Mentha aquatica is a perennial flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It is native to much of Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. Water mint is a herbaceous rhizomatous perennial plant growing to 90 centimetres tall; the stems are square in cross section, green or purple, variably hairy to hairless. The rhizomes are wide-spreading and bear fibrous roots; the leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 6 centimetres long and 1 to 4 centimetres broad, opposite and vary from hairy to nearly hairless. The flowers of the watermint are tiny, densely crowded, tubular, pinkish to lilac in colour and form a terminal hemispherical inflorescence. Water mint is visited by many types of insects, can be characterized by a generalized pollination syndrome, but can spread by underground rhizomes. All parts of the plant have a distinctly minty smell. Unbranched, hairless plants, with narrower leaves and paler flowers, native to areas of Sweden and Finland near the Baltic Sea, have been called Mentha aquatica var. litoralis.

Mentha aquatica is a polyploid. Mentha aquatica was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753; as with other Mentha species, it was subsequently re-described under a variety of different names. The cultivated eau de Cologne mint is considered to be a variety of this species, it hybridises with Mentha spicata to produce a sterile hybrid. Water mint is native to much of western Asia, it has been introduced to North and South America and some Atlantic islands. As the name suggests, water mint occurs in the shallow margins and channels of streams, pools, ditches, wet meadows and fens. If the plant grows in the water itself, it rises above the surface of the water, it occurs on mildly acidic to calcareous mineral or peaty soils. M. aquatica can occur in certain fen-meadow habitats such as the Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre plant association. It is a component of Purple moor grass and rush pastures - a type of Biodiversity ActPlan habitat in the UK, it can be used to make a herbal tea. The cultivated variety known as eau de Cologne mint or bergamot mint, is used to produce mentha citrata oil known as bergamot oil, used in perfumery.

Peppermint Spearmint

There was a conflict between two powerful sides of the Serbian nobility, one supporting magnate Nikola Altomanović, one supporting the Mrnjavčević family in Macedonia. In 1369, a battle was fought between the two sides at the Kosovo field, ending in the victory of King Vukašin. Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan was succeeded by his son Stefan Uroš V whose reign was characterized by decline of central power and rise of numerous independent principalities. Stefan Uroš V was not able to sustain the great empire created by his father, or limit the independence of the powerful nobles. Vukašin Mrnjavčević was the most powerful noble in ruling northern Macedonia. Although he was given the title of Despot by Emperor Uroš in 1355, his steady power increase enabled him to crown himself King of Serbs and Greeks in 1365, extend his claims over west and south Macedonia, Raška. Since the Mrnjavčević family desired to succeed the Nemanjić dynasty as the new rulers of Serbia, Emperor Uroš started supporting a coalition of Serbian nobility loyal to him.

One of them was Lazar Hrebeljanović, married to Princess Milica from the Nemanjić family. Lazar and the Emperor managed to persuade the young but able Nikola Altomanović to join their coalition. But, since Nikola was at war with Bosnia, he was only able to bring a small part of his army, because he had to keep most of his army on his lands, to protect them from the possible Bosnian attack. Vukašin on the other hand, had the largest and the most powerful army in the Empire -, fully professional; the armies met in Kosovo. During the battle, the much larger New Nobility army defeated the Old Nobility, managed to capture the Emperor. After seeing that the battle could not be won, Lazar Hrebeljanović retreated from the battlefield with his heavy cavalry. Nikola Altomanovic fought till the end and was carried off the field wounded by his men. At that time it was speculated that he did not survive the battle; the Mrnjavčević family did not manage to make the most of the battle because of the threat more serious than the local Serbian rulers - the Ottoman Turks.

