title: Gulf of Finland

text: The bottom of the gulf is one of the world's largest ship cemeteries. Because of the low salinity and cold waters, and no shipworms, the ships are relatively well preserved. Since the 6th century, major waterways were running through the gulf, and from the 8th to the 10th century, about 3,000 tonnes of silver was transported there. Later, the gulf was actively used by Sweden and Russia for transport of goods. Every year saw dozens of lost ships. In the fall of 1743, 17 Russian warships returning from Finland sank in just 7 hours, and in the summer of 1747, 26 merchant vessels sank within 4 hours near Narva. A record was set in 1721 when during the evacuation of Russian troops from Finland, more than 100 vessels were lost within 3 months, including 64 in a single night.


title: Gulf of Finland

text: By the end of 1996, about 5,000 submerged objects were identified in the Russian part of the gulf, including 2,500 ships, 1,500 airplanes, and small items such as boats, anchors, tanks, tractors, cars, cannons, and even naval mines, aerial bombs, torpedoes, and other ammunition. The ships belonged to Russia (25%), Germany (19%), United Kingdom (17%), Sweden (15%), Netherlands (8%), and Finland (7%). The remaining 9% are from Norway, Denmark, France, United States, Italy, Estonia, and Latvia. These objects present potential hazards to navigation, fishery, coastal construction, laying of submarine pipelines and cables, and the environment. Mines were laid in the gulf during World War I (38,932 units), the Russian Civil War, and the Winter War (1939–1940), with an estimated total number of 60,000; 85,000 more mines were set during World War II, and only a fraction of all those were eliminated after the wars.


title: Gulf of Finland

text: The ecological condition of the Gulf of Finland, Neva Bay and Neva River is unsatisfactory. There is significant contamination by ions of mercury and copper, organochlorine pesticides, phenols, petroleum products and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Cleaning of waste water in Saint Petersburg was started in 1979 and by 1997 about 74% of wastewater was purified. This number rose to 85% in 2005, to 91.7% by 2008, and as of 2009 was expected to reach 100% by 2011 with the completion of the expansion of the main sewerage plant. Nevertheless, in 2008, the Federal Service of Saint Petersburg announced that no beach of Saint Petersburg is fit for swimming.


title: Gulf of Finland

text: Fish catchment decreased 10 times between 1989 and 2005. Apart from pollution, another reason for that is hydraulic and engineering works. For example, construction of new ports in Ust-Luga and Vysotsk and on Vasilyevsky Island adversely affected the spawning of fish. Extraction of sand and gravel in the Neva Bay for the land reclamation destroy spawning sites of European smelt.


title: Gulf of Finland

text: Construction of the Saint Petersburg Dam reduced water exchange of the Neva Bay with the eastern part of the gulf by 10–20% that increased the contamination level of Neva Bay. The largest changes occur within from the dam. Some shallow areas between Saint Petersburg and the dam are turning into swamps. Waterlogging and the associated rotting of plants may eventually lead to eutrophication of the area. Also worrying is expansion of oil ports in the gulf and the construction of a treatment center for spent fuel from the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.


title: Gulf of Finland

text: The port of Kronstadt is currently serving as a transit point for the import in Russia of radioactive waste through the Baltic Sea. The waste, mostly depleted uranium hexafluoride, is further transported through Saint Petersburg to Novouralsk, Angarsk and other cities of eastern Russia. This transit point will be moved from Saint Petersburg to the port Ust-Luga, which is about west of Saint Petersburg, and within the Border Security Zone of Russia, as decided by the Russian government in 2003 (Order No. 1491-r of 14 October 2003). It is expected that after this completes it should reduce the ecological risks for Saint Petersburg. Ust-Luga is envisioned to be the largest transportation and logistics hub in northwestern Russia. However, in 2015 it was reported that some construction plans in Ust-Luga were frozen, and the construction of Ust-Luga Multimodal Complex, supposed to be the transit point for radioactive waste, never started.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Eleanor May Simmonds, OBE (born 11 November 1994) is a British former Paralympian swimmer who competed in S6 events. She came to national attention when she competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the team, at the age of 13. In 2012, she was again selected for the Great Britain squad, this time swimming at a home games in London. She won another two golds in London, including setting a World Record in the 400m freestyle, and a further gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, this time setting a world record for the 200m medley.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Born in Walsall, Simmonds grew up in Aldridge, a part of the Metropolitan Walsall Borough. She completed her primary education at Cooper and Jordan CofE Primary before attending Aldridge School and later Olchfa School in Swansea. Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, became interested in swimming at the age of five. She swam for Boldmere Swimming Club in Sutton Coldfield, under Head Coach Ashley Cox, but she and her mother moved to Swansea when Simmonds was 11 to take advantage of the city's world-class swimming pool. Simmonds has three sisters and a brother. She studied Psychology at Loughborough University in England. She is in a relationship with Matt Dean.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: At the age of 13, Simmonds was the youngest British athlete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, competing in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle, 50m butterfly, and 200m Individual Medley. She won gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle events.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: On 1 September 2012, Simmonds repeated her gold performance to win the 400m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, in which she took five seconds off the World Record time. Two days later, on the evening of 3 September, she took Gold in the 200m Individual Medley, breaking the World Record that she had set in the qualifying round that morning.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: On 12 September 2016, at the Rio Paralympics, Simmonds defended her Gold medal for the 200m individual medley setting a new world record, the first below 3 minutes at 2:59.81 Simmonds also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: In addition, Simmonds has won ten gold World Championship titles, and swims in the S6 disability category.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: On 2 September 2021, Simmonds announced her Paralympic retirement after missing out on a medal in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: On 7 August 2022, it was announced that Simmonds would be participating in the twentieth series of the BBC One show "Strictly Come Dancing" with her professional dance partner being Nikita Kuzmin. She was eliminated in Week 7 after losing the dance off to Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Simmonds was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. At 14 years old, she became the youngest person ever to have received this honour. She received the honour from Queen Elizabeth II on 18 February 2009. In March 2012, in the 200 m individual medley, she became the first swimmer to break a world record at London's Aquatics Centre. Her victory in a time of 3:08.14 broke her own previous best time by over half a second.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: In 2011, Simmonds won the award for 'Best British Sporting Performance for an Athlete with Disability' at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London Simmonds won four medals, two golds, a silver and a bronze. She took gold in the S6 400m with a new world record; gold in the S6 200m again with a new world record; silver in the S6 100m and a bronze in the S6 50m. In celebration of her two gold medals, two Royal Mail postboxes were painted gold in her honour, one in Aldridge and one in Swansea.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Simmonds was elevated to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to Paralympic sport.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Simmonds is very involved with charity work, with much of her focus being on sports, young people and water.


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: Simmonds is a patron of the Dwarf Sports Association UK, along with swimmer Matthew Whorwood. Simmonds says of the charity, "It’s a charity that supports people of short stature and helps them get into sport. One of the highlights of the year is the convention we have in the spring. There’s everything from power lifting to athletics."


title: Ellie Simmonds

text: In January 2019, Simmonds was appointed to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee board.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga, officially the City of Naga (Central Bikol: "Siyudad nin Naga"; Rinconada Bikol: "Syudad ka Naga"; ) or the Pilgrim City of Naga, is a 1st class independent component city in the Bicol Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 209,170 people.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The town was established in 1575 by order of Spanish Governor-General Francisco de Sande. The city, then named Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres (New Cáceres City), was one of the Spanish royal cities in the Spanish East Indies, along with Manila, Cebu, and Iloilo, the third oldest to be exact.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Geographically and statistically classified, as well as legislatively represented within Camarines Sur, but administratively independent of the provincial government, Naga is the Bicol Region's trade, business, religious, cultural, industrial, commercial, medical, educational, and financial center.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is known as the "Queen City of Bicol" due to the historical significance of Naga in the Bicol Region; as the "Heart of Bicol", due to its central location on the Bicol Peninsula; and as the "Pilgrim City," as Naga is also the destination of one of the largest Marian pilgrimages in Asia to the shrine of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, an image that is one of the country's most popular objects of devotion. Naga is also known as "One of the Seven Golden Cities of the Sun" as stated by Nick Joaquín.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city is the seat of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Cáceres, which includes all the suffragan sees of Bicol.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is the native pre-colonial name of the city. It is named after the narra tree ("Pterocarpus indicus"), which is known as "naga" in the Bikol language. It was abundant in the region and was part of a pre-colonial industry of wooden cups and bowls made from narra that produced distinctive blue and yellow opalescent colors when water is poured into them (later known to Europeans as "lignum nephriticum"). During the Spanish colonial era, they were exported to Mexico as luxury goods for their purported diuretic properties via the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, and from there, to Europe. They were often presented as gifts to European nobility.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Jesuit missionary and historian Juan José Delgado (1697-1755) describes the industry in the following:


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Bicolandia was closely allied with the Kedatuan of Madja-as Confederation, which was located southeast on Panay Island. According to the epic "Maragtas", two datus and their followers, who followed Datu Puti, arrived at Taal Lake, with one group later settling around Laguna de Bay, and another group pushing southward into the Bicol Peninsula, placing the Bicolanos between people from Luzon and people from the Visayas. An ancient tomb preserved among the Bicolanos, discovered and examined by anthropologists during the 1920s, refers to some of the same deities and personages mentioned in the "Maragtas".


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In 1573, on his second expedition to this region, the conquistador Juan de Salcedo landed in a settlement named Naga in the native languages, because of the abundance of narra trees ("naga" in Bikol).


