Eric of Pomerania was the ruler of the Kalmar Union from 1396 until 1439, succeeding his grandaunt, Queen Margaret I. He is numbered Eric III as King of Norway, Eric VII as King of Denmark and Eric XIII as King of Sweden. In all three countries he became more known as Erik av Pommern, a pejorative intended to point out that he belonged elsewhere. Eric was deposed from all three kingdoms of the union, but in 1449 he inherited one of the partitions of the Duchy of Pomerania and ruled it as duke until his death. Eric was born in 1382 in Rügenwalde. Born Boguslaw, Eric was the son of Wartislaw VII, Duke of Pomerania, Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Margaret I, who ruled the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, wanted her realm to be unified and peaceful and made provisions in the event of her death, she chose as the grandson of her sister Ingeborg. In 1389 Boguslaw was brought to Denmark to be raised by Queen Margaret, his name was changed to the more Nordic-sounding Erik. On 8 September 1389, he was hailed as King of Norway at the Ting in Trondheim.

He may have been crowned King of Norway in Oslo in 1392. In 1396 he was proclaimed as king in Denmark and in Sweden. On 17 June 1397, he was crowned a king of the three Nordic countries in the cathedral of Kalmar. At the same time, a union treaty was drafted, declaring the establishment of what has become known as the Kalmar Union. Queen Margaret, remained the de facto ruler of the three kingdoms until her death in 1412. In 1402, Queen Margaret entered into negotiations with King Henry IV of England about the possibility of an alliance between the Kingdom of England and the Nordic union; the proposal was for a double wedding, King Eric would marry King Henry's daughter, Philippa of England, King Henry's son, the Prince of Wales and the future King Henry V, would marry King Eric's sister, Catherine of Pomerania. The double wedding did not come off, but King Eric's wedding to Philippa of England was negotiated. On 26 October 1406, he married the 12-year-old Philippa in Lund; the wedding was accompanied by a purely defensive alliance with England.

After Philippa's death in 1430, King Eric replaced her with her former lady-in-waiting, who became his royal mistress and his morganatic spouse. The relationship was a public scandal and is mentioned in the royal council's official complaints about the King. During the early period of his reign, King Eric made Copenhagen a royal possession in 1417, thereby assuring its status as the capital of Denmark, he usurped the rights of Copenhagen Castle from the Bishop of Roskilde, from on, the castle was occupied by him. From contemporary sources, King Eric appears as intelligent, energetic, a firm character; that he was a charming and well-spoken man of the world was shown by his great European tour of the 1420s. Negatively, he seems to have had a hot temper, a lack of diplomatic sense, an obstinacy that bordered on mulishness. King Eric was described by the future Pope Pius II as having "a beautiful body, reddish yellow hair, a ruddy face, a long narrow neck … alone, without assistance, without touching the stirrups, he jumped upon a horse, all women were drawn to him the Empress, in a feeling of longing for love".

From 1423 until May 1425, King Eric went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After arriving there, he was dubbed Knight of the Holy Sepulchre by the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, subsequently himself dubbed his pilgrim fellows, among them, Ivan Anz Frankopian. During his absence, Queen Philippa served as regent of the three kingdoms from Copenhagen; the whole of King Eric's sole rule was affected by his long-standing conflict with the Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein. He tried to regain South Jutland which Queen Margaret had been winning, but he chose a policy of warfare instead of negotiations; the result was a devastating war that not only ended without conquests, but led to the loss of the South Jutlandic areas that he had obtained. During this war, he showed much energy and steadiness, but a remarkable lack of adroitness. In 1424, a verdict of the Holy Roman Empire by Sigismund, King of Germany, recognising Eric as the legal ruler of South Jutland, was ignored by the Holsteiners; the long war was a strain on the Danish economy as well as on the unity of the north.

King Eric's most far-ranging act was the introduction of the Sound Dues in 1429, to last until 1857. It consisted of the payment of sound dues by all ships wishing to enter or leave the Baltic Sea passing through the Sound; this resulted in the control of all navigation through the Sound, thus secured a large stable income for his kingdom that made it rich, which made the town of Elsinore flower. It showed his interest in Danish trade and naval power, but permanently challenged the other Baltic powers the Hanseatic cities against which he fought. From 1426 to 1435, he was at war with the German Hanseatic Holstein; the Hanseats and Holsteiners attacked Copenhagen in 1428, King Eric left the city while his wife Queen Philippa managed the defence of the capital. During the 1430s, the policy of the King fell apart. In 1434, the farmers and mine workers of Sweden began a national and social rebellion, soon used by the Swedish nobility in order to weaken the power of the King; the Engelbrekt rebellion (1434–1

