Early life.

Marques Barrett Houston was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, to Michael and Carolyn Houston. He is also the older cousin of B2K's J-Boog. Houston began acting at an early age.

Music career.

Music beginnings.

In 1992, Houston became a founding member of the R&B group Immature (also known as IMx). The members of the group includes Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos (later replaced by Kelton "LDB" Kessee), along with Chris Stokes, who is their manager. During this period, Houston went by the nickname "Batman.” In 1999, the group underwent a name change, however, it continued on to release two albums under the name IMx such as "Introducing IMx" (1999) and "IMx" (2001). The group also branched out into acting and appeared such shows as "A Different World", "Sister, Sister (TV series)". Later they recorded songs from soundtracks to the films "House Party 3" and "", before disbanding in 2002.

2003–2005: "MH" and "Naked".

In 2003, Houston began pursuing a solo career. Using his birth name, Marques Houston, he released his debut album, "MH", on October 21, 2003. The album featured the singles "That Girl", "Clubbin'" (featuring Joe Budden and R. Kelly), "Pop That Booty" (featuring Jermaine Dupri) and "Because of You". In the United States charts, "MH" peaked at number 20 on the "Billboard" 200 and at number 5 on "Billboard"s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. On May 24, 2005, Houston released his second solo album, "Naked". The album featured the singles "All Because of You" (featuring Young Rome), "Naked" and "Sex Wit You". In the United States, "Naked" peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard" and peaked at number 5 on "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

2006–2007: "Veteran".

Houston released his third solo album, "Veteran", on March 20, 2007. The album featured the singles "Like This" (featuring Yung Joc), "Favorite Girl", "Circle" and "Wonderful". In the United States, "Veteran" debuted (and peaked) at number 5 on the "Billboard" 200 and debuted at number 1 on "Billboard"s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, marking this release as Houston's first number-one solo album.

2009–2010: "Mr. Houston", "Mattress Music" and IMx reunion.

Houston released his fourth solo album, "Mr. Houston" on September 29, 2009. It featured the singles, "I Love Her" and "Sunset". Videos for the album tracks "Body" and "Date" were released online in 2008. "How I Do" and "Case of You" received video premieres in 2009, followed by a video for "Tonight" in 2010. On September 14, 2010, Houston released his fifth studio album, "Mattress Music", which contained the singles "Kickin' & Screamin'" and "Pullin' On Her Hair". A video for a third, "Ghetto Angel" premiered in 2011. Houston announced on "106 & Park" that IMx planned to record another group album together for 2011.

2012–2013: "Famous".

In October 2012, Marques Houston announced a new studio album, "Famous" slated for release August 27, and released "Speechless" as a promotional preview via free digital download. The first single off the album was "Give Your Love a Try" featuring Problem made available on iTunes.

2014–present: "White Party" and soundtracks.

Following the release of his previous album, Houston reunited with IMx and did some touring in addition to releasing a new single "Let Me Find Out" in late 2014.  The next year, he released a new solo single "Need You" from the soundtrack of his film "Will to Love".  In 2016, Houston released a new single "Complete Me" to digital/streaming outlets. He premiered the music video for the song in September. It was slated to be the first single off his new album "White Party" set for release later that year.  In 2017, he recorded a trio of new songs for the film "'Til Death Do Us Part" for which he wrote the screenplay for. His song "Together" was released as a single from the soundtrack.

Acting career.

Houston made his acting debut in the animated comedy film "Bébé's Kids" (1992) in which he was the voice of Khalil, the leader and oldest child of the titular "Bébé's Kids". Houston later appeared in "House Party 3" (1994), where he played a fictional version of himself along with fellow Immature bandmates Jerome "Romeo" Jones and Don "Half Pint" Santos. In the film, they portrayed Kid's trouble-making younger cousins who aspire to become musicians. Houston's breakthrough role came when he won the part of Roger Evans in the television comedy show "Sister, Sister", playing the next-door neighbor of identical twin sisters Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell (Tia and Tamera Mowry). Marques played the role for five of the show's six seasons. The show wrote his character out of the script during the fifth season, but he made a guest appearance in the series finale. In 1997, he had a brief cameo in the movie "Good Burger", a spin-off from a sketch on the Nickelodeon show "All That" starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. He played Jake, Kenan's friend. Houston and his IMx (formerly Immature) band members made an appearance in Destiny's Child music video for the single "No, No, No Part 1" off their 1998 "self-titled debut album". In 2000, shortly after Houston's run on "Sister, Sister" ended, Marques had a brief cameo in Destiny's Child's video rendition of "The Writing's on the Wall" single "Jumpin', Jumpin'" directed by Joseph Kahn.  He also played the character Elgin Barrett Eugene Smith III in the 2004 film "You Got Served". Following "You Got Served", in both live-action and voice-over, he portrayed Dumb Donald in the film adaptation of "Fat Albert", based on Bill Cosby's popular cartoon series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids". From 2005 to 2006, Houston starred in his own television series, "Cuts" as Kevin Barnes, which was a spin-off of "One on One". Despite good ratings, the show only lasted two seasons due to UPN merging with The WB to become The CW which caused "Cuts" along with many other UPN shows to get cancelled. In 2007 Houston starred in the horror film "Somebody Help Me". He then starred in the sequel, "Somebody Help Me 2" in 2010. In 2012 Houston starred in a kids hip hop dance battle film, "Battlefield America". He portrayed Sean Lewis, an ad executive who serves as a dance teacher after receiving a sentence of community service; however, he does not dance in the film. He Also Stars In A Weekend With The Family with Karrueche Tran. In 2015, Houston reunited with "Sister, Sister" co-star Tamera Mowry on the daytime talk show "The Real" (also with Tia Mowry in 2017) for two episodes.

Film producing career.

Houston began his journey into the behind the scenes world of film-making in 2010 partnering with longtime music manager Chris Stokes, who directed most of the films he wrote and produced. As of recently Marques is currently the CEO of a film production company in California, Footage Films; along with fellow IMx band-mate Young Rome (Jerome Jones) as President and relative Jarell Houston, (J-Boog of B2K) as Vice President. Chris Stokes is the chairman of the board and directs majority of the productions. Marques serves as an Executive Producer and Writer. Majority of the films are mostly made-for-TV features. Following in the paths of filmmakers John Waters, John Singleton and Spike Lee casting tradition, Houston and Stokes often cast some of their actors more than once in different films portraying different roles. His first full writing and executive producer credit was the 2015 film ""Will To Love"", starring Keisha Knight Pulliam, Draya Michele, and himself respectively. And currently is producing a thriller "Running Out of Time", starring Tasha Smith, RonReaco Lee, Telma Hopkins that aired in December 2018 on BET. Since the start of this new career, he has written and produced over 10 films so far, including one he has co-written with Stokes that was released to theaters in 2017, "'Til Death Do Us Part" starring Taye Diggs, Stephen Bishop, Annie Ilonzeh and Malik Yoba.

Personal life.

Houston's mother died from lymphoma in 1997. Houston became a Jehovah's Witness in 2016.

Relationships.

Houston previously dated singer Jamila "Mila J" Chilombo and "My Wife and Kids" actress Jennifer Freeman, with whom he had starred in the 2004 film "You Got Served". Rumors surfaced in 2007 that Freeman and Houston had got engaged, but they broke up a few years later.  He was in a relationship with Marlena Campbell since 2008. Houston confirmed their relationship publicly in March 2010 on celebrating their second anniversary on his Twitter page. However, they quietly broke up in June 2015. Since 2019, Houston is currently engaged to 19 year old fiancé Miyana.

Discography.

Studio albums

Marques Barrett Houston (born August 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. A member of the R&B group Immature/IMx from 1990 until 2001, and went solo in 2003. As an actor, he is best known for his role as Roger Evans in the television comedy "Sister, Sister".

Marques Barrett Houston (* 4. August 1981 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien) ist ein US-amerikanischer R&B-Sänger und Schauspieler. Bekannt wurde er durch die R&B-Band Immature, die sich später in IMx umbenannte.


Early life.

Hunt was born at 8 Old Belton Street, now 7 Endell Street, near Covent Garden on 23 March 1790. His father, John Hunt, was a tin-plate worker, making and selling small containers, such as canisters and boxes, which he also decorated. Hunt's uncle, a butcher, is recorded as having said of the artist, "He was always a poor cripple, and as he was fit for nothing, they made an artist of him." This is at least partially true, as Hunt had deformed legs that hampered his movement and may well have contributed to his eventual abandonment of landscape work in favor of still life and figures.  In 1806 Hunt persuaded his father to allow him to train as an artist, becoming apprenticed for a term of seven years to John Varley, the watercolorist, drawing master, astrologer, and a close friend of William Blake. Apparently Hunt made good progress under Varley's tutelage, as he exhibited three oil paintings at the Royal Academy in 1807 and continued to exhibit there for several years following. In 1808 he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy Schools.  Through Varley, Hunt was introduced into the circle of the collector, amateur, and patron of artists Dr. Thomas Monro, Principal Physician of Bethlem Hospital, whose informal drawing academy attracted many gifted young artists. Artists met at the doctor's home in Adelphi Terrace on winter evenings and also at his country home at Bushey, Hertfordshire The doctor often invited Hunt to Bushey for extended periods, to paint from nature under the doctor's instruction. According to Martin Hardie, "Some of [Hunt's] most charming outdoor drawings were made round about Bushey, 'where he was trundled on a sort of barrow with a hood over it...while he made sketches'.". Dr. Munro's patronage proved critical to Hunt's progress as an artist.

Society of Painters in Water Colours.

By 1822 Hunt was living independently of his family. From 1822 to 1825 he again exhibited at the Royal Academy, after which he ceased entirely. This may be because on 9 April 1824 he was elected an associate member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, becoming a full member two years later, in June 1826. From his earliest contributions until 1864, the year he died, Hunt was a prolific exhibitor at the society's annual exhibitions, contributing a total of 765 works in all.

Painting style.

