Etymology and mythology.

The name Severn is thought to derive from a British *"sabrinā", possibly from an older form *"samarina", meaning "land of summertime fallow”. The name is recorded in the latinized form "Sabrina" in the 2nd century.  The Welsh form of the name is "", first recorded in the 12th-century "Historia Regum Britanniae". Milton's 1634 masque "Comus" makes "Sabrina" a nymph who had drowned in the river. In Shrewsbury, there is now a statue of Sabrina in the Dingle Gardens at the Quarry, as well as a metal sculpture erected in 2013.  There is a different deity associated with the Severn Estuary: Nodens, represented as mounted on a seahorse, riding on the crest of the Severn bore.

Geography and geology.

The River Severn's current form is the result of a multi-million year history and complex underlying geology but is in part the result of glaciation during the last ice age in the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period. Within Wales, the river runs through a landscape formed in Ordovician and Silurian rocks. As it enters the Shropshire Plain, these lower Palaeozoic rocks are replaced by Permian and Triassic age strata though largely unseen beneath a thick cover of Quaternary deposits. Certain stretches also run across Carboniferous strata as at Shrewsbury and for much of the distance between Ironbridge and Bewdley. Permo-Triassic bedrock then continues until the Severn moves intermittently onto the Jurassic outcrop from Tewkesbury southwards. Only in the SSW-NNE aligned valley either side of Welshpool is there any obvious relationship to geological structure; the valley follows the lines of the Severn Valley Faults. For much of the rest of its course it runs directly across geological structures.  It was first proposed in the 1900’s that the former northerly course of the upper Severn was disrupted during the course of the ice age by the blocking of its access to the Irish Sea through Cheshire causing a large lake to develop across much of Shropshire. It was supposed that this lake, named as Lake Lapworth, overtopped its southern margin and rapidly cut down to form the Ironbridge Gorge providing the Severn with a southerly exit to the sea as remains the case today. An alternative theory which has gained favour in recent years does away with Lake Lapworth, suggesting that the upper Severn flowed beneath the icesheet in a bedrock hollow known as the Severn Trench eastwards from Melverley to the Ironbridge Gorge. It is possible that the trench and gorge were cut over successive ice ages.

Tributary rivers.

Over its length, there are a large number of tributaries but the three largest feeding the non-tidal river are the Vyrnwy, the Teme and the Warwickshire Avon. The Wye, the Bristol Avon and the Usk all flow into the estuarine section of the Severn. The main tributaries are described in sequence below.  The first tributary of significance is the Afon Dulas joining from the south immediately upstream of Llanidloes with the Afon Clywedog joining in the town. The Afon Cerist, bolstered by the Afon Trannon, and the Afon Carno join as left bank tributaries immediately upstream of Caersws. Mochdre Brook enters on the western edge of Newtown followed by the Bechan Brook just northeast of the town. The Mule enters at Abermule and the River Rhiw east of Berriew followed shortly by the Camlad which rises above Churchstoke and by the Luggy Brook. The left bank Sylfaen Brook enters at Welshpool and the Bele Brook via the New Cut east of Arddlin.  The River Vyrnwy, which begins at Lake Vyrnwy, flows eastwards through Powys gathering the waters of the Banwy, Cain and Tanat before forming part of the border between England and Wales, and joining the Severn near Melverley, Shropshire. The River Perry joins on the left bank above Shrewsbury whilst both the Rad Brook and the Rea Brook, which flows north from its source in the Stiperstones, join the Severn within the city. The left bank tributary, the River Tern, after flowing south from Market Drayton and being joined by the River Meese and the River Roden, meets the Severn at Attingham Park.  The River Worfe joins the Severn's left bank, just above Bridgnorth before the Mor, Borle and Dowles brooks join on the opposite bank over the next few miles, the last-named draining Wyre Forest. The River Stour rises in the north of Worcestershire in the Clent Hills, near St Kenelm's Church at Romsley. It flows north into the adjacent West Midlands at Halesowen. It then flows westwards through Cradley Heath and Stourbridge where it leaves the Black Country. It is joined by the Smestow Brook at Prestwood before it winds around southwards to Kinver, and then flows back into Worcestershire. It then passes through Wolverley, Kidderminster and Wilden to its confluence with the Severn at Stourport-on-Severn. The Dick Brook, Shrawley Brook and Grimley Brook enter on the right bank before the River Salwarpe which runs through Droitwich enters on the opposite (east) bank. The River Teme flows eastwards from its source in Mid Wales, straddling the border between Shropshire and Herefordshire, it is joined by the River Onny, River Corve and River Rea before it finally joins the Severn on the southern edge of Worcester. Bushley Brook joins just upstream of the confluence of the Warwickshire Avon with the Severn at Tewkesbury. One of several Avons, this one flows west through Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. It is then joined by its tributary the River Arrow, before joining the Severn. The rivers Swilgate and Chelt also join the Severn's left bank, as do the Hatherley and Horsbere brooks before it reaches Gloucester. The River Leadon enters the tidal West Channel of the Severn at Over, immediately west of Gloucester. The River Frome is the second significant tributary to enter the tidal stretch of the Severn, doing so at Framilode. Bideford Brook drains the easternmost part of the Forest of Dean, entering the Severn estuary east of Blakeney. On the opposite (southeast) bank the flow of the River Cam is usurped by the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal before reaching the estuary. The Lyd enters the west bank of the estuary at Lydney Harbour opposite the place where Berkeley Pill carries the waters of the Little Avon River into it. The final tributary before the Severn Bridge is the collection of streams which enter via Oldbury Pill.  The River Wye, from its source in Plynlimon in Wales ( from the source of the Severn), flows generally south east through the Welsh towns of Rhayader and Builth Wells. It enters Herefordshire, flows through Hereford, and is shortly afterwards joined by the River Lugg, before flowing through Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth, and then southwards where it forms part of the boundary between England (Forest of Dean) and Wales. It flows into the Severn estuary south of the town of Chepstow.  The Mounton and Nedern brooks enter on the Monmouthshire side between the two motorway crossings. The Port of Bristol is on the Severn Estuary, where another River Avon flows into it through the Avon Gorge. The River Usk and the Ebbw River flow into the Severn Estuary at Uskmouth just south of Newport.

Settlements.

The river's course within Wales lies wholly within the county of Powys. The first town it encounters downstream of its source is Llanidloes where it is joined by the Dulas and the Clywedog. It flows past the villages of Llandinam and Caersws before reaching Newtown. It then runs by Abermule and Cilcewydd before flowing beside Welshpool, the last town on its course in Wales.  Entering Shropshire and England, a few villages such as Shrawardine sit back from the river as it meanders eastwards towards the county town of Shrewsbury. More villages, notably Atcham, Wroxeter and Cressage sit beside the river as it turns southeast and heads for the gorge at Ironbridge before turning south for Bridgnorth. The Shropshire villages of Quatford and Hampton Loade and the Worcestershire village of Upper Arley follow, before the Severn runs through Bewdley and Stourport-on-Severn in quick succession. The river then passes the villages of Astley Burf and Holt Fleet before entry into the county town of Worcester. Several villages sit back from the river before it runs by Upton-upon-Severn and then enters Gloucestershire as it joins with the Warwickshire Avon outside of Tewkesbury. A few more villages intervene, notable amongst which is Maisemore before the river enters the county town of Gloucester from which point it is tidal.  Several more villages sit beside the tidal stretch. Amongst these are Elmore, Epney and Framilode on the east bank and Minsterworth, Broadoak and Newnham on Severn on the west bank.

Transport.

Bridges.

The Severn is bridged at many places, and many of these bridges are notable in their own right. The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge was the world's first iron arch bridge. Several other bridges crossing the river were designed and built by the engineer Thomas Telford.  The two major road bridges of the Severn crossing link south eastern Wales with the southern counties of England.  Prior to the construction of the first bridge in 1966, the channel was crossed by the Aust Ferry.  Other notable bridges include:

Rail.

The Severn Tunnel, completed in 1886 by John Hawkshaw on behalf of the Great Western Railway, lies near the Second Severn Crossing road bridge, and carries the South Wales Main Line section of the Great Western Main Line under the channel. The original line built before the Severn Tunnel was the South Wales Railway from Gloucester, that followed the estuary alongside present day stations of Lydney, Chepstow, Caldicot and Severn Tunnel Junction to Newport.  Cars could also be transported through the Severn Tunnel. In the 1950s three trains a day made round trips between Severn Tunnel Junction and Pilning. The vehicles were loaded onto open flat bed carriages and pulled by a small pannier tank locomotive, although sometimes they were joined to a scheduled passenger train. The prudent owner paid to cover the vehicle with a sheet, as sparks often flew when the steam locomotive tackled the slope leading to the tunnel exit. A railway coach was provided for passengers and drivers. Reservations could be made and the fee for the car was about thirty shillings (£1.50) in the early 1950s.

Disasters.

There have been many disasters on the Severn, which have claimed perhaps 300 lives, depending on sources, especially during the 20th century. The Severn Railway Bridge was badly damaged by the collision of two river barges in 1960, which led to its demolition in 1970. Five crew members of both the Arkendale H and Wastdale H died in the accident. More recently the river flooded during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2019–20 United Kingdom floods.

Navigation.

There is a public right of navigation between Pool Quay, near Welshpool, and Stourport. However this stretch of the river has little traffic, other than small boats, canoes and some tour boats in Shrewsbury. Below Stourport, where the river is more navigable for larger craft, users must obtain permits from the Canal & River Trust, who are the navigation authority. During spring freshet the river can be closed to navigation.  At Upper Parting above Gloucester, the river divides into two, and flows either side of Alney Island to Lower Parting. The West Channel is no longer navigable. The East Channel is navigable as far as Gloucester Docks, from where the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal provides a navigable channel south. Between the docks and Lower Parting Llanthony Weir marks the Normal Tidal Limit (NTL) of the East Channel of the river.  In the tidal section of the river below Gloucester, the Gloucester Harbour Trustees are the competent harbour authority. The Trustees maintain navigation lights at various points along the river (including on Chapel Rock and Lyde Rock, and leading lights at Slime Road, Sheperdine and Berkeley Pill).

