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The Fatimid conquest of Egypt took place in 969, as the troops of the Fatimid Caliphate under the general Jawhar captured Egypt, then ruled by the autonomous Ikhshidid dynasty in the name of the Abbasid Caliphate.

The Fatimids launched repeated invasions of Egypt soon after coming to power in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) in 909, but failed against the still strong Abbasid Caliphate. By the 960s, however, while the Fatimids had consolidated their rule and grown stronger, the Abbasid Caliphate had collapsed, and the Ikhshidid regime was facing prolonged crisis: foreign raids and a severe famine were compounded by the death in 968 of the strongman Abu al-Misk Kafur. The resulting power vacuum led to open infighting among the various factions in Fustat, the capital of Egypt. The atmosphere of crisis was deepened by the simultaneous advances of the Byzantine Empire against the Muslim states of the Eastern Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Fatimid agents operated openly in Egypt, and the local elites increasingly came to accept and even welcome the prospect of a Fatimid takeover in hopes of ending the instability and insecurity.

Faced with this favourable situation, the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah organized a large expedition to conquer Egypt. Led by Jawhar, the expedition set off from Raqqada in Ifriqiya on 6 February 969, and entered the Nile Delta two months later. The Ikhshidid elites preferred to negotiate a peaceful surrender, and Jawhar issued a writ of safe-conduct (amān), promising to respect the rights of the Egyptian notables and populace and take up the jihād against the Byzantines. The Fatimid army overcame the attempts of the Ikhshidid soldiery to prevent its crossing of the Nile river between 29 June and 3 July, while in the chaos pro-Fatimid agents took control of Fustat and declared its submission to al-Mu'izz. Jawhar renewed his amān and took possession of the city on 6 July, with the Friday prayer read in the name of al-Mu'izz on 9 July.

For the next four years Jawhar served as viceroy of Egypt, quelling rebellions and beginning the construction of a new capital, Cairo. His attempts to expand into the former Ikhshidid domains in Syria, and even attack the Byzantines, backfired: after swift initial progress, the Fatimid armies were destroyed, and Egypt itself faced a Qarmatian invasion that was fought off just north of Cairo. Al-Mu'izz arrived in Egypt in 973, and took up residence in Cairo, which became the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate for the remainder of its existence, until the abolition of the Fatimid regime by Saladin in 1171.

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The primary law governing nationality of the Republic of Ireland is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, which came into force on 17 July 1956. Ireland is a member state of the European Union (EU) and all Irish nationals are EU citizens. They enjoy free movement rights in EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and may vote in elections to the European Parliament.

All persons born in the Republic before 1 January 2005 are automatically citizens by birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents. Individuals born in the country since that date receive Irish citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is an Irish citizen or entitled to be one, a British citizen, a resident with no time limit of stay in either the Republic or Northern Ireland, or a resident who has been domiciled on the island of Ireland for at least three of the preceding four years. Persons born in Northern Ireland are usually entitled to – but not automatically granted – Irish citizenship, largely under the same terms. Foreign nationals may become Irish citizens by naturalisation after meeting a minimum residence requirement, usually five years. The President of Ireland may also grant honorary citizenship, which entails the same rights and duties as normal citizenship, although this is rare.

Ireland as a whole was previously part of the United Kingdom and during this time Irish nationals were British subjects. Although 26 of the 32 Irish counties gained independence in 1922 and Irish citizens no longer hold British nationality, they continue to have favoured status when residing in the United Kingdom; they are considered to have automatic and permanent permission to live in the UK, and are eligible to vote in UK elections and stand for public office there.

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The Xá Lợi Pagoda raids (Vietnamese pronunciation: [saː˦˥ ləːj˨˩˨] SAW-LIE) were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on 21 August 1963. The raids were executed by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under Colonel Lê Quang Tung, and combat police, both of which took their orders directly from Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother of the Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm. Xá Lợi Pagoda, the largest pagoda in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, was the most prominent of the raided temples. Over 1,400 Buddhists were arrested, and estimates of the death toll and missing ranged up to the hundreds. In response to the Huế Vesak shootings and a ban on the Buddhist flag in early May, South Vietnam's Buddhist majority rose in widespread civil disobedience and protest against the religious bias and discrimination of the dominated Diệm government. Buddhist temples in major cities, most prominently the Xá Lợi pagoda, became focal points for protesters and assembly points for Buddhist monks from rural areas.

