Since the death of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhist monastic communities have periodically convened to settle doctrinal and disciplinary disputes and to revise and correct the contents of the sutras. These gatherings, referred to by historians as "Buddhist councils", are recorded in the Buddhist sutras as having begun following the death of the Buddha and have continued into the modern era; the number and ordering of the councils employed in Western academia is based on Theravada historical chronicles—regional or sectarian gatherings not involving the Mahavihara Theravada lineage may be regarded as equivalent in significance by other traditions. The earliest councils—for which there is little historical evidence outside of the sutras—are regarded as canonical events by every Buddhist tradition, while some councils have been concerned only with the Theravada tradition. According to the scriptures of all Buddhist schools, the first Buddhist Council was held soon after the death of the Buddha, dated by the majority of recent scholars around 400 BCE, under the patronage of the king Ajatashatru with the monk Mahakasyapa presiding, at Sattapanni caves Rajgriha.

Its objective was to preserve the the monastic discipline or rules. The Suttas were recited by Ananda, the Vinaya was recited by Upali. Western scholarship has suggested that the Abhidhamma Pitaka was composed starting after 300 BCE because of differences in language and content from other Sutta literature; some scholars of Indian Buddhism have questioned the event's historicity. The circumstances surrounding the First Buddhist Council are recorded in the Vinaya Pitaka of the early Buddhist schools; the text is called the Recitation of Five-Hundred because five hundred senior monks were chosen by the community to collect and clarify the Buddha's teachings. The historical records for the so-called "Second Buddhist Council" derive from the canonical Vinayas of various schools. In most cases, these accounts are found at the end of the Skandhaka portion of the Vinaya. While disagreeing on points of details, they agree that the root dispute was points of vinaya or monastic discipline; the Second Council resulted in the first schism in the Sangha.

Modern scholars see this event as caused by a group of reformists called Sthaviras who split from the conservative majority Mahāsāṃghikas. This view is supported by the vinaya texts themselves, as vinayas associated with the Sthaviras do contain more rules than those of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya. All scholars agree that this second council was a historical event. There is no agreement however on the dating of the event or if it was post Ashoka, it was held at Vaishali under the presidency of Sabakami. In striking contrast to the uniform accounts of the Second Council, there are records of several possible "Third Councils"; these different versions function to authorize the founding of other. According to the Theravāda commentaries and chronicles, the Third Buddhist Council was convened by the Mauryan king Ashoka at Pātaliputra, under the leadership of the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, its objective was to purify the Buddhist movement from opportunistic factions, attracted by the royal patronage. The king asked the suspect monks what the Buddha taught, they claimed he taught views such as eternalism, etc. which are condemned in the canonical Brahmajala Sutta.

He asked the virtuous monks, they replied that the Buddha was a "Teacher of Analysis", an answer, confirmed by Moggaliputta Tissa. The Council proceeded to recite the scriptures once more, adding to the canon Moggaliputta Tissa's own book, the Kathavatthu, a discussion of various dissenting Buddhist views now contained in the Theravāda Abhidhamma Pitaka; this council seems to have been the cause of the split between the Sarvastivada and the Vibhajjavāda schools. Emissaries were sent to various countries in order to spread Buddhism, as far as the Greek kingdoms in the West. According to Frauwallner, several of these missionaries were responsible for founding schools in various parts of India: Majjhantika was the father of the Kasmiri Sarvastivādins. Relics of some of the Haimavata monks have been excavated at Vedisa in central India; the most famous of the missionaries, the main focus of interest for these Theravada histories, is Mahinda, who travelled to Sri Lanka where he founded the school we now know as Theravada.

The Theravāda's own Dipavamsa records a quite different Council called the "Great Recital", which it claims was held by the reformed Vajjiputtakas following their defeat at the Second Council. The Dipavamsa criticizes the Mahasangitikas for rejecting various texts as non-canonical: the Parivāra; the Mahāsanghika, for their part, remember things differently: they allege, in the Sāriputraparipriccha that there was an attempt to unduly expand the old Vinaya. The Mahasanghikas' own vinaya gives the sa

Willard "Bill" Cantrell was a midget and stock car racing driver from Anaheim, California. He was nicknamed the "Silver Fox" for his gray sly tricks, he started racing jalopies in 1936 in Southern California. He raced midgets with the United Midget Association in 1939, he drove for over fifty midgets in 1941 trying to find a winning car. He found that car in 1942, he won 15 races in his second-place points finish in the UMA. Cantrell won over 120 main events between 1945 and 1964 in United Racing Association, AAA, USAC races, he won the 1962 Turkey Night Grand Prix. He won the 1947 URA Red Circuit Title in 1947 and series overall championship in 1951 and 1952, he won 18 sprint car races in the California Racing Association. In 1953, he made an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Cantrell made two NASCAR starts, he started the second and final NASCAR event held at Willow Springs Speedway in Lancaster, California in 1956, at Riverside International Raceway in 1965. He became the West Coast supervisor for USAC, he was a starter for the USRC midget club after he retired.

