Gerald R. Ford International Airport

Gerald R. Ford International Airport is a commercial airport in Cascade Township approximately southeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The facility is owned by the Kent County Board of Commissioners and managed by an independent authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a small hub primary commercial service facility.
The facility opened as the Kent County Airport and later became Kent County International Airport; in December 1999 the airport was renamed for Gerald R. Ford, the 40th Vice President and the 38th President of the United States. Ford represented the Grand Rapids area in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.
The airport is the largest commercial airport in the West Michigan region and is the second-largest airport in Michigan after Detroit Metropolitan Airport. GRR covers .
The airport currently has flights to 34 domestic airports.
History.
Grand Rapids' first airport broke ground in November 1919, south of downtown. This was eight years after the area witnessed its first landing, a Wright biplane at Comstock Park State Fairgrounds on September 10, 1911. The airport was operated by the Kent County Board of Supervisors.
The first scheduled air service in the United States was between Grand Rapids and Dearborn on a Ford-Stout monoplane named "Miss Grand Rapids", which started July 26, 1926.
In 1938–39 the Works Progress Administration made improvements including new runways and runway widening, fencing, sodding, lighting, remodeling the administration building and construction of a new restaurant.
Circa 1940 the airport extended between 32nd and 36th Streets, from Jefferson Avenue east to the railroad; the west end was soon expanded south to just north of Himes Street and in the 1950s runway 18/36 was extended to 5700’ and reached south to 44th Street.
In 1959, the county began construction on the present airport in Cascade Township, several miles east of the first. The new airport opened November 23, 1963, and was dedicated June 6, 1964; it had a runway designated 8/26 and a designated 18/36. The first scheduled jet was a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 on April 28, 1968, from Chicago O'Hare. The aircraft, N9003U, was named 'City of Grand Rapids'. In 1968, the only scheduled non-stops beyond Michigan were to Chicago and Green Bay.
On January 27, 1977, the Board of Commissioners renamed Kent County Airport as Kent County International Airport with the opening of a U.S. Customs Service Office in the main terminal building.
In 1997, the board added the runway 17/35 to allow continued operations during a $32 million reconstruction of runway 8R/26L, completed in 2001. It completed a passenger terminal renovation in 2000 at a cost of approximately $50 million.
In 2004 the airport served more than 2 million passengers for the first time in a year. In 2010, the airport broke the 2004 record with almost 2.2 million passengers, as increase of over 23% from 2009.
On January 2, 2007, a U.S. Air Force jet carried the remains of former president Gerald Ford to his namesake airport as part of funeral services culminating in burial at his presidential museum in Grand Rapids the next day.
From April 2010 through October 2011, the airport was a focus city for Allegiant Air.
Air Canada operated the airport's only international flights to Toronto Pearson International Airport from July 2008 until September 2013. It was the airline's second attempt at service between the two markets.
Delta Air Lines operates Boeing 757-200s seasonally between Grand Rapids and Detroit during the summer, making it the largest aircraft to serve GRR.
Allegiant Air announced in mid-January 2019 that they would be making the airport one of Allegiant's 16 focus cities once again. After dropping GRR as a focus city in 2011, Allegiant is upgrading GRR again to a focus city adding Nashville, Tennessee, and Savannah-Hilton Head, Georgia as new routes.
Facilities.
Gerald R. Ford International Airport has two parallel east–west runways and one north–south runway. Along with cargo and general aviation facilities, the airport has a passenger terminal with two concourses: A has seven gates and B has eight. Runways 8R/26L and runway 17/35 have ILS. The airport also has a general aviation runway north of the main 8R/26L runway.
In September 2017, the airport celebrated the opening of phase one of their Gateway Transformation, a 59,000 square foot addition onto the passenger terminal facility that included a consolidated passenger security screening checkpoint, a new Marketplace with expanded retail and food & beverage offerings, new business centers and lounges, and much more. Concourse A's tenants are Allegiant Air, Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines. American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines occupy Concourse B. All gates have climate-controlled jetways.
When new baggage screening regulations were introduced by the Transportation Security Administration in 2002, the airport was the first in the nation to conduct trials on the new screening machines. The baggage processing areas were too small for the machines so they were placed in the passenger lobby.
Airlines and destinations.
Cargo.
Source: Flight Aware
The airport handled of air freight in 2019.
Ground transportation.
The airport is at the intersection of 44th Street and Patterson Avenue. It abuts I-96 on the east, M-6 on the south, M-37 on the west, and M-11 on the north.
Metro Cab and Metro Cars provides taxi and luxury sedan service and the airport is served by Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, and National/Alamo rental car companies on-site.
Rapid route 17, Woodland/Airport, travels between the airport and Woodland Mall (Kentwood Station) on weekdays between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. From Woodland Mall, passengers can continue on to downtown or parts of the east side of Grand Rapids via routes 5 and 6, or across town to Grandville and Wyoming on routes 24, 28, and 44.
Aircraft spotting.
The airport has two aircraft spotter locations. There is an observation deck located on the mezzanine level of the passenger terminal building, which gives a relatively unobstructed view of the ramp area and runway 8R and 26L.
An outdoor viewing area on Kraft Avenue north of 52nd Street has picnic tables, litter barrels, along with a pavilion with a woman's and men's restoom. Radio station 1650 AM broadcasts transmissions by air traffic controllers, pilots, and GFIA operations and ground crew staff. The viewing area is open year-round daily from dawn to dusk.
Planned development.
In 2013 the airport began building a natural treatment system to improve stormwater management practices and safeguard the waters of the Thornapple River. The new, innovative system will include a biological treatment system that will improve collection of stormwater runoff and naturally remove sediments and pollutants before sending the water to the Thornapple River, which flows just east of the airfield.
The airport eliminated the two separate security checkpoints in each concourse and created one consolidated checkpoint in the grand hall area to help traffic flow much faster and to be prepared for future growth. In addition, the grand hall area and the entrance area to the airport was renovated with more shopping and dining options. Work began in late 2015 and completed in June 2017. Concourse A and B were recently refurbished and completed in early 2015.
The airport began construction of a roof over the parking deck in March 2015 to increase close-in, covered, long-term parking. The roof covers most of the fourth floor, though some spaces on the fourth and third floors remain uncovered due to airfield sight-line requirements for the FAA control tower. The garage roof was completed in November 2015 and will allow use of the fourth floor spaces during heavy snow.
In 2016, the airport partnered with the Cascade Community Foundation on plans to renovate the current outdoor viewing area to make it a larger, more inviting place for people to relax. The renovated park opened in May 2017.
In November 2018 the airport began the phase II of the Gateway Transformation Project, reconstructing the baggage claim, check-in, and front of house areas, and have completed the apron reconstruction adding new pavement to the apron and taxiway areas.
In late August 2019, the airport made an announcement about its next focus, Project Elevate. This phase of airport development, consisting of three major projects, includes a $90 million expansion and extension of Concourse A to encompass 8 more gates, a $50 million relocation and construction of a new air traffic control tower as well as a $25 million federal inspection station to facilitate departures and arrivals of direct international flights.


Eastern Methodist Cemetery

Eastern Methodist Cemetery, also known as Old Ebenezer Cemetery and Ebenezer Cemetery, was a cemetery located in the Barney Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States.
It was founded in 1824 as a privately owned Methodist cemetery open to the public. (The earliest interment at Eastern Methodist came before the cemetery was incorporated. That was Ely Drown, who was buried there on August 18, 1823.) Its owner was the Fourth Street Methodist Church at Ebenezer Station (hence the nickname "Ebenezer Cemetery"). The cemetery was located one a city block bounded by D, E, 17th, and 18th Streets NE. It was across the street from and north of Congressional Cemetery. The cemetery was designed to hold 1,830 burial plots. But because of the cemetery's popularity, there were multiple burials in each grave, and by the 1890s the cemetery held more than 3,000 bodies.
During the roughly 70 years in which the cemetery was in operation, many of the leading citizens of the Barney Circle, Capitol Hill, Kingman Park, and Atlas District were buried at Eastern Methodist Cemetery. The cemetery was never in good financial condition, however. The price of burial plots was too low to permit the cemetery to establish a perpetual care fund.
Eastern Methodist Cemetery was built on marshy ground, however, and it was not very suitable as a burial ground. About 1890, the cemetery's trustees proposed closing the cemetery. To finance the disinterral of remains, the cemetery would be subdivided and sold for building lots. Lotholders, however, rejected the proposal. The trustees then sought a legal solution. In 1891, Congress enacted legislation allowing Eastern Methodist Cemetery to remove all bodies in the cemetery and subdivide and sell the land to finance their reinterrment elsewhere. Some remains were claimed by family members. The Fourth Street Methodist Church agreed to disinter and box these remains, and reinter them at church expense at whatever local cemetery the family chose. Remains which went unclaimed were interred in mass graves at Congressional Cemetery. Although there initially was opposition among lotholders against the cemetery's closure, no lawsuit emerged.
Disinterrals commenced at the cemetery on October 1, 1892. By October 4, about 50 bodies had been removed from Eastern Methodist Cemetery, and cemetery officials were predicting that the cemetery would be cleared by the end of the year. Cemetery officials said that they had located nearly every grave listed in the cemetery's lotbook, and full clearance of bodies from the grounds was almost certain. As of November 3, about 1,000 bodies remained to be unearthed, but officials said they were sure to have the work finished within three more weeks.


Mount Moor African-American Cemetery

Mount Moor African-American Cemetery, also known as Mount Moor Cemetery, is a historic African American cemetery located at Palisades Center, West Nyack in Rockland County, New York. It was established in 1849 and contains approximately 90 known graves.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. It is now surrounded by the Palisades Center shopping mall and its parking lots.


