cyanic-selkie/wikianc huggingface dataset:
Dave Sime
David William "Dave" Sime (July 25, 1936 – January 12, 2016) was an American sprinter. He ranked as one of the fastest humans of all time. He held many sprint records during the late 1950s. He won a silver medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. He later became an ophthalmologist (type of eye doctor) and pioneer of intraocular lens transplants.
Sime was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. He was married and had three children.
Sime died from cancer on January 12, 2016 in Miami, Florida. He was 79.
Reference Daily Intake
The RDI is used to determine the Daily Value (DV) of foods. In the United States and Canada, this information can be found on food labels (as % DV). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and by Health Canada require that this information is present. The labels "high", "rich in", or "excellent source of" may be used for a food if it contains 20% or more of the RDI. The labels "good source", "contains", or "provides" may be used on a food if it contains between 10% and 20% of the RDI.
The system of labeling was first introduced in 1968, and has been adapted since then.
Biberist
Biberist is a municipality in the district Wasseramt in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.
José Enrique Porto Lareo
Jose Enrique Porto Lareo (born October 21, 1977 in Vigo) is a cyclist from Spain. He has a disability: He is blind. He competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in cycling. He was the second cyclist to finish in the blind men's 1 kilometer track race. He was the third cyclist to finish in the track speed race.
Stromboli
Stromboli is a small island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily. It is one of the three active volcanoes in Italy.
There are three active craters at the peak. A significant geological feature of the volcano is the Sciara del Fuoco (stream of fire), a big horseshoe-shaped depression generated in the last 13,000 years by several collapses on the northwestern side of the cone. Two kilometers to the northeast lies Strombolicchio, the volcanic plug remnant of the original volcano.
Clifford the Big Red Dog (2019 TV series)
Clifford the Big Red Dog is an animated children's television series. It is a reboot of the book series of the same name.
Broadcast
Knowledge Network and TVOKids in Canada. PBS Kids in the United States. Canal J and TF1 in France. Sky Kids in the United Kingdom.
Bihu
Bihu is the most prominent festival celebrated by the people of Assam. It is a set of three celebrations performed throughout the year. The three Bihus are celebrated at different times of year, in the months of Bohaag (Baisakhi), Kaati (Kartik) and Maagh, according to Hindu calendar. As per modern calendar these days fall in the month of mid April, October/ November and early January.
Assam is a small state in the north-eastern part of the country. Its economy is mainly based on agriculture. The inhabitants of Assam are known agrarians from ages. Hence all their daily activities and celebrations are agriculture oriented only. Bihu is also one of such festivals. It is very much evident from the months of celebration of this festival that these months are actually significant in relation with farming of native crop of Assam, the paddy. Bohaag bihu is celebrated at the seeding time of paddy. Kaati bihu is celebrated when the sowing of paddy is complete and the transformation of the saplings is done. Maagh bihu represents the culmination of the harvesting period of the crop.
The word bihu is derived from the language of ‘dimasa kacharis’, which is the agricultural community of Assam, since ages. The word was originally ‘Bishu’, which meant ‘to ask for prosperity’ from the tribal god. Bihu is the distorted version of Bishu.
Kati bihu is also known as kongali bihu. It is celebrated with solidarity. However, the celebrations are quietest of all the three bihus. The farmers are busy in their paddy fields and earthen lamps are lit to mark the celebrations. Farmers pray for a better crop during this time of the farming cycle.
Maagh bihu is also known as Bhogaali bihu. Bhogalli means eating and enjoyment. Hence the name itself implies the mood of the festival. Men folk prepare cottages in the barren fields after harvesting of the crops and spend whole night while singing and dancing in communion. Delicious food and sweets are exchanged among the people. In the very next morning, the cottage is lit up in fire and this brings an end to yearly festival of bihu.
It is quite evident that bihu is a festival of farming community whose livelihood is mainly dependent upon the agriculture. The festival of bihu is celebrated by one and all in Assam. The boundaries of rich or poor, cast creed etc. are diminished in the dazzling light of joy and merriment.
Yves Tumor
Sean Lee Bowie, also known by the stage name Yves Tumor, is an American music maker and music producer. They were born in Miami, Florida. They make experimental music.
Keep It Dark
"Keep It Dark" is a 1981 song by British band Genesis and is the third song from their 11th studio album Abacab. It went to number 33 in the United Kingdom.
2015 Chattanooga shootings
On July 16, 2015, a gunman opened fire on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing five service members. Another service member and a police officer were wounded. The gunman, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, was killed at the site of the second shooting.
Lampriformes
Lampriformes is an order of ray-finned fish. They are known as lamprids. A synonym for this order is called Lampridiformes, but it is an apparently incorrect spelling variant.
Other genera
These fishes are now extinct.
