Aktion T4 was a postwar name for mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The name T4 is an abbreviation of Tiergartenstraße 4, a street address of the Chancellery department set up in early 1940, in the Berlin borough of Tiergarten, which recruited and paid personnel associated with T4. Certain German physicians were authorised to select patients "deemed incurably sick, after most critical medical examination" and administer to them a "mercy death". In October 1939, Adolf Hitler signed a "euthanasia note", backdated to 1 September 1939, which authorised his physician Karl Brandt and Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler to implement the programme; the killings took place from September 1939 until the end of the war in 1945. The number of victims was recorded as 70,273 but this number has been increased by the discovery of victims listed in the archives of the former East Germany. About half of those killed were taken from church-run asylums with the approval of the Protestant or Catholic authorities of the institutions.

The Holy See announced on 2 December 1940 that the policy was contrary to the natural and positive Divine law and that "the direct killing of an innocent person because of mental or physical defects is not allowed" but the declaration was not upheld by some Catholic authorities in Germany. In the summer of 1941, protests were led in Germany by the Bishop of Münster, Clemens von Galen, whose intervention led to "the strongest, most explicit and most widespread protest movement against any policy since the beginning of the Third Reich", according to Richard J. Evans. Several reasons have been suggested for the killings, including eugenics, racial hygiene and saving money. Physicians in German and Austrian asylums continued many of the practices of Aktion T4 until the defeat of Germany in 1945, in spite of its official cessation in August 1941; the informal continuation of the policy led to 93,521 "beds emptied" by the end of 1941. Technology developed under Aktion T4 was taken over by the medical division of the Reich Interior Ministry the use of lethal gas to kill large numbers of people, along with the personnel of Aktion T4, who participated in Operation Reinhard.

The programme was authorised by Hitler but the killings have since come to be viewed as murders in Germany. The number of people killed was about 200,000 in Germany and Austria, with about 100,000 victims in other European countries. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the sterilisation of people carrying what were considered to be hereditary defects and in some cases those exhibiting what was thought to be hereditary "antisocial" behaviour, was a respectable field of medicine. Canada, Denmark and the US had passed laws enabling coerced sterilisation. Studies conducted in the 1920s ranked Germany as a country, unusually reluctant to introduce sterilisation legislation. In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that one day racial hygiene "will appear as a deed greater than the most victorious wars of our present bourgeois era". In July 1933, the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" prescribed compulsory sterilisation for people with conditions thought to be hereditary, such as schizophrenia, Huntington's chorea and "imbecility".

Sterilisation was legalised for chronic alcoholism and other forms of social deviance. The law was administered by the Interior Ministry under Wilhelm Frick through special Hereditary Health Courts, which examined the inmates of nursing homes, prisons, aged-care homes and special schools, to select those to be sterilised, it is estimated that 360,000 people were sterilised under this law between 1933 and 1939. The policy and research agenda of racial hygiene and eugenics were promoted by Emil Kraepelin; the eugenic sterilisation of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia was advocated by Eugen Bleuler, who presumed racial deterioration because of “mental and physical cripples” in his Textbook of Psychiatry, The more burdened should not propagate themselves… If we do nothing but make mental and physical cripples capable of propagating themselves, the healthy stocks have to limit the number of their children because so much has to be done for the maintenance of others, if natural selection is suppressed unless we will get new measures our race must deteriorate.

Within the Nazi administration, the idea of including in the program people with physical disabilities had to be expressed because the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, had a deformed right leg. After 1937, the acute shortage of labour in Germany arising from rearmament, meant that anyone capable of work was deemed to be "useful", exempted from the law and the rate of sterilisation declined; the term "Aktion T4" is a post-war coining. The T4 programme stemmed from the Nazi Party policy of "racial hygiene", a belief that the German people needed to be cleansed of racial enemies, which included anyone confined to a mental health facility and people with simple physical disabilities; the new shock treatments were used by German psychiatrists to find out. Karl Brandt, doctor to Hitler and Hans Lammers, the head of the Reich Chancellery, testified after the war that Hitler had told them as early as 1933—when the sterilisation law was passed—that he favoured the killing of the incurably ill but recognised that public opinion would not accept this.

