The French nobility was a privileged social class in France during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period to the revolution in 1790. The nobility was revived in 1805 with limited rights as a titled elite class from the First Empire to the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848, when all privileges were permanently abolished. Hereditary titles, without privileges, continued to be granted until the Second Empire fell in 1870, they survive among their descendants as a social convention and as part of the legal name of the corresponding individuals. In the political system of pre-Revolutionary France, the nobility made up the Second Estate of the Estates General. Although membership in the noble class was inherited, it was not a closed order. New individuals were appointed to the nobility by the monarchy, or they could purchase rights and titles, or join by marriage. Sources differ about the actual number of nobles in France. For the year 1789, French historian François Bluche gives a figure of 140,000 nobles and states that about 5% of nobles could claim descent from feudal nobility before the 15th century.
With a total population of 28 million, this would represent 0.5%. Historian Gordon Wright gives a figure of 300,000 nobles, which agrees with the estimation of historian Jean de Viguerie, or a little over 1%. In terms of land holdings, at the time of the revolution, noble estates comprised about one-fifth of the land; the French nobility had specific financial rights and prerogatives. The first official list of these prerogatives was established late, under Louis XI after 1440, included the right to hunt, to wear a sword and, in principle, to possess a seigneurie. Nobles were granted an exemption from paying the taille, except for non-noble lands they might possess in some regions of France. Furthermore, certain ecclesiastic and military positions were reserved for nobles; these feudal privileges are termed droits de féodalité dominante. With the exception of a few isolated cases, serfdom had ceased to exist in France by the 15th century. In early modern France, nobles maintained a great number of seigneurial privileges over the free peasants that worked lands under their control.
They could, for example, levy an annual tax on lands leased or held by vassals. Nobles could charge banalités for the right to use the lord's mills, ovens, or wine presses. Alternatively, a noble could demand a portion of vassals' harvests in return for permission to farm land he owned. Nobles maintained certain judicial rights over their vassals, although with the rise of the modern state many of these privileges had passed to state control, leaving rural nobility with only local police functions and judicial control over violation of their seigneurial rights. In the 17th century this seigneurial system was established in France's North American possessions. However, the nobles had responsibilities. Nobles were required to honor and counsel their king, they were required to render military service. The rank of "noble" was forfeitable: certain activities could cause dérogeance, within certain limits and exceptions. Most commercial and manual activities, such as tilling land, were prohibited, although nobles could profit from their lands by operating mines and forges.
A nobleman could emancipate a male heir early, take on derogatory activities without losing the family's nobility. If nobility was lost through prohibited activities, it could be recovered as soon as the said activities were stopped, by obtaining letters of "relief". Certain regions such as Brittany applied loosely these rules allowing poor nobles to plough their own land; the nobility in France was never an closed class. Nobility and hereditary titles were distinct: while all hereditary titleholders were noble, most nobles were untitled, although many assumed titres de courtoisie. Nobility could be granted by the king or, until 1578, acquired by a family which had occupied a government or military post of high enough rank for three generations. Once acquired, nobility was hereditary in the legitimate male-line for all male descendants. Wealthy families found ready opportunities to pass into the nobility: although nobility itself could not be purchased, lands to which noble rights and/or title were attached could be and were bought by commoners who adopted use of the property's name or title and were henceforth assumed to be noble if they could find a way to be exempted from paying the taille to which only commoners were subject.
Moreover, non-nobles who owned noble fiefs were obliged to pay a special tax on the property to the noble liege-lord. Properly, only those who were noble could assume a hereditary title attached to a noble fief, thereby acquiring a title recognised but not conferred by the French crown; the children of a French nobleman, unlike those of a British peer, were not considered commoners but untitled nobles. Inheritance was recognized only in the male line, with a few exceptions in the independent provinces of Champagne and Brittany; the king could grant nobility to individuals, convert land into noble fiefs or, elevate noble fiefs into titled estates. The king could confer special privil
U. S. Highway 151 is a United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of Iowa and Wisconsin; the southern terminus for US 151 is at a junction with Interstate 80 in Iowa County and its northern terminus is at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The route, from south to north follows a northeasterly path through the two states.. Seven miles south of Dubuque, Iowa, US 151 joins with US 61; the two highways share a route from there to Wisconsin. Three miles south of Dubuque, US 61/US 151 joins with US 52 and shares a route with US 52 until the White Street exit in Dubuque. In Wisconsin, US 61/US 151 joins with Wisconsin Highway 35 about one mile north of the Iowa–Wisconsin border. At Dickeyville, US 151 heads northeast to Platteville. US 61/WIS 35 continues north. US 151 joins with US 18 near Dodgeville; the two highways share a route all the way to Madison. US 151 starts at an intersection with I-80 in an isolated part of Iowa near both Williamsburg and Conroy, it continues through the area around the Amana Colonies, where it has a brief overlap with US 6.
