Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, it had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station after Mir's orbit decayed; the station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, astronomy and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space. Mir was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days, until it was surpassed by the ISS on 23 October 2010, it holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits.

Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986 and followed by six further modules. Proton rockets were used to launch all of its components except for the docking module, installed by US Space Shuttle mission STS-74 in 1995; when complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules; the station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km and 421 km altitude and travelled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h, completing 15.7 orbits per day. The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union's manned spaceflight programme effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new Russian Federal Space Agency; as a result, most of the station's occupants were Soviet.

Mir was deorbited in March 2001. The cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime. Mir was authorised by a 17 February 1976 decree, to design an improved model of the Salyut DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during Mir's development, it was planned. By August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station, it was planned that the ports would connect to 7.5-tonne modules derived from the Soyuz spacecraft. These modules would have used a Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and Progress, the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module. Following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with Vladimir Chelomei's manned Almaz military space station programme; the docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne space station modules based on the TKS spacecraft.

NPO Energia was responsible for the overall space station, with work subcontracted to KB Salyut, due to ongoing work on the Energia rocket and Salyut 7, Soyuz-T, Progress spacecraft. KB Salyut began work in 1979, drawings were released in 1982 and 1983. New systems incorporated into the station included the Salyut 5B digital flight control computer and gyrodyne flywheels, Kurs automatic rendezvous system, Luch satellite communications system, Elektron oxygen generators, Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubbers. By early 1984, work on Mir had halted while all resources were being put into the Buran programme in order to prepare the Buran spacecraft for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when Valentin Glushko was ordered by the Central Committee's Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit Mir by early 1986, in time for the 27th Communist Party Congress, it was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It was decided on Cosmonaut's Day 1985 to ship the flight model of the base block to the Baikonur cosmodrome and conduct the systems testing and integration there.

The module arrived at the launch site on 6 May, with 1100 of 2500 cables requiring rework based on the results of tests to the ground test model at Khrunichev. In October, the base block was rolled outside its cleanroom to carry out communications tests; the first launch attempt on 16 February 1986 was scrubbed when the spacecraft communications failed, but the second launch attempt, on 19 February 1986 at 21:28:23 UTC, was successful, meeting the political deadline. The orbital assembly of Mir began on 19 February 1986 with the launch of the Proton-K rocket. Four of the six modules which were added followed the same sequence to be ad

Sex Machineguns is a Japanese heavy metal band formed in 1989. Their music is characterized by a heavy focus on bass as well as fast guitar and bass solos; the band uses the image of "shock rockers" by wearing crazy, exotic outfits like visual kei bands, although this image has been toned down since 2003 when the long-term bassist Noisy left the band. The lyrics feature off-beat and non-serious themes. Casting themselves as shock rockers is not the prime selling point of their music though, as they exhibit technical skill on their instruments. Sex Machineguns started in 1989 as an indie group, touring live clubs, their name is intentionally similar to that of the Sex Pistols and, according to the band, "implying that machineguns are more radical than pistols". They gained a large fan base and sold out their shows, they spread their popularity all over Japan. Once they got back home to release their first video and live CD in spring 1997, they had developed such a fan base that the first press of the video sold out to all parts of Japan from Okinawa to Hokkaidō.

In 1998, Sex Machineguns made their commercial debut with the release of their first single on Toshiba-EMI Records: "Hanabi-la Daikaiten". The single sold out and it was decided they would go on a debut tour. Magazines began to run articles, the "Hanabi-la Daikaiten" single sold skyrocketing the band's popularity. In September they released their first album, another huge hit, they went on many tours, all selling out, topped the singles charts. As 1998 came to a close, the Sex Machineguns played 62 concerts; the band's front-man announced that the band would be taking a "activity pause" on March 20, 2006. All members at the time except for Anchang had left the band and formed a new band/side-project called Elleguns which released a 6-track instrumental. In 2004, Clutch J. Himawari and Noisy have formed a 3-man group called Dustar-3 with Yuki. In December 2006, Circuit V. Panther, Samurai W. Kenjilaw, Speed Star Sypan Joe have started a new band known as Cycle. Anchang reformed Sex Machineguns in 2007 with Ryotatsu Kuwae on guitar and Kenichi Imai on drums, they released three digital download-only singles that year.