Aritzo
Aritzo (Arìtzo) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in Sardinia, Italy. As of 2016, 1,303 people lived there. Its area is 75.58 km². It is 796 meters above sea level.
Bandana, Kentucky
Bandana is a census-designated place (CDP) of Kentucky in the United States.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2003 action-adventure video game made by Ubisoft.
Plot
The Prince has opened the Sands of Time thanks to the Vizier.
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborne (born July 8 1962) is an American singer-songwriter who has had several hit songs. She is best known for her single One of Us (released in 1995). She was born near Louisville, Kentucky.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Reception
The game was well-liked and an influential game of 2003.
Beach handball
How to play
Matches are played as best two-out-of-three times. If teams are tied at the end of a normal game then the teams play for a golden goal. If the teams are tied at the end of 2 games then the teams will be part in a tie breaker. The tie break involves a goalie throwing the ball to their own player while that player tries to score one-on-one with the other goalie.
Issues
In 2021, the Norwegian women's team were fined €1500 because they were improperly dressed: At a European championship match in Bulgaria they had worn bike-shorts (like the men), instead of bikini bottoms. Critics laughed about the fine and the underlying rule. Although the Norwegian Handball Federation announced they would pay the fines, pop singer Pink offered to pay for them. In November 2021, the International Handball Federation changed their dress rules to closely match the shorts that the Norwegian team were fined for wearing.
Chuck Rayner
Claude Earl "Chuck" Rayner (August 11, 1920 – October 6, 2002) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He played nine seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Brooklyn Americans and New York Rangers. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973.
Baïse
The Baïse or Grande Baïse (Baïsa) is a French river that flows through the Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers and Lot-et-Garonne departments, in the Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions.
The river's source is in the Pyrenees and is a left tributary of the Garonne river. In general, it flows from south to north.
Geography
The Baïse river has a length of 187.7 km and a drainage basin with an area of 2910 km2.
Its average yearly discharge is 11.70 m3/s at Nérac, a small town of the Lot-et-Garonne department that is at about 20 km of the confluence with the Garonne river. The largest discharges are during winter and spring, with 23.00 m3/s in February.
Course
The source of the Baïse is on the Plateau de Lannemezan, in the Capvern commune (Hautes-Pyrénées), at an altitude of about 600 m.
The Baïse flows through 2 regions, 3 departments and 52 communes. Some of the communes are:
Finally, it flows into the Garonne river at Saint-Léger (Lot-et-Garonne), at 30 m of altitude.
Bullitt County, Kentucky
Bullitt County is a county in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 74,319. Its county seat is Shepherdsville. The county was formed in 1796.
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a science fiction novel by William Gibson. It was published in 1984. It is an important book that started the cyberpunk genre. It was Gibson's first novel and the first book of the Sprawl trilogy. Neuromancer was the first novel to win all three of the important awards in science fiction — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.
Publication
Terry Carr asked Gibson to write the book for the third series of Ace Science Fiction Specials. This was a series for authors' first novels.
Hurricane Willa
Hurricane Willa was a 2018 Pacific hurricane. The storm threatened to hit the Mexico of Sinaloa. It was the third Category 5 hurricane since Hurricanes Lane and Walaka in August and October 2018. Up to its landfall, Willa prompted the issuance of hurricane and tropical storm watches and warnings for western Mexico. The hurricane killed six people in Mexico, and caused heavy damage near where it moved ashore.
The Giver
The Giver is a novel by Lois Lowry. It is science fiction. Bantam Books published the book in 1993. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American literature for children in 1994. The Giver has sold more than 5 million copies.
People have been complaining that the novel "The Giver" is unsuitable for children, simply because it is too dark. This is why the book has been often challenged.
The Giver is the first book in a quartet. Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son are the books.
Luís I of Portugal
Dom Luís I (31 October 1838, in Lisbon – 19 October 1889, in Cascais) was a member of the House of Braganza, and King of Portugal from 1861 to 1889. He is the second son of Queen Maria II and her consort, King Ferdinand. Luís became the king after the death of his elder brother King Pedro V.
Al Rollins
Elwin "Al" Ira Rollins (October 9, 1926 – July 27 1996) was a professional Canadian ice hockey goaltender.
Born in Vanguard, Saskatchewan, Rollins played in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers. He played a big role in the Leafs 1951 Stanley Cup victory. Rollins also won the 1951 Vezina Trophy and the 1954 Hart Memorial Trophy.
Rollins retired in 1962 and decided to become a coach. After retiring, Rollins coached the University of Calgary ice hockey team as well as clubs in Spokane, Salt Lake City, Houston, Tulsa and Phoenix. As a coach, he had a lot of success, including an Allan Cup win with the Spokane Jets in 1970.
His son Jerry Rollins played in the WHA which no longer is in operation.