In August, several Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) generals proposed the imposition of martial law, ostensibly to break up the demonstrations, but in reality to prepare for a military coup. Nhu, already looking to arrest Buddhist leaders and crush the protest movement, used the opportunity to preempt the generals and embarrass them. He disguised Tung's Special Forces in army uniforms and used them to attack the Buddhists, thereby causing the general public and South Vietnam's U.S. allies to blame the army, diminishing the generals' reputations and ability to act as future national leaders.

Soon after midnight on 21 August, Nhu's men attacked the pagodas using automatic firearms, grenades, battering rams and explosives, causing widespread damage. Some religious objects were destroyed, including a statue of Gautama Buddha in the Từ Đàm Pagoda in Huế, which was partially leveled by explosives. Temples were looted and vandalized, with the remains of venerated monks confiscated. In Huế, violent street battles erupted between government forces and rioting pro-Buddhist, anti-government civilians.

The Ngô family claimed that the army had carried out the raids, something their U.S. allies initially believed. This was later debunked, and the incident prompted the United States to turn against the regime and begin exploring alternative leadership options, eventually leading to Diệm's overthrow in a coup. In South Vietnam, the raids stoked widespread anger. Several high-ranking public servants resigned, and university and high school students boycotted classes and staged riotous demonstrations, resulting in further mass incarcerations. As most of the students were from middle-class public service and military families, the arrests caused further upset among the Ngô family's power base.

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The Supermarine S.4 was a 1920s British single-engined monoplane built by Supermarine. Designed by a team led by the company's chief designer, R. J. Mitchell, it was built to race in the 1925 Schneider Trophy contest.

Mitchell's design was revolutionary. Aware of the need to reduce drag forces to increase speed, he produced a floatplane that was in marked contrast to the flying boats previously designed by Supermarine. Built of wood, and with an unbraced cantilever wing, it was powered by a Napier Lion engine developed to produce 700 horsepower (520 kW) over a short racing period. The S.4 was aerodynamic and aesthetically pleasing, but the cockpit position was potentially hazardous, as it restricted the pilot's view. Less than a month after its maiden flight on 24 August 1925, it raised the world's seaplane speed record to 226.752 miles per hour (364.922 km/h).

At Bay Shore Park in Baltimore in the US, the venue of the 1925 contest, the S.4's rear end was damaged by a falling pole during a gale prior to the event. During navigation trials on 23 October, the repaired aircraft was observed to be performing well, but then—for reasons that have not been fully explained—it went out of control, and was destroyed when it dived into the sea from 100 feet (30 m), injuring the pilot, Henri Biard.

Mitchell used the practical experience gained from his work on the S.4 when designing its immediate successor, the Supermarine S.5.

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Ludwig Ferdinand Huber or Louis Ferdinand Huber (1764 – 24 December 1804) was a German translator, diplomat, playwright, literary critic, and journalist. Born in Paris, Huber was the son of the Bavarian-born writer and translator Michael Huber and his French wife Anna Louise, née l'Epine. He grew up bilingual in French and German after his parents moved to Leipzig when he was two years old. He lacked a classical education but read voraciously and was well versed in modern languages, and started publishing translations from French and English at an early age. He also translated plays that were performed in theatres all over Germany. In the early 1780s, Huber became friends with the jurist Christian Gottfried Körner, his fiancée Minna Stock, and her older sister Dora Stock, whom he later promised to marry. Together, the friends wrote in admiration to the poet Friedrich Schiller and successfully managed to invite him to come to Leipzig. Körner and Minna were married in 1785 and lived in Dresden, where they were joined by Dora, Schiller, and finally Huber, who shared a house with Schiller.