Locks.

There are locks on the lower Severn to enable seagoing boats to reach as far as Stourport. The most northerly lock is at Lincombe, about downstream from Stourport.

Associated canals.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, (both narrow beam) and the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal join the Severn at Stourport, Worcester and Gloucester respectively. The Droitwich Barge Canal, a broad beam canal, joins the Severn at Hawford, near to the River Salwarpe, and connects to the Droitwich Canal (narrow beam) in the name town, which then forms a link to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The two Droitwich canals re-opened in 2010 after major restoration.  The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal connects the Severn at Gloucester to the Severn at Sharpness, avoiding a stretch of the tidal river which is dangerous to navigate. The Stroudwater Navigation used to join the tidal Severn at Framilode, but since the 1920s has connected to the Severn only via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.  The Lydney Canal is a short canal which connects Lydney to the river.  The section of the river between Tewkesbury and Worcester forms part of the Avon Ring, a circular cruising route which includes 129 locks and covers parts of three other waterways.

Passenger transport.

The tidal river.

Paddle steamers were operated in the Severn Estuary from the mid 19th century to the late 1970s by P & A Campbell of Bristol. The vessels, "Cardiff Queen", "Bristol Queen", "Glen Usk", "Glen Gower" and "Britannia" all operated on this route in the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1986 Waverley Excursions has operated occasional sailings to Sharpness and Lydney by the "MV Balmoral".  A number of ferries were also operated on the tidal river, for example at New Passage, Purton and Arlingham. The last ferry was the Aust Ferry, which closed in 1966 when the Severn Bridge opened. One of the Aust ferries, "Severn Princess", is still in Chepstow although largely derelict.

The upper river.

In Worcester, the Worcester River Cruises have boat trips up and down the river between Tewkesbury and Stourport, operating the boats "The Pride of the Midlands" and "The Earl Grosvenor".  The Cathedral Ferry, a foot passenger ferry, also operates on summer weekends from the steps of Worcester Cathedral.  In Shropshire the Hampton Loade Ferry used to operate across the river though has been closed since 2016.  In Shrewsbury, boat trips around the loop of the town centre are at present provided by the "Sabrina" and depart from Victoria Quay near the Welsh Bridge during the summer.

Severn Estuary.

The river becomes tidal close to Maisemore, on the West Channel just north of Gloucester, and at Llanthony Weir on the East Channel. The tidal river downstream from Gloucester is sometimes referred to as the Severn Estuary, but the river is usually considered to become the Severn Estuary after the Second Severn Crossing near Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire (the point to which the jurisdiction of the Gloucester Harbour Trustees extends), or at Aust, the site of the Severn Bridge.  The Severn Estuary extends to a line from Lavernock Point (south of Cardiff) to Sand Point near Weston-super-Mare. West of this line is the Bristol Channel. In the Severn Estuary (or the Bristol Channel in the last two cases, depending where the boundary is drawn) are the rocky islands called Denny Island, Steep Holm and Flat Holm.  The estuary is about wide at Aust, and about wide between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare.

Severn Sea.

Until Tudor times the Bristol Channel was known as the Severn Sea, and it is still known as this in both Welsh and Cornish (Môr Hafren and Mor Havren respectively, with Môr meaning Sea).

Severn bore.

A phenomenon associated with the lower reaches of the Severn is the tidal bore, which forms upstream of the port of Sharpness.  It is frequently asserted that the river's estuary, which empties into the Bristol Channel, has the second largest tidal range in the world—, exceeded only by the Bay of Fundy. However a tidal range greater than that of the Severn is recorded from the lesser known Ungava Bay in Canada. During the highest tides, the rising water is funnelled up the Severn estuary into a wave that travels rapidly upstream against the river current. The largest bores occur in spring, but smaller ones can be seen throughout the year. The bore is accompanied by a rapid rise in water level which continues for about one and a half hours after the bore has passed.

Industry.

A stretch of the River Severn in Shropshire, is known as Ironbridge Gorge. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Its historic importance is due to its role as the centre of the iron industry in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. The gorge and the village of Ironbridge get their name from the Iron Bridge across the Severn, built in 1779, which was the first cast-iron arch bridge ever constructed.  Two nuclear power stations are situated on the river, in the area of South Gloucestershire. Oldbury Nuclear Power Station and Berkeley Nuclear Power Station both made use of the River Severn as part of the power generation and nuclear cooling processes. Both are now decommissioned.

Wildlife.

The sides of the estuary are also important feeding grounds for waders, notably at the Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve and the Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust. River shingle habitat can also be found on the lower estuary, notable for its population of the endangered 5-spot Ladybird.  The river forms part of the Severn-Trent flyway, a route used by migratory birds to cross Great Britain.

Literary and musical allusions.

The River Severn is named several times in A.E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad" (1896): "It dawns in Asia, tombstones show/And Shropshire names are read;/And the Nile spills his overflow/Beside the Severn's dead" (“1887"); "Severn stream" (“The Welsh Marches"); and "Severn shore" (“Westward from the high-hilled plain...”).  In William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1", Henry Hotspur Percy recalls the valour of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March in a long battle against Welshman Owain Glyndŵr upon the Severn's banks, claiming the flooding Severn "affrighted with (the warriors') bloody looks ran fearfully among the trembling reeds and hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, bloodstained with these valiant combatants."  The Severn was the inspiration for a number of works by Gloucestershire composer Ivor Gurney, including the songs "Western Sailors" (1925) and "Severn Meadows" (1917).  Gloucestershire writer and poet Brian Waters published "Severn Tide" with J. M. Dent in 1947 and followed it with "Severn Stream" in 1949. With anecdotal stories about his travels, both books tell of the lives of the people who lived and worked on and along the river, describing the landscape with a poet's eye. Waters links Nodens with the Seven Bore and the association of the Celtic deity with the river is explored at length by Rogers.  Several 20th-century English composers wrote works inspired by the river. Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) wrote "A Severn Rhapsody," his Opus 3, in 1923; taking the Severn River and its surrounding countryside as his inspiration. Edward Elgar (1857-1934) wrote "The Severn Suite," Opus 87, in 1930. Elgar lived much of both his early life and his later life near Worcester, through which the Severn runs. Herbert Howells (1892-1983), born close to the Severn in Lydney, wrote the complex "Missa Sabrinensis" (Mass of the Severn) in 1954, and an earlier hymn tune simply entitled "Severn".  The Severn is often mentioned in Ellis Peters' "The Cadfael Chronicles", set in or around Shrewsbury Abbey, beside the river.  In Julian Barnes' 2011 novel, "The Sense of an Ending", Tony, the main character, recalls "a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams," an allusion to a visit to the Severn Bore.

The River Severn (), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, discharging an average of into the Bristol Channel at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, at an altitude of, on the Plynlimon massif, which lies close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes. The river then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The three county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester lie on its course.

La Severn (en gallois ', en latin "Sabrina"), anciennement la Saverne ou Sabrine en français, est un fleuve né au pays de Galles et traversant l'Angleterre occidentale. D'une longueur de, c'est le plus long cours d'eau du Royaume-Uni.


Biography.

Origins.

George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the oldest of thirteen children, nine of whom reached maturity. His father, Julius Bernhardt Engelmann, was a member of a family from which for several successive generations were chosen ministers for the Reformed Church at Bacharach-on-the-Rhine. Julius was a graduate of the University of Halle, and was also educated for the ministry, but he devoted his life to education. He established a school for young women in Frankfurt, which were rare at the time. George Engelmann's mother, Julie Antoinette, was the only daughter of Antoinette André and George Oswald May. The latter, in his earlier years, was an artist of note at the Court of Weimar. Julie Antoinette was Julius Engelmann's coadjutor in the school for young women, and its success was largely due to her management and tact.  His uncle, Friedrich Theodor, a German pioneer of Illinois, was an early American viticulturist.

Education.

George Engelmann received his early education at the gymnasium in Frankfurt. According to himself, he first became interested in plants around age 15. He voluntarily devoted much of his time after school duties to studying history, modern languages, and drawing.  Assisted by a scholarship (founded by the “Reformed Congregation of Frankfurt”), in 1827 he began to study sciences at the University of Heidelberg, where he met Karl Schimper and Alexander Braun. With the latter especially an intimate friendship and correspondence were preserved unbroken until Braun's death in 1877. He also retained friendship with Schimper. However, that erratic genius abandoned botany despite obtaining a remarkable grasp of philosophical botany and laying the foundations of phyllotaxy.  In 1828 young Engelmann's studies at Heidelberg were interrupted by his having joined the students in a political demonstration. He thereupon left Heidelberg and entered the University of Berlin, where he stayed for two years. In 1831, he received the degree of MD from the University of Würzburg.  His dissertation for the medical degree, more related to botany than to medicine, was published at Frankfurt in 1832 under the title of "De Antholysi Prodromus". It was devoted to morphology — mainly to the structure of monstrosities and aberrant forms of plants — and was illustrated by five plates of figures drawn and transferred to the lithographic stone by the author's own hand. Its subject was so directly in line with that of a treatise on the metamorphosis of plants by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that it was heartily welcomed by the poet-philosopher, whose own life was then approaching its close. Having received Engelmann's treatise through his correspondent Marianne von Willemer, Goethe inquired after the young author, saying that Engelmann had completely apprehended Goethe's ideas concerning vegetable morphology, and had shown a peculiar genius for their development. So strong was his confidence in Engelmann's ability that he offered to give him his whole store of unpublished notes and sketches.  In 1832 Engelmann went to Paris, where he again became associated with Braun, and also with Louis Agassiz.

