He was born in Krajná Bystrá, Austria-Hungary. His family were Rusyns. He first worked as a tailor and then became a politician. First, from 1955 until 1971, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia (ÚV KSS). Biľak was, from November 1968 until December 1988, a secretary of ÚV KSČ with important impact on the foreign policy of the party. From 1960 until 1989, he was a part of the National Assembly, later the Federal Assembly.
Vasiľ Biľak died on 6 February 2014 in Bratislava, Slovakia. He was aged 96.
John Ostrom
John Harold Ostrom (February 18, 1928 – July 16, 2005) was an American paleontologist.
In the 1960s, he showed that dinosaurs are more like big non-flying birds than they are like lizards (or "saurians"). Thomas Henry Huxley in the 1860s had thought birds evolved from dinosaurs, based on a comparison of "Archaeopteryx" with "Compsognathus". Huxley's idea was later discarded, mainly because Heilmann, in 1926, had different views.
The first of Ostrom's reviews of the osteology and phylogeny of the primitive bird "Archaeopteryx" appeared in 1976. After the modern discoveries of fossil dinobirds in China, the HuxleyOstrom theory was accepted by almost all palaeontologists.
Ostrom was a professor at Yale University. He was the Curator Emeritus of vertebrate paleontology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, which has an impressive fossil collection started by Othniel Charles Marsh. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
His 1964 discovery of "Deinonychus" was one of the most important fossil finds in history. "Deinonychus" was an active predator that clearly killed its prey by leaping and slashing or stabbing with its "terrible claw". Evidence of a truly active lifestyle included long strings of tendons running along the tail, making it a stiff counterbalance for jumping and running. The conclusion that at least some dinosaurs had a high metabolism, and were therefore warm-blooded, was popularized by his student Robert Bakker. This helped to change the impression of dinosaurs as the sluggish, slow, cold-blooded lizards which had prevailed since the turn of the century.
This changed how dinosaurs are seen by both professional dinosaur illustrators, and by the public. The find is also credited with triggering the "dinosaur renaissance", a term coined in a 1975 issue of "Scientific American" by Bakker. It describes the renewed interest in paleontology, which has lasted from the 1970s to the present.
Ostrom's interest in the dinosaur-bird connection started with his study of what is now known as the Haarlem "Archaeopteryx". Discovered in 1855, it was actually the first specimen recovered but, incorrectly labeled as "Pterodactylus crassipes", it languished in the Teyler's Museum in the Netherlands until Ostrom's 1970 paper (and 1972 description) correctly identified it as one of only eight "first birds" (counting the solitary feather).
Ostrom also studied fossilized trackways of the duckbilled dinosaur "Hadrosaurus". He decided they traveled in herds. To this extent they were social animals like many birds and mammals, but unlike lizards.
Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhaylovna Plisetskaya (; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Russian ballerina, choreographer, director and actress. She was born in Moscow, Soviet Union.
Plisetskaya gained an interest in ballet at a young age and was active during the Soviet period. She has been called by some, such as Nikita Khrushchev, one of the best ballerinas of all time. She was married to composer and pianist Rodion Shchedrin from 1958 until her death.
Plisetskaya was born in Moscow, Russia to Lithuanian Jewish parents. Her mother, Rachel Messerer, was a silent movie actress and her father, Mikhail Plisetski, was a diplomat. She studied at the Bolshoi Theater.
In 1938, her father was arrested and later executed during the Stalinist purges. Her mother was arrested soon after and, with Maya's seven-month-old baby brother, sent to a gulag in Kazakhstan for the next three years. Plisetskaya was taken in by her maternal aunt (a ballerina) until her mother was released in 1941.
During the years without her parents, and barely a teenager, Plisetskaya "faced terror, war, and dislocation". As a result, "Maya took refuge in ballet and the Bolshoi Theatre".
For many years she was not allowed to tour outside the Soviet Union. This ban was lifted in 1959 by Nikita Khrushchev.
Able to travel the world as a member of the Bolshoi, her skill as a dancer was widely recognised. It set a high standard for ballerinas in technique and dramatic presence. Khrushchev allowed her to go on the Bolshoi tour in New York and he was immensely satisfied upon reading the reviews of her performances. He embraced her on her return.
Within a few years, she was recognized as “an international superstar” and a continuous “box office hit throughout the world”. The Soviet Union treated her as a favored cultural emissary, as “the dancer who did not defect”. Although she toured extensively during the years that other dancers defected, including Rudolph Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Plisetskaya always returned to Russia.
Plisetskaya explains that for her generation, and her family in particular, defecting was a moral issue. She had once asked her mother why their family didn't leave the Soviet Union when they had the chance, at the time living in Norway. Her mother said “Misha would never have been a traitor”.
Plisetskaya married composer Rodion Shchedrin in 1958. They lived in Munich, Germany. She was close friends with Robert F. Kennedy. Plisetskaya was a naturalized citizen of Lithuania and Spain.
Plisetskaya died in Munich, Germany on 2 May 2015 from a heart attack, aged 89.
Plisetskaya was given many awards by the Soviet Union, and by Russia. Of special note were:
Brent Hayden
Brent Matthew Hayden (born October 21, 1983 in Mission, British Columbia) is a Canadian retired swimmer.
During the 100-metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London he won the bronze medal for Canada. He became the first Canadian in 21 years to win a gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships. He was also the first Canadian to appear in the 100-metre final at the Olympics since Dick Pound appeared at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He was also the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the 100 m event.
After the men's 4 × 100-metre medley relay at the Olympics, Hayden announced that he was retiring. He said he believed in the Canadian swim team to thrive in the future, saying that "I think in the grand scheme of things, with the people we have, we’ve done an amazing job … As long as we keep that momentum building, I think we’re going to see more success come from more diverse events."
Zhucheng fossil site
The Zhucheng fossil site is in Zhucheng, a city in the Shandong Province of China. It is perhaps the greatest treasury of dinosaur fossils found in the 20th century.
Zhucheng has been an important site for dinosaur excavation since 1960. The local community used the calcium-rich fossils for traditional village remedies used to treat muscle cramps and other minor ailments.
The world's largest hadrosaur fossil was found in Zhucheng in the 1980s, and is on display in the local museum. Scientists have collected more than of fossils since 1960.
Many dinosaur bones were smuggled out of the city. In 2008 Australia returned hundreds of kilograms of Chinese dinosaur fossils, including dinosaur fossil eggs. These fossils were recovered during a sting operation carried out on warehouses and cargo containers.