Jacob Oulanyah
Jacob L'Okori Oulanyah (23 March 1965 – 20 March 2022) was a Ugandan agricultural economist, lawyer and politician. He was the Speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda from 2021 until his death. He was elected the parliament in 2011 and served until his death. He previously was a member of parliament from 2001 until 2006.
Oulanyah died on 20 March 2022 at a hospital in Seattle, Washington from cardiopulmonary arrest caused by a short-illness at the age of 56.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a 2007 action-adventure LEGO video game based on the Star Wars original and prequel trilogies. In the game, you can play the first six Star Wars movies. It is released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. It has later been released on the PC and can also be found on the App Store.
Reception
The game is considered better than the original two due to merged characters and gameplay.
Fujio Matsuda
Fujio "Fudge" Matsuda (October 18, 1924 – August 23, 2020) was the first Japanese American president of the University of Hawaii. This made him the first Asian American to become president of a major university in the United States.
Spanglish (language)
Spanglish is a hybrid American language that mixes words and other ways of saying things from Spanish and English. It is mostly spoken in the United States.
Fujio Matsuda
After retiring, Matsuda was on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii just after its near-closure in 2003.
Matsuda died at his home on August 23, 2020, at the age of 95.
Spanglish (language)
Speech
Spanglish is spoken in American towns and cities that have large numbers of Latino people, for example Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Santa Fe, Newark, and New York. Spanglish is spoken by Spanish-speaking people who have moved to the United States from other countries and immigrants who are are still learning English. Many people born in the United States whose parents came from Spanish-speaking countries also speak Spanglish. An estimated that 40 million people in the United States speak Spanglish.
Spanglish is a source of pride in Latino identity. In Living in Spanglish, Ed Morales wrote, "Spanglish is what we speak, but it is also who we Latinos are, and how we act, and how we perceive the world."
Spanglish literature
Latino literature in the United States has things written in Spanglish. Chicano, Nuyorican, and Puerto Rican poets, playwrights, and novelists use Spanglish. Here are some of them:
Spanglish music
Many Latino and Latin American musicians use Spanglish in the words to their songs.
Spanglish duets
Spanglish duets are songs with Spanish and English lyrics. They are a growing trend in the American and Latin American music industry. These duets are sung by a native Spanish speaker and a native English speaker. Shakira and Beyonce, Romeo Santos and Usher, Justin Bieber and Daddy Yankee (in Luis Fonsi’ s “Despacito”) have made the Billboard Hot 100 charts with Spanglish duets.
Further reading
Stavans, Ilan, Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. (2004)
Mangala Samaraweera
Mangala Pinsiri Samaraweera (21 April 1956 – 24 August 2021) (මංගල පින්සිරි සමරවීර, மங்கள சமரவீர; ) was a Sri Lankan politician. He was also the first openly gay politician from Sri Lanka.
He was the Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2019, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for two terms from 2005 to 2007 and 2015 to 2017. He was born in Matara, Sri Lanka.
Samaraweera died at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 24 August 2021 from COVID-19, aged 65.
Zuray Marcano
Zuray Marcano Fuenmayor (26 May 1954 – 23 August 2020) was a Venezuelan teacher and Paralympic powerlifter. In 2016, she was a competitor at the Rio Paralympics at the age of 62. She was born in El Tigre, Venezuela.
She was paralyzed at an early age due to polio.
Marcano died on 23 August 2020 in Maracay, Venezuela, aged 66.
Arzana
Arzana (Àrthana) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in Sardinia, Italy. As of 2016, 2,433 people lived there. Its area is 162.49 km². It is 672 meters above sea level.
Stasi
The Stasi was the official state security service of East Germany, the German Democratic Republic in short the GDR. The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party). "The Party" was the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The main job of the Stasi was to prevent opposition to the Party.
It was one of the most effective and ruthless secret police agencies in the world. The Stasi headquarter was in East Berlin, with a group of buildings in Lichtenberg and several other buildings in Berlin.
One of its main tasks was spying on the people, through a vast network of citizens who were informants ("snitches"). Informants were paid, or given favours for this.
The Stasi also worked as an intelligence agency abroad, using espionage and covert operations in foreign countries. Under its long-time head Markus Wolf it got a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the Cold War. After German reunification in 1990, many Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes. The files that the Stasi had kept on millions of East Germans were laid open. Now citizens can see their personal files on request; these files are kept by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives.
Daman district, India
Daman district is one of the three districts of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on the western coast of India.
It is surrounded by Valsad District of Gujarat state on the north, east and south and the Persian Gulf to the west. The district has an area of 72 km2, and a population of 191,173 at the 2011 census, an increase of 69.256% from the preceding 2001 Census.
