Sir Matt remembered
One of English football's greatest-ever managers was born 100 years ago this Tuesday (26 May) in the Scottish village of Orbiston.
A former Manchester City and Liverpool player, Matt Busby accepted the position of United manager on 19 February 1945, and then joined the club full-time on his demobilisation from the armed forces in October 1945.
Together with his loyal assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, Busby created a team good enough to win the FA Cup in 1948 and to challenge for the League Championship. After finishing runners-up four times, Busby's men won the title in 1952.
Far from being blinded by their success, Busby and Murphy had the foresight to plan ahead and prepare for the day when their first great team would need replacing. The club's scouting system was expanded and reorganised, soon yielding a young team that won the title again in 1956 and 1957 and reached the FA Cup final in 1957. This young team was christened the 'Busby Babes.'
Busby trailblazed the way for English clubs by entering the European Cup in 1956/57 - initially against the wishes of the Football League. United reached the semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Real Madrid.
The following season, 1957/58, bristled with promise and United were still challenging in all three competitions by February when disaster struck. On 6 February 1958, the aeroplane bringing the team home from a European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade crashed after refuelling in Munich. Twenty-three people were killed, including eight of Busby's players and three club officials.
Busby almost lost his life as well - he was twice given the last rites while lying gravely ill in a German hospital. Fortunately, he survived and returned to Manchester 71 days after the crash. Taking up the managerial reigns again in August 1958, Busby began to rebuild United, bringing in some big money purchases to add to his homegrown talent. The new group of players reached the FA Cup final in 1963 and beat Leicester City 3-1 to claim the club's first trophy after Munich.
League titles followed in 1965 and 1967, giving Busby the chance to conquer Europe in the following seasons. In 1965/66, United reached the semi-finals, just as they had done in 1956/57 and 1957/58. But in 1967/68 they went further, to the final at Wembley where they faced Portuguese side Benfica.
On another night of great emotion, United triumphed 4-1 after extra-time to win the European Cup. It was a fitting tribute to the players and staff killed and injured 10 years before and was Busby's crowning achievement as United manager. Busby retired at the end of the following season, but stayed on as general manager while Wilf McGuinness became the man in charge of the team on a day-to-day basis. The new arrangement lasted little more than a year - on 28 December 1970, Busby was invited by the Directors to return to his old job and replace McGuinness until the end of the season.
A respected figure throughout his career, Busby was awarded the CBE in 1958. Ten years later, was knighted following United's European Cup triumph. In 1993 Warwick Road North, the road which runs past Old Trafford, was renamed Sir Matt Busby Way in honour of the man described as 'Mr Manchester United'.
When, after a short illness, Sir Matt died on 20 January 1994, thousands of people lined the streets of Manchester and similar numbers of shirts, wreaths, pictures and scarves were laid in tribute at Old Trafford. A bronze statue of Sir Matt was unveiled at the stadium on 27 April 1996, as a permanent memorial to the man who epitomised the club.
Five years after Busby's death, United won the European Cup for the first time since 1968. Poignantly, the date of that triumph for Sir Alex Ferguson's side, 26 May 1999, would have been Matt's 90th birthday.
source: www.manutd.com 25/05/2009 07:10 BST
(This article is an extract from Sir Matt's profile on ManUtd.com. Read his full profile in our Players & Staff section. -man utd)
Showing posts with label Biography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biography. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Mzwakhe Mbuli: The People's Poet
Mbuli was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg in 1959. Later, when blacks were forcibly removed by the then government from Sophiatown (to create the white Triomf ["Triumph"]), he went to live with his seven brothers and sisters in Soweto.
During the Soweto uprisings in 1976, Mbuli, still at school, started writing poems on the oppression of blacks. He quickly gained recognition and was asked to perform at trade union meetings, cultural events and marriages.
For many people Mbuli became "their" poet - the People's Poet.
But now Mbuli had to continue writing "underground" because his work was banned by the Apartheid government.
Mbuli was taken into custody by the police because of comments against the government, but this only helped to build the struggle legend of the tall man who stood up time and again to shout out his poetry on freedom.
After 1990 Mbuli was able to start with a professional career and has since then released seven albums, with Change in Pain and Unbroken Spirit two of the best known. In April 1999 EMI released Mzwakhe Mbuli greatest hits: Born free but always in chains.
