The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, events from 2009 to 2019 were held in South America; the 2020 edition is being held in Saudi Arabia. The rally is open to amateur and professional entries, amateurs making up about eighty percent of the participants; the rally is an off-road endurance event. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher than that used in conventional rallying, the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than modified on-road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, camel grass and erg among others; the distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres per day. The race originated in December 1977, a year after Thierry Sabine got lost in the Ténéré desert whilst competing in the Abidjan-Nice rally and decided that the desert would be a good location for a regular rally.

182 vehicles took the start of the inaugural rally in Paris, with 74 surviving the 10,000-kilometre trip to the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Cyril Neveu holds the distinction of being the event's first winner, riding a Yamaha motorcycle; the event grew in popularity, with 216 vehicles taking the start in 1980 and 291 in 1981. Neveu won the event for a second time in 1980, Hubert Auriol taking honours in 1981 for BMW. By this stage, the rally had begun to attract the participation of famous names from elsewhere in motorsport, such as Henri Pescarolo and Jacky Ickx. Now boasting 382 competitors, more than double the amount that took the start in 1979, Neveu won the event for a third time in 1982, this time riding a Honda motorcycle, while victory in the car class went to the Marreau brothers, driving a entered Renault 20, whose buccaneering exploits seemed to capture the spirit of the early years of the rally. Auriol captured his second bikes class victory in 1983, the first year that Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi competed in the rally, beginning an association that would last all the way until 2009.

At the behest of 1983 car class winner Jacky Ickx, Porsche entered the Dakar in 1984, with the total number of entries now at 427. The German marque won the event at their first attempt courtesy of René Metge, who had won in the car category in 1981, whilst Ickx finished sixth. Gaston Rahier meanwhile continued BMW's success in the motorcycle category with back-to-back wins in 1984 and 1985, the year of Mitsubishi's first victory of 12 in the car category, Patrick Zaniroli taking the spoils; the 1986 event, won by Metge and Neveu, was marred by the death of event founder Sabine in a helicopter crash, his father Gilbert taking over organisation of the rally. The 1987 rally marked the start of an era of increased official factory participation in the car category, as French manufacturer Peugeot arrived and won the event with former World Rally champion Ari Vatanen; the 1987 event was notable for a ferocious head-to-head duel between Neveu and Auriol in the motorcycle category, the former taking his fifth victory after Auriol was forced to drop out of the rally after breaking both ankles in a fall.

The 1988 event reached its zenith with 603 starters. Vatanen's title defence was derailed. Though it was found, Vatanen was subsequently disqualified from the event, victory instead going to compatriot and teammate Juha Kankkunen. Peugeot and Vatanen returned to winning ways in 1989 and 1990, the latter marking Peugeot's final year of rally competition before switching to the World Sportscar Championship. Sister brand Citroën took Peugeot's place, Vatanen taking a third consecutive victory in 1991; the 1991 event saw Stéphane Peterhansel take his first title in the motorcycle category with Yamaha, marking the beginning of an era of domination by the Frenchman. For the 1992 event, the finish line moved to Cape Town, South Africa in a bid to combat a declining number of competitors, where GPS technology was used for the first time. Auriol became the first person to win in multiple classes after taking Mitsubishi's second victory in the car class, while Peterhansel defended his motorcycle category title.

The 1993 rally entry list slumped to 153 competitors, around half of the preceding year's figure and around a quarter of that of 1988. The event was the last to be organised by Gilbert Sabine and the Amaury Sport Organisation took over the following year. With the finish line now back in its traditional location of Dakar, Bruno Saby won a third title for Mitsubishi and Peterhansel took a third straight success in the motorcycle category; the 1994 event returned to Paris after reaching Dakar, resulting in a grueling event. Pierre Lartigue took Citroën's second win in acrimonious circumstances, as Mitsubishi's leading drivers were forced to withdraw from exhaustion after traversing some demanding sand dunes in the Mauritanian desert that the Citroen crews had opted to skip. Peterhansel's did not compete due to a disagreement between Yamaha and the race organizers over the regulations. Edi Orioli claimed a third title in the bikes category; the 1995 and 1996 events begin in the Spanish city of Granada, with Lartigue racking up wins for Citroen in both years.

