Patrick Blackett

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett was an English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. He also made a major contribution in World War II advising on military strategy and developing operational research. His left-wing views saw an outlet in third world development and in influencing policy in the Labour Government of the 1960s.

Blackett was born in Kensington, London, the son of Arthur Stuart Blackett, a stockbroker, and his wife Caroline Maynard. His younger sister was the psychoanalyst Marion Milner. His paternal grandfather Rev. Henry Blackett, brother of Edmund Blackett the Australian architect, was for many years Vicar of Croydon. His maternal grandfather Charles Maynard was an officer in the Royal Artillery at the time of the Indian Mutiny. The Blackett family lived successively at Kensington, Kenley, Woking and Guildford, Surrey, where Blackett went to preparatory school. His main hobbies were model airplanes and crystal radio. When he went for interview for entrance to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight, Charles Rolls had completed his cross-channel flight the previous day and Blackett who had tracked the flight on his crystal set was able to expound lengthily on the subject. He was accepted and spent two years there before moving on to Dartmouth where he was "usually head of his class".

In August 1914 on the outbreak of World War I Blackett was assigned to active service as a midshipman. He was transferred to the Cape Verde Islands on HMS Carnarvon and was present at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. He was then transferred to HMS Barham and saw much action at the Battle of Jutland. While on HMS Barham, Blackett was co-inventor of a gunnery device on which the Admiralty took out a patent. In 1916 he applied to join the RNAS but his application was refused. In October that year he became a sub-lieutenant on HMS P17 on Dover patrol, and in July 1917 he was posted to HMS Sturgeon in the Harwich Force under Admiral Tyrwhitt. Blackett was particularly concerned by the poor quality of gunnery in the force compared with that of the enemy and of his own previous experience, and started to read science textbooks. He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1918, but had decided to leave the Navy. Then, in January 1919, the Admiralty sent the officers whose training had been interrupted by the war to Cambridge University for a course of general duties. On his first night at Magdalene College, Cambridge he met Kingsley Martin and Geoffrey Webb, later recalling that he had never before, in his naval training, heard intellectual conversation. Blackett was impressed by the prestigious Cavendish Laboratory, and left the Navy to study mathematics and physics at Cambridge.

After graduating from Magdalene College in 1921, Blackett spent ten years working at the Cavendish Laboratory as an experimental physicist with Ernest Rutherford and in 1923 became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, a position he held until 1933. Rutherford had found out that the nucleus of the nitrogen atom could be disintegrated by firing fast alpha particles into nitrogen. He asked Blackett to use a cloud chamber to find visible tracks of this disintegration, and by 1924, he had taken 23,000 photographs showing 415,000 tracks of ionized particles. Eight of these were forked, and this showed that the nitrogen atom-alpha particle combination had formed an atom of fluorine, which then disintegrated into an isotope of oxygen and a proton. Blackett spent some time in 1924–1925 at Göttingen, Germany working with James Franck on atomic spectra. In 1932, working with Giuseppe Occhialini, he devised a system of geiger counters which only took photographs when a cosmic ray particle traversed the chamber. They found 500 tracks of high energy cosmic ray particles in 700 automatic exposures. In 1933, Blackett discovered fourteen tracks which confirmed the existence of the positron and revealed the now instantly recognizable opposing spiral traces of positron/electron pair production. This work and that on annihilation radiation made him one of the first and leading experts on anti-matter. That same year he moved to Birkbeck College, University of London as Professor of Physics for four years. Then in 1937 he went to the Victoria University of Manchester where he was elected to the Langworthy Professorship and created a major international research laboratory. The Blackett Memorial Hall and Blackett lecture theatre at the University of Manchester were named after him.

In 1947, Blackett introduced a theory to account for the Earth's magnetic field as a function of its rotation, with the hope that it would unify both the electromagnetic force and the force of gravity. He spent a number of years developing high-quality magnetometers to test his theory, and eventually found it to be without merit. His work on the subject, however, led him into the field of geophysics, where he eventually helped process data relating to paleomagnetism and helped to provide strong evidence for continental drift. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his investigation of cosmic rays using his invention of the counter-controlled cloud chamber. Professor Blackett was appointed Head of the Physics Department of Imperial College London in 1953 and retired in July 1963. The current Physics department building of Imperial College is named the Blackett Laboratory. In 1957 Blackett gave the presidential address (Technology and World Advancement) to the British Association meeting in Dublin. In 1965 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Continental Drift."

In 1935 Blackett was invited to join the Aeronautical Research Committee chaired by Sir Henry Tizard. The committee was effective pressing for the early installation of Radar for air defense. In the early part of World War II, Blackett served on various committees and spent time at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough, where he made a major contribution to the design of the Mark XIV bomb sight which allowed bombs to be released without a level bombing run beforehand. In 1940–41 Blackett served on the MAUD Committee which concluded that an atomic bomb was feasible. He disagreed with the Committee's conclusion that Britain could produce an atomic bomb by 1943, and recommended that the project should be discussed with the Americans. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1933 and awarded its Royal Medal in 1940.

In August 1940 Blackett became scientific adviser to Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Pile, Commander in Chief of Anti-Aircraft Command and thus began the work that resulted in the field of study known as operational research (OR). He was Director of Operational Research with the Admiralty from 1942 to 1945, and his work with E. J. Williams improved the survival odds of convoys, presented counter-intuitive but correct recommendations for the armor-plating of aircraft and achieved many other successes. His aim, he said, was to find numbers on which to base strategy, not gusts of emotion. During the war he criticized the assumptions in Lord Cherwell's de-housing paper and sided with Tizard who argued that fewer resources should go to RAF Bomber Command for the area bombing offensive and more to the other armed forces, as his studies had shown the ineffectiveness of the bombing strategies, as opposed to the importance of fighting of the German U-boats, which were heavily affecting the war effort with their Battle of the Atlantic of merchant ships In this opinion he chafed against the existing military authority and was cut out of various circles of communications; after the war, the Allied Strategic Bombing Survey proved Blackett correct, however.