Huber found employment as a diplomat, and in 1788 moved to Mainz, where he started a friendship with the world traveller Georg Forster and his wife Therese. In 1790, he became Therese's lover and moved into the Forsters' house. He wrote original plays, most notably Das heimliche Gericht ('The Secret Court'), but without much success, and turned to literary criticism. When rumours about his affair with Therese started to spread in literary circles, Huber broke his engagement with Dora, ending his friendship with Körner and damaging his relations with Schiller. When the French revolutionary army under Custine entered Mainz, Huber moved to Frankfurt, but stayed in contact with the Forsters, causing suspicion among his superiors. Therese Forster left Mainz for Strasbourg and then to the neutral territory of Neuchâtel in present-day Switzerland, and Huber quit his diplomatic service to be with her. Georg Forster went to Paris as representative of the Republic of Mainz. After Forster agreed to a divorce, there was a final meeting of Forster with his family and Huber in Travers in November 1793, but Forster died in January 1794 before the divorce could be finalised, and Huber married Therese in April 1794. They moved to Bôle and collaborated on translations, while Huber also was active as a publicist and reviewer. He became a friend of the writer Isabelle de Charrière and translated several of her works.

In 1798, Huber returned to Germany, becoming editor in chief of Cotta's Allgemeine Zeitung in September. For political reasons, the newspaper moved from Tübingen via Stuttgart to Ulm, where Huber was given a title and an annual salary by the Elector of Bavaria in March 1804. After a journey to Leipzig and Göttingen, Huber fell ill and died on 24 December 1804. He was mostly forgotten after his death, and was considered of interest mostly as a friend of Schiller, Forster and de Charrière. Some of his literary criticism had long lasting importance, especially his reviews of Goethe's works.

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The Epsom riot took place on 17 June 1919 when between 300 and 800 Canadian soldiers rioted and attacked the police station in Epsom, Surrey, England. Station Sergeant Thomas Green, a British police officer, was injured during the incident and died the following day.

The Canadians were from the nearby Woodcote camp, a temporary military base that was being used as a convalescent hospital. With the First World War over, discipline at the camp was relaxed. Delays in repatriating Canadian soldiers had resulted in thirteen riots by troops in British camps between November 1918 and June 1919. The riot began when two Canadian servicemen were arrested following a disturbance at a local public house. Their comrades marched on the town police station to demand their release. The soldiers ripped up the railings surrounding the station to use as missiles and clubs. In the ensuing fighting, Private Allan McMaster, a former blacksmith, picked up a metal bar and struck Green on the head. The sergeant died the following day, having never regained consciousness.

Seven men appeared at the Surrey Assizes in July 1919. They were found guilty of rioting, but were acquitted of manslaughter. They were sentenced to one year in prison, but were released after only a few months. Ten years after returning to Canada, McMaster, one of those imprisoned, confessed to the killing. As he had already been found innocent of manslaughter, he was not returned to the UK.

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The final match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th edition of the quadrennial football competition organised by FIFA for the men's national teams of its member associations, was played at the Stade de France in Paris, France, on 12 July 1998, and was contested by Brazil and France. The tournament featured France as the hosts, Brazil as the winners of the previous World Cup and 30 other teams who emerged from the qualification tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 32 teams competed in a group stage, from which 16 teams qualified for the knockout stage. En route to the final, Brazil finished first in Group A, with two wins and one defeat, after which they beat Chile in the round of 16, Denmark in the quarter-finals and the Netherlands in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals. France finished top of Group C with three wins, before defeating Paraguay in the round of 16, Italy in the quarter-final, and Croatia in the semi-final. The final took place in front of 75,000 supporters, with an estimated 1.3 billion watching on television, and was refereed by Said Belqola from Morocco.

Before the match, speculation surrounded the fitness of striker Ronaldo, who was originally left out of Brazil's starting line-up, only to be restored to the team before kick-off. France took the lead shortly before the half-hour mark, when Zinedine Zidane outjumped Leonardo to connect with a header from an in-swinging corner from the right taken by Emmanuel Petit. Zidane scored again, with another header from a corner, shortly before half-time to give France a 2–0 lead. Petit then added a third goal in second-half injury time, striking the ball low into the net following a pass by Patrick Vieira, to complete a 3–0 win for France.