Gunter Demnig

Gunter Demnig (born 27 October 1947 in Berlin) is a German artist. He is best known for his "Stolperstein" ("stumbling block") memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution, including Jews, homosexuals, Romani and the disabled. The project places engraved brass stones in front of a former residence for a Holocaust victim who was deported and killed by Nazi Germany, began in Germany and has since spread, with more than 60,000 stones placed across 21 countries in Europe.
Biography.
Gunter Demnig grew up in Nauen and Berlin and acquired his "abitur" in 1967. Later that year, he began studying creative education at Berlin University of the Arts with Professor Herbert Kaufmann. From 1969 to 1970, he studied industrial design there. In 1971, he transferred to the "Kunsthochschule Kassel", resuming his study of creative education and passed the first state examination in 1974.
That same year, he began studying art with Harry Kramer at the University of Kassel. Following that, he spent two years planning, building and managing historical monuments, from 1977 to 1979. From 1980 to 1985, Demnig was an artistic-scientific colleague on the art faculty at the University of Kassel.
In 1985, he opened his own studio in Cologne and worked on numerous local projects. Since 1994, he has also been involved with the "IGNIS-Kulturzentrum" (IGNIS Cultural Center).
Demnig's best known work is what he calls "Stolpersteine". "Stolperstein" (in the singular) is the German word for "stumbling block". Demnig's "Stolpersteine" are small, cobblestone-sized brass memorials for the victims of National Socialism. Set into the pavement of sidewalks in front of the buildings where Nazi victims once lived or worked, they call attention both to the individual victim and the scope of the Nazi war crimes. About 61,000 "Stolpersteine" have been laid in 21 countries in Europe (July 2017), making the project the world's largest memorial.


Lou Lefaive

Louis Ernest Lefaive (February 13, 1928 – July 4, 2002) was a Canadian sports administrator and civil servant. He served in multiple executive roles which included, the director of Fitness and Amateur Sport, director of Sport Canada, president of the National Sport Recreation Centre, president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, chairman and president of Hockey Canada, executive director of the Canadian Figure Skating Association, and executive director of Sport Marketing Canada.
Lefaive was an original member of the Canada Games council, and was involved in planning the inaugural Arctic Winter Games. His involvement in Hockey Canada included negotiations for the 1972 Summit Series, the 1974 Summit Series, and the 1981 Canada Cup; and planning for the Canada men's national ice hockey team and the Canada men's national junior ice hockey team. He was described as "key builder of the Canadian sport system" by "The Globe and Mail", and "had an exceptional ability to bring government and sport together, enabling the development of some of the most successful sports policies", according to the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
Early life and career.
Lefaive was born on February 13, 1928, in Windsor, Ontario, the son of Achille and Aurore Lefaive. He played football, basketball and softball while growing up in Windsor. He attended University of Ottawa, then later coached basketball at the university and St. Patrick's College in Ottawa.
Lefaive was an original council member for the Canada Games that began in 1967, and was named a director of the Canadian Olympic Association.
Director of Fitness and Amateur Sport.
Lefaive was appointed director of the Directorate of Fitness and Amateur Sport in 1968. He developed a working relationship with John Munro, the Minister of Health and Welfare, and was able to influence the government's policies on sport. Lefaive urged Munro to act on recommendations from the directorate before being tabled in the House of Commons of Canada. In 1968, Lefaive recommended that the directorate set national sport policies with the rationale it was staffed with full-time civil servants who were experts in physical education and public administration, instead of the National Advisory Council on Fitness who were volunteers. He later suggested the foundation of the Coaching Association of Canada.
On February 21, 1969, Hockey Canada began operations as a separate entity from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), and Lefaive was appointed to the initial board of directors with the goal of the Canada men's national ice hockey team defeating the Soviet Union national ice hockey team, and assist in planning the upcoming 1970 Ice Hockey World Championships hosted in Canada. After a dispute with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) over Canada using professional players, Canada withdrew from international competition when Earl Dawson announced, "We will not return until the rules permit us to enter a team that is truly representative of Canadian hockey, so we can play our best players as all other countries do".
Lefaive was involved in planning the inaugural Arctic Winter Games in 1970. At the event's closing ceremonies he stated, "we're leaving behind a legacy of people who are, or have been, involved and certainly now committed to the positive values that flow from sports competition". He announced plans that the games would be held every two years.
Director of Sport Canada.
The Directorate of Fitness and Amateur Sport was split into Sport Canada and Recreation Canada in 1971. Lefaive explained that Sport Canada would be concerned with the competitive aspects of sports, and Recreation Canada would be concerned with getting more Canadians to participate in sports for pleasure. He served as the director of Sport Canada until 1974.
In June 1971, Lefaive felt that universities were becoming less opposed to third party scholarships for athletes, and hoped it would relieve the financial burden of bidding for athletes to attend their school. Sport Canada offered 100 scholarships to athletes at that time, and he hoped to broaden the scholarship base by increasing participation in sport. He felt that having more people involved would increase the talent pool, and stated that "the quality of an athlete is the consequence of participation, not the goal".
In February 1972, Lefaive became part of the board of directors for the Sport Federation of Canada, via his role in Sport Canada. He also helped develop the ParticipACTION program in 1972.
In 1973, Lefaive called for amateur sport leaders in Canada to be more vocal in supporting the planned 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In response to the protests against the cost of Canada hosting the Olympic Games, he said that "amateur sport was criticized on economic grounds", which "ignored the true value of international competition".
Lefaive was acting as the assistant deputy Minister of Amateur Sport, from July 18 to September 1, 1973, until an appointment took effect. In September 1973, he attended as a government observer to the renegotiation of the professional-amateur agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) represented by Clarence Campbell, and the CAHA represented by Jack Devine.
On November 30, 1973, Marc Lalonde the Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare, named Lefaive the president designate of a proposed corporation which would include all amateur sport bodies. Lefaive had made a recommendation for the foundation of a National Sport and Recreation Centre.
Canadian international hockey.
Lefaive remained part of the board of directors for Hockey Canada while serving as the director of Sport Canada. He was part of the Canadian delegation attending the 1971 Ice Hockey World Championships, which began discussions on a possible return of the national team to international competition. He expected the Japanese Olympic Committee to invite Canada to ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics, and that Hockey Canada would consider without indicating any acceptance or refusal.
In February 1972, the Canadian Bureau of Public Affairs empowered Joe Kryczka, president of the CAHA, Charles Hay chairman of Hockey Canada, and Lefaive to oversee diplomatic efforts to return Canada to international ice hockey, and gave them needed assistance from Canadian embassies in Europe, and specifically the Embassy of Canada in Moscow. Kryczka, Hay and Lefaive went to Prague in April 1972 to finalize a deal with the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation for what became the 1972 Summit Series. While in Prague, Lefaive and Doug Fisher spoke with Derek Holmes who was coaching the Switzerland men's national ice hockey team, and convinced him to join Hockey Canada as its technical director to help build the national team.
After the Summit Series was announced, Lefaive stated that future agreements to have international hockey events with professional players did not mean Canada would return to the Ice Hockey World Championships or ice hockey at the Olympic Games. He noted that obstacles were the timing of the events overlapping with the National Hockey League (NHL) season, and the cost of traveling to Europe from North America. He said Canada would ask for the World Championships to be scheduled in May after NHL playoffs, or in September during professional training camps.
In April 1973, Lefaive and Gordon Juckes met with Andrei Starovoytov from the Soviet Union Ice Hockey Federation to discuss the possibility of another series. Lefaive and Juckes went to Helsinki in April 1974, for another round of discussions. The final agreement for the 1974 Summit Series was signed, and officially announced on April 26, 1974.
In 1974, Lefaive was the chairman of Hockey Canada's international committee, and represented Hockey Canada at meetings for international competitions. He met with the CAHA, NHL, World Hockey Association (WHA) and European countries regarding a potential World Cup of Hockey in open competition. He sat on the committee for planning the 1974 Summit Series. He supported adding the WHA Players' Association representative Ron Roberts to the committee to give the players a voice, despite opposition from Ben Hatskin who owned the Winnipeg Jets.
