Aurora Borealis is a luminous meteoric phenomenon appearing in the north, most frequently in high latitudes, the corresponding phenomenon in the southern hemisphere being called AuroraAustralia, and both being also called Polar Light, Streamers, etc. The northern aurora has been far the most observed and studied. It usually manifests itself by streams of light ascending towards the zenith from a dusky line of cloud or haze a few degrees above the horizon, and stretching from the north towards the west and east, so as to form an arc with its ends on the horizon, and its different parts and rays are constantly in motion. Sometimes it appears in detached places; at other times it almost covers the whole sky. It assumes many shapes and a variety of colours, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood colour; and in the northern latitudes serves to illuminate the earth and cheer the gloom of the long winter nights. Research Aurora Borealis
Earth-currents are violent electrical disturbances of the nature of transient currents, which rush in one direction or the other, and by which telegraph lines, and particularly long submarine lines, were formerly constantly troubled. Their origin and nature are not thoroughly understood, but they are found to be very intimately connected with the perturbations of terrestrial magnetism called magnetic storms, and these, it is well known, are closely connected both with the appearance of the aurora borealis and with the occurrence of the sun's spots. Research Earth-Currents
A newspaper is a publication reporting and commenting upon news. The first periodicals were published by the Romans., the first newspapers proper were produced in Venice by the government, published monthly during the war of 1563 against the Turks.
The first genuine newspaper established in the United States was the Boston News Letter founded at Boston in 1704 by Postmaster John Campbell, and continued until 1776. Previous to this there had been
issued at Boston three publications of one number each. Of these the first, called a Newspaper Extraordinary consisted wholly of extracts from a letter of Dr. Increase Mather, who was then in London endeavouring to obtain a new charter for Massachusetts. This letter was published by Samuel Green in 1689.
On September the 25th, 1690, appeared the first and only number of
Publick Occurrences Foreign and Domestic issued by Benjamin Harris. The authorities promptly seized and suppressed the paper as 'a pamphlet published contrary to law and containing reflections of a very high nature'. In 1697 B Green and J Allen republished a news letter, bearing no title, which had been issued in London the same year. It was printed on a single page, .and contained small news items from the continent. After the Boston News Letter there appeared in 1719 the Boston Gazette Andrew Bradford issuing the American Weekly Mercury at Philadelphia the same year. James Franklin established the New England Courant at Boston two years later. This was suppressed for its attacks upon the Government and clergy, but was revived by Benjamin Franklin. WilliamBradford began the Gazette at New York in 1725, and John Peter Zenger the New York Weekly Journal in 1733, in the cause of the people against the Colonial Government. Zenger's paper may be regarded as a prototype of the modern news journal. Newspapers were founded in the other American colonies in the following order: In Maryland, at Annapolis, in 1727; in South Carolina, at Charleston, in 1731; in Rhode Island, at Newport, in 1731; in Virginia, at Williamsburg, in 1736; in North Carolina, at New Berne, in 1755; in Connecticut, at New Haven, in 1755; in New Hampshire, at Portsmouth, in 1756; in Georgia, at Savannah, in 1763; in Vermont, at Westminster, in 1781.
Between 1704 and 1775 seventy-eight different newspapers had been printed with varied success in the American colonies. Of these, thirty-nine were in actual process of publication at the outbreak of the American War of Independence. The papers most influential in advancing the revolutionary cause were the Boston Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy, On the British occupation of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, most of the Whig journals were suspended. It has been estimated that the thirty-nine newspapers of 1775 circulated about 1,300,000 copies annually.
After the Federal Constitution was adopted in America the newspapers fell largely into the hands of English immigrants, men of versatility and talent. Violent partisan controversies arose. The most influential papers of this period were the Columbian Centinel, published at Boston during forty years, commencing in 1784, by Benjamin Russell; the New York Minerva, established at New York in 1793 by Noah Webster; the New York Evening Post, established as the central organ of the Federalists in 1801; the Philadelphia Aurora, founded by Benjamin Franklin Bache in 1790, and afterward edited with vindictive partisanship by William Duane, an Englishman; the Philadelphia National Gazette, established in 1791 by Philip Freneau; and the National Intelligencer, established at Washington by Samuel H Smith in 1800.
