The Battle of Blenheim, fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, thus preventing the collapse of the Grand Alliance. Louis XIV of France sought to knock the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, gain a favourable peace settlement; the dangers to Vienna were considerable: the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Marsin's forces in Bavaria threatened from the west, Marshal Vendôme's large army in northern Italy posed a serious danger with a potential offensive through the Brenner Pass. Vienna was under pressure from Rákóczi's Hungarian revolt from its eastern approaches. Realising the danger, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to alleviate the peril to Vienna by marching his forces south from Bedburg to help maintain Emperor Leopold within the Grand Alliance. A combination of deception and skilled administration – designed to conceal his true destination from friend and foe alike – enabled Marlborough to march 400 kilometres unhindered from the Low Countries to the River Danube in five weeks.

After securing Donauwörth on the Danube, Marlborough sought to engage the Elector's and Marsin's army before Marshal Tallard could bring reinforcements through the Black Forest. However, with the Franco-Bavarian commanders reluctant to fight until their numbers were deemed sufficient, the Duke enacted a policy of plundering in Bavaria designed to force the issue; the tactic proved unsuccessful, but when Tallard arrived to bolster the Elector's army, Prince Eugene arrived with reinforcements for the Allies, the two armies met on the banks of the Danube in and around the small village of Blindheim, from which the English "Blenheim" is derived. Blenheim was one of the battles that altered the course of the war, which until was leaning for Louis' coalition, ended French plans of knocking the Emperor out of the war. France suffered as many as 38,000 casualties including the commander-in-chief, Marshal Tallard, taken captive to England. Before the 1704 campaign ended, the Allies had taken Landau, the towns of Trier and Trarbach on the Moselle in preparation for the following year's campaign into France itself.

The offensive never materialised as the Grand Alliance's army had to depart the Moselle to defend Liège from a French counteroffensive. The war would rage on for another decade. By 1704, the War of the Spanish Succession was in its fourth year; the previous year had been one of success for France and her allies, most on the Danube, where Marshal Villars and the Elector of Bavaria had created a direct threat to Vienna, the Habsburg capital. Vienna had been saved by dissension between the two commanders, leading to the brilliant Villars being replaced by the less dynamic Marshal Marsin. By 1704, the threat was still real: Rákóczi's Hungarian revolt was threatening the Empire's eastern approaches, Marshal Vendôme's forces threatened an invasion from northern Italy. In the courts of Versailles and Madrid, Vienna's fall was confidently anticipated, an event which would certainly have led to the collapse of the Grand Alliance. To isolate the Danube from any Allied intervention, Marshal Villeroi's 46,000 troops were expected to pin the 70,000 Dutch and English troops around Maastricht in the Low Countries, while General de Coigny protected Alsace against surprise with a further corps.

The only forces available for Vienna's defence were Prince Louis of Baden's force of 36,000 stationed in the Lines of Stollhofen to watch Marshal Tallard at Strasbourg. Both the Imperial Austrian Ambassador in London, Count Wratislaw, the Duke of Marlborough realised the implications of the situation on the Danube; the Dutch, who clung to their troops for their country's protection, were against any adventurous military operation as far south as the Danube and would never willingly permit any major weakening of the forces in the Spanish Netherlands. Marlborough, realising the only way to ignore Dutch wishes was by the use of secrecy and guile, set out to deceive his Dutch allies by pretending to move his troops to the Moselle – a plan approved of by The Hague – but once there, he would slip the Dutch leash and link up with Austrian forces in southern Germany. "My intentions", wrote the Duke from The Hague on 29 April to his governmental confidant, Sidney Godolphin, "are to march with the English to Coblenz and declare that I intend to campaign on the Moselle.