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In 1575, Captain Pedro de Chávez, the commander of the garrison left behind by Salcedo, founded on the site of the present business centre (across the river from the original Naga) a Spanish city which he named La Ciudad de Cáceres, in honor of Francisco de Sande, the Governor-General and a native of Cáceres in Spain. It was by this name that it was identified in the papal bull of August 14, 1595, which established the see of Cáceres, together with Cebú and Nueva Segovia, and made it the seat of the new bishopric subject to the Archdiocese of Manila. Nueva Caceres was settled by around 100 Spaniards from Europe and reinforced by migrations from Mexico.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In time, the Spanish city and the native village merged into one community and became popularly known as "Nueva Cáceres", to distinguish it from its namesake in Spain. It had a city government as prescribed by Spanish law, with an "ayuntamiento" and "cabildo" of its own. At the beginning of the 17th century, there were only five other "ciudades" in the Philippines. Nueva Cáceres remained the capital of the Ambos Camarines provinces and later of Camarines Sur province until the formal creation of the independent chartered city of Naga under a sovereign Philippines.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: For hundreds of years during the Spanish colonial era, Naga grew to become the center of trade, education, and culture, and the seat of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Bicol.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: With the advent of American rule, the city was reduced to a municipality. In 1919, it lost its Spanish name and became officially known as Naga.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga came under Japanese occupation on December 18, 1941, following the Japanese invasion of Legaspi a few days earlier.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In 1945, toward the end of World War II, combined U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth troops—of the United States Army, Philippine Commonwealth Army, Philippine Constabulary, as well as Bicolano guerrilla resistance groups—liberated Naga from Imperial Japanese troops.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: After Naga was liberated from the Japanese, Naga began rebuilding. Having suffered only a few casualties, Naga was able to rebuild quickly after the war.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: After many petitions, Naga became a city on June 18, 1948, when it acquired its present city charter; and its city government was inaugurated on December 15 of the same year by virtue of Republic Act No. 305.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is located within the province of Camarines Sur at the southeastern tip of Luzon, from Pili and southeast of Manila, the nation's capital, and near the center of the Bicol Region. It is surrounded on all sides by forests and by rich agricultural and fishing areas. It has an area of and is located on the serpentine and historic Naga River, at the confluence of the Naga and Bikol rivers. Thus, it has always been an ideal place for trade, and as center for schools, church, and government offices. Included in its territory is Mount Isarog, a declared protected area known as Mount Isarog Natural Park.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The weather in the city from March to May is hot and dry, with temperatures ranging from . The typhoon season is from June to October, and the weather then is generally rainy. From November to February, the climate is cooler with temperatures ranging from . The average year-round humidity is 77%.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: According to the 2020 census, the population of Naga is 209,170 people, with a density of 2,300/km. Naga had an average annual population growth of 1.29% between 2010 and 2020 according to same census. All populated areas of the city are classified as urban. Naga City has about the same population as Legazpi City (209,533).


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city is the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Caceres, which oversees the Catholic population in the Bicol Region, whose archbishop is the primate of the region. This dominant faith is supported by the presence of old and influential Catholic institutions, from universities to churches run by different religious institutes, notably the Ateneo de Naga University by the Jesuits; the Universidad de Santa Isabel by the Daughters of Charity; the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral that is still standing in Luzon outside Metro Manila; Peñafrancia Basilica Minore, which is the largest Catholic structure in southern Luzon in terms of size and land area; Our Lady of Peñafrancia Shrine; the historic San Francisco Church; and Peñafrancia Museum.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Protestant denominations in the city include Seventh-day Adventists and Bible Baptists, whose churches are located along Magsaysay Avenue, while other Protestants attend the Methodist Church which is among the old structures along Peñafrancia Avenue.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The "Assemblies of God" maintains a fast-growing ministry in Naga. Aside from Naga Bethel Church (formerly Naga Bethel Temple), which is located on Felix Plazo Street, other local congregations are Philippians Christian Fellowship (in barangays San Felipe), Gethsemane Christian Ministries (in Carolina), and outreach ministries in other barangays.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The largest minority religion in Naga is Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). INC has several chapels in different barangays in the city, and the local congregation is the largest in the district.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Coastal Bikol-Central dialect of the Coastal Bikol language is the dominant dialect spoken by the population in Naga. Central Standard Bikol is also the basis for other dialects in the Bicol Region. The majority of the city's population can understand and speak English, Filipino, and Tagalog. Because of the influx of people from the Rinconada area that are studying in different universities, Rinconada Bikol can also be heard in different schools and throughout the city. Some Nagueños have varying degrees of proficiency with Rinconada Bikol, due to the fact that the southern half of Pili, which is the boundary between Rinconada Bikol and Coastal Bikol speakers, is just few kilometers away from Naga. Although the main language is Bikol, and the medium of instruction in school is English, people in Naga usually tell time and count in Spanish.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In 2010, UNESCO released its 3rd volume of "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger", where three critically endangered languages were in the Philippines. One of these is the "Isarog Agta" language, of the Isarog Agta people, who live on Mount Isarog and are one of the original Negrito settlers in the Philippines, belonging to the Aeta people classification but with language and belief systems unique to their own culture and heritage.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Only five Isarog Agta spoke their indigenous language in the year 2000. The language was classified as "Critically Endangered", meaning the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, speak the language partially and infrequently, and hardly pass the language to their children and grandchildren. If the remaining 150 Isarog Agta do not pass their native language to the next generation, it will be extinct within one to two decades.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is the Bicol Region's center of commerce and industry. Strategically located at the heart of Bicol, Naga is the trade center in Bicol for goods from Visayas and Manila.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is cited as one of the "Most Business-Friendly Cities in Asia", is considered to be one of the Philippines's Top-10 cities, and is a "most competitive city" of the Philippines. Some entrepreneurs cited the city as the most business-friendly in the region.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Downtown Naga is located in the southern part of the city. It is bordered on the north by the Naga University Belt and on the south by the historical Naga City Peoples Mall or simply Naga City Community Supermarket. It encompasses the three plazas of Naga: The Plaza Quince Martires, The Plaza Quezon, and the Plaza Rizal, which is the center of Central Business District 1 (CBD-1). Downtown Naga is the location of local businesses that sell local delicacies and native products from neighboring municipalities and provinces.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: A second business district, known as the Central Business District 2 (CBD-2), is located along Panganiban Drive and Roxas, Ninoy, and Cory avenues. It is also the location of 3 shopping complexes, a bus terminal, and the Camarines Sur Industrial and Technological Park, which houses several business process outsourcing offices.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: South Riverfront is composed of the whole of Barangay Sabang except those areas that are socialized housing sites or are otherwise excluded by the Naga City land-use plan for commercial or industrial development. It is bordered by CBD-1 (to the east), the Naga River, and the town of Camaligan, Camarines Sur.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The main road in the city is Magsaysay Avenue, or Boulevard, which runs from Bagumbayan Road (Naga-Calabanga–Siruma–Garchitorena–Partido North Road), connecting it to Magsaysay district, where accommodations and restaurants catering to travelers are found. Businesses are open until late at night, with some shops open 24/7. Naga also has its share of fastfood restaurant chains. The city hall and several provincial offices are also located in the district, around the Peñafrancia Basilica.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In 2017, the banks in the city numbered around 66, excluding Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The city hosts the regional bank offices of Banco de Oro, Philippine National Bank, Development Bank of the Philippines, Metrobank, RCBC, Allied Bank, China Banking Corporation, Philtrust Bank, UnionBank of the Philippines, Philippine Veterans Bank, Asia United Bank, Maybank, Bank of Commerce, East West Bank, Bank of Makati, Bank of the Philippine Islands, and the Philippine Postal Savings Bank.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: SM City Naga is one of the largest and most-visited shopping malls in the Bicol Region. Robinsons Place Naga opened in 2017. Nagaland E-Mall is in Downtown Naga. LCC Central Mall Naga is located on Felix Plazo Street. Gaisano Mall Naga is near the Bicol Medical Center. The Vista Mall is located on Maharlika Highway, in Barangay Del Rosario. There are two Puregold supermarkets in Naga. Avenue Square is the region's first "lifestyle center", built in 2005 along Magsaysay Avenue. There are also leisure hubs in the city, the majority being along Magsaysay Avenue, since that street is the center of nightlife in the region.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga was cited as one of the best places to conduct information technology–business process outsourcing (IT–BPO) activities in the Philippines.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city currently has three IT parks—Naga City IT Park, Camarines Sur Industrial and Technological Park, and Naga City Technology Center.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is considered to be Bicol's cultural center, due to the largest festival in the region, the Peñafrancia Festival, being held in the city.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city celebrates the feast of "Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia" (Our Lady of Peñafrancia), the patroness of the Bicol Region. Starting on the second Friday of September each year, the 10-day feast, the largest Marian devotion in the country. The start of the festival is signalled by a procession (or "Translacion") when the centuries-old image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is transferred from its shrine at the Peñafrancia Basilica Minore de Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia to the 400-year-old Naga Metropolitan Cathedral. Coinciding with nine days of novena prayer at the cathedral, the city celebrates with parades, pageants, street parties, singing contests, exhibits, concerts, and other activities. Finally, on the third Saturday of September, the image is returned, shoulder-borne by so-called "voyadores", to the basilica via the historic Naga River. The following day marks the feast day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, when Pontifical High Masses are celebrated in the basilica, attended by hundreds of thousands of faithful devotees.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga celebrates the Kamundagan Festival every Christmas. It begins with the lighting of the Christmas Village in the Plaza Quezon Grandstand.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga celebrates the Kinalas Festival during its yearly anniversary of chartership or cityhood. It honors local delicacies, including kinalas and siling labuyo, with a food contest.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Kinalas and lug-lug are noodle soup dishes served Bicol style, similar to "mami" except for a topping of what looks like a pansit palabok sauce, and the meaty dark soup made from boiling a cow's or a pig's head until the flesh falls off. Kinalas is from the old Bicol word "kalas", which refers to the "fall off the bone" meat that is placed on top of the noodles. The soup is the broth of beef bone and bone marrow (sometimes skull and brain included) or what Manileños call "bulalo". The soup is topped with very tender meat slices that also come from the head. It is usually served hot with an egg, and sprinkled with roasted garlic and spring onions. Kalamansi and patis may be added according to taste. Kinalas is usually paired with Baduya, or with Banana or camote cue.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Metro Naga Sports Complex, in Barangay Pacol, has Olympic-sized swimming pools, tennis courts, and a track oval.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Jesse M. Robredo Coliseum, formerly the Naga City Coliseum which is renamed in honor of the late DILG secretary and former mayor of Naga, is the largest indoor arena in southern Luzon.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city is served by the Naga Airport (WNP) located in Barangay San Jose in the neighboring town of Pili. It has a runway of and thus is capable of handling only small aircraft.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is the regional head office and the center point of the Philippine National Railway's Bicol Line.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga—along with those of adjacent towns and cities, from Tagkawayan, Quezon Province, to Ligao, Albay—is served daily by the Bicol Express. There is a plan for extending the line to Legazpi in the near future.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: , Naga's total road network is in length, of which are paved with concrete, with asphalt overlay, with asphalt, are gravel, while are dirt. This translates to an increase of since 1998.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: In order to spur development in the city, the Toll Regulatory Board declared Toll Road 5 the extension of South Luzon Expressway. A , four-lane expressway starting from the terminal point of the under-construction SLEX Toll Road 4 at Barangay Mayao, Lucena City in Quezon, to Matnog, Sorsogon, near the Matnog Ferry Terminal. On August 25, 2020, San Miguel Corporation announced that they will fund the project, which will reduce travel time from Lucena to Matnog from 9 hours to 5.5 hours.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The most common vehicles used for intra-city travel are public-utility jeepneys (PUJ), trimobiles, and "padyaks".


