. In 1095 Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent envoys to the west requesting military assistance against the Seljuk Turks. The message was received by Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza; later that year, in November, Urban called the Council of Clermont to discuss the matter further. In convoking the council, Urban urged the bishops and abbots whom he addressed directly, to bring with them the prominent lords in their provinces. The Council lasted from November 18 to November 28, and was attended by about 300 clerics from throughout France. Urban discussed Clunian reforms of the Church, and also extended the excommunication of Philip I of France for his adulterous remarriage to Bertrade of Montfort. On November 27, Urban spoke for the first time about the problems in the east. There are six main sources of information about this portion of the council: the anonymous Gesta Francorum ("The Deeds of the Franks") influencing others: Fulcher of Chartres, Robert the Monk, Baldric, archbishop of Dol, and Guibert de Nogent, who were apparently present at the council; also a letter survives that was written by Urban himself in December of 1095. Gesta Francorum presents the call to the "race of the Franks" as a peroration climaxing Urban's call for orthodoxy, reform and submission to the Church: : Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html] According to Fulcher, Urban addressed various abuses of the church such as simony and the lack of adherence to the Peace of God. He then asked western Christians, poor and rich, to come to the aid of the Greeks in the east, because "Deus vult," ("God wills it"), the rousing cry with which Urban ended his final address. Fulcher records that Urban promised remission of sins for those who went to the east, although he probably did not mean what later came to be called indulgences. Robert the Monk, writing, about 20 years after the council, an extended version of the speech in Gesta Francorum, recorded that Urban's emphasis was on reconquering the Holy Land rather than aiding the Greeks. According to Robert, Urban listed various gruesome offenses of the Muslims: :They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. and more atrocities in images derived from hagiography, but did not mention indulgences. Perhaps with the wisdom of hindsight, Robert makes Urban advise that none but knights should go, not the old and feeble, nor priests without the permission of their bishops, "for such are more of a hindrance than aid, more of a burden than advantage... nor ought women to set out at all, without their husbands or brothers or legal guardians." About the same time, Baldrick, archbishop of Dol, also basing his account generally on Gesta Francorum, focused on the offenses of the Muslims and the reconquest of the Holy Land in terms likely to appeal to chivalry. Like Fulcher he also recorded that Urban deplored the violence of the Christian knights of Gaul. "It is less wicked to brandish your sword against Saracens," Baldrick's Urban cries, comparing them to the Amalekites. The violence of knights he wanted to see ennobled in the service of Christ, defending the churches of the East as if defending a mother. Baldrick asserts that Urban, there on the spot, appointed the bishop of Puy to lead the crusade. Guibert, abbot of Nogent, was an eye witness; he also recorded that Urban's emphasis was reconquest of the Holy Land, but not necessarily to help the Greeks or other Christians there; Urban's speech, in Nogent's version, emphasized the sanctity of the Holy Land, which must be in Christian possession so that prophecies about the end of the world could be fulfilled. On the last day of the council, a general call was sent out to the knights and nobles of France. Urban apparently knew in advance of the day that Raymond, the count of Toulouse, exemplary for courage and piety, was fully prepared to take up arms. Urban himself spent a few months preaching the Crusade in France, while papal legates spread the word in the south of Italy, during which time the focus presumably turned from helping Alexius to taking Jerusalem; the general population, upon hearing about the Council, probably understood this to be the point of the Crusade in the first place. Urban's own letter, addressed to the faithful "waiting in Flanders," does not mention Jerusalem at all; he only calls for help for the Eastern Churches, and appoints Adhemar of Le Puy to lead the Crusade, to set out on the day of the Assumption of Mary, August 15.

External link


- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html Medieval Sourcebook:] Five versions of Urban's sermon Category:Crusades Clermont

Millenarianism

Millenarianism (sometimes spelled millenarism or millennarism) is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society after which all things will be changed in a positive (or sometimes negative or ambiguous) direction. Millennialism is a specific form of Millenarianism based on a one thousand year cycle. Millenarian groups typically claim that the current society and its rulers are corrupt, unjust, or otherwise wrong. They therefore believe they will be destroyed soon by a powerful force. The harmful nature of the status quo is always considered intractable without the anticipated dramatic change. In Medieval millenarianism the world was seen as controlled by demons and even up to the nineteenth century Chinese millenarianism used something like this motif, but with "demon" having a slightly different cultural connotation there. In the modern world economic rules or vast conspiracies are seen as generating oppression. Only dramatic change will change the world and change will be brought about, or survived, by a group of the devout and dedicated. In most millenarian scenarios, the disaster or battle to come will be followed by a new, purified world in which the true believers will be rewarded. Millenarian beliefs can make people ignore conventional rules of behaviour, which can result in violence directed inwards (such as mass suicides) and/or outwards (such as terrorist acts). It sometimes includes a belief in supernatural powers or predetermined victory. In some cases, millenarians withdraw from society to await the intervention of God or another metaphysical force. Millenarian ideologies or religious sects often appear in oppressed peoples.
- Examples of the millenarian groups, movements and writings:
  - Fifth Monarchy Men
  - Plymouth Brethren
  - Branch Davidians
  - Shakers
  - Yellow Turbans
  - Taiping Rebellion
  - Aum Supreme Truth
  - The Native American Ghost Dance
  - The Heaven's Gate cult
  - Dispensationalism
  - End times prophecy
  - Old Believers
  - Joachimites
  - Dulcinian
  - Nostradamus
  - The Turner Diaries
  - The Lord's Resistance Army In politics, millenarianism is often, but by no means always, linked to radical ideologies that share a similar belief in a transformation of society. These can be based in secular or religious ideas. In this way millenarianism is closely linked to Apocalypticism.

References

Dale C. Allison, Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet (Augsburg Fortress, 1999) ISBN 0800631447 Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, revised and expanded (New York: Oxford University Press, [1957] 1970). (revised and expanded 1990) ISBN 0195004566 Jeffrey Kaplan, Radical Religion in America: Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997). ISBN 0815626878 ISBN 0815603967

See also


- Fin de siècle
- Apocalypse
- Apocalypticism
- Millennialism
- Technological singularity
- The Celestine Prophecy
- Summary of Christian eschatological differences

External links


- [http://www.mille.org Center for Millennial Studies]
- [http://www.mille.org/links.html BU CMS list of links sorted by group type]
- [http://www.theness.com/articles/1000ad-millennialpanic-nejs0103.html The Year 1000 A.D. and the Millennial Panic] Category:Christian eschatology Category:Prophecy Category:Futurism ja:千年王国

Peter the Hermit

Peter the Hermit (died 1131) was a priest of Amiens, and a leader of the First Crusade. According to Anna Comnena, he attempted to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before 1096, but was prevented by the Turks from reaching his destination. It is uncertain whether he was present at Pope Urban II's great sermon at the Council of Clermont in 1095; but it is certain that he was one of the preachers of the crusade in France after that sermon, and his own experience may have helped to give fire to his eloquence. He soon leapt into fame as an emotional revivalist preacher; and thousands of peasants eagerly took the cross at his bidding. The "People's Crusade" (crusade of the paupers), which forms the first act in the First Crusade, was his work; and he himself led one of the five sections of the peoples crusade to Constantinople, starting from Cologne in April, and arriving at Constantinople at the end of July 1096. The Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius I Comnenus was less than pleased with their arrival. Peter joined the only other section which had succeeded in reaching Constantinople--that of Walter the Penniless; and with the joint forces, which had made themselves a nuisance by pilfering, he crossed to the Asiatic shore in the beginning of August. In spite of his warnings, the pauperes began hostilities against the Turks; and Peter returned to Constantinople, either in despair at their recklessness, or in the hope of procuring supplies. Turks In his absence the army was cut to pieces by the Turks; and he was left in Constantinople without any followers, during the winter of 1096-1097, to wait for the coming of the princes. He joined himself to their ranks in May 1097, with a little following which he seems to have collected, and marched with them through Asia Minor to Jerusalem. But he played a very subordinate part in the history of the First Crusade. He appears, in the beginning of 1098, as attempting to escape from the privations of the siege of Antioch--showing himself, as Guibert of Nogent says, a "fallen star." In the middle of the year he was sent by the princes to invite Kerbogha to settle all differences by a duel; and in 1099 he appears as treasurer of the alms at the siege of Arqa (March), and as leader of the supplicatory processions in Jerusalem which preceded the Battle of Ascalon (August). At the end of the year he went to Latakia, and sailed thence for the West. From this time he disappears; but Albert of Aix records that he died in 1131, as prior of a church of the Holy Sepulchre which he had founded in France. Legend has made Peter the Hermit the author and originator of the First Crusade. It has told how, in an early visit to Jerusalem, before 1096, Jesus appeared to him in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and bade him preach the crusade. The legend is without any basis in fact, though it appears in the pages of William of Tyre. Its origin is, however, a matter of some interest. Von Sybel, in his Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges, suggests that in the camp of the pauperes (which existed side by side with that of the knights, and grew increasingly large as the crusade told more and more heavily in its progress on the purses of the crusaders) some idolization of Peter the Hermit had already begun, during the first crusade, parallel to the similar glorification of Godfrey by the Lorrainers. In this idolization Peter naturally became the instigator of the crusade, just as Godfrey became the founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the legislator of the assizes. This version of Peter's career seems as old as the Chanson des chétifs, a poem which Raymond of Antioch caused to be composed in honour of the Hermit and his followers soon after 1130. It also appears in the pages of Albert of Aix who wrote somewhere about 1130; and from Albert it was borrowed by William of Tyre. The whole legend of Peter is an excellent instance of the legendary amplification of the First Crusade--an amplification which, beginning during the crusade itself, in the "idolizations" of the different camps (idola castrorum, if one may pervert Bacon), soon developed into a regular saga. This saga found its most piquant beginning in the Hermit's vision at Jerusalem, and there it accordingly began--alike in Albert, followed by William of Tyre and in the Chanson des chétifs, followed by the later Chanson d'Antioche. The original authorities for the story of Peter the Hermit are, for the authentic Peter, Anna Comnena and the Gesta Francorum; for the legendary Peter, Albert of Aix. The whole career of the Hermit has been thoroughly and excellently discussed by H Hagenmeyer, Peter der Heremite (Leipzig, 1879).

References


- Category:1131 deaths Category:Crusades

Amiens

Amiens is a city and commune in the north of France, 120 km north of Paris. It is the préfecture (capital city) of the Somme département.

History

The Paleolithic culture named Acheulean was named for its first identified site, in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens. Amiens, the Roman Samarobriva, was the central settlement of the Ambiani, one of the principal tribes of Gaul, who were issuing coinage, probably from Amiens, in the 1st century BC. By tradition, it was at the gates of Amiens that Saint Martin of Tours, at the time still a Roman soldier, divided his cloak with a naked beggar. Amiens was later the capital of Picardy.

Sights

Amiens Cathedral (a World Heritage Site) is the tallest of the large 'classic' Gothic churches of the 13th century and is the largest in France of its kind. After a fire destroyed the former cathedral, the new nave was built 1220 - finished 1247. Amiens is notable for the coherence of its plan, the beauty of its three-tier interior elevation, the particularly fine display of sculptures on the principal facade and in the south transept, and the labyrinth and other inlays of its floor. It is described as the "Parthenon of Gothic architecture," and by John Ruskin as "Gothic, clear of Roman tradition and of Arabian taint, Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable, and unaccusable".

Miscellaneous

Amiens is also known for the hortillons, gardens in the marshland along the Somme River. Battle of Amiens, the opening phase of the Hundred Days Offensive in World War I. Jules Verne was member of the city council of Amiens from 1888 to his death in 1905. He is buried in the Madeleine Cemetery. Amiens was the birthplace of Peter the Hermit and Odette Sansom (1912-1995), a heroic member of the French Resistance. Amiens is celebrated for a treaty of peace between France and England concluded in 1802. Amiens is also a setting in the video game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

See also


- Treaty of Amiens
- Battle of Amiens
- Operation Jericho

External links


- Hortillons: http://perso.club-internet.fr/claudine.bienaime/parcsjardins.htm#parchortillons
- [http://www.structurae.de/en/structures/data/str00274.php Images and details of Amiens cathedral]
- [http://terragalleria.com/europe/france/france-north Photos of Amiens] including the illumination of the Cathedral by night
- [http://www.learn.columbia.edu/Mcahweb/Amiens.html Columbia University Media Center for Art History - Amiens Cathedral Website]
- [http://www.enjoyfrance.com/directory/Amiens.html Amiens] - Business Directory Category:Communes of Somme Category:Cities in France ja:アミアン

Fulcher of Chartres

Fulcher of Chartres (born around 1059 in or near Chartres) was a chronicler of the First Crusade. His appointment as chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne in 1097 suggests that he had been trained as a priest, most likely at the school in Chartres. However, he was probably not a member of the cathedral chapter, since he is not named in the listing of the Dignitaries of the Church of Our Lady of Chartres. The details of the Council of Clermont in his history suggest he attended the council personally, or knew someone who did, perhaps bishop Ivo of Chartres, who also influenced Fulcher's opinions on Church reform and the investiture controversy with the Holy Roman Empire. Fulcher was part of the entourage of Count Stephen of Blois and Robert of Normandy which made its way through southern France and Italy in 1096, crossing into the Byzantine Empire from Bari and arrived in Constantinople in 1097, where they joined with the other armies of the First Crusade. He travelled through Asia Minor to Marash, shortly before the army's arrival at Antioch in 1097, where he was appointed chaplain to Baldwin of Boulogne. He followed his new lord after Baldwin split off from the main army, to Edessa where Baldwin founded the county of Edessa. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 Fulcher and Baldwin travelled to the city to complete their vow of pilgrimage. When Baldwin became king of Jerusalem in 1100, Fulcher came with him to Jerusalem and probably continued to act as his chaplain until 1115. After 1115 he was the canon of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and was probably responsible for the relics and treasures in the church. Fulcher died most likely in the spring of 1127. At the earliest, Fulcher began his chroncile in the late autumn of 1100, or at the latest in the spring of 1101, in a version that has not survived but which was transmitted to Europe during his lifetime. This version was completed around 1106 and was used as a source by Guibert of Nogent, a contemporary of Fulcher in Europe. He began his work at the urging of his travelling companions, who probably included Baldwin I. He had at least one library in Jerusalem at his disposal, from which he had access to letters and other documents of the crusade. In this library the Historia Francorum of Raymond of Aguilers and the Gesta Francorum must also have been available, which served as sources for much of the specific information in Fulcher's work that he did not personally witness. Fulcher divided his chronicle into three books. Book I described the preparations for the First Crusade in Clermont in 1095 up to the conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon. The second book described the deeds of Baldwin I, who succeeded Godfrey and was king of Jerusalem from 1100 to 1118. The third and final book reported on the life of king Baldwin II, until 1127 when there was a plague in Jerusalem, during which Fulcher apparently died. The second and third books were written from around 1109 to 1115, and from 1118 to 1127, compiled into a second edition by Fulcher himself. Fulcher's work was used by many other chroniclers who lived after him. William of Tyre and William of Malmesbury used part of the chronicle as a source. His chronicle is generally accurate, though not entirely so. It was published in the Recueil des historiens des croisades and the Patrologia Latina, and a critical edition of the Latin version was published by Heinrich Hagenmeyer in 1913. Category:1127 deaths Category:Crusade literature Category:Medieval historians

