Betygala
Betygala is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania.
As of 2011 it had a population of 488.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the town had a noted Samogitan fortress, attacked by the Teutonic Knights numerous time.
One of the first churches in Lithuania was built in the town.
Mikalojus Daukša was the parish pastor from 1592 to 1603.
Café International
Café International is a 1989 board game created by It is a simple game for 2 to 4 players in which the players take on the role of waiters in the famous "Cafe International".
Their goal is to seat customers of various nationalities with other customers from the same nationality, and also to keep the numbers of men and ladies at the tables even.
Café International won the Spiel des Jahres award in 1989.
David Ji
David Longfen Ji is an American businessman who co-founded Apex Digital, an electronics manufacturer.
In 2004, he was arrested in China following a dispute with Sichuan Changhong Electric, a supplier owned by the city of Mianyang and the province of Sichuan.
Changhong accused him of defrauding them through bad checks.
Ji was taken, according to an account by his lawyer, to the senior management and told, "I decide whether you live or die."
He has been held in China without charges.
Ji's case highlighted an "implicit racism" in dealings with American businessmen.
As a U.S. citizen he was not granted the same treatment by authorities as non-ethnically Chinese businessmen sharing the same nationality.
The Lake Calls
The Lake Calls is a 1933 German drama film directed by Hans Hinrich and starring Heinrich George, Erika Helmke and Hans Mierendorff.
It is based on the poem" Terje Vigen" by Henrik Ibsen.
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Ernö Metzner and Erich Zander.
Hendrik Helmke
Hendrik Helmke( born 13 July 1987), commonly known as Dico, is a German football player of Brazilian descent who plays as a midfielder for KPV.
Benny de Weille
Benny de Weille( March 6, 1915, Lübeck- December 17, 1977, Westerland) was a German swing jazz clarinetist and bandleader.
De Weille studied clarinet under Hans Helmke and was heavily influenced by Benny Goodman, whom he often emulated in his own ensembles.
He made recordings with Teddy Stauffer, Hans Rehmstedt, and Willy Berking in the 1930s and 1940s, and from 1940 led his own" Bar Trio".
Following the war he worked at Radio Frankfurt and conducted the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk orchestra.
His last recordings were in a Dixieland style in 1951.
Merkelis Giedraitis
Merkelis Giedraitis (ca. 1536 – 6 April 1609 in Alsėdžiai) was Bishop of Samogitia from 1576 to 1609.
He actively combated Reformation implementing resolutions of Council of Trent in Samogitia.
Giedraitis was born into the Giedraičiai family of Lithuanian nobility.
He studied at University of Königsberg (1550), Universities of Wittenberg and Tübingen (1560–1563), University of Leipzig (1563).
He was ordained as a priest in 1571 and soon became a member of the diocesan chapter in Vilnius.
Bishop of Samogitia Jurgis Petkūnas died in 1574.
Jakub Uchański, Primate of Poland and Archbishop of Gniezno, attempted to promote his nephew to the vacancy.
Walerian Protasewicz, Bishop of Vilnius, protested this nepotism and instead promoted Giedraitis, who had a clear advantage of speaking Lithuanian and Samogitian.
After a two-year political struggle Giedraitis prevailed and was consecrated bishop on 16 January 1576.
Giedraitis found parishes of Diocese of Samogitia either overtaken by Protestants or neglected.
He worked hard to end clerical abuses, strengthen churches and schools, and increase number of priests.
He sponsored education of 12 students at Vilnius Theological Seminary and sought to establish Kražiai College, which was accomplished after his death.
Giedraitis also invited Jesuits to Kražiai and Bernardines to Kretinga to establish the first monasteries in Samogitia.
He supported use of the Lithuanian language and encouraged all priests to use it for sermons.
He sponsored Mikalojus Daukša, who published "Catechism" (1595) and "Postil" (1599) in the Lithuanian language—the first Lithuanian books printed within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
He also supported Maciej Stryjkowski, author of the first printed history of Lithuania.
Benny de Weille
Benny de Weille( March 6, 1915, Lübeck- December 17, 1977, Westerland) was a German swing jazz clarinetist and bandleader.
De Weille studied clarinet under Hans Helmke and was heavily influenced by Benny Goodman, whom he often emulated in his own ensembles.
He made recordings with Teddy Stauffer, Hans Rehmstedt, and Willy Berking in the 1930s and 1940s, and from 1940 led his own" Bar Trio".
Following the war he worked at Radio Frankfurt and conducted the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk orchestra.
His last recordings were in a Dixieland style in 1951.
Mikalojus Daukša
Mikalojus Daukša( other possible spellings include" Mikalojus Daugsza", and" Mikolay Dowksza"; after
1527 – February 16, 1613 in Medininkai) was a Lithuanian and Latin religious writer, translator and a Catholic church official.
He is best known as the first among Lithuania's humanists to underline the need to codify and promote the Lithuanian language over Chancery Ruthenian and Polish, which were in use in the Grand Duchy at the time.
Daukša's Lithuanian translation of Jacob Ledesma's catechism became the first book in Lithuanian to be published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Born probably after 1527 somewhere in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania( in Babėnai?), Daukša probably received his education in Vilnius and at one of the Western European Universities.
He spoke several languages and had a personal library including books by Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philip Melanchthon.
Daukša was a canon of Medininkai( nowadays Varniai) and an official member of the Samogitia.
Under the auspices of bishop Merkelis Giedraitis, he translated the catechism by the Spanish Jesuit theologist Jacobo Ledesma.
The book, translated from the Polish translation by Jakub Wujek, was published in 1595, and became one of the means to fight paganism.
Paganism was at that time still practiced in Lithuania.
The work also served to counter the growing threat posed to Catholicism by the Reformation, which was promoted in Lithuania by the mighty Radziwiłł family.
It was also the first book in Lithuanian to be printed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In 1599 Daukša published another important work, the Lithuanian translation of the Polish language collection of sermons by Jakub Wujek, the Postilla catholica.
There are two prefaces to this work, one in Latin and one in Polish.
In the Polish preface, Daukša advocates the promotion of the Lithuanian language in the Grand Duchy and gave a brief definition of the Lithuanian nation and state.
The book is regarded as more valuable and important than the Catechism, and constitutes one of the monuments of the Lithuanian language.
In his translations, Daukša used the central High Lithuanian dialect, influenced by both eastern High Lithuanian and Samogitian.
As one of pioneers of written Lithuanian, he is credited with the introduction of several neologisms, among them" mokytojas"( teacher)," valia"( will)," įkvėpimas"( inspiration) and" išmintis"( wisdom).
Of special importance for our knowledge of the Lithuanian language are the accent signs Daukša employs in the Postilla.
Merkelis Petkevičius
Merkelis Petkevičius( 1550 – 1608) was a Reformation( Calvinist) activist in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
He was a nobleman who worked as a court scribe in Vilnius for almost thirty years.
In 1598, he published the first Lithuanian- language Protestant book in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
This book, a bilingual catechism in Polish and Lithuanian, was published in response to the publication of the Roman Catholic catechism of Mikalojus Daukša.
However, book's heavy, artificial language with numerous loanwords make it linguistically inferior to Daukša's work.

Question: Are Hendrik Helmke and Mikalojus Daukša of the same nationality?
Answer: no