Hempstead (village), New York

The Incorporated Village of Hempstead is located in the Town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 53,891 at the 2010 census, but by 2019 had reached 55,113 according to the U.S. Census Bureau estimate. It is the most densely populated village in New York. Hempstead Village is the site of the seventeenth-century "town spot" from which English and Dutch settlers developed the Town of Hempstead, the Town of North Hempstead, and ultimately Nassau County. It is the largest community by population in both the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County.
Several of Nassau County's most historically valuable buildings are in the Village of Hempstead, including Town of Hempstead Town Hall (built in 1918), Carman-Irish Hall at 160 Marvin Avenue (built about 1700), St. George's Episcopal Church (319 Front Street, erected 1822), St. George's Rectory (217 Peninsula Boulevard, built 1793), and the United Methodist Church at 40 Washington Street (erected 1855). The Carman-Irish Hall is occupied by American Legion Post 390. The church structures have been in continuous use by their congregations since they were built.
Christ's First Presbyterian Church at 353 Fulton Avenue is Nassau County's oldest Presbyterian congregation, and one of the earliest in the United States, having been founded in 1644 by Richard Denton.
Jackson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, housed at 60 Peninsula Boulevard since the mid-1950s, was established between 1825 and 1840. It is one of the county's oldest African American congregations.
Diversity has long been a characteristic of Hempstead. While it was majority white until the mid-twentieth century, Hempstead had a significant black population from about 1651 onward, in addition to the native peoples still living on Long Island. Starting in the nineteenth century, Hempstead's diversity increased. Irish, Polish, and German immigrants arrived during the second half of the nineteenth century to join the descendants of the original English and Dutch settlers. Military personnel were trained at Camp Mills during 1918 and at Mitchel Field during World War II, and some stayed to raise families, adding other European-descent groups and African Americans. During the first half of the twentieth century, African Americans from the South who sought opportunities in the North established homes and businesses in Hempstead. Nassau County's first chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in Hempstead in 1932. A major case against de facto segregation in Hempstead was taken to the New York State Supreme Court in 1949 by Thurgood Marshall. From the 1950s forward, the village's African American population has increased, and so have Mexican, Central American, and South American groups, as well as Caribbean immigrants, Middle Easterners, and Asians, especially Indians and South Asians.
Hofstra University (founded 1934) is located in Hempstead.
History.
Foundation.
The land on which the Village of Hempstead stands was under Dutch control from the early 1620s. The Dutch West India Company established, first a trading post in 1613, and then the community of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan. Dutch colonies were founded in what is now New Jersey as well as the western half of Long Island. Attracting a sufficient quantity of Dutch settlers to colonize the land, however, proved difficult.
Meanwhile, European traders from France, Spain, Holland, and England set up trading posts along the Atlantic Coast; Native Americans had been encountering Europeans since Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into New York Harbor on April 17, 1524. Starting with the Pilgrims in 1620, English citizens founded the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. A Presbyterian minister named Richard Denton came from Yorkshire, England, to join the Massachusetts Bay colony. He then went to Connecticut and helped establish both Wethersfield and Stamford.
These colonies were threatened by wars among the Pequots, Narragansetts, and Mohegans. The Pequots had for decades forcibly exerted control over much of the area that became New England, subjugating the Mohegans and many other Algonquian-speaking groups, such as the Narragansett. The Pequots controlled the wampum and fur trades with the Europeans. Initially the Pequots lived peacefully with the Puritans and other English colonists of New England, but as English communities grew, the Pequots felt pressured by loss of territory. They began to trade exclusively with the Dutch, who were centered in New Amsterdam. Native groups resentful of Pequot control (mainly Mohegan and Narragansett) allied with the English. War broke out, culminating in the ugly Pequot War of 1636-1637, which broke the dominance of the Pequots.
Relations between Dutch and Indians in western Long Island, and between English and Indians on eastern Long Island, while never truly equal, were more peaceful than in New England. Incidents of violence and misunderstanding did occur during European encounters with the Native Americans along the Hudson River after Henry Hudson reached Manhattan in 1609. However, the native groups had something that the Europeans badly wanted (furs) and the native groups willingly traded furs for the brightly colored European coats and other clothing, as well as for European-style beads, firearms, metal tools, and at times alcohol. The relations between the foreigners and the natives therefore continued to develop. The Pequot defeat in 1636-1637 meant Long Island Native Americans were no longer subject to Pequot dominance, and were free to establish their own complex dealings with the Europeans.
The Dutch needed to populate Long Island or lose control of the territory. They invited New England colonists to found new settlements on Long Island, as long as the English settlers agreed to Dutch sovereignty. Possibly the English had visited Long Island during the late 1630s and early 1640s. A dreadful series of raids on Native American groups mainly in Staten Island and Manhattan, provoked and sustained by then-Dutch Governor Willem Kieft during 1640-1645, evoked retaliatory action from the Native groups, and led ultimately to the deaths of 1,000+ Native Americans and a few dozen white settlers (mostly Dutch). This unfortunate series of battles was known as Kieft's War, and was finally ended with a treaty signed in Manhattan in 1645. These perturbances could have deterred further European settlements in western Long Island. However, at a lull in Kieft's War, a Long Island Native leader known as Sachem Pennawitz represented Long Island's Native groups in a peace agreement with the Dutch on March 4, 1643. This peace agreement was the precursor to the 1643 journey of colonists from Stamford to mid-Long Island.
In the fall of 1643, two of Rev. Denton's followers, Robert Fordham and John Carman, crossed Long Island Sound by rowboat to negotiate with the local inhabitants (Indians) for a tract of land upon which to establish a new community or "town spot". Representatives of the Marsapeague (Massapequa), Mericock (Merrick), Matinecock and Rekowake (Rockaway) tribes met with the two men at a site slightly west of the current Denton Green in Hempstead Village. Tackapousha, who was the sachem (chief spokesman) of the Marsapeague, was the acknowledged spokesman for conducting the transaction. The Indians sold approximately 64,000 acres (260 km2), the present day towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead, for an unknown quantity of items; a 1657 revisit of this agreement names large and small cattle, stockings, wampum, hatchets, knives, trading cloth, powder, and lead given as payment by the English. Some items may have been valuable to the Native Americans in terms of the contemporary markets for European "trinkets," which may have held symbolic and spiritual importance to Native America peoples in the Northeast.
The 1643 transaction is depicted in a mural in Hempstead Village Hall, reproduced from a poster commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hempstead.