Hunt's early work shows the influence of his teacher, John Varley, as well as his patron, Dr. Thomas Munro and Henry Edridge, a close associate of Munro. Architectural subjects and country landscapes dominated his early work. Loose drawing in pencil or pen and fluid, clear color washes are the hallmarks. His subjects, especially those of his later life, are often simple; but, considered technically, his works exhibit all the resources of the watercolour painter's craft, from the purest transparent tinting to the boldest use of gouache, stippling on prepared opaque grounds, use of rough paper, and scraping for highlights and texture. His sense of colour is perhaps as true as that of any English artist. He was, says John Ruskin, all in all, the finest ever painter of still life. Several characteristic examples of Hunt's work, as the "Boy with a Goat," "A Brown Study, Plums," "and Primroses and Birds' Nests" are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  According to the Redgraves, "The works of Hunt differ widely from his contemporaries: they have a character of their own, and many qualities which place him as an artist, in his somewhat narrow range, on a level with the highest.". </ref>

Death.

Hunt died of apoplexy on 10 February 1864. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery on 15 February 1864, attended to the grave by a number of artist colleagues. "The Reader" (27 February 1864) opined "we were but faintly beginning to appreciate and understand his genius when he was taken from us--one the greatest artists of the Century."

Collections.

Examples of Hunt's work are held in a number of public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Gallery, The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Yale Center for British Art, Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, The Huntington Library, Whitworth Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Portrait Gallery (London), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Williamson Art Gallery and Museum (Birkenhead), Harris Museum and Art Gallery (Preston, Lancashire), Ashmolean Museum, Courtauld Institute of Art, Fitzwilliam Museum, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, The Higgins Art Gallery and Museum, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Towneley Hall. (Burnley), New Walk Museum & Art Gallery (Leicester), Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Morgan Library and Museum, Royal Watercolour Society, among others.

William Henry Hunt (London 28 March 1790 – 10 February 1864), was an English watercolourist. Hunt was "one of the key figures in nineteenth-century English watercolour painting. His work was extensively collected in his lifetime, particularly his genre pictures of children, often in humorous situations, and his detailed, naturalistic still lifes of fruit, flowers, and birds' nests that earned him the nickname ‘Bird’s Nest’ Hunt."

William Henry Hunt (* 28. März 1790 in London; † 10. Februar 1864 ebenda) war ein englischer Maler. Hunt trat 1808 in die Londoner Akademie ein, nachdem er bei John Varley Unterricht genossen hatte, und stellte anfangs Ölgemälde, ab 1814 aber meist Aquarelle aus. 1827 wurde er Mitglied der Society of Painters in Water Colours. Seine Schaffenskraft war groß. Oft sah man 20 bis 30 Werke zugleich von ihm ausgestellt: Interieurs, Genrebilder, Stillleben, Porträts. Am Anfang seiner Laufbahn noch unsicher im Aquarell, entwickelte er sein Talent zu glänzender Höhe und wurde allen Gattungen, die er behandelte, mit großer Naturwahrheit gerecht. Von Jugend auf kränklich, verbrachte er viel Zeit in Hastings und starb am 10. Februar 1864 in London.


Business structure.

ACE provides insurance and reinsurance products and services through several operating units.

North American.

ACE USA provides commercial property insurance and casualty (P&C), risk management and accident and health (A&H) coverages through retail brokers. ACE Agriculture offers crop, farm and agribusiness P&C coverages through agents and brokers. ACE Westchester offers commercial P&C excess and surplus lines through wholesale brokers.  ACE Bermuda provides liability, property, political risk coverages and captive programs through large international brokers.  ACE Private Risk Services offers high-value personal lines coverages through independent agents and brokers. ACE Commercial Risk Services provides specialty small business coverage through agents and brokers.

International.

ACE International provides commercial P&C, A&H, and traditional and specialty personal lines through retail brokers, agents and other channels in 51 countries outside North America. ACE Global Markets offers commercial P&C excess and surplus lines and A&H sold by wholesale brokers and through Lloyd’s. In North America, Combined Insurance, acquired by ACE in 2008, provides personal accident and supplemental health insurance through captive agents.

Reinsurance.

ACE Tempest Re, based in Stamford, Connecticut, offers P&C and life reinsurance sold worldwide by reinsurance brokers.

Life.

ACE Life provides protection and savings products through agents, bancassurance and other channels in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Combined Insurance offers personal accident and supplemental health coverage sold by captive agents in North America.

History.

Chubb.

In 1882, Thomas Caldecot Chubb and his son Percy started a marine underwriting business in New York City. They collected $1,000 from 100 prominent merchants and focused on insuring ships and cargoes.  The Chubb Corporation was incorporated in 1967 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1984.  Beginning in 1970, the corporation owned The Chubb Institute, a chain of commercial technical schools which grew out of the company's employee training program, but the schools were sold for $1 to a partnership of private equity firms Great Hill Partners and the High-Tech Institute in 2004.  In 2007, Chubb was named the Readers' Choice winner as "Best Admitted Property/Casualty Insurance Company" by "Business Insurance". In 2010 Chubb was number five on Chicago Business "Best Places to Work" list.

ACE Limited.

1985–1999.

ACE Limited was established in 1985, funded by a group of 34 U.S. companies seeking difficult-to-obtain Excess Liability and Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance coverage. That year, ACE and its Bermuda subsidiary, incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, wrote its first insurance policy with John Cox as its President and CEO. In 1987 the company assumed management of Corporate Officers & Directors Assurance Limited (CODA), expanding ACE Bermuda's product line.  Walter Scott became Chairman, President, and CEO of ACE in 1990 and saw the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. Brian Duperreault succeeded Scott in 1994 as Chairman, President & CEO and worked for the next ten years as ACE went through a series of acquisitions and a diversification process that brought the ACE Group of Companies global status. One of the multiple acquisitions made during this time was the global property and casualty business of Cigna Corporation (most significantly the Insurance Company of North America, known as INA), which was purchased for $3.45 billion in 1999.

2000–2014.

In 2004, Evan G. Greenberg became President and CEO of ACE Ltd. In 2004 ACE was also investigated by NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for participating in a bid rigging and price fixing scheme with insurance broker Marsh & McLennan.  In 2008, ACE purchased the accident and health insurance provider Combined Insurance Company of America (founded by W. Clement Stone in 1919) from Aon Corporation for $2.56 billion and the high-net-worth personal lines business of the Atlantic Companies.  Also in 2008, ACE relocated from the Cayman Islands to Zurich, Switzerland. Evan Greenberg described the move as a "natural progression" that would provide ACE with a "better strategic flexibility...and a solid legal and regulatory environment..." The re-domestication was completed in July that year.  In 2010, the ACE company ESIS Inc. was hired by BP to process claims made by the victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  In 2010, ACE Limited purchased Rain and Hail, LLC for $1.1 billion. Rain and Hail Insurance Service, headquartered in Johnston, Iowa, is an industry leader in crop insurance in the United States. ACE Limited also acquired the Hong Kong and Korea life insurance operations of New York Life.  In 2011, ACE Limited purchased agribusiness insurer Penn Millers. In 2012, they purchased Indonesian insurer Asuransi Jaya Proteksi. In 2013, they purchased Mexican Surety Lines Company Fianzas Monterrey and Mexican Personal Lines Insurer ABA Seguros.  In April 2014, ACE Limited acquired a majority stake in Siam Commercial Samaggi Insurance PCL from Siam Commercial Bank. Following a subsequent tender offer in June 2014, ACE and its local partner owned 93.03% of the Samaggi.  In October 2014, ACE Limited acquired the large commercial property and casualty business of Itaú Unibanco Holding SA. The transaction made ACE the largest property and casualty insurer in Brazil. In April 2015, ACE Limited acquired the Fireman’s Fund high net worth personal lines insurance business in the U.S. from Allianz for $365 million. ACE Private Risk Services is one of the largest high net worth insurers in the U.S.

ACE acquires Chubb.

In July 1, 2015, ACE announced that it would acquire Chubb Corporation for $28.3 billion in cash and ACE stock. Upon completion, ACE shareholders held 70% while Chubb shareholders got 30% of the new combined company. The new company was to be based in Zurich, where ACE Limited's headquarters were. Evan Greenberg of ACE became the Chairman and CEO of the new company, while Chubb Chairman and CEO John Finnegan became Executive Vice Chairman for North America External Affairs. The company's board was expanded to 18, with 4 of them coming from Chubb. The new combined company then decided to adopt the Chubb name. The deal received ACE and Chubb shareholder approval and all required regulatory approval, and closed on January 14, 2016.

Controversies.

2004 Eliot Spitzer investigation.

In 2004 New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer conducted an investigation in the insurance industry. ACE, American International Group (AIG), Marsh & McLennan, and other large insurers and brokerages were named in Spitzer's investigation for possibly participating in questionable insurance practices including the payment of contingent commissions, bid-rigging, price-fixing, and improper accounting. Spitzer asserted that contingent commissions contributed to a widespread practice of "bid-rigging" where brokers solicited fake bids with deliberately less favorable terms for the consumer than the bid offered by the insurance company paying the highest commissions.  As part of an $80 million settlement that abated further inquiry, ACE signed an Assurance of Discontinuance in which they acknowledged their prior conduct and agreed to alter their business practices. Evan Greenberg himself admitted no fault in Spitzer's allegations although a junior executive did plead guilty to criminal charges.  Spitzer's insurance industry probe additionally looked in early 2005 into ACE Ltd's subsidiary ACE Tempest Re's reporting to the SEC of a series of reinsurance transactions, together with the SEC reporting of a further 16 unaffiliated re-insurers. Evan Greenberg said that his company's investigation should be completed within a month. According to Greenberg, contracts appeared "generally structured in a way to provide for appropriate risk transfer and accounted for properly."  The Spitzer investigations also triggered civil litigation by policyholders who claim they were victimized by the bid rigging and commission schemes.

Iran Held Liable for 9/11.