The first American penny paper was the New York Sun, established in 1833 by Benjamin Day. The first American Sunday paper was the Sunday Courier, appearing in New York in 1825, with but little success. The chief period of the political influence of editors in the United States was that beginning in 1830 and ending after the American Civil War. Before that date the editor was often of little account, but from 1830 to 1870 the paper was often known chiefly as the organ of the individual editor's opinions. Research Newspaper
Dictyoptera is a European genus of net-winged beetles of the family Lycidae. There is one British species, Dictyoptera aurora, which grows to between eight and thirteen millimetres long, and has a small head which is usually kept tucked away under the pronotum. Research Dictyoptera
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet. She was born in 1806 at Burn Hall, Durham and died in 1861. Her father, Edward Moulton, took the name of Barrett on succeeding to some property. She grew up at Hope End, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, where her father possessed a large estate. Her bodily frame was from the first extremely delicate, and she had been injured by a fall from her pony when a girl, but her mind was sound and vigorous, and disciplined by a course of severe and exalted study. She early began to commit her thoughts to writing, and in 1826 a volume, entitled An Essay on Mind, with other Poems, appeared of her authorship.
A money catastrophe compelled her father to settle in London, and her continued delicacy received a severe shock by the accidentaldrowning of her brother, causing her to pass years in the confinement of a sickroom. Her health was at length partially restored, and in 1846 she was married to Robert Browning, soon after which they settled in Italy, and continued to reside for the most part in the city of Florence. Her Prometheus Bound (from the Greek of Aeschylus) and Miscellaneous Poems appeared in 1833; the Seraphim and other Poems in 1838. In 1856 a collected edition of Elizabeth Browning's works appeared, including several new poems, and among others Lady Geraldine's Courtship. Casa Guidi Windows, a poem on the struggles of the Italians for liberty in 184S-49, appeared in 1851. The longest and most finished of all her works, Aurora Leigh, a narrative and didactic poem in nine books, was published in 1857. Poems before Congress appeared in 1860, and two posthumous volumes: Last Poems, 1862 and The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (prose essays and translations) 1863, were edited by her husband. Research Elizabeth Browning
Guercino (real name Gian-Francesco Barbieri) was an Italian painter. He was born in 1590 at Cento and died in 1666. A painter of the Bolognese school, he is best known for painting 'Aurora' at the Villa Ludovisi in Rome for Pope Gregory XV. Research Guercino
Guido Reni was an Italian painter. He was born in 1575 at Bologna and died in 1642. Being the son of a musician he devoted gome time to the study of music, but, as painting seemed his true vocation, he was placed under the tuition of Dionysius Calvaert, and subsequently at the age of twenty joined the school of the Caracci.
In 1602 he visited Rome, and having seen the paintings of Caravaggio, he imitated his style. At the request of Cardinal Borghese he painted The Crucifixion of St Peter and the Aurora. He was also employed by Paul V to paint a chapel on Monte Cavallo, and one in Santa Maria-Maggiore.
Guido's paintings are generally considered as belonging to three different periods. His earliest pictures, after the style of Caravaggio and Caracci, display powerful contrasts of light and shade. His second manner exhibits light and agreeable colouring, with little shade. His third period is marked by careless haste. Having quarrelled with Cardinal Spinola, the treasurer of Urban VIII, he left Rome and returned to Bologna, but was subsequently recalled.