Peterhansel returned to take a fourth bikes category win in 1995, but lost to Orioli in 1996 because of refuelling problems. The 1997 rally ran in Africa for the first time, with the route running from Dakar to Agadez and back to D

Robert G. Kemp was a Canadian painter born in Toronto, Ontario. Robert began his art training at Northern Vocational & Technical Institute in Toronto, graduating in 1946, he attended the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1947. Upon completion Robert went to work for Taber and Feheley art studios in Toronto, he continued his study of art by correspondence in the Famous Artists Course in Westport, Connecticut receiving feedback from Norman Rockwell. Kemp became art director at Hayhurst Advertising in Toronto in 1954. In 1961, he became a self-employed artist drawing from the inspiration of David C. Baker, an artist in New Hampshire, he moved to a chalet at the base of Blue Mountain and began selling paintings from a gallery attached to the chalet. Robert has had 12 exhibitions, his paintings have won 5 awards and can be found in the collections of the Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery in Owen Sound and Princess Anne of the British royal family. In addition to 2 self-published books. In 1990 following his death from a kidney disease the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts created a trust fund for the annual Robert G. Kemp Arts Award to recognize and encourage artists in the southern Georgian Bay, Ontario region.

The recipient receives $5,000 for a project proposal. He married Barbara Flexman in 1966 and had two boys and Gordon. Gordon is a member of Drawnonward. Christopher is a business teacher at Richmond Hill High School in Richmond Hill, Ontario Robert G. Kemp Family Tree

Félix Thomas was a French architect and painter born in Nantes, France in 1815. After graduating from high school Clemenceau, he studied architecture and drafting at the Polytechnique before being admitted to the Beaux-Arts where he studied art under Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, his skills as a draftsman led him to work as project architect on several major archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Assyria during the early 1850s. Archaeological work provided opportunities for Thomas to demonstrate his skills as an illustrator and interpreter of historic architectural buildings and he co-authored an important early book on the archaeology of Nineveh in Assyria, he turned to full-time painting in his life and is noted for works within the Orientalist genre. Thomas trained as an architect or draftsman at l'Ecole Polytechnique, he subsequently studied art at Beaux-Arts where he was a pupil of Louis-Hippolyte Lebas who specialised in the history of architecture. In 1845, Thomas won the first Prix de Rome for a project in Architecture Cathedral.

In 1849 he submitted 14 drawings of Neptune's Temple at Paestum which were well received. In 1850, he travelled on his way stopped at Constantinople and Smyrna. In the early 1850s, Thomas joined several archaeological expeditions in Mesopotamia and Assyria in his capacity as an architect; the first of these expeditions was led by Fulgence Fresnel and Julius Oppert, commencing in 1851. Thomas was expected to describe the monuments and buildings that were discovered as well as to carry out quantity surveys, draw plans, prepare sketches and assist with documentation and drawings, he was required to make casts and stampings of inscriptions, using the new and still secret procedure developed by Lattin de Laval. Due to ill-health, Thomas left Fresnel's Mesopotamian mission prematurely. In spite of that, he still managed to contribute twelve maps to the book of the expedition, Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854 by Julius Oppert. After recovering from his illness, Thomas rejoined the archaeological team for the Assyrian excavation in 1852.

The excavations started by Paul-Emile Botta in 1843, were languishing, the French government was determined to mount a large-scale operation in Assyria to showcase its dominance in the region. Victor Place, the new French Consul in Mosul hired Thomas to join the expedition as the project designer; the mission which involved the excavation of the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II in Khorsabad, would become the first systematic excavation of the site. Thomas made substantial contributions to the success of the excavation through his acute observations, the boldness of his reconstructions and the quality of his drawings which contributed to a rich understanding of the architecture of the Palace. Many of the Assyrian antiquities were lost when the expedition's boat sank at Qnra, on the Tigris, following an attack by local rebels in May, 1855. However, who had left earlier, retained his sketches and drawings which subsequently served to illustrate a pioneering text on Assyria and the Palace of King Sargon II entitled Ninevah and Assyria, jointly authored by Victor Place and Felix Thomas in around 1867.