Walter Sans-Avoir

Walter the Penniless (in French Fr. Gautier Sans-Avoir, d. 1096) co-led an army of peasants to the Holy Land with Peter the Hermit - the People's Crusade at the beginning of the First Crusade. Leaving well before the main army of knights and their followers, Walter led his band through the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Bulgarian province of the Eastern Roman Empire, traveling separately from Peter. While they passed through Germany and Hungary uneventfully, Walter's followers plundered the Belgrade area in Bulgaria, drawing reprisals upon themselves. The Bulgarians killed many of them. Walter and Peter joined forces at Constantinople where Alexius I Comnenus provided transport across the Bosporus. Despite Peter's entreaties to restrain themselves, the Crusaders engaged the Turks at once and were cut to pieces. Peter had returned to Constantinople, either for reinforcements or to protect himself, but Walter died with his followers in 1096. Category:1096 deaths Category:Crusades

Cologne

Cologne (German: [kœln]; Kölsch: Kölle) is with its one million residents Germany's fourth largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Cologne lies on the River Rhine in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia about half way between Frankfurt and Amsterdam. It is the largest city in the Rhine-Ruhr Area, one of the Largest European metropolitan areas with almost 12 million inhabitants. Cologne is best known for the famous Cologne Cathedral, its specially brewed Kölsch beer, Cologne University, the original Eau de Cologne and major festivals and events such as the Cologne Carnival, various Cologne Trade Fairs and the Cologne Gay Pride (Christopher Street Day). Cologne is considered to be the economic and cultural capital of the Rhineland. Its location at the intersection of the river Rhine with one of the major trade routes between East and West was the basis of Cologne's growth. In the Middle Ages it also became an ecclesiastical centre of significance and an important centre of arts and education. Cologne is the seat of a Roman Catholic archdiocese. The city is 43% Roman Catholic and 18% Protestant, while 39% of the population professes other religions or none. Until World War II and the ensuing process of urbanisation and influx of refugees from Eastern Germany, Roman Catholics comprised the vast majority of Cologne's residents, and the Catholic cultural influence is strongly present in the city today, particularly regarding the celebration of Carnival. Cologne's university has around 49,000 students (autumn semester 2004/2005) and is renowned for its economics department. In addition to the university, there are also three colleges. One of them, Fachhochschule Köln (University of Applied Sciences of Cologne), is Germany's biggest college, having 18,000 students. Cologne has 31 museums. Exhibits range from archeological findings to contemporary painting. Alongside the established places of art exists a thriving arts scene, represented yearly at "Art Cologne", Germany's biggest arts fair. Cologne plays a paramount role in Germany's television industry. It is home to Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) - the biggest branch of Germany's first public broadcaster ARD. Cologne is also home to the private broadcaster RTL, one of the biggest and commercially most successful television companies in Europe, as well as to a big number of smaller media, television and film production companies. 20% of Cologne's population is non-German. 40% of these (or 8% of the total population) are Turkish. Cologne has an active gay scene and has long been known for its easy-going, tolerant attitudes. The city is a stronghold of Germany's gay movement and the headquarters of Germany's largest gay and lesbian lobby group. Cologne hosts Germany's biggest Gay Pride event known as Christopher Street Day. Cologne is well known for its beer, called Kölsch. Kölsch is also the name of the local dialect. This has led to the common joke that Kölsch is the only language you can drink. A different kind of liquid that Cologne is famous for is Eau de Cologne. At the beginning of the 18th century, Italian expatriate Johann Maria Farina (1685-1766) created a new fragrance and named it after his hometown Cologne, Eau de Cologne (Water from Cologne). In the course of the 18th century the fragrance became increasingly popular. Eventually, Cologne merchant Wilhelm Mülhens secured the name Farina, which at that time had become a household name for Eau de Cologne, under contract and opened a small factory at Cologne's Glockengasse. In later years and under pressure of court battles his grandson Ferdinand Mülhens chose a new name for the firm and their product. It was the house number that was given to the factory at Glockengasse during French occupation of the Rhineland in the early 19th century, number 4711. In 1994, the Mülhens family sold their company to German Wella corporation. Today, original Eau de Cologne (German: Kölnisch Wasser) still is produced in Cologne by both the Farina family (Farina gegenüber since 1709), currently in the eighth generation, and by Procter & Gamble who took over Wella in 2003. In 2005 Cologne hosted one of the largest-ever meetings of Catholic youth. The 20th World Youth Day took place from Monday, August 15, until Sunday, August 21 and over a million people celebrated mass (vigil) at Marienfeld (Mary's Field) in presence of Pope Benedict XVI.

Geography

The city covers about 405.15 km² (about 156 miles²), on both sides of the river Rhine. It is between 37.5 and 118.04 m above sea level. The city of Bonn lies 30 km to the south, and Düsseldorf lies 40 km to its north.

The Coat of Arms of Cologne

The three crowns symbolise the Magi or Three Kings whose bones are said to be kept in a golden sarcophagus in the Cathedral (see Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral). In 1164, Cologne's archbishop Rainald of Dassel brought the relics to the city, making it a major pilgrimage destination. This led to the design of the current cathedral as the predecessor was considered too small to accomodate the pilgrims. The eleven flames are a reminder of the Britannic princess St. Ursula and her legendary 11,000 virgin companions who were supposedly martyred by Attila the Hun at Cologne for their Christian faith in 383 A.D. In reality, the entourage of St. Ursula and the number of victims was probably significantly smaller.

History

Main article: History of Cologne Cologne became a city in 50 A.D. In 310 Constantine built a bridge over the Rhine at Cologne. Cologne had a bishop as early as 313, and, in 785, became the seat of an archbishop. The Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. He ruled a large area as a secular lord in the Middle Ages, but in 1288 he was defeated by the Cologne citizens and forced to move to Bonn. Cologne was a member of the Hanseatic League, but became a free city officially only by 1475. Interestingly the archbishop nevertheless preserved the right of capital punishment. Thus the municipal council (though in strict political opposition towards the archbishop) depended upon him in all matters concerning criminal jurisdiction. This included the torture, which was only allowed to be executed by the episcopal judge, the socalled "Greve". This legal situation lasted until the French conquest of Cologne. As a free city Cologne was an estate within the Holy Roman Empire and as such had the right (and obligation) of maintaining an own military force. Wearing a red uniform these troops were known as the "Rote Funken" (red sparks). These soldiers were part of the Army of the Holy Roman Empire ("Reichskontingent") and fought in the wars of the 17th and 18th century including the wars against revolutionary France, where the small force almost completely perished in combat. The tradition of these troops is preserved as a military persiflage by the Cologne's most outstanding carnival society, the "[http://www.rote-funken.de/ Rote Funken]". Cologne lost its status as a free city during the French period. According to the Peace Treaty of Lunéville (1801) all the territories of the Holy Roman Empire on the left bank of the Rhine were officially incorporated into the French Republic (which already had occupied Cologne in 1798). Thus, this region later became part of Napoleon's Empire. Cologne was part of the French Département Roer (named after the River Roer, German: Rur) with Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) as its capital. The French modernised public live by, for example, introducing the Code Napoleon as civil code and removing the old elites from power. The Code Napoleon was in use in the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine until the year 1900, when for the first time the German Empire passed a nationwide unique civil code ("Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch"). In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, Cologne was made part of the kingdom of Prussia. Cologne turned into an industrial city, and the current cathedral, started in 1248 but abandoned in the mid-1500s, was eventually finished in 1880. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Cologne incorporated numerous surrounding towns, and by the time of World War I had already grown to 600,000 inhabitants. After WWI Cologne was occupied by British Forces under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The occupation lasted until 1926. In contrast to the harsh measures of French occupation troops in the Rhineland the British acted much more tactfully towards the local population and the mayor of Cologne (the posterior West German chancellor) Konrad Adenauer paid them respect for their political significance, as the British withstood the french ambitions for a permanent Allied occupation of the Rhineland. In 1919 the University of Cologne (which had been closed by the French in 1798) was refounded. It was meant as a substitute for the German University of Strasbourg which had become french in 1918/19. Cologne University with approx. 44,000 students nowadays is one of the largest universities in Germany. In World War II, Cologne endured exactly [http://www.koelnarchitektur.de/pages/de/home/news_archiv/823.htm 262 air raids] by the Western Allies, which caused approximately 20,000 civilian casualties and completely wiped out the centre of the city. During the night of May 31, 1942, Cologne was the site of the "Operation Millennium", the first 1,000 bomber raid by the Royal Air Force in World War II. 1,046 heavy bombers attacked their target with 1,455 tons of explosive. This raid lasted about 75 minutes, destroyed 600 acres of built-up area, killed 486 civilians and made 59,000 people homeless. By the end of the war, the population of Cologne was reduced by 95%. In 1945 Cologne was the "world's greatest heap of debris" as the German architect Rudolf Schwarz put it, who designed the masterplan of reconstruction after 1945. The destruction of the famous [http://www.romanische-kirchen-koeln.de/ romanesque churches] (St. Gereon, Great St. Martin, St. Maria im Capitol and about a dozen others) meant a tremendous loss of cultural substance to the city. The rebuilding of these medieval churches lasted until the 1990s, when the reconstruction of the romanesque church of St. Kunibert was finished. It took some time to rebuild the city. In 1958 the number of inhabitants had reached the pre-war status again. Afterwards the town grew steadily, and, in 1975, reached 1 million inhabitants for about one year. By the end of the war, essentially all of Cologne's pre-war Jewish population of 20,000 had been annihilated. Some 11,000 are believed to have been murdered by the Nazis. The synagogue, originally built in 1895, was severely damaged during the pogrom of November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht) and finally destroyed during allied air raids between 1943 and 1945. It was reconstructed in the 1950s. This Cologne synagogue was the stage of a historic event in 2005, when the German-born pope Benedict XVI was the second pope ever to visit a synagogue. See also: List of mayors of Cologne

Twinned cities

By merging in other cities and communes, Cologne took over their partnerships, with the following: Benfleet/Castle Point (England), Igny (France), Diepenbeek (Belgium), Brive-la-Gaillarde (France), Dunstable (England), Eygelshoven (Netherlands) and Hazebrouck (France).

Buildings and Places of Interest in Cologne

The centre of Cologne was completely destroyed during World War II. The reconstruction of the city, while respecting the old layout and naming of the streets, followed the style of the 1950s. Thus, the city today is characterised by simple and modest post-war buildings, with few interspersed pre-war buildings which were reconstructed due to their historical importance. Some buildings of the "Wiederaufbauzeit" (era of reconstruction) as e.g. the opera house by [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Riphahn Wilhelm Riphahn] are nowadays regarded as classics in modern architecture. Nevertheless, the uncompromising modern style of the opera house and other modern buildings is disputed until today.
- Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom) is the city's famous landmark and unofficial symbol. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996, it was designated a World Heritage site; it claims to house the relics of the Three Magi. It is interesting to note, that the residents of Cologne call the cathedral "the eternal construction site". They predict that by the time the renovation of the building has finished the end of the world will be upon us!
- Twelve [http://www.romanische-kirchen-koeln.de/ Romanesque Churches]: These buildings are outstanding examples of medieval sacral architecture. The roots of some of the churches date back even to Roman times, like St. Gereon, which originally was a chapel on a Roman graveyard. With the exception of St. Maria Lyskirchen all of these churches had been very badly damaged during World War II. Reconstruction was only finished in the 1990s.
- University of Cologne
- Fragrance-Museum Farina House, the birthplace of Eau de Cologne.
- Römisch-Germanisches Museum (English: Romano-Germanic Museum)
- Wallraf-Richartz Museum
- Museum Ludwig
- Kölner Philharmonie (English: Cologne Philharmonics)
- Ford Motor Company plants, assembling the Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion as well as manufacturing engines and parts.
- RheinEnergieStadion, the major Cologne stadium, primarily used for football games, seating 50,997 visitors in national games and 46,134 in international games, home to the local Bundesliga team, 1.FC Köln, and to the local NFL Europe team, the Cologne Centurions.
- Kölnarena, a multifunctional event hall, home to the local ice hockey team, the Kölner Haie (English: Cologne Sharks).
- Kölnturm (English: Cologne Tower), with 150 metres in height Cologne's second tallest building, second only to the cathedral.
- Colonius - a telecommunication tower with an observation deck.
- Colonia-Hochhaus - Germany's tallest residential building.
- Rheinseilbahn - an aerial tramway crossing the Rhine.
- Messeturm Köln (English: Exhibition Tower Cologne).
- Hohe Strasse (English: High Street) is one of the main shopping areas and extends past the cathedral in an approximately southern direction. This street is particularly popular with tourists and contains many giftshops, clothing stores, (fast food) restaurants and electronic goods dealers.
- Schildergasse - extends the shopping area of Hohe Strasse to the West ending at Neumarkt.
- Ehrenstrasse - the shopping area around Apostelnstrasse, Ehrenstrasse, and Rudolfplatz is a little more on the eccentric and stylish side.
- Historic Ringe boulevards (such as Hohenzollernring, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring, Hansaring) with their medieval city gates (such as Hahnentorburg on Rudolfplatz) are also known for their nightlife.
- German Sports & Olympic Museum, with expositions about sports from antiquity until present.
- Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolatemuseum) officially called Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum.
Schokoladenmuseum

Legalities

Cologne is the only city in Germany with an explicit tax on prostitution and other sex businesses. See the article on prostitution in Germany for details.

Born in Cologne

Famous Germans whose roots can be found in Cologne:
- Adenauer, Konrad (January 5, 1876 - April 19, 1967), politician, Mayor of Cologne from 1917 to 1933 and German Chancellor between 1949 and 1963
- Böll, Heinrich (December 21, 1917 - July 16, 1985), writer and winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1972
- Kier, Udo (born October 14, 1944), actor
- Millowitsch, Willy (January 8, 1909 - September 20, 1999), actor and playwright
- Liebert, Ottmar (born February 1, 1961), musician
- Offenbach, Jacques (June 20, 1819 - October 5, 1880), composer
- Vondel, Joost van den (November 17, 1587 - February 5, 1679), poet and playwright

External links

Official Information


- [http://www.koeln.de Cologne], official Cologne portal
- [http://www.stadt-koeln.de City of Cologne], official City of Cologne information portal for inhabitants
- [http://www.domforum.de/ Domforum], Cologne Cathedral's official website
- [http://www.uni-koeln.de/ University of Cologne]
- [http://www.kirchenkoeln.de/ Churches of Cologne]
- [http://www.museenkoeln.de/ Cologne Museums]
- [http://www.koelnmusik.de/ Cologne Philharmonics]
- [http://www.zoo-koeln.de/ Cologne Zoo]

Tourism and Travel


- [http://www.koeln.de/tourismus/koelntourismus/ Cologne Tourist Board]
- [http://www.koelnverkehr.de/ Cologne Traffic Information]
- [http://www.airport-cgn.de/ Cologne Airport]
- [http://www.kvb-koeln.de/ KVB] - Cologne Public Transportation
- [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ln/Bildergalerie Photo Gallery]
- [http://www.Farina-Haus.de/ Eau de Cologne Museum]
- [http://www.wjt2005.de/index.php 20th World Youth Day 2005]
- [http://www.stadtplan.net/LRF403372 Cologne City Map] at [http://www.stadtplan.net/ stadtplan.net]
- [http://www.vinc3nt.com/cologne 250 pictures with guide of Cologne's places of interest]
- [http://www.panorama-cities.net/cologne/cologne.html Cologne City Panoramas] - Panoramic Views and Virtual Tours
-

Culture and History


- [http://www.koelsch-akademie.de/ Academy for the Language of Cologne]
- [http://wikoelsch.dergruenepunk.de/index.php/Köln Cologne in the Kölsch Wiki Projekt (Ripuarian)]
- Category:Cities in Germany Category:Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia Category:Cities on the Rhine Category:Roman legions camps als:Köln ko:쾰른 ja:ケルン simple:Cologne

April 12

April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). There are 263 days remaining.