Emigration to United States.

Wishing to visit America, he accepted a proposition from his uncles to become their agent for the purchase of lands in the United States. In September 1832, he sailed from Bremen for Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to his duties assessing land investment opportunities, he also spent time on botanical travels, first visiting Thomas Nuttall in Philadelphia. He then went to St. Louis, Missouri, and from there around to the adjacent states. He settled with his relatives and the lawyer Gustav Koerner on a farm in St. Clair County, Illinois near Belleville for three years.  For the purpose of forming a correct judgment of the lands of the new country to which he had come, he made many long, lonesome, and often adventurous horse-back journeys in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. He often suffered sickness and hardship upon those journeys, but he persevered until he finished all the business he had planned to do. He made much use of his scientific, as well as practical, knowledge in the prosecution of that business, doing mineralogical and geological work, but only the botanical notes which he then made were used in his subsequent scientific career.

Medical practice.

Having completed his business engagement, in the autumn of 1835 Engelmann moved to St. Louis and established a medical practice. During the three years that had passed since he left his native land the slender means he brought with him became exhausted, and he began the practice of his profession in absolute poverty. To furnish an office he was even obliged to part with his gun and with the faithful horse which had carried him on so many long and lonesome journeys. At that time St. Louis was little more than a frontier trading post, but Engelmann had strong faith in its future greatness, and he lived to see it become one of the chief cities of the United States. In 1836 he founded a German newspaper called "Das Westland", which contained valuable articles on life and manners in the United States, and gained a high reputation both in the United States and in Europe.  Four years were passed before he had laid the foundation of his medical practice and had earned the means of making a visit to his old German home. In 1840 he returned to Germany, where in Kreuznach he married his cousin Dorothea Horstmann on June 11. (Their son George Julius Engelmann became a noted gynecologist.) They soon returned to America. Upon reaching New York City, Engelmann for the first time met Asa Gray, already the most noted of American botanists, and the friendship between those two eminent men thus begun was broken only by death. This friendship is noteworthy because of the evidently beneficial effect which it had upon botanical science in America.  Upon his return to St. Louis with his young wife, Engelmann immediately resumed his medical practice. Then, and long afterward, a large proportion of the inhabitants of St. Louis were of French and German-speaking families, and his familiarity with those languages, as well as with the English, gave him great advantage in extending his practice. Because of this and of his great professional ability, as the years went on he acquired a financial competence that gave him an independence. Never, however, did he take advantage of his success in this respect to lessen his labors, for whenever his medical labors were relaxed his scientific work fully engrossed his attention.  The confidence he inspired in his medical clientele was such that as he grew older he could take long vacations and resume his practice almost at will. After 1869, he no longer kept a medical office and attended the few patients he saw in his study. Still, it was always difficult for him to refuse medical aid to those who sought it, and even up to the last year of his life there were old friends to whose families he was the only acceptable medical adviser and whose appeal for aid he could not refuse. Illustrating this fact, as well as Engelmann's energetic manner, his son relates the following incident: “It was a bitter, sleety winter night, when the ringing of the doorbell awoke me, and I heard an urgent call for father from the messenger of a patient. I would not arouse him, and proposed to go myself; but he had heard all, and, hurrying into his clothes, was ready to go in spite of my remonstrance 'What of the night?' he said, vexed at my interference, 'Am I already useless, to be cast aside? I would rather die in harness than rust out.' So I helped him down the icy steps, through the blinding sleet, into his carriage, and off on his mission of mercy.”

Botanical studies.

Engelmann devoted himself to his medical practice, but in his later years made a specialty of botany. An 1842 monograph on dodders, a very difficult genus to examine, had established his reputation as a botanist.  He took several vacations from his medical practice and devoted them all to the gathering of data for his scientific work, the details of which were elaborated at his home. One of these vacations extended from 1856 to 1858, the greater part of the first summer having been spent in botanical work at the Harvard gardens and herbarium in companionship with Asa Gray. Then, with his wife and young son, he visited his native land and other parts of Europe, occupying his time with scientific observation and study. In 1868 Dr. Engelmann and his wife again visited Europe for a year, the son being then in Berlin pursuing his medical studies. These visits to Europe were also the occasions of frequent and familiar personal interviews with men whose names were well known to the scientific world, such as Joseph Dalton Hooker, Alexander Braun, De Bary, Virchow, and others.  In 1859, he published "Cactaceae of the Boundary" which studied cacti on the border of the United States and Mexico. He also made special studies of the pines, rushes, spurges, and other little-known and difficult groups, contributing numerous articles on them to the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to government reports. Material in his specialties collected by the federal government was sent to him for examination. He was one of the earliest to study the North American vines, and nearly all that is known scientifically of the American species and forms is due to his investigations. His first monograph on "The Grape-Vines of Missouri" was published in 1860, and his latest on this subject shortly before his death. His two major works on cacti remain important today.  He was a founder and longtime president of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, and encouraged the wealthy St. Louis businessman Henry Shaw to develop his gardens to be of scientific as well as public use; "Shaw's Gardens" became the Missouri Botanical Garden. On a visit to England in 1857, he had consulted with William Jackson Hooker on the establishment of Shaw's gardens. He was also one of the original founders of the National Academy of Science.

Phylloxera.

In 1861, Engelmann had published a pioneering paper in the United States examining plant diseases. It focussed on the grape. He also established an herbarium for 10 species of grape he had discovered.  He then played an important, but little known role in rescuing the French wine industry. In the 1870s French vineyards came under attack by a small insect, "Phylloxera vastatrix", an aphid-like pest which sucks sap from the roots of grape vines. Growers observed that certain imported American vines resisted this pest, and the French government dispatched a scientist to St. Louis to consult with the Missouri state entomologist and with Engelmann, who had studied American grapes since the 1850s. Engelmann verified that certain living American species had resisted Phylloxera for nearly 40 years. In addition, "Vitis riparia", a wild vine of the Mississippi Valley, did not cross pollinate with less resistant species, the cause of previous grafting failures. Engelmann arranged to have millions of shoots and seeds collected and sent to France, where the species proved to be very successful in providing rootstock.

Other fields.

While botanical investigations constituted much the greater part of Dr. Engelmann's scientific work, he always had in hand data for other investigations. For example, he began meteorological observations when he first settled at St. Louis, and personally, or by proxy during his absence, he continued them without intermission until his death — a longer period, it is believed, than that of similar observations by any one man in America.  Engelmann often compared meteorological data with his friend and contemporary Augustus Fendler. The two also collaborated on horticultural experiments on cacti, and frequently corresponded on the matter of specimen collection.  Among the animals he studied were tapeworms ("Taenia"), the opossum, squirrels and mudpuppies ("Menobranchus").

Later explorations.

The death of his wife on January 29, 1879, greatly affected him. He turned to plants, seeking relief in study, but life and a continuance of its labors seemed to be almost hopeless. His condition changed but little during the remainder of the winter, but when in the spring C. S. Sargent came with the proposition that he should join him in a journey through the forests of the Pacific Coast region he accepted it. That journey, although a difficult one for a man of his age, was of great benefit to him physically. His shattered spirit also was much revived and, among his friends, he resumed and sustained his lifelong habit of cheerfulness of manner.

Legacy.

He is commemorated in the names of several plants, including Engelmann Oak ("Quercus engelmannii"), Engelmann Spruce ("Picea engelmannii"), Apache Pine ("Pinus engelmannii"), and Engelmann's Prickly-pear ("Opuntia engelmannii").  Engelmann's botanical collection, valuable as containing the original specimens from which many western plants have been named and described, was given to the Missouri Botanical Garden. This gift led to the founding of the Henry Shaw School of Botany as a department of Washington University in St. Louis, where an Engelmann professorship of botany has been established by Shaw in his honor.  Engelmann was interred in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 – 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico, one of his constant companions being another German-American, the botanical illustrator Paulus Roetter.

George Engelmann est un médecin et botaniste d'origine allemande, né "Georg Theodor Engelmann" à Francfort-sur-le-Main le, émigré aux États-Unis en 1832, décédé à Saint-Louis le. C'est dans cette dernière ville que s'est déroulée la plus grande partie de sa carrière professionnelle.


Early years and education.

Born in Pesaro, Tebaldi was the daughter of a cellist, Teobaldo Tebaldi, and Giuseppina Barbieri, a nurse. Her parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in the home of her maternal grandparents in Langhirano.  Stricken with polio at the age of three, Tebaldi became interested in music and was a member of the church choir in Langhirano. Her mother sent her, at the age of thirteen, for piano lessons with Giuseppina Passani in Parma, who took the initiative that Tebaldi study voice with Italo Brancucci, a singing teacher at the conservatory of Parma. She was admitted to the conservatory at the age of 17, taking lessons with Brancucci and Ettore Campogalliani, and later transferred to Liceo musicale Rossini in Pesaro taking lessons with Carmen Melis, and on her suggestion with Giuseppe Pais. She later studied with Beverley Peck Johnson in New York City.

Italian career.