In 1935, Hitler told

Jak McCourt is an English professional footballer who plays for League Two club Macclesfield Town. He began his career with Leicester City. McCourt spent part of the 2013–14 season on loan at Torquay United and September 2015 on loan at Port Vale, before being sold to Barnsley in January 2016. An unused substitute in the club's victorious 2016 League One play-off final, he was released by Barnsley in June 2016, subsequently joined Northampton Town, he was released by Northampton in July 2017 by mutual agreement, subsequently joined Chesterfield. He signed with Swindon Town in July 2018 and moved on to Macclesfield Town in June 2019. McCourt began his career with Leicester City and signed a professional contract with the "Foxes" in May 2013. On 11 October 2013, he joined League Two side Torquay United on loan for a month, he made his professional debut the next day in a 3–2 to Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park. On 9 December, McCourt's loan was extended by Torquay United until 4 January 2014, he returned to the King Power Stadium after making 12 appearances in all competitions for Alan Knill's "Gulls".

The player signed a new one-year contact with Leicester City in June 2014. McCourt joined League One side Port Vale on a one-month loan deal on 28 August 2015. Manager Rob Page said he made the signing as cover for the injured Michael Brown, the "Valiants" central midfield option on the bench, he made two substitute appearances in the league. McCourt was sold to League One club Barnsley for an undisclosed fee in January 2016, he played two games for Barnsley, both as substitute appearances from the bench, was an unused substitute for the play-off final victory over Millwall at Wembley Stadium on 29 May. He was released by the club upon the expiry of his contract in June. In June 2016, McCourt signed a two-year contract with League One club Northampton Town, in a move that reunited him with his former Port Vale boss Rob Page. However, he picked up a shoulder injury in pre-season training, which required surgery and an enforced two-month absence, he scored his first senior goal in a 1–1 draw with Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park on 8 October.

He received his first sending off seven days after picking up two yellow cards in a 3–1 defeat to Millwall at Sixfields Stadium. He was transfer-listed by new manager Justin Edinburgh in May 2017 after falling out of the first team in the second half of the 2016–17 season. McCourt negotiated his release from Northampton and joined newly relegated League Two side Chesterfield on a two-year deal in July 2017, he scored six goals in 39 appearances across the 2017–18 season as the "Spireites" were relegated out of the English Football League into the National League, he was made available for a free transfer by new manager Martin Allen in May 2018. On 17 July 2018, McCourt joined League Two side Swindon Town on a one-year contract, he was utilised as a holding midfielder by manager Phil Brown, before being moved further forward after Brown was replaced by Richie Wellens in November. He was released by Swindon at the end of the 2018–19 season. On 5 June 2019, McCourt joined League Two side Macclesfield Town on a one-year contract, becoming Sol Campbell's first summer signing as manager.

McCourt is an athletic central midfielder with good passing skills. He has been described as a "larger than life character in the dressing room"; as of match played 6 May 2019. Barnsley Football League One play-offs: 2016 Jak McCourt at Soccerbase

Silvestro Lega was an Italian realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was involved with the Mazzini movement, he was born near Forlì, to an affluent family. From 1838 he attended the Piarist College. From 1843 to 1847 he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti, studying drawing under Benedetto Servolini and Tommaso Gazzarini studying painting under Giuseppe Bezzuoli. During 1847 he attended Luigi Mussini’s school, where the teaching emphasized the 15th-century Florentine principles of drawing and orderly construction, and for some years afterwards he continued to attend the Scuola del Nudo of the Accademia. As a Garibaldian volunteer, Lega participated in the military campaigns for Italian independence before resuming his training, this time under Antonio Ciseri. In 1850 he completed Doubting Thomas. In 1852 he won the Concorso Trienniale dell’Accademia with David Placating Saul. On 30 January 1853, he became a member of the Accademia degli Incamminati of Modigliana.