On March 9, 2016, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels issued a default judgement against Iran, ordering it to pay $7.5 billion in damages to families of victims who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks, as well as $3 billion to Chubb Limited & other unnamed insurers that paid out claims resulting from the event. The plaintiffs in the case argued that Iran "provided material support" and training to al-Qaeda members, including 9/11 hijackers, through Hezbollah prior to the attacks and was therefore liable.

Chubb Group Classic.

The Chubb Classic is a Champions Tour golf tournament located at The Classics Country Club at Lely Resort in Naples, FL. The Chubb Classic has raised more than $3 million for charity.

Chubb Limited, incorporated in Zurich, Switzerland, is the parent company of Chubb, a global provider of insurance products covering property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance and the largest publicly traded property and casualty company in the world. Chubb operates in 54 countries and territories and in the Lloyd's insurance market in London. Clients of Chubb consist of multinational corporations and local businesses, individuals, and insurers seeking reinsurance coverage. Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance. The current corporate branding was established when ACE Limited acquired Chubb in 2016, then adopted the Chubb name.

The Chubb Corporation war ein international agierender Versicherungskonzern aus den Vereinigten Staaten. Das Unternehmen wurde 1882 gegründet und hatte ca. 120 Niederlassungen in 27 Ländern in Amerika, Europa, Asien und Australien. Die Aktien des Unternehmens waren an der New York Stock Exchange gelistet und im S&P 500 enthalten.


History.

The château was originally a fortified manor dating back to 1368 and, although amputated of its eastern wing at the time of Napoleon, it still retains its pentagonal bastioned footprint. King Francis I died there, on 31 March 1547, probably in the imposing medieval tower that bears his name. Like the Hôtel de Rambouillet in Paris, the château was owned by Charles d'Angennes, the marquis de Rambouillet during the reign of Louis XIII. Avenues led directly from the park of the chateau into the adjacent game-rich forest. More than 200 square kilometres of forest remain, the remnant of the Forest of Rambouillet, also known as "Forêt d'Yveline" or "Forêt de l'Yveline".  In 1783, the château became the private property of king Louis XVI, who bought it from his cousin, the duc de Penthièvre, as an extension of his hunting grounds. Queen Marie-Antoinette, who accompanied her husband on a visit in November 1783, is said to have exclaimed: ""Comment pourrais-je vivre dans cette gothique crapaudière!"" (How could I live in such a gothic toadhouse!) However, to induce his wife to like his new acquisition, Louis XVI commissioned in great secret the construction of the renowned "Laiterie de la Reine", (the Queen's dairy), where the buckets were of Sèvres porcelain, painted and grained to imitate wood, and the presiding nymph was a marble Amalthea, with the goat that nurtured Jupiter, sculpted by Pierre Julien. A little salon was attached to the dairy itself, with chairs supplied by Georges Jacob in 1787 that had straight, tapering stop-fluted legs  During the French Revolution, the domain of Rambouillet became "bien national", the chateau being emptied of its furnishings and the gardens and surrounding park falling into neglect.  During the reign of Napoleon I, Rambouillet was included in his "liste civile" (list of government-owned property at the disposal of the head of state). The emperor came several times to Rambouillet, the last being on the night of 29–30 June 1815, on his way to exile to Saint Helena. Among the reminders of Napoléon are the Pompeian style bathroom with its small bathtub and the exquisite balcony built to link the emperor's apartment to that of his second wife, the empress Marie-Louise. Another reminder of Napoléon was the splendid "Allée de Cyprès chauves de Louisiane", a double-lined bald cypress ("Taxodium distichum") avenue.  At the time of the Bourbon Restoration, Rambouillet was again included in the royal "liste civile". Fifteen years after Napoleon I, Charles X's road to exile also started at Rambouillet. On 2 August 1830, he signed his abdication here in favour of his nine-year-old grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux. It took twenty minutes to talk his son, the Duke of Angoulême, into, reluctantly, countersigning the document, thus abandoning his rights to the throne of France in favor of his nephew.  From 1830 to 1848, the domain of Rambouillet, which had belonged to his grandfather, the duc de Penthièvre, was not included in Louis Philippe I's "liste civile"; however, begged to do so by the townspeople, the emperor Napoléon III, who reigned from 1852 to 1870, requested its inclusion in his.  After the fall of Napoleon III in 1870, which saw the beginning of the French Third Republic, the domain of Rambouillet was leased from 1870 to 1883 to the duc de la Trémoille. In February 1896, Rambouillet received a visit from President Félix Faure who then decided to spend his summers there with his family. Since, the château of Rambouillet has become the summer residence of France's Presidents of the Republic, who entertain, and used to invite to hunting parties many foreign dignitaries, princes and heads of state. As a part-time residence of the French president, it is sometimes referred to as the Palace of Rambouillet.  On 23 August 1944, two days before the liberation of Paris, General Charles de Gaulle arrived at Rambouillet and set up his headquarters in the chateau where, in the evening, he met General Philippe Leclerc who, at the head of his French 2nd Armored Division ("2e Division blindée", more affectionately known in France as "La Deuxième DB"), had mission to liberate Paris. Part of the French 2nd Armored Division was to leave from Rambouillet at dawn the following day, on its march "to capture Paris". On August 25, around 2 p.m., "both wrought with emotion and filled with serenity", General de Gaulle left Rambouillet by car to enter ""Paris libérée"".  In November 1975, the first "G6" summit was organized in the château by French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing for the heads of the world's leading industrialized countries. Attending were: Gerald Ford (United States), Harold Wilson (United Kingdom), Aldo Moro (Italy), Takeo Miki (Japan) and Helmut Schmidt (West Germany).  The château de Rambouillet continues to be used as a venue for bilateral summits and, in February 1999, was host to the negotiations on Kosovo. (See Kosovo War.)  On 26 December 1999, Hurricane Lothar hit the northern half of France, wreaking havoc to forests, parks and buildings. The Forest of Rambouillet lost hundreds of thousands of trees, and among the over five thousand downed trees in the park of Rambouillet, was the handsome, historical "Allée de Cyprès chauves de Louisiane", the bald cypress avenue planted in 1810.

The Château de Rambouillet, also known in English as the Castle of Rambouillet, is a château in the town of Rambouillet, Yvelines department, in the Île-de-France region in northern France, southwest of Paris. It was the summer residence of the Presidents of the French Republic from 1896 until 2009, and it is now managed by the "Centre des monuments nationaux".

Das Schloss Rambouillet steht im gleichnamigen Ort Rambouillet etwa 50 Kilometer südwestlich von Paris in Frankreich. Erbaut wurde es im Jahr 1368 von Jean Bernier. Ludwig XVI. von Frankreich erwarb das Schloss im Jahr 1783 als Privatresidenz.


Plot.

"D.N.Angel" follows the adventures of Daisuke Niwa, an average teenage boy. At the story's opening, Daisuke declares love for his crush, a girl named Risa Harada, on his fourteenth birthday. She rejects him, and later that day, the heart-broken Daisuke undergoes a strange mutation that changes him into another person. He is told calmly by his mother Emiko that, because of a strange genetic condition, all the males in Daisuke's family gain the countenance of Dark Mousy, a famous phantom thief. The transformation occurs every time Daisuke has romantic feelings for his crush or whenever he thinks too long about her. Dark changes back into Daisuke the same way. Daisuke is forced to keep his family's secret and control his alter ego, Dark (whom Risa, Daisuke's crush, has fallen for), while dashing his way out of being caught by the commander of the police. Daisuke learns that in order to return to normality, he must have his unrequited love returned.  The aforementioned commander of the police is a classmate of Daisuke's named Satoshi Hiwatari. Hiwatari suffers from his own version of the phantom-thief curse, and a bond forms between Hiwatari and Daisuke because of their similar afflictions. Hiwatari carries the alter-ego named Krad. However, though Dark and Krad hate one another, Hiwatari and Daisuke maintain a strained but genuine friendship, despite Dark's constant moaning. Dark steals certain artistic objects of value, works made by Satoshi's ancestors, because they contain dangerous magical properties. Some of them, such as "The Second Hand of Time" and "Argentine" also have personalities of their own. Some of the objects that he steals are quite dangerous. Dark's method of stealing is based on garnering attention; before stealing, Emiko will send out a warning of what will be stolen.

Media.

Manga.

Written and illustrated by Yukiru Sugisaki, "D.N.Angel" premiered in Japan in the November 1997 issue of the Kadokawa Shoten magazine "Monthly Asuka". New chapters were serialized monthly until Sugisaki put the series on an extended hiatus after the August 2005 issue. The series eventually returned to serialization, starting in the April 2008 issue of "Monthly Asuka", where it continues to run. The individual chapters are collected and published in "tankōbon" volumes by Kadokawa Shoten. The first volume was released on November 13, 1997; as of July 2019, 17 volumes have been released.  Tokyopop licensed the series for an English-language release in North America and the United Kingdom, with the first volume of the series released there on April 6, 2004. On November 8, 2005, Tokyopop released a box set containing the first two volumes of the series. A total of 13 volumes have been translated and released as of December 8, 2009. However, Tokyopop announced that its North American division would close on May 31, 2011, leaving the fate of the manga's localization in question. In 2014, Viz Media picked up the digital publication rights to the manga for Kindle.  In August 2003, while the primary series was on hiatus, a second manga series, "D.N.Angel TV Animation Series" began serialization in "Monthly Asuka". Also written by Sugisaki, the short series was based on the anime adaptation, which had diverged from the storyline of the manga series. "D.N.Angel TV Animation Series" finished its serialization in the October 2003 issue. It was published in two "tankōbon" volumes by Kadokawa Shoten.  On March 24, 2018, "Monthly Asuka" announced that the series would return in their May issue, with details to come after the June issue.

Anime.

"D.N.Angel" was adapted into a 26-episode anime series produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Xebec which aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 3 to September 25, 2003. The series was directed by Koji Yoshikawa and Nobuyoshi Habara.  The series was originally licensed for release in North America and the United Kingdom by ADV Films. While in the UK the series is no longer licensed, in North America Discotek Media have announced the rescue-licensing of the series. The series is licensed in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment.  Five pieces of theme music are used in the anime adaptation. The song, by Shunichi Miyamoto, is used for the opening for twenty four episodes. Vic Mignogna, the English voice actor for Dark Mousy, covered the opening for the English dub. For the ending theme, is used for the first twelve episodes, and is used for episodes 13-23 and episode 25. Both songs are performed by Minawo. Episode 24 uses the song "Caged Bird", by Shunichi Miyamoto, for its ending, while the final episode of the series uses Miyamoto's song.