Once meeting up with US 30 and US 218, the route cuts around the city of Cedar Rapids, while Business US 151 goes through the city. The route continues toward Dubuque as an expressway; this 65-mile stretch crosses many major rivers including both the Maquoketa. The road goes into the Driftless Area where it meets up with US 61 around the Dubuque Regional Airport; the combined road heads into the state of Wisconsin. US 61/US 151 crosses the Mississippi River into Wisconsin via the Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge from Dubuque and passes through a cut in the river ridge before turning northward to the western terminus of WIS 11 after one mile of due east travel. WIS 35 and the Great River Road join the route at that interchange; the highway at this point is limited access highway with two lanes in each direction. The northward trek of the route passes through mixed residential and farmland as it crosses Badger Road and merges with Eagle Point Road. Eagle Point road merges with US 151 from the left side of the road.
The limited access portion ends at this interchange. Another pair of half diamond interchanges connect the highway with County Trunk Highway HHH and CTH-H as it bypasses Kieler to the northwest. At Dickeyville, US 61, WIS 35 and the Great River Road route exit north off of US 151 into town. US 151 passes Dickeyville to the east and descends into a valley cut northeast of the village, paralleling the Little Platte River and Blockhouse Creek within the valley for a one-mile stretch before climbing back onto the ridge top on the other side of the valley. US 151 approaches Platteville and enters a section of limited access at CTH-D; the limited access stretch ends after three interchanges six miles to the east. The last of the interchanges is WIS 126/CTH-G with access to Belmont; the route turns northeastward from this point, crosses the Cottage Inn Branch and begins the first of several descents into valleys, two of which are prior to passing Mineral Point and another two while passing the city.
The highway is limited access between the two interchanges that provide access to Mineral Point: CTH-O and WIS 23. WIS 23 joins US 151 heading northbound at that point until the first interchange at Dodgeville; this interchange begins another short stretch of freeway to the point. US 18/US 151 heads eastbound past that interchange; the section of expressway past Dodgeville passes through rolling hills populated with farmland mixed with small woodlands. The highway passes Barneveld. Access to Ridgeway is by an interchange and a surface intersection with a short business route on CTH-HHH; the interchange was an intersection. The new interchange on the western end of town opened in late 2018. Access to Barneveld is at an interchange with CTH-ID and an at-grade intersection with CTH-K. CTH-ID parallels US 18/US 151 for the entire stretch between Mount Horeb. A section of freeway begins at WIS 78 and ends at the other end of CTH-ID as the highway bypasses Mount Horeb just to the south of the city's passing residential subdivisions.
A mix of grade separation and level intersections cross the winding highway as it continues eastward until the interchange with CTH-MV begins a section of freeway that bypasses Verona to the south. This section provides access to four interchanges including the two endpoints of CTH-MV; the freeway continues into Fitchburg and provides access to two interchanges at CTH-PD and Williamsburg Way. The freeway ends; the road continues as an urban multilane highway known as Verona Road. Verona Road passes through a commercial area on the Southwest Side of Madison. US 18 and US 151 merge east on the West Beltline Highway—joining US 12 and US 14; the four US Highways run concurrently for about three miles to Park Street. At this interchange, US 14 turns south off the beltline towards Oregon, US 151 turns north and into central Madison. US 151 turns northeast onto West Washington Avenue for about 1,500 feet follows Proudfit Street and North Shore Drive—paralleling the Monona Bay shore—and turns north onto John Nolen Drive.
The street passes under the Monona Terrace Convention Center as it passes to the south and east of downtown Madison. US 151 turns northwest onto
The SpaceX Dragon is a reusable cargo spacecraft developed by SpaceX, an American private space transportation company. Dragon is launched into orbit by the company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle. During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered from orbit. On 25 May 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with and attach to the International Space Station. SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012. With the Dragon spacecraft and the Orbital ATK Cygnus, NASA seeks to increase its partnerships with domestic commercial aviation and aeronautics industry. On 3 June 2017, the CRS-11 capsule assembled from flown components from the CRS-4 mission in September 2014, was launched again for the first time, with the hull, structural elements, harnesses, propellant tanks and many of the avionics reused while the heat shield and components exposed to sea water upon splashdown for recovery were replaced.