Events


- 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
- 1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
- 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre -- Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee
- 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
- 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
- 1923 - Kandersteg International Scout Centre came into existence.
- 1926 - By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
- 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England
- 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
- 1946 - Syria gains independence from France.
- 1954 - Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. Initially unsuccessful, the recording would help launch the Rock and Roll revolution a year later.
- 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
- 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
- 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
- 1975 - Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 1980 - Terry Fox began his trans-Canada marathon to raise money for cancer research (Marathon of Hope) by dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland, aiming to dip it again in the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia.
- 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- 1984- LiSARS is created
- 1989 - TV Show Fast Forward starts on The ATN-7 Network (Australia).
- 1990 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC.
- 1992 - Euro Disneyland opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.
- 1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
- 1998 - Catastrophical earthquake in Slovenia in Posočje 5,6 on the Richter scale.
- 2002 - Coup d'Etat against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.
- 2005 - In Canada, a motion by the opposition Conservative Party to kill legislation opening the door for legalized same sex marriage is defeated 164-132.

Births

599 BC to 1899


- 599 BC - Mahavira, Indian founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
- 812 - Muhammad at-Taqi, Arabian Shia Imam (d. 835)
- 1484 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
- 1500 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
- 1526 - Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
- 1550 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
- 1577 - King Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
- 1713 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (d. 1796)
- 1722 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (d. 1793)
- 1724 - Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)
- 1726 - Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814)
- 1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
- 1777 - Henry Clay, American statesman and five-time Presidential candidate (d. 1852)
- 1799 - Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855)
- 1823 - Alexandr Ostrovsky, Russian dramatist (d. 1886)
- 1839 - Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (d. 1888)
- 1856 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- 1869 - Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
- 1884 - Otto Meyerhof, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
- 1887 - Harold Lockwood, American silent film actor (d. 1918)
- 1888 - Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (d. 1964)
- 1892 - Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1940)
- 1893 - Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
- 1898 - Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)

1900 to 1999


- 1902 - Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
- 1903 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- 1907 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born sculptor (d. 2003)
- 1908 - Lionel Hampton, American musician (d. 2002)
- 1912 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1916 - Beverly Cleary, American writer
- 1917 - Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (d. 2004)
- 1928 - Hardy Krüger, German actor
- 1928 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
- 1932 - Dennis Banks, American activist
- 1932 - Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan Politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
- 1933 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
- 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, English writer
- 1940 - Herbie Hancock, American pianist and composer
- 1941 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (d. 1993)
- 1944 - John Kay, German-born musician (Steppenwolf)
- 1946 - Ed O'Neill, American actor
- 1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
- 1947 - David Letterman, American talk show host
- 1948 - Jeremy Beadle, British television presenter
- 1948 - Joschka Fischer, Foreign Minister of Germany
- 1948 - Sandra "Lois" Reeves, American singer (Martha & the Vandellas)
- 1949 - Scott Turow, American writer
- 1950 - David Cassidy, American singer and actor
- 1950 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
- 1952 - Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d. 2004)
- 1954 - Pat Travers, Canadian musician
- 1956 - Andy Garcia, Cuban-born actor
- 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer, pianist, and actor
- 1957 - Vince Gill, American musician
- 1961 - Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer and film composer
- 1962 - Art Alexakis, American musician (Everclear)
- 1964 - Amy Ray, American musician (Indigo Girls)
- 1970 - Nick Hexum, American musician (311)
- 1971 - Nicholas Brendon, actor
- 1971 - Shannen Doherty, American actress
- 1978 - Guy Berryman, British musician (Coldplay)
- 1978 - Riley Smith, American actor
- 1979 - Claire Danes, American actress
- 1979 - Mateja Kežman, Serbian footballer
- 1982 - Deen, Bosnian singer
- 1985 - Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

Deaths

65 to 1899


- 65 - Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
- 238 - Gordian I, Roman Emperor (suicide)
- 238 - Gordian II, heir to the Roman Empire (killed in battle)
- 1443 - Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1550 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (b. 1496)
- 1555 - Juana of Castile, queen of Philip I of Castile (b. 1479)
- 1687 - Ambrose Dixon, Virginia Colony pioneer
- 1704 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and writer (b. 1627)
- 1748 - William Kent, English architect
- 1782 - Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
- 1788 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
- 1795 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
- 1814 - Charles Burney, English music historian (b. 1726)
- 1850 - Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionary (b. 1788)

1900 to 1999


- 1912 - Clara Barton, American nurse and Red Cross advocate (b. 1821)
- 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
- 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
- 1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Indian politician and engineer (b. 1861)
- 1971 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1975 - Josephine Baker, American dancer (b. 1906)
- 1980 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
- 1980 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (b. 1913)
- 1981 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
- 1986 - Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (b. 1897)
- 1988 - Alan Paton, South African novelist (b. 1903)
- 1989 - Gerald Flood, British actor (b. 1927)
- 1989 - Abbie Hoffman, American radical leader (b. 1936)
- 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
- 1997 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- 1999 - Boxcar Willie, American singer (b. 1931)

2000 onwards


- 2003 - Cecil H. Green, American manufacturer (b. 1900)

Holidays and observances


- The Roman holiday of Cerealia begins.
- Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin.
- Easter, 1998

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/12 Today in History: April 12] ---- From "Lines in Praise of a Date Made Praiseworthy Solely by Something Very Nice That Happened to It", by Ogden Nash: :"As through the calendar I delve :I pause to rejoice in April twelve. :Yea, be I in sickness or be I in health :My favorite date is April twealth. :..." ---- April 11 - April 13 - March 12 - May 12 -- listing of all days ko:4월 12일 ms:12 April ja:4月12日 simple:April 12 th:12 เมษายน

May 8

May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). There are 237 days remaining.

Events


- 1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
- 1541 - Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
- 1794 - Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.
- 1846 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Palo Alto – Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia, is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
- 1877 - At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens (ends May 11).
- 1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola".
- 1896 - Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.
- 1898 - The first games of the Italian Football League are played.
- 1899 - The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opens.
- 1902 - In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of St. Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
- 1914 - Paramount Pictures is formed.
- 1919 - Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later resulted in the creation of Remembrance Day.
- 1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India.
- 1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
- 1942 - Second World War: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
- 1945 - World War II: VE Day. German forces agree to an unconditional surrender.
- 1945 - Thousands of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Setif massacre.
- 1967 - The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
- 1972 - Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announces his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
- 1973 - A 71-day standoff, between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the militants.
- 1974 - The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is defeated in the House of Commons.
- 1984 - The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
- 1984 - Cpl. Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three and wounding 13. René Jalbert, sergeant-at-arms of the assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.
- 1987 - The SAS ambushes and kills the Loughall Martyrs.
- 1997 - A China Southern Airlines Boeing 737 crashes on approach into Shenzhen's Huangtian Airport, killing 35
- 1999 - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.
- 2002 - Feyenoord win the UEFA Cup
- 2004 - The Texas Rangers defeat the Detroit Tigers, 16-15, in a 10-inning game featuring a wild hour-long 5th inning (after having given up eight runs in the top half of the inning, Texas scores 10 runs in the bottom half to tie). The ten-run deficit is the largest ever overcome by the Rangers and the 18 runs in one inning by both teams ties a MLB record). Alfonso Soriano also sets a Ranger record with six hits in one game.
- 2005 - The new Canadian War Museum opens, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day.

Births


- 1460 - Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1536)
- 1521 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (d. 1597)
- 1587 - Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1637)
- 1622 - Claes Rålamb, Swedish statesman (d. 1698)
- 1629 - Niels Juel, Danish admiral (d. 1697)
- 1632 - Heino Heinrich Graf von Flemming, German field marshal and Governor of Berlin (d. 1706)
- 1653 - Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshall of France (d. 1734)
- 1668 - Alain-René Lesage, French writer (d. 1747)
- 1670 - Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier (d. 1726)
- 1735 - Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter (d. 1811)
- 1737 - Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)
- 1825 - George Bruce Malleson, Indian officer and author (d. 1898)
- 1828 - Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1910)
- 1829 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (d. 1869)
- 1842 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (d. 1909)
- 1850 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (d. 1915)
- 1884 - Harry S. Truman, President of the United States (d. 1972)
- 1895 - Fulton J. Sheen, American bishop and television personality (d. 1979)
- 1899 - Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- 1902 - Andre Michael Lwoff, French microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- 1903 - Fernandel, French actor (d. 1971)
- 1905 - Red Nichols, American jazz cornettist (d. 1965)
- 1906 - Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
- 1911 - Robert Johnson, American singer and guitarist (d. 1938)
- 1914 - Romain Gary, Polish writer (d. 1980)
- 1916 - João Havelange, Brazilian industrialist and football league president
- 1919 - Lex Barker, American actor (d. 1973)
- 1925 - Ali Hassan Mwinyi, President of Tanzania
- 1926 - Sir David Attenborough, British television presenter and producer
- 1926 - Don Rickles, American comedian
- 1928 - Theodore Sorenson, American political operative and writer
- 1930 - Heather Harper, Irish soprano
- 1930 - Gary Snyder, American poet
- 1932 - Phyllida Law, Scottish actress
- 1932 - Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
- 1935 - Jack Charlton, English footballer
- 1937 - Thomas Pynchon, American novelist
- 1940 - Ricky Nelson, American singer (d. 1985)
- 1943 - Toni Tennille, American singer
- 1944 - Gary Glitter, English singer
- 1945 - Keith Jarrett, American musician
- 1947 - H. Robert Horvitz, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1948 - Felicity Lott, English soprano
- 1951 - Chris Frantz, American drummer (Talking Heads)
- 1953 - Alex Van Halen, Dutch-born drummer
- 1954 - David Keith, American actor
- 1957 - Marie Myriam, French singer
- 1964 - Melissa Gilbert, American actress and president of the Screen Actors Guild
- 1964 - Bobby Labonte, American race car driver
- 1964 - Dave Rowntree, British drummer (Blur)
- 1966 - Claudio Taffarel, Brazilian footballer
- 1968 - Jamie Summers, American porn star
- 1972 - Darren Hayes, Australian singer
- 1973 - Hiromu Arakawa, Japanese artist
- 1974 - Korey Stringer, American football player (d. 2001)
- 1975 - Enrique Iglesias, Spanish-born singer
- 1976 - Martha Wainwright, Canadian musician and songwriter
- 1978 - Lúcio, Brazilian footballer
- 1980 - Michelle McManus, Scottish singer
- 1983 - Matt Jay, Busted

Deaths


- 1278 - Emperor Duanzong of China (b. 1268)
- 1319 - King Haakon V of Norway (b. 1270)
- 1473 - John Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English politician (b. 1420)
- 1538 - Edward Fox, English bishop
- 1766 - Samuel Chandler, English non-conformist minister (b. 1693)
- 1773 - Ali Bey Al-Kabir, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt (b. 1728)
- 1781 - Richard Jago, English poet (b. 1715)
- 1785 - Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French statesman (b. 1719)
- 1788 - Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born physician and naturalist (b. 1723)
- 1794 - Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (b. 1743)
- 1828 - Mauro Giuliani, Italian composer (b. 1781)
- 1842 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (b. 1790)
- 1873 - John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (b. 1806)
- 1880 - Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)
- 1891 - Helena Blavatsky, Russian-born author (b. 1831)
- 1936 - Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (b. 1880)
- 1947 - Harry Gordon Selfridge, American-born department store founder (b. 1858)
- 1950 - Vital Brazil, Brazilian physician (b. 1865)
- 1952 - William Fox, Austrian-born film producer (b. 1879)
- 1960 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (b. 1904)
- 1975 - Avery Brundage, President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1887)
- 1982 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (b. 1950)
- 1985 - Theodore Sturgeon, American science fiction writer (b. 1918)
- 1988 - Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer (b. 1907)
- 1990 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (b. 1924)
- 1991 - Jean Langlais, French composer and pianist (b. 1907)
- 1991 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (b. 1903)
- 1993 - Avram Davidson, writer (b. 1923)
- 1994 - George Peppard, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1996 - Beryl Burton, English cyclist (b. 1937)
- 1999 - Dirk Bogarde, American actor (b. 1921)
- 1999 - Dana Plato, American actress (b. 1964)
- 2000 - Guadalupe "Pita" Amor, Mexican poet (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances


- Roman Empire - festival in honour of Mens
- Mother's Day - 1977, 1988, 1994, 2005, 2011
- World Red Cross Day
- VE Day

Recorded this day


- 1906 - "It Takes The Irish To Beat The Dutch" by Billy Murray
- 1941 - "Let Me Off Uptown" by Anita O'Day & Roy Eldridge with Gene Krupa & his Orchestra

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/8 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050508.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- May 7 - May 9 - April 8 - June 8 – listing of all days ko:5월 8일 ms:8 Mei ja:5月8日 simple:May 8 th:8 พฤษภาคม

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. In certain specific contexts, usually referring to the time before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it is also often referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire. There is no consensus on the starting date of the Byzantine period. Some place it during the reign of Diocletian (284-305) due to the administrative reforms he introduced, dividing the empire into a pars Orientis and a pars Occidentis. Others place it during the reign of Theodosius I (379-395) and Christendom's victory over paganism, or, following his death in 395, with the division of the empire into western and eastern halves. Others place it yet further in 476, when the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate, thus leaving to the emperor in the Greek East sole imperial authority. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by 330, when Constantine I inaugurated his new capital, the process of Hellenization and Christianization was well underway.

The term "Byzantine Empire"

Main article: Names of the Greeks The name Byzantine Empire is derived from the original Greek name for Constantinople; Byzantium. The name is a modern term and would have been alien to its contemporaries. The Empire's native Greek name was Romanía or Basileía Romaíon, a direct translation of the Latin name of the Roman Empire, Imperium Romanorum. The term Byzantine Empire was invented in 1557, about a century after the fall of Constantinople by German historian Hieronymus Wolf, who introduced a system of Byzantine historiography in his work Corpus Historiae Byzantinae in order to distinguish ancient Roman from medieval Greek history without drawing attention to their ancient predecessors. Standardization of the term did not occur until the 18th century, when French authors such as Montesquieu began to popularize it. Hieronymus himself was influenced by the rift caused by the 9th century dispute between Romans (Byzantines as we render them today) and Franks, who, under Charlemagne's newly formed empire, and in concert with the Pope, attempted to legitimize their conquests by claiming inheritance of Roman rights in Italy thereby renouncing their eastern neighbours as true Romans. The Donation of Constantine, one of the most famous forged documents in history, played a crucial role in this. Henceforth, it was fixed policy in the West to refer to the emperor in Constantinople not by the usual "Imperator Romanorum" (Emperor of the Romans) which was now reserved for the Frankish monarch, but as "Imperator Graecorum" (Emperor of the Greeks) and the land as "Imperium Graecorum", "Graecia", "Terra Graecorum" or even "Imperium Constantinopolitanus". This served as a precedent for Wolf who was motivated, at least partly, to re-interpret Roman history in different terms. Nevertheless, this was not intended in a demeaning manner since he ascribed his changes to historiography and not history itself. Later, a derogatory use of 'Byzantine' was developed.