Golden moment
Mbuli's golden moment was probably when he was asked to read his poetry at the inauguration of Mandela as president in April 1994. He wrote Izigi (footsteps) especially for Mandela: "Comrade Mandela, you are like an Oak tree/ You have learnt to withstand any weather."
It was a serene time, for the first time Mbuli was able to freely say or what he wanted to say and sing what he wanted to sing. He had freedom.
Until 1996. "People's Poet survives assassination attempt," read the headlines.
Mbuli was at a friend's house in Leondale on the East Rand when nine shots were fired on his car. He survived, but said "no thanks" to police protection. "If I die, it won't be in shame."
Then, in 1997, came the news of his arrest on charges of bank robbery.
He and two other men allegedly robbed First National Bank in Waverley with two pistols and a hand grenade. They took money from the safe and drove away.
According to police they forced "a suspect vehicle" off the road in the suburb a little later and found all the money, three pistols and the grenade. The car belonged to Mbuli.
The court case, full of intrigue, followed.
At one point, Mbuli's attorneys asked for a black magistrate to hear the case so he could not be accused of racism.
Every time Mbuli appeared, he was supported by people like singer Brenda Fassie and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Two more charges - relating to an armed robbery at a bank in Randburg and at a liquor store in Tzaneen - could not be proved.
The blue bag
Some of the important evidence included:
The police did not find Mbuli and his co-accused's finger prints in the bank nor on the weapons
Shikwambane and Masiso's finger prints were found in Mbuli's car
The only person able to identify Mbuli during an identity parade had seen a picture of him in a newspaper before the parade
A stack of R200 notes and a R50 note was found in Mbuli's trouser pockets when police searched him
A man testified that he saw how a blue bag was thrown across the wall behind the bank a day before the incident. Two men jumped the wall afterwards
A cashier at the bank was too shocked to activate the video recorder in the bank to take pictures of the robbery
Mbuli told former Gauteng MEC for safety and security Jessie Duarte a month before his arrest that some "South African leaders" are involved with drug smuggling. He apparently got the information from Swazi police during an anti-drug concert in the country
Shikwambane testified that they stopped at a garage in Waverley to get a bag containing information on the attempt on Mbuli's life. He took the bag, that contained the money, through the window thinking that it's content was pictures and documents. However, on April 23, 1999 magistrate FJ Poolman found that there was enough evidence to sentence Mbuli to 13 years in prison.
Shikwambane and Masiso were sentenced to 15 and 14 years imprisonment.
source: www.news24.com
During the Soweto uprisings in 1976, Mbuli, still at school, started writing poems on the oppression of blacks. He quickly gained recognition and was asked to perform at trade union meetings, cultural events and marriages.
For many people Mbuli became "their" poet - the People's Poet.
But now Mbuli had to continue writing "underground" because his work was banned by the Apartheid government.
Mbuli was taken into custody by the police because of comments against the government, but this only helped to build the struggle legend of the tall man who stood up time and again to shout out his poetry on freedom.
After 1990 Mbuli was able to start with a professional career and has since then released seven albums, with Change in Pain and Unbroken Spirit two of the best known. In April 1999 EMI released Mzwakhe Mbuli greatest hits: Born free but always in chains.
Golden moment
Mbuli's golden moment was probably when he was asked to read his poetry at the inauguration of Mandela as president in April 1994. He wrote Izigi (footsteps) especially for Mandela: "Comrade Mandela, you are like an Oak tree/ You have learnt to withstand any weather."
It was a serene time, for the first time Mbuli was able to freely say or what he wanted to say and sing what he wanted to sing. He had freedom.
Until 1996. "People's Poet survives assassination attempt," read the headlines.
Mbuli was at a friend's house in Leondale on the East Rand when nine shots were fired on his car. He survived, but said "no thanks" to police protection. "If I die, it won't be in shame."
Then, in 1997, came the news of his arrest on charges of bank robbery.
He and two other men allegedly robbed First National Bank in Waverley with two pistols and a hand grenade. They took money from the safe and drove away.
According to police they forced "a suspect vehicle" off the road in the suburb a little later and found all the money, three pistols and the grenade. The car belonged to Mbuli.
The court case, full of intrigue, followed.
At one point, Mbuli's attorneys asked for a black magistrate to hear the case so he could not be accused of racism.
Every time Mbuli appeared, he was supported by people like singer Brenda Fassie and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Two more charges - relating to an armed robbery at a bank in Randburg and at a liquor store in Tzaneen - could not be proved.