In this way, Thomas became a major collaborator and co-author of an important archaeological treatise. On his return to France, Thomas devoted himself to painting, he joined the studio of Charles Gleyre. His travels in Italy and Turkey and the Middle East inspired his artistic vision and he began painting works in the Orientalist genre, he enjoyed only modest success in his second career as a painter. Towards the end of his life, he divided his time between his studio in Nantes and Pornic on the Atlantic coast; the Baron de Girardot, in a book dedicated to him, said about him, "Modest to a fault and lonely, he painted for him."Thomas died in Nantes in April 1875. Thomas is known for the illustrations provided to several important archaeological texts. In his life, he produced many fine Oriental paintings. One of his works is on display in the Louvre in Paris. Twelve of his illustrations were used in Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854 by Julius Oppert.

Thomas is co-author, illustrator of Nineveh and Assyria, first published in 1867 The Visit of the Pacha of Mosul to the Excavations at Khorsabad c. 1863 Propylées de l'Acropole de'Athènes, 1859 Sentinelle devant les ruines de Ninive, Les Pecheurs, n.d. Jument et Poulain au Bord, n.d. Jeune Femme en Lisière de Forêt, sous les Arbres, n.d. La Sentinelle devant les Ruines de Ninive, n.d. List of Orientalist artists Orientalism Orientalism in early modern France Oriental studies Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria, v. 1, 1884, Project Gutenberg edition, 2009, Online: François Pouillon, Dictionnaire des Orientalistes de Langue Française, KARTHALA, 2008 World Category:Thomas Felix http://worldcat.org/identities/viaf-47617178/

Dominator, released in 1988, is the second full-length studio album by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. This science fiction concept album debuts singer Russ North and guitarist Andy Wood in the band, as well as drummer Jon Brown; this album shows Cloven Hoof's musical direction leaning more towards power metal than their previous releases. The songs "The Fugitive" and "Reach for the Sky" were recorded on their 1986 live album Fighting Back, "Road of Eagles" was recorded on their first 1982 demo and recorded live in studio for the BBC Rock Sessions in the mid 1980s; this album was only pressed on cassette tape and vinyl. The album art is lifted from John Blanche's "Amazonia Gothique". In 2011 the album has been digitally reissued by Metal Nations; the CD could be pre-ordered online on the band's site. All songs written by Lee Payne. Side Alpha"Rising Up" - 4:48 "Nova Battlestar" - 5:41 "Reach for the Sky" - 5:31 "Warrior of the Wasteland" - 5:15Side Beta"The Invaders" - 5:25 "The Fugitive" - 4:20 "Dominator" - 4:42 "Road of Eagles" - 6:08 Cloven HoofRuss North - vocals Andy Wood - guitar Lee Payne - bass Jon Brown - drumsProductionGuy Bidmead - producer Alan McKerchar - engineer

Shirin Fozdar was a women's rights activist. Born in India, she worked on women's rights and welfare issues in her native country in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950 she and her husband moved to Singapore to help spread the Baháʼí Faith. In Singapore, she became a champion against marriage polygamy. Following the death of her husband in 1958 and the passage of the Women's Charter in 1961, she moved to Thailand for 14 years, during which time she established a school for girls at risk of being forced into prostitution. Shirin Fozdar was born in Mumbai, India in 1905, her parents, Mehraban Khodabux Behjat and Dowlat, were Persian practitioners of the Baháʼí Faith. One of the teachings of the Baháʼí religion is that men and women are equal, at the age of 17, she gave a presentation on universal education at the Baha'is of India National Convention in Karachi. By the 1930s she was involved in the All Asian Women's Conference, which sent her to give a presentation on equality at a League of Nations conference in Geneva in 1934.

She continued to give public speeches, in 1941 gave a speech on peace in Ahmedabad at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1950, Fozdar moved to Singapore with her husband, medical doctor Khodadad Fozdar, seeking to spread the Baháʼí teachings. In 1952, she co-founded the Singapore Council of Women along with other activists representing existing women's organizations. Fozdar was one of the leaders in pushing for the meeting that led to the establishment of the SCW, in that initial meeting helped shape the group's vision and agenda, she was elected to serve as the group's honorary general secretary, sending its early communications to the media and politicians. The group was the first women's political action organization, with over 2,000 members, was the largest such group for five decades. One of the issues that attracted Fozdar's immediate attention was marriage inequality. In an interview, Fozdar explained that "When I first came here, the rates of polygamy and easy divorce were alarming. Marriage laws were lax.