Identity

"Byzantium may be defined as a multi-ethnic empire that emerged as a Christian empire, soon comprised the Hellenized empire of the East and ended its thousand year history, in 1453, as a Greek Orthodox state: An empire that became a nation, almost by the modern meaning of the word".1 In the centuries following the Arab and Lombard conquests in the 7th century, its multi-ethnic (albeit not multi-national) nature remained even though its constituent parts in the Balkans and Asia Minor contained an overwhelmingly large Greek population. Ethnic minorities and sizeable communities of religious heretics often lived on or near the borderlands, the Armenians being the only sizeable one. Byzantines identified themselves as Romans (Ρωμαιοί - Romans) which had already become a synonym for a Hellene (Έλλην - Greek). Also, the Byzantines were developing a national consciousness as residents of Ρωμανία (Romania, as the Byzantine state and its world were called). This nationalist awareness is reflected in literature, particularly in the acritic songs, where frontiersmen (ακρίτες) are praised for defending their country against invaders, of which most famous is the heroic or epic poem Digenis Acritas. The official dissolution of the Byzantine state in the 15th century did not immediately undo Byzantine society. During the Ottoman occupation Greeks continued to identify themselves as both Ρωμαιοί (Romans) and Έλληνες (Hellenes), a trait that survived into the early 20th century and still persists today in modern Greece, albeit the former has now retreated to a secondary folkish name rather than a national synonym as in the past.

Origin

Greece, Illyricum and Oriens, roughly analogous to the four Tetrarchs' zones of influence after Diocletian's reforms.]] Caracalla's decree in 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outside of Italy to all free adult males in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. The importance of this decree is historical rather than political. It set the basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied around the entire Mediterranean as was once done from Latium into all of Italy. Of course, integration did not take place uniformly. Societies already integrated with Rome such as Greece were favored by this decree, compared with those far away, too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt. The division of the Empire began with the Tetrarchy (quadrumvirate) in the late 3rd century with Emperor Diocletian, as an institution intended to more efficiently control the vast Roman Empire. He split the Empire in half, with two emperors (Augusti) ruling from Italy and Greece, each having as co-emperor a younger colleague of their own (Caesares). After Diocletian's voluntary abandonment of the throne, the Tetrarchic system began soon to crumble: the division continued in some form into the 4th century until 324 when Constantine the Great killed his last rival and became the sole emperor. Constantine decided to found a new capital for himself and chose Byzantium for that purpose. The rebuilding process was completed in 330. 330 Constantine renamed the city Nova Roma, but the populace would commonly call it Constantinople (in Greek, Κωνσταντινούπολις, Constantinoúpolis, meaning Constantine's City). This new capital became the centre of his administration. Constantine deprived the single preatorian prefect of his civil functions, introducing regional prefects with civil authority. During the 4th century, four great "regional prefectures" were also created. Constantine was also probably the first Christian emperor. The religion which had been persecuted under Diocletian became a "permitted religion", and steadily increased his power as years passed, apart from a short-lived return to pagan predominance with emperor Julian. Although the empire was not yet "Byzantine" under Constantine, Christianity would become one of the defining characteristics of the Byzantine Empire, as opposed to the pagan Roman Empire. Constantine also introduced a new stable gold coin, the solidus, which was to become the standard coin for centuries, not only in Byzantine Empire. Another defining moment in the history of the Roman/Byzantine Empire was the Battle of Adrianople in 378 in which the Emperor Valens and the best of the remaining Roman legions were killed by the Visigoths. This defeat has been proposed by some authorities as one possible date for dividing the ancient and medieval worlds. The Roman Empire was divided further by Valens' successor Theodosius I (also called "the Great"), who had ruled both parts since 392: following the dynastic principle well established by Constantine, in 395 Theodosius gave the two halves to his two sons Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler of the eastern half, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler of the western half, with his capital in Ravenna. Theodosius was the last Roman emperor whose authority covered the entire traditional extent of the Roman Empire. At this point, it is common to refer to the empire as "Eastern Roman" rather than "Byzantine."

Early history

The Eastern Roman Empire was largely spared the difficulties of the west in the 3rd and 4th centuries (see Crisis of the Third Century) in part because urban culture was better established there and the initial invasions were attracted to the wealth of Rome. Throughout the 5th century, various invasions conquered the western half of the Roman Empire and at best only demanded tribute from the eastern half. Theodosius II fortified the walls of Constantinople, leaving the city impenetrable to attacks: it was to be preserved from foreign conquest until 1204. To spare the Eastern Roman Empire from the invasion of the Huns of Attila, Theodosius gave them subsidies of gold. Moreover, he favored merchants living in Constantinople who traded with the barbarians. His successor, Marcian, refused to continue to pay the great sum. However, Attila had already diverted his attention from the Western Roman Empire and died in 453 after the Battle of Chalons. The Hunnic Empire collapsed and Constantinople was free from the menace of Attila. This started a profitable relationship between the Eastern Roman Empire and the remaining Huns. The Huns would eventually fight as mercenaries in Byzantine armies during the following centuries. At the time since the fall of Attila, the true chief in Constantinople was the Alan general Aspar. Leo I managed to free himself from the influence of the barbarian chief favouring the rise of the Isauri, a crude semi-barbarian tribe living in Roman territory, in southern Anatolia. Aspar and his son Ardabur were murdered in a riot in 471, and henceforth, Constantinople became free from foreign influences for centuries. Leo was also the first emperor to receive the crown not from a general or an officer, as evident in the Roman tradition, but from the hands of the patriarch of Constantinople. This habit became mandatory as time passed, and in the Middle Ages, the religious characteristic of the coronation had totally substituted the old form. The first Isaurian emperor was Tarasicodissa, who was married to Leo's daughter Ariadne in 466, and ruled as Zeno I after the death of Leo I's son, Leo II (autumn of 474). Zeno was the emperor when the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 and the barbarian general Odoacer deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus without replacing him with another puppet. In 468, an attempt was made by Leo I to conquer North Africa again from the Vandals had failed. This showed that the Eastern Roman Empire had feeble military capabilities. At that time, the Western Roman Empire was already restricted to Italy (Britain had fallen to Angles and Saxons, Spain fell to the Visigoths, Africa fell to the Vandals and Gaul fell to the Franks). To recover Italy, Zeno could only negotiate with the Ostrogoths of Theodoric who had been settled in Moesia. He sent the barbarian king in Italy as magister militum per Italiam ("chief of staff for Italy"). Since the fall of Odoacer in 493, Theodoric, who had lived in Constantinople during his youth, ruled over Italy on his own while maintaining a mere formal obedience to Zeno. He revealed himself as the most powerful Germanic king of that age, but his successors were greatly inferior to him and their kingdom of Italy started to decline in the 530s. In 475, Zeno was deposed by a plot to elevate Basiliscus (the general defeated in 468) to the throne. However, Zeno was again emperor twenty months later. Yet, Zeno had to face the threat coming from his Isaurian former official Illo and the other Isaurian, Leontius, who was also elected rival emperor. Isaurian prominence ended when an aged civil officer of Roman origin, Anastasius I, became emperor in 491 and after a long war defeated them in 498. Anastasius revealed himself to be an energetic reformer and an able administrator. He perfected Constantine I's coin system by definitively setting the weight of the copper follis, the coin used in most everyday transactions. He also reformed the tax system in which the State Treasury contained the enormous sum of 320,000 pounds of gold when he died.

The age of Justinian I

The reign of Justinian I, which began in 527, saw a period of extensive imperial conquests of former Roman territories (indicated in green on the map below). The 6th century also saw the beginning of a long series of conflicts with the Byzantine Empire's traditional early enemies, such as the Persians, Slavs and Bulgars. Theological crises, such as the question of Monophysitism, also dominated the empire. Justinian I had perhaps already exerted effective control during the reign of his predecessor, Justin I (518-527). Justin I was a former officer in the imperial army who had been chief of the guards to Anastasius I, and had been proclaimed emperor (when almost 70) after Anastasius' death. Justinian was the son of a peasant from Illyricum, but was also a nephew of Justin. Justinian was later adopted as Justin's son. Justinian would become one of the most refined people of his century, inspired by the dream to re-establish Roman rule over all the Mediterranean world. He reformed the administration and the law, and with the help of brilliant generals such as Belisarius and Narses, he temporarily regained some of the lost Roman provinces in the west, conquering much of Italy, North Africa, and a small area in southern Spain. In 532, Justinian secured for the Eastern Roman Empire peace on the eastern frontier by signing an "eternal peace" treaty with the Sassanid Persian king Khosrau I. However, this required in exchange a payment of a huge annual tribute of gold. Justinian's conquests in the west began in 533 when Belisarius was sent to reclaim the former province of North Africa with a small army of 18,000 men who were mainly mercenaries. Whereas an earlier expedition in 468 had been a failure, this new venture was successful. The kingdom of the Vandals at Carthage lacked the strength of former times under King Gaiseric and the Vandals surrendered after a couple of battles against Belisarius' forces. General Belisarius returned to a Roman triumph in Constantinople with the last Vandal king, Gelimer, as his prisoner. However, the reconquest of North Africa would take a few more years to stabilize. It was not until 548 that the main local independent tribes were entirely subdued. 548 In 535, Justinian I launched his most ambitious campaign, the reconquest of Italy. At the time, Italy was still ruled by the Ostrogoths. He dispatched an army to march overland from Dalmatia while the main contingent, transported on ships and again under the command of General Belisarius, disembarked in Sicily and conquered the island without much difficulty. The marches on the Italian mainland were initially victorious and the major cities, including Naples, Rome and the capital Ravenna, fell one after the other. The Goths were seemingly defeated and Belisarius was recalled to Constantinople in 541 by Justinian. Belisarius brought with him to Constantinople the Ostrogoth king Witiges as a prisoner in chains. However, the Ostrogoths and their supporters were soon reunited under the energetic command of Totila. The ensuing Gothic Wars were an exhausting series of sieges, battles and retreats which consumed almost all the Byzantine and Italian fiscal resources, impoverishing much of the countryside. Belisarius was recalled by Justinian, who had lost trust in his preferred commander. At a certain point, the Byzantines seemed to be on the verge of losing all the positions they had gained. After having neglected to provide sufficient financial and logistical support to the desperate troops under Belisarius' former command, in the summer of 552 Justinian gathered a massive army of 35,000 men (mostly Asian and Germanic mercenaries) to contribute to the war effort. The astute and diplomatic eunuch Narses was chosen for the command. Totila was crushed and killed at the Busta Gallorum. Totila's successor, Teias, was likewise defeated at the Battle of Mons Lactarius (central Italy, October 552). Despite continuing resistance from a few Goth garrisons, and two subsequent invasions by the Franks and Alamanni, the war for the reconquest of the Italian peninsula came to an end. Justinian's program of conquest was further extended in 554 when a Byzantine army managed to seize a small part of Spain from the Visigoths. All the main Mediterranean islands were also now under Byzantine control. Aside from these conquests, Justinian updated the ancient Roman legal code in the new Corpus Juris Civilis. Even though the laws were still written in Latin, the language itself was becoming archaic and poorly understood even by those who wrote the new code. Under Justinian's reign, the Church of Hagia Sofia ("Holy Wisdom") was constructed in the 530s. This church would become the center of Byzantine religious life and the center of the Eastern Orthodox form of Christianity. The 6th century was also a time of flourishing culture and even though Justinian closed the university at Athens, the Eastern Roman Empire produced notable people such as the epic poet Nonnus, the lyric poet Paul the Silentiary, the historian Procopius, the natural philosopher John Philoponos and others. The conquests in the west meant that the other parts of the Eastern Roman Empire were left almost unguarded even though Justinian was a great builder of fortifications in Byzantine territories throughout his reign. Khosrau I of Persia had, as early as 540, broken the pact previously signed with Justinian and destroyed Antiochia and Armenia. The only way Justinian could forestall him was to increase the sum he paid to Khosrau I every year. The Balkans were subjected to repeated incursions where Slavs had first crossed the imperial frontiers during the reign of Justin I. The Slavs took advantage of the sparsely-deployed Byzantine troops and pressed on as far as the Gulf of Corinth. The Kutrigur Bulgars had also attacked in 540. The Slavs invaded Thrace in 545 and in 548 assaulted Dyrrachium, an important port on the Adriatic Sea. In 550, the Sclaveni pushed on as far to reach within 65 kilometers of Constantinople itself. In 559, the Eastern Roman Empire found itself unable to repel a great invasion of Kutrigurs and Sclaveni. Divided in three columns, the invaders reached Thermopylae, the Gallipoli peninsula and the suburbs of Constantinople. The Slavs feared the intact power of the Danube Roman fleet and of the Utigurs (paid by the Romans themselves) more than the resistance of the ill-prepared Byzantine imperial army. This time the Eastern Roman Empire was safe, but in the following years the Roman suzerainty in the Balkans was to be almost totally overwhelmed. Soon after the death of Justinian in 565, the Germanic Lombards, a former imperial foederati tribe, invaded and conquered much of Italy. The Visigoths conquered Cordoba, the main Byzantine city in Spain, first in 572 and then definitively in 584. The last Byzantine strongholds in Spain were swept away twenty years later. The Turks emerged in the Crimea, and in 577, a horde of some 100,000 Slavs had invaded Thrace and Illyricum. Sirmium, the most important Roman city on the Danube, was lost in 582, but the Eastern Roman Empire managed to mantain control of the river for several more years even though it increasingly lost control of the inner provinces. Justinian's successor, Justin II, refused to pay the tribute to the Persians. This resulted in a long and harsh war which lasted until the reign of his successors Tiberius II and Maurice, and focused on the control over Armenia. Fortunately for the Byzantines, a civil war broke out in the Persian Empire. Maurice was able to take advantage of his friendship with the new king Khosrau II (whose disputed accession to the Persian throne had been assisted by Maurice) in order to sign a favorable peace treaty in 591. This treaty gave the Eastern Roman Empire control over much of Persian Armenia. Maurice reorganized the remaining Byzantine possessions in the west into two Exarchates, the Ravenna and the Carthage. Maurice increased the Exarchates' self-defense capabilities and delegated them to civil authorities. The Avars and later the Bulgars overwhelmed much of the Balkans, and in the early 7th century the Persians invaded and conquered Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Armenia. The Persians were eventually defeated and the territories were recovered by Emperor Heraclius in 627. However, the unexpected appearance of the newly-converted and united Muslim Arabs took the territories by surprise from an empire exhausted from fighting against Persia, and the southern provinces were overrun. The Eastern Roman Empire's most catastrophic defeat of this period was the Battle of Yarmuk, fought in Syria. Heraclius and the military governors of Syria were slow to respond to the new threat, and Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and the Exarchate of Africa were permanently incorporated into the Muslim Empire in the 7th century, a process which was completed with the fall of Carthage to the Caliphate in 698. The Lombards continued to expand in northern Italy, taking Liguria in 640 and conquering most of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751, leaving the Byzantines with control of only small areas around the toe and heel of Italy, plus some semi-independent coastal cities like Venice, Naples, Amalfi and Gaeta.

