Assen is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, is the capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Sunday in June the Dutch TT is run. Anreep, Assen, De Haar, Loon, Schieven, Ter Aard, Witten and Zeijerveld; the history of the capital of Drenthe can be traced back to at least 1258, when a new location had to be found for Marienkamp Abbey, built near Coevorden as a penalty for the slaughter in 1227 of the army of the Bishop of Utrecht at the hands of Drenthe's peasants, in what has come to be known as the Battle of Ane – a battle, incidentally, in which the bishop was killed. His successor ordered the nunnery to be built as a penalty; as it was located in a barren peat area, which happened to flood from time to time, a better location had to be found. A better and drier spot for the Cistercian abbey was found in an area known as Witten, where at the time only a few farms were located.

Around it were village communities like Deurze and Peelo. The latter has a history which goes back to the times from when Dolmens were built, but it is now situated between two new districts of Assen; the "relocated" abbey was erected in the 1260s, over the centuries Assen developed around it. The abbey was built at. On the abbey site now stands the Drents Museum, built in 1882 as provinciehuis. Only the abdijkerk, the grounds, bits and pieces of walls remind us of the religious beginnings of the city; the coat of arms is directly borrowed from the seal of the abbey. It is just like the coat of arms of the province of Drenthe - in both cases Mary with child - but Jesus switches to the other knee; the history of the city is connected with the provincial governing board: around 1600 the abbey property was secularised. Marienkamp no longer existed; because of the central position of Assen and the fact that the government from what was called de Landschap Drenthe was searching for a location for the government and civil servants, Assen became the seat for, thus also the capital of Drenthe.

Assen was not a municipality yet, not ecclesiastical sense. Though there was an abbey church, Assen fell ecclesiastically and administratively under Rolde. In 1615 Assen got its own preacher. In 1807 Assen administratively freed itself from the control of Rolde when the village got to establish its own municipal authorities. A municipal authority which moreover in most cases operated in the shadow of the provincial government, which always manifested itself prominent in the Drentse Haagje; the municipal authority got there because of matter of provincial governors like Governor Petrus Hofstede, to which the city thanks its uniquely located park. From that time Assen obtained its nickname het Herenbolwerk. Assen has been an official city since 1809. After Coevorden a village of about sixteen hundred people, Assen became the second place in Drenthe with city rights, granted by King Louis Napoleon, who had big plans for the village. A plan to make it a city was set up at the time, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands was incorporated into Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire and the plans were abandoned.

As an administrative centre, Assen attracted well-to-do inhabitants and with that new enterprises and initiatives. These contributed to a slow but steady increase of commerce and new establishments. Another major achievement was the canal Drentse Hoofdvaart, used for transporting peat and other goods; the most important monuments of the city are from the nineteenth century. Around 1900 Assen began to play a more prominent industrial role, it was a centre of civil servants, but the establishment of a slaughterhouse, dairy factory and iron foundry created more diverse expansion opportunities and encouraged growth. Around 1930, by establishing various psychiatric hospitals and healthcare centres, Assen became a central point for health care in the province. After the Second World War, Assen did not have more than 20,000 inhabitants; the Assen TT made the city more known, but it was not until the 1950s, with the development of an industrial core, did Assen begin to grow more quickly. The Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij established itself in the city and with that, a trend was set.

Now, Assen is known not only because of Bartje and the Drentse Rijwielvierdaagse. It is the fastest-growing city in the northern part of the Netherlands, with ample employment opportunities in the service industry. An unprecedented growth of the city in terms of houses and inhabitants is taking place with environmental issues becoming more urgent; the Assen railway station connects the city to the rest of the country. Assen's city centre is closed to through motor traffic, it has an extensive network of off-road cycle paths, 41% of all journeys in Assen are by bicycle; the city has progressively become more cycle friendly since the 1960s. Tourist Trophy The TT Circuit Assen is one of the most famous motorcycle racing circuits in the world and is the only circuit, in the MotoGP calendar since its beginni

Daniel Edgar Sickles was an American politician and diplomat. Born to a wealthy family in New York City, Sickles was involved in a number of scandals, most notably the public slaying of his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key II, a U. S. Attorney and son of Francis Scott Key, whom Sickles gunned down in broad daylight in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, he was acquitted after using temporary insanity as a legal defense for the first time in United States history. This became a defense associated with'crimes of passion'. Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Sickles became one of the war's most prominent political generals, recruiting the New York regiments that became known as the Excelsior Brigade in the Army of the Potomac. Despite his lack of military experience, he served as a brigade and corps commander in some of the early Eastern campaigns, his military career ended at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, after he moved his III Corps to an untenable position where it was destroyed.

