The Marais des Cygnes River is a principal tributary of the Osage River. It is about long, and runs through eastern Kansas and western Missouri in the United States. Via the Osage and Missouri rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. The name "Marais des Cygnes" means "Marsh of the Swans" in French. But the name actually comes from an Osage name “Mixa-ckau-tse” (where white swans are plentiful). It was probably so named because of the trumpeter and tundra swans that were plentiful here before the late 1800s. The river is notorious for flash flooding. The river is referenced in the song "The River" by Chely Wright.
List of comuni of the Province of Pesaro and Urbino
The following is a list of the 59 "comuni" of the Province of Pesaro and Urbino, Marche, in Italy.
Bever, Switzerland
Bever is a municipality of the district of Maloja in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.
Bivio
Bivio is a former municipality in the district of Albula in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.
On 1 January 2016 the former municipalities of Bivio, Cunter, Marmorera, Mulegns, Riom-Parsonz, Salouf, Savognin, Sur and Tinizong-Rona merged into the new municipality of Surses.
Brexit
Brexit () is a movement that promotes that the United Kingdom (UK) leave the European Union (EU). The name "Brexit" is a portmanteau (merging two words together) of "British" and "exit".
On 23 June 2016, the UK made a referendum that asked whether the UK should leave the EU. The result was that 51.9% of the UK electorate (the main region of the UK) voted that the UK should leave the EU. The rest wanted the UK to stay in the EU. On 29 March 2017, the UK government said that they will definitely be leaving the EU. This started the procedure of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, a law that deals with countries that leave the EU. The UK was expected to fully leave the EU on 29 March 2019 at 11p.m. UTC. The deadline to leave was later changed to 31 October 2019.
On 15 January 2019, Theresa May's government was defeated in the House of Commons by 230 votes in a vote on her deal to leave the European Union.
On 24 December 2020, a post-Brexit trade deal was finally made.
Below is a timeline of major events relating to Brexit.
Madame de Montespan
Françoise de Rochechouart, Marquise of Montespan (5 October 1640 – 27 May 1707) was better known as Madame de Montespan. She was the most celebrated mistress of King Louis XIV of France. She had seven children with him.
She had spent several years in fashonable Parisians salons. There she was quickly seen as an an intelligent, witty and very attractive woman. She eventually gave herself the nickname Athénaïs in honour of the ancient Greek goddess Athena. As a result of this she is also referred to as "Athénaïs de Montespan". She lived at the same time as Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles II of England. Several of her decendants married, which makes her an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal. She was also responsible for the creation of the now destroyed "Trianon de Porcelaine" as well as the larger and grander Château de Clagny. The latter building has often been likened to the Palace of Versailles, just on a smaller scale. She was also called "the real queen of France" in her lifetime due to her strong influence over the king and royal court.
The second daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart and Diane de Grandseigne, she was a member of the House of Rochechouart, itself one of the most well regarded noble families in France. Her mother was a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Austria and as a young girl, she often travelled with her mother between the family estates and the court at the Louvre in Paris. At the age of twelve, she began her formal education at the Convent of St Mary at Saintes, From a young age she was styled as "Mademoiselle de de Tonnay-Charente" or "Mademoiselle de Mortemart".
Despite being in love with Louis de La Trémoille, on 28 January 1663, Françoise married Louis Henri de Pardaillan, Marquis of Montespan, who was one year younger than her. Also from a prominent noble family the marriage was considered a good social match. The couple had two children.
At the age of twenty, Athénaïs became a maid-of-honour to the king's sister-in-law, Princess Henrietta of England, who was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame. Later, because of the relationship between her mother and the queen dowager, Anne of Austria, Athénaïs was appointed to be a lady-in-waiting to the king's wife, Queen Marie Thérèse. By 1666 Athénaïs was trying to gain the favour of Louise de La Vallière, the mistress of king Louis.
Eventually it became common knowledge that Louis and Athénaïs were having a sexual relationship. Their first illegitimate child was a daughter who was named after the couple ; Louise Françoise de Bourbon (1669-1672) but who died young. As the children born to the couple increased a house in Paris was bought on the Rue Vaugirard where the children could be bought up by their nanny Madame Scarron (future Madame de Maintenon) and secret wife of Louis). Thanks to the constant requests of Athénaïs in 1673, the couple's three living illegitimate children were legitimated by Louis XIV and given the royal surname of "de Bourbon". Their mother's name, however, was not mentioned. Despite having successfully seen her children with Louis legitimised, the arguments between Louis and Athénaïs became more and more frequent as well as ferocious but the couple would invariably work things out. However The ""Affaire des Poisons"" (Affair of the poisons), which erupted in September 1677. This was a national scandal and it was thought that Athénaïs had been using certain poisons on Louis to ensure her influence on him would remain strong. Throughout her time as mistress of Louis her influence on female fashion at court also remained considerable.
The last years of Madame de Montespan's life were given up to a very severe penance. Real sorrow over her death was felt by her three youngest children. She died on 27 May 1707 at the age of sixty-five while taking the waters at Bourbon-l'Archambault in order to try to heal an illness. The king refused to let her children to wear mourning for her.
Jayhawker
Jayhawkers is a term that came into use just before the American Civil War in Bleeding Kansas. It was adopted by militant bands of Free-Staters. These bands, known as "Jayhawkers", were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri known at the time as "Border Ruffians".
After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas. Today a Jayhawk is typically a student, fan, or alumnus of the University of Kansas. "Jayhawk" is also the name of their mascot, a mythical bird with a history based on the Bleeding Kansas era term.
The term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants traveling to California in 1849. The origin of the term may go back as far as the Revolutionary War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with American patriot John Jay.
About 1858 the slang term "jayhawking" became widely used as a synonym for stealing. It was also used at the same time during the Kansas territorial period. The term came to be used to describe militant bands nominally associated with the free-state cause.
Another historian of the time described the jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery. They fought "Border Ruffians" raiding into Kansas. In Missouri, "Jayhawker" was a derogatory term for Kansans who raided into Missouri, murdered slave owners, burned and looted their property in the name of freeing slaves.