The fight for survival

The Eastern Roman Empire's loss of territory was offset to a degree by consolidation and an increased uniformity of rule. Emperor Heraclius fully Hellenized the Eastern Roman Empire by making Greek the official language, thus ending the last remnants of Latin and ancient Roman tradition within the empire. The use of Latin in government records, (Latin titles such as Augustus and the concept of the Eastern Roman Empire being one with Rome) fell into abeyance, which allowed the empire to pursue its own identity. Many historians mark the sweeping reforms made during the reign of Heraclius as the breaking-point with Byzantium's ancient Roman past. It is common to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire as "Byzantine" instead of as "East Roman" from this point onwards. Religious rites and religious expression within the empire were now also noticeably different from the practices upheld in the former imperial lands of western Europe. Within the empire, the southern Byzantine provinces differed significantly in culture and practice from those in the north, observing Monophysite Christianity rather than Chalcedonian Orthodox. The loss of the southern territories to the Arabs further strengthened Orthodox practices in the remaining provinces. Constans II (reigned 641 - 668) subdivided the empire into a system of military provinces called thémata (themes) in an attempt to improve local responses to the threat of constant assaults. Outside of the capital, urban life declined while Constantinople grew to become the largest city in the Christian world. Several attempts to conquer Constantinople by the Arabs failed in the face of the Byzantines' superior navy, the Byzantines' monopoly over the still-mysterious incendiary weapon (Greek fire), their strong city walls, and the skill of Byzantine generals and warrior-emperors such as Leo III the Isaurian (reign 717 - 741). Once the assaults were repelled, the empire's recovery resumed. In his landmark work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the 18th century historian Edward Gibbon depicted the Byzantine Empire of this time as effete and decadent. However, an alternate examination of the Byzantine Empire shows instead that the empire was a military superpower during the early Middle Ages. Factors contributing to this view entail the empire's heavy cavalry (the cataphracts), its subsidization (albeit inconsistent) of a free and well-to-do peasant class forming the basis for cavalry recruitment, its extraordinarily in-depth defense systems (the themes), and its use of subsidies in order to make Byzantium's enemies fight against one another. Other factores include the empire's prowess at intelligence-gathering, a communications and logistics system based on mule trains, a superior navy (although often under-funded), and rational military strategies and doctrines (not dissimilar to those of Sun Tzu) that emphasized stealth, surprise, swift maneuvering and the marshalling of overwhelming force at the time and place of the Byzantine commander's choosing. After the siege of 717 in which the Arabs suffered horrific casualties, the Caliphate was no longer a serious threat to the Byzantine heartland. It would take a different civilization, that of the Seljuk Turks, to finally drive the imperial forces out of eastern and central Anatolia. The 8th century was dominated by controversy and religious division over iconoclasm. Icons were banned by Emperor Leo III, leading to revolts by iconophiles throughout the empire. After the efforts of Empress Irene, the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 and affirmed that icons could be venerated but not worshipped. Irene also attempted a marriage alliance with Charlemagne. This alliance would have united the two empires and thus would have recreated the Roman Empire (the two European empires both claimed the title). Moreover the alliance would have created a European superpower comparable to the strength of ancient Rome. However, these plans were destroyed when Irene was deposed. The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora (9th century). These controversies further contributed to the disintegrating relations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, both of which continued to increase their independence and power.

Golden era

Holy Roman Empire The Eastern Roman Empire reached its height under the Macedonian emperors of the late 9th, 10th and early 11th centuries. During these years the Empire held out against pressure from the Roman church to remove Patriarch Photios, and gained control over the Adriatic Sea, parts of Italy, and much of the land held by the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians were completely defeated by Basil II in 1014. The empire also gained a new ally (yet sometimes also an enemy) in the new Varangian state in Kiev, from which the empire received an important mercenary force, the Varangian Guard. In 1054, relations between Greek-speaking Eastern and Latin-speaking Western traditions within the Christian Church reached a terminal crisis. There was never a formal declaration of institutional separation, and the so-called Great Schism actually was the culmination of centuries of gradual separation. From this split, the modern (Roman) Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches arose. Like Rome before it, Byzantium soon fell into a period of difficulties caused to a large extent by the growth of aristocracy, which undermined the theme system. Facing its old enemies (the Holy Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate), the Eastern Roman Empire might have recovered, but around the same time new invaders appeared on the scene who had little reason to respect its reputation. The Normans finally completed the expulsion of the Byzantines from Italy in 1071 due to an ostensible lack of Byzantine interest in sending any support to Italy. Also, the Seljuk Turks, who were mainly interested in defeating Egypt under the Fatimids, continued their military campaigns into Asia Minor, which was the main recruiting ground for Byzantine armies. With the surprise defeat of Emperor Romanus IV by Alp Arslan (sultan of the Seljuk Turks) at Manzikert in 1071, most of that province was lost.

The end of Byzantium

1071 After Manzikert, a partial recovery was made possible from the contributions of the Comnenian dynasty. The first emperor of this royal line, Alexius Comnenus (whose life and policies would be described by his daughter Anna Comnena in the Alexiad) began to reestablish the army on the basis of feudal grants (próniai) and made significant advances against the Seljuk Turks. His plea for western aid against the Seljuk advance brought about the First Crusade, which helped him reclaim Nicaea. However, the emperor soon distanced himself from western imperial aid. Later crusades grew increasingly antagonistic. Although Alexius' grandson Manuel I Comnenus was a friend of the Crusaders, neither side could forget that the other had excommunicated them, and the Byzantines were very suspicious of the intentions of the Roman Catholic Crusaders who continually passed through their territory. Although the three competent Comnenan emperors had the power to expel the severely outnumbered Seljuks, it was never in their interest to do so, as the expansion back into Anatolia would have meant sharing more power with the feudal lords, thus weaking their power. Ironically, re-conquering Anatolia may have saved the Eastern Roman Empire in the long run. The Germans of the Holy Roman Empire and the Normans of Sicily and southern Italy continued to attack the empire in the 11t and 12th centuries. The Italian city-states, who had been granted trading rights in Constantinople by Alexius, became the targets of anti-Western sentiments as the most visible example of western "Franks" or "Latins." The Venetians were especially disliked, even though their ships were the basis of the Byzantine navy. To add to the empire's concerns, the Seljuks remained a threat, defeating Manuel at the Myriokephalon in 1176. 1176 Frederick Barbarossa attempted to conquer the Eastern Roman Empire during the Third Crusade, but it was the Fourth Crusade that had the most devastating effect on the empire. Although the stated intent of the crusade was to conquer Egypt, the Venetians took control of the expedition when their chieftains could not pay the transport of the troops, and under their influence the Crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204. As a result, a short-lived feudal kingdom was founded (the Latin Empire), and Byzantine power was permanently weakened. At this time, the Serbian Kingdom under the Nemanjic dynasty grew stronger with the collapse of Byzantium, forming a Serbian Empire in 1346. 1346 and the Despotate of Epirus.]] After the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, three successor states were established. These states included the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The first state, controlled by the Palaeologan dynasty, managed to reclaim Constantinople in 1261 and defeated Epirus. This led to the reviving of the Eastern Roman Empire, but the empire's attention was more focused on Europe than on the Asian provinces that were the primary concern. For a while, the empire survived simply because the Muslims were too divided to attack. However, the Ottomans eventually overran many Byzantine territories except for a handful of port cities. Ottomans).]] Ottomans The Eastern Roman Empire appealed to the west for help, but they would only consider sending aid in return for reuniting the churches. Church unity was considered, and occasionally accomplished by law, but the Orthodox citizens would not accept Roman Catholicism. Some western mercenaries arrived to help, but many preferred to let the empire die, and did nothing as the Ottomans picked apart the remaining territories. Constantinople was initially not considered worth the effort of conquest, but with the advent of cannons, the walls (which had been impenetrable for over 1000 years except by the Fourth Crusade) no longer offered adequate protection against the Ottomans. The Fall of Constantinople finally came after a two-month siege by Mehmed II on May 29, 1453. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Paleologus, was last seen entering deep into the fighting of an overwhelmingly outnumbered civilian army, against the invading Ottomans on the ramparts of Constantinople. Mehmed II also conquered Mistra in 1460 and Trebizond in 1461. 1461 Mehmed and his successors continued to consider themselves proper heirs to the Byzantine Empire until the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. By the end of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire had established its firm rule over Asia Minor and parts of the Balkan peninsula. Meanwhile, the role of the emperor as a patron of Eastern Orthodoxy was now claimed by the Grand Dukes of Muscovy starting with Ivan III. His grandson, Ivan IV, would become the first Tsar of Russia (tsar, also spelled czar, is a term derived from the Latin word caesar). Their successors supported the idea that Moscow was the proper heir to Rome and Constantinople and the idea of a Third Rome was carried throughout the Russian Empire until its demise in the early 20th century.

Legacy and importance

20th century It is said history is written by the winners, and no better example of this statement is shown in the treatment of the Byzantine Empire in history. It is an empire resented by Western Europe, as shown by the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade. A popular American university textbook4 on medieval history that circulated in the 1960s and 1970s, has this to say in the only paragraph in the book devoted to "Byzantium": :The history of Byzantium is a study in disappointment. The empire centering on Constantinople had begun with all the advantages obtained from the inheritance of the political, economic, and intellectual life of the 4th century Roman Empire ... Byzantium added scarcely anything to this superb foundation. The Eastern Roman Empire of the Middle Ages made no important contributions to philosophy, theology, science or literature. Its political institutions remained fundamentally unchanged from those which existed ... at the end of the 4th century; while the Byzantines continued to enjoy an active urban and commercial life they made no substantial advance in the technology of industry and trade as developed by the cities of the ancient world. Modern historians of the medieval Eastern Roman empire have strongly criticized the tendency of 19th-century scholars to write off Byzantium as the example of an atrophied civilization. Yet it is hard to find ... any contribution by way of either original ideas or institutions which the medieval Greek-speaking peoples made to civilization (pp. 248-9). The 20th century has seen an increased interest by historians to understand the empire, and its impact on European civilization is only recently being recognised. Why should the West be able to perceive its continuity from Antiquity and thus its intrinsic meaning in the modern world - in so lurid a manner, only to deny this to the "Byzantines"?5 Called with justification "The City," the rich and turbulent metropolis of Constantinople was to the early Middle Ages what Athens and Rome had been to classical times. Byzantine civilization itself constitutes a major world culture. Because of its unique position as the medieval continuation of the Roman State, it has tended to be dismissed by classicists and ignored by Western medievalists. And yet, the development and late history of Western European, Slavic and Islamic cultures are not comprehensible without taking it into consideration. A study of medieval history requires a thorough understanding of the Byzantine world. In fact, the Middle Ages are often traditionally defined as beginning with the fall of Rome in 476 (and hence the Ancient Period), and ending with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Byzantium was arguably the only stable state in Europe during the Middle Ages. Its expert military and diplomatic power ensured inadvertently that Western Europe remained safe from many of the more devastating invasions from eastern peoples, at a time when the Western Christian kingdoms might have had difficulty containing it. Constantly under attack during its entire existence, the Byzantines shielded Western Europe from the Persians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and for a time, the Ottomans. In commerce, Byzantium was one of the most important western terminals of the Silk Road. It was also the single most important commercial center of Europe for much, if not all, of the Medieval era. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 closed the land route from Europe to Asia and marked the downfall of the Silk Road. This prompted a change in the commercial dynamic, and the expansion of the Islamic Ottoman Empire not only motivated European powers to seek new trade routes, but created the sense that Christendom was under siege and fostered an eschatological mood that influenced how Columbus and others interpreted the discovery of the New World.6 Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built. It is not an altogether unfounded assumption that the Renaissance could not have flourished were it not for the groundwork laid in Byzantium, and the flock of Greek scholars to the West after the fall of the Empire. The influence of its theologians on medieval Western thought (especially on Thomas Aquinas) was profound, and their removal from the "canon" of Western thought in subsequent centuries has, in the minds of many, only served to impoverish the canon. The Byzantine Empire was the empire that brought widespread adoption of Christianity to Europe - arguably one of the central aspects of a modern Europe’s identity. This is embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy that eventually led to the creation of the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th century historians) throughtout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, and it is still predominant among the Russians, Ukrainians, Serbians, Bulgarians, people of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as among the Greeks. Less well known is the influence of the Byzantine religious sensibility on the millions of Christians in Ethiopia, the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and the Christians of Georgia and Armenia,though they all belong to the Orthodox Faith. Robert Byron, one of the first great 20th century Philhellenes, maintained that the greatness of Byzantium lay in what he described as "the Triple Fusion": that of a Roman body, a Greek mind and an oriental, mystical soul. The Roman Empire of the East was founded on Monday 11 May 330; it came to an end on Tuesday 29 May 1453 - although it had already come into being when Diocletian split the Roman Empire in 286, and it was still alive when Trebizond finally fell in 1461. It was an empire that dominated the world in all spheres of life, for most of its 1,123 years and 18 days. Yet although it has been shunned and almost forgotten in the history of the world up until now, the spirit of Byzantium still resonates in the world. By preserving the ancient world, and forging the medieval, the Byzantine Empire's influence is hard to truly grasp. However, to deny history the chance to acknowledge its existence, is to deny the origins of Western civilization as we know it.

See also


- Western Roman Empire
- List of Byzantine Empire-related topics
- Roman Empire
- Roman Emperors
- Byzantine Emperors
- History of Greece
- History of the Ottoman Empire
- History of the Balkans
- History of Europe
- History of the Middle East
- History of Rome
- Latin Empire
- Lombards
- Empire of Nicaea
- Empire of Trebizond
- Despotate of Epirus
- Despotate of Morea
- Byzantine currency
- Byzantine art
- Byzantine architecture
- Byzantine music
- Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy
- Byzantine army
- Byzantine battle tactics
- Byzantine navy
- Comnenus
- Palaeologus
- Eastern Orthodox Church Calendar
- Derogatory use of Byzantine

External links


- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/ Byzantium: Byzantine studies on the Internet] <

Zemun

Zemun (Земун, Hungarian: Zimony, German: Semlin) is a major suburb of Belgrade situated on the left bank of the Sava river. It is accosted to the Danube river and the district has 191,938 (2002) with 146,172 in urban Zemun-Belgrade, the remainder in surrounding villages such as Surčin and Dobanovci.

History

The area of Zemun has been inhabited ever since the Copper Age. The first Celtic settlements in Taurunum happened in the 3rd century BC. Taurunum became part of the Roman province of Pannonia around year 15. After the Great Migrations the area was under the authority of various tribes and states. The Frankish chroniclers of the Crusades mentioned it as Mallevila, a toponym from the 9th century. The first written records mention this city in the 12th century. The name Zemun is believed to be derived from Slavic word "zemlin" meaning "earth". By the end of the 12th century it passed from Byzantine rule to the Kingdom of Hungary, and remained under it until the start of the Ottoman wars in Europe. After the nearby Serbian state fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1459, Zemun became an important military outpost. It finally fell to the Turks on July 12, 1521. In 1541, Zemun was integrated into the Srem sanjak of the Buda pashaluk. Zemun and the southeastern Srem was taken by the Austrian Habsburgs in 1717 and became a feudal property of the Schönborn family. Zemun was the site of a peasant revolt in 1736, as well as continued border wars with the Ottomans. The Treaty of Belgrade of 1739 finally fixed the border, the Military Frontier was organized in the region in 1746, and the town of Zemun was granted the rights of a military commune in 1749. Zemun prospered as an important road intersection and a border city. In 1816 it was greatly expanded by mass resettlement of Germans and Serbs in the new town suburbs of Francstal and Gornja Varoš, respectively. In the 19th century, Zemun reached 7,089 residents and 1,310 houses. Zemun also became important in Serbian history as the refuge for Karađorđe in 1813 as well as many other people from the nearby Belgrade and the rest of Serbia which was still under Ottoman rule. With the abolishment of the Military Frontier in 1873, Zemun and the rest of Srem became part of the Croatia-Slavonia crown land in 1881. The first railway line that connected it to the west was built in 1883, and the first railway bridge over the Danube followed shortly thereafter in 1884. During the First World War in 1914, Zemun changed hands between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, finally ending up in Serbia on November 5, 1918. The town became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The inter-war period was marked by political struggle between the city gentry (organized into the Serbian Radical Party, Serbian Democratic Party and the Croatian Peasant Party) and the more socialist parties supported by the ethnic Germans. The start of the unification with the city of Belgrade happened in 1934 when the municipality services of Zemun were united with those of Belgrade. Two intra-city bus lines were started that connected Zemun with the parts of Belgrade, and the general shift of attention towards this issue was supported by the growing Serbian population of Zemun. The Zemun airbases originally built in 1927 were an important geostrategic objective in the Axis invasion of April 1941. During the war the city was controlled both by the Nazi-sponsored military government of Serbia and the nearby Nazi-puppet Croatia. After the end of the Second World War and the Partisan victory in 1945, the once independent city of Zemun officially became part of Belgrade.