In the spring of 1644, thirty to forty families left Stamford, Connecticut, crossed Long Island Sound, landed in Hempstead Harbor and eventually made their way to the present site of the village of Hempstead where they began their English settlement within Dutch-controlled New Netherland. The settling of Hempstead marked the beginnings of the oldest English settlement in what is now Nassau County. Subsequent trips across the Sound brought more settlers who prepared a fort here for their mutual protection. These original Hempstead settlers were Puritans in search of a place where they could more freely express their particular brand of Protestantism. They established a Presbyterian church that is the oldest continually active Presbyterian congregation in the nation. In 1843, Benjamin F. Thompson wrote and published a history of the village, and an account of contemporary Hempstead Village. Thompson reported that there were 200 dwellings, and 1,400 residents; that the village was connected to New York City by a Turnpike and a railroad; that it had dry soil, excellent water, and pure air; and that it was the principal place of mercantile, and mechanical business, in the county. The village of Hempstead was incorporated on May 6, 1853, becoming the first community in Queens County (Nassau County did not exist as a separate county until 1899) to do so.
Regarding the origin of the name "Hempstead", Hempstead founder John Carman was born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, on ancestral land recorded in the 2nd historic census of England (under Edward the First), the Rotuli Hundredorum (Hundred Rolls) AD 1273 as being owned by his direct ancestor Henry Carman. These same properties were on record continuously as being owned by Henry's descendants, through John Carman of 1606. John's wife Florence and her father, Rev. Robert Fordham, were from the county of Surrey, England. Another theory regarding the origin of the name 'Hempstead' is that it is derived from the Dutch town of 'Heemstede' in the Netherlands, as this was an area from which many Dutch settlers of New Netherland originated. Several of Hempstead's original fifty patentees had Dutch surnames. In 1664, the new settlement adopted the Duke's Laws, an austere set of laws that became the basis upon which the laws of many colonies were to be founded. For a time, Hempstead became known as "Old Blue," as a result of the "Blue Laws".
Rise.
As the years passed, the population of Hempstead increased, as did its importance and prestige. Between 1703 and 1705, the newly formed St. George's Church, which would not have been called "Episcopal" then, but was under the established Church of England, received a silver communion service from England's Queen Anne. Right after he became President, George Washington made a tour of Long Island, stopping overnight at Sammis Tavern here (Nehemiah Sammis's Inn established between 1660 and 1680). Hempstead can boast of its share of celebrities. Peter Cooper, inventor and politician, lived with his brother in Hempstead until he married Sarah Bedell of Hempstead on Dec. 18, 1813, and settled there 1814-1818. During this time, he invented the self-rocking cradle, which he patented on March 27, 1815. His house was moved from Hempstead to Old Bethpage Restoration Village in about 1965, and still contains the cradle. During the 1820s on, he and his family lived in the city of New York, where he patented many inventions and in 1859 established The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a major experiment in adult education which operates still in lower Manhattan. Cooper ran for President on the "Greenback" ticket. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, spent her summers here between ages 4 and 8, when her father Elliott Roosevelt owned a summer home on Richardson place (now the site of the manse for St. Laudislaus RC Church). Lionel Barrymore reputedly lived at 75 Marvin Avenue.
During the American Revolution, Hempstead was a center of British sympathizers or Tories, as they were known. The British attempted to occupy Hempstead after the Battle of Long Island, and used St. George's as a headquarters as well as a place to worship. Judge Thomas Jones faulted a lax peace treaty for forcing the evacuation of the loyalists.
In 1845, future Major League Baseball catcher Nat Hicks was born in Hempstead. Before Nat Hicks, baseball catchers would stand approximately 25 feet behind the batter, catching the pitched baseball on a bounce, since there were no gloves or protective gear. Pitchers would not throw curveballs because they would likely be wild pitches. In 1872 while playing for a Brooklyn team, Hicks stood directly behind the batter, catching the pitched baseball in flight instead of on a bounce. This allowed his teammate, pitcher Cummings, to throw curveballs. Hicks was badly injured often but he changed baseball fundamentally. This repositing of catcher by Hicks facilitated pictures throwing breaking balls, throwing over-hand instead of underhand, made the game faster paced, and necessitated the need for new inventions such as baseball gloves, catchers protective gear, and the facemask.
In the 19th century, Hempstead became increasingly important as a trading center for Long Island. In 1853 it became the first self-governing incorporated village. Many prominent families such as the Vanderbilts and the Belmonts built homes here, making Hempstead a center of Long Island society. Hempstead merchants established routes out to outlying farms and served as a distribution point for many firms. Wagons would leave Hempstead loaded with tobacco, candy, and cigarettes and return in a week to restock. Bakeries covered routes from Baldwin to Far Rockaway daily. Butchers ran routes to Seaford, Elmont, Valley Stream, Wantagh, East Meadow, Creedmoor, East Rockaway and Christian Hook. Drugs, medicines, perfumes, extracts, aprons, children's coats and dresses and men's clothes were peddled about the country by Hempstead merchants. People came from all sections of Queens to purchase stoves, and there were few places outside Hempstead where stoves could be purchased. Hempstead was the shopping center for Nassau County and the eastern portion of Queens, those settlements east of Jamaica before 1900 when Nassau County was established, following the creation of the City of Greater New York in 1898. Hempstead has historically been the center of commercial activity for the eastern counties of Long Island. In Nassau County, all major county roads emanate from this village. It is indeed the "Hub" of Nassau County. During the 18th and 19th centuries, all stage coaches en route to eastern Long Island from Brooklyn passed through Hempstead. Today, seventeen bus routes and three interstate buses leave from the village every day. In addition, the Hempstead Branch of the Long Island Rail Road has its terminal here. At one time, there were three railroad companies with terminals within the village.
In March 1898, Camp Black was formed on the Hempstead Plains (roughly the shared location of Hempstead and Garden City), in support of the impending Spanish–American War. Camp Black was bounded on the north by Old Country Road, on the west by Clinton Road, and on the south by the Central Line rail. Camp Black was opened on April 29, 1898 as a training facility and a point of embarkation for troops.
Charles A. Lindbergh, arguably the world's most famous aviator, spent quite a bit of time in Hempstead both before and after his epic solo flight from nearby Roosevelt Field to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France on May 20, 1927. While living here, Christopher Morley was so enamored with the place that on the three hundredth anniversary of its founding he wrote a beautiful essay in tribute. His first novel, "Parnassus on Wheels", was written on a kitchen table at his Oak Street, Hempstead home in 1917. In 1704 the first stage coach on Long Island stopped to water its horses here.
Early Long Islanders made their living in agriculture or from the sea. Hempstead, with its central location, became the marketplace for the outlying rural farming communities. It was a natural progression, as the surrounding areas developed from small farms into today's suburbia, that Hempstead Village would remain as the marketplace. Chain department stores such as Arnold Constable and Abraham & Straus called Hempstead home for many years. Hempstead's Abraham & Straus was the largest grossing suburban department store in the country during the late 1960s. Hempstead was Nassau's retail center during the 1940s through the 1960s. The advent of regional shopping malls such as the one at nearby Roosevelt Field, the demise of nearby Mitchel Air Force Base in 1961 as well as the changing demographics put the retail trade in the village into a downward spiral that it was unable to recover from during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. A plethora of businesses left the village in the 1980s and early 1990s, notably retail giant, Abraham & Straus.
