Lois Wille
Lois Jean Wille (née Kroeber; September 19, 1931 – July 23, 2019) was an American journalist, editor, and author. She won her first of two Pulitzer Prizes in 1963 for her reports about how the Chicago local government’s failure to have good services to low-income women.
Her stories led to a number of important policy changes in women’s healthcare, public housing, and the juvenile court systems. She was born in Chicago.
In 1989, she received her second Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.
Wille died on July 23, 2019 in Chicago from a stroke at the age of
Republic of China (1912–1949)
The Republic of China (ROC) was a country that existed between 1912 and 1949. It is now the People's Republic of China. It was created in January 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. The Republic's first president was Sun Yat-sen. Sun's party, the Kuomintang (KMT) won the parliamentary election in December 1912.
But Sun soon gave the position to Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang Army. The Beiyang Army also controlled the Beiyang government (which controlled Mongolia).
Between late 1915 and early 1916, Yuan Shikai called himself the Emperor of China. But people did not like it (National protection war).
After Yuan died death in 1916, the Beiyang government was further weakened by a brief restoration of the Qing dynasty. Various groups in the Beiyang Army claimed independence and fought with each other during the Warlord Era.
In 1921, the KMT created a rival government in Canton, supported by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
North China was overtaxed and had too many fighting warlords. So its economy died between 1927 and 1928.
General Jiang Jieshi became the KMT leader after Sun's death. Jiang started the Northern Expedition in 1926 and overthrew the Beiyang government in 1928. In April 1927, Jiang created a nationalist government in Nanjing and massacred Communists in Shanghai. This forced the CPC into armed rebellion, starting the Chinese Civil War.
China experienced industrialization and modernization but suffered conflicts between the Nationalist government in Nanking, the CPC, warlords, and the Empire of Japan.
Eventually the Chinese unified to fight against their common enemy: the Japanese. In 1937 the Imperial Japanese Army invaded China in 1937. The Second Sino-Japanese War began.
In 1945 Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.
In 1946, the Chinese Civil War between the KMT and CPC restarted.
In 1949, the CPC defeated the KMT and started the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Jiang Jieshi and the KMT fled to Taiwan.
Varieties of Chinese
Chinese is a branch of the Han-Tibetan language family. It has hundreds of local languages, many of which are not mutually understandable. There is more variation in the mountainous southeast. There are main seven groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka and Yue. But more research is being done.
Chinese varieties differ most in their phonology (sounds), but have similar vocabulary and syntax (grammar). Southern varieties tend to have fewer initial consonants but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. All have tones. Northern varieties have fewer tones. Many have tone sandhi (biandao). Zhejiang coast and eastern Guangdong has some of the most complex patterns.
Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect. Its vocabulary is based on Mandarin group and grammar based on literature in the modern written vernacular. It is the official language of China, one of the four official languages of Singapore, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
In 2nd millennium BC, a form of Chinese was spoken in around the Huanghe. It then expanded east across the North China Plain to Shandong and then south towards the Yangzi river valley. It replaced former languages in the south.
During times of unity, people wanted to use a common standard language to make communication easier between people.
Evidence for dialectal variation is found in texts from the Spring and Autumn period (722–479 BC). At that time, the Zhou still defined a standard speech. The "Fangyan" (1st century CE) studies the differences in vocabulary between regions. Texts from the Eastern Han period also discuss local differences in pronunciation. The "Qieyun" rhyme book (601) noted wide variation in pronunciation between regions. It wanted to define a standard pronunciation for reading the classics. This standard is called Middle Chinese.
The North China Plain was flat and easy to move around. So people in the north pretty much spoke the same language.
But South China had many mountains and rivers. So it had six major groups of Chinese languages, with great internal diversity, particularly in Fujian.
Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese people spoke only their local language. But the Ming and Qing dynasties defined a common language based on Mandarin. It was known as "Guānhuà" (官話, "speech of officials"). Knowledge of guanhua was essential for a career as a government official.
Until the 20th century, Classical Chinese was the written standard.
The Republic of China replaced as the written standard by written vernacular Chinese, which was based on northern dialects. In the 1930s a standard national language was adopted, with its pronunciation based on the Beijing dialect, but with vocabulary also drawn from other Mandarin varieties. It is the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China.
Standard Mandarin Chinese now dominates public life. The only other Chinese that may be commonly taught in colleges is Cantonese.
These are sometimes divided into three groups: Northern (Mandarin), Central (Wu, Gan, and Xiang) and Southern (Hakka, Yue, and Min).
Southern Group may come from the Yangzi river during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). This is sometimes called the Old Southern Chinese.
The Central group was transitional between the Northern and Southern groups.
Peter Hamm
Peter Hamm (27 February 1937 – 22 July 2019) was a German poet, author, journalist, editor and literary critic. He wrote many documentaries about Ingeborg Bachmann and Peter Handke. He wrote for the German weekly newspapers "Der Spiegel" and "Die Zeit". From 1964 to 2002, Hamm worked as contributing editor for culture for the broadcster Bayerischer Rundfunk. He was born in Munich.
Hamm was in a domestic partnership with actress Marianne Koch from 1970 until his death.
Hamm died on 22 July 2019 in Tutzing, Germany at the age of 82.
Marianne Koch
Marianne Koch (born 19 August 1931) is a German actress. She is best known for her roles in spaghetti westerns and adventure movies of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician. She was in a relationship with Peter Hamm from 1970 until his death in 2019. Koch was born in Munich.
Koch is known for her roles in "Night People" alongside Gregory Peck and in Sergio Leone's 1964 movie "A Fistful of Dollars" alongside Clint Eastwood.
Francisco Grau
Francisco Grau Vegara (22 January 1947 – 21 July 2019) was a Spanish musician, composer and General in the Spanish Armed Forces. He was born in Bigastro, Alicante. In January 2008, Grau became the first General of Music in the Spanish Armed Forces, having been made a colonel some years previously. From 1988 – 2008, he was also director of the Musical Unit of the Spanish Royal Guard.
Grau died on 21 July 2019, aged 72.
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was the bombing of Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy by Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari. It happened on 2 August 1980. It killed 85 people and injured over 200 others. It was Italy's worst terrorist attack.
Art Neville
Arthur Lanon Neville (December 17, 1937 – July 22, 2019) was an American singer-songwriter and keyboardist. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Neville was a part of The Neville Brothers. He was a founding member of The Meters. He also played with the spinoff group The Funky Meters.