External links


- [http://www.zemun.co.yu/ Zemun Home Page]
- [http://www.sozemun.org.yu/ Zemun Municipality Page] Category:Cities in Serbia and Montenegro Category:Srem/Srijem Category:Suburbs of Belgrade Category:Cities on the Danube ja:ゼムン

Nish

NIS is an acronym for:
- National Intelligence Service (Albania), Albania's new state security agency
- Naval Investigative Service, predecessor of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
- National Intelligence Service (South Korea), South Korea's state security agency
- Network Information Service
- New Israeli sheqel
- Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union
- Norton Internet Security
- Nippon Ichi Software ja:NIS

Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient Greek name: Byzantium. Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 330, naming the city Nova Roma (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "Caesar" and grad for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word Tsargrad is now an archaic term in Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 1930.

Byzantium

Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the legions and the Imperial courts.Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of St Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

Walls of Theodosius, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425. In the 5th century, when the barbarians overran the Western Empire, its emperors retreated to Ravenna before it collapsed altogether. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the greatest city of the Empire, and the greatest in the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

The City under Justinian

The emperor Justinian (527-565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander, Belisarius, anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor; and also where they openly criticised the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue. The entire late Roman and early Byzantine period was one where Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens, and in the form of a major rebellion in the capital of 532 AD, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). "Nika" riots Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with the incomparable St Sophia, the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets (St Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, and is now a museum). The dedication took place on Christmas Day of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Constantine, with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equally-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the emperors from Constantine himself until the eleventh century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian

Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II and Maurice, able emperors who had to deal with a deteriorating military situation, especially on the eastern frontier. Subsequently there was a period of near-anarchy, which was exploited by the enemies of the Empire. After the Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the situation so dire that at first he contemplated moving the imperial capital to Carthage, but with military genius he succeeded in expelling the invaders. No sooner had he carried war into their own territories, however, and achieved an advantageous peace with Persia, than he was faced with the Arab expansion. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime

Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. 717 Byzantium, later Constantinople, was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenic period and later during the Roman Empire, mostly due to its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean and the Black Sea. During the Fourth Century AD the Emperor Constantine relocated his eastern capital to Byzantium, hence the name Constantinople (Constantine's City), in an attempt to reinvigorate the Empire. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek speaking empire, short several interregnums, for over a thousand years. As the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (now commonly known as the Byzantine Empire), the Greeks called Constantinople simply "the City", while throughout Europe it was known as the "Queen of Cities." In its heyday, roughly corresponding to what is now known as the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, particularly the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. A Russian 14th-century traveller, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sofia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it". The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in its extensive copying throughout Europe, particular examples include St. Mark's in Venice, the basilica of Ravenna and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls (the Theodosian Walls) and urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping a memory alive of the skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The city, also provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire against the invasions of the 5th century, for Europe against the Arabs, and for European Christendom against Islam. Constantine assured the position of the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople as pre-eminent in the Eastern Empire. This action placed Constantinople at the religious heart of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still considered first among equals in the Orthodox Church along with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the later Slavic Patriarchs. This position is largely ceremonial but still carries emotional weight.

The Isaurians

In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754 which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Comneni and Palaeologi

787, 1840]] Following the catastrophic defeat in 1071 of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Armenia, his successor Michael VII pleaded for assistance from the West. In due course this was to lead to the First Crusade, which assembled at Constantinople in 1096 in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, and moved on towards Jerusalem. Much of this is documented by the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work The Alexiad. The Crusades were, however, to lead in time to the disastrous capture and sack of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade on April 12 1204. For the subsequent half-century or more, Constantinople remained the centre of the Roman Catholic crusader state, set up after the city's capture under Baldwin IX, and which became known as the Latin Kingdom. During this time, the Byzantine emperors made their capital at nearby Nicaea, which acted as the capital of the temporary, short-lived Empire of Nicaea and a refuge for refugees from the sacked city of Constantinople. From this base, Constantinople was eventually recaptured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. The Palaeologi founded a beautiful new imperial palace at Blachernae in the north-west of the city, the Great Palace subsequently falling into disuse.

The Ottomans

Blachernae (painted 1499)]] Constantinople and the Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453, during the reign of Constantine XI Paleologus (see Fall of Constantinople). Although the Turks overthrew the Byzantines, Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Second (the Ottaman Sultan at the time) let Orthodox Patriarchy to continue its affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the Vatican.

Constantinople in popular culture


- Constantinople appears as a dusty faded capital, shorn of its glories, in William Butler Yeats' 1926 poem Sailing to Byzantium.
- Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song by The Four Lads later covered by They Might Be Giants entitled Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/istanbul-not-constantinople.html]. "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
- Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Further reading


- Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, Pimlico, 2005. ISBN 1844130800
- Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521398320
- Philip Mansell, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire

Notes


- Constantinople is derived from the Greek Κωνσταντινούπολη. Other names for the city:
  - Turkish name: İstanbul.
  - Modern Greek name: Κωνσταντινούπολη, older name: Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names)
  - Roman name: Constantinopolis;
  - Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma
  - Arabic name: قسطنطينية (Kostantiniyya)
  - Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis
  - Swedish viking name: Miklagård
  - Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniyye.
  - Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Царьград).
  - Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City")
  - The Sublime Porte - the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in diplomatic notes (the same way "Whitehall" would be used in the case of the British Foreign Office, or "No. 10 Downing" to refer to the PMO)
- Source for quote: Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed T Preger I 105 (see A A Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, 1952, vol I p 188).

See also


- İstanbul
- Patriarch of Constantinople
- Golden Horn
- Hagia Sophia
- Hippodrome of Constantinople
- University of Constantinople
- the Bosporus

External links


- [http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html Info on the name change] from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- [http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster Welcome to Constantinople], documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3
- .html#1 Constantinople], from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- [http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies ko:콘스탄티노폴리스 ja:コンスタンティノポリス

April 20

April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). There are 255 days remaining.

Events


- 1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
- 1657 - Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City) granted freedom of religion.
- 1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
- 1770 - Lieutenant James Cook's expedition (first voyage) makes first sighting of eastern Australian coastline, naming the spot Cape Hicks. His logbook recorded the date as April 19, but the 20th was the actual calendar date.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British troops begin siege of Boston, Massachusetts
- 1792 - France declares war on Austria.
- 1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
- 1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
- 1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.
- 1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
- 1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
- 1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1914 - Seventeen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike.
- 1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
- 1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
- 1945 - US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
- 1953 - Project BLUEBIRD turns into Project MKULTRA.
- 1967 - A Swiss Britannia turboprop crashes at Toronto, Canada, killing 126.
- 1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa, killing 122.
- 1968 - Pierre Trudeau succeeds Lester B. Pearson as Prime Minister of Canada.
- 1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.
- 1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
- 1978 - Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.
- 1979 - President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Swamp Rabbit while on vacation in Plains, Georgia.
- 1985 - ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas
- 1992 - An all-star concert in memory of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium in London.
- 1997 - The San Diego Padres face the St. Louis Cardinals in the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Hawaii.
- 1998 - An Air France Boeing 727-200 crashes into mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
- 1998 - German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
- 1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the Columbine High School massacre.
- 2001 - Anti-globalization marches and a "People's Summit" are held to protest the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, a FTAA summit in Quebec City, Quebec.
- 2002 - The Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition holds its first Community Smoke-In for Human Rights in Darwin, Australia. Police arrest five activists.
- 2004 - Severe thunderstorms strike Chicagoland, USA. An F3 tornado touches down in Utica, Illinois, claiming eight lives.
- 2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars were fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents. 22 detainees were killed and 92 wounded. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-20-iraq_x.htm]

Births


- 702 - Jafar Sadiq, Muslim scholar (d. 765)
- 1494 - Johannes Agricola, German protestant reformer (d. 1566)
- 1586 - Saint Rose of Lima, Peruvian saint (d. 1617)
- 1633 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (d. 1654)
- 1650 - William Bedloe, English informer (d. 1680)
- 1668 - Yuri Troubetzkoy, Governor of Belgorod (d. 1739)
- 1718 - David Brainerd, American missionary (d. 1747)
- 1723 - Cornelius Harnett, American delegate to the Continental Congress (d. 1781)
- 1745 - Philippe Pinel, French physician (d. 1826)
- 1808 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (d. 1873)
- 1818 - Heinrich Göbel, German-born inventor (d. 1893)
- 1871 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian inventor, (d. 1922)
- 1879 - Paul Poiret, French couturier (d. 1944)
- 1889 - Albert Jean Amateau, Turkish-born businessman and social activist (d. 1996)
- 1889 - Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German dictator (d. 1945)
- 1893 - Harold Lloyd, American actor (d. 1971)
- 1893 - Joan Miró, Catalan painter (d. 1983)
- 1895 - Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)
- 1896 - Wop May, Canadian aviator (d. 1952)
- 1904 - Bruce Cabot, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1908 - Lionel Hampton, American musician (d. 2002)
- 1914 - Betty Lou Gerson, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1915 - Joseph Wolpe, South African-born psychotherapist (d. 1997)
- 1918 - Edward L. Beach, American naval officer, author (d. 2002)
- 1918 - Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1920 - John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- 1923 - Mother Angelica, American nun and broadcaster
- 1925 - Tito Puente, American musician (d. 2000)
- 1927 - Karl Alexander Müller, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1928 - Gerald S. Hawkins, English astronomer (d. 2003)
- 1939 - Peter S. Beagle, American author
- 1939 - Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway
- 1940 - George Takei, American actor
- 1941 - Ryan O'Neal, American actor
- 1943 - John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor
- 1943 - Edie Sedgwick, American actress (d. 1971)
- 1945 - Steve Spurrier, American football player and coach
- 1949 - Massimo D'Alema, Prime Minister of Italy
- 1949 - Jessica Lange, American actress
- 1950 - Veronica Cartwright, American actress
- 1950 - Aleksandr Lebed, Russian general, politician (d. 2002)
- 1951 - Luther Vandross, American singer (d. 2005)
- 1961 - Don Mattingly, baseball player
- 1963 - Izhar Cohen,illustrator
- 1964 - Crispin Glover, American actor
- 1964 - Andy Serkis, English actor
- 1964 - Rosalynn Sumners, American figure skater
- 1967 - Raymond van Barneveld, Dutch darts player
- 1967 - Mike Portnoy, American musician
- 1971 - Carla Geurts, Dutch swimmer
- 1972 - Carmen Electra, American actress
- 1976 - Joey Lawrence, American actor
- 1980 - Jasmin Wagner, German singer

Deaths


- 1176 - Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English soldier (b. 1130)
- 1314 - Pope Clement V (b. 1264)
- 1521 - Zhengde, Emperor of China (b. 1491)
- 1534 - Elizabeth Barton, English nun (executed)
- 1558 - Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (b. 1485)
- 1643 - Christoph Demantius, German composer (b. 1567)
- 1703 - Lancelot Addison, English royal chaplain (b. 1632)
- 1765 - Abigail Williams, American accuser in the Salem witch trials (b. 1674)
- 1769 - Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawa
- 1831 - John Abernethy, English surgeon (b. 1764)
- 1873 - William Tite, English architect (b. 1798)
- 1899 - Joseph Wolf, German artist (b. 1820)
- 1912 - Bram Stoker, Irish author (b. 1847)
- 1918 - Karl Ferdinand Braun, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1850)
- 1932 - Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (b. 1858)
- 1947 - King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870)
- 1951 - Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1873)
- 1982 - Archibald MacLeish, American poet and Librarian of Congress (b. 1892)
- 1984 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer (b. 1943)
- 1991 - Steve Marriott, British musician and actor (b. 1945)
- 1991 - Don Siegel, American film director (b. 1912)
- 1992 - Benny Hill, British comedian (b. 1924)
- 1993 - Cantinflas, Mexican comedian and actor (b. 1911)
- 1996 - Christopher Robin Milne, son of A.A. Milne (b. 1920)
- 1999 - Victims of the Columbine High School massacre
- 1999 - Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
- 1999 - Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist and comedian (b. 1896)
- 2001 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1946)
- 2002 - Alan Dale, American singer (b. 1925)
- 2003 - Ruth Hale, American playwright and actress (b. 1908)
- 2003 - Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
- 2005 - Fumio Niwa, Japanese novelist (b. 1904)

Holidays and observances


- 2003, 2014 - Easter Sunday
- April 20 (4/20) is associated with 420 (drug culture)
- Astrology: First day of sun sign Taurus

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/20 BBC: On This Day] ---- April 19 - April 21 - March 20 - May 20 – listing of all days ko:4월 20일 ms:20 April ja:4月20日 simple:April 20 th:20 เมษายน

Danube

: For other uses of "Danube", see Danube (disambiguation). The Danube (Donau in German; Dunaj in Slovak; Duna in Hungarian; Dunav in Croatian; Дунав/Dunav in Serbian; Дунав in Bulgarian; Dunăre in Romanian; Дунай (Dunay) in Ukrainian; Danuvius in Latin) is Europe's second-longest river (after the Volga). It rises in the Black Forest in Germany as two smaller rivers – the Brigach and the Breg – which join at Donaueschingen, and it is from here that it is known as the Danube, flowing south-eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles) before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania. The Danube has been an important international waterway for centuries, as it remains today. Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through – or forms a part of the borders of – ten countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. The Danube flows through the following large cities:
- Ulm - Germany
- Ingolstadt - Germany
- Regensburg - Germany, capital of Upper Palatinate
- Passau - Germany
- Linz - Austria
- Vienna - capital of Austria, where the Danube floodplain is called the Lobau
- Bratislava - capital of Slovakia
- Budapest - capital of Hungary
- Novi Sad - capital of the Serbian province of Vojvodina
- Belgrade - capital of Serbia
- Ruse - Bulgaria
- Brăila - Romania
- Galaţi - Romania
- Tulcea - Romania

Tributaries

The Danube's tributary rivers reach into seven other countries. Some Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and river boats of shallow draught. Ordered from source to mouth, the main tributaries are: :Iller - Lech - Regen (entering at Regensburg) - Isar - Inn (entering at Passau) - Enns - Morava - Leitha - Váh (entering at Komárno) - Hron - Ipel - Sió - Drava - Tisza - Sava (entering at Belgrade) - Velika Morava - Caraş - Jiu - Iskar - Olt - Vedea - Argeş - Ialomiţa - Siret - Prut

Modern navigation

The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila, in Romania and by river ships to Kelheim; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm, in Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. See Danube-Black Sea Canal. Since the construction of the German Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in 1992, the river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea (3500 km). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of 3 bridges in Serbia and Montenegro. The clearance of the debris was finished in 2002. The temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was finally removed in 2005. At the Iron Gate, the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains two hydroelectric dams, Đerdap I and Đerdap II. The gorge lies between Romania in the north and Serbia in the south. The Danube-Black Sea Canal shortens the distance to the Black Sea by 400 km and another canal in Romania, the Danube-Bucharest Canal (60% finished) is supposed to link Danube to Bucharest. In Serbia and Montenegro there is Dunav-Tisa-Dunav channel as well. Tisa

The Danube delta

:Main article Danube Delta. The Danube Delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Its wetlands (on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance) support vast flocks of migratory birds, including the endangered Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus). Rival canalization and drainage scheme threaten the delta: see Bastroe Channel.