National Sport Recreation Centre.
The National Sport and Recreation Centre began operations on June 17, 1974, with Lefaive as its president. He described the vision of the new centre as providing direct administrative and technical assistance to amateur sport organizations, and helping those volunteer organizations achieve more. He said, "right now amateur sports are at the mercy of the government and big business" but the centre would give amateur sports a powerful lobby. As president, he attended meetings of the International Gymnastics Federation on behalf of the Canadian Gymnastics Federation.
From 1976 to 1977, Lefaive served as the first president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee and presided over the government's coordinating committee for the Sports for the Physically Disabled. Canada had recently hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics in Toronto, and created a support network for its athletes with disabilities. He oversaw the allocation of government funds for the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association, the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing, the Canadian Amputee Sports Association and the Canadian Blind Sports Association.
In October 1977, the government was debating the future format of the Canada Games from 1981 onward. Lefaive wanted the games to remain targeted towards developmental athletes, since he felt there was adequate competition for higher-level athletes. He cautioned that raising the level of competition at the Canada Games would lead to the more populated Canadian provinces dominating the events.
Return to Sport Canada.
On April 13, 1978, Lefaive was appointed by Iona Campagnolo to return as director of Sport Canada, and replace Roger Jackson who resigned. Campagnolo stated that Lefaive's returning came at a time when the national sport policy was nearing completion. Lefaive wanted to see Sport Canada be more interactive in the sport community, and a closer understanding of common objectives. He said, "I think I can serve best in the area of developing better dialogue with such organizations as the national sport governing bodies, the Canadian Olympic Association, the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union (CIAU), and particularly, the provinces". After the 1979 Canadian federal election, he expected government spending restraints and adjustments in his programs. He had mixed feelings on Canada's results at the 1979 Pan American Games. He said Canada need to take a long look at whether results were worth the tax payer's money, and suggested that the money might be better spent going to competitions in Europe.
Lefaive was nominated to return to the Hockey Canada board of directors in September 1978. In October 1978, the CAHA used its International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) membership to block a series of international exhibition games between the WHA and Europeans teams, that were arranged by Hockey Canada. The CAHA was upset about the WHA not paying development fees when it signed players from junior ice hockey teams in Canada. Lefaive felt the CAHA should take legal action against the WHA, instead of using its IIHF veto as leverage.
In a publicized dispute with the CAHA in January 1979, Lefaive said that Hockey Canada would stop organizing teams for the Olympic Games and World Championships, because "the CAHA is just dragging its heels" and was not fully committed to the national team. CAHA president Gord Renwick said the threat was an excuse when the 1976 Canada Cup was not profitable. Later in 1979, Lefaive began plans for regularly scheduled Canada Cup tournaments as of 1980.
Lefaive resigned as the director of Sport Canada in January 1980.
Chairman of Hockey Canada.
Lefaive was named chairman of Hockey Canada in April 1979. He agreed with the CAHA to move forward planning the 1980 Canada Cup, but still disputed who had control of the Canada men's national junior ice hockey team. The problems with the lack of development payments ended with the NHL–WHA merger. He felt that Hockey Canada's links to the private sector would help establish a permanent national men's team, and finance the national junior team at the World Juniors. In October 1979, Lefaive announced a proposal to operate an elite CIAU hockey league in Canada funded by Hockey Canada and the private sector. The aims were to encourage the best student athletes to remain in Canada instead of accepting scholarships in the United States, and act to as a feeder program for the national men's team.
In November 1979, Hockey Canada and the CAHA were in disagreement again over the national junior team. The CAHA chose not to send a team to the 1980 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, and Lefaive stated the decision would hurt Canada's reputation. The CAHA stated it withdrew because funding from Sport Canada was denied, whereas Sport Canada said the request came too late.
President of Hockey Canada.
Lefaive became the first full-time salaried president of Hockey Canada on January 22, 1980. He made it a priority to have a CIAU super league operational by the 1980–81 school season, and suggested it would cost an extra C$25,000 per team. He continued preparations for the 1980 Canada Cup, despite the ongoing Soviet–Afghan War, although he received a request from Steve Paproski, the Minister of Amateur Sport, to review its relationship with the Soviet Union team. Lefaive deferred a decision until after a potential boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics hosted in the Soviet Union. He arranged arena and television contracts with escape clauses if politics caused any problems. He was optimistic the event would succeed event without Soviet participation.
Despite not winning a medal in ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics, Lefaive committed to continue the national team program and a university hockey league. He wanted to keep the nucleus of the team together for international tournaments such as the Izvestia Cup in Moscow, and the Rudé právo tournament in Czechoslovakia, and add players for the upcoming World Championships. Lefaive was critical of the NHL for giving nearly twice the financial assistance to the United States men's national ice hockey team instead of Team Canada, and felt that the NHL owed more to Canada.
On April 30, 1980, Lefaive confirmed cancellation of the 1980 Canada Cup. The Canadian Press reported that NHL players were opposed to Soviet Union participating due to the Soviet-Afghan War. He reported that Hockey Canada lost $600,000 income due to the cancellation, which would have ensured its financial stability. He accepted responsibility for cancelling the 1980 Canada Cup due to lack of sponsors and public opinion on world events, and hoped the event could be held in 1981. He felt the Soviets would play in 1981 to redeem their loss to the Americans at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
In a January 1981 interview, Lefaive said that the cancellation of the 1980 Canada Cup left Hockey Canada without money to fund a national team which went on hold for a year. He began planning in summer 1981 for ice hockey at the 1984 Winter Olympics, and expected the national men's team to be composed of junior and college players. He also planned on sending a team to the 1981 Winter World Student Games. Hockey Canada proposed sending the University of Alberta Golden Bears supplemented with players from other schools. The plan was threatened when threatened to pull out if loaning players coincided with the Canada West playoffs.
The 1981 Canada Cup went ahead as scheduled, and was won by the Soviet Union. After the victorious team was prevented from taking the trophy home to the Soviet Union by Alan Eagleson, Winnipeg businessman George Smith planned on presenting a copy of the Canada Cup trophy to the Soviet players at Portage and Main. Lefaive threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement if a replica of the Canada Cup was made, but later said "If someone wants to send $11,000 worth of nickel to Moscow that's not my business".
Later career.
Lefaive served as the executive director of the Canadian Figure Skating Association from 1983 to 1986, and served as a board member of the Sports Federation of Canada. He began new marketing campaigns for figure skating, and managed its amateur development. In November 1984, he proposed collaborating on a series of events with the United States Figure Skating Association to strengthen North American competition and its talent. He wanted athletes to remain in North America, instead of travelling to Europe for competition. He emphasized the "spirit of helping each other" especially at the amateur levels of figure skating. Lefaive departed the Canadian Figure Skating Association to pursue opportunities in sports marketing, and was succeeded as executive director by David Dore on January 20, 1986.
Lefaive served as the executive director of Sport Marketing Canada from 1986 to 1992, and was president of the Sport Marketing Council. He said in a September 1988 interview, "sport is too important for government not to be involved, but the days when we merely tapped government as the milk cow are gone". He felt that sports organizations needed to raise more funds from their members and innovative marketing strategies. He expected corporate funding to grow in the next four years and suggested that sports organizations set a target of 50% funding from private sources.
Personal life and death.
Lefaive was a devout Catholic. He and his wife Winnifred had four daughters. He died on July 4, 2002, in Ottawa at age 74. He was interred at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.
Legacy and honours.
Lefaive was an honorary life member of the Canadian Gymnastics Federation. He was described by "The Globe and Mail" as a "key builder of the Canadian sport system". The Canadian Paralympic Committee said he "had an exceptional ability to bring government and sport together, enabling the development of some of the most successful sports policies".