In 2008 Anchang formed the band Big Bites, with Annie. In 2008, some footage of the band performing was featured in the film Global Metal during a discussion about heavy metal in Japan. On 2012, drummer Ken'ichi withdrew, the band went to an indefinite long time hiatus. In 2013 Anchang and Shingo☆ formed a similar band called The Maintenance☆, with Hirota on drums and second lead guitarist Master, they released their debut album Kōji-chū on February 21, 2013 Anchang – lead vocals, guitar Sussy - Lead Guitar Shingo☆ – bass Asada – vocals Imai – vocals Noisy – vocals.

Jeannette Ridlon Piccard was an American high-altitude balloonist, in life an Episcopal priest. She held the women's altitude record for nearly three decades, according to several contemporaneous accounts was regarded as the first woman in space. Piccard was the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U. S. and the first woman to fly to the stratosphere. Accompanied by her husband, Jean—a member of the Piccard family of balloonists and the twin brother of Auguste Piccard—she reached a height of 10.9 miles during a record-breaking flight over Lake Erie on October 23, 1934, retaining control of the balloon for the entire flight. After her husband's death in 1963, she worked as a consultant to the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center for several years, talking to the public about NASA's work, was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998. From the late 1960s onwards, Piccard returned to her childhood interest in religion, she was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1971, on July 29, 1974, became one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women to be ordained priests—though the ordinations were regarded as irregular, performed by bishops who had retired or resigned.

Piccard was the first of the women to be ordained that day, because at 79 she was the oldest, because she was fulfilling an ambition she had had since she was 11 years old. When asked by Bishop John Allin, the head of the church, not to proceed with the ceremony, she is said to have told him, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies." In September 1976, the church voted to allow women into the priesthood, Piccard served as a priest in Saint Paul, until she died at the age of 86. One of her granddaughters, Kathryn Piccard an Episcopal priest, said of her: "She wanted to expand the idea of what a respectable lady could do, she had the image of the street-wise old lady." Born on January 5, 1895, in Chicago, Piccard was one of nine children born to Emily Caroline and John Frederick Ridlon, president of the American Orthopaedic Association. She had a lifelong interest in religion; when she was 11, her mother asked her. Piccard's reply—"a priest"—sent her mother running out of the room in tears.

Piccard studied philosophy and psychology at Bryn Mawr College, where in 1916 she wrote an essay titled "Should Women Be Admitted to the Priesthood of the Anglican Church?" She received her bachelor's degree in 1918 and went on to study organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, receiving her master's degree in 1919. That same year she met and married Jean Felix Piccard, teaching at the university. Piccard was the mother of a house full of boys. Robert R. Gilruth, one of her students and collaborators, said in his oral history that he remembered a breakfast he had with the Piccards in a St. Cloud, Minnesota hotel before a balloon launching, "I don't know how many there were, it seems like there was a dozen.... I remember the youngest one dumped it on his father's head. Of course, Piccard just brushed it off his head and said,'No, no.'" "He was gentle. He loved his boys, he thought boys would be boys, I guess." The Piccards had three sons of their own, John and Donald, as well as foster children.

The Piccard family archive in the Library of Congress mentions correspondence from foster children whom the Piccards took in, although nothing else seems to be known about them. The Piccards taught at the University of Lausanne from 1919 to 1926. In 1926 they returned to the United States, where Jean Piccard taught organic chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the couple lived in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania before settling in Minneapolis in 1936 when Jean Piccard joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota. She received a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota in 1942, a certificate of study from the General Theological Seminary in 1973. Gilruth made a point of describing Piccard in his oral history, he said, "She was bright, had her own doctor's degree, was at least half of the brains of that family, technical as well as otherwise.... She was always in the room when he was lecturing or otherwise always, she was something. She was good." David DeVorkin, curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, wrote a history of manned scientific ballooning.

In DeVorkin's view, the Piccards' "entrepreneurship and subsequent success" in ballooning was due to "their enormous persistence... and considerable confidence and luck". After Thomas G. W. Settle's record flight in the Piccards' Century of Progress, the balloon was again returned to the Piccards, who decided to fly it to the stratosphere on their own. Jean would concentrate on the science. DeVorkin wrote that, "Energetic and forceful, she seemed to have a better chance of obtaining a pilot's license than Jean, preoccupied with restoring the gondola and balloon and convincing scientists to provide instruments to fly", she studied at Ford Airport in Dearborn, under Edward J. Hill, a balloonist and Gordon Bennett Cup winner, who agreed to serve as flight director for the Piccards' planned stratospheric flight. Henry Ford offered the use of his hangar and brought Orville Wright to observe a flight of Jeannette's in 1933, her son Don was a crew member that day and shook hands with Wright, "I was a little kid and he attention to me."