The district is infamous for having the least balanced sex ratio in the country. The chief occupation has been fishing. The city of Surat lies to the north, and Mumbai lies approximately 160 km (100 mi) south of Daman on the Arabian Sea coast in Maharashtra state.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census Daman District, India has a population of 191,173, roughly equal to the nation of Samoa. This gives it a ranking of 592nd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 2655 PD/sqkm. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 69.256%. Daman has a sex ratio of 533 females for every 1,000 males, and a literacy rate of 88.06%.
Trappes
Trappes is a commune. It is in Île-de-France in the Yvelines department in north-central France. In 2019, 32,645 people lived there.
The commune is in the western suburbs of Paris, 26.7 km from the center, in the new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Twin towns
Trappes is twinned with:
Alan Kupperberg
Alan Kupperberg (May 18, 1953 – July 16, 2015) was an American comic artist. He was known for working in both comic books and newspaper strips. He began writing and drawing for Marvel Comics in 1974. Kupperberg has done illustrations for Archie Comics, National Lampoon, Cracked magazine, Spy, and McClannahan Books.
Adriana Hoffmann
Adriana Elisabeth Hoffmann Jacoby (29 January 1940 – 20 March 2022) was a Chilean botanist, environmentalist, and writer. She was Chile's Environment Minister in 2000 and 2001. She was a supporter of sustainable management and protection of Chilean forests.
Hoffmann died on 20 March 2022 at the age of 82.
International Institute of Hotel Management
International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) is a chain of hospitality and hotel management schools. It was founded in 1994 at Kolkata, India. IIHM has campus sites at Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and in Bangkok, Thailand. The school offers a Bachelor's degree in International Hospitality Management. A large number of students study at these campuses. Students also may complete their degree at Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh or the University of West London, in London.
Javier Otxoa
Javier Otxoa Palacios (born August 30, 1974 in Vizcaya – August 24, 2018, Alhaurín de la Torre) was a cyclist from Spain. He was a race car driver before being run over by a car. After being run over by a car, he decided to be a cyclist all the time. He has a disability: He has cerebral palsy and is a C3 type cyclist. He competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in cycling. He was the number 1 racer to finish in the Combined Road race. He was the number 2 cyclist in the Individual Pursuit track race. He competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in cycling. He was the number 1 racer to finish in the Road Trial race. He was the number 2 cyclist in the road race.
Otxoa won two gold medals and two silver medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Meselson–Stahl experiment
The Meselson–Stahl experiment was an experiment done by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl in 1958, using E. coli DNA. With their experiment, they found that DNA replication was semiconservative. The DNA consists of two helices that are combined. When the two helices are copied, each will have one part coming from the original cell. The other part will be newly made. In chemistry, that is called synthesis.
There are three different way this replication could happen:
Meselson and Stahl found that DNA employs semi-conservative replication. They put the bacteria in an environment with a Nitrogen isotope. They first used N15. The bacteria then integrated this isotope into their DNA. Later they used an environment that contained N14. They then looked at which of the isotopes the bacterial DNA contained. They found that it contained both isotopes of nitrogen, which implies that conservative replication is not the correct conclusion. By having a closer look they could then also rule out disperse replication. Some helix strands were all v. Other helix strands from the time in the N15 environment had N14.
Spider-Man (2000 video game)
Spider-Man is an action-adventure video game made by Neversoft. It can be played on the PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. The game is based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. there is another game Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro that came out in 2001.
Gameplay
Spider-Man can attack enemies with his webs or punches. Once you beat the game, a What-If mode narrated by the Watcher (voiced by Laurence Fishburne) has funnier things in the walkthrough.
Development
The game was made with the engine for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
Reception
The game is considered one of the best Spider-Man games of all time, rivalling Spider-Man 2.
Gernot Roll
Gernot Roll (9 April 1939 – 12 November 2020) was a German cinematographer and movie director. He was born in Dresden, Germany. He worked with Edgar Reitz and Sönke Wortmann.
Bolken
Bolken is a municipality in the district Wasseramt in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.
Gernot Roll
His best known works were The Last Escape, Zero Hour, The Buddenbrooks, Heimat, Der bewegte Mann, Beyond Silence and Nowhere in Africa.
Roll died on 12 November 2020 in Munich at the age of 81.
Matthew, Count of Boulogne
Matthew of Boulogne (1137 - 14 July 1173) was the son of Thierry of Flanders, he was killed in battle at Driencourt in 1173.
Jean de Venette
Jean de Venette (circa 1307 – after 1360) was born in Venette, France. He was a chronicler of the Hundred Years' War. He also recorded the events of the Black Plague, the revolt of the Jacquerie, and other historical events that occurred in his lifetime. Venette studied at the University of Paris. He became a Carmelite friar and shared his knowledge with his fellow monks. Jean de Venette realized the importance of education and taught many monks how to read and write. He also wrote a history of the Order of the Carmelites.