Theodore Roosevelt Island

Theodore Roosevelt Island is an island and national memorial located in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. The island was given to the federal government by the Theodore Roosevelt Association in memory of the 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. Until then, the island had been known as My Lord's Island, Barbadoes Island, Mason's Island, Analostan Island, and Anacostine Island.
The island is maintained by the National Park Service, as part of the nearby George Washington Memorial Parkway. The land is generally maintained as a natural park, with various trails and a memorial plaza featuring a statue of Roosevelt. No cars or bicycles are permitted on the island, which is reached by a footbridge from Arlington, Virginia, on the western bank of the Potomac.
"In the 1930s landscape architects transformed Mason’s Island from neglected, overgrown farmland into Theodore Roosevelt Island, a memorial to America’s 26th president. They conceived a 'real forest' designed to mimic the natural forest that once covered the island. Today miles of trails through wooded uplands and swampy bottomlands honor the legacy of a great outdoorsman and conservationist."
A small island, "Little Island," lies just off the southern tip; Georgetown and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are respectively across the main channel of the Potomac to the north and the east.
History.
The Nacotchtank Indians, formerly of what is now Anacostia (in Washington, D.C.), temporarily moved to the island in 1668, giving its first recorded name, "Anacostine". The island was patented in 1682 as Anacostine Island by Captain Randolph Brandt (or Brunett), who left the island to his daughter Margaret Hammersley, upon his death in 1698 or 1699.
The island was acquired by George Mason III in 1724. George Mason IV (then underage) inherited the island in 1735 upon the death of his father, and a ferry from the Virginia shore across the Potomac to Georgetown (the "Little River" and mouth of Rock Creek) was relocated from Awbrey's land to Mason's island in 1748. His son and executor John Mason, inherited the island as the century ended, pursuant to a 1773 will presented to the Fairfax County Circuit court in 1792 by his brother George Mason V, who died in 1796 so he and his other living brother Thomas Mason succeeded as their father's executors.
John Mason built a mansion on the island around 1796 and planted crops for sale as well as gardens. He was an active member of the Agricultural Society of Georgetown and the Columbia Agricultural Society of Washington, and able to manufacture almost everything needed for home consumption (including cotton) on the island. He also entertained lavishly on the island, including a 1798 party to honor Louis Phillippe the Duc d'Orleans, and an 1811 fete for his son John Murray Mason before he left to study in Paris. In 1809 John Mason secured a charter for a turnpike to connect his ferry landing with the Washington-Alexandria turnpike that Congress had chartered the previous year (and which would follow what became U.S. Route 1 and compete with his ferry for traffic). John Mason also diversified his income-producing activities, operating a ferry between Georgetown and the Virginia shore until construction of the Aqueduct Bridge in 1843 (superceded by the Key Bridge in 1923), as well as from 1817 until 1838 serving as the last president of the Potowmack Company (founded in 1774 with George Washington as its first President and in order to deepen the Potomac's channel and build locks around the principal falls).
Using federal funds and private funds raised by Georgetown merchants, a causeway from the Virginia shore to the island was constructed after debris from flooding in the winter of 1784 changed the Potomac River's main channel from the island's western side to the eastern side and increased silt which threatened the nearby Georgetown port. Alexandria merchants objected to the causeway and it proved a sticking point in their calls for retrocession of 26 square miles of land Virginia had given to establish the federal city as the century began. The first retrocession attempt was in 1804, and another major failed attempt occurred in 1824. However, by 1831, water stagnation caused the Mason family to move from the island. (Through his ownership, John Mason, who opposed retrocession, also had a Georgetown residence at the corner of 25th Street, L Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, which became the site of Columbia Hospital in 1932). In 1842, then elderly John Mason sold the island to John Carter. Four years later, Congress left retrocession to a referendum, which President Polk authorized and Alexandria voters endorsed by a 763 to 222 vote on September 1, 1846 (despite opposition from the northern areas) so after a further year of Congressional and Virginia General Assembly negotiations, the island became part of Alexandria County (the northern portion later separated from the City of Alexandria and was renamed Arlington County). After Carter died in 1851, the island passed to William A. Bradley. Nonetheless, in 1854, the island again hosted a spectacular entertainment, this time given by the late John Mason's daughter Anna Maria (who had married Sydney Smith Lee in 1834) to mark a treaty opening Japan to foreign trade (Captain Lee having served under Commodore Perry on the voyage which resulted in the treaty).
In 1861, Alexandria County had about 10,000 residents, three-quarters of whom lived in the city portion, and about half of those in the country portion were enslaved of "free colored". Union forces occupied the island, Mason's former mansion, and the rest of the formerly retroceded area on the night of May 23-24, hours after Virginia voters ratified secession. Three federal units covered the three major trans-Potomac routes, and soon fortified the county as part of the military defenses of the nation's capital. Mason's Island soon became a U.S. Army training camp. Following President Lincoln's decision to allow African Americans to join the U.S. Army, the 1st United States Colored Infantry used the island to train its soldiers. From 1864 to 1865, the camp housed as many as 1,200 formerly enslaved people, first under the authority of the U.S. Army, and later, the Freedmen's Bureau. Locals continued to call it "Mason's Island" until the memorial was built.
Following the declaration of war against Spain in 1898, the island became a test site for a number of private experiments in electrical ignition of the explosives dynamite and jovite led by the chemist Charles Edward Munroe of Columbian University. Monroe's experiments, which explored the use of the explosives for mining waterways and roadways and preparing ground for rapid entrenchment, were conducted in secret and without alerting the District of Columbia Police Department, which investigated citizens' reports of Spanish spy activity and found the explosives and detonators buried on the island.
From 1913 to 1931, Washington Gas Light Company owned the island, and allowed vegetation to grow unchecked on the island. Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., a landscape architect known for his wildlife conservation efforts, as well as designs for the National Mall and other areas in the National Capital area (and whom President Theodore Roosevelt had appointed to the McMillan Commission back in 1901), developed a plan for the island. By 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps had cleared much of the island and pulled down the house's remaining walls; today, only part of the mansion's foundation remains.
National memorial.
In 1931, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association purchased the island from the gas company with the intention of erecting a memorial honoring Roosevelt. Congress authorized the memorial on May 21, 1932, but did not appropriate funds for the memorial for almost three decades.
Funds were finally designated by Congress in 1960. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the national memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the listing first appeared on October 15, 1966.
The memorial was dedicated on October 27, 1967. Designed by Eric Gugler, the memorial includes a 17-foot (5 m) statue by sculptor Paul Manship, four large stone monoliths with some of Roosevelt's more famous quotations, and two large fountains.
Geography and natural history.
The Potomac River surrounding the island is at sea level, part of the Chesapeake Bay estuary, with the river water fresh but tidal. A narrow channel, unofficially referred to as "Little River" by local users of the Potomac River, separates the island from the Virginia bank of the Potomac, with the main channel of the Potomac between the island and Georgetown, part of Washington, D.C. Surrounding scenery includes the Potomac Gorge and Key Bridge, Georgetown, Rosslyn, and the Kennedy Center. The Virginia state line follows the southern bank of the river, so, despite the fact that the primary access to the island is from Virginia, the island itself is entirely in the District of Columbia.
The rocky western (upriver) and central portions of the island are part of the Piedmont Plateau, while the southeastern part is within the Atlantic Coastal Plain. At one point opposite Georgetown, the Atlantic Seaboard fall line between the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain can be seen as a natural phenomenon. The island has about of shoreline, and the highest area of the island (where the Mason mansion stood) is about above sea level.
Spring floods coming down the Potomac from Appalachia inundate low-lying portions of island's shores regularly, usually several times each year, while much larger floods, often from the storm surges and intense, widespread rainfall from coastal hurricanes and tropical storms, flood the island more deeply several times a century.
The island's vegetation is quite diverse for a relatively small area, due to its geological and topographic variety, the frequency of floods, its land-use history (including various periods of landscaping), and its location in an urban area in which many non-native species occur. Most of the island is deciduous forest of various kinds, including uplands, riparian shores, and swamps. There is also an area of fresh-water tidal (estuarine) marsh, and a few small bedrock outcrops of metamorphic Piedmont rock, some along the tidal shore. The variety of freshwater estuarine intertidal habitats along the island's shores is particularly notable.
The island is particularly known for its variety of birds and its showy displays of spring wildflowers. However, dozens of non-native invasive plants have become abundant there, often outcompeting the native species.
Access.
Theodore Roosevelt Island is accessible by a footbridge from a parking lot along the Virginia bank of the Potomac River, just north of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, which crosses but does not allow access to the island. Cars can enter this parking lot only from the northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Pedestrians and bicyclists can reach the parking lot and footbridge by following the Mount Vernon Trail south from the intersection of Lee Highway and N. Lynn St. in Rosslyn, near Key Bridge. The closest Washington Metro station to the island is the Rosslyn station.
Several hiking trails provide access to the memorial and a variety of the island's natural habitats, including a boardwalk through a swampy and marshy area.


Alfred Wiener

Alfred Wiener (16 March 1885, Potsdam – 4 February 1964, London) was a German Jew who dedicated much of his life to documenting antisemitism and racism in Germany and Europe, and uncovering crimes of Germany's Nazi government. He is best remembered as the founder and long-time director of the Wiener Library.
Biography.
Wiener trained as an Arabist and spent the years 1909 – 1911 in the Middle East. He fought in the First World War, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class. From 1919, he was a high-ranking official in the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, CV), and identified the Nazi Party as the chief danger to the Jews of Germany and to German society as a whole as early as 1925. Wiener's first wife, Margarethe, died shortly after being released from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the way to Switzerland in 1945. In 1953, he married Lotte Philips. Wiener became a naturalized British citizen in the late 1940s.
Anti-Nazi activities.
In 1928, Wiener was instrumental in creating the Büro Wilhelmstrasse of the CV, which documented Nazi activities and issued anti-Nazi materials until 1933 when Hitler came to power. Wiener and his family fled to Amsterdam where he, together with Dr. David Cohen of Amsterdam University, founded the Jewish Central Information Office (JCIO). In 1939 he and the collection transferred to London.
Wiener spent most of the war years in the USA, collecting materials for the JCIO and working for the British and American governments. He returned in 1945 to transform the Information Office into a library and centre for the scholarly study of the Nazi era.
From the mid-1950s, Wiener travelled frequently to Germany to speak to groups of young people and establish contact with Christian groups.
Two of his pamphlets he originally published in German in Germany, "Prelude to Pogroms? Facts for the Thoughtful" (1919) and "German Judaism in Political, Economic and Cultural Terms" (1924), were published together in English translation as "The Fatherland and the Jews" in 2021.
Awards.
In 1955, Wiener was awarded the highest civilian decoration of West Germany, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Grosses Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens).


Romain Genevois

Romain Genevois (born 28 October 1987) is a Haitian professional footballer who most recently played as a defender for Stade Malherbe Caen of the Ligue 1 in France.
Early years.
Genevois was born in L'Estère, Haiti. At the age 3, he was separated from his biological parents who had difficulty raising him. He was then adopted, along with his younger brother, by a French couple who could not have children. He arrived in France on 5 February 1991 and grew up in Montcenis, a small town of Saône-et-Loire where his parents had chosen to live.
Club career.
Genevois came up through FC Gueugnon's youth ranks to make his first team debut in the 2006–07 season. He moved to Tours FC in 2009 returning to Ligue 2. He then signed with OGC Nice in 2012 and concluded his tenure with a fourth-place finish and qualification to the UEFA Europa League in 2016. Genevois signed a three-year contract to play for Stade Malherbe Caen.
In his career, Genevois has recorded over one hundred games in Ligue 1 and 286 in the pros and has made several trips to the European Cup.
International career.
He made his debut for Haiti in the February 2008 friendly series against Venezuela, which served as a warm-up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Nicaragua or the Netherlands Antilles.
In 2013, Genevois was interviewed by "Nice-Matin", which he made clear that he was "not" a Haitian international as was often said and was 100% French. He cited that he had never signed any document to keep dual citizenship and did not accept Haitian nationality. He claims to have responded to a call for a friendly match in Venezuela, but said it did not officially count as he did not go through Haiti. After spending a week with the team, which he recalls a good memory, organization was an issue. He first recalls arriving in the morning at a Florida airport, only to be picked up in the evening and did not know who the national coach was. This bad experience led him to further pursuit his pro career in France. He was later contacted by team officials to rejoin, but did not want to go to Haiti citing its difficult conditions and thus not revisited the island since leaving for France in his early childhood.
In 2016, that changed when he finally accepted the solicitations of the Haitian selection under the new coach, Patrice Neveu. During this second stint with the national team, his outlook differed and stated his pleasure to be able to play for his country of origin and that things has really changed. He cites that something is building and there is room for optimism in Haitian football evoking its entry in the Copa America as "a very good experience, a very nice competition." He was one of the 23 players selected for the 2016 Copa América, which was the first time in its history to allow qualifications from countries outside of CONMEBOL, thus Haiti managed to qualify and enter for the first time.
Personal life.
Genevois is married and is a father of two, a daughter and a son. He, along with his parents, has sent donations to Haiti through the association that allowed his adoption.