On June 16, 1934, Jeannette flew her first so

Joe Puma was an American jazz guitarist. Puma was born in the New York, his first professional experience came with Joe Roland in 1949–50. He played in the band led by Cy Coleman, he acted as a session musician for many jazz musicians of the 1950s, including Louie Bellson, Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, Eddie Bert, Herbie Mann, Mat Mathews, Chris Connor, Paul Quinichette, Lee Konitz, Dick Hyman. In the 1960s he worked with Morgana King, Bobby Hackett, Gary Burton, Carmen McRae, between 1972 and 1977 he and Chuck Wayne led an ensemble, he continued to teach into the late 1990s. In 1957 he won the New Star Award for Guitar from Metronome Magazine. Joe Puma Wild Kitten The Fourmost Guitars with Jimmy Raney, Chuck Wayne, Dick Garcia Jazz Like Tweet: Jazz Versions of Authentic Bird Calls Interactions with Chuck Wayne Shining Hour with Hod O'Brien, Red Mitchell With Louis Bellson The Amazing Artistry of Louis Bellson The Exciting Mr. Bellson Skin Deep With Chris Connor This Is Chris Chris Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song A Jazz Date with Chris Connor With Morgana King Stretchin' Out Looking Through the Eyes of Love Portraits This is Always With Herbie Mann Flamingo Herbie Mann Plays Love and the Weather The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet Flute Soufflé Flute Flight Salute to the Flute Yardbird Suite The Jazz We Heard Last Summer Sultry Serenade Gone Native When Lights Are Low With Artie Shaw Artie Shaw and His Gramercy Five Album #3 Artie Shaw and His Gramercy Five Album #4 The Last Recordings Rare & Unreleased More Last Recordings: The Final Sessions With others Eddie Bert, Encore Vinnie Burke, The Vinnie Burke All-Stars Gary Burton, The Groovy Sound of Music Candido, Candido Candido, In Indigo King Curtis, Have Tenor Sax, Will Blow Don Elliott, The Don Elliott Quintet Bob Gibson - Ski Songs Wycliffe Gordon, Blues of Summer Dick Hyman, Swings Music from Whoop-Up Strictly Organ-ic!

Peter Ind, Looking Out Steve Lacy, The Complete Whitey Mitchell Sessions Mat Mathews, The Modern Art of Jazz by Mat Mathews Carmen McRae, Woman Talk Helen Merrill, Chasin' the Bird Whitey Mitchell, Whitey Mitchell Sextette Marty Napoleon, Marty Napoleon and His Music Bernard Peiffer, Bernie's Tunes Joe Roland, Joltin' Joe Roland Ralph Sharon, Easy Jazz Ralph Sharon's All-Star Sextet Sue & Ralph Sharon, Mr & Mrs Jazz Roy Smeck, The Magic Ukulele of Roy Smeck, Wizard of the Strings Kirby Stone Four, Frank Loesser's Broadway Hit Guys & Dolls Charles Thompson, Rockin' Rhythm Warren Vaché Jr. Horn of Plenty Mal Waldron, Soul Eyes: The Mal Waldron Memorial Album Webster Young, For Lady Discography at Jazz Disco Joe Puma at AllMusic

Alexander H. Cohen was an American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic, he was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway. Cohen was born in the son of Laura and Alexander H. Cohen. Cohen's father, a businessman, died, his mother re-married to a banker, Cohen, together with his brother Gerry, lived on Park Avenue in a lavish duplex penthouse. He was employed by the Bulova Watch Company where he spent seven years, becoming its director of advertising and publicity, a business that brought him into contact with theatre people. During this time, World War II, he was drafted into the United States Army, after a year was invalided out with a leg ailment, his brother committed suicide in 1954. Mr. Cohen's first marriage, to Jocelyn Newmark, ended in divorce, they had a daughter, named Barbara. He married actress Hildy Parks in 1956, who became his producing partner, he died from emphysema in New York City in 2000.