Video game.

A PlayStation 2 video game,, was published by Takara. The game was released in Japan on September 25, 2003 to coincide with the conclusion of the anime adaptation. However, the game storyline is closer to the manga, and even mentions past events from the manga that would make it inconsistent with the anime.

Drama CDs.

A trilogy of drama CDs called "D.N.Angel Wink" was released in 1999 between March and December. Some of the scenes follow the manga word-for-word, while others have either minor differences or do not appear in the manga at all. The first CD is called "Target: Sleeping Beauty" and was released on March 5, 1999. The second is "2nd Target: Love Sick" and was released on November 17, 1999. The third is "3rd Target: Love Pleasure" and was released on December 15, 1999. There is another CD, "A Legend of a Vampire" that uses the same voice cast as the "Wink" dramas, though it doesn't relate to the manga. This CD was released in 2001. The plot centers around Daisuke's alter ego, Dark, being a vampire. Krad, who wasn't in the "Wink" dramas, also made an appearance in this CD.  There were also two drama CDs released after the anime titled "Sweet" and "Cute". These CDs use the anime voice actors and are based on the anime with events taking place just before its ending. They also include parodies of scenes in the anime.

Novels.

Three novels were released in Japan between September 2000 and September 2001. The titles are,, and. Although there was an ad for them left in Tokyopop's translation of the fourth manga volume, they have not been licensed, so little is known about them.

Radio program.

A series of seven broadcasts aired Japan in 2005 called "Decade on Net: Radio D.N.Angel". It was hosted by Miyu Irino and Akira Ishida, who voiced Daisuke Niwa and Satoshi Hiwatari, respectively.

Xebec adapted the manga into a 26-episode anime series which aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 3, 2003 until September 25, 2003. The anime was later adapted into second two volume manga series, a PlayStation 2 video game, and a series of drama CDs.

D·N·Angel (jap., "dī·enu·enjeru") ist eine fortlaufende Manga-Serie der japanischen Zeichnerin Yukiru Sugisaki. Der Fantasy-Manga, der erstmals 1997 erschien und sich dem Shōjo-Genre zuordnen lässt, umfasst über 1.600 Seiten und wurde unter anderem als Anime-Fernsehserie verfilmt.


Plot.

In the village of Ban Nong Pradu in rural northeastern Thailand lies an ancient Buddha statue named Ong-Bak. The village falls in despair after thieves from Bangkok decapitate the statue and take the head with them. Ting, a villager extremely skilled in Muay Thai, volunteers to travel to Bangkok to recover the stolen head of Ong-Bak. His only lead is Don, a drug dealer who attempted to buy an amulet in Nong Pradu one day earlier.  Upon arriving in Bangkok with a bagful of money donated by his village, Ting meets up with his cousin Humlae, who has dyed his hair blond and begun calling himself "George". Humlae and his friend Muay Lek are street-bike racing hustlers who make a living out of conning yaba dealers. Reluctant to help Ting, Humlae steals Ting's money and bets all of it in an underground fighting tournament at a bar on Khaosan Road. Ting tracks down Humlae and gets his money back after stunning the crowd by knocking out the champion in the ring with one kick. His extraordinary skill grabs the attention of Komtuan, a grey-haired crime lord who uses a wheelchair and needs an electrolarynx to speak. It is discovered that Don had stolen Ong-Bak's head to sell to Komtuan, who sees no value in it and orders him to dispose of it.  The next day, Humlae and Muay Lek are chased all over town by drug dealer Peng and his gang after a botched baccarat game scam at an illegal street gambling booth. Ting fights off most of the thugs and helps Humlae and Muay Lek escape in exchange for helping him find Don. They return to the bar, where Ting wins the respect of the crowd after defeating three opponents consecutively. The trio find Don's hideout, triggering a lengthy tuk-tuk chase. The chase ends at a port in the Chao Phraya River, where Ting discovers Komtuan's cache of stolen Buddha statues submerged underwater.  After the statues are recovered by local police, Komtuan sends his thugs to kidnap Muay Lek and tells Humlae to ask Ting to fight his bodyguard Saming near the Thai-Burmese border in exchange for Muay Lek and the Ong-Bak head. Ting is forced to throw the match against the drug-enhanced Saming, and Humlae throws in the towel. After the fight, Komtuan reneges on his promise to release Muay Lek and return the head, and he orders his henchmen to kill the trio. Ting and Humlae subdue the thugs and head to a mountain cave, where Komtuan's men are decapitating a giant Buddha statue. Ting defeats the remaining thugs and Saming, but is shot by Komtuan. Before the crime lord attempts to destroy the Ong-Bak head with a sledgehammer, Humlae jumps to protect it, taking the brunt of the hammer blows. The giant Buddha statue head suddenly falls, crushing Komtuan to death and critically injuring Humlae. Humlae gives Ting the Ong-Bak head, and with his dying breath, asks him to look after Muay Lek and make sure she graduates from college.  The head of Ong-Bak is restored in Ban Nong Pradu. Humlae's ashes, carried by an ordained monk, arrives into the village in a procession on an elephant's back while the villagers and Muay Lek celebrate the return of Ong Bak's head.

Cast.

Club fighters:

Production.

"Ong-Bak" introduced international audiences to a traditional form of muay Thai (or Muay Boran, an ancient muay Thai style), a kickboxing style that is known for violent strikes with fists, feet, shins, elbows, and knees. The fights were choreographed by Panna Rittikrai, who was also Tony Jaa's mentor and a veteran director of B-movie action films.  Jaa, who was trained in Muay Thai since childhood, wanted to make the film in order to bring Muay Thai to the mainstream. He and Panna struggled to raise money to produce a demo reel to drum up interest for the making of the film. Their first reel was made on expired film stock, so they had to raise more money and start over.  During the foot chase through the alleys, there is writing on a shop house door that reads "Hi Speilberg, let do it together" [sic]. This refers to the director's desire to someday work with Steven Spielberg. During the tuk-tuk chase, a pillar on the left side of the screen reads: "Hi, Luc Besson, we are waiting for you." The French producer-director's company, EuropaCorp, would go on to purchase the international distribution rights to the film.

Alternate versions.

After "Ong-Bak" became a hit in Thailand, sales rights for outside Asia were purchased by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, which in turn re-edited the film. Most of the subplot involving Muay Lek's sister, Ngek, was removed, and the final showdown between Ting and Saming was shortened. EuropaCorp also re-scored the soundtrack with some hip-hop sounds, replacing the Thai rock score; this is this version that has been made available in the United States and most of the Western world.  For the United Kingdom release, the soundtrack was scored yet again; this time with an orchestral score, but the film was left uncut with the subplot of Ngek.  The Hong Kong cut of the film's theatrical release omits a "bone breaking" sequence toward the end, where George's arm is snapped and Ting in turn snaps the leg of a bad guy. DVD releases in Hong Kong have the scene restored.  An alternative ending offered on the Thai, U.S., Australian, and UK DVD releases has Humlae surviving. He is seen at the end bandaged up, limping, with his arm broken, supported by his parents. Prachya Pinkaew stated in an interview that although there was debate, they ultimately decided it would be appropriate for him to make a meaningful sacrifice for the village.

Home media.

"Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" was released in the U.S. on DVD by Magnolia Pictures on August 30, 2005 and on Blu-ray Disc by 20th Century Fox on February 2, 2010.

Box office and reception.

"Ong-Bak" premiered as the closing film of the 2003 Bangkok International Film Festival, and then opened in a wide release in Thailand cinemas in February 2003. On February 11, 2005, the film was released in North America in 387 theatres under the title "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior". In its opening weekend, it grossed US$1,334,869 ($3,449 per screen), on its way to a US total of $4,563,167.  The film was lauded for its action, in particular the fight scenes, which are emphasized over its storyline or characters. Its onrush of chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics,  The fight choreography drew notice for its quality, the inventiveness of the moves and lack of CGI and wire-fu. The film currently holds an 86% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 105 reviews, with the consensus being: "While "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" may be no great shakes as a movie, critics are hailing the emergence of a new star in Tony Jaa, whose athletic performance is drawing comparisons with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li.".  Combat sports and striking analyst Jack Slack stated that "Ong-Bak" "is perhaps the finest martial arts movie of this generation".

Prequels.

After "Ong-Bak" became a huge worldwide hit, Jaa's name was attached to many projects. He went on to act in a small role in the Petchtai Wongkamlao vehicle, "The Bodyguard" (co-directed by Panna Rittikrai), and then starred in the much-anticipated "Tom-Yum-Goong" in 2005. In March 2006, it was announced that filming for "Ong Bak 2" would start that fall and the film would be a prequel to the original. The film was eventually released in December 2008, with Jaa debuting as director.  A second prequel, "Ong Bak 3", followed where the second film left off.

Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (, ), also known in the United States as Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is a 2003 Thai martial arts film directed by Prachya Pinkaew, featured stunt choreography by Panna Rittikrai and starred Tony Jaa. "Ong-Bak" proved to be Jaa's breakout film, with the actor hailed internationally as the next major martial arts star. Jaa went on to star in "Tom-Yum-Goong" (called "The Protector" in the US and "Warrior King" in the UK) and directed and starred in two prequels to "Ong-Bak": "Ong-Bak 2" and "Ong-Bak 3".

Ong-Bak (Thai: ) ist ein thailändischer Spielfilm aus dem Jahr 2003. Regie bei diesem Kampfkunst-Film führte Prachya Pinkaew, das Drehbuch schrieben Suphachai Sithiamphan und Phanna Rithikrai. Die Hauptrolle spielte Tony Jaa. Baa-Ram-Ewe und Sahamongkolfilm Co. Ltd. produzierten den Film.