Kennedy-Curry Middle School


Pilgrim Hill (Central Park)


Rapidan Camp

Rapidan Camp (also known at times as Camp Hoover) in Shenandoah National Park in Madison County, Virginia, was built by U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry Hoover, and served as their rustic retreat throughout Hoover's administration from 1929 to 1933. The first family's residential cabin was known as the "Brown House" in contrast to their more famous residence, the White House.
Rapidan Camp was precursor of the current presidential retreat, Camp David.
1929: Founding.
In November 1928, Herbert Hoover was overwhelmingly elected as 31st President of the United States. While all preceding Presidents came from the Eastern half of the United States, Hoover's origins were further from Washington, D.C.—he had been born in Iowa and spent much of his life in California. Returning home to routinely escape the pressure and spotlight of the presidency would not be possible, so he desired a closer casual retreat.
Hoover and his wife had lived together at mining camps while he served as a mine engineer for over 10 years and appreciated the isolation of remote accommodations. He instructed his secretary Lawrence Richey to find a secluded retreat site within 100 miles (160 km) of Washington, D.C., at least 2,500 feet (760 m) above sea level to avoid mosquitoes and—most importantly—close to an excellent trout stream for fishing.
Virginia Governor Harry F. Byrd was a strong supporter of plans to establish Shenandoah National Park, and persuaded Will Carson, Chairman of Virginia's Commission on Conservation and Development, to lead the effort. Two months before Hoover's March inauguration, Carson recommended that the President-elect and his wife Lou Henry Hoover consider establishing their camp at the headwaters of the Rapidan River. The remote, undeveloped site lay on Doubletop Mountain, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Madison County. The Mill Prong and the Laurel Prong streams join within the camp to form the Rapidan River, and all three provide excellent fishing.
Less than three weeks after Hoover's March 4 inauguration, the "Madison Eagle" announced the President and his wife had selected the upper Rapidan site. Although Virginians offered to give Hoover the camp, the President used his own funds to buy the land for $1,045 (at the going rate of $5 per acre), and building materials for $22,719. The Marine Corps provided construction labor as a "military exercise." The Hoovers initially envisioned a village of tents, but soon decided on a more permanent settlement. Mrs. Hoover oversaw construction as the Marines built thirteen assorted buildings including a lodge, two mess halls, cabins and a "Town Hall." They also created several miles of hiking trails, a stone fountain, concrete-lined trout pools, and a miniature golf course.
To reduce the Presidential budget, Hoover decommissioned the Presidential Yacht "Mayflower" shortly after taking office. The Filipino mess crew from the "Mayflower" were transferred to Rapidan Camp, along with the kitchen supplies and china.
1929–1933: Presidential Retreat.
At the 164 acre (66 hectare) Rapidan Camp, President Hoover enjoyed fishing in the streams, which were stocked with trout by the Interior Department. While Mrs. Hoover enjoyed riding horses at camp, Mr. Hoover did not enjoy riding horses simply to reach the camp. The state of Virginia added a one-mile extension from Rapidan Camp to a nearby road they had already planned. The road remains unpaved to this day, and occasionally challenged the presidential motorcade. "The New York Times" described camp as "frontier-like". Mrs. Hoover described the drive and camp:
In a public speech at the celebration of "Hoover Day" in the county seat of Madison, on August 17, 1929, President Hoover spoke of fishing and his camp:
Fishing was conducted only outside the camp grounds, and the fish within camp were "so tame that if you threw a pebble in the water they will rush out at it, or perhaps drift slowly into the open to look you over."
U.S. and foreign leaders came to the isolated and secure location of Rapidan Camp for strategy sessions with the President. His distinguished guests included inventor Thomas A. Edison and his wife, aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., psychologist Lillian Moller Gilbreth, businessman Edsel Ford, and British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. The President and guests would head immediately for the fishing ponds after arriving at camp.
The press were rarely, if ever, invited to Rapidan Camp with the President, until his final year in office when he campaigned for a second term and "invited a massed attack by film men who were given the run of the camp."
However, the President was not without friends in the press, and at least one of those, "Ding" Darling, the accomplished cartoonist for "The Des Moines Register" and with whom Mr. Hoover shared an interest in conservation of natural resources, was a guest at the Camp on several occasions. On one of those visits, Ding and the President were on horseback and took advantage of briefly escaping the eyes of the Secret Service, taking a side trail to a deserted Forest Service observation tower. They dammed the creek beside the tower, caught and cooked lunch, and then watched the Secret Service comb the hills in search of them.
Hoover's trips to camp were sometimes leisurely enough that he stopped for a roadside picnic. "Motorists paused along the highway, gaped at their President having fun." At other times, his departure from camp to Washington was so sudden that sandwiches were dispatched from the camp kitchen to the President for consumption en route, and Hoover was "intensely annoyed" when the press reported that his motorcade had sped at , in violation of Virginia's speed limit of . Lou Henry Hoover sometimes drove her own car.
Camp Rapidan featured a large outdoor stone fireplace which was the backdrop for many photographs of the Hoovers and their guests.
At Rapidan Camp, President Hoover offered to buy Bermuda, Trinidad, and British Honduras from Prime Minister MacDonald in exchange for most of Britain's war debt (from World War I) to the United States. But days later came the Wall Street Crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression. In addition, Hoover and MacDonald came to an agreement that formed the basis of the 1930 London Naval Treaty while meeting at Rapidan Camp, talking for hours sitting on an "historic log". Rapidan Camp also gave name to the "Rapidan Plan" for deploying the Girl Scouts of the USA to help alleviate the economic collapse.
Hoover's birthday opossum and the Mountain School.
A well-publicized story arose in August 1929, when a boy who lived in the nearby mountains presented President Hoover with a live opossum on his 55th birthday. Six months later, the President arranged for a new schoolhouse in the area, which had been so remote that no school existed previously. The incident resulted in a variety of legends and a great deal of apocryphal media publicity, including tales that the boy had managed to sneak past the Marine guard on duty before giving the opossum to the President as a birthday present.
However, the best understanding of historians is that the story originated weeks earlier when Admiral Joel T. Boone, Hoover's physician, was exploring trails in the surrounding mountains and came upon an eleven-year-old boy named Ray Buracker. Boone learned that Buracker and his eight brothers and sisters had never attended school. The area in which they lived, known as Dark Hollow, had no school. When the President heard of Buracker, he said "Tell that boy if he will bring me an opossum down here I'll give him five dollars." Boone delivered the message, but nothing happened until August 10, the President's birthday, when Boone visited Dark Hollow again on horseback. The boy said he had caught an opossum for the President. With the inducement of riding to camp, the shy boy was persuaded to present his opossum directly to the President and his guest, Charles Lindbergh. Anne Morrow Lindbergh was amused to hear that Buracker and his friends had never heard of her famous husband.
The President raised money to build a small schoolhouse that included an apartment for Christine Vest, the teacher they hired. Vest had been trained in the special needs of education in remote mountain communities. The first year's class of twenty-two students ranged from 6 to 20 years of age.
The story of the backwoods mountain schoolhouse was publicized nationally, resulting in donations including schoolbooks, furniture, and a piano. The President took a personal interest in the school, and welcomed its students to the White House on numerous occasions. After Hoover left office, the student body dwindled as the surrounding population was forced via a blanket condemnation law to leave the area for the establishment of Shenandoah National Park in 1935. The school building was transported to Big Meadows on Skyline Drive and used as a ranger station and residence.
Cabinet Members' Camp.
In 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, Attorney General William D. Mitchell, and Secretary of Agriculture Arthur M. Hyde arranged for the Marines to construct a separate camp for members of Hoover's cabinet, downriver from the President's camp. The Cabinet Camp was built on land planned for incorporation into Shenandoah National Park, but still privately owned by the Madison Timber Corporation. No lease was signed, and a dispute arose about whether the Cabinet members had an oral contract with Madison Timber to construct the camp. Marines escorted timbermen off the property "by the seat of the pants," and Madison Timber was assessed property taxes for road and building improvements to which the Marines prohibited access. The conflict was covered in "Time" magazine, the Associated Press, and "Madison Eagle" newspaper. In 1931, the Ward-Rue Lumber Company filed a claim that it owned the property. Under the eventual settlement, cabinet members were allowed to use the camp throughout the Hoover administration, and the property owner resumed custody once Hoover left office. The National Park Service ran out of park expansion funds before purchasing the Cabinet Camp. The rising value of the property once the road and camp were constructed likely led the state to purchase cheaper park expansion land elsewhere.
In 1953, a cooperative of 14 families called Rapidan Camps was created to purchase the dilapidated Cabinet Camp from Ward-Rue. Rapidan Camps rehabilitated the cabins, and over the decades its membership has grown to approximately 100 families who share the facility as a seasonal retreat. The camp now has five cabins—three of the four original Hoover-era cabins and two constructed since in a similar architectural style. It is designated on local hiking maps as "Rapidan Family Camp" to distinguish it from the name the National Park Service restored to the President's main camp in 2004, "Rapidan Camp".
Marine Camp.
A separate camp was constructed to the east of Camp Rapidan to house the Marines who provided the camp's construction, maintenance, and security. The camp initially consisted largely of tents with a few wooden cabins, but more cabins eventually replaced the tents. Many Marines were selected for Rapidan duty due to their skills in carpentry, plumbing, and other work needed at camp. When the President was at camp, from 150 to 250 Marines were stationed there; during the winter only about a dozen.
When local Virginians complained that the Marines were not attending church, the President ordered a Navy Chaplain to provide Sunday services in the Marine Camp mess hall.
The Marine Camp was demolished in 1944.
1933–2000: Federal and Boy Scout camp.
When President Hoover lost his bid for re-election in 1932, he and his wife offered the camp for use by subsequent Presidents and donated the camp property to the federal government to become part of the new Shenandoah National Park then under development.
Roosevelt administration.
With encouragement from Virginia Governor Pollard and Senator Byrd, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Rapidan Camp in 1933, but found the narrow trails too rough for his wheelchair, and the mountain streams too cold for swimming. A plan was drafted to install a heated swimming pool for Roosevelt, but never implemented. In 1935, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes reported, "President Roosevelt is not able to make such use of the camp as President Hoover undoubtedly had in mind. Whether it is to continue to be a Presidential camp must, therefore, be left for future determination." FDR went on to establish his retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland at Camp Shangri-La, later renamed Camp David. While the Park Service pledged to maintain Rapidan Camp, in 1936, "The New York Times" described rust and dry rot at the camp, which was still protected by seven Marines. The "historic log" Hoover and MacDonald had conferred on was destroyed by woodpeckers.
During FDR's tenure, Rapidan Camp was used by Cabinet members, particularly Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson who spent much time at camp until he died there in 1939. The camp then fell into disrepair.
Boy Scout camp.
In 1946, the Shenandoah Park Superintendent reported that the camp was unused and requested federal funds for repairs or demolition. In 1948, the Boy Scouts of America were granted a twenty-year lease to use it as a summer camp, which was also in accordance with Hoover's wishes. During its use as a Boy Scout camp, the facility was renamed "Camp Hoover." As maintenance costs rose, however, the Scouts withdrew from the lease in 1958. In 1960, the structures built by the Boy Scouts and many decayed Hoover-era buildings were demolished, leaving only three of the original buildings.
Federal retreat.
From 1960 to 1963, further rehabilitation work was done at camp. Some Presidents have expressed interest in the camp, but Jimmy Carter was the first President since FDR to visit. Until 1992, the camp was a vacation perk for high-ranking federal government officials, including Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and Vice President Walter Mondale, who was snowed in on one visit and had to be cut out by Secret Service officers with chainsaws. Vice President Al Gore was one of the last senior government executives to stay there overnight.
The camp was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988, under the name "Camp Hoover".
2001–present: Restored, opened to public.
In 2004, Shenandoah National Park completed a restoration of the grounds and the remaining three cabins to their condition in the era of the Hoover presidency. The three buildings are the Brown House (President's Cabin), the Prime Minister's Cabin, and the Creel. Interpretive signs have been installed to help visitors understand life in 1931, the midpoint of the Hoover presidency. The camp's name has been officially changed from Camp Hoover back to Rapidan Camp. During the restoration, many post-Hoover improvements were removed.
The river is still known for its trout fishing—Trout Unlimited ranks it #38 in their "Guide to America's 100 Best Trout Streams".
Public access.
Rapidan Camp is accessible by a 4.1 mile (6 km) round-trip hike on Mill Prong Trail, which begins on Skyline Drive at Milam Gap (Mile 52.8)—see the guide to the hike at. The National Park Service also offers guided van trips that leave from the Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows. During much of the spring, summer, and fall, an interpretive guide stays at camp and provides tours. The Brown House is decorated as it was in Hoover's day; the Prime Minister's Cabin contains interpretive exhibits. The camp is also accessible from the extremely rough, unpaved Quaker Run Road accessible near Criglersville. However, vehicles are prohibited beyond a fire gate at the park boundary one mile from camp, with very limited parking. Visitors must reach the camp on foot, as bicycles are prohibited on unpaved roads within the park. Backcountry camping is prohibited within of Rapidan Camp.
Architecture.
To design the cabins at Rapidan Camp, Lou Henry Hoover hired an architect who had built Girl Scout camps. The facilities were extremely rustic by modern standards. Some of the early structures such as the original Five Tents had just a wooden floor and walls, with canvas tents above. Even the President's Cabin was built with single-wall uninsulated construction—slats of German Siding nailed to studs and exposed on both sides. There are no interior ceilings; rafters and roof boards are exposed. Shower stalls have tin walls and concrete floors. During Hoover's administration, cabin porches were decorated with boxes filled with geraniums, and interior floors were covered with grass rugs. The camp was modified throughout Hoover's presidency with new cabins and additions to existing cabins.
On cold days, large stone fireplaces provide some warmth, but were not intended to keep the camp warm in winter. There was never a shortage of firewood in Hoover's day because the chestnut blight had ravaged the forest; after her first visit to the Rapidan area, Mrs. Hoover had written "There are innumerable, enormous dead chestnuts standing all over the place."
On hot days, hinged wooden panels fold down to expose large copper screens to provide a great deal of ventilation. These panels and numerous windows cover most of the outside perimeter of the cabins. From the 1960s through 1980s, they hardly seemed necessary, for the hemlock trees formed a thick canopy and kept the shaded grounds cool. However, in the early 1990s, the hemlock woolly adelgid began destroying the hemlock trees, so the surrounding forest is again scattered with dead and fallen trees as in Hoover's day.
The cabins are equipped with electricity and plumbing, with visible wiring snaking along the walls and rafters. Large elevated outdoor decks were built with holes for the trunks of mature live trees, whose branches sheltered the cabins and porches.
A replica of a corner of the President's cabin and surrounding deck is located inside the Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa.