Blackett became friends with Kingsley Martin, later editor of the New Statesman, while an undergraduate and became committed to the left. Politically he identified himself as a socialist, and often campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. In the late 1940s, Blackett became known for his radical political opinions, which included his belief that Britain should not develop atomic weapons. He was considered too far to the left for the Labour Government 1945-1951 to employ, and he returned to academic life. His internationalism found expression in his strong support for India. There in 1947 he met Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought his advice on the research and development needs of the Indian armed forces and for the next 20 years he was a frequent visitor and advisor on military and civil science. These visits deepened his concern for the underprivileged and the poor. He was convinced that the problem could be solved by applying science and technology and he used his scientific prestige to try and persuade scientists that one of their first duties was to use their skill to ensure a decent life for all mankind. Before underdevelopment became a popular issue he proposed in a presidential address to the British Association that Britain should devote 1% of its national income to the economic improvement of the third world and he was later one of the prime movers in the foundation of the Overseas Development Institute. He was the senior member of a group of scientists which met regularly to discuss scientific and technological policy during the 13 years when the Labour Party was out of office, and this group became influential when Harold Wilson became leader of the Party. Blackett's ideas led directly to the creation of the Ministry of Technology as soon as the Wilson government was formed and he insisted that the first priority was revival of the computer industry. He did not enter open politics, but worked for a year as a civil servant. He remained deputy chairman of the Minister's Advisory Council throughout the administration's life, and was also personal scientific adviser to the Minister.

Blackett had refused many honors in the manner of a radical of the twenties but accepted a Companion of Honour in the 1965 Birthday Honours, and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1967. He was created a life peer on 27 January 1969 as Baron Blackett, of Chelsea in Greater London. However, the greatest honor of all for him was when he was made President of the Royal Society in 1965. The crater Blackett on the Moon is named after him.

Blackett died July 13 1974 at the age of 76 in London, England. His ashes are buried in the Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

Robert Beatty

Robert Rutherford Beatty was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television, and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK.

Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to Charles Thompson Beatty and Blanch Sarah Rutherford. He attended Delta Collegiate School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. Beatty joined the Hamilton (Ontario) Players' Guild after graduation from the University of Toronto. He went to London, England, in 1936 and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. It was with the RADA that he made his English stage debut. He began his acting career in Britain in 1939. 

Beatty appeared in two "critically acclaimed war propaganda films" in 1942 -- 49th Parallel and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing. Beatty's film credits include: San Demetrio London (1943), Another Shore (1948), "Against the Wind" (1948),Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), The Square Ring (1953), The Amorous Prawn (1962), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Superman III (1983), Minder on the Orient Express (1985) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).He appeared in British television shows such as Dial 999 (a co-production between Britain's ABC and the US company Ziv), Doctor Who ("The Tenth Planet" as General Cutler), Blake's 7 ("The Way Back" as Bran Foster), The Gathering Storm, The New Avengers, and Minder. He was in Franco Zeffirelli's TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth and the American series of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. He portrayed Ronald Reagan in Breakthrough at Reykjavik (Granada Television UK 1987).

Beatty reported descriptions of the Blitz from London to North America via the BBC during World War II. He played Philip Odell], a fictional Irish detective created by Lester Powell, between 1947 and 1961. The series debuted on BBC radio with the story "Lady in a Fog" in October 1947. The series was made available to overseas broadcasters by the BBC Transcription Services. His other radio credits included Shadow of Sumuru on the BBC Home Programme in 1945-46, Shadow Man on Radio Luxembourg in 1955, Destination - Fire! on BBC (early 1960s), General Sternwood in a BBC version of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (1977), Pay Any Price (BBC 1982), The Mystery of the Blue Train (BBC 1985/1986), and as Henry Hickslaughter in Elizabeth Troop's Sony Award winning adaptation of Graham Greene's short story Cheap In August (1993).

Beatty died March 3, 1992, in London and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan was a Dutch painter and theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.

Mondrian's art was highly Utopian and was concerned with a search for universal values and aesthetics. He proclaimed in 1914: Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man. His art, however, always remained rooted in nature.

He was a contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which he co-founded with Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neoplasticism. This was the new 'pure plastic art' which he believed was necessary in order to create 'universal beauty'. To express this, Mondrian eventually decided to limit his formal vocabulary to the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow), the three primary values (black, white and gray) and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical). Mondrian's arrival in Paris from the Netherlands in 1911 marked the beginning of a period of profound change. He encountered experiments in Cubism and with the intent of integrating himself within the Parisian avant-garde removed an 'a' from the Dutch spelling of his name (Mondriaan).

Mondrian's work had an enormous influence on 20th century art, influencing not only the course of abstract painting and numerous major styles and art movements (e.g. Color Field painting, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism), but also fields outside the domain of painting, such as design, architecture and fashion. Design historian Stephen Bayley said: 'Mondrian has come to mean Modernism. His name and his work sum up the High Modernist ideal. I don’t like the word ‘iconic’, so let’s say that he’s become totemic – a totem for everything Modernism set out to be.

Eddy Howard

Edward Evan Duncan Howard was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s.

Eddy Howard was born in Woodland, California, and after attending San Jose State College from 1931 to 1933, studied medicine at Stanford University before dropping out to become a singer of romantic ballads on Los Angeles radio. Later he sang with bands led by Ben Bernie and Dick Jurgens. His hits with Jurgens included "My Last Goodbye" and "Careless," which became his theme.

Howard was a singer on a radio program on NBC in 1938. In 1939 Howard started his own band, and he was the regular vocalist on It Can Be Done, Edgar A. Guest's 1941 radio program on the Blue Network Wednesdays through Fridays. The first #1 single for Howard and his Orchestra, "To Each His Own", spent five non-consecutive weeks at the top of the U.S. pop chart in 1946. The song was a tie-in with the 1946 Paramount film, To Each His Own, which brought Academy Awards for Olivia de Havilland and screenwriter Charles Brackett. The recording by Howard was released by Majestic Records as catalog number 7188 and 1070. It first reached the Billboard chart on July 11, 1946 and spent a total of 19 weeks on the chart. The recording sold over two million copies by 1957, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Howard's orchestra was heard on The Gay Mrs. Featherstone on NBC (April 18 - October 10, 1945) and on NBC's The Sheaffer Parade, sponsored by Sheaffer Pens (September 14, 1947 - September 5, 1948).

In 1949, Howard signed to Mercury Records. His popularity continued into the 1950s with tracks such as "Maybe It's Because", and "(It’s No) Sin," which became Howard's second #1 tune, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It was also a million selling hit for The Four Aces.[9] Howard's last hit was "The Teen-Ager's Waltz," which peaked at #90 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in 1955. In 1952-53 he was heard on CBS on Thursday nights at 10:45pm, with further broadcasts on Tuesdays at 10pm in 1955-56. The rise of rock music led to a decline in Howard's popularity. In a change of roles, Howard was the host on Just for You, an hour-long variety program on NBC in 1954. The staff orchestra of WMAQ provided the music.

Howard died in his sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage in May 1963, in Palm Desert, California, aged 48. He was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.

Rómulo Betancourt

Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello, known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was the 47th and 54th President of Venezuela, serving from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Acción Democrática, Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century.