But when I come there, to write to the Dutch States that I think it necessary for the saving of the Empire to march with the troops under my command and to join with those that are in Germany... in order to make measures with Prince Lewis of Baden for the speedy reduction of the Elector of Bavaria." A scarlet caterpillar, upon which all eyes were at once fixed, began to crawl steadfastly day by day across the map of Europe, dragging the whole war with it. – Winston Churchill. Marlborough's march started on 19 May from 32 kilometres north-west of Cologne; the army mortars totalling 21,000 men. This force was to be augmented en route such that by the time Marlborough reached the Danube, it would number 40,000. Whilst Marlborough led his army, General Overkirk would maintain a defensive position in the Dutch Republic in case Villeroi mounted an attack; the Duke had assured the Dutch that if the Frenc

Amasa Dana was a U. S. Representative from New York. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Dana was the son of Aziel Dana and Rebecca Dana, he attended private schools and Dana Academy in Wilkes-Barre, studied law with his uncle Eleazer Dana in Owego, New York, attained admission to the bar in 1817 and practiced in Owego. Dana moved to Ithaca, New York in 1821 and continued the practice of law, he served as district attorney of Tompkins County from 1823 to 1837. He served as member of the New York State Assembly in 1828 and 1829, he served as president and trustee of the village of Ithaca in 1835, 1836, 1839. In 1837, Dana was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Tompkins County, he was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1840, resumed the practice of law. From 1842 to 1843, Dana served as Ithaca's town supervisor. Dana was elected to the Twenty-eighth Congress. During this term, he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy.

He resumed practicing law, engaged in banking and business, including serving as president of the Tompkins County National Bank. He died in Ithaca, New York, on December 24, 1867, he was interred in Ithaca City Cemetery. In 1828, Dana married Mary Harper Speed, the daughter of Doctor Joseph Speed of Caroline, New York, they had no children. Burns, Thomas W.. Initial Ithacans. Ithaca, NY: Ithaca Journal. Force, William Q.. Congressional Directory fort the First Session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress. Washington, DC: W. Q. Force. Kingman, Leroy Wilson. Owego: Some Account of the Early Settlement of the Village in Tioga County. Owego, NY: Owego Gazette. Marquis, A. N.. Who Was Who In America. Chicago, IL: Marquis Who's Who, Incorporated. Speed, Thomas. Records and Memorials of the Speed Family. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company. U. S. Comptroller of the Currency. Report of the Comptroller of the Currency. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. United States Congress. "Amasa Dana". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Amasa Dana at Find a Grave Amasa Dana at The Political Graveyard This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov

Stanislav Igolinsky is a Russian pianist. In 1971 he finished Magnet musical school at the Leningrad Conservatory in class of Volf M. V. and in class of Volfenzon S. J.. In 1976 Igolinsky graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory, from the Postgraduate study-training in class of Professor Voskresensky M. S. In 1972 Igolinsky took the 1 prize at the Fourth All-Union competition of pianists in Minsk. In 1974 he received the 2 premium at the Fifth International competition named after Tchaikovsky in Moscow. In 1975 he took the 2 prize at the International competition named after Queen Elizabeth in Brussels. Stanislav Igolinsky gave concerts in 200 cities of CIS, in Belgium, Austria, Japan, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Taiwan, he acted with such well-known conductors as Svetlanov, Kitayenko, Dmitriyev, Domarkas, Sinaisky, Kersies, Oberfrank, Stryia, Zanderling, Beloglavek. In repertoire of him are the works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Liszt, Brahms, Debussy, Musorgsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, more than 30 concerts for piano with orchestra, piano quartets and quintets, sonatas for violin and piano.

The pianist acts with the violinist Vladislav Igolinsky, with the State quartet after the name of Taneyev. From 1979 till 2000 Stanislav Igolinsky was the soloist of St.-Petersburg-Concert. From 1984 till 1991, from 2002 till 2005 he taught at the St.-Petersburg Conservatory. Since 2005 Igolinsky works as a Doctor at the Moscow State Conservatory. Now Dr. Igolinsky gives the master-classes, participates in work of jury of the Russian and international piano competitions, he embarked in an international concert career. A former teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Igolinsky is since 2005 a Doctor in Moscow's, he is a People's Artist of Russia. Almaty Piano Competition Piano Division of the Moscow Conservatory