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Public utility jeepneys and multicabs, a total of 323 units, are a major mode of intra-city transport used by regular commuters.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Trimobiles are the most used land transport in the city. There are 1,500 units available for hire while 1,150 are for private use. There is now stiffer competition among drivers, which creates a wide range of problems, such as fare overcharging, refusal to convey passengers, an uneven distribution of trimobile service resulting in a shortage of transport service in some areas of the city, and rampant traffic violations.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Padyaks can be used in subdivision and barangay transportation. They provide a moderate amount of speed for those travelling to the city center.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Inter-town trips are served by 403 filcab vans and 708 jeepneys, while inter-provincial trips are served by an average of 300 airconditioned and non-airconditioned buses and 88 Filcab vans.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Recently, about 50 taxi units became available in the city. They use the new SM Naga City mall as a waiting area for passengers.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is the medical center of the Bicol Region. It has the largest hospitals in the region. The government-owned Bicol Medical Center and Camarines Sur Provincial Hospital, and the Universidad de Sta Isabel – Mother Seton Hospital, owned and operated by the Daughters of Charity, which are considered the largest hospitals in the region in size and accommodation. The Metropolitan Naga Medical District, in Naga, is the only medical district in Bicol.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Bicol Medical Center (BMC), the largest hospital in the region, is located in Concepcion Pequeña. It offers specialty training in internal medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, obstetric and gynecology, anesthesiology, radiology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, orthopedics, and traumatology. It is also a base hospital of the Helen Keller Foundation, where eye specialists from all over the country are trained and later assigned to different parts of the Philippines.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Universidad de Santa Isabel - Mother Seton Hospital (USI – MSH), is the largest private hospital in the region by number of admissions, medical equipment facilities, number of beds available, physical structure, and number of board-certified medical consultants. It is the only private hospital in Bicol offering specialty training programs, accredited by the Philippine Medical Association's component society, in major fields of medicine, such as internal medicine, pediatrics, and general surgery.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Plaza Medica houses the Naga Endocrine Laboratory (also called the "Endolab"), a modern hormone laboratory and facility.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Bicol Access Health Centrum is another large hospital located in the city. It houses the Regional Disease Research Center, the first and only in the region.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The main pollutants in the city come in the form of solid waste generated daily. Generally, these wastes come from various sources: residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga generates approximately 85.8 tons of waste per year, based on the latest 2009 estimates, where agricultural waste makes up a little more than one-fourth (26%) of the total volume. Food waste makes up a slightly smaller share, at 23%. Paper-based materials compose 12%, while other categories contribute smaller percentages.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Solid wastes are disposed of and collected via the city's garbage trucks, which traverse ten routes on a daily basis. Collected wastes are then dumped at the dump site in Barangay Balatas, where they are segregated according to type of waste, and whether biodegradable or non-biodegradable.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: A study of wastewater treatment facilities is incorporated in the proposed septage management ordinance, where the city will be very strict in forcing compliance with proper waste treatment by housing and establishment owners. The local water-utility agency has made the Metro Naga Water District its local partner in providing septage services, in exchange for adding environmental fees to water bills.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The new wastewater treatment facility of SM City Naga, operational since April 20, 2009, has a capacity of 500 cubic meters per day; but at present, it is treating only around 200.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Naga City Fire Station is one of the most well equipped fire stations in the country. Other fire stations include Naga Chin Po Tong Fire Brigade, and the Naga White Volunteers.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city is the location of two of the largest police stations in the Bicol Region. The historic Naga City Police Station, which had been the military base of operations of the Guardia Civil in the region, during the time of Spanish rule. Another police office, located in Barangay Concepcion Grande, is the provincial office of the Philippine National Police for Camarines Sur.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga is the home of the three largest universities in the Bicol Region. The city is also the home of several colleges.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Ateneo de Naga University is a Jesuit university and the largest Catholic university in the Bicol Region. The school has been accredited by PAASCU since 1979 and is the first university in the Philippines to achieve PAASCU Institutional Accreditation, on top of its Autonomous and Level III status. It is a "center of excellence" in teacher education, and a center of development in business administration, entrepreneurship, and information technology. It has produced animators for the country since it launched its bachelor's degree in animation.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The Universidad de Santa Isabel was inaugurated on April 12, 1869, as a private Catholic university owned and run by the Daughters of Charity and is the "first normal school for women in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and the Heritage and Historical University of Bicol". It was established by six sisters of the order who arrived in the Bicol Region on April 4, 1868, with the Bishop of Caceres, Francisco Gainza, O.P., the founder of Colegio de Santa Isabel.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: University of Nueva Caceres was the very first university in southern Luzon, and is considered to be largest in the region, due to its attendance and size, that offers courses from kindergarten to graduate school. Founded by Dr. in 1948, it has grown to become one of the leading institutions of higher learning in the Philippines. All course offerings are recognized by the government, and the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education, and Commerce are accredited by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACU-COA). Its College of Engineering and Architecture is now one of the few regional centers for technological education in the Philippines.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Technical colleges in the city include the South East Asian University of Technology, Naga College Foundation, AMA Computer College, and STI College. Specialized computer schools include Worldtech Resources Institute (WRI), Philippine Computer Foundation College (PCFC), and Computer Communication Development Institute (CCDI).


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The country's oldest live-in Christian higher educational institute for the clergy was established in the city in the early part of the 18th century. The Holy Rosary Seminary ("El Seminario del Santissimo Rosario"), a Roman Catholic seminary run by the Archdiocese of Caceres, has produced 22 bishops, including the first Filipino bishop, Jorge Barlin, and the first Filipino cardinal to work in the Roman Curia, Jose Tomas Sanchez. The seminary has contributed, as well, to the national heritage, through José María Panganiban, Tomás Arejola, and seven of the Fifteen Martyrs of Bicol. On January 29, 1988, the National Historical Institute declared the Holy Rosary Seminary a National Historical Landmark.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The government-run Camarines Sur National High School, which was established in 1902, registers over 10,000 enrollees every school year, and it is the biggest secondary school in the region. Among other secondary schools in the city is the Tinago National High School.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga City Science High School was established in Naga in 1994. It has pilot curricula, including the Spanish curriculum, which is the third one in the Philippines, and the journalism curriculum, which allows students to receive training and exposure to college-level situations. The school is consistently a champion at the "Doon Po Sa Amin" national documentary contest.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Two schools in the city, Saint Joseph School (SJS) and Naga Hope Christian School (NHCS), cater to Filipino-Chinese students.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Naga Parochial School (NPS) is the largest parochial school in the region; it receives 850 enrollees yearly. It is run by priests of the Archdiocese of Caceres. It is the first PAASCU-accredited parochial school in the Philippines. Some members of the clergy (63 as of 2007 with 3 bishops) assigned to the city are alumni of the school. Well-known personalities—such as the late Raul Roco, Jesse Robredo, Francis Garchitorena, Luis R. Villafuerte, Jaime Fabregas, Jonathan Dela Paz Zaens, Archbishop Tito Yllana, and Bishop Jose Rojas—are graduates of NPS.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: Private schools—such as Arborvitae Plains Montessori, Inc.; Naga City Montessori School; and the Village Montessori School—can be found in the city. Tutorial and review centers for higher education are also found in the city.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: All of the major television broadcasting channels' regional offices are located in the city. ABS-CBN Corporation expanded its network in Bicol by establishing ABS-CBN Naga, which operates ABS-CBN channel 11 Naga, ABS-CBN Sports and Action Naga and MOR! Local shows such as TV Patrol Bicol, Marhay na Aga Kapamilya are broadcast throughout the region via ABS-CBN Regional, which is also stationed in the city. TV5 Network Inc.'s TV5 airs shows via channel 22, GMA Network's channel 7 and GMA News TV channel 28 are also available and the newscast Balitang Bicolandia.


title: Naga, Camarines Sur

text: The city's cable and satellite TV companies include South Luzon Cable and DCTV Cable Network Naga (Formerly SkyCable Naga).