On September 26, 1371, Vukašin ordered a forced march to Adrianople, but his army was ambushed while camped in the Battle of Maritsa, suffering a heavy defeat that sealed the fate of Serbian Empire, the chance of a serious counter offensive against the Turks. Both King Vukašin and Jovan Uglješa lost their lives in that battle. Two months on 4 December 1371, Uroš, the last Serbian Emperor died at the age of 35; the battle was the place where the hatred between Nikola Altomanovic and Lazar Hrebeljanovic was born. Nikola felt that Lazar had betrayed him, in the future he would try to kill him face to face; that would trigger a coalition of Nikola's enemies: Lazar Hrebeljanovic, Tvrtko I of Bosnia, Đurađ I Balšić, Nicholas Garay and the Hungarian King Louis I of Hungary, after which Altoman was blinded and deposed of his holdings. Ćirković, Sima. The Serbs. Malden: Blackwell Publishing

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations - the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of the University of Tokyo, International Latitude Observatory of Mizusawa, a part of Research Institute of Atmospherics of Nagoya University. In the 2004 reform of national research organizations, NAOJ became a division of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences. Mitaka Campus The Headquarters, Astronomy Data Center, Advanced Technology Center, Public Relations Center Solar Flare Telescope, Sunspot Telescope, TAMA 300 gravitational wave detector Tokyo Photoelectric Meridian Circle Historical instruments: Solar Tower Telescope, 65cm refractor dome, 20cm refractor domeNobeyama Radio Observatory & Nobeyama Solar Radio Observatory 45m Millimeter Radio Telescope, Nobeyama Millimeter Array, Nobeyama Radio HeliographMizusawa VERA Observatory 20m radio telescope, 10m VLBI radio telescope Historical building: Dr. Kimura MuseumOkayama Astrophysical Observatory 188cm telescope, 91cm telescope, 65cm Coude-Type solar telescopeVERA 20m radio telescopes Mizusawa Ogasawara.

27°05′30″N 142°13′00″E Iriki. 31°44′52″N 130°26′24″E Ishigakijima. 24°24′43.83″N 124°10′15.58″EHawaii Observatory Subaru 8m telescope Hilo Base Facility Norikura Solar Observatory under NAOJ, was decommissioned in 2010 and its building is reused for researches including non-astronomical area under administration of National Institute of Natural Sciences. In 2004, NAOJ, in alliance with four other national institutes – the National Institute for Basic Biology, the National Institute for Fusion Science, the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, the Institute for Molecular Science – established the National Institutes of Natural Sciences to promote collaboration among researchers of the five constituent institutes. ALMA, ASTE SELENE VSOP, VSOP-2 Hinode SPICA JASMINE Hubble Origins Probe List of astronomical observatories National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan Mitaka Campus Official website

SS Robert Y. Hayne was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II, she was named after Robert Y. Hayne, an American lawyer and politician, he served in the United States Senate from 1823 to 1832, as Governor of South Carolina 1832–1834, as Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina 1836–1837. Robert Y. Hayne was laid down on 2 November 1942, under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 1198, by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, Florida. Merrill, Jr. the wife of a Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co. official, she was launched on 30 May 1943. She was allocated to Agwilines Inc. on 20 July 1943. On 30 May 1946, she was placed in Jones Point, New York, she was sold for commercial use, on 19 May 1947, to Italy, renamed Citta Di Savona. She was withdrawn from the fleet, 6 June 1947

Henry Thomas Givens was an Irish-born Australian politician. Born in County Tipperary, he received a primary education before migrating to Australia in 1882, he became a bush worker and miner in Queensland, was secretary of the Queensland Miners' Union, as well as proprietor of the Cairns Daily Times. In 1899, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as the Labor member for Cairns, a position he held until 1902. In 1903, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Queensland Labor Senator. On 9 July 1913, he was elected President of the Senate, he left the Labor Party in the wake of the 1916 split over conscription and joined the new Nationalist Party, keeping his position as President of the Senate. On 30 June 1926, he was succeeded as President by John Newlands, his 13 years as President make him the second longest serving President after Alister McMullin. Givens died in 1928, he was accorded a State funeral and buried in Box Hill Cemetery

TIGR, an abbreviation for Trst, Istra and Reka, full name Revolutionary Organization of the Julian March T. I. G. R. was a militant anti-fascist and insurgent organization established as a response to the Fascist Italianization of the Slovene and Croat people on part of the former Austro-Hungarian territories that became part of Italy after the First World War, were known at the time as the Julian March. It is considered one of the first anti-fascist resistance movements in Europe, it was active between 1927 and 1941. While the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was a multi-national empire, which allowed a large degree of cultural autonomy to the different peoples and ethnic groups, Italy was a nation state, its governments had little intention to allow the existence of separate national movements and identities on its territories. Issues regarding the use of Slovene and Croatian languages in public administration and in the educational system, became the main point of contention between the Italian authorities and the Slovene and Croat minorities.

