Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a bande dessinée series about Gaulish warriors, who have adventures and fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar. The series first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959, it was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo until the death of Goscinny in 1977. Uderzo took over the writing until 2009, when he sold the rights to publishing company Hachette. In 2013, a new team consisting of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad took over; as of 2019, 38 volumes have been released, with the most recent released in October 2019. Each Asterix comic starts with the following introduction: The year is 50 BC. Gaul is occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders, and life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium and Compendium... The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BCE.

They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid Getafix, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title character Asterix and his friend Obelix, have various adventures; the "-ix" ending of both names alludes to the "-rix" suffix present in the names of many real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix and Dumnorix. In many of the stories, they travel to foreign countries, though other tales are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series, settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul in the village; the Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into 111 languages and dialects as of 2009. The success of the series has led to the adaptation of its books into 13 films: nine animated, four live action. There have been a number of games based on the characters, a theme park near Paris, Parc Astérix.

The first French satellite, Astérix, launched in 1965, was named after the comics character. As of 2017, 370 million copies of Asterix books have been sold worldwide, with co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo being France's best-selling authors abroad. Prior to creating the Asterix series and Uderzo had had success with their series Oumpah-pah, published in Tintin magazine. Astérix was serialised in Pilote magazine, debuting in the first issue on 29 October 1959. In 1961 the first book was put together, titled Asterix the Gaul. From on, books were released on a yearly basis, their success was exponential. In 1963, the third sold 40,000. A year the fifth sold 300,000; the ninth Asterix volume, when first released in 1967, sold 1.2 million copies in two days. Uderzo's first preliminary sketches portrayed Asterix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior, but Goscinny had a different picture in his mind, visualizing Asterix as a shrewd, compact warrior who would possess intelligence and wit more than raw strength.

However, Uderzo felt that the downsized hero needed a strong but dim companion, to which Goscinny agreed. Hence, Obelix was born. Despite the growing popularity of Asterix with the readers, the financial backing for the publication Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud; when Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series by popular demand of the readers, who implored him to continue. He on a less-frequent basis. Many critics and fans of the series prefer the earlier collaborations with Goscinny. Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then. However, the initial publisher of the series, kept the publishing rights on the 24 first albums made by both Uderzo and Goscinny. In 1990, the Uderzo and Goscinny families decided to sue Dargaud to take over the rights. In 1998, after a long trial, Dargaud lost the rights to sell the albums. Uderzo decided to sell these rights to Hachette instead of Albert-René, but the publishing rights on new albums were still owned by Albert Uderzo, Sylvie Uderzo and Anne Goscinny.

In December 2008, Uderzo sold his stake to Hachette. In a letter published in the French newspaper Le Monde in 2009, Uderzo's daughter, attacked her father's decision to sell the family publishing firm and the rights to produce new Astérix adventures after his death, she said:... the co-creator of Astérix, France's comic strip hero, has betrayed the Gaulish warrior to the modern-day Romans – the men of industry and finance. However, René Goscinny's daughter, Anne gave her agreement to the continuation of the series and sold her rights at the same time, she is reported to have said that "Asterix has had two lives: one during my father's lifetime and one after it. Why not a third?". A few months Uderzo appointed three illustrators, his assistants for many years, to continue the series. In 2011, Uderzo announced that a new Asterix album was due out in 2013, with Jean-Yves Ferri writing

Nora Jane Struthers is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, notable for her critically acclaimed Americana and roots rock. Rolling Stone Country debuted a video for "Let Go" from Struthers' album Wake with an article in which Stephen L. Betts wrote that "the ever-widening scope of Nora Jane Struthers' musicality means that placing a neat, easy label on the genre she best represents is impossible." In a post for Amy Poehler's blog Smart Girls, Alexa Peters wrote that "Nora Jane is and unequivocally herself, wants to encourage you to do the same." National Public Radio described Struthers as "quietly brilliant" in article headlined "Country Music's Year of the Woman." Struthers' 2013 album Carnival, recorded with her touring band The Party Line, spent more than three months in the Top 20 of Americana Radio charts and peaked at No. 7. Carnival ranked 24th on the 2013 Americana Airplay Top 100 list. In a review of Carnival, the Tampa Bay Times wrote that Struthers' unique brand of "rich storytelling, repeat-worth melodies and a modern mashup of traditional, bluegrass folk and rock influences" sets her apart from many roots-inspired contemporaries.