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne Hyde (12 March 163731 March 1671) was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne was the daughter of a member of the English gentry – Edward Hyde (later created Earl of Clarendon) – and met her future husband when they were both living in exile in the Netherlands. She married James in 1660 and two months later gave birth to the couple's first child, who had been conceived out of wedlock. Some observers disapproved of the marriage, but James's brother, King Charles II of England, wanted the marriage to take place. Another cause of disapproval was the public affection James showed toward Anne, such as kissing and leaning against each other, which was considered improper behaviour from man to wife during the seventeenth century. James and Anne had eight children, but six died in early childhood. The two who survived to adulthood were future monarchs, Mary II and Anne. James was a known philanderer who kept many mistresses, for which Anne often reproached him, and he fathered many illegitimate children.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Originally an Anglican, Anne converted to Catholicism soon after her marriage to James. She had been exposed to Catholicism during visits to the Netherlands and France and was strongly attracted thereto. Partly due to Anne's influence, James later also converted to Catholicism, which ultimately led to the Glorious Revolution. She suffered from advanced breast cancer and died shortly after giving birth to her last child.


title: Anne Hyde

text: In 1629, Edward Hyde married his first wife, Anne Ayliffe of Grittenham. Six months into the marriage, Anne caught smallpox, miscarried and died. Three years later, Hyde married Frances Aylesbury. The couple's eldest daughter was born at Cranbourne Lodge in Windsor in 1637 and named Anne after Edward Hyde's first wife. Almost nothing is known of her life before 1649, when her family fled to the Netherlands after the execution of the deposed King Charles I.


title: Anne Hyde

text: During the First English Civil War, her father was a leading advisor to Charles I, then went into exile with his son Charles II in 1646. Like many refugees, they settled in Breda, where Mary of Orange offered shelter to many English fugitives. Mary appointed Anne a maid of honour, apparently against the wishes of her mother Henrietta Maria, who loathed Hyde.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne became a general favourite with the people she met either at The Hague or at the Princess of Orange's country house at Teylingen. She was very attractive and stylish, and she attracted many men. One of the first men to fall in love with Anne was Spencer Compton, a son of the Earl of Northampton. However, Anne quickly fell in love with Henry Jermyn, who returned her feelings. Anne dismissed Jermyn just as quickly when she met James, Duke of York, the son of the deposed king. On 24 November 1659, two or three years after she first met him, James promised he would marry Anne, despite the opposition of many, including her father, who confined her to the room and allegedly urged Charles to execute her. Charles rejected this advice, suggesting Anne's strong character would be a positive influence on his weak-willed brother.


title: Anne Hyde

text: After Anne became visibly pregnant in 1660, the couple were obliged to marry. Following The Restoration of the monarchy in May 1660, they held an official but private marriage ceremony in London on 3 September 1660. The wedding took place between 11 at night and 2 in the morning at Worcester Househer father's house in the Strand and was solemnised by Dr. Joseph Crowther, James's chaplain. The French Ambassador described Anne as having "courage, cleverness, and energy almost worthy of a King's blood".


title: Anne Hyde

text: The couple's first child, Charles, was born in October of that year, but died seven months later. Seven children followed: Mary (1662–1694), James (1663–1667), Anne (1665–1714), Charles (1666–1667), Edgar (1667–1671), Henrietta (1669–1669), and Catherine (1671–1671). All of their sons and two of their daughters died in infancy.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Even well after their marriage, some observers disapproved of the prince's decision, regardless of what he had promised beforehand. Samuel Pepys said of the marriage: "... that the Duke of York's marriage with her hath undone the kingdom, by making the Chancellor so great above reach, who otherwise would have been but an ordinary man, to have been dealt with by other people ..." After Anne's death, the royal court tried to find a new wife for James, but this new wife was not, under any circumstances, to be of humble birth. As good a father as Pepys portrayed James to be, he strangely stated that Anne and James were unaffected by the death of their firstborn son. Pepys also described Anne as "not only the proudest woman in the world, but the most expensefull." Even in the minds of James's nephew (later to become Anne's son-in-law), William III of Orange, and that of her husband's cousin, Sophia of Hanover, the stigma of the Hydes' lowly birth remained.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne was not popular at court, although well-liked by her brother-in-law. Regarded as "the most unguarded ogler of his time", James had a succession of mistresses throughout their marriage. They included Arabella Churchill, mother of his illegitimate son the Duke of Berwick, who had a highly successful career in the French army, while James secured a series of positions for her brother John Churchill.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne was not oblivious to her husband's infidelities, Pepys recording she was jealous and chided James, although he also claimed the pair were notorious for showing their affections publicly, kissing and leaning on each other. In another entry, Pepys wrote when James fell in love with Lady Chesterfield, Anne complained to Charles so insistently that Lady Chesterfield had to retreat to the countryside, where she remained until she died.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Historian John Callow claims Anne "made the greatest single impact" in the process that led to James becoming a Catholic. Raised in the Anglican High church tradition which was closely linked to the forms and practices of Catholicism, Anne stopped attending Anglican service in 1669. James converted around the same time but at Charles' request delayed the announcement until 1673. Although he later converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, Charles insisted for political reasons that their children be raised as Protestants, so both Mary and Anne were members of the Church of England.


title: Anne Hyde

text: Anne was ill for 15 months after the birth of her youngest son, Edgar. She bore Henrietta in 1669 and Catherine in 1671. Anne never recovered from Catherine's birth. Ill with breast cancer, she died on 31 March 1671. On her deathbed, her brothers Henry and Laurence tried to bring an Anglican priest to give her communion, but Anne refused and she received "viaticum" of the Catholic Church. Two days after her death, her embalmed body was interred in the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Westminster Abbey's Henry VII Chapel. In June 1671, Anne's only surviving son Edgar died of natural causes, followed by Catherine in December, leaving Mary and Anne as the Duke of York's heirs.


title: Anne Hyde

text: After Anne Hyde's death, a portrait of her painted by Willem Wissing was commissioned by the future Mary II; this used to hang above the door of the Queen's Drawing Room of the Garden House at Windsor Castle. Two years after the death of his first wife, James married a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena, who bore James Francis Edward, James's only son to survive to adulthood. James became king of England, Ireland, and Scotland in 1685, but was deposed during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The throne was then offered by Parliament to Anne's eldest daughter Mary and her husband William III of Orange. After Mary died in 1694 and William in 1702, Anne Hyde's only surviving child Anne became queen of the three kingdoms and, in 1707, the first sovereign of the united Kingdom of Great Britain.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Madeline Stephanie Thorson (born 18 March 1988; formerly known as Matt Thorson) is a Canadian video game developer, known as one of the lead creators for the video games "TowerFall" and "Celeste", developed under the studio Matt Makes Games. Since September 2019, Thorson has effectively shut down Matt Makes Games to relaunch her team under Extremely OK Games.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Madeline Stephanie Thorson was born on 18 March 1988. Thorson went to college at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada, studying computer science, during which one summer she worked at HermitWorks Entertainment, a local video game development studio.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Around fourteen, Thorson's mother helped her acquire a copy of Game Maker, a software tool to help develop video games. Through working in Game Maker, she was connected to others in online forums who were also interested in making games, including Chevy Ray Johnston. She developed a number of small pay-what-you-want games through Game Maker in high school and through college, including "Jumper" and several sequels, "FLaiL", and "An Untitled Story". Several of her games were described as "masocore", masochistic games that were extremely difficult for the player to complete; Thorson felt her goal was not to make her games near-impossible but instead to make games that helped direct the player to improve themselves so that the player could beat the challenges she made for them. Early games were published under the name "Helix Games", but in April 2008, she rebranded it as "Matt Makes Games", considering the name a more important brand for her work.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Thorson's goal in college was to get a computer programming degree and join up with a large game development studio, but as she progressed, she realized she could still make video games without having to be attached to a studio. Following her graduation, Thorson moved into a Vancouver apartment with Johnston where they shared game ideas. Most of these were browser games, and they successfully had a few of theirs published by Adult Swim Games on its site.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Thorson and Johnston were visited by friends they had made online. During a visit by Alec Holowka, he and Thorson participated in a local game jam and came up with an idea of a single-player platform game based on an out-of-shape archer trying to ascend a tower, collecting treasure and money to help with each attempt to climb it. They had considered pitching the idea to Adult Swim Games, but decided to expand the idea on their own, bringing in Johnston to help. The game morphed into a multiplayer battle game, where each player would try to defeat the others by shooting them with a bow-and-arrow while avoiding falling off the tower. Because of the frequent visitors to their apartment, they were able to gain feedback and improve the game to be a party-style title. This would ultimately become "TowerFall", Thorson's first major commercial game.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Recognizing the potential success of the title, Johnston suggested that they get a house in Vancouver to bring in others to help, which they acquired around October 2012, calling it the "Indie House" and inviting other collaborators to join them. Thorson incorporated Matt Makes Games as Matt Makes Games Inc. shortly afterwards in November 2012. Later, Holowka recognized Thorson as "TowerFall" main creator and relinquished his stake as a co-creator. Holowka remained on the game's development team as its composer. "TowerFall" was ultimately developed as an exclusive for the Ouya console. Following its initial release in 2013, the team reissued the game in 2014 as "TowerFall: Ascension" for most other gaming platforms with additional features. "TowerFall: Ascension" was critically praised, and within a month had brought in over .