Betancourt, one of Venezuela's most important political figures, led a tumultuous and highly controversial career in Latin American politics. Periods of exile brought Betancourt in contact with various Latin American countries as well as the United States, securing his legacy as one of the most prominent international leaders to emerge from 20th-century Latin America. Scholars credit Betancourt as the Founding Father of modern democratic Venezuela.

Rómulo Betancourt was a very close friend of the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, visiting the island often and frequently exchanging political views with him, viewing him as a political advisor on Democracy. Although they disagreed on certain issues they remained faithful friends. On one occasion in 1963, he refused to attend the inauguration of Juan Bosch as president of the Dominican Republic if Bosch did not extend an invitation to Muñoz Marín, who had provided a safe haven for Bosch and various members of his political party in Puerto Rico. 

Van Alexander

Van Alexander was an American bandleader, arranger, and composer.

Van Alexander was born Alexander Van Vliet Feldman in Harlem. His mother was a classical pianist, and she taught him to play the piano. He studied music at Columbia University. Alexander led bands and arranged music beginning in high school.

He landed a job selling arrangements to Chick Webb in the middle of the 1930s. A-Tisket, A-Tasket" became a hit for Webb and Ella Fitzgerald, becoming one of her signature tunes. Alexander arranged other nursery rhymes for jazz, such as "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" and "Got a Pebble in My Shoe".

In 1938, Alexander formed his own band and played in theaters into the 1940s. When his group disbanded, he and two others from the group joined Larry Clinton's orchestra. George T. Simon, in his book, The Big Bands, quoted Clinton as saying that he had "a package deal from Van Alexander. He had given up his band and joined us, and he brought along Butch Stone and Irv Cottler, who’s drumming made all the difference in the world." By June 1942, Alexander had formed another band of his own.

Later in the 1940s, he was hired by Bob Crosby to work in Hollywood and worked extensively as a composer, arranger, and conductor for film scores. He wrote a textbook on film arrangement in 1950 called First Arrangement, and Johnny Mandel studied under him. Alexander's scores included several Mickey Rooney films, such as The Atomic Kid (1954), The Twinkle in God's Eye (1955), Baby Face Nelson (1957), The Last Mile (1959), The Big Operator (1959) and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), as well as the scores to 13 Frightened Girls (1963), Strait-Jacket (1964), I Saw What You Did (1965) and Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966).

He provided music for the television shows Hazel, The Farmer's Daughter, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Dennis the Menace and The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters. He arranged and conducted for variety shows starring Dean Martin, Gordon MacRae, Mickey Rooney, and James Stewart. He was involved in recording sessions with Doris Day, Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Kay Starr, Dakota Staton, and Paul Whiteman.

Alexander turned 100 in May 2015 and died of heart failure on July 19, 2015, in Los Angeles, California.

Gordon MacRae

Albert Gordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), and playing Bill Sherman in On Moonlight Bay (1951) and By The Light of the Silvery Moon (1953).

Born in East Orange in Essex County in northeastern New Jersey, MacRae graduated in 1940 from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and he thereafter served as a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Prior to this, he attended Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York. Winning a contest enabled MacRae to sing at the 1939 New York World's Fair with the Harry James and Les Brown orchestras.

He made his Broadway debut in 1942, acquiring his first recording contract soon afterwards. Many of his hit recordings were made with Jo Stafford. In 1948, he appeared in his first film, The Big Punch, a drama about boxing. He soon began an on-screen partnership with Doris Day and appeared with her in several films. In 1950, he starred with Doris Day in Tea for Two (a reworking of No, No, Nanette), then in 1951, he starred again with Day in On Moonlight Bay, followed by the 1953 sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon. That same year, he also starred opposite Kathryn Grayson in the third film version of The Desert Song. This was followed by leading roles in two major films of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), both films opposite Shirley Jones.

On radio in 1945, his talents were showcased on the Gordon MacRae Show on the CBS network in collaboration with the conductor Archie Bleyer. The show also featured emerging musical talent, including the accordionist John Serry Sr.. MacRae was also the host and lead actor on The Railroad Hour, a half-hour anthology series made up of condensed versions of hit Broadway musicals. Many of those programs were recorded later in popular studio cast albums; most of these recordings have been reissued on CD. MacRae appeared frequently on television, on such programs as The Martha Raye Show and The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, both on NBC. During Christmas 1958, MacRae and Ford performed the Christmas hymn "O Holy Night." Earlier in 1958, MacRae guest-starred on the short-lived NBC variety series, The Polly Bergen Show.

Thereafter, MacRae appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and The Bell Telephone Hour. He continued his musical stage career, often performing with his wife, as in a 1964 production of Bells Are Ringing, also performing as Sky Masterson in the popular musical Guys and Dolls, with his wife playing the role of Miss Adeleide, reprising her Broadway role. In the late 1960s, he co-hosted for a week on The Mike Douglas Show. He also toured in summer stock and appeared in nightclubs.

He was married to Sheila MacRae from 1941 until 1967; the couple were the parents of four children: actresses Heather and Meredith MacRae, and sons William Gordon MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae. Two of the children, Meredith MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae, predeceased their mother, Sheila. Gordon MacRae was married, secondly, to Elizabeth Lambert Schrafft on September 25, 1967, and fathered one daughter, Amanda Mercedes MacRae in 1968. They remained married until his death. He was buried at the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska. He battled alcohol problems for many years although by the late 1970s he overcame them and in the 1980s helped people in a treatment centre who had similar addictions.

MacRae suffered from cancer of the mouth and jaw, but ultimately died in 1986 of pneumonia, at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, aged 64.

Patrick Gordon Walker

Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker was a British Labour Party politician. He was a member of parliament (MP) for nearly thirty years, and served twice as a Cabinet minister. He is best-remembered for the circumstances surrounding the loss of his Smethwick parliamentary seat at the 1964 general election, in a bitterly racial campaign carried on in the wake of local factory closures.

Born in Worthing, Sussex, Gordon Walker was the son of Alan Lachlan Gordon Walker, a Scottish judge in the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Wellington College and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a Second in Modern History in 1928 and subsequently gained a B. Litt. He served as a Student [Fellow] in history at Christ Church from 1931 until 1941. From 1940 to 1944, Gordon Walker worked for the BBC's European Service, where from 1942 he arranged the BBC's daily broadcasts to Germany. In 1945, he worked as Assistant Director of BBC's German Service working from Radio Luxembourg, travelling with the British forces. He broadcast about the liberation of the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, and wrote a book on the subject called The Lid Lifts. From 1946 to 1948, he was Chairman of the British Film Institute.