Background.

Walters was born in New York City, his father being a British immigrant and insurance salesman. From age 6 he lived in Britain and France with his family. His formal education beyond elementary school consisted only of boarding school instruction at Stonyhurst College, a 400-year-old Jesuit school in Lancashire, England, and he did not attend university. At the age of sixteen he left school and returned to the United States to work for his father as an insurance claims adjuster and investigator.  In later years he seemed to enjoy reflecting on the fact that he had risen high and accomplished much despite an almost total lack of formal education.  He was fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese as well as his native English. He also spoke German fluently, but, as he joked, inaccurately, and knew the basics of several other languages. His simultaneous translation of a speech by United States President Richard Nixon in France prompted French President Charles de Gaulle to say to Nixon, "You gave a magnificent speech, but your interpreter was eloquent."

Military career.

1940s and 50s.

Walters joined the Army in 1941 and was soon commissioned. He served in Africa and Italy during World War II. He served as a link between the commands of Brazilian Expeditionary Force and U.S. Fifth Army, earning medals for distinguished military and intelligence achievements.  He served as an aide and interpreter for several Presidents. He was at President Harry S. Truman's side as an interpreter in key meetings with America's Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin American allies. His language skills helped him win Truman's confidence, and he accompanied the President to the Pacific in the early 1950s, serving as a key aide in Truman's unsuccessful effort to reach a reconciliation with an insubordinate General Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of United Nations forces in Korea.  In Europe in the 1950s, Walters served President Dwight Eisenhower and other top US officials as a translator and aide at a series of NATO summit conferences. During this period he participated in the famous visit of Eisenhower to General Franco. He also worked in Paris at Marshall Plan headquarters and helped set up the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe. He was with then-Vice President Richard Nixon in 1958 when an anti-American crowd stoned their car in Caracas, Venezuela. Walters suffered facial cuts from flying glass. The Vice President escaped injury.

1960s.

In the 1960s, Walters served as a U.S. military attaché in France, Italy, and Brazil. In 1961, he proposed an American military intervention in Italy if the Socialist Party had participated in the Government.  While serving as a military attaché in Paris from 1967 to 1972, Walters played a role in secret peace talks with North Vietnam. He arranged to smuggle National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger into France for secret meetings with a senior North Vietnamese official, and then smuggle him out again. He accomplished this by borrowing a private airplane from an old friend, French President Georges Pompidou. He had previously been chosen by Richard Nixon to be their translator/interpreter during Pompidou's 1970 trip to the United States.

1970s.

President Richard Nixon appointed Walters as Deputy Director for Central Intelligence (DDCI) in 1972. (Walters also served as Acting DCI for two months in mid-1973.) During his four years as DDCI he worked closely with four successive Directors as the Agency and the nation confronted such major international developments as the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the subsequent oil crisis, the turbulent end of the Vietnam War, the Chilean military coup against the Allende government and the Letelier assassination. According to a close colleague, Walters also averted "a looming catastrophe" for the CIA in connection with the Watergate scandal:  Despite numerous importunings from on high, [Walters] flatly refused to... cast a cloak of national security over the guilty parties. At the critical moment he... refused to involve the Agency and bluntly informed the highest levels of the executive [branch] that further insistence from that quarter would result in his immediate resignation.  Walters himself reflected on those challenging days in his 1978 autobiography "Silent Missions":  I told [President Nixon's White House counsel] that on the day I went to work at the CIA I had hung on the wall of my office a color photograph showing the view through the window of my home in Florida. When people asked me what it was, I told them [this] was what was waiting [for me] if anyone squeezed me too hard.

Diplomatic career.

Beginning in 1981 Walters served under Ronald Reagan as roving ambassador. Reagan used prominent Catholics in his government such as Walters to brief the pope during the Cold War. Walters was then United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 1985 to 1989 and ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1989 to 1991, being responsible on behalf of the United States for the preparations of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

Retirement and death.

During the 1990s, after he had retired from public life, Walters worked as a business consultant and was active on the lecture circuit. On November 18, 1991, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush. He wrote another book, "The Mighty and the Meek" (published in 2001), which profiled famous people with whom he had worked during his life.

In popular culture.

Walters was portrayed by Garrick Hagon in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial "The Falklands Play".

Vernon A. Walters (January 3, 1917 – February 10, 2002) was a United States Army officer and a diplomat. Most notably, he served from 1972 to 1976 as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, from 1985 to 1989 as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and from 1989 to 1991 as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany during the decisive phase of German Reunification. Walters rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

Vernon Anthony Walters (* 3. Januar 1917 in New York; † 10. Februar 2002 in West Palm Beach, Florida) war ein US-amerikanischer Soldat, Nachrichtendienstler und Diplomat. Er diente über fünf Jahrzehnte lang acht verschiedenen US-Präsidenten als antikommunistischer Kämpfer im Kalten Krieg, zunächst in ausführender Rolle, später als Planer von offenen und verdeckten Aktionen und Verhandlungen in aller Welt.


Overview.

Phonological awareness involves the detection and manipulation of sounds at three levels of sound structure: (1) syllables, (2) onsets and rimes, and (3) phonemes. Awareness of these sounds is demonstrated through a variety of tasks (see below). Available published tests of phonological awareness (for example PhAB2) are often used by teachers, psychologists and speech therapists to help understand difficulties in this aspect of language and literacy. Although the tasks vary, they share the basic requirement that some operation (e.g., identifying, comparing, separating, combining, generating) be performed on the sounds. It is assumed that the individual performing these tasks must have awareness of the units of sound in order to perform the operation.  Phonological awareness is one component of a larger phonological processing system used for speaking and listening. Phonological awareness is different from other phonological abilities in that it is a metalinguistic skill, requiring conscious awareness and reflection on the structure of language. Other phonological abilities: such as attending to speech, discriminating between sounds, holding sounds in memory: can be performed without conscious reflection. However, these other phonological abilities are prerequisite to the development of phonological awareness. Therefore, general listening skills are often among those included in phonological awareness instruction.  The terms "phonemic awareness" and "phonics" are often used interchangeably with phonological awareness. However, these terms have different meanings. Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness that focuses specifically on recognizing and manipulating phonemes, the smallest units of sound. Phonics requires students to know and match letters or letter patterns with sounds, learn the rules of spelling, and use this information to decode (read) and encode (write) words. Phonemic awareness relates only to speech sounds, not to alphabet letters or sound-spellings, so it is not necessary for students to have alphabet knowledge in order to develop a basic phonemic awareness of language.  Phonological awareness tasks (adapted from Virginia Department of Education (1998): and Gillon (2004)  The ability to attend to and distinguish environmental and speech sounds from one another

Development.

Although some two-year-old children demonstrate phonological awareness, for most children, phonological awareness appears in the third year, with accelerating growth through the fourth and fifth years. Phonological awareness skills develop in a predictable pattern similar across languages progressing from larger to smaller units of sound (that is, from words to syllables to onsets and syllable rimes to phonemes). Tasks used to demonstrate awareness of these sounds have their own developmental sequence. For example, tasks involving the detection of similar or dissimilar sounds (e.g., oddity tasks) are mastered before tasks requiring the manipulation of sounds (e.g., deletion tasks), and blending tasks are mastered before segmenting tasks. The acquisition of phonological awareness skills does not progress in a linear sequence; rather, children continue to refine skills they have acquired while they learn new skills.  The development of phonological awareness is closely tied to overall language and speech development. Vocabulary size, as well as other measures of receptive and expressive semantics, syntax, and morphology, are consistent concurrent and longitudinal predictors of phonological awareness. Consistent with this finding, children with communication disorders often have poor phonological awareness.  Phonological development and articulatory accuracy is often correlated to phonological awareness skills, both for children with typical speech and those with disordered speech. In addition to milestones of speech and language development, speech and language processing abilities are also related to phonological awareness: both speech perception and verbal short-term memory have been concurrently and predicatively correlated with phonological awareness abilities.

Phonological awareness and reading.

Phonological awareness is an important determiner of success in learning to read and spell. For most children, strong readers have strong phonological awareness, and poor readers have poor phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness skills in the preschool and kindergarten years also strongly predict how well a child will read in the school years. In addition, interventions to improve phonological awareness abilities lead to significantly improved reading abilities. Phonological awareness instruction improves reading and spelling skills, but the reverse is also true: literacy instruction improves phonological awareness skills. The relationship between phonological awareness and reading abilities changes over time. All levels of phonological awareness ability (syllable, onset-rhyme, and phoneme) contribute to reading abilities in the Kindergarten through second grade. However, beyond the second grade, phoneme-level abilities play a stronger role.  Phonological awareness and literacy is often explained by decoding and encoding. In reading, decoding refers to the process of relating a word's written representation to its verbal representation. Especially in the early stages of reading, decoding involves mapping letters in the word to their corresponding sounds, and then combining those sounds to form a verbal word. Encoding: a process used in spelling: is similar, although the process goes in the opposite direction, with the word's verbal representation is encoded in a written form. Again, especially in the early stages of reading, encoding involves determining the sounds in a verbal word, and then mapping those sounds onto a letter sequence in order to spell out the written word. In both encoding and decoding, phonological awareness is needed because the child must know the sounds in the words in order to relate them to the letter sounds.

Intervention.

Phonological awareness is an auditory skill that is developed through a variety of activities that expose students to the sound structure of the language and teach them to recognize, identify and manipulate it. Listening skills are an important foundation for the development of phonological awareness and they generally develop first. Therefore, the scope and sequence of instruction in early childhood literacy curriculum typically begins with a focus on listening, as teachers instruct children to attend to and distinguish sounds, including environmental sounds and the sounds of speech. Early phonological awareness instruction also involves the use of songs, nursery rhymes and games to help students to become alert to speech sounds and rhythms, rather than meanings, including rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and prosody. While exposure to different sound patterns in songs and rhymes is a start towards developing phonological awareness, exposure in itself is not enough, because the traditional actions that go along with songs and nursery rhymes typically focus on helping students to understand the meanings of words, not attend to the sounds. Therefore, different strategies must be implemented to aid students in becoming alert to sounds instead. Specific activities that involve students in attending to and demonstrating recognition of the sounds of language include waving hands when rhymes are heard, stomping feet along with alliterations, clapping the syllables in names, and slowly stretching out arms when segmenting words. Phonological awareness is technically only about sounds and students do not need to know the letters of the alphabet to be able to develop phonological awareness.  Students in primary education sometimes learn phonological awareness in the context of literacy activities, particularly phonemic awareness. Some research demonstrates that, at least for older children, there may be utility to extending the development of phonological awareness skills in the context of activities that involve letters and spelling. A number of scholars have been working on this approach.