Tebaldi made her stage debut as Elena in Boito's "Mefistofele" in Rovigo in 1944, wartime conditions made for a difficult trip, Tebaldi partly travelling by horse cart to Rovigo, and her return trip coming under machine-gun fire. Her early career was also marked by a performance in Parma in "La bohème", "L'amico Fritz" and "Andrea Chénier". She caused a stir when in 1946 she made her debut as Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" alongside Francesco Merli as the title role in Trieste.  Her major breakthrough came in 1946, when she auditioned for Arturo Toscanini. Toscanini was favorably impressed, calling her ""voce d'angelo"" (voice of an angel). Tebaldi made her La Scala debut that year at the concert which marked the reopening of the theatre after World War II. She sang the "Prayer" ("Dal tuo stellato soglio") from Rossini's biblical opera, "Mosè in Egitto", as well as the soprano part in Verdi's "Te Deum." She was given the operatic roles of Margherita and Elena in "Mefistofele" and Elsa in "Lohengrin" in 1946. The following year, she appeared in "La bohème" and as Eva in "Die Meistersinger". Toscanini encouraged her to sing the role of Aida and invited her to rehearse the role in his studio. She was of the opinion that the role of Aida was reserved for a dramatic soprano, but Toscanini convinced her and she made her role debut at La Scala in 1950 alongside Mario del Monaco and Fedora Barbieri in a performance conducted by Antonino Votto. This was the greatest success in her still young career and was to launch her international career.  Her voice was used for Sophia Loren's singing in the film version of "Aida" (1953).

International career.

She went on a concert tour with the La Scala ensemble in 1950, first to the Edinburgh Festival and then on to London, where she made her debut as Desdemona in two performances of "Otello" at the Royal Opera House and in the Verdi Requiem, both conducted by Victor de Sabata.

The Met.

Tebaldi made her American debut in 1950 as Aida at the San Francisco Opera; her Metropolitan Opera debut took place on 31 January 1955, as Desdemona opposite Mario Del Monaco's Otello. For some twenty years, she made the Met the focus of her activities. For the 1962/1963 season, Tebaldi convinced the director of the Met, Rudolf Bing, to stage a revival of Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur," an opera that Bing said he "detested." Unfortunately, Tebaldi was not in top vocal form and cancelled performances, and, as Bing says in '1000 Nights at the Opera', "we had to do the wretched thing without her." Her Lecouvreur, however, was a practical move for the Met, as Tebaldi was "the greatest box-office draw since Flagstad", according to Francis Robinson, the then assistant manager in charge of ticket sales.  One of the public's favorite Tebaldi roles is Minnie in Puccini's "La fanciulla del West". When she made her debut in the role at the Met, she was told that, as all Minnies do, she would have to enter in the 3rd act on horseback. Tebaldi, who had a lifelong fear of horses, refused to go near the animal until she was sure he was safe. At her first rehearsal with the animal, Tebaldi approached him, patted his mane, and said, "Well, Mr. Horse, I am Tebaldi. You and I are going to be friends, eh?" Tebaldi conquered her fear and the performances were a success.  She sang more at the Met and far less elsewhere. She had developed a special rapport with the Met audiences and became known as "Miss Sold Out", as the Tebaldi name on the marquee was thought to be a performance that could hardly be matched. She sang there some 270 times in "La bohème", "Madama Butterfly", "Tosca", "Manon Lescaut", "La fanciulla del West", "Otello", "La forza del destino", "Simon Boccanegra", "Falstaff", "Andrea Chénier", "Adriana Lecouvreur", "La Gioconda" and Violetta in a production of "La traviata" created specially for her. Puccini's Tosca became her most performed role at the Met, playing it 45 times. She was the Leonora in "La forza del destino" on the night that Leonard Warren suddenly died in a performance in 1960, and she was Adriana Lecouvreur on the night Placido Domingo made his Met debut in 1968. She made her last appearance there as Desdemona in "Otello" on January 8, 1973, the same role in which she had made her Met debut eighteen years earlier and became one of her signature roles.  Her years in the Met, as well as in America, was that she became a well-loved figure by the American operatic public. Tebaldi did not became a classical temperamental diva, but trusted her own artistic instinct. Rudolf Bing, referring to Tebaldi's demanding side, once famously said of her, "she has dimples of iron".

Tebaldi and Callas.

During the early 1950s, controversy arose regarding a supposed rivalry between Tebaldi and the great Greek-American soprano Maria Callas. The contrast between Callas's often unconventional vocal qualities and Tebaldi's classically beautiful sound resurrected an argument as old as opera itself, namely, beauty of sound versus the expressive use of sound.  In 1951, Tebaldi and Maria Callas were jointly booked for a vocal recital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although the singers agreed that neither would perform encores, Tebaldi took two, and Callas was reportedly incensed. This incident began the rivalry, which reached a fever pitch in the mid-1950s, at times even engulfing the two women themselves, who were said by their more fanatical followers to have engaged in verbal barbs in each other's direction. Tebaldi was quoted as saying, "I have one thing that Callas doesn't have: a heart" while Callas was quoted in "Time" magazine as saying that comparing her with Tebaldi was like "comparing Champagne with Cognac. No, with Coca Cola." However, witnesses to the interview stated that Callas only said "champagne with cognac", and it was a bystander who quipped, "No, with Coca-Cola", but the "Time" reporter attributed the latter comment to Callas. According to John Ardoin, however, these two singers should never have been compared. Tebaldi was trained by Carmen Melis, a noted verismo specialist, and she was rooted in the early 20th century Italian school of singing just as firmly as Callas was rooted in 19th century bel canto. Callas was a dramatic soprano, whereas Tebaldi considered herself essentially a lyric soprano. Callas and Tebaldi generally sang a different repertoire: in the early years of her career, Callas concentrated on the heavy dramatic soprano roles and later in her career on the bel canto repertoire, whereas Tebaldi concentrated on late Verdi and verismo roles, where her limited upper extension and her lack of a florid technique were not issues. They shared a few roles, including Tosca in Puccini's opera and "La Gioconda", which Tebaldi performed only late in her career.  The alleged rivalry aside, Callas made remarks appreciative of Tebaldi, and vice versa. During an interview with Norman Ross in Chicago, Callas said, "I admire Tebaldi's tone; it's beautiful – also some beautiful phrasing. Sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice." Francis Robinson of the Met wrote of an incident in which Tebaldi asked him to recommend a recording of "La Gioconda" in order to help her learn the role. Being fully aware of the alleged rivalry, he recommended Zinka Milanov's version. A few days later, he went to visit Tebaldi, only to find her sitting by the speakers, listening intently to Callas's recording. She then looked up at him and asked, "Why didn't you tell me Maria's was the best?" According to "Time" magazine, when Callas quit La Scala, "Tebaldi made a surprising maneuver: she announced that she would not sing at La Scala without Callas. 'I sing only for artistic reasons; it is not my custom to sing against anybody', she said."  Callas visited Tebaldi after a performance of "Adriana Lecouvreur" at the Met in 1968, and the two were reunited. In 1978, Tebaldi spoke warmly of her late colleague and summarized this rivalry: This rivality "[sic]" was really building from the people of the newspapers and the fans. But I think it was very good for both of us, because the publicity was so big and it created a very big interest about me and Maria and was very good in the end. But I don't know why they put this kind of rivality "[sic]", because the voice was very different. She was really something unusual. And I remember that I was very young artist too, and I stayed near the radio every time that I know that there was something on radio by Maria.

Voice.

Tebaldi's voice was reputed to be one of the most beautiful of the day, with rich, perfectly produced tones. At the start of her career, her audition in bomb-ravaged La Scala's reopening was marked by Arturo Toscanini praising Tebaldi, calling her "La Voce d'Angelo" with enthusiastic "Bravas!" and applauds. Alan Blythe posits that in posterity, Tebaldi holds a position of being one of the last and best spinto sopranos of the last 50 years, due to Tebaldi's successors in the fach not having the right vocal equipment for her parts. Blythe furthers this in part to Tebaldi's recordings, and her live performances onstage. Tebaldi's voice added a frisson of urgency when she sang in an opera house. This was noted in two of her performances as Leonora in Verdi's "La forza del destino", evident in a recording done at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1953, where conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos urged her to great heights of vocal and dramatic achievement, and a film shot in Naples, interpreting the role of Leonora.  Tebaldi withdrew from performances in 1963 to restudy, made in part due to the emotional stress after eighteen years of singing. After thirteen months of reworking her voice, Tebaldi possessed an unmistakable metallic edge in her voice which only strengthened over the years. On her mid-to-later career, Tebaldi shifted from being a spinto to one with a near-dramatic sound. Adding "La Gioconda" in her repertoire, Tebaldi has chest notes carried high, bearing ample size and strength but little of the known beauty of Tebaldi's tone. Similarly, in her recorded Puccini roles at that time, one can’t always count on the "floats" being easily produced or accurately pitched.  Some critics of Tebaldi have commented her seemingly incomplete technique, sometimes she took on strident, full-voiced top notes when tackling material above the high B-flat, and occasional lapses on her pitch. For most audiences however, there is a sheer and plumy richness of Tebaldi's voice, her melting legato phrases, the deeply expressive but never maudlin quality of singing, the beauty of her floated pianissimo high notes, and her temperament when dwelling in moments of dramatic intensity. Tebaldi's often mentioned alleged rival, Maria Callas, said in an interview, "I admire Tebaldi's tone; it's beautiful – also some beautiful phrasing. Sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice."  Tebaldi herself mentioned that recording presents challenges for her, as she misses the stimulation of an audience, and her powerful voice would often cause sound engineers to insist that she turn away from the microphone at moments of climactic intensity.

Personal life.

Tebaldi enjoyed a beloved relationship with her mother, who helped nurture and was devoted to her career and well-being from an early age. Her mother's death in 1957 took on a huge blow to Tebaldi, whose grief was unbearable and took effort in going back to the stage.  Tebaldi never married. In a 1995 interview with "The Times", she said she had no regrets about her single life. "I was in love many times," she said. "This is very good for a woman." But she added, "How could I have been a wife, a mother and a singer? Who takes care of the piccolini when you go around the world? Your children would not call you Mama, but Renata." She also wrote, "I started my career at 22 and finished it at 54. Thirty-two years of success, satisfaction and sacrifices. Singing was my life's scope to the point that I could never have a family." Tebaldi had a short relationship with bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. A longer one with conductor Arturo Basile was formed in 1958, Basile reportedly saying his intentions of marrying but was ended by Tebaldi in 1962 due to Basile's behavior.