In 1855, Lega returned to his native town, where he remained until 1857. Serious by nature, Lega was an infrequent visitor of the Caffè Michelangiolo, a favorite meeting place in the 1850s for the young painters who became known as the Macchiaioli. Diego Martelli, a contemporary of Lega, wrote of him that "he was not one of those people who, artistically speaking, can fling themselves into novel developments.... In spite of the discussions that went on nightly in the crucible of the Caffè Michelangiolo, Lega's art, until 1859, remained conspicuously academic." Subsequently, Lega's style began moving towards Realism and away from the Purismo of Mussini. This progress is evident in the four lunettes he painted between 1858 and 1863 for the Oratory of the Madonna del Cantone in Modigliana, in several military-themed works he painted during that period. Together with his Macchiaioli friends Odoardo Borrani, Giuseppe Abbati, Telemaco Signorini and Raffaello Sernesi, he started painting landscapes en plein air.

From 1861 to 1870, he lived with the Batelli family, near the Affrico river, started a relationship with the elder daughter, Virginia. The children and women of the Batelli family were the subjects of many of his paintings during this happy period of his life. In 1870, he was awarded the silver medal at the Parma's National Exposition. In that same year, Virginia Batelli, his companion, died of tuberculosis. Three of Lega's brothers died at about this time; the grieving Lega returned to Modigliana. Depressed, experiencing the onset of eye problems, he ceased painting entirely for four years between 1874 and 1878. In 1875, he and Borrani established a modern art gallery in Florence, but it failed, Lega's financial problems worsened. In 1878 he took part in the preparation of the Parigi's Universal Exposition. At the Florentine Promotrice in 1879, Lega—who never traveled outside Italy—saw two Impressionist paintings by Camille Pissarro, which he admired, he became a frequent guest of the Tommasi family, a tutor of the sons of the family.

The art historian Norma Broude says that "like the Batellis before them, welcomed Lega into their family circle and provided for him the warm and close-knit family environment in which he and his art could flourish." In 1886, he painted one of the Gabbarigiane. By the mid-1880s, Lega was blind, perceived only large masses, he produced many paintings in Gabbro. He participated at the Promotrice of Florence. Lega died in Florence in 1895 of stomach cancer. Lega's artistic career may be divided into two periods: the first is the calm phase, where he looked at the world optimistically; the second is the disturbed phase, associated with his poor economic conditions and with his depression after Virginia's death. Efrem Gisella Calingaert says:the originality of Lega’s style lies in the way he adapted a contemporary use of colour, based on direct experience of the motif, to a traditional type of composition and defined forms; this is illustrated by the Singing of the Ballad, together with A Visit and The Pergola, constitute the most important works of Lega’s mature period and of his whole career.

In the Singing of the Ballad the simplicity and balance of the composition, the transparency of the colours and rendering of atmosphere, the monumentality of the figures in profile and their pyramidal forms invest the scene with the solemnity of a painting by Piero della Francesca. Il sacro cuore di Gesù, oil painting La casa di don Giovanni Verità, 1855, oil on canvas, 37 x 28, museum Civico Episodio della guerra del 1859 - Ritorno di bersaglieri italiani da una ricognizione, 1861, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 95, National Gallery of Modern Art, Palazzo Pitti Ritratto di Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1861, oil on canvas, 111 x 78,4, Private collection Tra i fiori del giardino, 1862, oil on canvas, 49 x 59, Private collection Il primo dolore, 1863, oil on canvas, 39,5 x 50, Provincial Palace L’educazione al lavoro, 1863, oil painting, 87 x 65, Hotel Montecatini Terme, Private collection L’elemosina, 1864, oil on canvas, 71,8 x 124, Private collection La nonna, 1865, oil on canvas, 59 x 70, Private collection Due bambine che fanno le signore - Divertimento infantile, 1865, oil on canvas, 57,5 x 94, Private collection Il canto di uno stornello, 1867, oil on canvas, 158 x 98, National Gallery of Modern Art, Palazzo Pitti Un dopo pranzo, 1868, oil on canvas, 75 x 93,5, Pinacoteca