He first stood for Parliament at the 1935 general election, when he was unsuccessful in the Conservative-held Oxford constituency. In 1938, he was selected to stand again in the Oxford by-election. The Liberal Party had selected Ivor Davies, who offered to stand down from the by-election if Labour did the same and backed a Popular Front candidate against the Conservatives. Eventually, Gordon Walker reluctantly stood down and both parties supported Sandy Lindsay as an Independent Progressive. Quintin Hogg, the Conservative candidate, defeated Lindsay in the by-election.

Gordon Walker did not contest the 1945 general election, but was elected later in 1945 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Smethwick in a by-election on 1 October 1945 after Labour's Alfred Dobbs was killed in a car accident one day after winning the seat at the 1945 general election. After the by-election, Gordon Walker's support in the constituency gradually declined. Once in Parliament, Gordon Walker was promoted rapidly through the ranks of Clement Attlee's Labour government. In 1946, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Herbert Morrison, the Leader of the House of Commons. From 1947 to 1950, he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Commonwealth Relations Office, and in 1950 he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, serving until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.

At the 1964 general election, following a successful career in opposition, he was destined to become Foreign Secretary in a widely anticipated Labour government; he had held the shadow role for the previous year. Although Labour did win that election to end 13 years of Conservative rule, Gordon Walker was defeated in controversial circumstances by the Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth but the economic and industrial growth of the years following World War II were coupled with local factory closures, an ageing population and a lack of modern housing. Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the opposition's, and the government's, policies, including immigration policies. Griffiths was also accused of exploiting the slogan "If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour."

Despite, therefore, not being an MP or peer able to answer to Parliament, he was appointed to the Foreign Office by Harold Wilson. To resolve this unusual situation, he stood for the safe Labour constituency of Leyton in the Leyton by-election in January 1965, losing again, and was finally forced to resign as Foreign Secretary. After a sabbatical conducting research in Southeast Asia,[citation needed] he finally won Leyton in the 1966 general election. Following this election, he served in the Cabinet in 1967-8, first as Minister without Portfolio, then as Secretary of State for Education and Science. On his retirement from the Cabinet in 1968, he was made a Companion of Honour. Gordon Walker retired from the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election. On 4 July that same year he was made a life peer as Baron Gordon-Walker, of Leyton in the County of Essex in 1974 and was briefly a Member of the European Parliament.

In 1934 he married Audrey Muriel Rudolf. They subsequently had twin sons and three daughters. Gordon Walker died in London in 1980, aged 73.

Morris Chang

Morris Chang is a Taiwanese American businessman, and the founder, chairman and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's first and largest silicon foundry. He is known as the semiconductor industry founder of Taiwan.

Chang was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang. When he was younger, he had wanted to become a novelist or journalist. However, his father, an official in the Ningbo county government, persuaded him otherwise. In 1948, as China was in the height of the Chinese Civil War, a year before People’s Republic of China established, Chang moved to Hong Kong.

The very next year he moved yet again to the United States to attend Harvard University. He transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1952 and 1953, respectively. After leaving MIT without obtaining a PhD, he was hired by Sylvania Semiconductor, then just known as a small semiconductor division of Sylvania Electric Products, in 1955. Three years later, he moved to Texas Instruments in 1958, which was then rapidly rising in its field. After three years at TI, he rose to manager of the engineering section of the company. It was then, in 1961, that TI decided to invest in him by giving him the opportunity to obtain his PhD degree, which he received in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964.

During his 25-year career (1958–1983) at Texas Instruments, he rose up in the ranks to become the group vice president responsible for TI's worldwide semiconductor business. He left TI to become president and chief operating officer of General Instrument Corporation (1984–1985).

Chang worked on a four-transistor project for TI where the manufacturing was done by IBM. This was one of the early semiconductor foundry relationships. Also at TI, Morris pioneered the then controversial idea of pricing semiconductors ahead of the cost curve, or sacrificing early profits to gain market share and achieve manufacturing yields that would result in greater long-term profits.[citation needed]

However, after he left General Instrument Corporation, the government of Republic of China recruited him to become chairman and president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute. As head of a government-sponsored non-profit, he was in charge of promoting industrial and technological development in Taiwan. Chang founded TSMC in 1987, the beginning of the period where firms increasingly saw value in outsourcing their manufacturing capabilities to Asia. Soon, TSMC became one of the world's most profitable chip makers. Chang left ITRI in 1994 and became chairman of Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation from 1994 to 2003 while continuing to serve as chairman of TSMC. In 2005, he handed TSMC's CEO position to Rick Tsai.

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles.

His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1964) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970).

Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983).

Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death.

Douglas Kennedy

Douglas Richards Kennedy was an American supporting actor originally from New York City who appeared in more than 190 films between 1935 and 1973.

Kennedy was a character player and occasional leading man in Hollywood. He attended Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and afterwards graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Making his debut in 1935, he played a significant number of supporting roles and was able to secure contract-player status, first at Paramount Pictures and later at Warner Brothers.

His acting career was interrupted by World War II service as a major in the Signal Corps with the Office of Strategic Services and Army Intelligence. After that, he returned to films and played character roles, often western villains or territorial marshals, as well as isolated leads in low-budget pictures. Kennedy had a starring role in the syndicated series Steve Donovan, Western Marshal, with Eddy Waller as his sidekick, Rusty Lee. He was also one of the policemen who vanishes in the science fiction classic, Invaders from Mars.

He played the gunfighter William P. Longley in a 1954 episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis. In the 1957 (season one) Perry Mason episode 'The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink' he played the part of Det. Sgt. Jaffrey, eventually revealed as the murderer. In 1958, he appeared as Steven Boles in the Perrry Mason episode “ The Case of The Lucky Loser .“ In 1958, Kennedy appeared in Jim Davis' second series, Rescue 8 in the episode "Calamity Coach". In the story line, rescuers Wes Cameron (Davis) and Skip Johnson (Lang Jeffries) work to rescue three actors on location when a stagecoach tumbles down a mountain.

On January 12, 1959, Kennedy appeared in the episode "Shadow of a Gunfighter" of the NBC western series The Restless Gun. He plays a former gunfighter, Cal Winfield, who is informed that Vint Bonner, (John Payne), is responsible for the death of Winfield's son. Cal Winfield then comes out of retirement to extract vengeance. Robert Fuller appears in the episode as Jim Winfield. Kennedy played the role of Jay Brisco in the 1959 episode "Law West of the Pecos" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt .45. Frank Ferguson portrayed Judge Roy Bean, and Lisa Gaye was cast as June Webster. Later, Kennedy portrayed the sheriff, Fred Madden, of ABC's The Big Valley, with Barbara Stanwyck. He made his last appearance in 1973 in three episodes of CBS's Hawaii Five-O, with Jack Lord.