SpaceX has developed a second version called Dragon 2, which includes the capability to transport people. Flight testing was scheduled to complete in the first half of 2019 with the first flight of astronauts, on a mission contracted to NASA, scheduled to occur the same year. SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk, named the spacecraft after the 1963 song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" by Peter and Mary as a response to critics who considered his spaceflight projects impossible. SpaceX began developing the Dragon spacecraft in late 2004, making a public announcement in 2006 with a plan of entering service in 2009. In 2006, SpaceX won a contract to use the Dragon spacecraft for commercial resupply services to the International Space Station for the American federal space agency, NASA. In 2005, NASA solicited proposals for a commercial ISS resupply cargo vehicle to replace the then-soon-to-be-retired Space Shuttle, through its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services development program; the Dragon spacecraft was a part of SpaceX's proposal, submitted to NASA in March 2006.
SpaceX's COTS proposal was issued as part of a team, which included MD Robotics, the Canadian company that had built the ISS's Canadarm2. On 18 August 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had been chosen, along with Kistler Aerospace, to develop cargo launch services for the ISS; the initial plan called for three demonstration flights of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to be conducted between 2008 and 2010. SpaceX and Kistler were to receive up to $278 million and $207 million if they met all NASA milestones, but Kistler failed to meet its obligations, its contract was terminated in 2007. NASA re-awarded Kistler's contract to Orbital Sciences. On 23 December 2008, NASA awarded a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract to SpaceX, with contract options that could increase the maximum contract value to $3.1 billion. The contract called for 12 flights, with an overall minimum of 20,000 kg of cargo to be carried to the ISS. On 23 February 2009, SpaceX announced that its chosen phenolic-impregnated carbon ablator heat shield material, PICA-X, had passed heat stress tests in preparation for Dragon's maiden launch.
The primary proximity-operations sensor for the Dragon spacecraft, the DragonEye, was tested in early 2009 during the STS-127 mission, when it was mounted near the docking port of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and used while the Shuttle approached the International Space Station. The DragonEye's lidar and thermography abilities were both tested successfully; the COTS UHF Communication Unit and Crew Command Panel were delivered to the ISS during the late 2009 STS-129 mission. The CUCU allows the ISS to communicate with Dragon and the CCP allows ISS crew members to issue basic commands to Dragon. In summer 2009, SpaceX hired former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox as vice president of their new Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department, in preparation for crews using the spacecraft; as a condition of the NASA CRS contract, SpaceX analyzed the orbital radiation environment on all Dragon systems, how the spacecraft would respond to spurious radiation events. That analysis and the Dragon design – which uses an overall fault-tolerant triple-redundant computer architecture, rather than individual radiation hardening of each computer processor – was reviewed by independent experts before being approved by NASA for the cargo flights.
During March 2015, it was announced that SpaceX had been awarded an additional three missions under Commercial Resupply Services Phase 1. These additional missions are SpaceX CRS-13, SpaceX CRS-14 and SpaceX CRS-15 and would cover the cargo needs of 2017. On 24 February 2016, SpaceNews disclosed that SpaceX had been awarded a further five missions under Commercial Resupply Services Phase 1; this additional tranche of missions had SpaceX CRS-16 and SpaceX CRS-17 manifested for FY2017 while SpaceX CRS-18, SpaceX CRS-19 and SpaceX CRS-20 and were notionally manifested for FY2018. The Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract definition/solicitation period commenced in 2014 and a result announced on 14 January 2016; the CRS-2 launches are expected to commence in 2019, extend to at least 2024. On 14 January 2016, NASA announced that three companies had been awarded contracts for a minimum of six launches each. SpaceX, Orbital ATK and Sierra Nevada Corporation won contracts; the maximum potential value of all the contracts was indicated to be $14Bn but the minimum requir
Natalia Kocherova is a Ukrainian-born Russian Paralympic wheelchair racer and cross-country skier from Omsk. Kocherova was born in Yegorovka, Ukraine in 1990. An accident resulted in her right leg being amputated above the knee. Kocherova first major international event as a Nordic skier was at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi. There she competed in two events, the 12 km Free where she finished ninth, the 1 km Sprint, which after taking the twelfth and final spot during qualification, she qualified for the final, finishing in fifth position; the following year she qualified for the 2015 IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championships in Cable, Wisconsin. Kocherova entered three events in the biathlon, she followed this with four events in the cross-country, was part of the gold medal winning Russian team in the 4 x 2.5 km mixed relay. 2015 saw. She entered seven events, including all distances in the T54: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, her best result was fourth in the 800m.