Women suffered all kinds of atrocities because men held the belief that women were the weaker sex." Fozdar and the SWC campaigned intensely for a solution, in 1955 a Syariah Court was set up to address the issue. The court had jurisdiction over marriage and divorce, could order husbands to pay alimony, before polygamy was outlawed, could force a husband to secure his first wife's consent before marrying a second wife; the book Our Lives to Live: Putting a Woman's Face to Change in Singapore credits Fozdar, Che Zahara binte Noor Mohamed, Khatijun Nissa Siraj as the main forces behind the court's formation. During the 1950s, the Fozdar and the Singapore Council of Women had an inconsistent working relationship with the People's Action Party, founded in 1954 on the platform of Singaporean independence from Britain; the SWC hoped to get the PAP to make women's equality issues the abolition of polygamy, a core part of their agenda. The PAP was at times receptive, in 1956 gave Fozdar an opportunity to speak on the issue of polygamy at a Women's Day rally organized by the party.

However, by 1957 the SWC was so frustrated with the PAP's inaction on women's equality issues that it urged SWC members to run as independent candidates, rather than as PAP candidates, in that year's City Council elections. The PAP was the only party to put women's rights and anti-polygamy language in their charter, doing so in their 1959 election manifesto; the PAP swept that year's elections, in significant part because due to support from women voters. Fozdar moved urging the party to pass a women's rights bill first proposed in 1954; the legislature took the issue up in 1960, using the 1954 proposal as a framework, in 1961 the Women's Charter became law. The bill outlawed polygamy, provided women with legal recourse against husbands that conducted adultery or bigamy, contained a number of other provisions that protected women and girls. According to the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame, which inducted Fozdar in 2014, her activism was instrumental in the Charter's passage. Fozdar's husband died in 1958, in 1961 Fozdar moved to rural Thailand where she set up a school for girls, with the aim of empowering women against being forced into prostitution.

She spent 14 years in the country before returning to Singapore. She traveled internationally, continuing to give speeches on women's rights issues as well as on the Baháʼí Faith. Shirin Fozdar died of cancer on 2 February 1992, she had two daughters. Singapore & I. R. O. – S. F. & J. K. F. 1950–2005, a collection of documents about Shirin Fozdar

Richard V. Culter was an American artist who gained fame as an illustrator known for his detailed drawings of people. Richard Culter was born in Peoria, Illinois on September 10, 1883; as a young man, Culter moved to New York City, where at age 15 he began his studies at the Art Students League, learning from artists such as George Bridgman, William Merritt Chase, Frank DuMond, others. Culter became an expert at drawing the human figure, he continued his studies under French masters in Paris. At age 19 he opened his own studio and made a name for himself, drawing illustrations for the most popular magazines of that time, including Life magazine, Collier's Weekly, Cosmopolitan magazine, Harper's Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post, many others. In addition to drawing the artwork to accompany stories in the magazines, Culter's paintings were featured on the cover of several issues of Life magazine. Moving from New York to Chicago, Culter joined the Charles Daniel Frey Company studio where, during the 1920s, he worked as lead illustrator on numerous advertising campaigns for such known brands as Paramount Pictures, Philip Morris, Texaco, Prince Albert, Hamilton Watch Company, many others.

During World War I, Culter served the United States' war effort by drawing patriotic illustrations for the Morale Branch, war bonds and coal conservation. In the latter stages of his life, Culter devoted most of his time to magazine illustrations and was sought after due to his whimsical depiction of people. Culter illustrated stories written by famous authors such as Booth Tarkington. Although devoting most of his time to magazine illustration, Culter worked on Hollywood movies, collaborating with director Josef von Sternberg among others. Culter is credited with coining the phrase the Gay Nineties from a hugely popular series of drawings of scenes and people in 1890s America which he published in Life magazine beginning in 1925 and continuing for several years. Culter published a collection of these drawings in a 1927 book entitled The Gay Nineties, An Album of Reminiscent Drawings; the foreword to the book was written by Charles Dana Gibson and owner of Life magazine and a graphic artist with a style quite similar to Culter's, like Culter, studied at Art Students League in Manhattan, New York.

Beginning in his mid-30s, Culter suffered from tuberculosis and was in precarious health, and, on the advice of his physicians, began wintering in Florida. On January 28, 1929, Culter died at age 45 in Miami, Florida as a result of complications from a serious abdominal operation the previous summer