Phonological awareness is an individual's awareness of the phonological structure, or sound structure, of words. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much research.

Der Begriff phonologische Bewusstheit bezeichnet im Fachgebiet pädagogische Psychologie und allgemein der Leseforschung eine bestimmte Form der Sprachbewusstheit und stellt den wichtigsten Teilbereich der sogenannten „phonologischen Informationsverarbeitung“ dar. Er bezeichnet die Fähigkeit, bei der Aufnahme, der Verarbeitung, dem Abruf und der Speicherung von sprachlichen Informationen Wissen über die lautliche Struktur der Sprache heranzuziehen (Wagner/Torgesen 1987). Kinder müssen sich hierzu vom Bedeutungsinhalt der Sprache lösen und begreifen, dass Sätze aus Wörtern, Wörter aus Silben und Silben aus Lauten aufgebaut, dass manche Wörter länger und andere kürzer sind. Es geht darum zu erfassen, was der erste Laut eines Wortes ist, wie es endet und dass manche Wörter sich reimen.


History.

Origins of the club.

The roots of the institution can be found in a team formed by a group of kids that used to play football in the corner of México and Treinta y Tres Orientales streets of Buenos Aires. Due to increasing traffic in the city, playing football in the streets became a risky activity for the boys. Lorenzo Massa, the Catholic priest of the neighborhood's church, saw how a tram almost knocked down one of the boys while they were playing in the streets. As a way to prevent more accidents, he offered the boys to play in the church's backyard, under the condition they go to mass on Sundays. On 1 April 1908, an assembly was held in the Almagro district of Buenos Aires with the purpose of establishing a club. During the meeting, several names were proposed. The first option was "Los Forzosos de Almagro" ("The Strongmen of Almagro", the name used by the boys for their street football squad), which did not sound good to Father Massa (who was present). The other proposal was to name the club "San Lorenzo" as an homage to Massa, but he refused to be honored that way.  Nevertheless, the name was finally accepted by the priest, explaining that the name would not honor himself but both Lawrence of Rome ("San Lorenzo" in Spanish) and the Battle of San Lorenzo, one of the most significative combats for the Independence of Argentina. Another founding member, Federico Monti, suggested to add the name of the neighbourhood, Almagro where most of the members lived in, which was accepted by the assembly.  Due to the team not having its own a stadium, San Lorenzo began to play its home games in a field property of the Club Martínez, placed in the nearby town of the same name. The squad played its first match on 26 April 1914. At the end of the season, San Lorenzo had to play a final match against Excursionistas to declare a champion. San Lorenzo won the series (the results were 0–0 and 5–0). This title allowed San Lorenzo to enter the playoffs in for promotion to the Argentine Primera División, which was finally obtained after beating Club Honor y Patria by a score of 3–0.

First years in Primera.

San Lorenzo began to play in the Argentine Football Association tournaments on 26 April 1914 in the second division, where the team finished sharing first place with Excursionistas. As a result, both teams played a two-match series to determine which team would proceed to the playoffs. San Lorenzo won the series after thrashing Excursionistas 5–0 in the second game.  In playoffs, San Lorenzo eliminated other teams before playing the final against Honor y Patria, winning 3–0 and being promoted to Primera División. ́  San Lorenzo made its debut in Primera on 4 April 1915, losing to Platense by 5–1. The first match won in the top division was the 7th fixture, when the team defeated Floresta by 3–1. San Lorenzo finished 12th at the end of the season, tied with Gimnasia y Esgrima de Buenos Aires.  On 7 May 1916 the club inaugurated its first stadium (popularly known as "Viejo Gasómetro" during a match against Estudiantes de La Plata, which San Lorenzo won by 2–1. That same year, the team finished 7th in the Primera División championship. In subsequent tournaments the team did not wage good campaigns, finishing 12th and 13th. In 1919 the Argentine league split into two leagues, the official Asociación Argentina and dissident Asociación Amateur (AAm), in which San Lorenzo took part, along with Racing Club, River Plate and Independiente, among other teams. San Lorenzo finished 9th.

The success begins.

In 1920 and 1922 San Lorenzo finished 3rd, finally winning its first title in 1923. The squad won 17 of 20 games, only losing 2. San Lorenzo scored 34 goals in 20 fixtures, conceding 13. That same year the squad also won its first international title, The Copa Campeonato del Río de la Plata after beating Montevideo Wanderers 1–0 in the final.  San Lorenzo won its second consecutive Primera División title one year later. The team played 23 matches winning 18 with 2 losses, with a total of 48 goals scored and 15 conceded. In the following two seasons (1925 and 1926) San Lorenzo would make great performances finishing 2nd to Racing Club and Independiente respectively finally achieving its 3rd title in 1927, when both leagues AAF and AAm had joined again. The squad totaled 57 points in 33 matches played with an outstanding mark of 86 goals scored (2,60 per game) and conceding only 26. Apart of winning the domestic league, in 1927 San Lorenzo won its first and only Copa Aldao, after defeating Uruguayan team (Rampla Juniors) by 1–0. The club soon became one of the most popular institutions in Argentina, increasing its number of followers and being counted in the top five ("cinco grandes") together with Boca Juniors, Independiente, River Plate and Racing Club.  In the 1930s, Isidro Lángara and other players of Basque descent endeared San Lorenzo to the Basque community. The team also relied on players from the provinces, known as "los gauchos". San Lorenzo returned to success in 1933, when the team won its 4th league championship. The squad totaled 50 points with 22 wins, 6 losses and 6 draws. San Lorenzo scored 81 goals and conceded 48. Boca Juniors was the runner-up while Racing Club finished 3rd.  In 1936, there were two championships within the year, in a format of single-robin tournaments. San Lorenzo won the first round (named "Copa de Honor" for the occasion) while River Plate won the second round ("Copa Campeonato"). Although titles were recognised as official by the Association, both champions, San Lorenzo and River Plate, had to play a match (named "Copa de Oro") in order to define which team would play the Copa Aldao match v. the Uruguayan Primera División champion. Finally, River Plate won the game by 4–2 and qualified to play Peñarol.

The 1940s: "The best team in the world".

In 1943, San Lorenzo won the national cup, the Copa General Pedro Ramírez, named in honor of Pedro Pablo Ramírez, the "de facto" president of Argentina by then. San Lorenzo won the trophy by defeating General Paz Juniors 8–3.  After the 1936 success, San Lorenzo would not win a league title for ten years, when in 1946 proclaimed champion with a total of 46 points (the runner-up, Boca Juniors, finished 2nd. with 42). San Lorenzo also scored a record of 90 goals in 30 games played, only conceding 37.  That same year (1946), the team went on to a tour of Spain and Portugal that was one of the highlights of the club's history. The team debuted playing Atlético Aviación winning 4–1. San Lorenzo played a total of 10 matches in Europe, with some extraordinary victories over the Spanish national team (7–5 and 6–1). The Spanish crowd at the stadium acclaimed San Lorenzo as "Son els millor del mon" ("You are the best in the world" in Catalan). San Lorenzo then moved to Portugal where the squad showed its skilled play, thrashing Porto (9–4) and the Portugal national team by 10–4. The only team that defeated San Lorenzo was Real Madrid by 4–1.  As a result of the successful tour, player René Pontoni was offered a contract with Barcelona, but declined to leave Argentina (Barcelona then drafted River Plate's Alfredo Di Stéfano). Fellow player Rinaldo Martino did stay in European football and would later become a star with Juventus.

The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

In the 1960s, a generation of players known as "carasucias" (literally: dirty faces) were the darling of Argentine fans because of their offensive, careless playing and their bad-boy antics off the pitch. The 1968 team was nicknamed "los matadores" as it won the championship without losing a single game. This team was recognized as the best team in the world by many journalists. In the years 1968–1974 San Lorenzo won four league titles, its best harvest ever. In 1972, the club became the first Argentine team to win two league titles in one year.  Poor administrations, however, led San Lorenzo to a huge economic crisis. Argentina's military government coerced the club into selling the historic stadium located in Boedo. The team was relegated in 1981, only to return to the top division with great fanfare in the 1982 season, which set all-time attendance records for the club.

The 1990s.

By that time, the club had no stadium and was plagued by debt and irregularities. Controversial president Fernando Miele (1986–2001) delivered both the new stadium and two league titles: the Clausura '95 (after 21 years without winning a first division title) and the Clausura 2001 (in which the team achieved 11 consecutive victories). San Lorenzo finished the Clausura 2001 with 47 points in a tournament of 19 matches, setting the record for the highest points haul since the inception of the Apertura and Clausura system in 1990.

The New Millennium.

In late 2001, San Lorenzo won their first international title: the Copa Mercosur 2001, becoming the only Argentine team to win that international cup, because the others champions were all from Brazil.  San Lorenzo also won the first edition of the Copa Sudamericana in December 2002, claiming their second international title, and getting the opportunity to play the Recopa against the Copa Libertadores champion Olimpia.  San Lorenzo is identified with the middle class atmosphere of the Boedo neighborhood. Its derby rival from the southern part of Buenos Aires are Huracán, who were promoted back to the first division for the 2007–08 season, only to be relegated again in 2011.  In 2007, San Lorenzo won the First Division League, Clausura 2007 beating Boca Juniors in the race for the title. Led by manager Ramón Díaz, San Lorenzo secured the title after the 17th round of fixtures, with two games still to play. They finished the tournament with 45 points.  Six years later, and only one year after being relegation-threatened, the club managed to win the Torneo Inicial 2013.  In 2014, San Lorenzo won their first Copa Libertadores. In the final, they defeated Nacional of Paraguay 2–1 on aggregate, concluding their championship run with a 1–0 victory in the second leg at Estadio Pedro Bidegain. This earned the club a berth in the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco, their first trip to FIFA's premier club tournament. They would ultimately lose in the finals to Real Madrid, and finish as runners-up.

