The Royal Castle in Warsaw is a castle residency that served throughout the centuries as the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town; the personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from the sixteenth century until the Partitions of Poland. The complex served as the residence of the Dukes of Masovia, since the sixteenth century, the seat of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: the King and Parliament. In its long history the Royal Castle was plundered and devastated by the invading Swedish, Brandenburgian and Tsarist armies; the Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first of its type in Europe and the world's second-oldest codified national constitution after the 1789 U. S. Constitution, was drafted here by the Four-Year Sejm. In the 19th century, after the collapse of the November Uprising, it was used as an administrative centre by the Tsar and was re-designed for the needs of the Imperial Russian administration.

During the course of World War I it was the residence of the German Governor-General. In 1920–1922 the Royal Castle was the seat of the Polish Head of State and between 1926 and World War II the building was the residence of the Polish president, Ignacy Mościcki. Burned and looted by the Nazi Germans following the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and completely destroyed in 1944 after the failed Warsaw Uprising, the Castle was rebuilt and reconstructed. Reconstruction of the castle carried out in 1971–1984 was led by the Civic Committee, responsible for the reconstruction of Warsaw, it was afforded by US donations. In 1980, the Royal Castle, together with the Old Town was registered as a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a historical and national monument, is listed as a national museum visited by over 500,000 people every year; the Royal Castle in Warsaw, due to its iconic appearance and its long history, is one of Warsaw's most recognizable landmarks. In 1339 the Papal Legate in Warsaw heard a case brought by the King of Poland, Casimir III the Great, against the German Teutonic Order.

He claimed that they had illegally seized a slice of Polish territory — Pomerania and Kuyavia regions. The documents in this case are the earliest written testimony to the existence of Warsaw. At that time a fortified town surrounded by earthen and wooden ramparts, situated where the Royal Castle now stands, it was the seat of Trojden, Duke of Masovia. At the end of the 13th century, during the Duke Conrad's rule, the wooden-earthen gord called "Small Manor" was erected; the next duke, Casimir I, decided to build the Great Tower one of the first brick building in Warsaw. In the middle of the 14th century the Castle Tower was built and its remains up to the first storey have survived to this day. During the reign over Masovia by Duke Janusz I the Elder, the Curia Maior was erected between 1407 and 1410, its facade, still standing in 1944, was knocked down by the Germans, but has been rebuilt since then. The character of the new residence and its size decided the change of the buildings status, from 1414 it functioned as a Prince Manor.

When the Masovia region was incorporated in the Kingdom of Poland in 1526, the edifice, which until had been the Castle of the Dukes of Masovia, became one of the royal residences. From 1548 onwards Queen Bona Sforza resided in it with her daughters Izabela, who became Queen of Hungary, Catherine to become Queen of Sweden, Anna Jagiellon Queen of Poland. In 1556–1557 and in 1564 the King of Poland, Sigismund II Augustus, convened royal parliaments in Warsaw, they met in the Castle. Following the Lublin Union, by which the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – were united as a single country, Warsaw Castle was the place where the parliament of the Two-Nations State met. In 1569–1572 King Sigismund II Augustus started alterations in the Castle, the architects being Giovanni Battista di Quadro and Giacopo Pario; the Curia Maior was altered so as provide a meeting place for the Parliament, with premises for the Chamber of Deputies on the ground floor, the Senate Chamber on the first floor.

This was one of the first attempts in Europe to create a building that would be used for parliamentary purposes. The parliamentary character of the Curia Maior is stressed by the paintings of the facade – the coats-of-arms of Poland, of Lithuania, of the various regions from which the delegates were elected. A new Renaissance—style building, known as the "Royal House", was erected next to the Curia Maior; the king resided there. The next alterations to the Castle were made in the reign of Sigismund III, who transferred the royal residence from Cracow to Warsaw. In 1598–1619 the Castle was enlarged. Giovanni Trevano was in charge of the reconstruction, his plans were amended by the Venetian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Between 1601–1603 Giacomo Rodondo finished the new northern wing. From 1602 Paolo del Corte was doing stonework. After 1614, when Matteo Castelli took the lead, the western wing was built as chancelleries and a marshals office; the southern wing was built at the end. In that way five-wings in a mannerist-early baroque style were built.