Jean de Venette became the Prior of the Carmelite monastery in Paris from 1339 to 1342, and was the Provincial Superior of France from 1341 to 1366. This later title made him the head of all of the Carmelite monasteries in the Province.
About 1340, he began to write down historical events happening around him. He said he recorded them  "...in great measure as I have seen and heard them". He describes a great famine that he witnessed at age seven or eight years old. He states it started on the 15th day of March in 1315 and lasted more than two years and ended in 1318."
In that same year of 1340 he describes a great comet that appeared in Gaul. He believed, as did many people in his time, that these events were warnings from God of bad things that would happen.
In 1341, de Venette states Prince John II of Brittany died.
In 1346 he announces that "King Edward of England set sail for Normandy with a great many armed men".
In 1348, de Venette described the Black Plague and how brave the nuns were that cared for the people. Also how many of them died as a result of their dedication.
He wrote of battles between England and France during the Hundred Years' War where he was so close, "the arrows darkened the sky around him”. Some of these battles he described were the siege of Calais in 1347 and the Battle of Poitiers (1356) where the French King and his son were captured.  He gives an account of what happened after Poitiers where he states that there seem to be no rule in the kingdom.  He wrote that "thieves and robbers rose up everywhere in the land and the Nobles also robbed and pillaged the peasants and took no thought for the people but rather for their own profit".
Angklung
The angklung is an Indonesian music instrument. It is made of many bamboo tubes. In 2010, UNESCO officially declared angklung a World Heritage item.
Jean de Venette
He states that in 1356, he witnessed the people of Paris building walls around their city because they did not trust the Nobles to protect them. De Venette goes into great detail, stating that the "citizens placed iron chains across the streets and crossways of Paris". They also built new walls, dug great ditches and tore down houses near the walls whether they were new or old.
Angklung
Angklung typically has two tubes and a base. Master artisans whittle bamboo into tubes of different sizes, which determine the angklung’s pitch. When a player gently shakes or taps the bamboo base, the instrument produces a single pitch. Since Angklungs only play a single note, players must work together to create melodies by shaking their angklungs at different pitches.
Jean de Venette
Jean de Venette's writings are considered very important because he was an eye witness to many historical events. His writings are detailed and vivid. Many of the other well-known chroniclers wrote about events much later then they actually happened and relied upon one-sided accounts. They were often commissioned by Kings and Nobles who wanted their particular point of view to be stressed.
Jean de Venette died after 1360.
Angklung
The instrument is still a staple in Indonesian culture. The government hosts Angklung performances to welcome honorable guests to Indonesia’s Presidential Palace. Angklung’s uplifting sound can be heard in classrooms around the world since it’s a great way for teachers to introduce students to Indonesian music and culture.
Edgar Reitz
Edgar Reitz (born 1 November 1932) is a German movie director, screenwriter and movie producer.
He is a Professor of Film at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (State University of Design) in Karlsruhe.
Nisha Rao
Nisha Rao is a Pakistani transgender lawyer and activist. In 2020, she became the first transgender law graduate in Pakistan.
Augusto Caminito
Augusto Caminito (1 July 1939 – 23 August 2020) was an Italian movie director, screenwriter, and producer. He was born in Naples. As a director, he was known for his works Grandi cacciatori (1988) and Vampire in Venice (1988). He produced Ne parliamo Lunedì (1990). He also wrote the screenplay for Halleluja for Django (1967).
Nisha Rao
Career
Rao began her law career by participating in various advocacy events. She later associated herself with various Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a volunteer and a legal adviser. She joined the Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA), which works for the rights of the transgender community.
As a lawyer, Nisha has dealt with over 50 cases regarding the transgender community.
Future plans
Nisha plans to help the transgender community through her NGO. She wants to set up a helpline where transgender people can be guided by other community members. She also has plans to build a transgender old age home in the near future.
Gene Deckerhoff
Emerson Eugene "Gene" Deckerhoff, Jr. (born May 2, 1945) is the radio play-by-play announcer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Florida State Seminoles football, basketball, and baseball teams. He also called games for the United States Football League's Tampa Bay Bandits.
St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica, which is called "Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano" in Italian, is a large church in the Vatican City, in Rome, Italy. It is often called “the greatest church in Christendom". In Catholic tradition, St. Peter's Basilica is believed to be the burial place of Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. It is believed that Saint Peter was the first Bishop of Rome.
Although the Bible does not say that the apostle Peter went to Rome, other Roman Christians who were alive in the 1st century AD have written about him. Catholics believe that after Peter was killed, his body was buried in a cemetery where the basilica now stands. A tomb has been found below the altar of the basilica, and there were some bones, but no-one can say for certain if they are the bones of St. Peter.