Recent years.
In the course of the 1990s the village saw redevelopment as a government center as well as business center. There are more government employees from all levels of government in the village than there are in the county seat in Mineola. According to James York, the municipal historian, writing in 1998, the population during the day might rise to nearly 200,000, from a normal census of 50,000. Retailers' interest in the village was rekindled, due to the aggressive revitalization efforts of former Mayor James Garner, who served from 1989 to 2005, and former Community Development Agency Commissioner, Glen Spiritis, who served under Garner's administration. Specifically, two large tracts of retail property have recently undergone redevelopment. The former Times Squares Stores (or TSS) property on Peninsula Boulevard and Franklin Street has been redeveloped as Hempstead Village Commons, a retail center including Pep Boys and Staples. The former Abraham & Straus department store on has recently undergone demolition and been replaced by a large retail development consisting of Home Depot, Old Navy, Stop & Shop and many other smaller establishments. A considerable infusion of state and federal funding as well as private investment have enabled the replacement of blighted storefronts, complete commercial building rehabilitations and the development of affordable housing for the local population. The replacement of the 1913 Long Island Rail Road Hempstead Terminal with a modern facility was completed in 2002, and a four-story, 112-unit building for senior housing, with retail on the ground level was completed at Main and West Columbia Streets in January 1998. Thirty two units of affordable townhouses known as Patterson Mews at Henry Street and Baldwin Road was completed and fully occupied in 1997.
In 1989, Hempstead residents elected James A. Garner (R) as their mayor. He was the first Black or African-American mayor ever elected to office on Long Island, and he served for four consecutive terms. Subsequently, Wayne Hall, a former Village of Hempstead trustee who is also African American, served as mayor for three terms, from 2005 to 2017.
The first African-American male judge, Lance Clarke, was elected in 2001. Cynthia Diaz-Wilson was the first female justice in the Village of Hempstead and first African American village justice in the state of New York.
In recent years, there has been concern regarding ongoing gang activity in certain neighborhoods, notably the "Heights", in addition to the issue of illegal rentals (homes/apartments that are illegally-subdivided by slumlords) and racial steering. Hempstead was also one of the first Long Island communities that had to deal with the Salvadoran gang, MS-13 or "La Mara Salvatrucha". The continual intra-violence this gang has exhibited has led to the formation of their arch-rivals, "SWP" or "Salvadorans with Pride". These issues have contributed to Hempstead's high crime rate as compared to other communities in the area.
This issue is worsened by racial steering - especially by charities that are paid by the US Government for each immigrant that they relocate. Many times, they are steered into/away from certain communities, despite the Fair Housing Act.
Today.
Hempstead has developed into the most populous village in the state of New York, with a population in excess of 50,000 people. It is also the seat of government for the town of Hempstead, the largest minor civil division in the nation with over seven hundred thousand people. Hempstead is just as urban (at least with regard to population density and activity) as any major city. In stark contrast to the surrounding villages in the town and county, it is more densely populated than many American cities with exception to New York City, Long Beach, New York; Mount Vernon, New York; Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; Santa Ana, California; and Jersey City and Paterson, New Jersey.
Hempstead consists of several areas or neighborhoods that are distinct in character. Some enclaves have a reputation of being the source of crime, some are known to be populated by indigent residents, others consist of middle income residents and homeowners, while others boast stately homes with relatively little incidence of criminal activity. The area has a mixture of homes and apartment complexes throughout the area. Originally, there were two known sides of town, "The Heights" (Hempstead Heights) and "The Hills" (Hempstead Hills). Hempstead Heights is the area east of Clinton St and west of Westbury Blvd. Over the years, several new regions, or "turfs" have informally been established, including "Terrace" (also known as "TA" or Terrace Ave.), "Parkside", "Trackside" and "Midway","D-Block".
There are over fifty religious institutions located in the village of Hempstead. They include a vast range of denominations, including, Roman Catholic, (Eastern Catholic) Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Orthodox, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventists, Baptist, Lutheran and other Christian churches, a Hindu temple, a Sikh Gurudwara, a Korean temple, a Hebrew Congregation and a host of smaller congregations.
Government.
The Hempstead Village government is currently headed by mayor Don Ryan, who defeated three-term mayor Wayne Hall in the March 2017 election. Ryan ran under the "Hempstead Unity Party", along with LaMont Johnson and Charles Renfroe, who were elected as trustees, defeating the incumbents in those positions.
Geography.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.7 square miles (9.5 km2), all land. The village of Hempstead differs from the majority of Nassau County as its population density is about 15,000 people per square mile—almost four times that of its neighbor on its northern border, Garden City, close to twice the density of Uniondale NY, its direct neighbor to the east, and about twice the density of Queens County, New York.
Demographics.
As of the census of 2010, there were 53,891 people, 15,234 households, and 10,945 families residing in the village. The racial makeup of the village was 21.9% White, 44.2% Hispanic, 48.3% Black or African American, 0.6% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 22.8% from other races, and 5.0% from two or more races.
There were 16,034 households, out of which 38.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.0% were married couples living together, 27.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 20.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.41 and the average family size was 3.76.
In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.2% under the age of 18, 16.3% from 18 to 24, 31.4% from 25 to 44, 17.5% from 45 to 64, and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.4 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $45,234 and the median income for a family was $46,675. Males had a median income of $29,493 versus $27,507 for females. The per capita income for the village was $15,735. About 14.4% of families and 17.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.7% of those under age 18 and 16.9% of those age 65 or over.
Fire department.
The Village of Hempstead is protected by the firefighters of the Hempstead Fire Department. The HFD currently operates out of 6 Fire Stations, located throughout the village, and 10 fire companies(Engine 1, Engine 2, Engine 3, Engine 4, Engine 5, Truck 1, Ladder 2, Hose 1, Hose 2, Hose 3). The HFD maintains a fire apparatus fleet of 8 Engines, 2 Trucks, 1 Rescue, and numerous other special, support, and reserve units. The HFD is part of Nassau County's Fire Department's 7th Battalion. As of September of 2020, the Hempstead Fire Department is commanded by a Chief of Department, Frederick V. Sandas, Jr.
Transportation.
The Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center is one of the largest hubs in Nassau County. It serves as the terminus of the Long Island Rail Road's Hempstead Branch, and is served by a number of Nassau Inter-County Express routes.
Notable people.
Residents (native or lived) about whom an article exists, by date of birth:
The Hempstead Wall of Fame.
The 2005 Wall of Fame Inductees are:
Ray Heatherton - the Merry Mailman
David Bythewood, Attorney, Grammy nominee and former Hempstead Public Schools Board of Education
The 2009 Wall of Fame Inductees are:
The Hempstead Wall of Fame is located in Kennedy Park off of Greenwich Street in Hempstead.