Melaka Warrior Monument

The Melaka Warrior Monument is a monument in Melaka City, Melaka, Malaysia. The monument was built to commemorate the Chinese victims of the Empire of Japan occupation of Melaka during World War II. The monument is inscribed with four Chinese characters, "忠貞足式" (pinyin: "Zhōng Zhēn Zú Shì") in Chiang Kai-shek's handwriting, which means "their (those who have fought against the Japanese) loyalty can be taken as an exemplar".
History.
The monument was constructed in 1948 in the Federation of Malaya. In 1972, it underwent major renovation.
Epitaph.
The epitaph is written in Classical Chinese and is translated as below:


List of memorials to Thomas Jefferson

This is a list of memorials to Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States and the author of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Counties.
It is notable that Jefferson County in Virginia became part of West Virginia as a result of the American Civil War. Virginia sued West Virginia to regain it, but lost the case before the United States Supreme Court when it was decided in 1871.


Washington Before Boston Medal

The Washington Before Boston Medal was the first medal commissioned by the Continental Congress and, being struck in gold, is the first Congressional Gold Medal.
On March 25, 1776, Congress passed a resolution which read:
Resolved, That the thanks of this Congress, in their own name, and in the name of the thirteen United Colonies, whom they represent, be presented to His Excellency General Washington, and the officers and soldiers under his command, for their wise and spirited conduct in the siege and acquisition of Boston; and that a medal of gold be struck in commemoration of this great event, and presented to His Excellency; and that a committee of three be appointed to prepare a letter of thanks and a proper device for the medal.
Pierre-Simon-Benjamin Duvivier was commissioned to design and engrave the medal. Creating a medal during the American Revolutionary War was not a priority, and the medal was eventually struck in Paris and presented to Washington on March 21, 1790. The medal is currently possessed by the Boston Public Library.
References.


Warsaw Ghetto boundary markers

The Warsaw Ghetto boundary markers are memorial plaques and boundary lines that mark the maximum perimeter of the former ghetto established by the Germans in 1940 in occupied Warsaw, Poland.
The markers were erected in 2008 and 2010 on 22 sites along the borders of the Jewish quarter, where from 1940–1943 stood the gates to the ghetto, wooden footbridges over Aryan streets, and the buildings important to the ghetto inmates.
Description and unveiling.
In order to preserve the memory of the perished Jewish quarter, the Jewish Historical Institute and the City Monument Protection office took the initiative to feature in the public space of the Polish capital its most characteristic points on its former boundaries.
The markers were designed by Eleonora Bergman and Tomasz Lec in cooperation with Ewa Pustoła-Kozłowska and Jan Jagielski. Each marker consists of three elements:
The dates 1940-1943 have symbolic meaning as the years when the Warsaw Ghetto existed. Therefore, they should not be treated literally because most of the commemorated places were excluded in 1941-1942, one site was included into the ghetto in 1941, and two – in 1942.
Most plaques were placed on the 2.3 m (7.6 ft) tall cement posts that were specially designed on sett pavement; the rest were placed directly on the walls of the buildings and structures.
The markers were built between April and November 2008 and were inaugurated on 19 November 2008 by the mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. On 27 January 2010 on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 22nd marker was unveiled on site of the preserved ghetto wall in Sienna Street.
The project was financed by the City of Warsaw and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.


The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, also known as My Dad's Six Wives, is a 2009 American comedy film starring Elisha Cuthbert and Tim Allen. A grieving daughter tries to arrange her father's funeral, while putting up with all of his ex-wives. Its only theatrical release was in Israel, and it was launched straight to DVD elsewhere, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Plot.
During a trip to Mexico with his fiancée, salesman Henry Lefay (Tim Allen) disappears while parasailing and is presumed dead. His grieving daughter (Elisha Cuthbert) begins to make funeral arrangements, a process made tricky when his current wife and five exes descend and wage a fierce power struggle over the burial.