A church was built here in the 4th century AD. The building that stands here now was begun on April 18, 1506 and was finished in 1626. Many Popes have been buried there. Although many people think St. Peter's is a cathedral, it is not, because it does not have a bishop. The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and although he usually uses St. Peter's as his main church, because he lives in the Vatican, his bishop's throne is in a different church, the cathedral of Saint John Lateran. Large important churches like St. Peter's are often called basilicas. There are four ancient basilicas in Rome that were begun by the Emperor Constantine soon after he made Christianity the legal religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD (300s). The basilicas are St. Peter's Basilica, St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore and St. Paul outside the Walls.
St. Peter's is famous for many reasons:
Burial place of St. Peter
One of the books of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles, tells what happened to the disciples of Jesus after he was put to death by crucifixion in the 1st century AD. One of his twelve disciples became the leader. His name was Simon Peter and he was a fisherman from Galilee. Peter became one of the most important people in starting the Christian Church. Another important disciple was Paul of Tarsus, who travelled to many places and wrote lots of letters to teach and to encourage people in the new Christian groups that began to spring up in many different parts of the Roman Empire. St. Paul travelled to Rome. It is believed that St. Peter also travelled to Rome and that both Paul and Peter were put to death there as Christian martyrs. St. Paul was beheaded with a sword. Peter was crucified up-side-down. It is believed that the body of St. Peter was buried in a cemetery near the Via Cornelia, a road leading out of the city, on the hill called Vaticanus. Peter's grave was marked, by a red rock, the symbol of his name. The place where Peter died was marked, in the 1400s, by a little round temple called the "Tempietto" designed by Bramante.
St. Peter is very important in Roman Catholic tradition because Peter is believed to have been the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and so he was the first bishop. The Gospel of Matthew (chapter 16, verse 18) tells that Jesus said these words to Peter:
The name Peter means a "rock". The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus made Peter the head of the Christian Church, and so all the Bishops of Rome (the Popes) must be the leaders of the Christian Church throughout the whole world. The Protestant and Orthodox churches believe that Jesus was speaking about the important words Peter had just said: "You are the Christ and the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16), and that this Confession of Faith is the rock that the Christian Church is built on.
The plan to rebuild
By the end of the 15th century (1400s), the old basilica was falling to pieces. Pope Nicholas V, (1447–55), was worried about it and got two architects, Leone Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino, to make plans to restore it or build a new one. But Pope Nicholas had so many political problems that when he died, very little of the work had been done. In 1505, Pope Julius II decided to demolish (pull down) the old St. Peter's and build a basilica that would be the grandest church in the world and make Rome (and himself) famous. He held a competition and invited lots of artists and architects to draw designs. A plan was selected and the build was begun, but Pope Julius did not get his new basilica. In fact, it was not finished for 120 years. The planning and construction (or "building work") lasted through the reigns of 21 popes and 8 architects.
One plan after another
The changing plans for St. Peter's. The architectural terms are explained in the article.
Bramante
When Pope Julius decided to build the "grandest church in Christendom" the design by Donato Bramante was chosen, and Pope Julius laid the foundation stone in 1506. Bramante's plan was in the shape of an enormous Greek Cross, which means that it had four arms all of equal length, and a large dome at the middle. For the next hundred years, the groundplan got changed backwards and forwards between a "Greek Cross" like Bramante's plan and a "Latin Cross" like the old basilica, but one thing never changed, and that was the idea of having an enormous dome at the place where the two arms crossed.
At that time, there were only three very large domes in the whole world. One was far away in Constantinople on the church of Hagia Sophia and not many people in Italy had seen it. The other two domes were both very well known. One was the dome on the temple to the Ancient Roman gods, called the Pantheon. The other dome was built in the early 15th century (1400s) on Florence Cathedral by Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome of the Pantheon is 43.3 metres (142.06 ft) across and the dome of Florence Cathedral is about 42.1 metres (138 ft), but is much taller. Bramante's plan for the dome of St. Peter's was for it to be about as wide as the dome of Florence, and even taller.
No architect with any sense would try to design a dome without first checking out how these other two domes were made. Bramante checked them out. He discovered that the dome of the Pantheon, which had been standing for nearly 1500 years, was made of concrete. So that the concrete wouldn't be too heavy, it was mixed with pumice stone which comes out of a volcano and is full of gas holes so it is very light weight. Bramante learned how to make concrete like the Ancient Romans.
Bramante's dome was to be like the one on the Pantheon. But there was one very big difference between the Pantheon dome and Bramante's design. The Pantheon's dome stands on a round wall like a drum, with only one doorway in it, but Bramante's dome was designed to stand on a drum, which was standing high up on four wide arches. The aches rested on four enormous piers (pillars of stone). He had got this idea from Florence Cathedral which had an enormous dome resting on eight big piers. Another idea that Bramante got from Florence Cathedral was the design for the little stone tower which sits on top of the dome and is called the lantern.