Kennedy died on August 10, 1973 at the age of fifty-seven in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he had been for the shooting of Hawaii Five-O. He is interred at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

Ricardo Montalbán

Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino was a Mexican actor. His career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for many different performances in a variety of genres, from crime and drama to musicals and comedy.

Among his notable roles was Armando in the Planet of the Apes film series from the early 1970s. He also starred in Escape from the Planet of the Apes from 1971 and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes from 1972.

Ricardo Montalbán played Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island (1977–1984), and Khan Noonien Singh on the original Star Trek series beginning in 1967 and the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He won an Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won (1978), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. Montalbán was professionally active into his eighties, when he provided voices for animated films and commercials, and appeared as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids franchise. 

Antoni Comas

Antoni Comas i Pujol was a university professor, historian and literary critic, first university professor of Catalan Language and Literature at the University of Barcelona after the Civil War.

Comas was born on January 3, 1931 in Mataró on calle Santa Teresa, in a modest and hard-working family, his paternal grandparents established service bindings with the aristocratic families of the Palau and Marfà, of whom were masovers and workers, respectively. His parents, Pompília Pujol and Juncà and Francesc Comas and Figueras worked at the textile factory of Can Marfà, from which the father succeeded in being a manufacturing leader. Antoni Comas was the smallest of five brothers, and from very young he was part of the life of Mataró. He studied at the school of Santa Anna, he belonged to the Mataroní Foment groups, the Mariana Congregations and the Lluïsos. He entered university in 1949, where he enrolled in Law and Philosophy and Letters. He ran the studies to the letters and the Law career soon abandoned him. In the student years he was part of the Curial clandestine magazine, which wanted to spread literature and culture beyond the gray panorama of the postwar period.

In 1953, he graduated with an Extraordinary Prize, and in 1956 he obtained a doctorate with a thesis on Ramon Vidal de Besalú. Martí de Riquer and Jordí Rubió were their most prominent teachers. He contributed in 1956 to the creation of the Lletra d'Or Prize and was part of the initial jury that gave the first prize to Salvador Espriu by Final del labirinto. In 1966, he won the Catalan Language and Literature Chair at the University of Barcelona, restored after the civil war, from which he contributed to the normalization of the language in the academic field, and beyond, how is it the case of the Catalan television program with us (1976) broadcast by the Catalan circuit of Televisión Española . He focused on research in various aspects of Catalan culture and literature, especially in modern times, expanded the field of study to the mystical Castilian, such as Santa Teresa de Jesús,  he began with Riquer the History of Catalan literature, in which he coordinated the fourth and fifth volumes - the fourth prize won the Nicolau d'Olwer Prize in 1971. In 1969 the chairs assigned to Romance Philology were replaced by departments, and Antoni Comas began to direct the Department of Catalan Philology. In 1974 he was elected a permanent member of the Real Academia de Bones Lletres, but did not take possession of the academic medal; he happened Salvador Espriu. He combined his dedication to teaching and research in newspapers such as El Noticiero Universal, Tele-Exprés or Avui.

Comas died on March 24, 1981.

Martí de Riquer i Morera

Martí de Riquer i Morera, 8th Count of Casa Dávalos was a Spanish–Catalan literary historian and Romance philologist, a recognized international authority in the field. His writing career lasted from 1934 to 2004. He was also a nobleman and Grandee of Spain.

Riquer was born in Barcelona in 1914, the grandson of Alexandre de Riquer i Ynglada, from whom he rehabilitated the noble title Count of Casa Dávalos in 1956, because it was in situation of expiry. He fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Nationalist side, in the Terç de Requetès de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat and later the propaganda service under Dionisio Ridruejo's direction.

In 1977, he was appointed a senator in the Cortes Constituyentes by the Spanish king Juan Carlos I. He was also appointed chief of the Romance literature section of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

Riquer was a member of the Real Academia Española since 1965, president of the Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, and corresponding member of numerous foreign institutions. He was the emeritus chair of Literaturas Románicas at the University of Barcelona, which he held from 1950 to 1984. He was viceroy of the university in 1965–6 and viceroy of the Autonomous University of Barcelona from 1970 to 1976. He is the founder and honorary president of the Sociedad Roncesvals, dedicated to the study of the chanson de geste and cantar de gesta.

Among the Romance languages Riquer studied were Occitan, French, Spanish, and Catalan. Specifically, he has written important and influential works on Don Quixote, the chansons de geste, the medieval novel (notably Amadis de Gaula), the troubadours, courtly love, the history of Catalan literature, and the social phenomenon of the knight-errant. He studied the influence of Ausiàs March, Juan Boscan, and the work of Miguel de Cervantes. Perhaps his most ambitious work was Historia de la Literatura Universal ("History of Universal Literature"), in collaboration José María Valverde. He and his disciple Albert Hauf were the most prominent authorities on courtly love in Spain in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Riquer was the recipient of many honors later in life. In 1962 he received the Premio March de Cataluña, in 1990 he received the fourth Menéndez Pelayo International Prize, in 1991 he received the Premio Nacional de Ensayo from the Ministry of Culture for his monograph Aproximació al Tirant lo Blanc, in 1997 he received the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de Ciencias Sociales, in 1999 he received the Premi Lletra d'Or for Quinze generacions d'una família catalana, and in 2000 he received the Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas. In 2005 he was made a Grandee of Spain by King Juan Carlos I. He received Doctor honoris causa degrees (honorary doctor) from the University of Rome and the University of Liège.

Riquer died on September 17, 2013, in Barcelona, Spain.

Jean-Victor Hocquard

Jean-Victor Hocquard was a French musicologist, and a specialist of Mozart.


Jean-Victor Hocquard graduated from Metz high school and obtained his philosophy degree in Nancy. He was successively professor at Wissembourg, Sélestat and Sarreguemines. During the war, he served on the Maginot line. Imprisoned, released, re-imprisoned, he escaped from Metz at Christmas 1940. After the war, he was a professor of philosophy at the Grenoble, Tournon, Tanger and Altkirch high schools.

He passed a Doctorate of Arts from the University of Paris in 1956. His thesis was devoted to La pensée de Mozart partially published two years later at Éditions du Seuil, with a small book from the "Solfèges" series, reprinted since 1964 during its fourth reprint and in 1970 for the second edition, and then reprinted regularly.