After the Fascist movement came to power in 1922, anti-Slavic policies were enforced as part of Italianization. In 1923, the use of Slovene and Croat languages in all public offices, including post offices and means of public transport, was prohibited. In the same year, the Gentile reform declared Italian as the only language of public education. In 1925, the use of Slovene and Croat was prohibited in the courts of law. All Slovene and Croat names of towns and settlements were Italianized. By 1927, all public use of Slovene and Croat languages was prohibited. Children were prohibited being given Slavic names, all Slavic-sounding surnames were administratively given an Italian-sounding form; the Fascist Italianization prohibited Slavic inscriptions on gravestones. By 1927, all Slovene and Croat associations - not only political, but cultural and sport associations - were dissolved, as were all financial and economic institutions in the hands of the Slovene and Croat minority. Since 1928, the State law started limiting the use of Slovene and Croat in the churches, in 1934, all use of Slovene and Croat in Roman Catholic liturgy was prohibited.

Under the effect of this policy tens of thousands emigrated abroad to Yugoslavia and South America. Its membership consisted of radical Slovene youth from former Austrian Littoral, a few Croats of Istria, where its support was much weaker. Many members of this organization were connected with Yugoslav and British intelligence services and many of them were militarily trained; the aim of the organization was to fight violent Fascist Italianization and to achieve the annexation of Istria, the Slovenian Littoral and Rijeka to Yugoslavia. The TIGR carried out several bomb attacks on Italian and German soil, as well as assassinations of Italian military personnel, police forces, civil servants and prominent members of the National Fascist Party, it planned a popular uprising against the Fascist regime, however never carried out. Because of these actions, it was treated as a terrorist organization by the Italian state; the organization was dismantled by the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism in 1940 and 1941.

Many of its members joined the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People during World War II. After the war, many former TIGR activists were persecuted by Yugoslav Communist authorities; the first organized anti-Fascist resistance activities in the Julian March began in the mid 1920s in the easternmost districts of the region, on the border with Yugoslavia. Local Slovene activists established contacts with the Yugoslav nationalist organization Orjuna, launching first attacks at Italian military and police personnel; these were however still individual actions, without an organizational background. The connections between the Slovene anti-Fascist activists and the Orjuna were soon broken due to a different ideological agenda. In September 1927, a group of Slovene liberal nationalist activists met on the Nanos Plateau above the Vipava Valley, decided to form an insurgence organization called TIGR, an abbreviation of the names Trieste, Gorizia, Rijeka. Few months another meeting took place in Trieste, where a group connected to the former established the organization Borba, which included some Croat activists from Istria.

From the beginning, the two groups worked in close alliance. The two organization were formed by Slovene progressive nationalist youngsters from Trieste, the Karst Plateau, Inner Carniola, the Tolmin district. Between 1927 and 1930, the organization launched numerous attacks on individual members or supporters of the National Fascist Party, killed several members of repressive forces: carabinieri, border guards, military personnel. In the Gorizia region, the TIGR organization restrained from violent actions, focused on propaganda and on illegal educational and political activity among larger strata of the population; the Gorizia section of the TIGR established close connections with the underground Catholic network organized by Christian Socialist activists, centered around the lawyer Janko Kralj and priest Virgil Šček. In Istria, the TIGR cell was led by a Croat activist from Beram. Differently from most Slovene cells, Gortan opted for open demonstrative actions, such as attacks on police convoys.

In March 1929, during the Fascist plebiscite, when he raided a polling station