Raphael, Peruzzi and Sangallo the Younger
When Pope Julius died in 1513, the next pope, Leo X, called in three architects, Giuliano da Sangallo, Fra Giocondo and Raphael. Sangallo and Fr Giocondo both died in 1515. Raphael made a big change to the plan. Instead of having a Greek Cross, he decided to change the plan to a Latin Cross, which had a long nave and aisles like the old basilica.
Raphael also died, in his mid-30s, in 1520, before any important changes could be made to the building. The next architect was Peruzzi who like some of the ideas that Raphael had, but did not like the Latin Cross plan. Peruzzi went back to Bramante's Greek Cross plan. But there were so many arguments in the church that the building stopped completely. Then in 1527 Rome was invaded by Emperor Charles V. Peruzzi died in 1536 without his plan being built. The only main parts of the building which had been constructed were Bramante's four big piers to hold the dome.
Antonio da Sangallo (known as "Sangallo the Younger") looked at all the different plans by Peruzzi, Raphael and Bramante. He put some of their ideas together in a design that had a very short nave, (not a long one like Raphael's design) and had a big porch at the front. He changed Bramante's dome to be much stronger and also much more decorated. The main new idea that he added were 16 stone ribs to strengthen the dome. This idea came from Florence Cathedral which had eight stone ribs. But Sangallo's plan never got built, either. The main job that he did was to strengthen Bramante's piers which had begun to crack.
Michelangelo
On January 1st, 1547 in the reign of Pope Paul III, Michelangelo, who was already over 70, became the architect of St. Peter's. He is the main designer of the building as it stands today. Michelangelo died before the job was finished, but by that time, he had got the construction up to a point where other people could get it finished. Michelangelo had already done a lot of work for the popes, carving figures for the tomb of Pope Julius II, painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which took five years, and the enormous fresco the "Last Judgement" on the wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo found the popes and the cardinals very difficult to work with. When Pope Paul asked him to be the new architect for St. Peter's, Michelangelo did not want the job. In fact, Pope Paul did not really want Michelangelo. But his first choice, Giulio Romano, died suddenly. Michelangelo told the pope that he would only do the job, if he could do it in whatever way he thought was best.
Michelangelo wrote:
When Michelangelo took over a building site in 1547, the nave of the old basilica was still standing and in use. There were four of the most enormous piers in the world standing where the western part of the old basilica had been. The building work had stopped for so long that weeds and bushes were growing out between the stones of the unfinished building as if it was a cliff. Michelangelo looked at all the plans that had been drawn by some of the greatest architects and engineers of the 16th century. He knew he could do whatever he liked but he had respect for the other designers, especially Bramante. He knew that he was expected to make a design that would be the symbol of the city of Rome, in the same way as Brunelleschi's dome was the symbol of Florence where Michelangelo had lived as a young man. He went back to the Greek Cross idea and re-drew Bramante's plan, making every part of it much stronger and simpler. It had to be strong enough to support the tallest dome in the world.
Michelangelo was a sculptor. When he was going to carve something, he would start by making a clay model. Michelangelo could imagine the building like a lump of clay. What if the building could be pushed and pulled and squeezed? If you could squeeze the corners in, then other bits would bulge out. If you could put your hands around the whole building and squeeze it, then the dome would bulge upwards. The idea of imagining buildings as bendy and bulgy was a completely new one. But other artists like Gianlorenzo Bernini looked at what Michelangelo did at St. Peter's and used this clever new idea in their own work. This is called the Baroque style.
As it stands today, the Greek Cross part of the basilica is Michelangelo's design and the nave, which was added later, is by Carlo Maderna. Comparing Michelangelo's plan with Raphael's plan shows that while the outside-line of Raphael's plan has clear square and round shapes, the outside-line in Michelangelo's plan has lots of changes of direction. That is the way it was built. All around the outside of the building are enormous "pilasters" (which are like giant columns stuck on the building). Almost every pilaster is set at a different angle to the next one as if the flat walls had been folded up. Right around the top of the building is a band called the "cornice". A "cornice" is usually quite flat, but because of all the changes of direction, this cornice ripples like a giant piece of ribbon, tied around the outside of the building. The art historian Helen Gardner wrote that it looked as of the whole building was being held together from top to bottom.
The Dome of St. Peter's
Michelangelo designed the dome again, using ideas from Bramante and Sangallo the Younger. Three important ideas came from the dome that Brunelleschi had built in Florence more than 100 years earlier.
When Michelangelo died in 1564, the walls were being built, the piers had been strengthened and everything was ready for the building of the dome. The Pope wanted Michelangelo's assistant Vignola to finish it, but he was not able to. After twenty years Pope Sixtus V gave the job to the architect Giacomo della Porta and the engineer Domenico Fontana. Giacomo Della Porta successfully built the dome. He made some changes to the design, like adding some lions' heads to the decoration because they were the symbol of Pope Sixtus' family. The main way that the dome is different from the wooden model is that it is much more pointy.