Montague Aldous

Montague Aldous (September 30, 1850 – May 25, 1946) was a Dominion Topographical Surveyor from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. He was a participant in foundation surveys of the Northwest Territories. He was associated with A.L. Russell in 1877 in a survey west to the third meridian. Taken on Special Survey in 1879, he surveyed the fourth meridian to a point north of Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan, then ran in the 14th base line west to Stony Plain where it intersected the 5th meridian. His assistant, Charles Alexander Magrath, was later the first mayor of Lethbridge, Northwest Territories (now Alberta). In 1880 Aldous surveyed the fifth meridian south to Waterton Lakes. He spent the rest of the summer in southern Alberta's Porcupine Hills, then being taken up for ranching.
Aldous accepted a job offer from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1882 and soon had seven survey parties working frantically to keep up with the demand for HBC farm lots. Later he served as the HBC Timber Agent and was Chief Clerk of the HBC Land Department from 1901 to 1907.
In February 1885 he was sent to the Belly River (now known as the Oldman River) coal district where the North Western Coal and Navigation Company had opened mines. He inspected about of HBC lands in the vicinity as well as the land grant to be given to the Galt Company for building the Dunmore-Lethbridge narrow gauge railway. The Galt Company paid Aldous' expenses; part of its agreement with him that he would survey the new Lethbridge prairie level town site.
He worked from sketches which Elliot Torrence Galt, general manager of the coal company, had prepared (likely with assistance from his father) in January 1885 or earlier. Aldous completed the Lethbridge survey in March and prepared detailed plans. Town lots were available for sale by May 9. The prairie level town began to take shape on August 1 and, by December 31, 1,200 people had settled in the new community.
Montague Aldous died in Winnipeg on May 25, 1946.


William Bleasdell Cameron

William Bleasdell Cameron was born July 26, 1862, in Trenton, Ontario. He is best known as being one of the survivors of the Frog Lake Massacre, and his book "The War Trail of Big Bear" that recounts his experiences of the massacre and his captivity.
In 1885 he was working as a clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company store at Frog Lake, then in the District of Saskatchewan of the Northwest Territories. He survived the Frog Lake Massacre of the North-West Rebellion on April 2, 1885 and was held captive for two months by Big Bear's band of Cree.
After being freed he was attached to Major General Strange's column and later was awarded the North West Canada Medal for his role as a scout and guide.(pages 51–52)
Cameron was in Regina in 1885 during the trial of Big Bear where he testified in Big Bear's defence. He testified he had heard Big Bear try to stop the massacre at Frog Lake.
He also founded and edited the newspaper "Vermilion Signal", served on the town council of Vermilion, Alberta, and was briefly editor of the magazine "Field and Stream", New York.
He died in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan on March 4, 1951, of double pneumonia at age 88. The inscription on his headstone reads "G. Scout, William B. Cameron, Northwest Field Force, 4th March, 1951—Rest In Peace."(p. 155)


Hopedale, Newfoundland and Labrador

Hopedale (Inuit: "Agvituk") is a town located in the north of Labrador, the mainland portion of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Hopedale is the legislative capital of the Inuit Land Claims Area Nunatsiavut, and where the Nunatsiavut Assembly meets. As of the 2016 census it has a population of 574.
History.
Hopedale was founded as an Inuit settlement named "Agvituk", Inuktitut for "place of the whales". In 1782, Moravian missionaries from Germany arrived in the area to convert the population. They renamed the settlement Hopedale ("Hoffental" in German) shortly afterward. The Hopedale Mission is still standing and is thought to be the oldest wooden-frame building in Canada standing east of Quebec. As such, it was named a National Historic Site of Canada. It is currently run by the Agvituk Historical Society as a part of a museum on the history of missionaries in the area.
From 1953 to 1968 a joint Royal Canadian Air Force-United States Air Force's Hopedale Air Station was located on the hills above Hopedale. Civilian personnel lived in the main part of town. Since 1968 the area has remained abandoned other than maintenance of non-military communications towers nearby.
Demographics.
The majority of people in Hopedale (79%) speak English as a first language, but a significant minority (21%) speak Inuktitut.
About 83% of the population identify themselves as Inuit, 16% are of mainly European descent, and 1% are of Punjabi origin.
About 87% of the population belongs to a Protestant denomination, about 2% are Roman Catholic, and another 1% are Sikh. About 10% are not affiliated with any religion.
Common surnames in Hopedale include Boase, Dicker, Flowers, Hunter, Jararuse, Lucy, Nochasak, Onalik, Pijogge, Tuglavina and Winters.
Churches in Hopedale include:
Transportation.
There are no roads that connect Hopedale with the rest of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Hopedale Airport, a small public airport, connects the area with small communities in Newfoundland and Labrador and connections beyond made via Goose Bay Airport. The airport was built in the mid 1960s to provide air support to former USAF Hopedale Air Station. Since 1968 the airport is used by civilians.
The airport handles only small turboprop aircraft or helicopters. There is only one service building at the airport. The airport is connected to Hopedale via Airstrip Road.
MV Kamutik W is a ferry that connects Hopedale with 5 communities within Nunatsiavut, as well as Goose Bay from June to November. Small boats are used to access nearby areas by water.
Local land based transportation in the community is made by private vehicles (cars, trucks, ATV) and snowmobile in winter. There are only a few roads in the community, all gravel:
Services.
Policing in Hopedale is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which has a Hopedale Detachment staffed by four officers. The current detachment was completed in 1994.
There is no hospital located in Hopedale and only basic medical services are provided by Hopedale Community Clinic. The clinic is operated by Labrador-Grenfell Health Authority and is staffed by three nurses/nurse practitioners. Physicians visit periodically, and are also available by video conference. Advanced care requires patients to be flown out of town by air ambulance to the nearest hospital which is in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Hopedale Volunteer Fire Department is a small fire and rescue service with a single pumper stored at the fire hall located next to the RCMP detachment near Water Road.
Canada Post has a post office (19 Harbour Drive B) located in town.
Amos Comenius Memorial School at Nanuk Hill, with grades Kindergarten to Grade 12, is the only school in Hopedale.
DJ's Convenience, Big Land Grocery, Northland Enterprises (with Sylvia's Take Out) are the only stores selling food and other convenience goods in town.
Government.
AngajukKâk are equivalent of mayor in Hopedale and are elected every four years. The incumbent is Marjorie Flowers.
Past AngajukKâk:
Local attractions.
There are few local attractions:


David Pieterse Schuyler

David Pieterse Schuyler was a Dutch-born member of the Schuyler family. He was a fur trader, Alderman of Albany, captain, and merchant.
Early life.
Schuyler was born in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, in 1636 as the son of Pieter Tjercks (no family name) and Geertruyt Philips Van Schuylder. His brother was Philip Pieterse Schuyler, the progenitor of the Schuyler family, the ancestor of the descendants of founding father Alexander Hamilton with his wife Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, several members of the van Cortlandt, van Rensselaer and Livingston families.
Marriage and children.
Schuyler was married to Catharina Verplanck in 1657 at the New Amsterdam Dutch Church, daughter of Dutch-born Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck and French-born Maria de la Vigne. They had 8 children between 1659 and 1678. David Pieterse Schuyler died before 29 Nov 1692, when his wife was recorded as his widow. His wife Catharina died between 1699, when she petitioned for an addition of 14 feet to her lot, and 1709, when the lot was occupied by her sons Their children included Myndert Schuyler, who was Mayor of Albany and David Davidse Schuyler who was a fur trader as well as a Mayor of Albany.
Descendants.
His second great-granddaughter, Maria Helen Roosevelt was the second great grandmother of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. His great-grandson Johannes Abeel was the father of the Seneca war chief Cornplanter. Some of his other descendants and relatives married into families such as the van Rensselear family and the Roosevelt family.