title: Maddy Thorson

text: In August 2015, Thorson and Noel Berry, another member of Matt Makes Games, had a four-day game jam to create a PICO-8 game about climbing a mountain with difficult jumping steps. When they completed this, they recognized the opportunity to flesh out the game into a full release, forming the basis of "Celeste". Full work on the game started around January 2016. The game was released across multiple platforms in January 2018. By the end of 2018, it had sold more than 500,000 copies, and received numerous industry awards.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: On 5 September 2019, Thorson announced that she was effectively shutting down Matt Makes Games, while re-establishing the same team under the new name "Extremely OK Games" (abbreviated EXOK). The purpose of the change was twofold. First, the new name recognized that Thorson was not the sole creative force behind the games and ensured that the whole team was fully recognized and shared in the collective output from the company. Second, the change coincided with a move to a new set of offices in Vancouver to house the entire team, which had been previously spread across the world, including some in São Paulo. EXOK was technically founded in March 2019, but the first six months had been spent working to move these international developers into Canada and dealing with immigration requirements. The "Extremely OK" name itself came from a humorous tweet that operations manager Heidy Motta had seen that wished its readers an "extremely OK afternoon".


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Thorson stated that "TowerFall" and "Celeste" would remain published under Matt Makes Games, and that the team had already started the early exploratory work for their next title, codenamed "EXOK-1". With everyone in EXOK working in the same office, it had made development time faster, allowing them to test through multiple prototype games to come onto their next project within six months. The team went through three prototypes (named EXOK 1 through 3) which Thorson said "ventured way too far from our comfort zone for them to realistically ever get finished", before coming up with a fourth prototype that evolved into their first game under the "Extremely OK" name, "Earthblade", announced in April 2021, described as an "explor-action" game in a "seamless pixel art world". The game was formally announced at The Game Awards 2022 with a 2024 release date.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Thorson is transgender and goes by she/her pronouns. By around 2020, she had adopted the name Maddy Thorson over her birthname. Post-release, the character of Madeline in the game "Celeste" was stated to be transgender, which Thorson wrote in a later blog post reflected on her own coming-to-terms with her gender identity.


title: Maddy Thorson

text: Thorson was named by "Forbes" as one of their "30 Under 30" for gaming in 2014, recognizing her for the development of "TowerFall".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Talal bin Abdullah (, ; 26 February 1909 – 7 July 1972) was King of Jordan from the assassination of his father, King Abdullah I, on 20 July 1951 until his forced abdication on 11 August 1952. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Talal was a 39th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Talal was born in Mecca as the eldest child of Abdullah bin Hussein and his wife Musbah bint Nasser. Abdullah was a son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who led the Great Arab Revolt during World War I against the Ottoman Empire in 1916. After removing Ottoman rule, Abdullah established the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British Protectorate, and ruled as its Emir. During Abdullah's absence, Talal spent his early years alone with his mother. Talal received private education in Amman, later joining Transjordan's Arab Legion as second lieutenant in 1927. He then became aide to his grandfather Sharif Hussein, the ousted king of the Hejaz, during his exile in Cyprus. By 1948, Talal became a general in the Arab Legion.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Abdullah sought independence in 1946, and the Emirate became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Talal became crown prince upon his father's designation as king of Jordan. Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951, and Talal became king. Talal's most revered achievement as king is the establishment of Jordan's modern constitution in 1952, rendering his kingdom a constitutional monarchy. He ruled for less than thirteen months until he was forced to abdicate by Parliament because he was experiencing a mental illness, reported as schizophrenia. Talal spent the rest of his life at a sanatorium in Istanbul and died there on 7 July 1972. He was succeeded by his oldest son Hussein.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: He was born in Mecca as the eldest child of Abdullah, an Arab deputy of Mecca in the Ottoman Parliament, and his wife Musbah bint Nasser. Abdullah was the son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, traditional steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Sharif Hussein and his sons led the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916; after removing Ottoman rule, the Sharif's sons established Arab monarchies in place. Abdullah established the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, a British Protectorate, for which he was Emir. During Abdullah's absence, Talal spent his early years alone with his mother. Talal received private education in Amman, later joining Transjordan's Arab Legion as second lieutenant in 1927. He then became aide to his grandfather Sharif Hussein, the ousted King of the Hejaz, during his exile in Cyprus. By 1948, Talal became a general in the Army.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: He was educated privately before attending the British Army's Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he graduated in 1929 when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry Regiment of the Arab Legion. His regiment was attached to a British regiment in Jerusalem and also to the Royal Artillery in Baghdad.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Talal ascended the Jordanian throne after the assassination of his father, Abdullah I, in Jerusalem. His son Hussein, who was accompanying his grandfather at Friday prayers, was also nearly a victim. On 20 July 1951, Prince Hussein travelled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque with his grandfather, King Abdullah I. An assassin, fearing that the king might normalise relations with the State of Israel, killed Abdullah, but the 15-year-old Hussein survived.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: During his short reign he was responsible for the formation of a liberalised constitution for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which made the government collectively, and the ministers individually, responsible before the Jordanian Parliament. The constitution was ratified on 1 January 1952. King Talal is also judged as having done much to smooth the previously strained relations between Jordan and the neighbouring Arab states of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Talal has been described by his cousin Prince Ra'ad bin Zeid in a 2002 interview as having "very anti-British sentiments", caused by Britain's failure to fully comply with their agreement with his grandfather Sharif Hussein ibn Ali in the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence to establish an independent Arab kingdom under his rule. Talal was described by British resident in Transjordan Sir Alec Kirkbride in a 1939 correspondence as being "at heart, deeply anti-British". However, Kirkbride doubted the meaningfulness of this animosity towards the British, owing it purely to the "tension" between Talal and his father Emir Abdullah and Talal's desire to create of himself as a "big nuisance as possible".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, however, argues that Talal's contempt for the British was genuine as he "bitterly resented British affairs in the affairs of his country" and that such hostility towards the British was downplayed by Kirkbride due to Britain's "self-serving" interests to "protect her reputation". Furthermore, at the time of the succession crisis that occurred after King Abdullah I's assassination, Talal was described by contemporary Egyptian and Syrian press as a "great patriotic anti- imperialist" in contrast to his half-brother Naif, who also sought the throne, and was denounced as "weak- minded and entirely subservient to British influence".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: A year into Talal's reign, Arab Legion intelligence officer Major Hutson reported that Amman was "seething with a rumor to the effect that the Legion, or Cabinet, intend on handing over West Jordan to Israel and that King Talal was deported by the British for refusing to agree".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: At this time, Talal was reported by British resident Furlonge, Queen Zein (mother of Talal's son and successor Hussein), and Prime Minister Tawfik Abu Al-Huda as experiencing a mental illness. Furlonge particularly suggested that Talal be "forced out of Amman" and "forced into a French clinic". Talal was subsequently flown in a civil (not royal) RAF plane to Paris for "treatment".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Talal's reportedly unwell medical condition is highlighted by an incident on 29 May 1952 when Queen Zein (described by British historian Nigel J. Ashton as "a sophisticated political operator with her own private communication channels with the British") sought refuge in the British embassy in Paris, claiming that Talal "threatened her with a knife and attempted to kill one of his younger children". Prime Minister Tawfik Abu al-Huda consequently attempted to induce Talal into abdicating; however, he was harshly reproached by Talal, who said he "had no intentions of abdicating". Furthermore, PM Abu al-Huda received reports that Talal was attempting to challenge the government with the help of "private individuals" and an "officer in the Arab Legion".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: This led Abu al-Huda into summoning both houses of parliament to an "extraordinary session", requesting their approval of a motion dictating that Talal be deposed for "medical reasons", specifically "schizophrenia". Abu al-Huda backed up his requests with medical reports and argued that Talal's medical condition was irrevocable, and Talal's deposition was unanimously accepted by parliament later that day.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Nationalist officers in the Army suspected that the parliamentary session to discuss Talal's abdication was a plot against him. They asked the King's aide-de-camp, 'Abd Al'Aziz Asfur, to arrange a meeting with him to arrange a response to the supposed plot. However, Asfur returned to the officers and confirmed the claims about his mental condition.


