In 1869, Stanley was instructed by the "New York Herald" to find the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, who was known to be in Africa but had not been heard from for some time. According to Stanley's account, he asked how much he could spend. The reply was "Draw £1,000 now, and when you have gone through that, draw another £1,000, and when that is spent, draw another £1,000, and when you have finished that, draw another £1,000, and so on — BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE!" Stanley had lobbied his employer for several years to mount this expedition.
Stanley found Livingstone on 10 November 1871, in Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania. He may have greeted him with the now-famous line, "" It may also have been a fabrication, as Stanley tore out of his diary the pages relating to the encounter.
In 1874, the "New York Herald," in partnership with Britain's "Daily Telegraph," financed Stanley on another expedition to the African continent. One of his missions was to solve a last great mystery of Africa by tracing the course of the Congo River to the sea. The difficulty of this expedition is hard to overstate. Stanley used sectional boats to pass the great cataracts that separated the Congo into distinct tracts. The boats had to be taken apart and transported around the rapids before being rebuilt to travel on the next section of river. After 999 days, on 9 August 1877, Stanley reached the Portuguese outpost of Boma, around 100 km from the mouth of the Congo River. Starting with 356 people, he reached Boma with 114 survivors, and he was the only European left. He wrote about his trials in his book "Through the Dark Continent".
Stanley was approached by King Leopold II of the Belgians, the ambitious Belgian monarch. In 1876 the king organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic (goodwill) association. He called it the "International African Association".
The King spoke of his intentions to introduce Western civilization and bring religion to that part of Africa. He did not mention he wanted to claim the lands. At the end of his life, the King was embittered that his establishment of a Congo Free State was spoilt by its unscrupulous government. Also, the spread of sleeping sickness across central Africa may have been caused by the movements of Stanley's enormous baggage train, and the Emin Pasha relief expedition.
In 1886, Stanley led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to "rescue" Emin Pasha, the governor of Equatoria in the southern Sudan. King Leopold II demanded that Stanley take the longer route, via the Congo River. He hoped to get more territory. After immense hardships and great loss of life, Stanley met Emin in 1888, charted the Ruwenzori Range and Lake Edward, and emerged from the interior with Emin and his surviving followers at the end of 1890.
This expedition tarnished Stanley's name because of the conduct of the other Europeans: British gentlemen and army officers. An army major was shot by a carrier, after he behaved with extreme cruelty. James Sligo Jameson, heir to Jameson's, an Irish whiskey manufacturer, bought an 11-year-old girl and offered her to cannibals to document and sketch how she was cooked and eaten. Stanley found out only when Jameson had died of fever.
Azerbaijani carpet
Azerbaijani carpets () are carpets made in Azerbaijan, an ancient center of carpet weaving. The Azerbaijani carpet is a traditional handmade textile of many sizes, with dense texture and a smooth or rough surface, whose patterns are characteristic of Azerbaijan's many carpet-making regions. Traditionally, since ancient times the carpets were used in Azerbaijan to cover floors, decorate interior walls, sofas, chairs, beds and tables.
Carpet making is a family tradition transferred orally and through practice, with carpet making and rug making being almost women's job. In the past every young girl had to learn the art of weaving carpets, and the carpets she wove became a part of her dowry. In the case of a newly married son, it was his mother who wove a large rug for his new household. Starting a new carpet meant a feast, but the completion of a rug meant an even greater celebration for the family. In the old days finished carpets were laid out in front of the house so that passers-by with the weight of their feet could make them even tighter than they had already been knotted. For the traditional process of carpet and rug making, men removed the wool from the sheep in the spring and autumn, while women collected dyestuffs and spin and dye yarn in the spring, summer and autumn. Azerbaijani carpets are divided into four large regional groups: Quba-Shirvan, Ganja-Kazakh, Karabakh, and Baku.
In November 2010 the Azerbaijani carpet was made a "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage" by UNESCO.
Elgin Baylor
Elgin Gay Baylor (September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 13 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Baylor played for the Minneapolis / Los Angeles Lakers, appearing in eight NBA Finals. Baylor was a gifted shooter, strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Baylor was famous for his acrobatic moves on the court. He regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots. Baylor was the No. 1 draft pick in 1958. He was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959. Baylor was named an NBA All-Star 11 times. He is regarded as one of the game's all-time greatest players. In 1977, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Baylor was born September 16, 1934 in Washington, DC. He attended high school at Washington, D.C.'s Springarn High. He was an All-American at Seattle University. In 1958 he led his team to the NCAA finals.
In 1958 he was the number 1 pick in the NBA draft by the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers were struggling and on the verge of bankruptcy. Baylor was just what they needed and he led the team to the 1959 NBA Finals. On November 15, 1960 Baylor set a then NBA record. He scored 71 points and 25 rebounds in one game. This was while he was still on active duty with the United States Army. He could only play with the Lakers on weekends.
Baylor was 6-5 and weighed 225 pounds. He was strong and graceful on the court. During his 14-year career with the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers Baylor averaged 27.4 points a game. He held an average of 13.5 rebounds per game. He averaged 27 points a game in 134 appearances in playoff games. Early in the 1970-71 season Baylor suffered a severe knee injury. He didn't return until the 1971-72 season playing only nine games before he retired. He was 37 years old.
Baylor spent 22 years as general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers. He won the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 2006. He was relieved of his duties shortly before the 2008–09 season began.
Baylor died on March 22, 2021, at age 86 of natural causes in Los Angeles.
Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian (born Hugh Charles Krampe; April 19, 1925—September 5, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his starring role in the 1955-1961 ABC western television series, "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp".
O'Brian died at his home in Beverly Hills, California on September 5, 2016 at the age of 91.
Chris Woodhead
Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead (20 October 1946 – 23 June 2015) was a British educator. He was head of Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, from 1994 to 2000. Ofsted is a non-ministerial department of the UK government. The head of Ofsted is also Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England, which is a crown appointment.
Woodhead graduated in English at the University of Bristol, where he also took a PGCE. He obtained a Master of Arts in English from Keele University in 1974.