Isaac Graham

Isaac Graham (April 15, 1800 – November 8, 1863) was a fur trader, mountain man, and land grant owner in 19th century California.
In 1830, he joined a hunting and trapping party at Fort Smith, Arkansas that included George Nidever. Graham attended the Rendezvous at Pierre's Hole and took part in the battle of Pierre's Hole, in present-day Idaho.
From there, Graham's path to California is unclear. He may have joined Joseph R. Walker's party, or joined one of the groups led by Ewing Young. His son later claimed that Graham came by way of Oregon, while his daughter said he took a southern route through Chihuahua, New Mexico.
The next positive evidence finds him at Natividad on the Rancho La Natividad, northeast of present-day Salinas, in Mexican Alta California. With partners Henry Naile and William Ware, Graham established a distillery to supplement declining incomes from fur trading, owing to dwindling numbers of sea otters from the Central Coast.
The Graham Affair.
In 1836 Graham led a group of American and European immigrants who supported Juan Bautista Alvarado and José Castro in the coup against Mexican Governor of Northern California Nicolás Gutiérrez. In 1840 Alvarado had Graham arrested, among a group of about 100 foreigners, and sent to Tepic, Mexico for trial and imprisonment. This action led to a diplomatic crisis (involving Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom) that became known as the "Graham Affair". With the help of a recent arrival in Monterey, Thomas J. Farnham, Graham and the others were eventually released, Graham having been imprisoned for about a year. Farnham later wrote a romanticized account of these events. Some credited the incident with assisting in the formation of an American political justification for Washington's eventual annexation of California.
Santa Cruz region.
In 1841, upon his return from Mexico, Graham moved north to the Santa Cruz area, where he established another distillery at Rancho Zayante, near the present-day community of Felton. With help from Danish-immigrant Peter Lassen, Graham built one of the first water-powered sawmills in California. Part of Graham Hill Road, now a major route between Felton and Santa Cruz, was built by Graham to transport his timber to the coast for shipment.
Although not a Mexican citizen, Graham was able to purchase the Rancho Zayante land by proxy through his fellow frontiersman Joseph Majors, owner of the adjacent Rancho San Agustin. Other former mountain men and Graham associates were also at Zayante, including Job Francis Dye, who later dictated a memoir including some adventures he shared with Graham.
Early in 1846, a U.S. Army exploring mission led by John C. Fremont stopped at Graham's Zayante community. Mexican authorities feared that Fremont's hidden purpose was to stir up anti-government sentiments among the Americans there, and Fremont was soon forced to leave California for Oregon. He returned later in the year, after the Mexican–American War began, to recruit volunteers for the California Battalion. Graham himself, at age 46, did not volunteer.
In 1851, Graham purchased Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo, on the coast north of Santa Cruz.
Isaac Graham died in 1863, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz. Part of Graham's former lands are now the community of Felton, California.


Josiah Bleakley

Josiah Bleakley (c. 1754 – 22 January 1822) was a Canadian fur trader from Lower Canada.
Bleakley was an important member of the fur trade industry during his period of activity which was definitely in place by 1774. He was a contemporary of James McGill although he never achieved that type of stature in the trading community.


List of the most prominent summits of Colorado

The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface. The topographic prominence of a summit is the elevation difference between that summit and the highest or key col to a higher summit. The topographic isolation of a summit is the minimum great-circle distance to a point of equal elevation.
This article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence. An ultra-prominent summit is a summit with at least of topographic prominence. There are 126 ultra-prominent summits in the United States.
All elevations include an adjustment from the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29) to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). For further information, please see this United States National Geodetic Survey note.
If an elevation or prominence is calculated as a range of values, the arithmetic mean is shown.


Cochetopa Hills

The Cochetopa Hills are a ridge of uplands on the Continental Divide in Saguache County, southern Colorado, United States.
Geography.
The Cochetopa Hills ridge bridges the southern terminus of the Sawatch Range to the northern terminus of the La Garita Mountains of the San Juan Mountains System. The Cochetopa Hills are characterized by rolling terrain with peaks between and noteworthy volcanic geology. The Sawatch Range to the northeast and the La Garita Mountains to the south are characterized by higher peaks.
On USGS topographic maps, the area labeled Cochetopa Hills is roughly bounded by Antora Peak, the town of Sargents, the drainage of Cochetopa Creek, and the town of Saguache. North Pass on State Highway 114 and the backcountry Cochetopa Pass allow travel on Colorado State Highway 114 from the upper Rio Grande drainage on the east to the upper Gunnison River drainage on the west.
The practice of naming mid-elevation upland areas in central and southern Colorado using the word hills is also illustrated by the naming of the similar uplands the Arkansas Hills, between the upper Arkansas Valley and South Park.


Pacific Tarn

Pacific Tarn is a small lake located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the United States. It is notable for its 13,420 foot (4,090 m) elevation, making it the highest lake in the United States whose name is recognized by the United States Board on Geographic Names.
The lake sits atop the broad eastern ridge of Pacific Peak in the Tenmile Range.
Efforts to name the lake were spearheaded by Carl Drews, a Boulder, Colorado resident who organized an expedition to the lake in 2002 to measure the size, depth and water chemistry. The lake remained unnamed until January 8, 2004, when the United States Board of Geographic Names officially approved the name Pacific Tarn for the lake.


Penrose Peak (Wyoming)

Penrose Peak is a mountain in the Bighorn Mountains of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, United States. Like Mount Penrose in British Columbia, Canada, it was named for Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania, who was an avid outdoorsman and went on hunting expeditions in this area.

In July 2016, the statue was moved to the Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio in Forest Park, Illinois where Andrzej Dajnowski supervised its restoration. A great deal of fundraising has been done to support the work, which was expected to cost about $100,000, of which the Westown Association provided $60,000. The process of moving the statue revealed several additional challenges, including the rust in base that he described as "a big issue because [the original builders] inserted a 1 inch rod in both of his legs and that's why one of the legs is already splitting," and the possibility that Washington's sword is not the original but has been replaced at some point in the past.
The restored statue, now a dark bronze color instead of the previous green, was returned to its pedestal at North 9th St. and West Wisconsin Avenue in January 2018. As the , 10-foot tall statue was hoisted into place by a crane, Mayor Tom Barrett observed that "our first piece of public art is in pristine condition."


Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Spain)

This article covers euro gold and silver coins issued by the Royal Spanish Mint. It also covers rare cases of collectors coins (coins not planned for normal circulation) minted using other precious metals. This article however, does not cover either the Spanish €2 commemorative coins or the Spanish peseta commemorative coins.
Other countries' euro gold and silver collections are discussed in the article Euro gold and silver commemorative coins.
Royal Spanish Mint.
The Royal Spanish Mint is a public business entity, Its production of the coins takes place in two industrial plants, one in Madrid and the other in Burgos.
Program.
2000-peseta.
Silver 2000-peseta coins have been minted every year since 1994.
Each year a €12 silver coin is released to continue this tradition in the new currency.
The first of such was in 2002 celebrating Spain's presidency of the E.U.
The Iberoamerican Series.
Each of the participating countries issues a sister coin dedicated to a particular theme.
Each coin also depicts the coat of arms of the other countries.
The participants are Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru & Portugal.
In 2003 the 5th series was released the theme was "Sailing", this was later followed by the 6th series in 2005 with "Architecture and Monuments" being the theme.
Future Projection.
Although not yet approved by the corresponding ministerial orders, the 7th Iberoamerican series has been previewed by the Spanish Mint the theme is to be "Iberian-American countries and Olympic sports".


Ricardo Buitrago

Ricardo Enrique Buitrago Medina (Panama City, - ) is a Panamanian footballer who plays for Plaza Amador as a midfielder.
Club career.
Buitrago began his career on hometown's club Plaza Amador, but later moved to Colombia, signing a contract with Deportes Quindío. After two years on Quindío, he moved back to Plaza Amador. In February 2012, he moved to Spain, signing a contract with Elche, being assigned for the "B" team. On June, he was promoted to first team squad.
On 12 September 2012, Buitrago made his debut, in a Copa del Rey match against Córdoba CF. However, on 31 January 2013, he was released from Elche, alongside Jaime Jornet.
On 19 April, Buitrago signed a contract with fifth division club CD Almoradí. On 3 July, he returned to his homeland, signing with Plaza Amador. On 28 January of the following year Buitrago moved teams and countries again, signing with Cartaginés. He moved abroad once more, joining Peruvian side Juan Aurich in summer 2015., and then to Deportivo Municipal in 2018.
International career.
Buitrago played at the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
On 8 September 2010, Buitrago made his senior debut with Panama national team, against Trinidad & Tobago. He scored his first goal on 7 October 2011, against Dominica.
In May 2018, he was named in Panama’s preliminary 35 man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, he did not make the final 23.
Personal life.
Nicknamed "el Halconcito", he is a son of former Panama international striker Ricardo "el Halcón" Buitrago.


Save the Clam

"Save the Clam" is the 19th episode of the eleventh season and the 207th overall episode of the animated comedy series "Family Guy". It aired on Fox in the United States on May 5, 2013, and is written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Brian Iles. The episode's plot revolves around Peter and his friends trying to save Quahog’s local bar, The Drunken Clam, from being closed down after the owner Horace is killed in a freak accident during a ball game.
Plot.
During a Drunken Clam softball game against Mort's team Goldman's Pharmacy, Jerome is brought in as a player for Mort's team. To win the game, Horace attempts to strike Jerome out. Unfortunately for Horace, Jerome uses the bat to hit the ball so hard that it accidentally flies into Horace's face and fractures his skull, killing him in the process. During the funeral, Jerome tells Peter that he feels awful about the situation; noting that Horace was a good bartender and a very good man; he also wishes there was something he could do. Peter acknowledges that Jerome did not mean to kill him. The guys say their goodbyes and head out to drink at The Drunken Clam only to find the bar is foreclosed. The guys are forced to drink at Peter's home, but Lois objects. Peter and the guys sneak into the Clam for a night of drinking. Next morning, they find the building is about to be demolished and Peter pulls out a Mossberg and demands they stop as he claims ownership of the bar. During the stand-off, Joe finds himself in an uneasy position and bails out. Lois shows up and demands he come out. Joe is given the task to talk the guys out but when he enters, he rejoins their side and turns against the police chief. As they are all threatened with arrest, Jerome appears and reveals that he used his sports earnings from playing lacrosse (which is also his brother's name) to buy the Clam and keep it open to honor Horace and keep his legacy going, stating that it is his responsibility to keep the bar open to atone for his part in Horace's death. The guys find the Drunken Clam modified and themselves relegated to a space on the floor near the garbage since there are three black guys in their usual booth.
During Horace's funeral, Meg has to use the bathroom and stumbles into an embalming session. Her lack of squeamishness impresses the undertaker and he offers her a job. Soon, Chris shows up after being locked out of the house without a key and plays with the deceased bodies to Meg's annoyance. When she goes to dress the body of Mr. Dugan, she finds it is missing and discovers that Chris stole the body, using it to get into "R" rated movies until it fell apart in the swimming pool. Unable to find Dugan's body parts, Chris poses as Dugan during the funeral despite having itchy balls. As they progress, they learn from Dugan's wife Helen that the deceased face is to be donated for a transplant to a woman who lost her face in a freak chimpanzee accident. Chris becomes furious at Meg for the loss of his own face, now unable to frown due to the transplant.
Reception.
The episode received a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total of 4.79 million viewers. This made it the second most watched show on Fox's Animation Domination line-up that night, beating "The Simpsons" and "Bob's Burgers" but losing to "American Dad!". The episode was met with mixed reviews from critics. Kevin McFarland of "The A.V. Club" gave the episode a B, saying "That’s a pretty standard way to appreciate anything that "Family Guy" does these days, tuning out the deliberately provocative jokes as though they're comments made by an older relative at Thanksgiving who gets a pass because they 'grew up in a different time.' "Family Guy" doesn't have that excuse, so when the material doesn't work because it trades in lazy stereotypes, it hurts the episode. Still, I laughed more this week at the remaining bits than I have in a few months." Carter Dotson of TV Fanatic gave the episode three out of five stars, saying "This was a rather pedestrian episode of the show, not a classic but not terrible. If your DVR didn't record it, you didn't miss much."


Australia Live

Australia Live was a four-hour telecast, broadcast live on the Nine Network, on 1 January 1988 to open Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. The telecast crossed live to over 70 locations right across the country (and some overseas) to represent a 'typical' day in the life of the Australian people. At each of the locations, Australian television celebrities talked with everyday Australians about their experiences, with the whole event anchored by Clive James, Ray Martin and Jana Wendt from the TCN-9 studios in Sydney. Other presenters included Paul Hogan, Tony Barber, George Negus, Derryn Hinch, Greg Evans, Daryl Somers and Graham Kennedy who billed the programme as a "unique electronic carpet ride"
Locations were as diverse as Thursday Island in Queensland, Maatsuyker Island lighthouse in Tasmania, the Mount Lofty Fire Tower near Adelaide, Kings Cross in Sydney, The Lodge in Canberra, Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, and remote Kingoonya with a population of six in outback South Australia.
It was, at the time, a great achievement in television technology, if not in terms of the quality of the content. A number of crosses were made to people in remote locations from which live television had never been broadcast. These included the Indian Pacific passenger train on its way through the middle of Australia, a conversation (through a translator) with soviet cosmonauts who were orbiting the earth, and, perhaps the most outstanding achievement, a live broadcast from the Davis Base in Antarctica.
The telecast included pre-recorded messages from world leaders including US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Australia Live was simultaneously broadcast on Channel Nine, ABC and SBS in Australia (as well as all regional stations), on Channel 4 in Britain, and on the A&E Network in the United States.
The broadcast ended with a rendition by Julie Anthony of the Australian national anthem at the Old Parliament House in Canberra with live fireworks displays from all of the Australian capital cities. The ABC later picked up the finale and played it at closedown until it began round-the-clock broadcasting in the 1990s.