He taught philosophy, but devoted most of his energy to deepening the knowledge of the Viennese musician. His name is considered to be "inseparable from Mozart's.", even more than Alfred Einstein, Jean and Brigitte Massin. These authors having dealt with other studies in Beethoven or Schubert for example, Jean-Victor Hocquard in about ten books, has invested himself entirely for Mozart.

From his thesis, he maintained throughout his various studies, the idea that Mozart's specificity resides in a thought of "intrinsically musical character", going so far as to consider Mozart as an initiatory guide who, through aesthetic ideals, "would make his music a work of "truth."

Carl Goldenberg

Hyman Carl Goldenberg was a Canadian lawyer, arbitrator, mediator, and senator who is best known for his work as an arbitrator in major labor management disputes.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Goldenberg received a Master of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science in 1929 and a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1932 from McGill University. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1932. He was a lecturer at McGill from 1932 to 1936 and from 1944 to 1948.

He was appointed to the Senate by Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1971 and served until his retirement in 1982. He was a constitutional advisor to three Prime Ministers, Mackenzie King, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, and participated in 20 Royal Commissions and led numerous boards and special inquiries. He was the chairman of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and a member of the Senate-House of Commons committee on the Constitution of Canada.

Bill Davis

William Grenville "Bill" Davis was the 18th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government. Under John Robarts, he was a cabinet minister overseeing the education portfolio. He succeeded Robarts as Premier of Ontario and held the position until resigning in 1985.

Davis was born in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, the son of Vera (Hewetson) and Albert Grenville Davis.  Davis was politically active from a young age. Local Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Gordon Graydon was a frequent guest at his parents' house, and Davis himself became the first delegate younger than seventeen years to attend a national Progressive Conservative convention in Canada. He frequently campaigned for local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Thomas Laird Kennedy, who briefly served as Premier of Ontario in 1949.

He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1951 and attended Osgoode Hall Law School. Davis was a football player during his university years, and his teammates included Roy McMurtry and Thomas Leonard Wells, both of whom would later serve in his cabinet.

He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1959 provincial election, for the southern Ontario constituency of Peel. He was only 29 years old. Although Peel was an extremely safe Conservative seat for most of its history, Davis won by a surprisingly narrow 1,203 votes. The election took place soon after the federal Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow program. Most of the 14,000 Canadians put out of work by this decision were residents of Peel, and many cast protest ballots against Diefenbaker by supporting Bill Brydon, the provincial Liberal candidate. Davis served for two years as a backbench supporter of Leslie Frost's government. When Frost announced his retirement in 1961, Davis became the chief organizer of Robert Macaulay's campaign to succeed him as premier and party leader. Macaulay was eliminated on the next-to-last ballot, and, with Davis, delivered crucial support for John Robarts to defeat Kelso Roberts on the final vote.

Davis was appointed to Robarts' cabinet as Minister of Education on October 5, 1962, and was re-elected by a greatly increased margin in the 1963 provincial election. Davis was given additional responsibilities as Ontario's Minister of University Affairs on May 14, 1964, and held both portfolios until 1971. He soon developed a reputation as a strongly interventionist minister, and oversaw a dramatic increase in education expenditures throughout the 1960s. He established many new public schools, often in centralized locations to accommodate larger numbers of students. Davis also undertook dramatic and, at the time, controversial revisions of Ontario's outdated and inefficient school board system. He reduced the number of boards from 3,676 in 1962 to only 192 by 1967.

Davis established new public universities as minister, including Trent University and Brock University, and established the province's public college system. He is also responsible for the establishment of the Ontario Educational Communications Authority educational television network in 1970. Davis' handling of the education portfolio made him a high-profile minister, and there was little surprise when he entered the leadership contest to succeed Robarts in 1971. He was quickly dubbed as the frontrunner, though his awkward speaking style and image as an "establishment" candidate hindered his campaign. He defeated rival candidate Allan Lawrence by only 44 votes on the final ballot, after receiving support from third-place candidate Darcy McKeough. Shortly after the convention, Davis invited Lawrence's campaign team to join his inner circle of advisors. This group became known as the Big Blue Machine, and remained the dominant organizational force in the Progressive Conservative Party until the 1980s.

Shortly after taking office as premier, Davis announced that his government would not permit continuing construction of the rest of the Spadina Expressway into downtown Toronto (an initiative that had been unpopular with many of the area's residents). The "Davis ditch", the section of Allen Road south of Lawrence Avenue was nicknamed in his honour. He also rejected a proposal to grant full funding to Ontario's Catholic high schools, which some regarded as an appeal to the Progressive Conservative Party's rural Protestant base. Davis's team ran a professional campaign in the 1971 provincial election, and was rewarded with an increased majority government.

Davis's first full term as premier was by most accounts his least successful, with public confidence in his government weakened by a series of scandals. There were allegations that the Fidinam Company had received special consideration for a Toronto development program in return for donations to the Progressive Conservative Party. In 1973, it was revealed that Davis' friend Gerhard Moog had received a valuable untendered contract for the construction of Ontario Hydro's new head office and related projects. Attorney General Dalton Bales, Solicitor General John Yaremko and Treasurer McKeough were all accused of conflicts-of-interest relating to government approval for developments on properties they owned. The government was cleared of impropriety in all cases, but its popular support nonetheless declined. The Conservatives lost four key by-elections in 1973 and 1974.

On the policy front, the Davis administration introduced regional governments for Durham, Hamilton-Wentworth, Haldimand-Norfolk, and Waterloo but shelved further plans in response to popular protests. The government was also forced to cancel a planned 7% energy tax in 1973 following protests from the Progressive Conservative backbench. In the buildup to the 1975 provincial election, Davis imposed a ninety-day freeze on energy prices, temporarily reduced the provincial sales tax from 7% to 5%, and announced rent controls for the province.

The 1975 campaign was far bitterer than that of 1971, with Davis and Liberal leader Robert Nixon repeatedly hurling personal insults at one another. Polls taken shortly before the election had the Liberals in the lead. The Progressive Conservatives won only 51 seats out of 125, but were able to remain in power with a minority government. The New Democratic Party (NDP) won 38 seats under the leadership of Stephen Lewis, while Nixon's Liberals finished third with 36. Soon after the election, Davis hired Hugh Segal as his legislative secretary.

Davis appointed right-wingers Frank Miller and James Taylor to key cabinet portfolios after the election, but withdrew from a proposed austerity program following a negative public response. In 1977, he introduced a policy statement written by Segal which became known as the "Bramalea Charter", promising extensive new housing construction for the next decade. Davis called a snap election in 1977, but was again returned with only a minority. The Progressive Conservatives increased their standing to 58 seats, against 34 for the Liberals and 33 for the NDP.