The blue bag
Some of the important evidence included:
The police did not find Mbuli and his co-accused's finger prints in the bank nor on the weapons
Shikwambane and Masiso's finger prints were found in Mbuli's car
The only person able to identify Mbuli during an identity parade had seen a picture of him in a newspaper before the parade
A stack of R200 notes and a R50 note was found in Mbuli's trouser pockets when police searched him
A man testified that he saw how a blue bag was thrown across the wall behind the bank a day before the incident. Two men jumped the wall afterwards
A cashier at the bank was too shocked to activate the video recorder in the bank to take pictures of the robbery
Mbuli told former Gauteng MEC for safety and security Jessie Duarte a month before his arrest that some "South African leaders" are involved with drug smuggling. He apparently got the information from Swazi police during an anti-drug concert in the country
Shikwambane testified that they stopped at a garage in Waverley to get a bag containing information on the attempt on Mbuli's life. He took the bag, that contained the money, through the window thinking that it's content was pictures and documents. However, on April 23, 1999 magistrate FJ Poolman found that there was enough evidence to sentence Mbuli to 13 years in prison.
Shikwambane and Masiso were sentenced to 15 and 14 years imprisonment.
source: www.news24.com
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Martin Luther King, Jr
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
source: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
source: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
Friday, 13 February 2009
Charles Robert Darwin
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Throughout 2009, the BBC is celebrating the life and work of Charles Darwin with a variety of special programmes. Find out more at bbc.co.uk/darwin.
Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.
Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire into a wealthy and well-connected family. His maternal grandfather was china manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, while his paternal grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, one of the leading intellectuals of 18th century England.
Darwin himself initially planned to follow a medical career, and studied at Edinburgh University but later switched to divinity at Cambridge. In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle.
At this time, most Europeans believed that the world was created by God in seven days as described in the bible. On the voyage, Darwin read Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' which suggested that the fossils found in rocks were actually evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of years ago. Lyell's argument was reinforced in Darwin's own mind by the rich variety of animal life and the geological features he saw during his voyage. The breakthrough in his ideas came in the Galapagos Islands, 500 miles west of South America. Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were closely related but differed in important ways.
On his return to England in 1836, Darwin tried to solve the riddles of these observations and the puzzle of how species evolve. Influenced by the ideas of Malthus, he proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time.
Darwin worked on his theory for 20 years. After learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had developed similar ideas, the two made a joint announcement of their discovery in 1858. In 1859 Darwin published 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'.
The book was extremely controversial, because the logical extension of Darwin's theory was that homo sapiens was simply another form of animal. It made it seem possible that even people might just have evolved - quite possibly from apes - and destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was created. Darwin was vehemently attacked, particularly by the Church. However, his ideas soon gained currency and have become the new orthodoxy.
Darwin died on 19 April 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
source: bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml
Throughout 2009, the BBC is celebrating the life and work of Charles Darwin with a variety of special programmes. Find out more at bbc.co.uk/darwin.
Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.
Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire into a wealthy and well-connected family. His maternal grandfather was china manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, while his paternal grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, one of the leading intellectuals of 18th century England.
Darwin himself initially planned to follow a medical career, and studied at Edinburgh University but later switched to divinity at Cambridge. In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle.
At this time, most Europeans believed that the world was created by God in seven days as described in the bible. On the voyage, Darwin read Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' which suggested that the fossils found in rocks were actually evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of years ago. Lyell's argument was reinforced in Darwin's own mind by the rich variety of animal life and the geological features he saw during his voyage. The breakthrough in his ideas came in the Galapagos Islands, 500 miles west of South America. Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were closely related but differed in important ways.
On his return to England in 1836, Darwin tried to solve the riddles of these observations and the puzzle of how species evolve. Influenced by the ideas of Malthus, he proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time.
Darwin worked on his theory for 20 years. After learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had developed similar ideas, the two made a joint announcement of their discovery in 1858. In 1859 Darwin published 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'.
The book was extremely controversial, because the logical extension of Darwin's theory was that homo sapiens was simply another form of animal. It made it seem possible that even people might just have evolved - quite possibly from apes - and destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was created. Darwin was vehemently attacked, particularly by the Church. However, his ideas soon gained currency and have become the new orthodoxy.
Darwin died on 19 April 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
source: bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml
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