Nobel Prize-winning American scientist Frank Sherwood Rowland, whose work demonstrated the role of human activity in the thinning of the Earth's protective ozone layer, has died at the age of 84.
Rowland was among three scientists awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for explaining how the ozone layer is depleted through chemical processes in the atmosphere, including by human use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).
The depletion of the ozone layer results in a reduction of Earth's protection from ultraviolet radiation. The work of Rowland and his associates showed how manmade compounds can combine with solar radiation to destroy ozone molecules...
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team. He was the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics. He has the Jesse Owens Award accolade named after him in honor of his significant career.
Olympia is a 1938 film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The movie was produced in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations) and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty). It was the first documentary feature film on the Olympic Games ever made. Many advanced motion picture techniques, which later became industry standards but which were groundbreaking at the time, were employed, including unusual camera angles, smash cuts, extreme close-ups, setting the railway tracks on the stadium to shoot the crowd and the like. The techniques employed are almost universally admired, but the film is controversial due to its political context. Nevertheless, the film appears on many lists of the greatest films of all-time, including Time magazine's "All-Time 100 Movies."
Olympia set the precedent for future films documenting and glorifying the Olympic Games, particularly the Summer Games. The "Olympic Torch Run", now revered as a seemingly-ancient tradition, was devised by the German sports official Dr. Carl Diem for these 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Riefenstahl later staged the torch relay for this film, as with competitive events of the Games.
Martial law in Poland (Polish: Stan wojenny w Polsce, "the state of war") refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition activists were interned without charge and as many as 100 people were killed. Although martial law was lifted in 1983, many of the political prisoners were not released until the general amnesty in 1986...