Lorraine Joyce Thurlow, née Crapp, is a former Olympic swimming champion representing Australia. In world swimming history, Crapp earned a place as the first woman to break the five-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle. Born in 1938, as a young girl Crapp lived with her parents at Jervis Bay where her father was with a Royal Australian Air Force Air Sea Rescue Unit. By the age of five she was a competent swimmer; when the family moved to Mortlake she joined the Cabarita Swimming Club and by the age of 12 was the winner of all her age events in freestyle and breaststroke. In 1952, Crapp was selected in the New South Wales team for the Australian Championships in Melbourne, where she came second to Olympian Judy Davis in the senior 880 yards, she won the junior 200 yards and she was still only 13 years old. In 1954, Crapp won the 110 yard freestyle and 440 yard freestyle gold medals and a bronze medal in 3×110 yard medley relay at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver at the age of 15.

In 1956 Crapp broke 17 world records and by the end of the year she was the world record holder for 110 yards, 200 m, 400 m and 880 yards. She was the first Australian swimmer, male or female, to hold world records in all freestyle distances at the same time. On 25 August 1956 at the Australian National Training Camp at Tobruk Pool in Townsville, she became the first woman to break the five minute barrier for 400 m freestyle. Although she improved on all times in her career, her four world records in one swim, made headlines around the world, she competed in two Olympic Games -- the 1960 Summer Olympics. She won two Olympic gold medals and one Olympic silver medal in 1956 and one Olympic silver medal in 1960. Crapp's 16-year-old cousin Robert Crapp was one of the 1956 Olympic Torch Bearers selected to relay the Olympic Flame 2750 miles from Cairns to Melbourne with each runner carrying the flame 1 mile. In 1956, Crapp won the Olympic 400 m freestyle title when she beat teammate Dawn Fraser by 7.9 seconds in a time, 17.5 seconds inside the previous Olympic record.

Fraser reversed this result in the 100 m freestyle and the pair combined with Faith Leech and Sandra Morgan to win gold for Australia in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. In 1957, Crapp was awarded the city of Genoa Christopher Columbus Trophy as the outstanding athlete in the world. In 1958, Crapp won a gold medal in the 4×110 yards freestyle relay, a silver medal in the 110 yards freestyle and a bronze in the 440 yards freestyle at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff but she was never again a world record breaker. In 1960, Crapp bowed out of international competition with a silver medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the Rome Olympics. On the eve of her departure for the 1960 Rome Games, Crapp married Dr. Bill Thurlow, a medical officer attached to the Australian team. In 1964, Thurlow won a 100,000 pounds lottery prize, which he planned to use for setting up a health centre for disabled people. During her career Crapp won 9 Australian championship titles. In 1972, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, in 1986 into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

On 8 June 1998, she was named as Member of the Order of Australia for "service to sport swimming at national and international levels, to the community through the promotion of sport and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle."On 8 February 2000, Crapp was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in recognition of her and teammates' efforts in winning the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1956 Olympics. The same year she was one of the eight flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. On 1 January 2001, Crapp was awarded the Centenary Medal for "service to Australian society through the sport of swimming."Lorraine Crapp is one of nine "Legends" of the Path of Champions at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame List of Olympic medalists in swimming World record progression 100 metres freestyle World record progression 200 metres freestyle World record progression 400 metres freestyle World record progression 800 metres freestyle World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay Andrews, Malcolm.

Australia at the Olympic Games. Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books. Pp. 106–107. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8. Howell, Max. Aussie Gold; the Oxford Companion to Australian Sport Second Edition. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 1994. P. 115. ISBN 0195535685. "City of Canada Bay". Lorraine Crapp. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. "Path of Champions Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre". "Medals honour community service Great Lakes Advocate"

C. R. Alsip Guitars, is a small American guitar manufacturing company founded in Arkansas City, KS on Feb. 2012. The company operated in Kansas from 2012-2014; the company is now based in GA area. C. R. Alsip LLC was named after Connie Rae Alsip-Willoughby. C. R. Alsip LLC is owned & operated by Connie's son Jake Willoughby who planned to name the company "Mason Alsip". Jake's grandpa worked as a stonemason until his retirement. Before the company was off the ground Connie passed on & Jake decided to name the company after his late mother to honor her & help spread the word about cancer awareness. Jake & C. R. Alsip Guitars worked hand in hand with Phil Collen in 2012 to raise funds for the Gerson Institute; the company has built instruments for, worked with, acts such as Def Leppard, Firehouse, Love & Theft & Saving Abel. Bill Leverty of Firehouse & Frank Hannon of Tesla were the first guitarists to endorse C. R. Alsip guitars and play them on the road when the company opened its doors in 2012; some of the current artists endorsing C.

R. Alsip guitars includes Bill Leverty, Allen McKenzie, Frank Hannon, Shane Regal, Jeff Caughron, Scott Bartlett & many others. Official website