Parks followed him 4 years in 2004. He is survived by son Gerry Cohen, of Los Angeles, daughter Barbara Hoffmann of Manhattan. With an inheritance, he became an investor in a number of flops, producing his first Broadway show with Ghost for Sale in 1941, which closed after six performances, he followed this with his next production, the thriller Angel Street, which ran for three years. Soon, he revealed himself to have a decidedly eclectic approach to popular entertainment with a busy schedule of productions, they ran the gamut from comedies to revues At the Drop of a Hat, Beyond the Fringe, to dramas to musicals to the classics. He produced stage concerts for Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, Yves Montand, an evening of comic sketches with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Cohen was responsible for the international stardom of Marcel Marceau, bringing him to New York to support Maurice Chevalier in An Evening with Maurice Chevalier, he had intended the production to be a one-man show but Chevalier did not want to work that hard, requested that Marceau perform his mime pieces to give Chevalier opportunities to rest between musical numbers.

His informal series of revues collectively titled "Nine O'Clock Musicals" included At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat (both featuring Michael Flanders and Donald Swann and Music and the semi-musical Good Evening with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. They were low-budget, required little material support, were hugely successful. Despite his success with revues, Cohen never produced a financially successful book musical on Broadway, although he did produce the successful London productions of 1776 and Applause. A challenge he was never able to satisfy was to mount a Broadway revival of Hellzapoppin'. A 1967 out-of-town tryout starring Soupy Sales closed in Montreal, ten years another effort starring Jerry Lewis and Lynn Redgrave closed in Boston; the rights are still held by the Cohen estate. The nearest Cohen came to a successful book musical on Broadway was A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, adapted from a much less elaborate London production; this double feature consisted of two short entertainments with the same cast: the first half being a plotless compendium of songs and anecdotes about old-time Hollywood, the second half being Anton Chekhov's play The Bear radically reworked as a musical comedy for the Marx Brothers, retaining a vague semblance of Chekhov's plot.

Cohen conceived and originated the first Tony Awards telecast in 1967 and helmed many more over the following years. He produced a number of Emmy Award presentations, specials with Plácido Domingo and Liza Minnelli, the first and third editions of Night of 100 Stars, which featured a parade of entertainment and sports celebrities performing and/or appearing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall; as well as producing, Cohen participated in the operation of a number of legitimate theaters, including the Morris Mechanic in Baltimore after its renovation, the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto when it opened in 1960. He was responsible for drawing the performing arts community into the popular and successful I Love New York television ad campaign. In 1976, he converted the bankrupt and vacant Manhattan Plaza on Manhattan's West 43rd Street into an apartment complex providing subsidized housing for low-income performers. Cohen was an active fund-raiser for the Actors Fund of America, he put together several television spectaculars, Night of 100 Stars and Parade of Stars which raised $3 million to build the fund's extended-care nursing facility in Englewood, N.

J. Behind the scenes, there was controversy, some claiming that Cohen's lavish producing style accommodated his own lavish needs better than the fund's. Cohen made one appearance as an actor when he appeared onscreen in Woody Allen's film The Purple Rose of Cairo, portraying Raoul Hirsch, a fictional Hollywood producer in the 1930s, his final act, putting it all together, was in 1999 when he wrote, produced and starred in his off-Broadway one-man show, Star Billing, in which he reminisced about his hits

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the central region of the state of the U. S. state of Washington. Headquartered in Yakima, the diocese comprises Benton, Douglas, Kittitas and Yakima Counties; the diocesan cathedral is St. Paul Cathedral, the diocesan bishop is Joseph J. Tyson; the diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Seattle, its metropolitan archbishop is Paul Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle. The diocese was canonically erected on June 23, 1951 by Pope Pius XII, its territory was taken from the territory of the Dioceses of Spokane. The diocese has 41 parishes and 7 Catholic schools; the list of bishops of the diocese and their years of service: Joseph Patrick Dougherty Cornelius Michael Power, appointed Archbishop of Portland in Oregon Nicolas Eugene Walsh William Stephen Skylstad, appointed Bishop of Spokane Francis George, O. M. I. Appointed Archbishop of Portland in Oregon and Archbishop of Chicago Carlos Arthur Sevilla, S. J. Joseph J. Tyson La Salle High School, Union Gap Saint Paul Cathedral School, Yakima - Grades PK-8 St. Joseph/Marquette School, Yakima - Grades PK-8 St. Joseph School, Kennewick, WA - Grades PK-8 Christ the King School, Richland, WA - Grades K-8 St. Rose of Lima School, Ephrata, WA - Grades PK-6 St. Joseph School, Wenatchee, WA - Grades PK-5 Roman Catholic Diocese of Yakima Official Site