Memorial park complex of the heroes of the First World War

Memorial park complex of the heroes of the First World War () is a park in Moscow, Russia. It is located in the Sokol District of the Northern Administrative Okrug. The area of the park is 11.2 hectares.
History.
Earlier there was the Moscow City Bratsky (Fraternal) Cemetery on the place of the park. The cemetery was founded in 1915 by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Almost 18,000 victims of the World War I were buried in the cemetery. In 1918 the Church of the Transfiguration was built here by the prominent architect Alexey Shchusev.
In 1925 the Fraternal Cemetery was closed for burials. In 1932 it was turned into a park. All the tombstones, with the exception of one, were demolished. In the late 1940s the Church of the Transfiguration was demolished too. At the same time some blocks of buildings were built in the east part of the former cemetery. A cinema "Leningrad" and two cafes were built in the park later.
During perestroika many public figures spoke out for the revival of the memorial in the park, set on the site of the Moscow City Fraternal Cemetery. The Chapel of the Transfiguration was built there in 1998. In 2004 the park got the name "Memorial park complex of the heroes of the First World War" and some monuments were erected there. The remains of the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich and his wife Anastasia of Montenegro were re-buried in the Chapel of the Transfiguration in 2015.


Stockbridge Indian Cemetery

The Stockbridge Indian Cemetery is a cemetery north of Stockbridge, Wisconsin. It is located on Moore Road just west of Wisconsin Highway 55. The cemetery was established in 1834 after the Stockbridge Indians moved to the community. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Stockbridge initially lived in New York and Massachusetts, but were forced by the federal government to come to Wisconsin. They were largely Christianized farmers and the Indian Commissioners hoped that this acculturation would rub off on the neighboring Indians here. Chief John Metoxin, whose stone is in the cemetery, led them through this movement.
But here again white farmers wanted their land, and in the 1840s the government pushed them to dissolve the tribe or sell their land and move west. After debate within the tribe, they decided to stay together. John Quinney (who is also buried in the cemetery) traveled to Washington repeatedly, arguing for the Stockbridge, and finally obtained the right for them to stay in Wisconsin. Many of them moved to Shawano County, and their descendants live in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community there.
The cemetery is all that remains of the community at Stockbridge.
Notable interments.
The cemetery contains interments of Stockbridge Indians. Notable grave sites include:


Feehan Triangle

William M. Feehan Triangle is a public green space in the Broadway-Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York. It is bound by Bayside Lane, 164th Street, and 27th Avenue. The triangle’s shape is the result of the street grid imposed on the once-rural landscape of Flushing in the 1920s. Bayside Lane predates the grid, cutting across its numbered streets and avenues in a diagonal path. The park is landscaped with trees and shrubs. In 2002, the New York City Council passed legislation to name the triangle for William M. Feehan.
This triangle honors William M. Feehan (1929-2001) who once lived near this triangle. Feehan was the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) at the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. A son of a firefighter, Feehan was born in Long Island City and graduated from Saint John's University in 1952. His studies were interrupted for military service during the Korean War. In 1959, he was accepted into the Fire Department for what became his career, and rose through every rank of FDNY over the course of nearly four decades. On September 11, 2001, Feehan was the oldest among the 343 FDNY personnel who died.