He had to have his leg amputated. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Sickles devoted considerable effort to trying to gain credit for helping achieve the Union victory at Gettysburg, writing articles and testifying before Congress in a manner that denigrated the intentions and actions of his superior officer, the army commander, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. After the war, Sickles was appointed as a commander for military districts in the South during Reconstruction, he served as U. S. Minister to Spain, he was re-elected to Congress, where he helped pass legislation to preserve the Gettysburg Battlefield. In 1819, Sickles was born in New York City to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles, a patent lawyer and politician, he studied at the University of the City of New York. He studied law in the office of Benjamin Butler, was admitted to the bar in 1846, was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1847. On September 27, 1852, Sickles married Teresa Bagioli against the wishes of both families—he was 32, she about 15 or 16.

She was reported speaking five languages. In 1853 Sickles became corporation counsel of New York City, but resigned soon afterward when appointed as secretary of the U. S. legation in London, under James Buchanan, by appointment of President Franklin Pierce. In 1855 he returned to the United States, in 1856 he was elected as a member of the New York State Senate in the 3rd D.. He was re-elected to the seat in 1857. In 1856 he was elected as a Democrat to the 35th U. S. Congress, held office from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1861, a total of two terms. Sickles was censured by the New York State Assembly for escorting a known prostitute, Fanny White, into its chambers, he reportedly took her to England, while leaving his pregnant wife at home. He presented White to Queen Victoria, using as her alias the surname of a New York political opponent. On February 27, 1859, in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, Sickles shot and killed Philip Barton Key II, the district attorney of the District of Columbia and the son of Francis Scott Key.

Sickles had discovered. Sickles surrendered at Attorney General Jeremiah Black's house, a few blocks away on Franklin Square, confessed to the murder. After a visit to his home, accompanied by a constable, Sickles was taken to jail, he received numerous perquisites, including being allowed to retain his personal weapon, receive numerous visitors. So many visitors came, they included many congressmen and other leading members of Washington society. President James Buchanan sent Sickles a personal note. Harper's Magazine reported that the visits of his wife's mother and her clergyman were painful for Sickles. Both told him that Teresa was distracted with grief and sorrow, that the loss of her wedding ring was more than Teresa could bear. Sickles was charged with murder, he secured several leading politicians as defense attorneys, among them Edwin M. Stanton to become Secretary of War, Chief Counsel James T. Brady who, like Sickles, was associated with Tammany Hall. Sickles pleaded temporary insanity—the first use of this defense in the United States.

Before the jury, Stanton argued that Sickles had been driven insane by his wife's infidelity, thus was out of his mind when he shot Key. The papers soon trumpeted that Sickles was a hero for "saving all the ladies of Washington from this rogue named Key". Sickles had obtained a graphic confession from Teresa; the defense strategy ensured that the trial was the main topic of conversations in Washington for weeks, the extensive coverage of national papers was sympathetic to Sickles. In the courtroom, the strategy brought drama, an acquittal for Sickles. Sickles publicly forgave Teresa, "withdrew" from public life, although he did not resign from Congress; the public was more outraged by Sickles's forgiveness and reconciliation with his wife than by the murder and his unorthodox acquittal. In the 1850s, Sickles had received a commission in the 12th Regiment of the New York Mi

Knaut–Rhuland House is a historic 18th-century house in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as well as a Provincially Registered Property under the provincial Heritage Property Act, it is located within the Old Town Lunenburg World Heritage Site. The Knaut–Rhuland House is owned by the Lunenburg Heritage Society, which operates a museum in the house open to the public during the summer; the house is named for its first two owners. The first owner, Benjamin Knaut, had the house built in 1793. Benjamin was a trader and a privateer; the second owner, Conrad Rhuland, was a trader and ship owner and during the War of 1812 was a privateer’s prize master. The houses' design is British Classicism; the entrance door is framed by sidelights and there is a transom window overhead. All windows are multi - many have the original old glass; the foundation is stone, more than two feet thick, is built around two chimneys. The frame is beam, consisting of hand-hewn timbers.

These are "numbered" with hatch marks suggesting. The interior walls and ceilings were applied to split lath; the floors are pine and there are seven fireplaces. There are original mouldings and wood work in some rooms. There are furnished rooms on the ground floor providing examples of the style of furnishings that would be known to the first two owners. An exhibition called "Our Spiritual Heritage" contains a display of old Bibles and prayer books, some dating from the time of the "Foreign Protestants" who came to Lunenburg in 1753; this exhibition contains display panels describing Lunenburg’s churches, which are amongst the oldest in Canada. There is a room depicting the craft activities of the 18th and 19th centuries, with among other items a walking wheel, spinning wheels and wool winders. Upstairs, the exhibition gallery provides a history of Lunenburg from 1753 when the Foreign Protestants settled in the town and local area; the Knaut–Rhuland House has a room containing artefacts from the Victorian period and a costume gallery with displays of original and replica clothing, a small garden that includes plants that would have been used by the early owners of the house to dye fabric.

The Knaut–Rhuland House Museum, Lunenburg Heritage Society