Later years.

By the end of her career, Tebaldi had sung in 1,262 performances, 1,048 complete operas, and 214 concerts.  Tebaldi retired from the opera stage in 1973 as Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" in the Metropolitan Opera, the same role she debuted there 30 years previously. In January of 1976, she retired from giving recitals, making her last one in New York's Carnegie Hall where she was overcome with emotion and had to return to perform after a few weeks in a successful but shaky performance. She received six curtain calls and standing ovations from the audience. She then moved out of her New York apartment, her home for many years during her stint in the Met and returned to Italy, where she gave her final public appearance in a vocal recital in La Scala in May 1976. She also made recitals around the globe, in one recital held in Manila with frequent partner Franco Corelli, Tebaldi's voice cracked in a Manon Lescaut aria, she then massaged her throat and genuflected to great applause from the audience. Regarding her decision to retire, Tebaldi said that she stopped singing while she still had a powerful voice to avoid "the mortifying season of decline."  She spent the majority of her last days in Milan. She died at age 82 at her home, in San Marino. She is buried in the Tebaldi family chapel at Mattaleto cemetery in Langhirano. At her death, audiences at Venice's La Fenice observed a moment of silence in her memory. Luciano Pavarotti said, "Farewell, Renata, your memory and your voice will be etched on my heart forever".

Honours.

Tebaldi won the first Grammy Award Best Classical Performance - Vocal Soloist in 1959 for her album Operatic Recital. Their joint recording of Puccini's Turandot, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf and starring Birgit Nilsson as Turandot, Jussi Björling as Calaf, Tebaldi as Liù and Giorgio Tozzi as Timur with the Rome Opera Orchestra won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 1961.  She received the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic as a Knight Commander. She was also made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France.

Legacy.

Since February 2010 until 2013, the 15th-century Castle of Torrechiara – Langhirano – has hosted within its rooms a permanent exhibition dedicated to Renata Tebaldi. This “Castle for a Queen” unveils the many sides of this great diva, whose artistic and personal life remain on display. The items showcased followed her over the arc of time as she spread the world-class tradition of Italian lyrical art, all the way from the beginning of her career and throughout her artistic achievements. The exhibition is presented by the Renata Tebaldi Committee in collaboration with Superintendence of Environmental Heritage and Landscape of the province of Parma and Piacenza, the Regio Theatre Foundation of Parma and the Municipality of Langhirano and with the patronage of the province of Parma. On June 7, 2014, the museum dedicated to Renata Tebaldi was inaugurated in the stables of Villa Pallavicino in Busseto. Tebaldi has been awarded a star for recording in 1960 in Hollywood Walk of Fame in 6628 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California.

Renata Tebaldi, (, ; 1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period and was especially prominent as one of the stars of La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. Among the greatest and most beloved opera singers, she has been said to have possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century, a voice that was focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires. Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini praised Tebaldi's voice as "la voce d'angelo" ("the voice of an angel"), while La Scala music director Riccardo Muti summed up Tebaldi as "one of the greatest performers with one of the most extraordinary voices in the field of opera."

Renata Tebaldi est une soprano italienne, née le à Pesaro et morte le à Saint-Marin. Remarquée en 1946 par Arturo Toscanini, elle se produisit sous la direction des plus grands chefs d’orchestre de son temps : Victor de Sabata, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini et Karl Böhm. Sa carrière dura une trentaine d’années.


Geography.

Gujiao is located in central Shanxi. It's a county-level city, part of the prefecture-level city of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province. Its geographical area are in between latitude of 37° 40'-38° 8' N, and longitude of 111° 43'-112° 21' E. It's connected to the Wanbailin district of Taiyuan to the east, Loufan county to the west, Yangqu county and Jingle county to the north and Qingxu county and Jiaocheng county to the south. Its east-west width is about 50 kilometers, and north-south length is about 53 kilometers. The total area of Gujiao is about 1551 square kilometres.

Demography.

The population of Gujiao in 1999 stood at 192,458. Its estimated population in 2017 is about 222,000.

Economy.

The economy of Gujiao is largely based on coal-related industries, with major companies in coal, coal-chemistry, electricity, metallic parts casting, construction materials, etc. Gujiao is the largest production cite of coking coal (metallurgical coal) in China.

History.

Gujiao was part of the State of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period, and part of Zhao in the Warring States period. It was the western part of Jinyang throughout the following dynasties of Han, Wei, Jin and Northern Dynasties.  During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the part of Gujiao to the south of Fen River, the majority part of nowadays Gujiao, was part of Jiaocheng County and the minor part to the north of Fen River was part of Yangqu County. In the year 596 AD in Sui dynasty, the western part of Jinyang was separated to set up the county of Jiaocheng, and the county seat was in Gujiao. In 691 AD, the county seat of Jiaocheng was moved to Dalingzhuang, part of today's Jiaocheng County, in order to get easier access of the national roads of Sui dynasty. In 713 AD, the northern part of Jiaocheng County is separated to set up Luchuan County, with the county seat at Luyukou at today's Gujiao. In 714, the Luchuan county was removed, and divided by the Fen River, Gujiao was split between Jiaocheng County and Yangqu County ever after, for more than one thousand years.  In 1958, Gujiao industrial and mining district (古交工矿区) of Taiyuan was established. In 1988, the district was replaced with a county-level city, and it has remained so ever since.

Natural resources.

Gujiao is abundant with many minerals, especially coal. The coal mine is about 754 square kilometres, with the coal reserve of about 8.04 billion tons. The iron core reserve is about 30 million tons. The bauxite reserve is about 65.9 million tons. The limestone reserve is about 5.6 million tons. The dolomite reserve is about 2.65 billion tons. The coalbed methane reserve is about 5.66 billion cubic meters.

Gujiao () is a county-level city of Shanxi Province, North China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Taiyuan. The estimated population of Gujiao in 2017 is about 222,000.

Gujiao (古交 ; pinyin : Gǔjiāo) est une ville de la province du Shanxi en Chine. C'est une ville-district placée sous la juridiction administrative de la ville-préfecture de Taiyuan.


History.

Dacia 1300.

The Romanian government of the 1960s had decided to acquire the tooling and basic design of a western car to decrease Romania's reliance on imported consumer goods. Terms stated that the vehicle had to be inexpensive, large enough for a family, and powered by an engine displacing not more than 1.3 litres. Offers came from Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Austin, DKW, Peugeot among others, but the winner was the Renault 12.. The choice of a French design was probably political rather than entirely technical; Romania was attempting to cultivate economic relationships with Western Europe, particularly France.  Part of the resulting vehicles were sold to consumers in the Eastern Bloc, and in export markets such as South America, Canada, China, and North Korea, but also Great Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands. When automobile production started at the Mioveni factory, the Renault 12 was still a prototype; for this reason, Renault offered CKD kits and tooling for the older Renault 8 Major as a temporary surrogate. This resulted in the Dacia 1100, which was built for a few years until the 1300 would arrive. Both the R12 and its licensed copy were launched in 1969, although the 1300 was launched 9 days before the R12, on the 23 August parade. During the first few years of production, the plant assembled CKD kits imported from France. At the time of its launch, the 1300 was a modern car offering good comfort, safety, good performance and reliability, and even more so by Eastern standards of the time, set by 1960s and 70s Eastern Bloc vehicles.  The 1300 was subject to multiple facelifts in an effort to maintain consumers' interest in the model, but the basic design was kept for its entire 35-year lifespan. Although performance and fuel consumption were gradually improved, quality didn't always meet the standard once they had stopped importing CKD kits. Body panel corrosion became the model's primary problem. Air conditioning, airbags and anti-lock brakes were never offered.  In 1975, the Dacia 1302, a pickup truck derived from the 1300 platform, was introduced.

Dacia 1310 series.

In 1979, Dacia presented a revised version of the 1300 at the Bucharest Auto Show. In 1982, its name was changed to Dacia 1310, and later also came "1210", "1410" and a few other versions.  In 1983, the whole range was facelifted for the 1984 model year. A coupé version of the car, the 1410 Sport, with two doors and a lowered roof, was also released in 1983. In 1987 the Dacia 1320 liftback was introduced.  In 1989, a new generation Dacia 1310 was launched in estate and sedan versions. It was a minor modification of the previous generation with new headlights. A new liftback version named Dacia 1325 Liberta was introduced in 1990. The 1310 van was also launched in 1990. The fully facelifted Dacia 13xx range was introduced in 1993.  By the 1980s, the model was becoming dated and its chassis was no longer able to meet safety standards of the era, prompting Dacia to start work on a replacement. However, financial and political setbacks caused that replacement, the Dacia Nova, to be delayed until 1994, by which time it was already outdated. Although the newer Nova range (later evolving into Dacia SupeRNova and Dacia Solenza) sold well and displayed better road manners, it never replaced the 1310 range, due to its higher price, smaller interior and other disappointing factors (such as being offered only in a liftback body).  Therefore, Dacia was forced to facelift the 1310 model yet again, in 1998. The last 1310 model was simply named "Berlina" or "Break", for sedan or estate respectively. In an effort to keep up with modern standards, the last version was equipped with fuel injection and a catalytic converter, meeting Euro2 emission standards.  Since the original model in 1969, constant change in automobile size meant that the 1310 was a compact sedan by the end of its production, despite having started life as a mid-size car. For a few months in 2004, Dacia offered three different small sedan models simultaneously.  The model scored solid sale numbers right up to its last day of production, mainly due to its low price, value for money, and easy and inexpensive maintenance. The sedan ("Berlina") and the estate ("Break") had €4,100 and €4,250 price tags respectively in 2004. The Liberta liftback had been dropped in 1996, but production of the sedan and estate was over in 2004. The "Pick-Up" range ended production in December 2006. The Dacia Logan replaced the 1300/1310 model in 2004.