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Abu al-Huda proceeded to rule Jordan, from the day of Talal's deposition on 11 August 1952 until Talal's son Hussein came of age on 2 May 1953, in a "dictatorial" fashion. He was described by Glubb Pasha as a "Prime Minister dictator" who had ruled "stably" as Emir Abdullah I had done. Glubb Pasha particularly commended this as he noted that Arab countries were presently "unfit for full democracy on the British model". Abu al-Huda's ascension was supported by Political Resident Furlonge as Abu al-Huda was from the "old guard" and thus "accustomed to the existing system and relationship with Britain".


title: Talal of Jordan

text: Contrary to his wish to live in Saudi-ruled Hejaz after his abdication, Talal was sent to live the latter part of his life at a sanatorium in Istanbul and died there on 7 July 1972. Talal was buried in the Royal Mausoleum at the Raghadan Palace in Amman.


title: Yantra

text: Yantra () (literally "machine, contraption") is a geometrical diagram, mainly from the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions. Yantras are used for the worship of deities in temples or at home; as an aid in meditation; used for the benefits given by their supposed occult powers based on Hindu astrology and tantric texts. They are also used for adornment of temple floors, due mainly to their aesthetic and symmetric qualities. Specific yantras are traditionally associated with specific deities and/or certain types of energies used for accomplishment of certain tasks, vows, that may be materialistic or spiritual in nature. It becomes a prime tool in certain sadhanas performed by the sadhaka the spiritual seeker. Yantras hold great importance in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.


title: Yantra

text: Representations of the yantra in India have been considered to date back to 11,000–10,000 years BCE. The Baghor stone, found in an upper-paleolithic context in the Son River valley, is considered the earliest example by G.R. Sharma, who was involved in the excavation of the stone (it was dated to 25,000 - 20,000 BCE). The triangular stone, which includes triangular engravings on one side, was found daubed in ochre, in what was considered a site related to worship. Worship of goddesses in that region was found to be practiced in a similar manner to the present day. Kenoyer, who was also involved in the excavation, considered it to be associated with Shakti. This triangular shape looks very much similar to Kali Yantra and Muladhara Chakra.


title: Yantra

text: Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are essentially "thought forms" representing divinities or cosmic powers, which exert their influence by means of sound-vibrations.


title: Yantra

text: In Rigvedic Sanskrit, it meant an instrument for restraining or fastening, a prop, support or barrier, etymologically from the root "yam" "to sustain, support" and the "-tra" suffix expressing instruments. The literal meaning is still evident in the medical terminology of Sushruta, where the term refers to blunt surgical instruments such as tweezers or a vice. The meaning of "mystical or occult diagram" arises in the medieval period (Kathasaritsagara, Pancharatra).


title: Yantra

text: Yantras are usually associated with a particular deity and are used for specific benefits, such as: for meditation; protection from harmful influences; development of particular powers; attraction of wealth or success, etc. For instance, the Sivali yantra, used mainly in Southeast Asian Buddhism, is used for the attraction of wealth and good luck. They are often used in daily ritual worship at home or in temples, and sometimes worn as a talisman.


title: Yantra

text: As an aid to meditation (meditative painting), yantras represent the deity that is the object of meditation. These yantras emanate from the central point, the "bindu". The yantra typically has several geometric shapes radiating concentrically from the center, including triangles, circles, hexagons, octagons, and symbolic lotus petals. The outside often includes a square representing the four cardinal directions, with doors to each of them. A popular form is the Sri Chakra, or Sri Yantra, which represents the goddess in her form as Tripura Sundari. Sri Chakra also includes a representation of Shiva, and is designed to show the totality of creation and existence, along with the user's own unity with the cosmos.


title: Yantra

text: Yantras can be on a flat surface or three dimensional. Yantras can be drawn or painted on paper, engraved on metal, or any flat surface. They tend to be smaller in size than the similar mandala, and traditionally use less color than mandalas.


title: Yantra

text: Occult yantras are used as good luck charms, to ward off evil, as preventative medicine, in exorcism, etc., by virtue of their magical power. When used as a talisman, the yantra is seen to represent a deity who can be called on at will by the user. They are traditionally consecrated and energized by a priest, including the use of mantras which are closely associated to the specific deity and yantra. Practitioners believe that a yantra that is not energized with mantra is lifeless. In Sri Lankan Buddhism, it is required to have the yantra of the deity with us, once the deity has shown the acceptance of our prayer.


title: Yantra

text: A yantra comprises geometric shapes, images, and written mantra. Triangles and hexagrams are common, as are circles and lotuses of 4 to 1,000 petals. Saiva and Shakti yantras often feature the prongs of a trishula.


title: Yantra

text: Yantra designs in modern times have deviated from the traditional patterns given in ancient texts and traditions. Designers in the west may copy design elements from Nepali/tantric imitations of yantras.


title: Yantra

text: Yantra Tattooing or Sak Yuant ( ) is a form of tattooing using yantra designs in Buddhism. It consists of sacred geometrical, animal and deity designs accompanied by Pali phrases that are said to offer power, protection, fortune, charisma and other benefits for the bearer. Sak yant designs are normally tattooed by "ruesi", "wicha" practitioners, and Buddhist monks, traditionally with a metal rod sharpened to a point (called a "khem sak").


title: Yantra

text: The world’s largest Sri Chakra, measuring 67,400 sq ft was drawn on ground in Cranbury, New Jersey under the guidance of Guru Karunamaya.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Heads of state throughout the world and at all periods of history may be ranked according to characteristics such as length of time holding that position; age of accession or death; or physical attributes. In this way world records in these characteristics may be identified, although the historical basis for such claims is frequently uncertain.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest undisputed reigning monarch is Sobhuza II, who ruled the Kingdom of Swaziland under the title of Paramount Chief of Swaziland and later King of Swaziland. He ruled for 82 years and 254 days. However, the longest undisputed reigning ruler of a sovereign state is Louis XIV, who ruled the Kingdom of France for 72 years, 3 months, and 18 days.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Longest-ruling monarch, whose exact dates of rule are unknown is disputed between the following candidates


title: Records of heads of state

text: Japanese legendary emperors, according to the ancient Japanese calendar, reigned for very long terms of 60–70 years each. The longest ruler of the legendary emperors, Emperor Kōan, was claimed to have reigned for about 101 years. These figures are not included in the list because they are regarded as inaccurate by modern scholars. For those see Longevity Myths.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest current reigning male monarch is Hassanal Bolkiah, who is the Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan of Brunei ("(he) who is Lord"), an absolute monarch of Brunei (which was a British protectorate until independence at the end of 1983). He acceded to the sultanate on 5 October 1967.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest current reigning constitutional male monarch is Carl XVI Gustaf, who is the King of Sweden, a sovereign state throughout his reign which began on the 15 September 1973.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest reigning female monarch ever was Elizabeth II, who was the Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, and was a constitutional monarch. She was Queen of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, for 70 years, from 6 February 1952 until her death aged 96 on September 8th 2022.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Margrethe II of Denmark is the current longest-reigning female monarch. Her reign began on the 14 January 1972. Currently she is also the "only" reigning female monarch.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest-serving male president ever was Malietoa Tanumafili II, who held the office of O le Ao o le Malo for a special lifetime term (in derogation from the normal term length of five years), for 45 years and 130 days overall; first alongside Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole from 1962 to 1963 and then as sole head of state from 1963 to 2007. However, despite the office of O le Ao o le Malo being that of a president of a republic, Malietoa Tanumafili II was also one of Samoa's four paramount chiefs.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries was Fidel Castro, who held the titles of Prime Minister of Cuba, First Secretary of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the United Party for the Socialist Revolution of Cuba, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and President of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba. He served overall for 52 years, 2 months, and 3 days but was only head of state from 1976 to 2008 (31 years, 2 months and 22 days).


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest-serving and longest current serving male president ever is Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who is currently the President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, who seized power in a coup in 1979.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest serving female non-royal head of state and longest serving female president ever was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who was the President of the Republic of Iceland. She served for 16 years (5844 days).


title: Records of heads of state

text: The shortest serving monarch of all time is believed to be Louis XIX of France. After his father's abdication during the July Revolution on August 2, 1830, he ascended to the throne, but abdicated around 20 minutes later. This reign is disputed, as some historians believe this reign is too short to be valid. The next contender is the unnamed daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei who was appointed by her grandmother, Empress Dowager Hu. She reigned for a matter of hours until being replaced by Yuan Zhao.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Mexican politician Pedro Lascuráin served as the 34th President of Mexico for a short period of time ranging from 15 to 56 minutes before he quit in a coup d'état in order to make General Victoriano Huerta the next President.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The oldest ruler, whose date of birth is known, is Giovanni Paolo Lascaris. He was Grand Master of the Order of Saint John until his death at the age of 97 years 47 days. The oldest ruler at the time of taking office is Prem Tinsulanonda, who became regent of Thailand at 96 years 97 days old and ruled for several months. The Oldest President at the time of taking Office is Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi who became President of Tunisia at . The Oldest Monarch who became ruler for Life is Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah who is the current Emir of Kuwait and started his Reign at .


title: Records of heads of state

text: According to legends, the youngest ruler is Shapur II who was crowned "in utero" when a crown was placed on the belly of Hormizd II's wife after Hormizd II died. However, according to Shapur Shahbazi, it is unlikely. The youngest undisputed ruler is believed to be Alfonso XIII of Spain who became king of Spain at birth. The youngest non royal ruler is Jean-Claude Duvalier who became President of Haiti at the age of 19. The youngest female monarch is Mary who became Queen of Scotland at 6 days old.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The longest lived undisputed head of state is the President of Turkey Celâl Bayar who lived from 1883 to 1986, and died at 103 years old and 98 days. The oldest undisputed Monarch is Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg who was Duke of Luxembourg from 1964 until his abdication in 2000, he lived from 5 January 1921 until his death on 23 April 2019 at 98 years, 108 days. The oldest living former head of State is Khamtai Siphandone who was Prime Minister of Laos from 1991 to 1998 and then became President from 1998 to 2006. He is currently . The longest lived female head of state is Khertek Anchimaa-Toka who was Chair of the Presidium of Tuva. She lived from 1 January 1912 to 4 November 2008 dying at 96 years, 308 days. The oldest living female former head of state is Violeta Chamorro who served as President of Nicaragua and was born on 18 October 1929 and is currently old. The oldest female monarch is Elizabeth II who was old at the time of her death.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Officially, the current Emperor of Japan, Naruhito is the 126th in line from the first emperor, Jimmu, who is variously believed to have reigned in the 1st or 7th century BC. The earliest documentary evidence is only for the 29th emperor, Kinmei (AD 509–571); however, this is sufficient such that even the most conservative of estimates still places the Japanese imperial family as among the oldest lines in the world today.