He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame

The Town of Hempstead is one of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, United States, occupying the southwestern part of the county, in the western half of Long Island. Twenty-two incorporated villages are or within the town; the town's combined population was 759,757 at the 2010 census, the majority of the population of the county and by far the largest of any town in New York. If Hempstead were to be incorporated as a city, it would be the second-largest city in New York, behind New York City, it would be the 18th-largest city in the country, behind Charlotte, North Carolina and ahead of Seattle, Washington. Hempstead is the most populous municipality in the New York metropolitan area outside New York City. Hofstra University's main campus is located in Hempstead; the town was first settled around 1644 following the establishment of a treaty between English colonists, John Carman and Robert Fordham, the Lenape Indians in 1643. Although the settlers were from the English colony of Connecticut, a patent was issued by the government of New Netherland after the settlers had purchased land from the local natives.

This transaction is depicted in a mural in the Hempstead Village Hall, reproduced from a poster commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hempstead Village. In local Dutch-language documents of the 1640s and the town was invariably called Heemstede, several of Hempstead's original 50 patentees were Dutch, suggesting that Hempstead was named after the Dutch town and/or castle Heemstede, which are near the cities of Haarlem and Amsterdam. However, the authorities had Dutchified a name given by co-founder John Carman, born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, England, on land owned by his ancestors since the 13th century. In 1664, the settlement under the new Province of New York adopted the Duke's Laws, austere statutes that became the basis upon which the laws of many colonies were to be founded. For a time, Hempstead became known as "Old Blue", as a result of the "Blue Laws". During the American Revolution, the Loyalists in the south and the American sympathizers in the north caused a split in 1784 into "North Hempstead" and "South Hempstead".

With the 1898 incorporation of the Borough of Queens as part of the city of New York, the 1899 split of Queens County to create Nassau County, some southwestern portions of the Town of Hempstead seceded from the town and became part of the Borough of Queens. Richard Hewlett, born in Hempstead, served as a Lieutenant Colonel with the British Army under General Oliver De Lancey in the American Revolution. Afterward, Hewlett departed the United States with other Loyalists and settled in the newly created Province of New Brunswick in what became Canada. A settlement there was named Hampstead, in Queen's County next to Long Island in the Saint John River; the town is headed by Jr. of Garden City. The responsibilities of the office include presiding over meetings of the Town Council and directing the legislative and administrative function of that body; the position entails creating and implementing the town's budget. Kate Murray was the town's first female supervisor. One famous former supervisor was Republican Alfonse D'Amato, who represented New York in the United States Senate from 1981 to 1999.

Prior to 1994, the town had a Presiding Supervisor, who along with the Supervisor, sat on what was Nassau County's main governmental body, the Board of Supervisors, along with the Supervisors of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay and the independent cities of Long Beach—formerly a part of Hempstead Town until its incorporation as a separate municipality in 1922—and Glen Cove, carved out of Oyster Bay Town in 1917. The Presiding Supervisor, besides chairing the weekly county Board of Supervisors meetings, acted as the senior official in the town government with the Supervisor in a more junior, subordinate role. Having the Presiding Supervisor on the county board along with the Supervisor gave Hempstead—by far the most populous of the county's three towns and two cities—the most clout on that body. However, in 1993–94, a federal judge ruled that the board's makeup violated the one-person, one-vote constitutional principle and gave no representation to the country's growing minority population.

As a result of that ruling, the Board of Supervisors was replaced by a 19-member county legislature. Gregory P. Peterson served as the last Presiding Supervisor, as the position was abolished with the demise of the county board; the Current Tax Collector is Jeanine Driscoll. The Town Council comprises six voting members, elected from a councilmanic district, their primary function is to adopt the annual budget and amending the town code and the building zone ordinances, adopting all traffic regulations, hearing applications for changes of zone and special exceptions to zoning codes. As of 2020, the council members are: Dorothy L. Goosby Thomas E. Muscarella Bruce A. Blakeman Anthony P. D'Esposito Chris Carini Dennis Dunne, Sr. Other elected officials in the town include the receiver of taxes; the clerk is responsible for issuing birth and death certificates and is considered the