The Dacia 1300 () is a medium-sized family car that was built during the Cold War by Romanian auto maker Dacia. The "1300" stands for the engine displacement. The first Dacia 1300 left the assembly line on 23 August 1969. On 21 July 2004, the last Dacia 1310 (sedan version), number 1,959,730, rolled out the gates of the Mioveni production facility, just one month before its 35th anniversary.

La Dacia 1300 (et ses multiples carrosseries et évolutions) est une automobile roumaine, pratiquement identique à la Renault 12 à ses débuts, et produite sur le site de Pitești de 1969 à 2006.


History.

The city was founded by the Voortrekkers, following the defeat of Dingane at the Battle of Blood River, and was the capital of the short-lived Boer republic, Natalia. Britain took over Pietermaritzburg in 1843 and it became the seat of the Natal Colony's administration with the first lieutenant-governor, Martin West, making it his home. Fort Napier, named after the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Thomas Napier, was built to house a garrison. In 1893, Natal received responsibility for their own government and an assembly building was built along with the city hall.  On 7 June 1893, while the young Mahatma Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage. Despite Gandhi having a first-class ticket, he was ordered by the conductor to move to the van compartment at the end of the train: he refused, and he was removed from the train at Pietermaritzburg.  Shivering through the winter night in the waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the momentous decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there. Out of that struggle emerged his unique version of nonviolent resistance, Satyagraha. Today, a bronze statue of Gandhi stands in Church Street, in the city centre.  In 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, Natal became a province of the Union, and Pietermaritzburg remained the capital. During apartheid, the city was segregated into various sections. 90% of the Indian population was moved to the suburb of Northdale while most of its Zulu inhabitants were moved to the neighbouring township of Edendale and white inhabitants were moved out of those areas.

Name.

There exist two interpretations about the origin of the city's name. One is that it was named after Piet Retief and Gert (Gerrit) Maritz, two Voortrekker leaders. The other is that it was originally named after Piet Retief alone, since his full name was Pieter Maurits Retief. In this interpretation the original name was "Pieter Maurits Burg", later transliterated to the current name. Retief in fact never reached Pietermaritzburg and was killed by Dingane, successor to Shaka, king of the Zulus. Maritz died of illness on 23 September 1838 near the present-day town of Estcourt, some hundreds of kilometres northwest of Pietermaritzburg. This was after the battle with the Zulus at Bloukranz, and Maritz did not ever reach the Pietermaritzburg area. In 1938, however, the city announced officially that the second element "Maritz" should also honour Gert Maritz.  At the time of the rise of the Zulu Empire, the site that was to become Pietermaritzburg was called Umgungundlovu. This is popularly translated from the Zulu as "Place of the Elephant", although it could also be translated to mean "The elephant wins". Umgungundlovu is thus thought to be the site of some Zulu king's victory since "Elephant" (Indlovu) is a name traditionally taken by the Zulu monarch. Legend has it that Shaka had his warriors hunt elephant there to sell the ivory to English traders at Durban (then called Port Natal). Today, the town is still called by its Voortrekker name, although the municipality of which it is part bears the Zulu name.

University.

The University of Natal was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College and extended to Durban in 1922. The two campuses were incorporated into the University of Natal in March 1949. It became a major voice in the struggle against apartheid and was one of the first universities in the country to provide education to black students. It became the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.

Capital status.

Pietermaritzburg was the capital of the Colony of Natal until 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, and Natal became a province of the Union. Prior to 1994, Pietermaritzburg was the capital of Natal Province. Following the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa, as a result of which the Inkatha Freedom Party won a majority in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, Pietermaritzburg shared its status as capital of the (then newly created) province of KwaZulu-Natal with Ulundi. Pietermaritzburg became the legislative capital of the new province, while Ulundi became the administrative capital. The IFP, being strongly Zulu nationalist, desired that Ulundi, the capital of the Zulu Kingdom at the time of its fall to the British in the Anglo-Zulu War, be the post-apartheid capital of the province. Ulundi had also been the capital of the bantustan KwaZulu, which makes up a portion of modern KwaZulu-Natal. However, Ulundi severely lacked the infrastructure to be an effective seat of government, and the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Party, the two other strong political parties in the province, among others, called for Pietermaritzburg alone to be the capital. The debate came to an end when the ANC came to power in the province in 2004, and named Pietermaritzburg the sole capital of KwaZulu-Natal. This has resulted in the relocation of several government offices to Pietermaritzburg. This has generally been welcomed as a positive development for the region. Since 2004, progress such as the modernisation of several buildings in the city centre and a proliferation of retail and housing developments in the suburbs are results of recent investment in the city by both the public and private sectors.

Economy.

Until the late-1990s, the region was renowned for the production of high quality textile, clothing and footwear products. An example of the latter included the production of Doc Marten shoes. However, these industries have declined in the area due to lower production costs in Asia. Extensive timber plantations and numerous citrus farms surround the city, contributing a significant share of the city's output.  The Liberty Group has made major investments in several phases in the region since 2002 with the development of the Liberty Midlands Mall (the area's largest shopping centre by gross lettable area and its most prestigious) and Stay Easy hotel. Hulett's Aluminium and Willowton cooking oil contributes a substantial part of the region's industrial output.

Coat of arms.

The Pietermaritzburg borough council assumed a coat of arms in 1861. The shield depicted an elephant standing on grass, and a cross of five stars was placed above the shield. The motto was "Umgungunhlovu". It is unclear what the original colours were, but by 1910 the shield had been coloured blue. By 1931, the council had approved new artwork in which the stars were placed on a radiant sun. The arms were registered with the Natal Provincial Administration in November 1950. Many early renditions of the coat of arms, visible on older public building and wrought iron lampposts, features an elephant which is clearly an Asian Elephant rather than an African elephant. More recent versions reflect an African elephant.  The final version of the arms was granted by the College of Arms in May 1961. It was registered at the Bureau of Heraldry in May 1973. The blazon was : "Per fess Azure and Vert, over all an elephant statant Or, tusked Argent" (i.e. the shield was divided horizontally into blue over green, and displayed a gold elephant with silver tusks). The crest was changed to a blue sun displaying gold and silver stars, and two black wildebeest were added as supporters. Each had a shield on its shoulder, the dexter supporter's shield displaying the Union Jack and the sinister supporter's the flag of the Natalia republic.

Transport.

Road.

Pietermaritzburg is on the N3 highway, the primary route between the harbour city of Durban, some away, and the Pretoria-Johannesburg-Witwatersrand conurbation.  The R33 connects Pietermaritzburg with Lephalale via Greytown, Paulpietersburg, Carolina, Belfast and Vaalwater to the northeast, while the R56 connects Pietermaritzburg with Cape Town via Ixopo, Kokstad, Mthatha, East London, Port Elizabeth, George and Mossel Bay to the southwest. The R56 road becomes co-signed with the N2 highway at Stafford's Post.

Air.

The city is served by Pietermaritzburg Airport, which has regular scheduled services to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town.

Rail.

Pietermaritzburg Railway Station is served by trains on the Johannesburg-Durban and Cape Town-Durban routes of Shosholoza Meyl.  It has been mooted that the Metrorail commuter rail system be expanded from Cato Ridge to Pietermaritzburg.

Bus.

The Pietermaritzburg Municipality historically operated a tram service, which was closed down in the 1940s, and a bus service, which was closed down in the 1980s.  Nowadays regular daily bus services connect Pietermaritzburg to other major cities in South Africa. The bus station is located on Burger Street, opposite the McDonalds Centre, and it serves major bus companies. Greyhound and Intercape is the most reliable and it operates several round-trips from Durban to Johannesburg daily, where Pietermaritzburg is the second to last stop before Durban.

Taxis.

Pietermaritzburg has two types of taxi services: metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike in many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city to solicit fares and instead must be called and ordered to a specific location. A number of companies service Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas. These taxis can also be called upon for airport transfers, point to point pickups and shuttles.  Minibus taxis are the standard mode of transport for the majority of the population who cannot afford private vehicles.

Integrated Rapid Public Transport (IRPT).

A bus rapid transit system is currently being developed in Pietermaritzburg.  The initial phase would see the development of a west to east corridor from Edendale to Northdale. The BRT route will traverse the CBD along Church Street.

Geography.

Climate.

Pietermaritzburg has a dry-winter humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwa), with distinct wet and dry seasons. Summers are warm and occasionally hot, with frequent rainfall. Winters are dry with high diurnal temperature variation, with light air frosts being possible.

Tourism.

Some of the area's tourist attractions include; the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, City Hall, Colonial Buildings, Imperial Hotel, Comrades House and SANBI Botanical Gardens.  Attractions in the surrounding areas include; Albert Falls Nature Reserve, Howick Falls, Midmar Public Nature Reserve, Queens Elizabeth Park and World's View.

Education.

Tertiary institutions.

Pietermaritzburg has a well-developed higher system of public universities. Pietermaritzburg is served by two public universities, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Durban University of Technology. There are also many private and public colleges operating in the city, some of the larger colleges are: Umgungundlovu TVET College, Varsity College, and Rosebank College.

Civil society.

Pietermaritzburg is home to a number of prominent civil society organisations including the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shackdwellers) movement, GroundWork, CINDI, PACSA, and the KwaZulu Natal Christian Council.

Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu is the name used for the district municipality. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in Afrikaans, English and Zulu alike, and often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of Umgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to the local, district and provincial governments being located here.

