Abies alba, the European silver fir or silver fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Europe, from the Pyrenees north to Normandy, east to the Alps and the Carpathians, Croatia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and south to Italy, Bulgaria and northern Greece. Abies alba is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 40–50 m tall and with a trunk diameter up to 1.5 m. The largest measured tree had a trunk diameter of 3.8 m. It occurs at altitudes of 300–1,700 m, on mountains with rainfall over 1,000 millimetres per year; the leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.8–3.0 cm long and 2.0 mm wide by 0.5 mm thick, glossy dark green above, with two greenish-white bands of stomata below. The tip of the leaf is slightly notched at the tip; the cones are 9–17 cm long and 3–4 cm broad, with about 150-200 scales, each scale with an exserted bract and two winged seeds. The wood is white, leading to the species name alba; when cultivated on Christmas Tree plantations, the tree forms a symmetrical triangle shape.

The trees are full and dense with strong evergreen fragrance, are known to be one of the longest lasting after being cut. In the forest the evergreen tends to form stands with other beeches, it is related to Bulgarian fir further to the southeast in the Balkan Peninsula, Spanish fir of Spain and Morocco and Sicilian fir in Sicily, differing from these and other related Euro-Mediterranean firs in the sparser foliage, with the leaves spread either side of the shoot, leaving the shoot visible from above. Some botanists treat Bulgarian fir and Sicilian fir as varieties of silver fir, as A. alba var. acutifolia and A. alba var. nebrodensis, respectively. Silver fir is an important component species in the dinaric calcareous block fir forest in the western Balkan Peninsula. In Italy, the silver fir is an important component of the mixed broadleaved-coniferous forest of the Apennine Mountains in northern Apennine; the fir prefer a humid climate, in northern exposition, with a high rainfall. In the oriental Alps of Italy, silver firs grow in mixed forests with Norway spruce and other trees.

Its cone scales are eaten by the caterpillars of the tortrix moth Cydia illutana, while C. duplicana feeds on the bark around injuries or canker. The bark and wood of silver fir are rich in antioxidative polyphenols. Six phenolic acids were identified, three flavonoids and eight lignans; the extract from the trunk was shown to prevent atherosclerosis in guinea pigs and to have cardioprotective effect in isolated rat hearts. Silver fir wood extract was found to reduce the post-prandial glycemic response in healthy volunteers. In Roman times the wood was used to make wooden casks to store and transport wine and other substances. A resinous essential oil can be extracted; this pine-scented oil is used in perfumes, bath products, aerosol inhalants. Its branches were used for production of spruce beer. Silver fir is the species first used as a Christmas tree, but has been replaced by Nordmann fir, Norway spruce, other species; the wood is strong, light-colored, fine grained, even-textured and long fibered.

The timber is used as construction wood, plywood and paper manufacture. Abies is derived from Latin, meaning'rising one'; the name was used to refer to tall ships. Alba means'bright' or'dead white'. Kunkar, Alp. Le piante officinali della Calabria. Laruffa Editore. ISBN 978-88-7221-140-3. Conifers.org: Abies alba botany.cz: Abies alba Mill photomazza.com: Abies alba conifersaroundtheworld.com: Abies alba - European White Fir. pfaf.org: Abies alba Mill. monumentaltrees.com: The thickest and oldest European silver fir trees baumkunde.de: Weiß-Tanne | In German Abies alba. Distribution map, genetic conservation units and related resources. European Forest Genetic Resources Programme

The 1996 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 5, 1996. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Texas voters chose thirty-two electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. Texas was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with incumbent Vice President Al Gore as his running mate and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp. Texas provided both two of the nation's three most Republican counties – High Plains Ochiltree in its north and Glasscock in the central plains – and its most Democratic county in rock-ribbed Tejano Starr County at the opposite end of the state. Texas weighed in for this election as 13% more Republican than the national average; the presidential election of 1996 was a multi-partisan election for Texas, with more than 7% of the electorate voting for third-party candidates.

In his second bid for the presidency, Ross Perot led the newly reformed Reform Party to gain over 6% of the votes in his home state of Texas, to pull in support nationally as the most popular third-party candidate to run for United States presidency in recent times. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won the following counties: Hudspeth, Terrell, Swisher, Cottle, Foard, Knox, Stonewall, Dickens, Jones, Nolan, Menard, Palo Pinto, Caldwell, San Patricio, Bee, Atascosa, Milam, Limestone, Waller, Galveston, Orange, Tyler, San Augustine, Panola, Marion, Bowie, Titus, Red River, Hopkins and Fannin; this would be last election until 2016 in which the margin of victory for a Republican in Texas would be in single digits. Yugoslav Wars Presidency of Bill Clinton

Markus Hilgert is a German Assyriologist and cultural manager. He is the Secretary General and CEO of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. From 2014 until 2018, Hilgert served as the director of the Vorderasiatisches Museum at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin. From 2007 until 2014, Hilgert was a professor of Assyriology at Heidelberg University. Hilgert is a member of several governing bodies and advisory boards, including the German Commission for UNESCO; the Foundation Board of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, the Advisory Group of the Cultural Protection Fund of the British Council, the Disaster Risk Management Committee of the International Council of Museums, the Advisory Board of the Arcadia Fund. Hilgert holds honorary professorships at Marburg University. In 2016, Hilgert was named National Correspondent for the German National Committee of the Blue Shield, part of the Blue Shield network, protecting heritage in armed conflict. From 2017 until 2018 he served as founding president of the German National Committee of the Blue Shield.

Literature by and about Markus Hilgert in the German National Library catalogue Homepage of Prof. Dr. Markus Hilgert at the Philipps-Universität Marburg Rolf Brockschmidt: Archäologie und Textwissenschaft: Frühes Lesen auf der Agora, Tagesspiegel, 19 September 2013 Rolf Brockschmidt, Rüdiger Schaper: An den Ufern von Babylon, Tagesspiegel, 17 March 2014 Das Zerstörungswerk hat viele Väter. Interview mit Tilman Spreckelsen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 March 2015