title: Records of heads of state

text: Modern European royalty is well-documented as being descended from Arnulf of Metz (c. AD 582–640), forefather of Charlemagne, a lineage of 48 generations from him through Charles III. (See Royal descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX for how Europe's other dynasties share the descent from George II of Great Britain.)


title: Records of heads of state

text: The Ottoman Empire lasted for 36 sultans in 21 generations, from Osman I to Mehmed VI for 623 years. (See List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire.)


title: Records of heads of state

text: The highest post-nominal number representing a member of a royal house is 75, used by Count Heinrich LXXV Reuss (r. 1800–1801). All male members of the branch were named Heinrich, and were successively numbered from 1 upwards, from the beginning of each century.


title: Records of heads of state

text: The heaviest monarch is believed to have been Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga from 1965 to 2006 who at his peak in 1976 was measured as , though he subsequently lost around 40% of his weight. The Heaviest President is William Howard Taft who was the President of the United States between 1909 and 1913 who weighed around .


title: Records of heads of state

text: Herodotus wrote in Histories (7:117) that “Xerxes was in stature the tallest of all the Persians, falling short by only four fingers of being five royal cubits in height.” A royal cubit is assumed to be a bit more than 20 English inches (52 cm), which makes Xerxes almost 8 feet tall (2.43 m), though this is likely legendary. Sancho VII of Navarre was reported to be .


title: Records of heads of state

text: President Benito Juárez of Mexico was reportedly the shortest world leader, standing at . The shortest Monarch is Queen Victoria of the British Empire who was believed to be around . Two Egyptian Pharaohs were also said to be very short, Cleopatra VII was said to be and Amenhotep I to be the Shortest Male Monarch at .


title: Fort Bliss

text: Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor, Ft. Bliss has an area of about ; it is the largest installation in FORSCOM (United States Army Forces Command) and second-largest in the Army overall (the largest being the adjacent White Sands Missile Range). The portion of the post located in El Paso County, Texas, is a census-designated place with a population of 8,591 as of the time of the 2010 census. Fort Bliss provides the largest contiguous tract () of restricted airspace in the Continental United States, used for missile and artillery training and testing, and at 992,000 acres boasts the largest maneuver area (ahead of the National Training Center, which has 642,000 acres). The garrison's land area is accounted at 1.12 million acres, ranging to the boundaries of the Lincoln National Forest and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.


title: Fort Bliss

text: Fort Bliss is home to the 1st Armored Division, which returned to US soil in 2011 after 40 years in Germany. The division is supported by the 1st Armored Division Sustainment Brigade. The installation is also home to Joint Task Force North (JTF), a joint service command. JTF North supports federal law enforcement agencies in the conduct of counterdrug/counter transnational organized crime operations; it facilitates DoD training in the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) area of responsibility, to disrupt transnational criminal organizations and deter their freedom of action in order to protect the homeland and increase DoD unit readiness. The 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC) is a theater level Army air and missile defense multi component organization with a worldwide, 72 hour deployment mission. It is the Army Forces Command and Joint Force Land Component Commanders' (ARFOR / JFLCC) organization that performs critical theater air and missile defense planning, integration, coordination, and execution functions. The Joint Modernization Command (JMC) plans, prepares, and executes Joint Warfighting Assessments and other concept and capability assessments, provides objective analysis and feasible recommendations to enhance Multi Domain Command and Control and inform Army Modernization decisions. On order, JMC conducts directed assessments in support of the Cross Functional Teams of Army Futures Command.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 1st Armored Division units include: 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division ("Ready First") is prepared to deploy, conduct decisive and sustainable land operations in support of a division, Joint Task Force, or Multinational Force. The Brigade will be trained and ready to conduct decisive action as part of Combined Arms Maneuver or Wide Area Security operations IOT disrupt or destroy enemy military forces, control land, and be prepared to conduct combat operations to protect U.S. national interests.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division ("Strike") is prepared to deploy, conduct decisive and sustainable land operations in support of a division, Joint Task Force, or Multinational Force. The Brigade will be trained and ready to conduct decisive action as part of Combined Arms Maneuver or Wide Area Security operations IOT disrupt or destroy enemy military forces, control land, and be prepared to conduct combat operations to protect U.S. national interests.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division ("Bulldog") is prepared to deploy, conduct decisive and sustainable land operations in support of a division, Joint Task Force, or Multinational Force. The Brigade will be trained and ready to conduct decisive action as part of Combined Arms Maneuver or Wide Area Security operations IOT disrupt or destroy enemy military forces, control land, and be prepared to conduct combat operations to protect U.S. national interests.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade ("Iron Eagles") conducts aviation operations to support geographic combatant commanders conducting unified land operations.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 1st Armored Division Artillery ("Iron Steel") provides direct support, precision strike, and Joint Fires capability to the 1st Armored Division for Unified Land Operations in support of the Division's contingency operations. 1AD DIVARTY provides trained and ready fire support forces and assists BCT Commanders in training their fire support systems.


title: Fort Bliss

text: 1st Armored Division Sustainment ("Muleskinners") provides mission command of assigned, attached, and OPCON Echelons above Brigade sustainment units and synchronize distribution and sustainment operations in support of 1st Armored Division, and other aligned units. On order, rapidly deploy to designated contingency areas; receive, integrate, and provide mission command of sustainment units providing operational and tactical sustainment; and perform theater opening, theater distribution, and sustainment operations in support of Unified Land Operations.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The NCO Leadership Center of Excellence (NCOL CoE): Acknowledged as the world's premiere accredited academic institution for noncommissioned officers aligned under Army University and the Combined Arms Command, with additional reporting to Training and Doctrine Command. Provides professional military education to DoD and allied noncommissioned officers to


title: Fort Bliss

text: meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world while developing disciplined, fit, and well educated leaders


title: Fort Bliss

text: The United States Army Sergeants Major Academy (USASMA) was accredited as a branch campus of the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) in 2018. CGSC Combined Arms Center Execution Order, dated 21 March 2018, made USASMA the 4th campus of CGSC. On 21 June 2019 USASMA Class 69 became the first students from the Sergeants Major Course to earn Bachelors of Arts in Leadership and Workforce Development (Staff College) through USASMA. The accreditation process took 10 years, beginning with the last officer commandant, Col. Donald E. Gentry.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade: Known as the "Imperial" Brigade, it strategically deploys combat ready units globally in support of the 32nd AAMDC to conduct joint and combined air and missile defense operations in order to protect the Combatant Commander's critical priorities. O/O, conducts reset and training of Patriot, Avenger Iron Dome, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) units.


title: Fort Bliss

text: William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC): WBAMC delivers quality healthcare to Soldiers and beneficiaries at Fort Bliss to sustain a Ready Force; every encounter, every day.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The 5th Armored Brigade: The brigade plans, coordinates, synchronizes, and supports the pre/post mobilization training and demobilization of Army National Guard and United States Army Reserve units in order to provide trained and ready forces for worldwide contingencies. On order, deploys exportable OC/T teams in support of the Army Total Force Policy.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The Fort Bliss Mobilization Brigade: The brigade provides all administrative and logistical aspects of Title 10 support to mobilizing/demobilizing units. Act as focal point for installation support and quality of life issues. Coordinate requirements and integrate mobilization support. Provides personnel and logistical readiness validation input.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The CONUS Replacement Center: CRC receives, processes, equips, and conducts Theater Specific Individual Requirements Training (TSIRT) for military Non Unit Related Personnel (NRP), Department of Defense (DoD) Civilians, and Non Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (Non LOGCAP) Contactors deploying to and redeploying from theaters of operations in support of overseas contingency operations.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The Army Field Support Battalion (AFSBn): AFSBn is a critical element in the transformation of Army logistics, providing a "single face to the field," to the Army's finest warfighters. Responsible for enhancing the readiness of Active, Reserve and National Guard units and continuously synchronizing the distribution of sustainment materiel and force projection at the Installation and field level in order to support the Materiel Enterprise and combat readiness of supported units and contingency operations.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The Network Enterprise Command: This unit defends the security of the Army Global Network Construct, provides transparent delivery of Command, Control, Communications and Computer (C4) Information Technology (IT services to customers).


title: Fort Bliss

text: The Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) -- Desert Mountain: CPAC is responsible for assisting customers in recruiting, developing and sustaining a professional civilian workforce through effective, efficient, and responsive human resource products and advisory services.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The headquarters for the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a federal tactical operational intelligence center, is hosted at Fort Bliss. Its DoD (United States Department of Defense) counterpart, Joint Task Force North, is at Biggs Army Airfield. Biggs Field, a military airport located at Fort Bliss, is designated a military power projection platform.


title: Fort Bliss

text: Fort Bliss National Cemetery is located on the post. Other forts in the frontier fort system were Forts Griffin, Concho, Belknap, Chadbourne, Stockton, Davis, Richardson, McKavett, Clark, McIntosh, Inge, and Phantom Hill in Texas, and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. There were "sub posts or intermediate stations" including Bothwick's Station on Salt Creek between Fort Richardson and Fort Belknap, Camp Wichita near Buffalo Springs between Fort Richardson and Red River Station, and Mountain Pass between Fort Concho and Fort Griffin.