Stadium.

The Viejo Gasómetro stadium in what nowadays is known as Boedo was a venue of great renown, where many international games were held. During the military government in 1979 San Lorenzo was forced to sell the stadium for a small amount of money, and a few years later the supermarket chain Carrefour bought it. The price had mysteriously surged eightfold, but the Club did not get any extra money.  After 14 years of renting the stadium, San Lorenzo, with the help of fans, inaugurated the new stadium, Estadio Pedro Bidegain (nicknamed "Nuevo Gasómetro"), which opened in December 1993 at the intersection of the Perito Moreno and Varela avenues in the Flores neighborhood. The fans, however, never forgot the old stadium, and its former lot is claimed by San Lorenzo and its fans to this day. On 8 March 2012, there was a demonstration attended by over 100,000 people in favour of reclaiming the place for the club, and on 15 November the Buenos Aires City Legislature passed a bill stipulating that, in the course of six months, Carrefour should negotiate a deal with San Lorenzo in order to share the land lot, and if no accommodation was reached then the city would expropriate it with San Lorenzo's funds. First, an extension was agreed to and one and a half years later it signed an agreement establishing that the multinational retailer will build a smaller new store on a corner of its current property, financed by funds provided by San Lorenzo. The rest of the lot will be handed over to the club, and there are plans to build another new stadium there.  The current stadium has a capacity of 47,964 and the pitch size is 110 x 70 m, among the biggest in Argentina.

Honours.

National.

Unofficial cups.

Not recognized as official titles by the Argentine Football Association.

Women.

The women's team has won the national championship, Campeonato de Fútbol Femenino in 2008/09 and 2015. They finished fourth of five in the group stage of the 2009 Copa Libertadores Femenina.

Basketball.

San Lorenzo has played basketball since 1930 when the club affiliated to the association. On 26 April 1985, San Lorenzo played the opening game of the recently created Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (LNB), facing Argentino de Firmat at Obras Sanitarias venue.  The team returned to LNB in 2015.

Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, commonly known as San Lorenzo de Almagro or simply San Lorenzo (in English: "Saint Lawrence"), is an Argentine sports club based in the Boedo district of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine football league system. San Lorenzo is also considered one of the "big five" (""Los 5 Grandes"") of Argentine football by Argentine press, with Independiente, River Plate, Boca Juniors, and Racing Club.

Der Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro ist ein argentinischer Fußballverein aus Buenos Aires. In Argentinien sind dessen Spieler vor allem als'(„Raben“) bekannt, in Anspielung auf die schwarze Soutane des Mitgründers des Vereins, des Salesianerpaters Lorenzo Massa; von den Fans wird der Klub auch'(„der Zyklon“) genannt, nach der von Pater Lorenzo Massa 1943 gegründeten gleichnamigen Vereinszeitung.


Biography.

Boxing.

Before her boxing career, Daisy Lang competed as a martial artist. She is a black belt and a European champion in taekwondo. She also was World Champion in karate 1995 in the U.S., European champion and World Champion in kickboxing. She began boxing professionally in February 1996 in Germany. Lang lived in Dusseldorf and trained in Hamburg, where Universum Box-Promotion was based.  Daisy Lang won the first three fights of her career in 1996, two of them by knockout. She earned physical therapy degrees at the National Sport Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and continued her education at the German Sport University, Cologne.  On 29 November 1997 she lost against Michele Aboro in six rounds, who remained unbeaten with 6 wins, but had won all previous fights by knockout. After winning another fight in February 1998 Daisy Lang won the vacant WIBF European Bantamweight title against Krisztina Horvai in ten rounds.  After winning another fight by knockout in round 2, she defended the WIBF European Bantamweight title on 27 March 1999 against Anastasia Toktaulova winning in ten rounds. On 17 July 1999 she became world champion against Gizella Papp in a fight for the vacant WIBF Super Flyweight title.  From 1999 to 2002, Daisy Lang successfully defended the title against Sonia Pereira, Kathy Williams, Oana Jurma, Brenda Burnside, Nadia Debras, Michelle Sutcliffe and Réka Krempf. On 14 September 2002 she won against Lisa Foster in a fight for the GBU world Bantamweight championship in ten rounds. She drew against Silke Weickenmeier on 18 January 2003, in a fight for the GBU Super Bantamweight title, but won the rematch on 10 May with a majority decision in ten rounds. On 15 November 2003 she lost against Galina Ivanova in ten rounds, in a fight for the WIBF Super Flyweight title.  After another win in 8 rounds, on 29 May 2004 she lost against Regina Halmich in a fight for the vacant IWBF Super Flyweight title, in ten rounds by unanimous decision. In October 2004 she won another fight by knockout in early rounds.  On 21 May 2016, Daisy Lang was given a lifetime achievement award from the US Martial Arts Hall of Fame: "Hall of Heroes".  On 9 January 2017, The International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF) announced their 2017 IWBHF Inductees. Among those honored was Daisy Lang, including Aileen Eaton (posthumous); Holly Holm; Ria Ramnarine; Ana Marie Torres; and Ada Velez.

Movie career.

Her success in sports made her a popular guest on many TV shows in various countries and a frequent subject of German and other international magazine articles. After a successful decade in the sport's world in Europe, Daisy relocated to Los Angeles to concentrate on her acting career and business. In 2007, she became a member of SAG-AFTRA and has been working in films and commercials, mostly in action roles.

Personal life.

Daisy Lang was also a physical therapist who uses her experience as a world class athlete and her knowledge in the medical field to promote boxing as a way to stay in physical and mental shape. Since 2008 she has been a regular guest-speaker for the Rotary Club. She currently resides in Los Angeles, United States.

Daisy Lang (born Dessislava Kirova (Bulgarian: Десислава Кирова) on 4 April 1972) is a former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2004. She is a former three-weight world champion and was the first Bulgarian woman to capture a world title, having held the WIBF super-flyweight title from 1999 to 2002; the WIBF bantamweight title in 2002; and the WIBF super-bantamweight title in 2003.

Daisy Lang (* 4. April 1972 in Sofia als Dessislawa Kirowa, ) ist eine ehemalige bulgarische Boxerin und Kampfsportlerin, die von Uwe Gremmer entdeckt wurde. Zusätzlich zu ihrer Kampfsportkarriere hat Daisy Lang auch bei einigen Filmen als Schauspielerin mitgewirkt.


Early life.

Mary Ford was born Iris Colleen Summers in El Monte, California, the second daughter of Marshall McKinley Summers (born February 13, 1896, in Ridgway, Illinois; died August 5, 1981, in Los Angeles), a Nazarene minister, who later became a painting contractor, and his wife, Dorothy May White Summers (born April 5, 1897, in Missouri; died February 22, 1988, in South El Monte, California), and was the sister of Byron Fletcher Summers, Esther E. Williams, Carol Jean Corona, Bruce Summers, Eva Wootten and Bob Summers. Ford came from a musical family. Her parents left Missouri, travelling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across the United States. They eventually settled in southern California, where they were heard over KPPC-AM, Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians; Esther, Carol, Fletcher, jazz organist Bruce and film composer Bob Summers.  While still a junior high school student, Summers and Mildred L. "Milly" Watson (later Millie Pace) (born February 26, 1922, in Los Angeles; died August 2, 1976, in Orange County, California), a local girl, performed together in churches in Pasadena, California, and later made gospel recordings with Milly's older brother, Marvin, for which she wrote some songs. In 1939 Summers and Milly won a Pasadena talent contest judged by "several Hollywood notables, including a very young Judy Garland." Hoping to have a musical career, Summers and Milly Watson lost interest in school, played truant frequently and eventually quit school, only to find employment as a cinema attendant.

Early career.

By 1943, Colleen Summers, with Vivian Earles and June Widener, the sister of western swing guitarist-vocalist Jimmie Widener, formed the Sunshine Girls, a western trio who sang backup to Jimmy Wakely and his trio. They were regulars on "The Hollywood Barn Dance", a successful weekly CBS Radio program broadcast on Saturday nights, and hosted by Foy Willing and emceed by Cliffie Stone.  In 1944, the Sunshine Girls trio appeared with Wakely in the PRC film "I'm from Arkansas", where they sang "You Are My Sunshine" and "Whistlin' (Walkin') Down the Lane With You" with Wakely.  In 1945, when Eddie Dean introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, she was a popular western vocalist on KXLA's "Dinner Bell Round-Up Time". The two began performing together in 1946. After Summers left the Sunshine Girls to work with Paul and his trio, she was replaced initially by Marilyn Myers Tuttle. After Tuttle left, Summer's older sister, Eva, sang with Earler and Widener as the Three Rays on the "Jimmy Wakely Show" on CBS.  Colleen Summers appeared on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch CBS radio program as a cast member and featured vocalist from July through early November 1946.  In 1946–48, Summers was a regular actor in the drama portion of "The All-Star Western Theatre", a radio program hosted by Foy Willing and his Riders of the Purple Sage.  By 1947, Summers became romantically involved with Les Paul, whose first marriage to Virginia M. Webb was failing, as it could no longer endure the stresses and strains of his show-business career. In January 1948, while traveling on Route 66 through Oklahoma, the couple's car driven by Summers skidded off the road and plummeted 20 feet into a frozen creek bed. After the accident, Summers identified herself to authorities as Iris Watson. Among Paul's many injuries, his right elbow was shattered, and it would be eighteen months before he could play guitar again. After Paul's wife Virginia took their two sons to Chicago, Summers moved in with Paul in his house on Curson Avenue, where she took care of him as he recuperated from the effects of the car accident.  By the summer of 1949, Summers was performing under the stage name of Mary Ford. To avoid confusing her established western music audience, initially Paul named his musical partner "Mary Lou", but later selected the stage name "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his.  That same year, Les Paul divorced his wife and wed Mary Ford on December 29 in a "small private ceremony without much fanfare" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The couple had had three children: a baby born on November 26, 1954, who died four days later; Mary Colleen Paul, whom they fostered from 1958; and Robert Ralph "Bobby" Paul (born in 1959).