Boulevard East

Boulevard East (officially John F. Kennedy Boulevard East, and sometimes referred to as JFK Boulevard East) is a two-way, mostly two lane, scenic thoroughfare in the North Hudson, New Jersey municipalities of Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg and North Bergen. Apart from small sections at either end, the road runs along the crest of the Hudson Palisades, affording it views of the Hudson River and the New York City skyline. Developed at the turn of the 20th century, the residential road is characterized by an eclectic mix of 20th-century architecture, including private homes as well as mid and high-rise apartment buildings, mostly on its western side, with a promenade and parks along its eastern side. It is also the setting for Edward Hopper's 1934 painting "East Wind Over Weehawken", which is considered one of his best works.
History.
Boulevard East is so named in reference to the other major boulevard in Hudson County to which it is connected, Kennedy Boulevard. Prior to being renamed in honor of John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, the street was known as Hudson Boulevard. While there was discussion of building a county long road as early as the 1870s, parts of Hudson County Boulevard were officially opened in 1896.
By 1913 it was completed, and considered to be fine for "motoring". Taken as a single road, the circuitous route of west and east sections of the entire boulevard runs from the southern tip of the county at Bergen Point to its northern border with Bergen County and south again to the Hoboken city line. In local nomenclature, signage, addresses, transportation, and postal delivery, the name Boulevard East is used.
Route description.
Much of Boulevard East runs parallel to the edge of a sheer escarpment and offers expansive views the iconographic Manhattan skyline. Since 2009, when Macy's began to launch its annual Fourth of July fireworks from the Hudson River, portions of The Boulevard are closed to allow spectators to view the display. The Boulevard was proposed to be part of the Port Imperial Street Circuit of the Grand Prix of America.
The southern end of the road is an important component of local access to the Lincoln Tunnel, running past its Art Deco toll plaza and passing twice under the helix which descends to meet it. Entering a residential district of Weehawken the boulevard steeply ascends northward until reaching the "Boulevard Curve" where it curves east, then north again and begins travelling along the edge of the Hudson Palisades. Just to the south of the curve is the Hamilton Memorial, relocated from the Burr-Hamilton duel site at the foot of the cliffs below Kings Bluff, named for James Gore King whose 19th century estate, Highwood, once stood there, and is now a residential neighborhood.
The road then passes Hamilton Plaza where for a brief time in the 1890s stood El Dorado, a pleasure garden offering theatrical spectacles, casinos, and exotic gardens. At Liberty Place it crosses over a now defunct cut through which once ran streetcars operated by North Hudson County Railway that connected to a massive elevator and ferries at Weehawken Terminal. Pershing Road is one of the few roads which connect the waterfront to the Boulevard and the top of the cliffs, and was once part of the Lincoln Highway. At the southwest corner of 49th Street stands the gabled house depicted in "East Wind Over Weehawken", a 1934 painting by Edward Hopper, which is considered one of his best works.
Old Glory Park is near the town line of West New York where of the much boulevard is abutted by parks and scenic overlooks. A statue of Thomas M. Donnelly, instrumental in the preservation of the Palisades, is located in the park named for him. The trap rock walls that line much of the overlook come from quarry operations that he and the NJ Federation of Women's Clubs were able curtail at the beginning of the 20th century. 60th Street, the main crosstown street for the town became Hillside Road (officially renamed for Anthony DeFino, who was mayor for 24 years) connecting the boulevard to River Road. One of the few residential neighborhoods on the cliff side of the boulevard is found north of the major crossroad at one of its more severe curves. It is here that the road reaches a height of nearly 260 feet near the highest point in Hudson County. The park on 60th Street features a fountain erected in tribute to the victims of the September 11 Attacks.
The three block section of the boulevard in Guttenberg is dominated by the Galaxy Towers, a Brutalist trio of octagonal buildings, which rise from the foot of the palisades and soar above them. Ferry Road passes underneath the complex. The Woodcliff Section of North Bergen, once known as Hudson Heights, is characterized by a combination of family homes and modernist high-rises, notably the round Stonehenge. Near the point where the road bears west and enters North Hudson Park the original Bulls Ferry Road makes a steep descent to the east. It is in the park, also named for famous son James J. Braddock, that Boulevard East intersects with Palisades Avenue, which continues north along the cliffs, and soon after ends at Bergenline in Nungessers.
There are numerous bridges along Boulevard East crossing over clefts in the cliffs, many approaching 100 years in age. A portion of the road was closed for six months in 2013 to replace one located in North Bergen.
Transportation.
Boulevard East carries three county route designations. County Route 677 begins as Park Avenue in Hoboken, becoming Boulevard East after crossing the viaduct over the Hudson Bergen Light Rail tracks. At Highwood Terrace in Weehawken it becomes part of County Route 505. From 60th Street in West New York it is designated County Route 693 until joining its western counterpart, designated County Route 501. In total the route is slightly more than three miles long.
Addresses ascend from the first at number 300. In Weehawken the numbers rise to 1055. At the border with West New York at 51st Street, the addresses jump to 5101, following the custom of taking the building number from the lower cross street. This system was jointly adopted by the North Hudson towns after streets were re-numbered after the opening of the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937.
New Jersey Transit bus routes 128, 165, 166, 168 travel along the boulevard between the Port Authority Bus Terminal and locations in Bergen County. NJT 23 provides local service. Dollar vans, many of which originate at Nungesser's, also travel along the street to 42nd Street in Manhattan. Pershing Road and public stairs connect the road to Weehawken Port Imperial, where ferries and light rail are available.


Newtown Cemetery

Newtown Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It is located in the northern part of the city, bounded on the north by Kelley Street and the west by Sterling Street. It is bisected by an extension of Effinger Street, which now serves as part of the cemetery's circulation roads. The roughly parcel has been the primary burial ground for the city's African-American dead since its founding in 1869. It is estimated to hold 900 graves, including many of emancipated slaves.
The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.


Special Olympics World Games silver dollar

The Special Olympics World Games silver dollar is a commemorative silver dollar issued by the United States Mint in 1995.


Scuola Grande di San Rocco

The Scuola Grande di San Rocco is a building in Venice, northern Italy. It is noted for its collection of paintings by Tintoretto and generally agreed to include some of his finest work.
History.
The building is the seat of a confraternity established in 1478, named after San Rocco, popularly regarded as a protector against plague. The members of the "Confraternity of St. Roch" were a group of wealthy Venetian citizens. The site they chose for their building is next to the church of San Rocco which houses the remains of the saint.
In January 1515 the project of the building was entrusted to Bartolomeo Bon, although some authorities assign it to his son Pietro Bon. In 1524 his work was continued by Sante Lombardo, who, in turn, three years later was replaced by Antonio Scarpagnino. Following his death in 1549, the last architect to work on the edifice was Giangiacomo dei Grigi, finishing in September 1560.
The design was similar to other "scuole" in Venice, characterized by two halls, one at ground floor level, the other at first floor level. The "Sala Terra" (lower) has a nave and two aisles, with the entrance from the "campo" outside. From this hall a stair (with a landing surmounted by a dome) led to the upper storey. The "Sala Superiore" ("Upper Hall") was used for meetings of the fellows and had a wooden altar. It provided access to the "Sala dell'Albergo", which housed the "Banca " and the "Zonta" (the confraternity's supervisory boards).
Art.
In 1564 the painter Tintoretto was commissioned to provide paintings for the "Scuola", and his most renowned works are to be found in the "Sala dell'Albergo" and the "Sala Superiore". All the works in the building are by him, or his assistants, including his son Domenico: they were executed between 1564 and 1587. Works in the sala terra are in homage to the Virgin Mary, and concentrate on episodes from her life. In the sala superiore, works on the ceiling are from the Old Testament, and on the walls from the New Testament. Together, they show the biblical story from Fall to Redemption.
A sculpture of Tintoretto with his paintbrushes is featured, as well as a relief carved to look like a bookcase.
Main works include:
Other works present include paintings by Titian and Palma il Giovane, and a series of wooden panels with allegorical figures in the Chapter house carved by Francesco Pianta between 1657-58.
Music.
In its heyday the scuola was an important patron of music, employing musicians such as Giovanni Gabrieli. Gabrieli took on the post of organist in addition to his work at St Mark's, and he composed music specifically for the location. A contemporary account of how the music impressed an English traveller was published in "Coryat's Crudities" (1611).
In 1958 Stravinsky's "Threni" was premiered at the scuola with the composer conducting.
Access and conservation.
The Scuola Grande is open daily all the year round, except for Christmas Day and January 1.
The paintings were in need of conservation work, and have been restored by the World Monuments Fund.


Crossroads United Methodist Church

Crossroads United Methodist Church is a historic Methodist church in Canton, Ohio. Originally the First Methodist Episcopal Church, it was renamed Church of the Savior United Methodist in 1968. Then in 2014, after its congregation was merged with Saint Paul's United Methodist Church, it was renamed Crossroads United Methodist Church.
William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, was an active member of the church. He served as a Trustee and Sunday School superintendent. His funeral was held here in 1901.
It was built in 1881 in a High Victorian Gothic style. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.


Broby bro Runestones

At Broby bro in Uppland, Sweden there are six runestones. U 139, U 140 and U 151 still stand by the road, but U 135, U 136 and U 137 have been moved a distance away from the road.
The last three stones are in the style Pr2 and thus dated to the period 1020–1050, but the internal relationship between them shows that U 137 is the oldest one. They belong to a group of c. 20 runestones called the Jarlabanke Runestones that are connected to the local strongman Jarlabanke and his clan. Together with the Hargs bro runic inscriptions and the Uppland Rune Inscriptions 101, 143 and 147 these particular runestones, however, centre on the matriarch of the clan called Estrid.
U 137 tells that Estrid and Östen have a son named Gag who dies, and when it was raised Östen was still alive. The other stones (U 135 and U 136) constitute a twin monument telling that Östen has gone to Jerusalem and died in the Byzantine Empire.
Estrid and Östen had three sons: Ingefast, Östen and Sven, who built a bridge and a barrow after their father. These twin stones show that Gag died as relatively young as he is not mentioned on them.
Estrid is the same person as the Estrid who is mentioned on a number of runestones in Täby and other locations (Hargs bro runic inscriptions and Uppland Rune Inscriptions 101, 143 and 147). This Estrid was the maternal ancestor of a great clan called the Jarlabanke clan, and she was the maternal grandmother of the powerful Jarlabanke who claimed to own all of Täby.
The carver of the Snottsta runestone called U 329, where an Estrid and her brother Ragnfast are mentioned, was Fot who also made the runestones for the Jarlabanke clan. This strongly suggests that Estrid was born in Snottsta (also spelled Snåttsta), married Östen of Täby and married for the second time in Harg near Snottsta.
U 135.
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U 136.
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U 137.
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U 139.
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U 151.
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Wang Yaowu