War Requiem

The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The "War Requiem" was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
The work is scored for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, boys' choir, organ, and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orchestra). The chamber orchestra accompanies the intimate settings of the English poetry, while soprano, choirs and orchestra are used for the Latin sections; all forces are combined in the conclusion. The Requiem has a duration of approximately 80–85 minutes. In 2019, "War Requiem" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Composition.
The "War Requiem", first performed on 30 May 1962, was commissioned to mark the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original 14th-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The reconsecration was an occasion for an arts festival, for which Michael Tippett also wrote his opera "King Priam".
Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector, was inspired by the commission, which gave him complete freedom in deciding what to compose. He chose to set the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems about war by the English poet Wilfred Owen. Owen, who was born in 1893, was serving as the commander of a rifle company when he was killed in action on 4 November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre-Oise Canal in France, just one week before the Armistice. Although he was virtually unknown at the time of his death, he has subsequently come to be revered as one of the great war poets.
Philip Reed has discussed the progression of Britten's composition of the "War Requiem" in the Cambridge Music Handbook publication on the work. Britten himself acknowledged the stylistic influence of Requiems by other composers, such as Giuseppe Verdi's, on his own composition.
Britten dedicated the work to Roger Burney, Piers Dunkerley, David Gill, and Michael Halliday. Burney and Halliday, who died in the war, were friends of Peter Pears and Britten, respectively. According to the Britten–Pears Foundation's "War Requiem" website, Dunkerley, one of Britten's closest friends, took part in the 1944 Normandy landings. Unlike the other dedicatees, he survived the war but committed suicide in June 1959, two months before his wedding. None of the other dedicatees have known graves, but are commemorated on memorials to the missing.
Orchestration.
The musical forces are divided into three groups that alternate and interact with each other throughout the piece, finally fully combining at the end of the last movement. The soprano soloist and choir are accompanied by the full orchestra, the baritone and tenor soloists are accompanied by the chamber orchestra, and the boys' choir is accompanied by a small positive organ (this last group ideally being situated at some distance from the full orchestra). This group produces a very strange, distant sound. The soprano and choir and the boys' choir sing the traditional Latin Requiem text, while the tenor and baritone sing poems by Wilfred Owen, interspersed throughout.
The full orchestra consists of the following instrumentation.
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Keyboard
Strings
The chamber orchestra consists of the following instrumentation.
Woodwinds
Brass
Percussion
Strings
Movements and structure.
The work consists of six movements:
Musical analysis.
The interval of a tritone between C and F is a recurring motif, the occurrence of which unifies the entire work. The interval is used both in contexts that emphasize the harmonic distance between C and F and those that resolve them harmonically, mirroring the theme of conflict and reconciliation present throughout the work. The "Requiem aeternam", "Dies irae", and "Libera me" movements end in a brief choral phrase, consisting mainly of slow half notes, each first and second phrase ending on a tritone's discord, with every last ("i. e." third) phrase resolving to an F-major chord; while at the end of the "Agnus Dei" the tenor (in his only transition from the Owen poems to the Requiem liturgy, on the key words, "Dona nobis pacem" – Give us peace) outlines a perfect fifth from C to G before moving down to F to resolve the chorus's final chord. At the end of the "Dies irae", the tenor sings (from Owen's "Futility") "O what, what made fatuous sunbeams toil, to break earth's sleep at all?" The notes of "at all" form the tritone and lead into the choir's formal resolution. In the final Owen setting, "Strange Meeting", one of the most prominent expressions of the tritone is sung by the tenor, addressing an opposing soldier with the words "Strange friend". This poem is accompanied by sporadic detached chords from two violins and a viola, which include the tritone as part of a dominant seventh chord. At the end of the poem, the final string chord resolves to the tonic, bringing the work to its final, reconciliatory "In paradisum". On a more practical level, Britten facilitated musical execution of the tritone in the closing bars by having the F sung in one voice, but the C in another.
Four other motifs that usually occur together are distinct brass fanfares of the "Dies irae": a rising arpeggio, a falling arpeggio followed by a repeated note, a repeated fourth in a dotted rhythm ending in a diminished arpeggio, and a descending scale. These motifs form a substantial part of the melodic material of the piece: the setting of "Bugles sang" is composed almost entirely of variations of them.
Another linking feature can be found in the opening of the final movement, "Libera Me", where the slow march tune in the double basses (preceded by two drums outlining the rhythm) replicates the more-rapid opening theme of the first poem, "Anthem for Doomed Youth".
One striking juxtaposition is found in the Offertorium, a fugue in the repeating three-part-time scheme , , where the choir sings of God's promise to Abraham ("Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius" – "which you once promised Abraham and his seed"). This frames Owen's retelling of the offering of Isaac, in which the angel tells Abraham to:
As the male soloists sing the last line repeatedly, the boys sing "Hostias et preces tibi, Domine" ("Sacrifice and prayers we offer thee, Lord"), paralleling the sacrifice of the Mass with the sacrifice of "half the seed of Europe" (a reference to World War I). The "reprise" of "Quam olim Abrahae" is sung in inversion, diminuendo instead of crescendo.
The whole of the Offertorium is a reference to Britten's earlier Canticle No. 2 "Abraham and Isaac" from 1952. Britten here uses much of the musical material of the earlier work, but the music in the Requiem is twisted into much more sinister forms.
Although there are a few occasions in which members of one orchestra join the other, the full forces do not join together until the latter part of the last movement, when the tenor and baritone sing the final line of Owen's poem "" ("Let us sleep now ...") as "In Paradisum deducant" ("Into Paradise lead them ...") is sung first by the boys' choir, then by the full choir (in 8-part canon), and finally by the soprano. The boys' choir echoes the "Requiem aeternam" from the beginning of the work, and the full choir ends on the resolved tritone motif.
Premiere and performances.
For the opening performance, it was intended that the soloists should be Galina Vishnevskaya (a Russian), Peter Pears (an Englishman) and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (a German), to demonstrate a spirit of unity. Close to the premiere, the Soviet authorities did not permit Vishnevskaya to travel to Coventry for the event, although she was later permitted to leave to make the recording in London. With only ten days' notice, Heather Harper stepped in and performed the soprano role.
Although the Coventry Cathedral Festival Committee had hoped Britten would be the sole conductor for the work's premiere, shoulder pain forced his withdrawal from the main conducting role. He did, however, conduct the chamber orchestra, and this spawned a tradition of separate conductors that the work does not require and Britten never envisaged. The premiere took place on 30 May 1962, in the rebuilt cathedral with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Meredith Davies (accompanying soprano and chorus), and the Melos Ensemble, conducted by the composer (accompanying tenor and baritone). At Britten's request, there was no applause following the performance. It was a triumph, and critics and audiences at this and subsequent performances in London and abroad hailed it as a contemporary masterpiece. Writing to his sister after the premiere, Britten said of his music, "I hope it'll make people think a bit." On the title page of the score he quoted Wilfred Owen:
Because of time zones, the southern hemisphere premiere was about 12 hours ahead of that in North America, though they were on the same day, 27 July 1963. The southern hemisphere premiere was in Wellington, New Zealand, with John Hopkins conducting the New Zealand National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) and the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, with soloists Peter Baillie, Graeme Gorton and Angela Shaw. The North American premiere was at Tanglewood, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra with soloists Phyllis Curtin, Nicholas Di Virgilio, Tom Krause and choruses from Chorus Pro Musica and the Columbus Boychoir, featuring boy soprano Thomas Friedman.
The Dutch premiere took place during the Holland Festival, in 1964. The Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir were conducted by Bernard Haitink; the chamber orchestra (consisting of Concertgebouw Orchestra instrumentalists) by Britten himself. The soloists were Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, in their first public performance together.
The English Chamber Choir performed the work at "Your Country Needs You", an evening of "voices in opposition to war" organised by The Crass Collective in November 2002.
To commemorate the eve of the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the original cathedral, a performance of the Requiem took place in the new cathedral on 13 November 2010, featuring the soprano Claire Rutter, the tenor Daniel Norman, baritone Stephen Gadd, The Parliament Choir, Saint Michael's singers, Deutscher Chor London, the ESO Chamber Orchestra, The Southbank Sinfonia and The Girl Choristers of Coventry Cathedral. It was conducted by Simon Over and Paul Leddington Wright. A recording was made and broadcast a day later on Classic FM. A second performance with the same performers took place on 17 November 2010 at Westminster Cathedral.
A 50th anniversary performance was given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons at Coventry Cathedral on 30 May 2012.
As part of Lincolnshire Remembers commemoration of the centenary of the end of the First World War, Lincoln Cathedral hosted a performance of Britten's War Requiem. On Saturday 3 November 2018, singers from Lincoln Choral Society, Gainsborough Choral Society, Scunthorpe Choral Society, Grimsby Philharmonic Society, Louth Choral Society, Neustadt Liedertafel, and the Choristers of Lincoln Cathedral were joined by the Lincolnshire Chamber Orchestra. The soloists were Rachel Nicholls (soprano), Alessandro Fisher (tenor) and Julien Van Mallaerts (baritone). The organist was Jeffrey Makinson, and the pianist was Jonathon Gooing. The conductors were Mark Wilde, Susan Hollingworth and Aric Prentice.
Recordings.
The first recording, featuring Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau and Pears, with the London Symphony Orchestra and The Bach Choir conducted by Britten, was produced by Decca in 1963. Within five months of its release it sold 200,000 copies, an unheard-of number for a piece of contemporary classical music at that time. Recording producer John Culshaw reports that Vishnevskaya threw a tantrum during the recording, as she believed – not having performed the work before – she was being insulted by being placed with the choir instead of at the front with the male soloists. The newest (2013) CD reissue of this recording includes 50 minutes of surreptitiously taped rehearsal footage at the time of the recording.
Other recordings of the work include the following:
Film adaptation.
In 1988, the British film director Derek Jarman made a screen adaptation of "War Requiem" of the same title, with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack, produced by Don Boyd and financed by the BBC. It features the final film performance of Laurence Olivier, in the role of an ageing war veteran.