Career with Les Paul.

Shortly after their wedding, Paul and Ford began making radio programs together for NBC, including "Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home", a fifteen-minute program that was pre-recorded and broadcast every Friday night.  Ford and Paul were music superstars during the first half of the 1950s, putting out 28 hits for Capitol Records between 1950 and 1957, including "Tiger Rag", "Vaya con Dios" (11 weeks at #1), "Mockin' Bird Hill" (top 10), "How High the Moon" (nine weeks at #1), "Bye Bye Blues" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself, giving the vocals a novel sound. Paul and Ford did all their recording at home or on the road and submitted the masters to Capitol, with Paul dictating to the record company what songs were destined to become hits. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone (see proximity effect). It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.  After extensive touring and recording, the couple decided to leave Hollywood and moved to New York City to make the crossover from radio to television. They took a cramped apartment in Paul's former New York neighborhood, where they conceived and recorded their arrangement of "How High The Moon", a hard-swinging multi-layered arrangement containing twelve overdubs using the guitar and Ford's voice. While Capitol was reluctant to release this song, after they had scored several more hits with Capitol, including, 'Tennessee Waltz" and "Mockin' Bird Hill", "How High The Moon" was released in March 1951. Within a month, "How High The Moon" and "Mockin' Bird Hill" captured "Your Hit Parade"'s number one and number two spots, respectively.  During 1951, Ford and Paul earned $500,000, and had recorded more top ten hits for the year than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters combined. They also tied Patti Page for top selling recording artist, having sold more than six million records since January 1951.  Paul bought a Cadillac to use on their expanding road tours with plenty of space for all their electronic gear. They also purchased a woodland retreat in Mahwah, New Jersey, in the Ramapo Mountains, and their mansion included a recording studio and an echo chamber carved out of a neighboring mountain. In September 1952, after cutting "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", Ford and Paul sailed for London to appear at the Palladium Theatre, where they debuted before Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family. In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg in his recording of "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Capitol, F 2279).  In 1953, the couple recorded "Vaya con Dios" (Capitol 2486), the biggest-selling song of their career, which was released in June 1953, entered the "Billboard" charts on June 13, 1953, and reached number one on August 8 and remaining there for a total of nine weeks. The song lasted thirty-one weeks on the chart, and also reached number one on the "Cash Box" chart.  Following this success of "Vaya con Dios", in 1953 the couple started to host "The Les Paul and Mary Ford Show", their own daily television program broadcast from their Mahwah home. The show, which was five minutes long and sponsored by Listerine, ran from 1953–60 on NBC television and in syndication. In early 1955, rock and roll came along and eventually threatened the popularity of many performers including Paul and Ford. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, and in 1956, the couple performed at the Eisenhower White House.  With the advent of rock and roll, Ford and Paul faded from the charts in the late 1950s.  In 1956, Ford separated briefly from Paul when she ran away to Amarillo, Texas.  In July 1958, Paul and Ford left Capitol and signed with the Columbia label, but the move failed to restore their declining career, and Ford began increasingly suffering from alcoholism. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's "Five Star Jubilee".  Les and Mary divorced in December 1964.

Later years.

In November 1963, Ford released her first solo single, an English-language version of "Dominique", for Calendar Records.  About 1965 Ford married Donald Hatfield, whom she had known since high school, and they settled in Monrovia, California. Foy Willing and his wife attended the wedding reception.  Ford and her sisters were used as vocalists on Foy Willing's album "The New Sound of American Folk", which was recorded at their brother Bobby Summers' Sound House Recorders in El Monte, California, and released on the Jubilee label.  Bassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers:  In Downey, California, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen "Suzee" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up:

Awards and honors.

Ford and Paul were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood. In 1978, they were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Death.

Ford succumbed to complications of alcohol abuse in 1977. After eight weeks in a diabetic coma, she died in Arcadia, California, at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California. Although her year of birth has been variously reported as either 1924, 1925, or 1928, the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone, along with "Vaya con Dios", the name of one of her most popular songs.

Documentary film.

Interviews and performance footage of the couple are featured in the musical documentary "Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90", directed by John Paulson ("Johnny Mathis Live", "An Evening with Chita Rivera"). Distributed by Koch Entertainment, the film premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by its television premiere, July 11, 2007 on PBS as part of its "American Masters" series.

Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers; July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios", which were number one hits on the "Billboard" charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.

Mary Ford (* 7. Juli 1924 in El Monte, Kalifornien als "Iris Colleen Summers"; † 30. September 1977 in Arcadia, Kalifornien) war eine amerikanische Sängerin und Gitarristin. Sie wurde bekannt durch das Duo "Les Paul & Mary Ford" mit ihrem Ehemann Les Paul.


Life.

Finan was appointed to Lindisfarne in 651.  Originally from Ireland, he built on Lindisfarne, a cathedral "in the Irish fashion", employing hewn oak, with a thatched roof, dedicated to St. Peter. He also founded St. Mary's at the mouth of the River Tyne. He converted the kings Sigebert of Essex and Peada of the Middle Angles to Christianity. Bede is the main source for Finan's life. He is specially noted by Bede as having borne an important part in the conversion of the northern Saxons.  The breviary of Aberdeen styles him "a man of venerable life, a bishop of great sanctity, an eloquent teacher... remarkable for his training in virtue and his liberal education, surpassing all his equals in every manner of knowledge as well as in circumspection and prudence, but chiefly devoting himself to good works and presenting in his life, a most apt example of virtue". Finan ordained St. Cedd bishop of the East-Saxons, having called two other bishops to assist at his consecration.  The Abbey of Whitby, his chief foundation, was the scene of the famous Paschal controversy, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Irish monks from Lindisfarne. Finan was active for some time at a monastery on Church Island on Lough Currane in County Kerry; today it is known as St. Finan's Church. To the south of the lake is Inis Uasal (Noble Island), an island which is dedicated to him.  Finan died in 661, and was buried at Lindisfarne, having held that see ten years.

Veneration.

Finan's feast day is celebrated upon 9 January.

Finan of Lindisfarne (died 10 or 17 February 661), also known as Saint Finan, was an Irish monk, trained at Iona Abbey in Scotland, who became the second Bishop of Lindisfarne from 651 until 661.

Finan von Lindisfarne († 661) war wie sein Vorgänger ein irischer Mönch in Iona, bevor er ins Kloster Lindisfarne kam.


Early life.

Pons was born at Peyre, Hautes-Alpes, to a poor family; he received little formal education. In 1789, he began working for the Marseille observatory as a caretaker, and gradually gained some experience in assisting the astronomers with observations. He learned to make observations himself, showing a remarkable ability to remember star fields and note changes in them.  In his early astronomical career, the unassuming and trusting Pons was often the target of jokes perpetrated by more experienced astronomers. Franz Xaver von Zach once advised him to look for comets when sunspots were visible, though in doing so Zach may have inadvertently given Pons very good advice.

Career as an astronomer.

Pons made his first comet discovery, jointly attributed to Charles Messier, on 11 July 1801. He appears to have used telescopes and lenses of his own design; his ""Grand Chercheur"" ("Great Seeker") seems to have been an instrument with large aperture and short focal length, similar to a "comet seeker". However, he was not an especially diligent recorder of his observations, and his notes were often extremely vague. However, he found something 75% of all comets in this period.  In 1813 he gained the position of Assistant Astronomer at Marseilles Observatory.  In 1819, Pons became the director of the new observatory at Marlia near Lucca, which he left in 1825 to teach astronomy at La Specola, in Florence. Around that time he accepted the opportunity to become Director of the Florence Observatory at the request of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.  He discovered five periodic comets, three of which, 7P/Pons–Winnecke, 12P/Pons–Brooks and 273P/Pons–Gambart, bear his name. One observed on 26 November 1818 was named Comet Encke (now 2P/Enke) after Johann Franz Encke, who calculated its orbit and its remarkably short (3.3 y) period (Encke, however, continued to refer to the comet as "Pons's Comet" or "Comet of Pons"). Pons also co-discovered the comet formerly known as "Pons–Coggia–Winnecke–Forbes" and today known as 27P/Crommelin after Andrew Crommelin, who calculated its orbit.  Pons received the French Academy of Sciences's Lalande Prize in 1818 for his discovery of three comets in that year. He won it again in 1820 (jointly with Joseph Nicollet) for further comet discoveries at Marlia and for an unmatched third time in 1827 (jointly with Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart) for discovering another seven comets at the Florence observatory.  By 1827, Pons's eyesight had begun to fail, and he retired from observing altogether shortly before his death, on 14 October 1831. In his honour, a moon crater was named after him.

Record & Legacy.

Pons is noted for discovering 37 comets in the early 1800s. As of 1960 this was recognized as the greatest number of comets discovered by a single person.  Of the 37, 28 were determined to have parabolic orbits, and three did not have enough observation to determine an orbit. However, many of his discoveries fueled the discovery or recovery of what were later recognized as periodic comets, including Comet Pons-Brook and Comet Pons-Winnecke.  One Pons observed in 1827, was recovered in 2012; 273P/Pons–Gambart.

Jean-Louis Pons (24 December 1761 – 14 October 1831) was a French astronomer. Despite humble beginnings and being self-taught, he went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time: between 1801 and 1827 Pons discovered thirty-seven comets, more than any other person in history.

Jean-Louis Pons (* 24. Dezember 1761 in Peyre (Hautes-Alpes); † 14. Oktober 1831 in Florenz) war ein französischer Astronom. Zwischen 1801 und 1827 entdeckte Pons 37 Kometen und ist damit bis heute der erfolgreichste Kometenentdecker.