Some writers believe that Michelangelo had changed his mind from his first plan, and did not want the pointy dome. They believe he wanted a round dome which would look more "restful". Other writers believe that Michelangelo wanted the pointed dome, not just because it was safer to build, but also because it looked more exciting, as if the building was pushing upwards. Pope Sixtus V lived just long enough to see the dome finished in 1590. His name is written in gold letters around the inside, just below the lantern.
Pope Clement III, had a cross raised into place on top of the lantern. It took a whole day and everyone in Rome was given a holiday, and all the church-bells of the city were rung. In the arms of the cross are set two lead boxes, one containing a fragment of the True Cross and a bone of Saint Andrew and the other containing medals of the "Holy Lamb".
The dome of St. Peter's rises to a height of 136.57 m (448.06 ft) from the floor of the basilica. It is the tallest dome in the world. Its inside diameter is 41.47 metres (136.06 ft), just slightly smaller than those of the Pantheon and the Florence Cathedral.
The change of plan
In 1602 Pope Paul V put Carlo Maderna in charge of the building. On February 18 1606, workmen began to pull down the rest of the old basilica. Some people were very upset. The building committee felt guilty. They decided that the church was the wrong shape, and that they wanted a Latin Cross plan because it was the symbol of the death of Jesus. They wanted a nave which would cover all the Holy Ground where the old building had been. In 1607 Maderna's plans for the nave and the facade (the front) were accepted. For the inside, he used very large piers with pilasters like Michelangelo's, but he made a clear join between the two parts of the building. The building work began on May 7 1607 and 700 men were employed to do the work. In 1608, the facade was begun. In December 1614 the building was all finished except for the decorations on the ceiling. Early in 1615 the temporary wall between Michelangelo's building and the new nave was pulled down. All the mess was carted away, and the nave was ready for use by Palm Sunday.
The façade was designed by Maderna. It is 114.69 metres (376.28 ft) wide and 45.55 metres (149.44 ft) high and is built of pale grey travertine stone, with a giant Corinthian columns and a central triangular pediment. Along the roof-line are statues of Christ, John the Baptist, and eleven of the apostles.
Inside the main doors is a portico (a long hall) which runs across the front of the building and has five doors leading into the basilica. Its has a long curving roof decorated with gold. The light that comes through the doors shines on the beautifully patterned marble floor. At each end of the portico, set between columns, is a statue of a figure on horseback. They are Charlemagne sculpted by Cornacchini (18th century) to the south and Emperor Constantine by Bernini (1670) to the north. Maderna's last work at St. Peter's was to design a sunken crypt called the "Confessio" under the dome, where people can go to be nearer the burial place of the apostle. All around its marble handrail are 95 bronze lamps.
Pope Urban VIII and Bernini
As a young boy Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) visited St. Peter's and said that one day he wanted to build "a mighty throne for the apostle". His wish came true. As a young man, in 1626, Pope Urban VIII asked him to work as architect for the basilica. Bernini spent the next fifty years thinking of new and beautiful things to design. He is thought of as the greatest architect and sculptor of the Baroque period.
Baldacchino and niches
Bernini had a great idea for Bramante's great big piers. He had four hollow "niches" carved into them where four huge statues could stand. The basilica owns some precious relics: a piece of the True Cross of Jesus, a veil that a woman wiped the face of Jesus with, while he was carrying the cross, the spear that was used to pierce Jesus side, and the bones of St. Andrew, the brother of St. Peter. No-one knows for sure whether these things are real or not, but for hundreds of years they have been precious. Bernini's plan was the make four marble statues of the four Holy people: St. Helena who found the cross, St. Longinus who was the soldier with the spear, St Veronica who wiped Jesus' face and St. Andrew. (See below)
Cattedra Petri and Chapel of the Sacrament
Bernini's next job was to make a special throne out of bronze, to hold an ancient wood and ivory throne that had been at the basilica for more than 500 years. It is called the Cattedra Petri or "throne of St. Peter". The bronze throne, with the old wooden throne inside it, is held up high at the end of the basilica, by four important saints who are called "Doctors of the Church" because they were all great writers and teachers. The statues are made of bronze. They are Saints Ambrose and Augustine for the Church of Rome and Saints Athanasius and John Chrysostum for the Orthodox Church. Above the chair is a window which is made not from glass but thin translucent stone called alabaster. The Dove of the Holy Spirit is in the middle of the window with rays of light spreading out into the basilica through a sculpture of golden clouds and angels. Bernini designed this to look like a window into Heaven. There was a great celebration when the chair was put in place on January 16, 1666.