The Conservatives remained the dominant party after the 1975 and 1977 elections due to the inability of either the New Democrats or the Liberals to become the clear alternative. The Conservatives were able to stay in power due to the competition between both opposition parties. As there was no serious consideration of a Liberal-NDP alliance after both campaigns, Davis was able to avoid defeat in the legislature by appealing to other parties for support on particular initiatives. His government often moved to the left of the rural-based Liberals on policy issues. The opposition parties had also undergone leadership changes; Nixon and Lewis, who had posed a strong challenge to Davis, resigned after the 1975 and 1977 elections, respectively. Nixon's successor Stuart Lyon Smith proved unable to increase Liberal support, while new NDP leader Michael Cassidy lacked the support of the party establishment and could not measure up to Lewis's charismatic and dynamic figure.

This period of the Davis government was one of expansion for the province's public health and education systems, and Davis held a particular interest in ensuring that the province's community colleges remained productive. The government also expanded the provisions of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and expanded bilingual services without introducing official bilingualism to the province.

The Progressive Conservatives were returned with a majority government in the 1981 provincial election, mostly at the expense of the NDP. Soon after the election, Davis announced that John Tory had been hired to succeed Hugh Segal as his principal secretary. He also announced that Ontario would purchase a 25% share in the energy corporation Suncor, despite opposition from within his own caucus.

In 1983 Davis considered moving to federal politics by running to lead the federal Progressive Conservatives when Joe Clark only received lukewarm support during a leadership review. Davis decided not to do so when he realized that he would not receive endorsements from western Canada because of his support for the Constitution patriation and the National Energy Program. His candidacy had been strongly opposed by Peter Lougheed, the Premier of Alberta. He retired a few months before the 1985 election, with him and his government still well ahead in polls against David Peterson's Liberals and Bob Rae's NDP. One of his last major acts as premier was to reverse his 1971 decision against the full funding of Catholic schools, and announce that such funding would be provided to the end of Grade Thirteen. Although the policy was supported by all parties in the legislature, it was unpopular with some in the Conservatives' traditional rural Protestant base, and many would stay home in the upcoming election because of this issue.

Davis was succeeded by Frank Miller, who was elected leader at a January 1985 leadership convention over Larry Grossman (who was widely considered the successor to Davis and his Big Blue Machine). Although Miller was more conservative, the Progressive Conservatives still held a significant lead over the opposition when the election was called. However, after a poor campaign and controversy over Catholic school funding, in the 1985 provincial election they were reduced to minority government and lost the popular vote to the Liberal Party, and were soon defeated in a motion of non-confidence by a Liberal-NDP accord, ending the party's 42-year period of rule over the province.

Davis was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1985, and since his retirement from politics has served on numerous corporate boards.  Davis's reputation within the Ontario Progressive Conservatives was compromised during the 1990s by the party's shift to the right under Mike Harris. Many Conservatives parliamentarians were openly dismissive of Davis-era spending policies, and frequently highlighted the differences between Davis and Harris on policy issues. Davis remained a supporter of the party, but seldom appeared at official events. In a National Post editorial, on the tenth anniversary of Harris' 1995 electoral victory, Harris' chief of staff described the difference in their policies, saying that Davis retained power with a careful balancing act, while Harris used a bold platform to unexpectedly catapult the party from third place to first.

In 2003, Davis played a role in the successful negotiations to merge the federal Progressive Conservatives with the Canadian Alliance, and create the new Conservative Party of Canada. (Clark refused to endorse the newly merged party.) In the 2006 federal campaign, he campaigned for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and endorsed former provincial minister Jim Flaherty. Harper spoke favorably of Davis during the campaign, and said that he learned much from Davis's style of governing. The Conservatives were able to defeat the Liberals to form the government.

In recent years Davis has returned to an honored position within the party. He was a keynote speaker at the 2004 Progressive Conservative leadership convention, and was singled out for praise in speeches by outgoing party leader Ernie Eves and new leader John Tory. Davis was also present for Tory's first session in the Ontario legislature, following the latter's victory in a 2005 by-election.

Dennis Timbrell

Dennis Roy Timbrell is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1987, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of William Davis and Frank Miller.

Timbrell was born in Kingston, Ontario and educated at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario and York University in Toronto. His brother Robert was an actor and performer, better known by the stage name Rusty Ryan. Timbrell worked as a teacher before entering provincial politics, and served as an alderman in North York from January 1970 until September 1, 1972.

Timbrell contested 1971 provincial election as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and won election in the Toronto constituency of Don Mills. He was re-elected without difficulty in the campaigns of 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1985. He became a minister without portfolio responsible for Youth in Davis's government on February 26, 1974, and was named as Minister of Energy on July 18, 1975. On February 3, 1977, he was promoted to Minister of Health. After serving in this high-profile position for five years, he became Ontario's Minister of Agriculture and Food on February 13, 1982.

Following Davis's resignation as PC leader and as premier, Timbrell sought the party leadership at the January 1985 leadership convention. He positioned himself as a centre-right candidate - further to the right of Red Tory rivals Larry Grossman and Roy McMurtry, but not as far to the right as Frank Miller - and therefore the candidate best able to continue Davis' pragmatic, successful style of government. (In fact, many media pundits at the time referred to Timbrell as a "clone" of Davis; playing to this, some of Timbrell's supporters at the January 1985 convention wore buttons that depicted a caricature which morphed the facial features of both Davis and Timbrell into one person). Timbrell was the only candidate to favour eliminating rent controls during the campaign. His supporters included Keith Norton, Leo Bernier, Margaret Birch, Robert Eaton, Gordon Dean, Bob Welch and Norm Sterling.

Timbrell placed second on the first ballot, but was eliminated when he fell to third place on the second ballot, six votes behind Grossman who had the backing of McMurtry's campaign. Dr. John Balkwill in 1987 claimed that 30 to 40 Miller supporters were instricted by the Miller campaign to vote for Grossman on the second ballot to prevent him from advancing. Lou Parsons, a senior Miller adviser, later acknowledged, "We wouldn't have won it against Dennis [...] Our winning strategy was always to be against Larry ... and in the end we were lucky." Timbrell reluctantly endorsed Grossman after the results were confirmed by a recount. He however did not bring enough delegates on the third ballot and that resulted in Miller's victory. He was retained in Miller's cabinet as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing with responsibility for Women's Issues.

The Progressive Conservative Party under Miller's leadership was reduced to a narrow minority government in the 1985 election. Following a cabinet shuffle on May 17, 1985, Timbrell retained his previous postings and was additionally appointed Provincial Secretary for Resource Development. Miller's government was defeated in the House in June, 1985. In opposition, Timbrell served as House Leader of the Official Opposition and his party's critic for Education and Women's Issues.