Pietermaritzburg est une ville d'Afrique du Sud, capitale de la province du KwaZulu-Natal. Elle est familièrement appelée tout simplement « Maritzburg » ou encore sous ses initiales de "PMB". Selon le magazine CEOWORLD, elle est considérée comme l'une des villes les moins sécuritaires au monde.


Life.

Bartol was born on 24 February 1903 in San Giovanni (), a suburb of the Austro-Hungarian city of Trieste () (now in Italy), in a middle class Slovene minority family. His father Gregor Bartol was a post office clerk, and his mother Marica Bartol Nadlišek was a teacher, a renowned editor and feminist author. He was the third child of seven and his parents offered him extensive education. His mother introduced him to painting, while his father shared with him his interest in biology. Bartol began to be interested in philosophy, psychology, and biology, but also art, theatre, and literature, as described in his autobiographical short stories.  Vladimir Bartol began his elementary and secondary schooling in Trieste and concluded it in Ljubljana, where he enrolled at the University of Ljubljana to study biology and philosophy. In Ljubljana, he met the young Slovene philosopher Klement Jug who introduced him to the works of Friedrich Nietzsche.  Bartol also gave special attention to the works of Sigmund Freud.  He graduated in 1925 and continued his studies at Sorbonne in Paris (1926–1927), for which he obtained a scholarship.  In 1928 he served the army in Petrovaradin (now in the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia).  From 1933 to 1934, he lived in Belgrade, where he edited the "Slovenian Belgrade Weekly". Afterward, he returned to Ljubljana where he worked as a freelance writer until 1941.  During World War II he joined Slovene partisans and actively participated in the resistance movement.  After the war he moved to his hometown Trieste, where he spent an entire decade, from 1946 to 1956.  Later he was elected to the Slovenian Academy of Sciences And Arts as an associate member, moved to Ljubljana and continued to work for the Academy until his death on 12 September 1967.  He is buried in the Žale cemetery in Ljubljana.

Work.

Some of his works, including the 1938 novel Alamut, have been interpreted as an allegory of the TIGR and the fight against the Italian repression of the Slovene minority in Italy. "Alamut" is set in Persia in the Middle Ages and features the Order of Assassins.

Vladimir Bartol (24 February 1903 – 12 September 1967) was a writer from the community of Slovene minority in Italy. He is notable for writing his 1938 novel "Alamut", the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world, translated into numerous languages.

Vladimir Bartol, né le à Trieste à la frontière italo-slovène et mort le à Ljubljana, est un écrivain slovène. Son roman "Alamut" (1938), traduit dans de nombreuses langues, l'a fait connaître mondialement.


History.

Bettens is first mentioned in 1141 as "Betanis". In 1149 it was mentioned as "Bectens".

Geography.

Bettens has an area,, of. Of this area, or 72.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes.  Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 4.8% of the area Out of the forested land, 13.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 58.1% is used for growing crops and 13.3% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.  The municipality was part of the Cossonay District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Bettens became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud.  The municipality is located east of the Venoge river.

Coat of arms.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Per pale Argent and Gules, an annulet counterchanged."

Demographics.

Bettens has a population () of., 9.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 16.1%. It has changed at a rate of 8.4% due to migration and at a rate of 8% due to births and deaths.  Most of the population () speaks French (311 or 94.2%), with German being second most common (14 or 4.2%) and Italian being third (4 or 1.2%).  Of the population in the municipality 99 or about 30.0% were born in Bettens and lived there in 2000. There were 147 or 44.5% who were born in the same canton, while 41 or 12.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 37 or 11.2% were born outside of Switzerland.  In there was 1 live birth to Swiss citizens and 1 death of a Swiss citizen. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens remained the same while the foreign population remained the same. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 3 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of -0.6%.  The age distribution,, in Bettens is; 46 children or 13.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 61 teenagers or 17.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 32 people or 9.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 44 people or 12.7% are between 30 and 39, 82 people or 23.7% are between 40 and 49, and 38 people or 11.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 22 people or 6.4% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 10 people or 2.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 10 people or 2.9% who are between 80 and 89, and there is 1 person who is 90 and older. , there were 155 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 161 married individuals, 6 widows or widowers and 8 individuals who are divorced. , there were 112 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. There were 24 households that consist of only one person and 10 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 116 households that answered this question, 20.7% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 28 married couples without children, 48 married couples with children There were 9 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.  The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 31.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (17.43%), the Green Party (15.32%) and the SP (14.45%). In the federal election, a total of 98 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.0%.

Economy.

, Bettens had an unemployment rate of 2.4%., there were 29 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 9 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 12 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 177 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.4% of the workforce. , there were 12 workers who commuted into the municipality and 129 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 10.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 7.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.7% used a private car.

Religion.

From the, 82 or 24.8% were Roman Catholic, while 188 or 57.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, and there were 8 individuals (or about 2.42% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. 39 (or about 11.82% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 12 individuals (or about 3.64% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education.

In Bettens about 124 or (37.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 51 or (15.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 51 who completed tertiary schooling, 52.9% were Swiss men, 25.5% were Swiss women, 9.8% were non-Swiss men and 11.8% were non-Swiss women.  In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 51 students in the Bettens school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 296 children of which 96 children (32.4%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 27 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 23 students in those schools. There were also 1 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 6 students in Bettens who came from another municipality, while 41 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

"For people with the surname, see Bettens (surname)." Bettens is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

Bettens est une commune suisse du canton de Vaud, située dans le district du Gros-de-Vaud. Citée dès 1141, elle fait partie du district de Cossonay entre 1803 et 2007. La commune est peuplée de habitants en. Son territoire, d'une surface de 375 hectares, se situe dans la région du Gros-de-Vaud.


History.

Acheng was known to medieval China as Huining Prefecture, an area of Shangjing. Its eponymous seat served as the first capital of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1122–1234) and served as a subsidiary capital from 1173 until their conquest by the Mongolian Empire. There is currently a museum at the site, about south of the Acheng urban area.  Acheng County was established in 1909. It was designated a county-level city in 1987 and turned into a district of Harbin on October 9, 2006.

Administrative divisions.

Acheng is divided into nine subdistricts, eight towns, one township, and one ethnic township:  Subdistricts:  Towns:  Townships:

Commerce.

The area is rich in mineral resources, including sources of rock, volcanic rock, granite, molybdenum, zinc, lead, iron, and copper.  The agricultural strengths of the area are grain production and cattle. Grain production is strong, having produced 33,100 tons of grain in 2002; much of this grain is essential in feeding the important city of Harbin.  Acheng is a major industrial area for Heilongjiang, with over 300 types of enterprises, including textile, electromechanics, food, building materials (especially brickworks), metallurgy, breweries fueled by the local grain, sugar refineries, a flax plant, iron, steel, and the production of medicine. In 1996 a new technology industrial development zone was created on the western side of the city to encourage the development of high technology, export-oriented industry.  Tourism is also a growing part of the local economy. Acheng is located on the popular tourist route serving Harbin, the Yabuli ski resort, Lake Jingpo, and Xingkai Lake. A number of historic and nature reserves in the area also attract visitors.

Transport.

The city of Acheng is a drive from Harbin Taiping International Airport.  The Harbin–Suifenhe Railway (part of the original Chinese Eastern Railway) passes through the district. There are over twenty commuter rail lines in the rural area. The station is Acheng Railway Station.  G10 Suifenhe–Manzhouli Expressway and China National Highway 301 both connect the district to downtown Harbin.

Acheng District, formerly Acheng City, (Manchu Language : Alcuka Hoton) is one of nine districts of the prefecture-level city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China, covering part of the southeastern suburbs. The district was approved to establish from the former "Acheng City" () by the Chinese State Council on August 15, 2006., it had a population of 596,856 residing in an area of, and is southeast of downtown Harbin, north of Jilin City, and around south of the Songhua River. It lies within the basin of and until 1909 was considered synonymous with the Ashi River which gave its name to the Jurchen Jin Dynasty. The district administers nine subdistricts, eight towns, one township, and one ethnic township. It borders Daowai District to the north, Bin County to the northeast, Shangzhi to the southeast, and Wuchang to the south, Shuangcheng District to the west, and Pingfang and Xiangfang Districts to the northwest.

Le district d'Acheng (阿城区 ; pinyin : Āchéng Qū) est une subdivision administrative de la province du Heilongjiang en Chine. Il est placé sous la juridiction de la ville sous-provinciale de Harbin. Son chef-lieu est la ville d'Acheng.


Early life.

Alan Charles Jardine was born in Lima, Ohio the younger of two children to Virginia and Donald Jardine. While having spent his first years of childhood in Lima, his family moved to Rochester, New York, where his father worked for Eastman Kodak and taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His family later moved to San Francisco and then to Hawthorne, California, where he and his older brother Neal spent the remainder of their youth. At Hawthorne High School, he was a second-string fullback on the football team, soon befriending teammate Brian Wilson who was the team's backup quarterback. Jardine soon watched Brian and brother Carl Wilson singing at a school assembly. After attending Ferris State University during the 1960–61 academic year, Jardine registered as a student at El Camino College in 1961. There, he was reunited with Brian and first presented the idea of forming a band as the two worked through harmony ideas together in the college's music room. Jardine's primary musical interest was folk and he learned banjo and guitar specifically to play folk music. When the Beach Boys formed at Wilson's home, he first tried to push the band toward folk but was overruled in favor of rock 'n' roll.  An all-rounder on string instruments, Jardine played stand-up bass on the Beach Boys' first recording, the song "Surfin'" (1961). Jardine fully rejoined the Beach Boys in the summer of 1963 at Brian Wilson's request and worked alongside guitarist David Marks with the band until October 1963, when Marks quit the Beach Boys after an altercation with the band's manager, Murry Wilson.

Career.

1960s–80s.

