Chaim Weizmann

 

Chaim Azriel Weizmann was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israeli statesman who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. 

Weizmann was born on November 27, 1874. 

As a biochemist he developed the acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation process, which produces acetone, n-butanol and ethanol through bacterial fermentation. His acetone production method was of great importance in the manufacture of cordite explosive propellants for the British war industry during World War I. He founded the Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot (later renamed the Weizmann Institute of Science in his honor), and was instrumental in the establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He was elected president of Israel on February 16, 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was fundamental in obtaining the Balfour Declaration and later convincing the United States government to recognize the newly formed State of Israel.

Weizmann died on November 9, 1952.

Ralph Flanders

Ralph Edward Flanders was an American mechanical engineer, industrialist and politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Vermont. He was president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank for two years before being elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.

Flanders was born on September 28, 1880 in Barnet, Vermont on September 28, 1880, the oldest of the nine children of Albert W. Flanders and Mary (Gilfillan) Flanders. When Flanders was six, his family moved to Lincoln, Rhode Island, where his father farmed while supervising in Pawtucket the construction and sale of a bookrack he designed. Flanders attended school in Providence and Central Falls, and was an 1896 graduate of Central Falls High School.

In his first years as a machinist and draftsman, he spent his vacations traveling by bicycle over country roads between Rhode Island and Vermont and New Hampshire. Later, he lived for a time in New York City where he edited a machine tool magazine, but after five years decided to move back to Vermont.

Flanders's career began with an apprenticeship, progressed into engineering, journalism, management, policy consulting, banking, finance, and finally politics when he was elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.

Flanders was noted for introducing a 1954 motion in the Senate to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy had made sensational claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. He used his Senate committee as a nationally televised forum for attacks on individuals whom he accused. Flanders felt that McCarthy's attacks distracted the nation from a much greater threat of Communist successes elsewhere in the world and that they had the effect of creating division and confusion within the United States, to the advantage of its enemies. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate.

Flanders died on February 19, 1970.

Nils Reinhardt Christensen

Nils Reinhardt Christensen was a Norwegian film director and screenwriter. He directed nine films between 1957 and 1969.

Christensen was born on April 13, 1919 to Nils Christian Christensen (1872-1957) and Ellen Kristine Reiersen (1883-1953). He attended business school and worked for a short time in his father's manufacturing business. He started his own dance band and at the age of 19 traveled to Oslo, where he became an extra at the National Theatre while studying with Halfdan Christensen and Knut Hergel. He made his acting debut in Arne Skouen's play "Ansikt til ansikt" at Søilen Teater in 1939. 

He was an actor at Den Nationale Scene from 1940 to 1945 and worked at Radioteatret. He was also the manager of Trøndelag Teater 1950-51. He made his film directorial debut with "Selv om de er små" (Even if they are small) (1957) and directed the film "Line" (1961) based on Axel Jensen's novel. Nils-Reinhardt Christensen translated the popular Stompa books from English and adapted them to Norwegian conditions. He made both radio plays and feature films about Stompa. He also wrote the plays "Den store dagen" (1974) and "Dobbelt-streken". Nils-Reinhardt Christensen was also chairman of the Dramatikerforbundet 1973-85. 

He died on November 8, 1990.

David Daiches

David Daiches was a Scottish literary historian and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture.

He was born on September 2, 1912 in Sunderland, into a Jewish family with a Lithuanian background—the subject of his 1956 memoir, Two Worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood. He moved to Edinburgh while still a young child, about the end of World War I, where his father, Rev. Dr. Salis Daiches was rabbi to Edinburgh's Jewish community, and founder of the city's branch of B'nai Brith. He studied at George Watson's College and won a scholarship to University of Edinburgh where he won the Elliot prize. He went to Oxford where he became the Elton exhibitioner, and was elected Fellow of Balliol College in 1936.

Daiches is the father of Jenni Calder, also a Scottish literary historian. His brother was the prominent Edinburgh QC Lionel Henry Daiches. Although Lionel retained the older, traditional pronunciation of their surname as 'dyke-iz' /ˈdaɪ χ (or k) ɪz/, David returned from the USA with the Americanized 'day-ches', /ˈdeɪ tʃɪz/. He also had a sister, Sylvia Daiches.

During World War II, he worked for the British Embassy in Washington, DC, producing pamphlets for the British Information Service and drafting (and delivering) speeches on British institutions and foreign policy.

Daiches' first published work was The Place of Meaning in Poetry, published in 1935. He was a prolific writer, producing works on English literature, Scottish literature, literary history and criticism as well as the broader role of literature in society and culture. His The Novel and the Modern World (1939) was well received, and his expertise on the modern period led to his co-editing The Norton Anthology of English Literature (1962). He also wrote the two-volume A Critical History of English Literature and edited the Penguin Companion to Literature – Britain and the Commonwealth (1971). He wrote biographical and critical works on Virginia Woolf, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns, D. H. Lawrence, John Milton, and Sir Walter Scott. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes, books on Scotch whisky, the King James Bible, and the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, a biography of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and a volume of poetry.

Starting at the University of Edinburgh, he had a long and influential career teaching in the UK, the US and Canada. He taught or held visiting posts at Balliol College, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Jesus College, Cambridge, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, McMaster University in Canada, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and the University of California; besides setting up the English Department at the newly founded University of Sussex. From 1979 to 1984 he was President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies and from 1980 to 1986 he was Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Edinburgh University. Daiches chaired the panel of judges for the Booker Prize in 1980 and was president of the Saltire Society from 1982 to 1986. He was appointed CBE in the 1991 Birthday Honours.

 Daiches died on July 15, 2005.