Struthers was born in Fairfax, United States, six months before her family moved to Avon, Conn. When Struthers was four years old, the family moved again to New Jersey, she grew up playing music with her father Alan Struthers, a bluegrass musician. Struthers was named Nora by her parents after Nora Charles, a character in Dashiell Hammett's novel The Thin Man, Jane after English author Jane Austen, her family called her Jane, but Nora stuck in school when that name was used for calling roll in kindergarten. Struthers said as a little girl she would watch out the front window for her father at the end of the day and greet him with a yodel and the two frequented bluegrass festivals and fiddler conventions along the East Coast as she got older. Struthers was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of four, when a reading specialist told her parents that Nora Jane would never go to college, she proved the reading specialist wrong, studying English Education and Africana Studies at New York University's School of Education.

After graduating in 2005, Struthers worked as a teacher at The Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn, New York, until 2008. Struthers played shows with her father under the name Dirt Road Sweetheart and the duo released an album titled I Heard The Bluebirds Sing on May 11, 2008. In 2008, Struthers gave up her job as a teacher and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career as a full-time musician, she soon began touring with a band of rotating musicians she dubbed The Bootleggers and won the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest in June 2010. Struthers released a self-titled debut solo album on July 10, 2010. Nora Jane Struthers, produced by Brent Truitt, featured established musicians such as multi-instrumentalist Tim O'Brien and fiddler Stuart Duncan. Struthers joined Americana acoustic quintet Bearfoot in 2010 and the group released the album American Story in 2011, which featured six songs written or co-written by Struthers. One of them, "Tell Me a Story," became a top-rated video on Country Music Television.

Struthers had written a collection of songs for a new solo album by 2012 and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $22,000 in less than four weeks to help fund it. She formed a touring band called The Party Line and released the 14-track Carnival on April 16, 2013, again produced by Truitt. Struthers and The Party Line gave nearly 150 live performances across the U. S. in 2013. Struthers said she achieved a childhood dream by playing in the Saturday Night All Star Jam at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Oak Hill, New York that year. Struthers and The Party Line released a six-song record titled Country EP No. 1 in July 2014. One of the tracks, a cover of The Everly Brothers classic " I Kissed You" was featured on a collection of Americana music called Native: Americana Spotlight, released on September 9, 2014 on Tone Tree Music. Struthers and The Party Line have recorded a new full-length studio album called Wake, featuring 11 original songs. Wake is slated to be released in February 2015.

Reception Grammy Award-winning musician Tim O'Brien said "Old time music continues to reinvent itself in the able hands of young artists like Nora Jane Struthers."Kim Ruehl wrote for NPR Music that Struthers has a "voice as sweet as honeysuckle."A Tampa Bay Times reviewer called Carnival an "Americana gem," writing that "the album never fades through 14 tracks, a testament to the songwriting and musical arrangements."The video for Struthers' song "Bike Ride", from the album Carnival debuted at No. 1 on Country Music Television Pure's 12-Pack Countdown in November 2013. Studio albumsI Heard The Bluebirds Sing, as Dirt Road Sweetheart, a duo with her father Alan Struthers Nora Jane Struthers Carnival Wake Champion EPsCountry EP No. 1

The Battle of Ramnagar was fought on 22 November 1848 between British and Sikh forces during the Second Anglo-Sikh War. The British were led by Sir Hugh Gough; the Sikhs repelled an attempted British surprise attack. Following the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, British Commissioners and Political Agents had ruled the Punjab, using the Sikh Khalsa Army to maintain order and implement British policy. There was much unrest over this arrangement and the other galling terms of the peace treaty, not least within the Khalsa which believed it had been betrayed rather than defeated in the first war; the second war broke out in April 1848, when a popular uprising in the city of Multan forced its ruler, Dewan Mulraj, into rebellion. The British Governor-General of Bengal, Lord Dalhousie ordered only a small contingent of the Bengal Army under General Whish to suppress the outbreak, he ordered several detachments of the Khalsa to reinforce Whish. The largest detachment, of 3,300 cavalry and 900 infantry was commanded by Sardar Sher Singh Attariwalla.