title: Fort Bliss

text: In 1846, Colonel Alexander Doniphan led 1st Regiment of Missouri mounted volunteers through El Paso del Norte, with victories at the Battle of El Brazito and the Battle of the Sacramento. Then on 7 November 1848, War Department General Order no. 58 ordered the establishment of a post across from El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez). On 8 September 1849, the garrison party of several companies of the 3rd U.S. Infantry ('The Old Guard', currently the oldest active duty regiment in the US Army), commanded by Major Jefferson Van Horne, found only four small and scattered settlements on the north side of the Rio Grande. The "Post Opposite El Paso del Norte" was first established at the site of Coon's Ranch (often erroneously referred to as Smith's Ranch, now downtown El Paso) and, along with Fort Selden and other Southwestern outposts, protected recently won territory from harassing Apaches and Comanches, provided law and order, and escorted the forty-niners. Van Horne also had nominal command of the Post at San Elizario, the former "Presidio of San Elizario", seventeen miles downstream from El Paso del Norte. With constant Indian raids, garrisons had to be moved frequently to meet the shifting threats. In September 1851, the Post Opposite El Paso and the Post at San Elizario were closed, the soldiers moved north to Fort Fillmore.


title: Fort Bliss

text: On 11 January 1854, Companies B, E, I and K of the 8th Infantry, under the command of Lt. Col. Edmund B. Alexander, established Post of El Paso at Magoffinsville under orders from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. The post was named 'Fort Bliss' on 8 March 1854 in honor of Lt. Col. William Wallace Smith Bliss, a veteran of the Mexican War (1846-1848) who was cited for gallantry in action.


title: Fort Bliss

text: There it remained for the next 14 years, serving as a base for troops guarding the area against Apache attacks. Until 1861 most of these troops were units of the 8th Infantry Regiment. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, David E. Twiggs, the Commander of the Department of Texas, ordered the garrison to surrender Fort Bliss to the Confederacy, which Col. Isaac Van Duzen Reeve did on 31 March 1861. (Companies B, E, F, H, I, and K were captured by the Confederacy and remained prisoners of war until 25 Feb 1863 in Texas, with Company A returning safely to the North with their Colors on 26 May 1861.) Confederate forces consisting of the 2nd Regiment of Texas, under the command of Col. John R. Baylor, took the post on 1 July 1861, and used it as a platform to launch attacks into New Mexico and Arizona in an effort to force the Union garrisons still in these states to surrender. Initially the Confederate Army had success in their attempts to gain control of New Mexico, but following the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the Confederate soldiers were forced to retreat when their supply lines were cut. The Confederate garrison abandoned Fort Bliss without a fight the next year when a Federal column of 2,350 men under the command of Colonel James H. Carleton advanced from California. The Californians maintained an irregular garrison at Fort Bliss until 1865, when 5th Infantry units arrived to reestablish the post; these were subsequently relieved by the 25th Infantry, Buffalo Soldiers, on 12 August 1866, followed by the 35th Infantry two months later.


title: Fort Bliss

text: After May 1867 Rio Grande flooding seriously damaged the Magoffinsville post, Fort Bliss was moved to a site called 'Camp Concordia' in March 1868. Camp Concordia's location was immediately south of what is now Interstate 10, across from Concordia Cemetery in El Paso. The Rio Grande was about a mile south of the camp at that time; water was hauled daily by mule team to the camp. On 11 March 1869 the old name of Fort Bliss was resumed. Water, heating, and sanitation facilities were at a minimum in the adobe buildings of the fort; records reveal that troops suffered severely from dysentery and malaria and that supplies arrived irregularly over the Santa Fe Trail by wagon train. The Concordia post was abandoned in January 1877, and after troops left in January, El Paso was without a garrison for more than a year. By that time, the town and its environs on the north side of the river had swelled to a population of almost 800.


title: Fort Bliss

text: On New Year's Day,1878, Fort Bliss was established as a permanent post; the Company L Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry and Company C of the 15th Infantry, were sent to Fort Bliss to prevent further trouble over the salt beds and the usage of Rio Grande water for irrigation purposes. Prior to this date, the government had had a policy of simply leasing property for its military installations. Now, however, a tract of was purchased at Hart's Mill on the river's edge in the Pass, near what is today the UTEP. With a $40,000 appropriation, a building program was begun. The first railroad arrived in 1881, and tracks were laid across the military reservation, thereby solving the supply problems for the fort and the rapidly growing town of El Paso. By 1890, Hart's Mill had outlived its usefulness, and Congress appropriated $150,000 for construction of a military installation on the mesa approximately east of El Paso's 1890 city limits. Although no money was appropriated for the land, $8,250 was easily raised by the local residents, who realized the economic benefit to the area.


title: Fort Bliss

text: The present site of Fort Bliss on La Noria mesa, was laid out by Captain John Ruhlen from 1891 to 1892 and was first occupied by four companies of the 18th Infantry in October 1893.


title: Fort Bliss

text: In January 1914, John J. Pershing arrived in El Paso to take command of the Army 8th Brigade that was stationed at Fort Bliss. At the time, the Mexican Revolution was underway in Mexico, and the 8th Brigade had been assigned the task of securing the Mexico–United States border. In March 1915, under the command of General Frederick Funston, Pershing led the 8th Brigade on the failed 1916–1917 Punitive Expedition into Mexico in search of outlaw Pancho Villa.


title: Fort Bliss

text: On Friday, 11 March 2016, members of the 2nd Squadron, 13th Cavalry Regiment, (3rd BCT, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss) conducted a staff ride at Pancho Villa State Park, NM, the former site of Camp Furlong, 2nd Squadron's billet in 1915. They reviewed the terrain of the 9 March 1916 raid by Pancho Villa's forces on the unit 100 years before. 2nd Squadron then participated in a parade with reenactors, and Roll Call of the fallen.


title: Fort Bliss

text: During this time, the military airfield in El Paso would become one of the homes to the United States Army Border Air Patrol and the 1st Aero Squadron, the U.S. Army's first tactical unit equipped with airplanes.


title: Fort Bliss

text: As American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander (1917–1918), John J. Pershing transferred to Fort Bliss and was responsible for the organization, training, and supply of an inexperienced force that eventually grew from 27,000 men to over 2,000,000—the National Army of World War I.


title: Fort Bliss

text: From 10 December 1917 – 12 May 1918, the wartime 15th Cavalry Division existed at Fort Bliss. Similarly, the Headquarters, 2nd Cavalry Brigade was initially activated at Fort Bliss on 10 December 1917 and then deactivated in July 1919, but then reactivated at Fort Bliss on 31 August 1920. Predominantly a cavalry post since 1912, Fort Bliss acquired three light armored cars, eight medium armored cars, two motorcycles, and two trucks on 8 November 1928.


title: Fort Bliss

text: During World War II, Fort Bliss focused on training anti-aircraft artillery battalions (AAA). In September 1940 the Coast Artillery's anti-aircraft training center was established, and in 1941 the 1st Tow Target Squadron arrived to fly target drones (the 6th, 19th, and 27th Tow Target Squadrons were at the nearby Biggs Field). On 3 August 1944, the Anti-Aircraft Artillery School was ordered from Camp Davis to Fort Bliss to make the training of anti-aircraft gunners easier, and they became the dominant force at Fort Bliss following the departure of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division. On 15 September 1942, the War Dept. made space available for handling up to 1,350 POWs, while POW camps could be constructed. During the war, the base was used to hold approximately 91 German and Italian Americans and Japanese from Hawaii (then a territory), who were arrested as potential fifth columnists but, in most cases, denied due process.


title: Fort Bliss

text: By February 1946, over 100 Operation Paperclip German scientists and engineers had arrived to develop rockets and were attached to the Office of the Chief of Ordnance Corps, Research and Development Service, Suboffice (Rocket), headed by Major James P. Hamill. Although these men were initially "pretty much kept on ice" (resulting in the nickname "Operation Icebox"), they were subsequently divided into a research group and a group who assisted with V-2 test launches at White Sands Proving Grounds. German families began arriving in December 1946, and by the spring of 1948, the number of German rocket specialists (nicknamed "Prisoners of Peace") in the US was 127. Fort Bliss rocket launches included firings of the Private missile at the Hueco Range in April 1945. In 1953, funding cuts caused the cancellation of work on the Hermes B2 ramjet work that had begun at Fort Bliss.


title: Fort Bliss

text: In late 1953 after troops had been trained at the Ft Bliss Guided Missile School, field-firing operations of the MGM-5 Corporal were underway at Red Canyon Range Camp, WSPG. In April 1950, the 1st Guided Missile Group named the Republic-Ford JB-2 the ARMY LOON.


title: Fort Bliss

text: Fort Bliss trained thousands of U.S. Soldiers during the Cold War. As the United States gradually came to master the art of building and operating missiles, Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range became more and more important to the country, and were expanded accordingly. On 1 July 1957 the U.S. Army Air Defense Center was established at Fort Bliss. Located at this center, in addition to Center Headquarters, are the U.S. Army Air Defense School; Air Defense; the 6th Artillery Group (Air Defense); the 61st Ordnance Group; and other supporting elements. In 1957 Fort Bliss and its anti-aircraft personnel began using Nike Ajax, Nike Hercules, Hawk, Sprint, Chaparral, and Redeye missiles. Fort Bliss took on the important role of providing a large area for troops to conduct live fire exercises with the missiles.


title: Fort Bliss

text: Because of the large number of Army personnel enrolled in the air defense school, Fort Bliss saw two large rounds of construction in 1954 and 1958. The former was aimed at creating more barracks facilities, while the latter was aimed at building new classrooms, materials labs, a radar park, and a missile laboratory. Between 1953 and 1957 the Army also expanded McGregor Range in an effort to accommodate live fire exercises of the new missile systems. Throughout the Cold War Fort Bliss remained a premier site for testing anti-aircraft equipment.