Miller resigned as leader, and the party called another leadership convention for November 1985. This contest was an extremely divisive struggle between Timbrell and Grossman, which exposed deep divisions in the party. A third candidate, Alan Pope, drew attention to the animosity between the candidates with his slogan, "Don't choose sides, choose Pope". Alan Eagleson was a co-chairman of Timbrell's campaign.

In this leadership race, Timbrell announced he would not support the full funding of Catholic schools (which had previously been agreed to by all parties in the legislature) unless amendments were put forward guaranteeing entry to non-Catholic teachers and students. Norm Sterling, an inveterate opponent of Catholic school funding, derided Timbrell's position as opportunistic and crossed over to Grossman. Timbrell's change of position may have turned away other potential supporters as well.

Pope finished third on the opening ballot and some believed that he could have given Timbrell a second-ballot victory over Grossman, though Pope chose not to endorse either side. Grossman defeated Timbrell on the second ballot by nineteen votes, effectively ending Timbrell's career in provincial politics. He did not seek re-election in 1987. Timbrell served as president of the Ontario Hospital Association from 1991 to 1995. He also served as a Director of the St. Joseph's Health System (Sisters of St. Joseph, Morrow Park) from 1986 to 1988 and a Director of the Toronto School of Theology (U of T) from 1986 to 1992 and in 1997–2003 (Vice-Chairman from 1991 to 1993 and in 1997–2000, Chairman from 2000 to 2003). He has served as a Director of various corporations, including Cabot Trust, Confederation Leasing, Confederation Trust, Ontario Blue Cross, United Telemanagement (Canada) Corporation and Eco Power Solutions Inc.

In 1997 and again in 2000 Timbrell campaigned for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as the federal Progressive Conservative candidate in the eastern Ontario riding of Prince Edward—Hastings In the 1997 federal election, Timbrell placed second to Liberal Lyle Vanclief, with 21.5% of the vote. In the 2000 election, Timbrell placed third with 20.3% of the vote.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian airforces.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the slightly older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.

Sigismund Blumann

Sigismund Blumann was a prominent tastemaker in Californian photography during the 1920s and 1930s. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area for his entire career, he edited magazines, wrote books, and made creative photographs. From 1924 to 1933 Blumann edited Camera Craft, the leading West Coast photographic monthly. Subsequently he established his own periodical, Photo Art Monthly, which he published until 1940. In these two magazines — for over fifteen years — Blumann found a large audience of mainstream pictorial photographers. In addition, he wrote five instructional books on photography, providing a substantial amount of technical information for committed picturemakers. During the 1920s, Blumann also made accomplished pictorial photographs of his own, concentrating on landscape work. After the middle of the twentieth century, however, his visibility diminished quickly, due to his own inactivity and a growing disdain for pictorialism.

Steve McQueen

Terence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American actor. Called "The King of Cool", his "anti-hero" persona developed at the height of the counterculture of the 1960s and made him a top box-office draw of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Cincinnati Kid, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon, as well as the all-star ensemble films The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Towering Inferno.

Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers was an English film actor, comedian and singer. He performed in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, featured on a number of hit comic songs and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film characterizations, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series of films.

Born in Portsmouth, Sellers made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre, Southsea, when he was two weeks old. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres. He first worked as a drummer and toured around England as a member of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). He developed his mimicry and improvisational skills during a spell in Ralph Reader's wartime Gang Show entertainment troupe, which toured Britain and the Far East. After the war, Sellers made his radio debut in ShowTime, and eventually became a regular performer on various BBC radio shows. During the early 1950s, Sellers, along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, took part in the successful radio series The Goon Show, which ended in 1960.

Sellers began his film career during the 1950s. Although the bulk of his work was comedic, often parodying characters of authority such as military officers or policemen, he also performed in other film genres and roles. Films demonstrating his artistic range include I'm All Right Jack (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), What's New, Pussycat? (1965), Casino Royale (1967), The Party (1968), Being There (1979) and five films of the Pink Panther series (1963–78). Sellers's versatility enabled him to portray a wide range of comic characters using different accents and guises, and he would often assume multiple roles within the same film, frequently with contrasting temperaments and styles. Satire and black humour were major features of many of his films, and his performances had a strong influence on a number of later comedians. Sellers was nominated three times for an Academy Award, twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performances in Dr. Strangelove and Being There, and once for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role twice, for I'm All Right Jack and for the original Pink Panther film, The Pink Panther (1963) and was nominated as Best Actor three times. In 1980 he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in Being There, and was previously nominated three times in the same category.

In his personal life, Sellers struggled with depression and insecurities. An enigmatic figure, he often claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behavior was often erratic and compulsive, and he frequently clashed with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst. Sellers was married four times, and had three children from his first two marriages. He died as a result of a heart attack in 1980, aged 54. 

Frank Knight

Frank Hyneman Knight was an American economist who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the founders of the Chicago school. Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, George Stigler and James M. Buchanan were all students of Knight at Chicago. Ronald Coase said that Knight, without teaching him, was a major influence on his thinking. F.A. Hayek considered Knight to be one of the major figures in preserving and promoting classical liberal thought in the twentieth century.

James Franck

James Franck was a German physicist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed his doctorate in 1906 and his habilitation in 1911 at the Frederick William University in Berlin, where he lectured and taught until 1918, having reached the position of professor extraordinarius. He served as a volunteer in the German Army during World War I. He was seriously injured in 1917 in a gas attack and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class.

Franck became the Head of the Physics Division of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft for Physical Chemistry. In 1920, Franck became professor ordinarius of experimental physics and Director of the Second Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Göttingen. While there he worked on quantum physics with Max Born, who was Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. His work included the Franck–Hertz experiment, an important confirmation of the Bohr model of the atom. He promoted the careers of women in physics, notably Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hilde Levi.

After the NSDAP came to power in Germany in 1933, Franck resigned his post in protest against the dismissal of fellow academics. He assisted Frederick Lindemann in helping dismissed Jewish scientists find work overseas, before he left Germany in November 1933. After a year at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, he moved to the United States, where he worked at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and then the University of Chicago. During this period he became interested in photosynthesis.

Franck participated in the Manhattan Project during World War II as Director of the Chemistry Division of the Metallurgical Laboratory. He was also the chairman of the Committee on Political and Social Problems regarding the atomic bomb, which is best known for the compilation of the Franck Report, which recommended that the atomic bombs not be used on the Japanese cities without warning.

He died suddenly from a heart attack while visiting Göttingen on 21 May 1964, and was buried in Chicago, Illinois.