Several junior Political Agents viewed this development with alarm, as Sher Singh's father, Chattar Singh Attariwalla, the Governor of Hazara to the north of the Punjab, was plotting rebellion. On 14 September, Sher Singh rebelled. Whish was forced to retire. Sher Singh and Mulraj did not join forces; the two leaders conferred at a temple outside the city, where both prayed and it was agreed that Mulraj would supply some funds from his treasury, while Sher Singh moved north to join his forces with those of his father. This was not possible, as Chattar Singh's army was confined to Hazara by Moslem tribesmen fighting under British officers. Instead, Sher Singh moved a few miles north and began fortifying the crossings of the Chenab River, while awaiting developments, his army was swelled by deserters from those regiments of the Khalsa which had not yet rebelled, by discharged former soldiers. By November, the British had at last assembled a large army on the frontier of the Punjab, under the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Hugh Gough.

Gough had been criticised for his unvarying frontal attacks during the First Anglo-Sikh War, which had led to heavy British casualties and some near disasters. In the early hours of the morning of 22 November, Gough ordered a force of cavalry and horse artillery, with a single infantry brigade, to move to the Chenab crossing near Ramnagar intending to capture the position by surprise; the Sikhs occupied strong positions on an island in mid-stream. The river was only a narrow stream, but the wide bed it occupied during the monsoon season was treacherous soft sand, in which cavalry and artillery could become bogged down. At dawn, the British force assembled opposite the fords; the 3rd Light Dragoons and 8th Bengal Light Cavalry drove some Sikhs back across the river from positions on the east bank. At this point, hitherto concealed Sikh batteries opened fire; the British cavalry had difficulty extricating themselves from the soft ground. Gough's horse artillery was outgunned and forced to retire, leaving behind a 6-pounder gun which had become bogged down.

The brigade commander, Sir Colin Campbell, called up troops to retrieve the gun but was over-ruled by Gough. Sher Singh sent 3,000 horsemen across the fords to take advantage of the British check. Gough ordered the main body of his cavalry to attack them; these drove back the Sikh horsemen but as they pursued them down the river bank, they were hit by heavy artillery fire. The Sikh cavalry turned about and hit the 5th Light Cavalry, causing heavy casualties; the Commanding Officer of the 14th Light Dragoons, Colonel William Havelock, led another charge without orders. He and his leading troopers were cut down. After a third charge failed, Brigadier Charles Robert Cureton, the commander of the cavalry division to which the troops belonged, galloped up and ordered a retreat, he himself was killed by musket fire. Official British casualties, including Brigadier General Cureton, were 26 killed or missing, 59 wounded; this may have referred to the 14th Light Dragoons only. Sikh casualties were not recorded.

Sher Singh had skillfully used every advantage of preparation. Although the Sikh forces had been driven from their vulnerable positions on the east bank of the Chenab, their main positions were intact, they had undoubtedly repulsed a British attack, the morale of Sher Singh's army was boosted. On the British side, several shortcomings were obvious. There had been little other attempts to gain information on the Sikh dispositions. Gough and Havelock had both ordered reckless charges. Cureton had a reputation from the First Sikh War as a steady and capable officer, ought to have been in command from the start. 3rd King’s Own Light Dragoons 9th Queen’s Royal Light Dragoons 14th the King’s Light Dragoons 24th Foot 29th Foot 61st Foot 1st Bengal Light Cavalry 5th Bengal Light Cavalry 6th Bengal Light Cavalry 9th Bengal Light Cavalry 2nd European Light Infantry 6th Bengal Native Infantry 15th Bengal Native Infantry 20th Bengal Native Infantry 25th Bengal Native Infantry 30th Bengal Native Infantry 31st Bengal Native Infantry 36th Bengal Native Infantry 45th Bengal Native Infantry 56th Bengal Native Infantry 69th Bengal Native Infantry 70th Bengal Native Infantry Chaurasia, Radhey