In 1622 he moved to Naples, but, after a brief stay, returned once more to Bologna, never to leave it again. Among his most famous works may be mentioned his Aurora, his Magdalene, Michael Vanquishing Satan, Lot and his Daughters, his Fortune, etc. Guido was also celebrated in his own day for his etchings, but his works of this class have now sunk very much in value. Research Guido reni
Jakob Boehme was a German mystical writer. He was born in 1575 and died in 1624. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker in his fourteenth year, and ten years later he was settled at Gorlitz as a master-tradesman, and married to the daughter of a thriving butcher of the town. He was much persecuted by the religious authorities, and at his death the rites of the church were but grudgingly administered to him. Raised by contemplation above his circumstances, a strong sense of the spiritual, particularly of the mysterious, was constantly present with him, and he saw in all the workings of nature upon his mind a revelation of God, and even imagined himself favoured by divine inspirations. His first work appeared in 1616, and was called Aurora. It contains his revelations on God, man, and nature. Among his other works are De tribus Principiis, De Signatura Herum, Mysterium Magnum, etc. His writings all aim at religious edification, but his philosophy is very obscure and often fantastic. The first collection of his works was made in Holland in 1675 by Henry Betke; a more complete one in 1682 by Gichtel (published in ten volumes in Amsterdam). William Law published an English translation of them, in two volumes. A sect, taking their name from Jakob Boehme, was formed in England. Research Jakob Boehme
Margot Fonteyn (Peggy Hookham) was a British ballerina. She was born in 1919 and died in 1991 of cancer. She spent some of her childhood in China. When she was 14 her family returned to England and she auditioned successfully for the Vic-Wells ballet, making her debut in 1934 as a snowflake in 'Nutcracker'; her first solo role was the Young Treginnis in de Valois's 'The Haunted Ballroom'. When Markova, the company's first ballerina, left in 1935, Fonteyn worried with the rest of the dancers, and most of the audience, about who could ever replace her: over the next three years it became apparent that it would be she herself. By the time she was 16 her promise was unmistakable. By the time the war broke out in 1939 she had danced Aurora, Giselle, and Odette/Odile, and - perhaps more importantly - had already created half a dozen roles for Ashton.
After a stormy start caused by mutual incomprehension, she and the choreographer established a happy relationship which over the next 25 years produced most of her greatest roles and his greatest ballets. The company's nomadic wartime existence ended with the invitation take up residence at Covent Garden, and their opening night performance of 'Sleeping Beauty' showed how far Fonteyn, still only 26, had travelled on the path to prima ballerina. 'Symphonic Variations' and 'Cinderella' followed, and the seal on her progress from national treasure to international star was set by her triumph in New York on the company's historic opening night in 1949.
The 1950s saw her taking on Karsavina's role in 'Firebird', and creating Ondine and Chloe - the part in which Ashton said he most missed her when she gave up dancing. In 1956 she married Roberto de Arias, a diplomat from Panama, and for a time had to juggle her commitments as both ballerina and ambassador's wife. By about 1960, though, talk of possible retirement had begun to creep into reviews and interviews. Her most famous partnership - which lasted twenty years - was dancing with Nuryev after he defected from Russia in 1961. She gave her
final performance in the early 1970's, and then retired to Panama to care for her husband, who had been paralysed in a shooting incident. Research Margot Fonteyn
Millard Fillmore was the thirteenth president of the USA from 1850 to 1853. He was born in 1800 at Locke, New York and died in 1874. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began practice in Aurora, New York, and by the mid-19th century was a recognised political leader of New York state, being elected to the state assembly in 1828 after which he secured the passage of a law abolishing imprisonment for debt. He represented New York as a Whig in the Congress of the United States from 1833 until 1835, and again from 1837 until 1843, when he served as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and drafted the tariff bill of 1842. From 1847 until 1849 he was State Controller.
In 1848 he was elected Vice-President of the United States on the Whig ticket with Zachary Taylor for President. He became president upon the death of President Taylor in 1850. During his administration the Compromise Acts of 1850 were passed and the Japanese expedition of 1853 was arranged. In 1856 he was defeated as the National American candidate for President of the United States. He commanded a corps during the American Civil War, and was president, of the Buffalo Historical Society. Research Millard Fillmore
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Aurora Borealis