Geology

Although the headwaters of the Danube are relatively small today, geologically, the Danube is much older than the Rhine, with which its catchment area competes in today's southern Germany. This has a few interesting geological complications. Since the Rhine is the only river rising in the Alps mountains which flows north towards the North Sea, an invisible line divides large parts of southern Germany, which is sometimes referred to as the European Watershed. However, before the last ice age in the Pleistocene, the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called Urdonau (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb. After the Upper Rhine Valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is but a meek reflection of the ancient one. Since the Swabian Alb is largely shaped of porous limestone, and since the Rhine's level is much lower than the Danube's, today subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube to the Rhine. On many days in the summer, when the Danube carries little water, it completely oozes away noisily into these underground channels at two locations in the Swabian Alp, which are referred to as the Donauversickerung (Danube Sink). Most of this water resurfaces only 12 km south at the Aachtopf, Germany's wellspring with the highest flow, an average of 8,000 liters per second, north of Lake Constance - thus feeding the Rhine. The European Water Divide thus in fact only applies for those waters that pass beyond this point, and only during the days of the year when the Danube carries enough water to survive the sink holes in the Donauversickerung. Since this enormous amount of underground water erodes much of its surrounding limestone, it is estimated that the Danube upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, an event called stream capturing. stream capturing in Bavaria.]]

Human history

The Danube basin contains sites of the earliest human cultures: the Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery Cultures of the mid-Danube basin (see also Linear Ceramic culture) The Vucedol culture of the third millennium BC is famous for their ceramics. Later, many sites of the Vinca culture are sited along the Danube.

Cultural significance

Vinca culture, the Danube separates Hungary from Slovakia.]] The Danube is mentioned in the title of a famous waltz by Austrian composer Johann Strauss, An der schönen, blauen Donau (By the Beautiful Blue Danube). Another famous waltz about the Danube is The Waves of the Danube (Romanian: Valurile Dunării) by the Romanian composer Ion Ivanovici (1845-1902), and the work took the audience by storm when performed at the 1889 Paris Exposition. The German tradition of landscape painting, the Danube school, was developed in the Danube valley in the 16th century. The most famous book describing the Danube ought to be Claudio Magris's masterpiece Danube (ISBN 1860468233).

Economics of the Danube

Drinking Water

Along its path, the Danube is a source of drinking water for about ten million people. In Baden-Württemberg, Germany, almost thirty percent (As of 2004) of the water for the area between Stuttgart, Bad Mergentheim, Aalen and the Alb-Donau-Kreis comes from purified water of the Danube. Other cities like Ulm and Passau also use some water from the Danube. In Austria and Hungary, most water comes from ground and spring sources, and only in rare cases is water from the Danube used. Most states find also to difficult to clean the water because of extensive pollution; only parts of Romania where the water is cleaner still use a lot of drinking water from the Danube.

Navigation and transport

As "Corridor VII" of the European Union, the Danube is an important transport route. Since the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, the river connects the Black Sea with the industrial centres of Western Europe and with the Port of Rotterdam. The waterway is designed for large scale inland vessels (110 by 11,45 meters) but it can carry much larger vessels on most of it's course. The Danube has been partly canalized in Germany (5 locks) and Austria (10 Locks). Further plans to build a number of new locks in order to improve navigation have been blocked by environmentalists, in spite of the general consensus about the positive effects of inland waterway transport in comparison with road and rail. Downstream from the Freudenau Locks in Vienna, canalization of the Danube was limited to the Gabcikovo dam and locks near Bratislawa and the two double Iron Gate locks in the border stretch of the Danube between Serbia and Rumania. These locks have larger dimensions (similar to the locks in the Russian Volga river, some 300 by over 30 meters). Downstream of the Iron Gate, the river is free flowing all the way to the Black Sea, a distance of more than 860 kilometers. The Danube connects with the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal at Kelheim, and with the Wiener Donaukanal in Vienna. Apart from a couple of secundary navigable branches, the only major navigable rivers linked to the Danube are the Drava, Sava and Tisza. In Serbia, a canal network also connects to the river; the network, known as the Duna-Tisza-Duna canals, links sections downstream and upstream of the Tisza mouth with this tributary of the Danube. (Source: [http://www.noordersoft.com/indexen.html NoorderSoft Waterways Database)]

Fishing

The importance of fishing on the Danube, which used to be critical in the Middle Ages, has declined dramatically. Some fishermen are still active at certain points on the river, and the Danube Delta still has an important industry.

Tourism

There are many important tourist and natural spots along the Danube, including the Wachau valley, the Nationalpark Donau-Auen in Austria, the Naturpark Obere Donau in Germany, Iron Gates (Danube Gorge) and Danube Delta in Romania.

Notes

¹ Length from the source of the Breg. ² Source of the Breg.

External links


- [http://www.showcaves.com/english/de/karst/Donauversickerung.html Danube Sink]
- [http://www.showcaves.com/english/de/springs/Aach.html Aachtopf spring]
- [http://www.deltadunarii.ro The Danube Delta]
- Danube Basin [http://www.panda.org/graphics/fw-rivers/maps/DANUBE%20MAP.gif Map (GIF - 257 KB)], [http://pdf.wri.org/watersheds_2000/watersheds_europe_p2_38.pdf Map+info, PDF]
- [http://www.danubecooperation.org Danube Portal]
- [http://www.theister.com 'The Ister': A 2840km documentary film journey up the Danube]
- [http://www.danube-river.org The Danube / Danube Tourist Commission | A River's lure]
- [http://dbridges.fw.hu DANUBE-BRIDGES | Hungarian] [http://orsova.xhost.ro/ Historical images of Orsova and Danube river] Category:Rivers of Slovakia Category:Rivers of Hungary Category:Rivers of Croatia Category:Rivers of Serbia and Montenegro Category:Rivers of Bulgaria Category:Rivers of Romania Category:Geography of Serbia Category:Geography of Vojvodina Category:Bačka Category:Banat Category:Srem/Srijem Category:Rivers of Germany Category:Rivers of Austria als:Donau ko:다뉴브 강 ja:ドナウ川

NIS

NIS is an acronym for:
- National Intelligence Service (Albania), Albania's new state security agency
- Naval Investigative Service, predecessor of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
- National Intelligence Service (South Korea), South Korea's state security agency
- Network Information Service
- New Israeli sheqel
- Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union
- Norton Internet Security
- Nippon Ichi Software ja:NIS

July 3

July 3 is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 181 days remaining.

Events


- 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium
- 533 - Battle of Ad Decimum: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals near Carthage.
- 987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792.
- 1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
- 1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain.
- 1754 - George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces during the French and Indian War.
- 1775 - George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- 1778 - British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in Wyoming, Pa, and Prussia declares war on Austria.
- 1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens.
- 1839 - The first state normal school in the United States opens in Lexington, Massachusetts with 3 students.
- 1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
- 1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).
- 1852 - Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco, California.
- 1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final and bloodiest day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
- 1866 - Austro-Prussian War decided at Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
- 1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average.
- 1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.
- 1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
- 1928 - First color television broadcast in London.
- 1932 - First Sunday game at Fenway Park, the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 13-2, and John McGraw retires from baseball.
- 1938 - World record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the "Mallard", which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).
- 1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States.
- 1962 - The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends
- 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits segregation in public places.
- 1969 - Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones drowns in his swimming pool. The band plays a concert at Hyde Park, London two days later in his honor.
- 1970 - A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 people.
- 1971 - Singer Jim Morrison of The Doors is found dead of a heart attack in his bathtub.
- 1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan.
- 1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded.
- 1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
- 1988 - United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
- 1993 - Prince Alois of Liechtenstein weds Duchess Sophie of Bavaria.
- 1993 - Steffi Graf wins Wimbledon.
- 1994 - Pete Sampras beats Goran Ivanisevic to win Wimbledon;
- 1994 - Romania eliminates Argentina 3-2 in the World Cup.
- 2001 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.
- 2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.
- 2005 - Part of Australia's Twelve Apostles rock formation collapses. The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.

Births


- 1423 - King Louis XI of France (d. 1483)
- 1442 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500)
- 1511 - Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and architect (d. 1574)
- 1530 - Claude Fauchet, French historian (d. 1601)
- 1567 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (d. 1635)
- 1676 - Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal (d. 1747)
- 1683 - Edward Young, English poet (d. 1765)
- 1685 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (d. 1768)
- 1728 - Robert Adam, Scottish architect (d. 1792)
- 1731 - Samuel Huntington, Continental Congress president and signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (d. 1796
- 1738 - John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815)
- 1793 - John Clare, British poet (d. 1864)
- 1854 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (d. 1928)
- 1870 - Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947)
- 1875 - Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon (d. 1951)
- 1879 - Alfred Korzybski, Polish linguist
- 1883 - Franz Kafka, Austrian writer (d. 1924)
- 1893 - Mississippi John Hurt, American musician (d. 1966)
- 1906 - George Sanders, Russian-born actor (d. 1972)
- 1908 - M. F. K. Fisher, American writer (d. 1992)
- 1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen, American columnist and television personality (d. 1965)
- 1921 - Susan Peters, American actress
- 1927 - Ken Russell, British director
- 1930 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 2004)
- 1935 - Harrison Schmitt, astronaut
- 1937 - Tom Stoppard, Czech-born playwright
- 1940 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 1994)
- 1946 - Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland
- 1947 - Dave Barry, American writer
- 1947 - Betty Buckley, American actress
- 1949 - Jan Smithers, American actress
- 1950 - James Hahn, American politician
- 1951 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
- 1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician
- 1955 - Sanma Akashiya, Japanese television performer and actor
- 1957 - Laura Branigan, American singer (d. 2004)
- 1959 - Julie Burchill, British journalist and author
- 1960 - Tim Smith, English singer (Cardiacs)
- 1962 - Tom Cruise, American actor
- 1964 - Joanne Harris, British author
- 1964 - Yeardley Smith, American actress
- 1966 - Moises Alou, baseball player
- 1969 - Kevin Hearn, Canadian keyboardist (Barenaked Ladies)
- 1970 - Teemu Selänne, Finnish hockey player
- 1970 - Shawnee Smith, American actress
- 1973 - Johnny Terris, Canadian-born actor and director
- 1976 - Andrea Barber, American actress
- 1980 - Roland Mark Schoeman, South African swimmer

Deaths


- 683 - St. Leo II, pope
- 1570 - Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist
- 1642 - Maria de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1573)
- 1672 - Francis Willughby, English biologist (b. 1635)
- 1704 - Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (b. 1657)
- 1749 - William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b. 1675)
- 1795 - Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (b. 1714)
- 1795 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and governor of Louisiana (b. 1716)
- 1863 - George Hull Ward, American general (b. 1826)
- 1904 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian Zionist (b. 1860)
- 1914 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (b. 1836)
- 1918 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844)
- 1933 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (b. 1852)
- 1935 - André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (b. 1878)
- 1969 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (drowned) (b. 1942)
- 1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943)
- 1977 - Alexander M. Volkov, Russian novelist and mathematician (b. 1891)
- 1979 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)
- 1986 - Rudy Vallee, American singer (b. 1901)
- 1989 - Jim Backus, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1993 - Joe DeRita, American actor and comedian (b. 1909)
- 1995 - Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (b. 1928)
- 1998 - Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (b. 1949)
- 2000 - Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor (b. 1944)
- 2001 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (b. 1931)
- 2003 - Gaetano Alibrandi, papal diplomat (b. 1914)
- 2004 - Andrian Nikolayev, cosmonaut (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Alberto Lattuada, Italian film director (b. 1914)
- 2005 - Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b. 1916)

Holidays and observances


- Start of the Dog Days
- Feast day of Saint Thomas

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 2 - July 4 - June 3 - August 3 -- listing of all days ko:7월 3일 ms:3 Julai ja:7月3日 simple:July 3 th:3 กรกฎาคม

Bela Palanka

Remesiana was an ancient city in what is now Serbia. Its modern name is Bela Palanka. Karl Patsch's opinion that the Assembly of the province Moesia Superior sat at Remesiana, based upon the fact that some inscriptions were discovered, inaugurated between 202 and 209 by Ulpiana in honour of Septimius Severus and Julia Augusta (CIL III 1685, 1686 and 1688 = 8257), is not correct. One can see in a recently discovered inscription of identical contents (Vulich, Ancient Monuments of our country, Spomenik XCVIII, 1941 - 1948, 3, No. 4) that these inscriptions were inaugurated in 202. However, that year Septimius Severus returned from the east to Rome and probably passed through Remesiana and on that occasion the inscriptions were inaugurated.

Sofia

: This is a page about the capital of Bulgaria. For other uses, see Sophia. The city of Sofia (Bulgarian: София), at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, has a population of 1,208,930 (2003), and is the biggest city and capital of the Republic of Bulgaria. It is located in the Western part of Bulgaria at the foot of the mountain massif Vitosha and it is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. Vitosha

History

On a site inhabited as early as the 8th century B.C., Sofia is the second oldest capital city in Europe. It has been given several names in the course of history, and the remnants of the old cities can still be seen today. Sofia was originally a Thracian settlement named Serdica, named after the Thracian tribe of Serdi. It was captured by Rome in AD 29. When Diocletian divided the province of Dacia into Dacia Ripensis on the shores of the Danube and Dacia Mediterranea, Serdica became the capital of Dacia Mediterranea. It was destroyed by the Huns in 447. The city was rebuilt by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and renamed Triaditsa. Sofia was first captured by the Bulgarians in 809. Afterwards it was known as Sredets, the name given to it by the Slavs. It was renamed Sofia (meaning "wisdom" in Greek) in 1376. Sofia was taken by the Ottomans in 1382 and became the capital of the Turkish province of Rumelia. Sofia was liberated by the Russians in 1878, and became the capital of the independent Bulgaria in 1879. During World War II the Russians occupied Sofia and Bulgaria after the pro-German government was overthrown. There are 16 universities in the city, among them [http://www.uni-sofia.bg Sofia University], founded in 1889. It is the see of an Eastern Orthodox metropolitan and of a Roman Catholic diocese.