Martha Visser't Hooft was an American painter and teacher. She was known for her modernist paintings, as well as contributions to artists societies in Buffalo, NY. Visser' t Hooft was born in NY, to a family of wealthy intellectuals. Involved in all aspects of civic life, her parents, Chauncey J. Hamlin and Emily Gray Hamlin, had interests and involvements including the arts and sciences as well as activism and community service. Visser't Hooft left for Paris in 1920 to study art at the Académie Julian, she left for New York in 1926 to study at the Parsons School of Design, shortly after switching to the John Murray Anderson School of Theater Design. During this time, she had an affair with the Russian artist Boris Grigoriev, although there are conflicting reports of whether this happened in New York or Paris. Following her schooling, Visser't Hooft travelled with her parents and sister, Mary Hamlin Goodwin, to Taos, New Mexico in 1928, her sister would settle in Taos with her family, where she would become a member of the Taos Art Colony.

Visser't Hooft subsequently returned on several occasions to visit her, meeting artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Dasburg, Frieda Lawrence. At this time, she made several paintings of the landscape. In 1933, Visser’t Hooft co-founded the Patteran Society, created as a progressive arts society in Buffalo. Through the late 1940s and 1950s, her work exhibited internationally through the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York. From 1956-58 she taught at the University of Buffalo. A solo retrospective of Visser't Hooft's paintings and drawings was held in 1973 at the Charles Burchfield Center, her work was exhibited in the same venue as part of a Patteran Society group show in 1975. In 1991, a major retrospective of her works was held at the David Anderson Gallery in Buffalo. For this show an illustrated catalogue was produced by The Poetry/Rare Books Collection and The State University of New York at Buffalo. Essays were contributed by Robert J. Bertholf and Albert L. Michaels, included commentary by the artist.

Visser't Hooft's paintings are collected across the United States. Public collections include the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the Columbia Museum of Art. Visser't Hooft married Franciscus Visser’t Hooft, a Dutch chemist, in 1928, they had three children. Her archives are held by the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY

Agostino Rivarola or Rivaròla was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. He is known for his vigorous defense of papal authority after the Napoleonic invasion, he was born in Genoa. He may be related to the Cardinal Domenico Rivarola, he rose to become governor of San Severino Marche in 1793-1797 apostolic protonotary in 1800. He fled from French forces until the restoration of Papal authority in 1814. By 1817, he had been named cardinal. During 1824-1826, he pursued Carbonari revolutionaries in the province of Ravenna. Over 500 were imprisoned in 1825, including 5 capital punishments. In 1826, he returned to Rome; however prior to returning to Rome, on July 23, 1826, while his carriage was on the streets of Ravenna, a pair of Carbonari attempted to assassinate him by firing into his cab. A fellow passenger of his entourage, Canon Muti, died from the gunshot. A investigation under the Pope Leo XII was concluded on April 26, 1828 with five death sentences, which putatively were carried out in Ravenna on May 13, 1828.

They included Angelo Targhini. Rivarola participated in the conclave of 1829 and conclave of 1830-1831

Conus nybakkeni is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. Like all species within the genus Conus, these marine snails are venomous, they are capable of "stinging" humans, therefore live ones should be handled or not at all. A narrowly conical shell with angular shoulders, an elevated and scalariform spire, a body whorl with flat sides; the protoconch is paucispiral with two whorls, fluted nodules are present on the shoulders of the earliest teleoconch whorls. The sutural ramps lack cords; the color consists of light golden brown with white blotches in a spiral pattern. The aperture is blue-white to lavender in color; the protoconch and early whorls are white. The shell is similar in shape to juvenile Conus scalaris, its length is between 50.9 mm. This species has only been found in deep water between 47 and 60 meters in Bahia de Los Angeles and Bahia los Fragiles, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Puillandre N. Duda T. F. Meyer C. Olivera B.

M. & Bouchet P.. One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1-23 World Register of Marine Species "Gradiconus nybakkeni". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019