Wang Yaowu (, 1904–1968) was a high-ranking KMT general and the Governor of Shandong Province who successfully fought against both the Imperial Japanese Army and the Chinese Communists. In September 1948, Communist forces launched the Battle of Jinan. Wang was captured and held as a prisoner of war until his pardon and release in 1959. During the Cultural Revolution he came under attack by the Red Guards for being a former nationalist commander and died of a heart attack in 1968.
Early life and career.
Wang was born into peasant family in Shandong province. He lost his father and elder brother when he was young, and his mother raised him into adulthood. When Sun Yat-Sen opened the Whampoa Military Academy, Wang was working as a shop keeper. He immediately borrowed money from his employer and traveled to the South to join the national revolution. Some of his notable classmates included Du Yuming, Fan Hanjie, Hu Lien, Liu Yujian, Guan Linzheng and Lin Biao. After his graduation he joined the Northern Expedition under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek against the northern warlords. After Chiang purged the communists in Shanghai on April 12, 1927, he stayed with the Kuomintang as a regiment commander in the National Revolutionary Army. In 1930 he fought in the Central Plains War as a colonel in the central army against an anti-central government coalition under Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren. In 1932, he was received by Chiang Kai-shek after successfully defend his position under communist attacks during the Fourth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet. He was promoted to brigade commander and later as commander of the 51st division. Two years later he participated the Fifth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet and captured Chinese communist leader Fang Zhimin and killing another red army commander in battle around September 1934. In 1935 he scored yet another victory at Jiangxi province by capturing the entire officer corps of the Red Army's 10th corps and was promoted to major general.
Second Sino-Japanese War.
In 1937, Wang led his unit in the Battle of Shanghai. His regiment commander was Zhang Lingfu, whom he had just bailed out of prison. In late November, the Chinese army lost the battle for Shanghai and the Japanese Central China Area Army under General Iwane Matsui advanced toward Nanjing. During the Battle of Nanjing, Wang's 51st division suffered heavy casualties and his superior General Tang Shengzhi fled the city without even notifying him and the other senior commanders. Wang barely escaped the city and only 3,000 troops under his command managed to breakout from the Japanese onslaught. In 1938 he took part in the Battle of Lanfeng to fight against the Japanese 14th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) led by General Kenji Doihara, one of the masterminds of the Manchurian Incident. The failure to hold off the Japanese attacks also led the nationalist government open dykes on the Yellow River, causing the 1938 Yellow River flood. During the Battle of Wanjialing, Wang's unit fought against the Japanese attempts to break out from the Chinese encirclement, in which the 106th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) under Lieutenant General Junrokurō Matsuura was almost wiped out. In 1939, Wang led his unit to participate in the Battle of Nanchang, but Chinese forces failed to hold the city. Wang, however, distinguished himself during the Battle of Changsha and was promoted to the command of the 74th corps. Under his command, the 74th corps became one of the elite units of the Chinese government forces and fought in almost every engagement in the remaining period of the War. By the war's end, General Wang was promoted to command the 4th area army and became a member of the KMT central committee.
Chinese Civil War.
When the Chinese Civil War broke out again in 1946, General Wang was named as governor of Shandong Province and commander-in-chief of the 2nd pacification zone. But he had great difficulty to establish his authority due to intense inter-service rivalry among different nationalist commanders and Communist forces stepped up their attacks on isolated nationalist garrisons in the province. In May 1947, his career suffered a serious setback when the 74th enhanced division under his old subordinate lieutenant general Zhang Lingfu was lost in the critical Menglianggu Campaign and most of the nationalist troops assigned to his sector was pulled out of the province to be redeployed elsewhere. When the Chinese communist forces under Chen Yi and Su Yu attacked the provincial capital in 1948 during the Battle of Jinan, General Wang only had local garrison forces which made up by raw recruits and second-rate troops. The fate of Jinan was sealed when one of his corps commanders (Wu Huawen) defected to the Chinese communist forces. The communist troops breached the city defenses and General Wang fled from his headquarters and was captured in a nearby county.
Later life and death.
During his imprisonment Wang urged his fellow nationalist commanders to surrender to the PLA and caused a firestorm of controversy since President Chiang Kai-shek always favored him. As result of his collaboration with the communist forces he was among the first nationalist commanders to be released in 1959 with his senior classmate Du Yuming. He worked in the Chinese political consultative conference and other government organizations when the Cultural Revolution broke out. He was forced to go to struggle sessions by the Red Guards and died of a heart attack in 1968. He died under harsh treatment, but was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping's government in 1980 and given a state funeral. His cinerary casket currently rests at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery mourning hall, as one of China's most important revolutionary heroes.
Wang was survived by his wife, sons and a daughter. Wang's grandchild, Mary-Jean Wong, has followed in her family's tradition of public service, currently serving as a member of the 10th Shandong Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.


Bicentennial Park South

Bicentennial Park South, nicknamed Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre, is a football (soccer) stadium in Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia.
Redevelopment of the venue started in October 2008, and finished in September 2009 to become the new home of New South Wales National Premier League team, the Rockdale Ilinden Football Club.
History.
Bicentennial Park was opened in 1988. The football ground was opened to the general public as an idle soccer pitch. The ground was used as a local training ground for football, rugby league and athletics while holding matches by a local soccer team, the "Monterey Stingrays". In 2006, redevelopment plans were announced, relocating many sporting teams to Bicentennial Park and Scarborough Park grounds. The Rockdale Ilinden Football Club is a 21-year tenant of the new ground.
Re-Development.
Development work begun on Bicentennial Park South in October 2008 as part of the "Bicentennial and Scarborough Park Upgrade", including surface reconstruction for buildings to house change rooms and training rooms on the western hill and extended car park spaces. Stage 2 involves the installation of additional floodlights and a new grandstand seating area. The Rockdale Ilinden Football Club had originally announced the completion of the upgrade to be by March 2009 in time for the 2009 NSW Super League season, however various issues caused delays in the completion of the venue.
The stadium was eventually completed in September 2009 and was opened during the month of December, where the first football match was played with the home team Rockdale clashing with Preston Lions FC on 12 December. The first official NSW Premier League match was contested during the second round of the 2010 NSW Premier League season against fellow competition rivals Bankstown City Lions with Rockdale prevailing 1-0.
In 2017 Bayside Council has accepted a $1.5 million tender to install an artificial turf surface at its Bicentennial Park. Construction is scheduled to begin in August and be completed by the end of January, 2018. the Council will work with Rockdale City Suns Football Club and Turf One on future maintenance on the field.
Rockdale Ilinden Football Club will use Bicentennial Park South as Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre for naming rights in football competition.
Bicentennial Park East.
Bicentennial Park East is a nearby park consisting of 3 football surfaces specifically designed for the use of junior football players. The development consisted of two large soccer fields and one small field. Cricket pitches have also be constructed in the centre of the two large fields for use in summer. Bicentennial Park East is accessible to the north and south via a footbridge, connecting senior and junior playing fields along with the main car parks. Geographically, Bicentennial Park East is located on the border of three suburbs, Monterey, Rockdale and Brighton-Le-Sands, but is officially in Brighton-Le-sands according to the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales.


Hillel Poisic

Rabbi Hillel Poisic (15.1.1881 Zlatopol, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire – 1953 Tel Aviv, Israel) was a communal worker and Torah scholar. He was an expert in releasing agunot from their husbands, who abandoned them without divorce.
The Poisic (also Poisik, Posek, Possek) family is a rabbinical family originated in the Shapira family and connected to it in marriage relationships. The Poisic members were active in Ukraine.
Rabbi Hillel Poisic's father, Rabbi Elijah Poisic (1859-1932), was one of the most important Rabbis in Ukraine. He served as rabbi in Mohlika and in Zlatopol and composed Responsa and halakhic books about Sukkot, Maimonides and the letter of divorce (get). His expertise was in circumcision law. His mother, Matalia, daughter of Zwi Sonik, was the granddaughter of Rabbi Chaim Chaikel Shapira from Kalininblatt (in Kiev district), father of Rabbi Judah Josef Loeb Shapira, president of the rabbinical court in Rakhmistrivka, and R. Israel Volodarsky, president of court in Petrikovka (in Kherson district).
Rabbi Hillel studied Torah with his father and grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Poisic. He received his ordination as rabbi by the most important rabbis in south Russia, Rabbi Moshe Nathan Rubinstein from Vinnitsa and the Rabbi Yosef Halperin, president of the court of the Jewish community in Odessa.
Biography.
In 1898 Rabbi Hillel Poisic was married to Gitel (Tovah), the daughter of his uncle R. Selig Shapira. In 1899-1921 R. Hillel served as rabbi in Zlatopol and was elected by both the Jewish community and the Ukrainian authorities as a religious rabbi and a formal rabbi. When the pogroms began in Ukraine (in 1920) and the different gangs of robbers oppressed him much and threw him to the jail for several times, he decided to move to Romania. In 1921 he escaped together with his family from the revolt, pogroms and religions suppression in Russia. He went through many tribulations of travel till he arrived in 1921 to Bessarabia (east Moldova), which belonged to Romania that time. He served one year as rabbi in Markulshty and later on in Tatarbunary, Bessarabia (Akkerman district, Romania-Bessarabia). He was received there as a "Romanian citizen" and as a formal rabbi. He was also a Jewish religions teacher in the governmental high schools. There he began again to be engaged in communal work; he founded charity institutions and distributed the Torah amongst the poor.
During 1921-1935 he was active in favor of Zionism and served as communal worker of "Ha-Mizrachi" in Romania. In 1925 he organized a group of Jews from his community to acquire land in Bnei Brak through the company "New Palestine" from Kishinev. In 1929 and 1932 his wife visited in Israel, each time for approximately a whole year, and visited in all kinds of institutes and settlements.
In 1935, as the situation in Romania deteriorated and as the antisemitism was strengthened, Rabbi Hillel decided to immigrate to Israel, and on Passover evening 1935 he arrived to Israel together with his family and influenced successfully many other from his community to immigrate to Israel. He settled in Tel-Aviv and devoted himself to arrange his works in Torah issues and to complete parts of his works that were lost during his wanderings in Russia.
In 1938 he established an association/office in order to help to free agunot (in Hebrew, sing. agunah), namely deserted (abandoned) wives, whose husbands have disappeared without divorcing them. In 1940-1953 he edited and composed the monthly magazine Ha-Possek for Halakha and Aggadah issues, including responses in these issues. Besides he also compiled and edited the works of his father, prepared a book about civil marriage and divorce in Russia (1952) and published about Torah and Judaism issues.