Landmarks

diocese diocese The most interesting sights of Sofia are:
- The late Roman St. George's Church (4th century), hidden in the courtyard of the Sheraton Hotel.
- The outdoor bookmarket on Slaveikov Square.
- The early Byzantine St. Sofia Church, erected in the 6th century.
- The gold-domed Alexander Nevski Cathedral, built in the early 19th century in memory of the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died in the Russo-Turkish War which led in 1878 to the emancipation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule.
- The yellow brick streets in the heart of the center.
- The tiny Church of Saint Petka Samardzhiiska, from the 14th century, at Pl. Sveta Nedelya. It contains some fine frescoes.
- The Banya Bashi Mosque, built in the 16th century.
- The National Museum of History, noteworthy for its Thracian treasures.
- The National Palace of Culture Congress Center - the largest multifunctional complex in Southeastern Europe, inaugurated in 1981 and situated in a lush green park surroundings.
- The Ivan Vazov National Theater.
- The many brand name stores on Vitoshka (Vitosha Street), the main Sofia thoroughfare. Europe Europe Europe Europe Europe

Economy

Europe Sofia is the major centre of Bulgaria's economic life. The manufacturing sector of the economy, represented by over 800 large manufacturing plants, includes metal products (75% of the total output in the country), textiles, rubber and leather goods, printing (50% of output) and electronics (15% of output). Sofia is also the country's financial hub, home to the Bulgarian National Bank, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, as well as some of the country's largest commercial banks (such as Bulbank, [http://www.dskbank.bg/en/en_index.htm DSK Bank] and the [http://www.ubb.bg/index-en.htm United Bulgarian Bank]). Construction, trade and transport are other important sectors of the local economy. Increasingly Sofia is attracting attention as an outsourcing location for Western European and American multinationals.

Administration

Sofia is one of 28 counties in Bulgaria. Besides the city of Sofia, the capital county encompasses three other cities and 34 villages. It is split into 24 municipalities. Each municipality has a head person who is elected by the municipal assembly. The head of the county is its mayor (кмет). The assembly members are chosen every four years. Stefan Sofiyanski is serving his third term as of 2005. He was first elected in 1995. Municipal elections are pending in October 2005 in Sofia, as mayor Sofianski was elected Member of Parliament in the June 2005 national elections. With Decision 412, Record 50/30.06.2005 the Sofia Municipal Council assigned Mr. Minko Gerdjikov to implement the functions of a Mayor of Sofia Municipality.

Transport

1995 With its well-developed infrastructure and strategic location, Sofia is an important centre for international railway and automobile routes. All major types of transport (except water transport) are represented in the city, which is home to 8 railway stations, the Centre for Flight Control and the Sofia Airport (hub for flag-carrier Bulgaria Air). Three Trans-European Transport Corridors cross the city: 4, 8 and 10. Public transit is well-developed, reliable and important to the city's economy; it is provided by means of underground trains (the Sofia Metro), buses, trams and trolley-buses. There are over 15,000 licensed taxi cabs operating in the city. With the extensive growth of private automobile ownership in the 1990s the number of cars registered in Sofia has exceeded 500,000 in the past five years. Consequently the traffic problems of the city have become more severe. Subway expansion plans are set to alleviate the situation when the first line of the Metro is completed in 2008. 2008

Night life

A vibrant city with rich and colorful night life, Sofia is known for a great number of dance clubs such as Escape, Maria Luisa, Back Stage, Alkohol, and Mojito. As well as live music clubs, cozy restaurants (Don Domat and Ugo), chic cafes and hype bars. Notable Sofia music clubs are O'Shipka (rock, metal, hard-core), Tri-Ushi (punk, ska, reggae) and Babbles (house and electronic music). The most vibrant bars include Barabar and Kufera both of which represent a broad cross section of Sofia's most interesting night-life. Many Erasmus students, EU volunteers can be found at "The A-Partment" sort-of-private club. The place to eat between clubs is Mimas - a doner kebap located at the intersection of Levski, Graf Ignatiev and Patriarch Evtimii streets. Some of the nicest pubs are Divaka, Pod Bora, Stariat Voin, and Bohemi. During the summer, the place to go is Lodkite - an open-air bar in the city park. There is also a weekly drum circle in an abandoned summer stage in the same park, similar to Barcelona's Parque de la Ciutadella and Madrid's Retiro. 2008

Key figures

Housing
- Number of units - 475,900
- Utilised area - 30 km²
- Living area per person - 15.1 m²
- Centrally-heated housing units - 437,000
- Length of the water supply network - 2,657 km
- Length of the drainage network - 822 km
- Length of the electricity network - 7,823 km
- Telephone land lines - 408,000 Street network
- Length - 2,670 km
- Area 28.126 km²
- vehicles - 750,000 Green zones
- Total number - 2,810
- Area – 54.41 km²
- Green zones per person - 48.7 m²

Institutions of higher education


- [http://www.bas.bg/ Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]
- [http://www.uni-sofia.bg/ Sofia University St. Clement of Ohrid (Kliment Ohridski)]
- [http://www.unwe.acad.bg/ University for National and World Economics]
- [http://www.uacg.acad.bg/ University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy]
- [http://www.tu-sofia.bg/ Sofia Technical University]
- [http://www.uctm.edu/ University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy]
- [http://www.mgu.bg/ St. John of Rila (Ivan Rilski) University of Mining and Technology]
- [http://www.betibg.org/ Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute]
- [http://www.ltu.bg/ University of Forestry]
- [http://www.medun.acad.bg/ Sofia Medical University]
- [http://www.nsa.bg/ Vassil Levski National Sports Academy]
- [http://natfiz.bitex.com/ Krastio Sarafov National Academy for the Theatre and Film Arts]
- [http://www.art.acad.bg/art/index-b.html National Academy for the Fine Arts]
- [http://www.art.acad.bg/music/index-b.html Prof. Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music]
- [http://www.nbu.bg/ New Bulgarian University]
- [http://www.vsu.bg/ Luben Karavelov Higher School for Civil Engineering]
- [http://www.vtu.bg/ Todor Kableshkov Higher School for Transportation]
- [http://www.vipond.mvr.bg/ Police Academy]
- [http://rakovski-defcol.mod.bg/ G.S. Rakovsky Military Academy]

External links


- [http://www.sofia.bg/en/index_en.asp City of Sofia]
- [http://www.sofiacouncil.bg/ Sofia City Council]
- [http://www.sofia.com Sofia.com]
- [http://www.picturesofbulgaria.com/article/sofia.html Article about Sofia]
- [http://www.sofia-life.com Sofia Life Travel Guide]
- [http://www.picturesofbulgaria.com/photo_gallery/sofia.html Sofia Photo Gallery]
- [http://www.pbase.com/ngruev/sofiacity Pictures from Sofia]
- [http://www.programata.bg Cultural Guide]
- [http://www.easybulgarian.com/tourism/sofia.html Brief Information on Sofia]
- [http://sabin.ro/gallery/sofia Sofia Photo Gallery] See also: List of cities in Bulgaria Category:Capitals in Europe Category:Cities in Bulgaria Category:Provinces of Bulgaria Sofia Category:Sofia ko:소피아 ja:ソフィア (都市)

August 1

August 1 is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining.

Events


- 527 - Justinian I becomes Byzantine Emperor.
- 607 - Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607).
- 1291 - The Swiss Confederation is formed.
- 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella drive the Jews out of Spain.
- 1461 - Edward IV is crowned king of England.
- 1498 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit Venezuela.
- 1619 - First African slaves arrive in Jamestown, Virginia.
- 1664 - The Ottoman Empire is defeated in the Battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
- 1774 - The element oxygen is discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.
- 1776 - Formal signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
- 1798 - Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
- 1820 - London's Regent's Canal opens.
- 1831 - London Bridge opens.
- 1832 - The Black Hawk War ends.
- 1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
- 1838 - Slaves in Trinidad and Tobago are emancipated.
- 1864 - The Elgin Watch Company is founded in Elgin, Illinois
- 1876 - Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
- 1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
- 1902 - The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from France.
- 1907 - First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.
- 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
- 1927 - The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
- 1936 - The Berlin Olympic Games open.
- 1937 - Tito reads the resolution "Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH" to the constitutive congress of KPH (Croatian Communist Party) in woods near Samobor.
- 1941 - The first Jeep is produced.
- 1944 - Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
- 1944 - Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
- 1945 - Mel Ott becomes the third member of the 500 home run club with a home run at the Polo Grounds in New York, New York.
- 1946 - The Japanese Federation of Trade Unions is formed.
- 1948 - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
- 1957 - The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
- 1960 - Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France
  - Communist PAI is banned in Senegal.
- 1961 - Six Flags Over Texas, the first Six Flags park, opens.
- 1965 - Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.
- 1966 - Charles Whitman kills 15 people shooting from a tower at the University of Texas in Austin before being killed by the police.
- 1966 - Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
- 1967 - Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
- 1970 - Powder Ridge Rock Festival
- 1971 - George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in New York City features, among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.
- 1975 - CSCE Final Act creates the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
- 1977 - Frank H.T. Rhodes is elected President of Cornell University, a post he would hold for 18 years.
- 1981 - First broadcasts by MTV. The first video played was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles.
- 1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirm rumors that they had married eleven weeks earlier.
- 1996 - Olympic Games: Michael Johnson wins the 200-meter dash in 19.32 seconds, beating the old world record by over 0.3 seconds.
- 2001 - An agreement is reached on the position of the minority Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia.
- 2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
- 2001 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2-1/2 ton Ten Commandments monument installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.
- 2004 - A supermarket fire kills 215 people and injures 300 in Asunción, Paraguay.
- 2005 - German spelling reform of 1996 is formally implemented
- 2005 - Disneyland Resort Line of the Hong Kong MTR opens to public.

Births


- 10 BC - Claudius, Roman Emperor (d. AD 54)
- 126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)
- 1313 - Emperor Kogon of Japan (d. 1364)
- 1377 - Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan (d. 1433)
- 1545 - Andrew Melville, Scottish theologian and religious reformer (b. 1622)
- 1555 - Edward Kelley, English spirit medium (d. 1597)
- 1579 - Luís Vélez de Guevara, Spanish writer (d. 1644)
- 1630 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (d. 1673)
- 1713 - Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1780)
- 1714 - Richard Wilson, Welsh painter (d. 1782)
- 1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French scientist (d. 1829)
- 1770 - William Clark, American explorer (d. 1838)
- 1779 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and lyricist (d. 1843)
- 1779 - Lorenz Oken, German naturalist (d. 1851)
- 1815 - Richard Henry Dana, Jr., American lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)
- 1818 - Maria Mitchell, American astronomer (d. 1889)
- 1819 - Herman Melville, American writer (d. 1891)
- 1858 - Hans Rott, Austrian composer (d. 1884)
- 1885 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
- 1891 - Karl Kobelt, Swiss politician (d. 1968)
- 1921 - Jack Kramer, American tennis player
- 1922 - Pat McDonald, Australian actress (d. 1990)
- 1924 - Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1925 - Ernst Jandl, Austrian writer (d. 2000)
- 1927 - Raymond Leppard, English conductor
- 1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)
- 1931 - Tom Wilson, American cartoonist
- 1932 - Meir Kahane, American orthodox rabbi and founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
- 1933 - Dom DeLuise, American actor and comedian
- 1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer
- 1937 - Al D'Amato, U.S. Senator from New York
- 1942 - Jerry Garcia, American guitarist, lyricist, and singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)
- 1945 - Douglas D. Osheroff, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1946 - Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist
- 1949 - Kurmanbek Bakiyev, President of Kyrgyzstan
- 1950 - Jim Carroll, American poet and actor
- 1952 - Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2003)
- 1953 - Robert Cray, American singer
- 1955 - Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer
- 1956 - Tom Leykis, American radio personality
- 1959 - Joe Elliott, English musician (Def Leppard)
- 1960 - Chuck D, American rapper (Public Enemy)
- 1960 - Richard Roeper, American newspaper columnist and film critic
- 1962 - Robert Clift, British field hockey player
- 1963 - Coolio, American rapper
- 1965 - Sam Mendes, British stage and film director
- 1970 - David James, English footballer
- 1973 - Tempestt Bledsoe, American actress
- 1978 - Edgerrin James, American football player

Deaths


- 371 - St Eusebius of Vercelli, Italian bishop
- 1137 - King Louis VI of France (b. 1081)
- 1227 - Shimazu Tadahisa, Japanese warlord (b. 1179)
- 1402 - Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, son of Edward III of England (b. 1341)
- 1457 - Lorenzo Valla, Italian humanist
- 1464 - Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1386)
- 1541 - Simon Grynaeus, German theologian (b. 1493)
- 1546 - Peter Faber, French Jesuit theologian (b. 1506)
- 1557 - Olaus Magnus, Swedish writer (b. 1490)
- 1580 - Albrecht Giese IV, German politician and diplomat (b. 1524)
- 1589 - Jacques Clément, French assassin of Henry III of France (b. 1567)
- 1598 - Abraham Ortelius, Belgian cartographer (b. 1527)
- 1714 - Queen Anne of Great Britain (b. 1665)
- 1787 - Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the Redemptionist order (b. 1696)
- 1796 - Robert Pigot, British army officer (b. 1720)
- 1798 - François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, French admiral (killed in battle) (b. 1853)
- 1851 - William Joseph Behr, German writer (b. 1775)
- 1917 - Frank Little, American labor organizer (lynched) (b. 1879)
- 1918 - John Riley Banister, American cowboy and Texas Ranger (b. 1854)
- 1920 - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian nationalist leader (b. 1856)
- 1964 - Johnny Burnette, American singer (b. 1934)
- 1967 - Richard Kuhn, Austrian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- 1970 - Frances Farmer, American actress (b. 1913)
- 1970 - Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- 1973 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer (b. 1882)
- 1977 - Gary Powers, American spy plane pilot (b. 1929)
- 1981 - Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (b. 1923)
- 1989 - John Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)
- 1990 - Norbert Elias, German sociologist (b. 1897)
- 1990 - Graham Young, British serial killer (b. 1947)
- 1996 - Frida Boccara, French singer (b. 1940)
- 1996 - Tadeus Reichstein, Polish chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1897)
- 1999 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Indian-born writer (b. 1897)
- 2001 - Korey Stringer, American football player (b. 1974)
- 2003 - Guy Thys, Belgian football coach (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (b. 1962)
- 2004 - Philip Hauge Abelson American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- 2005 - Al Aronowitz, American music journalist (b. 1928)
- 2005 - King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Constant Nieuwenhuys, Dutch painter (b. 1920)
- 2005 - Wibo, Dutch cartoonist (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances


- Orthodox Christianity - Procession of the Cross
- Angola - Armed Forces Day
- Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago - Emancipation Day
- Benin - National Day
- People's Republic of China - Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Liberation Army
- Democratic Republic of Congo - Parent's Day
- Nicaragua - Fiesta Day
- Rastafari movement - Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from slavery
- Switzerland - National Day
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Kamál (Perfection) - First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Lughnasadh - Lá Lúnasa, the traditional first day of Autumn in Ireland.
- Lammas - Neopagan festival of Lammas
- Lebanon - Army's Day (Eid al-Jaysh)
- Yorkshire, United Kingdom - Yorkshire Day
- Civic Holiday in Canada (2005, the first Monday of August)
- Citizenship Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/1 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050801.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 -- listing of all days als:1. August ko:8월 1일 ms:1 Ogos ja:8月1日 simple:August 1 th:1 สิงหาคม

Multiphonic

Unter Multiphonic versteht man in der Musik Techniken, durch bestimmte Griff- oder Blastechniken, bzw. das Einbringen von Gegenständen in Tasteninstrumente mehr als einen Ton gleichzeitig zu erzeugen. Siehe auch: Obertongesang, Untertongesang, Präpariertes Klavier, John Cage, Albert Mangelsdorff Kategorie:Musikglossar Kategorie:Musikinstrument

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