The project began in 1997. The project has won awards. The project was part of the regeneration of the Castle Vale estate. It was funded by the National Lottery. Tolkien was appointed as artist in residence. He consulted local residents about an art feature. They liked the area's links to World War II aircraft. They would like a sculpture with Spitfires. The sculpture was opened on 14 November 2000. The sculptor is the great-nephew of J. R. R. Tolkien who was the author of "The Lord of the Rings," and who grew up in Birmingham.
The main commercial sponsors of the spitfire sculpture were from Jaguar, Rubery Owen Holdings and Cincinnati. Both Cincinnati and Rubery Owen Holdings made parts for the Spitfires. They were put together at the Castle Bromwich Spitfire and Avro Lancaster bomber factory. This is the factory where Jaguar cars are now made.
The Castle Bromwich Aerodrome Factory was built in 1940 to produce planes for the war effort. About 12,000 Spitfires were made there from 1940 to 1945. Over 37,000 test flights were made from Castle Bromwich Aerodrome. The completed planes were towed across the road from the factory to the Aerodrome. The sculpture was unveiled by Alex Henshaw. He was the Chief Test Pilot for spitfires.
The aerodrome site is now the Castle Vale estate.
Patrick Pinney
Patrick Pinney (born June 30, 1952) is an American actor and voice actor.
Fitzhugh Mullan
Fitzhugh Mullan (July 22, 1942 – November 29, 2019) was an American physician, writer, educator, and social activist. He worked in the founding of the Student Health Organization, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, Seed Global Health, and the Beyond Flexner Alliance.
Mullan was a professor of Health Policy and Management and of Pediatrics at the George Washington University and the George Washington University Health Workforce Institute. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. He was born in New York City.
Mullan died on November 29, 2019 in Bethesda, Maryland of lung cancer at the age of 77.
Lil Bub
Lil Bub, officially Lil BUB (June 21, 2011 – December 1, 2019), was an American celebrity cat. She was known for her unique physical appearance. Her owner, Mike Bridavsky, adopted her when his friends called to ask him to give her a home. Her photos were first posted to Tumblr in November 2011, before being taken off after being featured on the social news website Reddit.
"Lil Bub" on Facebook has over three million likes. Lil Bub stars in "Lil Bub & Friendz", a documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013, that won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.
Lil Bub died of a bone infection on December 1, 2019 at the age of 8, which lead to a overwhelming degree of sorrow over her death on social media.
Kelly Loeffler
Kelly Lynn Loeffler (; born November 27, 1970) is an American businesswoman, political donor and politician. Loeffler was the United States Senator from Georgia from January 6, 2020 to January 20, 2021. Before becoming senator, she had no political experience. She is a member of the Republican Party. She lost her re-election bid on January 5, 2021 to Raphael Warnock.
She was the chief executive officer of Bakkt and the part-owner of the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association.
On November 27, 2019 Governor Brian Kemp's said that Loeffler was his top pick to replace Senator Johnny Isakson. Kemp formally picked Loeffler as his senate pick.
Loeffler is very wealthy and was one of the wealthiest members of the United States Senate.
Kelly was born on November 27, 1970, in Bloomington, Illinois. She was raised on the family farm in Stanford, Illinois.
According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Loeffler and her husband have donated 3.2 "million" dollars to political committees. While the majority of these donations have gone to the Republican Party, some donations have gone to Democrats, including Representative David Scott (GA–13), a Democrat, who received $10,200. Loeffler donated $750,000 to Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting former Governor Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee received $247,500 from Loeffler and her husband.
Loeffler first considered running for office in 2014. She briefly expressed interest in seeking the Republican nomination in the 2014 United States Senate election in Georgia but ultimately passed on the race because of Intercontinental Exchange's pending acquisition with the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2004, Loeffler, then 34, married businessman Jeffrey Spreecher. Spreecher is 15 years older than Loeffler. They have no children.
Aktobe
Aktobe (; ) is a city in Kazakhstan. In 2017, it had a population of roughly 413,918 people.
Ivan Drago
Ivan Drago (Russian: Иван Драго) is a fictional soviet Russian boxer created and played by Dolph Lundgren. He first appeared in the 1985 movie Rocky IV starring Sylvester Stallone.
North Sulawesi
North Sulawesi () is a province of Indonesia. It is on the northeastern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi. This is called the Minahasa Peninsula. The province is south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. The Maluku Sea is to the east, the Gorontalo and Celebes Sea is to the west, and the Gulf of Tomini is to the southwest. The province's area is 13851.64 sq.km, and its population was 2,270,596 at the 2010 census;
The province's capital, business center, and largest city is Manado. Other major towns are Tomohon and Bitung. There are many tall mountains from high. The province is a young volcanic region. There are many eruptions and active volcanic cones.
In the past, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and the Kingdoms around this area fought over the riches in North Sulawesi such as spices, rice and gold. The region was also the trading route between west and east and this helped the spread of Christianity, Islam, and other religions. The Portuguese first landed in the 16th century. The Spanish and the Dutch came and the Portuguese fought them. Finally, the Dutch got control in the 17th century. The Dutch ruled the area for three centuries until the Japanese came at the start of World War II. After the Japanese lost WWII in 1945, the Dutch controlled the area again for a short time. They left in 1949. , following the Round Table Conference, in which the Dutch recognized the newly created United States of Indonesia (RIS). So, North Sulawesi became part of the territory of the State of East Indonesia (NIT). The people did not like NIT, so it became part of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950. At first, the island of Sulawesi was one single province. Soon it separated into several different provinces. So, the province of North Sulawesi started on 14 August 1959.
The area around North Sulawesi used to be called Minahasa. The name is still used sometimes. The word Minahasa comes from the words Mina-Esa (Minaesa) or Maesa which means being one or uniting This name shows hope to unite the ethnic groups of the area including the: Tontemboan, Tombulu, Tonsea, Tolour (Tondano), Tonsawang, Ponosakan, Pasan, and Bantik. The word "Minahasa" was first used by J.D. Schierstein, the Dutch regent of Manado, in his report to the Governor of Maluku on 8 October 1789.
Archaeological research has revealed signs of human life in North Sulawesi since 30,000 years ago, based on evidence in the cave Liang Sarru on the island of Salibabu. Other evidence shows life about 6,000 years ago on the Passo Hillside Site in Kakas District and 4,000 years ago to early AD at the Liang Tuo Mane'e cave in Arangkaa on Karakelang Island.
At the end of the 16th century, Portuguese and Spanish arrived in North Sulawesi. The Portugal was the first western nation to arrive in North Sulawesi. A Portuguese ship landed at Manado The Sultanate of Maguindanao controlled the northern islands at that time. The Portuguese built the fort at Amurang.