Jardine played bass on the Beach Boys' first (and only) record for Candix Records. Although he left in 1961 to pursue a career in dentistry, Jardine filled in on bass for Brian during concerts and returned full-time in 1963 following David Marks' departure after an argument with Murry Wilson. Jardine is the band's rhythm guitarist and middle-range harmony vocalist. He first sang lead on "Christmas Day," on 1964's "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album" and followed shortly after with the Number 1 hit "Help Me, Rhonda". It was at Jardine's suggestion that the Beach Boys recorded a cover of the Kingston Trio's folk standard Sloop John B, which Brian Wilson rearranged and produced for their "Pet Sounds" album in 1966.  After Brian Wilson discontinued touring in late 1964, Jardine took on a more prominent role as a lead vocalist during live performances with the group. Beginning with his contributions to the "Friends" album, Jardine also became a songwriter and wrote or co-wrote a number of songs for the Beach Boys. "" from the Holland album, charted in early 1973. Jardine's song for his first wife, "Lady Lynda" (1978), scored a Top Ten chart entry in the UK. Increasingly from the time of the "Surf's Up" album, Al became involved alongside Carl Wilson in production duties for the Beach Boys. He shared production credits with Ron Altbach on "M.I.U. Album" (1978) and was a significant architect (with Mike Love) of the album's concept and content. As with "Lady Lynda" and his 1969 rewrite of Lead Belly's "Cotton Fields," "Come Go with Me" and "Peggy Sue" on the "M.I.U. Album" were Jardine productions, the first being a measurable hit in the UK.  Jardine instigated the Beach Boys' recording of a remake of the Mamas and the Papas' song "California Dreamin'" (featuring Roger McGuinn), reaching No. 8 on the "Billboard" adult contemporary chart in 1986. The associated music video featured in heavy rotation on MTV and secured extensive international airplay. The video featured all the surviving Beach Boys and two of the three surviving members of the Mamas and the Papas, John Phillips and Michelle Phillips (Denny Doherty was on the East coast and declined), along with former Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn.

1990s–present.

Following Carl Wilson's death in 1998, Jardine left the touring version of the Beach Boys, leaving Love as the only original member in the group playing live concerts. Jardine continued to tour and recorded with his Endless Summer Band, in a line-up that comprised several musicians who toured with the Beach Boys, including Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi and Billy; Ed Carter; Bobby Figueroa; and Jardine's sons, Matt and Adam. In 2002, Jardine's band released "Live in Las Vegas". Jardine toured under the banners "Beach Boys Family & Friends", "Al Jardine, Beach Boy" and "Al Jardine of the Beach Boys" during this time. Former bandmate Mike Love decided to sue him in order to prevent the use of the Beach Boys name, which he had licensed in 1999. The courts ruled in Love's favor, denying Jardine the use of the Beach Boys name in any fashion. Jardine proceeded to appeal this decision in addition to seeking $4 million in damages. The California Court of Appeal ruled that Love acted wrongfully in freezing Jardine out of touring under the Beach Boys name, allowing Jardine to continue with his lawsuit. The case ended up being settled outside of court with the terms not disclosed In late 2006, Jardine joined Brian Wilson's band for a short tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of "Pet Sounds".  In March 2008, Jardine settled a lawsuit brought against him by Love and the estate of Carl Wilson regarding use of the "Beach Boys" name. Love had leased the Beach Boys name, and it was deemed that Jardine's newly formed band, called the "Beach Boys Family & Friends" (featuring sons Matt and Adam Jardine, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, Daryl Dragon, Billy Hinsche and others), was a breach of title use.  In 2009, Jardine's lead vocal on "Big Sur Christmas" was released on MP3 download, produced by longtime Red Barn Studios engineer Stevie Heger under Heger's band's name, Hey Stevie. The track also was released on the Hey Stevie album, "Eloquence".  Jardine released "A Postcard from California", his solo debut, in June 2010 (re-released with two extra tracks on April 3, 2012). The album features contributions from Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson (a posthumous track), Bruce Johnston, David Marks and Mike Love. There are also guest appearances from Glen Campbell, David Crosby, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Steve Miller, Scott Mathews, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell (members of America) and Flea. A spoken intermission written by Stephen Kalinich, called "Tidepool Interlude", features actor Alec Baldwin.  Jardine made his first appearance with the Beach Boys in more than 10 years in 2011 at a tribute concert for Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, where he sang "Help Me, Rhonda" and "Sloop John B".  In December 2011, it was announced that Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks would reunite for a new Beach Boys album and The Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour in 2012. The album, titled "That's Why God Made the Radio", was released in June 2012 and features the song "From There to Back Again" with Jardine in the lead vocals with Wilson. Critics have acclaimed Jardine's performance in the song, with Ryan Reed of "Paste" magazine praising his "stand-out lead vocal", while John Bush of Allmusic deemed the song the "most beautiful" in the album, having been "impeccably" framed by Wilson around Jardine's "aging but still sweet" voice.  In September 2012, it was announced that Jardine, Wilson and Marks would no longer tour with the band. Love returned the lineup to its pre-Anniversary Tour configuration, with Love as the only original member (Bruce Johnston joined in 1965). As a result, it was announced that Jardine would appear with Marks and Wilson, along with Wilson's band, for a short summer tour in 2013, featuring the three.  Continuing in collaboration with Wilson, Jardine and Marks contributed to Wilson's solo album, "No Pier Pressure", which was released in April 2015. Jardine also contributed to Wilson's Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour. In July 2016, Jardine appeared in an episode of the Adult Swim series "Decker", playing the role of the President's "science advisor".  Jardine and his son, Matt, contributed backing vocals to John Mayer's "Emoji of a Wave", which was released in 2017. In 2018 Jardine began performing solo storyteller concerts called "Al Jardine – A Postcard From California - From the Very First Song With a Founding Member of the Beach Boys" which featured his son Matt and long time Peter Asher associate Jeff Alan Ross, Jardine continues to tour these shows into 2019, while still performing with the Brian Wilson band.  In April 2019, Jardine was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame.

Book.

Jardine has authored one book, "Sloop John B: A Pirate's Tale" (2005), illustrated by Jimmy Pickering. The book is a children's story about a boy's Caribbean adventure with his grandfather, reworded from the original folk lyric of the song "Sloop John B". It also includes a free CD with singalong acoustic recording by Jardine.

Alan Charles Jardine (born September 3, 1942) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best known as the band's rhythm guitarist and for occasionally singing lead vocals on songs such as "Help Me, Rhonda" (1965), "Then I Kissed Her" (1965), and "Come Go with Me" (1978). His song "Lady Lynda" became a UK top 10 hit for the group in 1978.

Alan Charles Jardine est un musicien américain né le à Lima, dans l'Ohio. Il est principalement connu en tant que membre des Beach Boys.


Branches.

Usuli.

This school of thought utilizes ijtihad by adopting reasoned argumentation in finding the laws of Islam. "Usulis" emphasize the role of Mujtahid who was capable of independently interpreting the sacred sources as an intermediary of the Hidden Imam and thus serve as a guide to the community. This meant that legal interpretations were kept flexible to take account of changing conditions and the dynamics of the times. This school of thought is predominant among most Shia.  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini emphasized that Ja'fari jurisprudence is configured based on the recognition that epistemology is influenced by subjectivity. Accordingly, Ja'fari jurisprudence asserts Conventional Fiqh (objective) and Dynamic Fiqh (subjective). Through Dynamic Fiqh, discussed in the famous text by "Javaher-al-Kalem" (), one must consider the concept of time, era, and age (Arabic: زمان) as well as the concept of place, location and venue () since these dimensions of thought and reality affect the process of interpreting, understanding and extracting meaning from the commandments.

Akhbari.

This school of thought takes a restrictive approach to ijtihad. This school has almost died out now; very few followers are left. Some neo-Akhbaris have emerged in the Indian subcontinent, but they do not belong to the old Akhbari movement of Bahrain.

See also.

Bada.

Twelvers, along with other Shia sects such as the Zaydis, reject predestination. This belief is further emphasized by the Shia concept of Bada’, which states that God has not set a definite course for human history. Instead, God may alter the course of human history as is seen to be fit.

Nikah Mut'ah.

Nikah mutʿah ()," is a type of marriage used in Twelver Shia Islam, where the duration of the marriage and the dower must be specified and agreed upon in advance. It is a private contract made in a verbal or written format. A declaration of the intent to marry and an acceptance of the terms are required (as they are in "nikah"). Zaidi Shias, Ismaili Shias, and Sunni Muslims do not practice "nikah mut'ah".

Taqiyah.

In Shia Islam, taqiya ( "/") is a form of religious veil, or a legal dispensation whereby a believing individual can deny his faith or commit otherwise illegal or blasphemous acts, specially while they are in fear or at risk of significant persecution. Once source for this understanding comes from al-Kafi.  This practice was emphasized in Shi'a Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion. Taqiyya was developed to protect Shi'as who were usually in minority and under pressure, and Shia Muslims as the persecuted minority have taken recourse to dissimulation from the time of the "mihna" (persecution) under Al-Ma'mun in the 9th century, while the politically dominant Sunnites rarely found it necessary to resort to dissimulation.

Jaʿfari jurisprudence (; also spelled Jafarite), Jaʿfari school or Jaʿfari fiqh, is the school of jurisprudence ("fiqh") in Twelver Shia Islam, named after the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. In Iran, Ja'fari jurisprudence is enshrined in the constitution.

L'école juridique ("madhhab") chiite dit Ja'fariya (aussi appelée école des Ahlul bayt) est la première école islamique apparue d'interprétation de "fiqh" du Coran d'inspiration chiite (contrairement aux quatre grandes écoles sunnites). Elle a été fondée par Ja'far al-Sâdiq (702-765) descendant direct du Prophète et sixième imam de l'islam chiite duodécimain.