In 1619 the

Lavey are a Gaelic football club from County Cavan in Ireland. They are affiliated to Cavan GAA. Traditionally Lavey have always worn black jerseys with white horizontal stripes, black shorts and black socks. Ulster Intermediate Club Football Championship: Runner up 2009 Cavan Senior Football Championship: 1 1951 Cavan Intermediate Football Championship: 1 2009 Cavan Junior Football Championship: 3 1950, 1975, 2003 Cavan Under-21 Football Championship: 2 2011, 2013 as Assan Gaels Cavan Minor Football Championship: 4 1974, 1976, 1977 Amalgamated with Laragh United, 2012 Amalgamated with Castlerahan Cavan GAA Cavan Senior Football Championship Official Cavan GAA Website Cavan Club GAA

Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien, was a Chinese mathematician, aerospace engineer, physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering cybernetics. Recruited from MIT, he joined Theodore von Karman's group at Caltech. During WWII, he was involved in the Manhattan Project, which led to the successful development of the first atomic bomb in America. On, he would return to China, where he would make important contributions to China's missile and space program. During the Second Red Scare, in the 1950s, the US federal government accused him of communist sympathies. In 1950, despite protests by his colleagues, he was stripped of his security clearance, he decided to return to China. After spending five years under house arrest, he was released in 1955 in exchange for the repatriation of American pilots, captured during the Korean War, he left the United States in September 1955 on the American President Lines passenger liner SS President Cleveland, arriving in China via Hong Kong.

Upon his return, he helped lead the Chinese nuclear weapons program. This effort led to China's first successful atomic bomb test and hydrogen bomb test, making China the fifth nuclear weapons state, achieving the fastest fission-to-fusion development in history. Additionally, Qian's work led to the development of the Dongfeng ballistic missile and the Chinese space program. For his contributions, he became known as the "Father of Chinese Rocketry", nicknamed the "King of Rocketry", he is recognized as one of the founding fathers of One Satellite. In 1957, Qian was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he served as a Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1987 to 1998. He was the cousin of mechanical engineer Hsue-Chu Tsien, involved in the aerospace industries of China and the United States. Tsien, the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Qian was born in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, 180 km southwest of Shanghai.

He left Hangzhou at the age of three when his father obtained a post in the Ministry of Education in Beijing. Qian graduated from The High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, with Lu Shijia as classmate, attended National Chiao Tung University in 1934. There, he received a degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on railroad administration, he interned at Nanchang Air Force Base. In August 1935, Qian left China on a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Master of Science degree after one year. While at MIT he was called Hsue-Shen Tsien, he was influenced by the methods of American engineering education its focus on experimentation. This was in contrast to the contemporary approach practiced by many Chinese scientists, which emphasized theoretical elements rather than "hands-on" experience. Tsien's experiments included plotting of pitot pressures using mercury-filled manometers. Theodore von Kármán, Tsien's doctoral advisor, described their first meeting: One day in 1936 he came to me for advice on further graduate studies.

This was our first meeting. I looked up to observe a slight short young man, with a serious look, who answered my questions with unusual precision. I was impressed with the keenness and quickness of his mind, I suggested that he enroll at Caltech for advanced study... Tsien agreed, he worked with me on many mathematical problems. I found him to be quite imaginative, with a mathematical aptitude that he combined with a great ability to visualize the physical picture of natural phenomena; as a young student he helped clear up some of my own ideas on several difficult topics. These are gifts which I had not encountered and Tsien and I became close colleagues. Kármán made his home a social scene for the aerodynamicists of Pasadena, Tsien was drawn in: "Tsien enjoyed visiting my home, my sister took to him because of his interesting ideas and straightforward manner." Shortly after arriving at Caltech in 1936, Tsien became fascinated with the rocketry ideas of Frank Malina, other students of von Kármán, their associates, including Jack Parsons.

Along with his fellow students, he was involved in rocket-related experiments at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech. Around the university, the dangerous and explosive nature of their work earned them the nickname "Suicide Squad." Tsien received his PhD from Caltech in 1939. During the Second World War, Tsien worked in the Manhattan Project, which led to America developing the first atomic bomb. In 1943, Tsien and two other members of their rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory a proposal to the Army for developing missiles in response to Germany's V-2 rocket; this led to Private A, which flew in 1944, the Corporal, the WAC Corporal, other designs. In 1945, as an Army colonel with a security clearance, Tsien was sent to Germany to investigate laboratories and question German scientists, including Wernher von Braun. Von Kármán wrote of Tsien, "At the age of 36, he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion."

During this time, he worked on designing an intercontinental space plane, which would inspire the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a precursor to the American Space Shuttle. Tsien married Jiang Ying, a famed opera singer and the daughter of Jiang Baili and his wife, Japanese nurse