France's win was their first World Cup title, as they became the seventh different nation to win the tournament. Zidane was named the man of the match, while Ronaldo was awarded the Golden Ball as FIFA's outstanding player of the tournament. Following the win, hundreds of thousands of French supporters celebrated in Paris throughout the night, before assembling along the Champs-Élysées the following day for an open-top bus tour by the French players. France followed up their victory by winning their next major tournament at UEFA Euro 2000. Ronaldo's fitness for the match and his initial omission and later reinstatement on Brazil's teamsheet became a subject of ongoing journalistic interest following the match, with analysis continuing more than 20 years later.

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The CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, is a 38-story, 491-foot-tall (150 m) tower at 51 West 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is the headquarters of the CBS broadcasting network. The building was constructed from 1961 to 1964 and was the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saarinen, who referred to the building as the "simplest skyscraper statement in New York".[2] The interior spaces and furnishings were designed by Saarinen, then Florence Knoll Bassett after the former's death. The building was also the headquarters of CBS Records (later Sony Music Entertainment) before the early 1990s.

The building occupies the eastern sidewalk of Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) between 52nd and 53rd streets, with its main entrances on the side streets. The "Black Rock" nickname is derived from the design of its facade, which consists of angled dark-gray granite piers alternating with dark-tinted glass. The facade was designed to make the building appear as a continuous slab. The building has a gross floor area of approximately 800,000 square feet (74,000 m2). The building's superstructure is made of reinforced concrete, and steel beams are only used below ground; the concrete frame uses polyurethane insulation.

The design was finalized in 1961 and, despite Saarinen's death shortly afterward, construction started in 1962. The first employees moved into the building in late 1964 and it was completed the following year. The building initially served as the headquarters of CBS, which occupied all the above-ground space until the early 1990s, when it started leasing some stories to other tenants. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the CBS Building as a city landmark in 1997. CBS attempted to sell the building twice between 1998 and 2001, and ViacomCBS again attempted to sell it in early 2020. Harbor Group International agreed to buy the structure in August 2021.

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Francis Masson Bladin, CB, CBE (26 August 1898 – 2 February 1978) was an Australian military officer who was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in rural Victoria, he graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1920. Bladin transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1923, and learned to fly at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. He held training appointments before taking command of No. 1 Squadron in 1934. Quiet but authoritative, he was nicknamed "Dad" in tribute to the concern he displayed for the welfare of his personnel.[1]

Ranked wing commander at the outbreak of World War II, by September 1941 Bladin had been raised to temporary air commodore. He became Air Officer Commanding North-Western Area in March 1942, following the first Japanese air raids on Darwin, Northern Territory. Personally leading sorties against enemy territory, he earned the United States Silver Star for gallantry. In July 1943, Bladin was posted to No. 38 Group RAF in Europe, where he was mentioned in despatches. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire the same year.

Promoted to acting air vice-marshal in 1946, Bladin was among the coterie of senior officers who helped shape the post-war RAAF. His roles in the late 1940s and early 1950s included chief of staff of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, Air Officer Commanding Eastern Area (later RAAF Air Command), and Air Member for Personnel. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1950, he retired to his country property in 1953, but remained active in veterans' affairs.

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USS Marmora was a sternwheel steamer that served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War. She was built in 1862 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, as a civilian vessel. She was purchased for military service on September 17 and converted into a tinclad warship. Commissioned on October 21, the vessel served on the Yazoo River beginning the next month. She encountered Confederate naval mines on the Yazoo on December 11, and was present the next day when the ironclad USS Cairo was sunk by two mines. After further service on the Yazoo during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December, Marmora was assigned in January 1863 to a fleet that was preparing to operate against Confederate Fort Hindman, but was not present when the fort surrendered on January 11.

From February to April, Marmora participated in the Yazoo Pass expedition, and in June burned the settlements of Eunice and Gaines Landing, Arkansas, after Union vessels were fired on by Confederate troops. In August, the tinclad participated in some activities on the White River while the Little Rock campaign was beginning, and patrolled on the Mississippi River late that year. In February 1864, she participated in another movement up the Yazoo River, and fought in the Battle of Yazoo City on March 5. Continuing to serve on the Mississippi River, Marmora was declared surplus in May 1865 and was put in reserve status at Mound City, Illinois, the next month. On July 7, she was decommissioned, and was sold at public auction on August 17. Nothing further is known about Marmora after her sale.