The next year she entered the 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships, became the tournaments most successful athlete after winning five gold and a single silver medal. At Grosseto she set championship records in the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m races
The Wentworth by the Sea is a historic grand resort hotel in New Castle, New Hampshire, United States. It is managed by Ocean Properties as "Wentworth by the Sea, A Marriott Hotel & Spa", it is one of a handful of the state's surviving Gilded Age grand hotels, the last located on the seacoast. Wentworth by the Sea is a member of Historic Hotel of America the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the Wentworth was built in 1874 by Daniel Chase, a distiller from Somerville and for the first two years was named Wentworth Hall. It was expanded in the Second Empire style. With Jones's death, the hotel was sold in 1902. In 1905, the hotel housed the Russian and Japanese delegations who concluded the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War. U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt suggested the peace talks, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions. Both delegations were welcomed at no charge, with Frank Jones' executor Judge Calvin Page providing hospitality as Jones' will stipulated he should.
The final document was signed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where formal negotiations took place, but the final language of the treaty was drafted, the armistice ending the fighting, was signed at The Wentworth. In addition, the Japanese hosted an "International Love Fest" at the hotel on the signing. After a number of owners, Harry Beckwith ran it for 25 years. In 1946, it was acquired by Margaret and James Barker Smith for $200,000. On July 4, 1964, Emerson and Jane Reed became the first African-Americans to overcome the hotel's segregation policy, dining at its restaurant. With declining fortunes and changing owners, the hotel closed in 1982. A local group, Friends of the Wentworth and tried to preserve the hotel; when they were unable to locate sufficient support, Alan Green, president of the Green Corporation, announced its planned demolition in 1995. Attention was drawn to the plight of the Victorian hotel when it appeared on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Places, the History Channel's America's Most Endangered the following year.
This postponed the demolition sufficiently to identify a buyer, Ocean Properties, a Portsmouth-based hotel management company, acquired the property in 1997. The hotel was subsequently renovated, reopened in 2003, is operated by Ocean Properties as a Marriott resort; the Wentworth by the Sea is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Hotels of America. The now-independent Wentworth by the Sea Country Club is home to the golf course, designed by George Wright in 1897, enlarged by Donald Ross in 1921, further expanded to 18 holes by Geoffrey Cornish in 1964; the Wentworth Marina is independently operated and welcomes Wentworth hotel guests. While the hotel was vacant and forlorn, it was used as a haunted setting for the 1999 film, In Dreams, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Annette Bening. Dennis Robinson, Wentworth by the Sea; the Life and Times of a Grand Hotel. Publisher: Peter E. Randall, ISBN 1-931807-21-3, ISBN 978-1-931807-21-0. Sue Chapman Melanson: Wentworth-By-the-Sea, 1969: A Novel.
Publisher: Xlibris, ISBN 978-0-7388-4415-2. Official website Wentworth by the Sea Country Club Friends of the Wentworth, Inc. Wentworth by the Sea Stories, accessed 09-04-2008 Portsmouth Peace Treaty: 1905-2005
Harry Rutledge Elliott Hampton was a South Carolina journalist and conservationist, instrumental in the establishment of Congaree National Park. Hampton was born at the Hampton family home, near Columbia, South Carolina, on July 8, 1897, he was the second son of Frank Hampton Jr. and Gertrude Gonzalez Hampton, he was a grand-nephew of Confederate General Wade Hampton III. He attended Columbia High School, Randolph-Macon Academy and the University of South Carolina, graduating in 1919, he continued post-graduate study in English at USC in 1920–21. Hampton became a reporter at The State in Columbia; the State was founded by his maternal uncles Narciso Gener, Ambrose E. and William E. Gonzales. Hampton served in a number of capacities becoming co-editor. An avid hunter, Hampton was interested in conservation issues. Between 1930 and 1964 Hampton wrote his Woods and Water column, emphasizing outdoors and conservation topics, as well as a Sunday column titled The State's Survey. In 1931 he organized a fish and game association that evolved into the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, of which Hampton was president.
Hampton and the SCWF supported the legislation that established South Carolina's state wildlife resource agencies in 1952. Hampton's work was described as "the first major effort in South Carolina to bring collective action to the ideal of conservation."Beginning in the 1950s Hampton promoted the preservation of the Beidler Tract, an area of floodplain forest on the Congaree River that contained some of the tallest trees in the eastern United States. In 1976 the tract was designated Congaree Swamp National Monument by Congress, it became Congaree National Park in 2003. The park's Harry Hampton Visitor Center was named in Hampton's honor. Hampton died on November 16, 1980, he is buried at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia. The Harry Hampton Memorial Wildlife Fund was established to memorialize Hampton and to endow scholarships in Hampton's name, as well as funding and organizing conservation projects in South Carolina