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Gaston Gradis
Gaston Gradis (7 May 1889 – 15 January 1968) was a French businessman and explorer. He came from a wealthy family of Bordeaux shipowners. After serving as an artillery captain in World War I, he became the head of various transport and trading businesses. He is known for having undertaken the first crossing of the Sahara by automobile in 1924. Early years Gaston Gradis was born in Paris on 7 May 1889, from an old family of Bordeaux shipowners. His family, which was Jewish, had been granted the right to obtain property in the colonies by Louis XVI. His parents were Raoul Gradis (1861–1943) and Suzanne Fould. His grandfather, Henri Gradis (1823–1905) was a grandson of Laure Sarah Rodrigues-Henriques. He was a nephew of Georges Schwob d'Héricourt (1864–1942) and cousin of Germaine de Rothschild (1884–975), wife of Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild (1868–1949). Gradis joined the École Polytechnique in 1910. In 1911 he volunteered for the army, joining the Artill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the region France's primate city. The Paris Region had a GDP of €739 billion ($743 billion) in 2019, which is the highest in Europe. According to the Economist Intelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Deutsch De La Meurthe
Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe (; 25 September 1846 – 24 November 1919), born Salomon Henry Deutsch, was a successful French petroleum businessman (known as the "Oil King of Europe"Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur & Orville: A Biography'', Dover Publications. Viewablonline/ref>), and a supporter of early aviation. He sponsored a number of prizes to encourage the development of aviation technologies, including the ''Grand Prix d'Aviation'' and the ''Deutsch de la Meurthe'' prize. Early life, family and name The Deutsch de la Meurthe was a French family known for its wealth and patronage in technology and philanthropy, having helped develop the industrial oils industry in France. In 1845, Alexander Deutsch founded a company for the processing and marketing of vegetable oils in La Villette, then an independent commune of Paris. With the discovery of petroleum oil in Pennsylvania in 1859, Deutsch began to study and develop the use of petroleum oils in France. In 1877, Deutsch brought his two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like Whydah belonging to the Kingdom of Whydah on the Atlantic coast which granted it unhindered access to the tricontinental triangular trade. For much of the middle 19th century, the Kingdom of Dahomey became a key regional state, after eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire. European visitors extensively documented the kingdom, and it became one of the most familiar African nations to Europeans. The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade and diplomatic relations with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Franchet D'Espèrey
Louis Félix Marie François Franchet d'Espèrey (25 May 1856 – 8 July 1942) was a French general during World War I. As commander of the large Allied army based at Salonika, he conducted the successful Macedonian campaign, which caused the collapse of the Southern Front and contributed to the armistice. Early years Franchet d'Espèrey was born in Mostaganem in French Algeria, the son of a cavalry officer in the ''Chasseurs d'Afrique''. He was educated at Saint-Cyr and graduated in 1876. After being assigned to a regiment of Algerian Tirailleurs (native infantry), d'Espèrey served in French Indochina, in China (in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, during which his cousin the German plenipotentiary Clemens von Ketteler was killed); and subsequently in Morocco. Franchet d'Espèrey then commanded various infantry regiments in France. He received command of I Corps in 1913. First World War 1914 Corps commander In 1914, Franchet d'Espèrey did well as a corps commander at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri De Kérillis
Henri Calloc'h de Kérillis (27 October 1889 – 11 April 1958) was a French aviator, reporter, writer and politician. A hero of World War I, he traveled widely in the 1920s, and wrote several books about his adventures. He became a journalist, then entered politics as an independent Republican. He was right-wing, conservative and profoundly nationalist. He was hostile to the parties that favored appeasement of Germany in the lead-up to World War II, and went into exile rather than be arrested after the armistice of July 1940. At first a strong supporter of Charles de Gaulle and his Free French, he later fell out with de Gaulle too. He spent the last years of his life in voluntary exile in the United States. Early career Henri de Kérillis was born on 27 October 1889 at Vertheuil, Gironde. His parents were rear-Admiral Henri Calloc'h de Kérillis (1856–1940) and Louise Antoinette d'Elbauve (1864–1931). His family background was military, and he was expected to also follow a mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta (or the Oil Rivers), into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded by the Nile and the Congo River. Its main tributary is the Benue River. Etymology The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region: * Fula: ''Maayo Jaaliba'' * Manding: ''Jeliba'' or ''Joliba'' "great river" * Tuareg: ''Egerew n-Igerewen'' "river of rivers" * Songhay: ''Isa'' "the river" * Zarma: ''Isa Beeri'' "great river" * Hausa: ''Kwara'' *Nupe: ''Èdù'' * Yoruba: ''Ọya'' "named after the Yoruba goddess Ọya, who is believed to embody the ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured trucks, tractors, tanks, buses/coaches, aircraft and aircraft engines, and autorail vehicles. According to the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, in 2016 Renault was the ninth biggest automaker in the world by production volume. By 2017, the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance had become the world's biggest seller of light vehicles. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, the Renault group is made up of the namesake Renault marque and subsidiaries, Alpine, Renault Sport (Gordini), Automobile Dacia from Romania, and Renault Samsung Motors from South Korea. Renault has a 43.4% stake with several votes in Nissan of Japan, and used to have a 1.55% stake in Daimler AG of Germany, it was sold off in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tessalit
Tessalit is a rural commune and village in the Kidal Region of Mali. The village is the administrative centre of Tessalit Cercle (district). The village lies north of Adjelhoc and about from the Algerian border. The ''commune'' extends over an area of that is almost entirely desert. In the 2009 census the ''commune'' had a population of 5,739. It is served by Tessalit Airport. Tessalit is an oasis in the Sahara desert and a stop for trans-Saharan travellers. A gypsum deposit and a plaster factory also contribute to the local economy, though these activities have been disrupted in recent decades by the Tuareg Rebellions and terrorism in neighboring Algeria. The Malian government have a military base at the village of Tessalit. Tessalit is situated in the mountain range of ''Adrar des Ifoghas''. It is primarily populated by Tuaregs and is the home of the musical group Tinariwen as well as the poet Souéloum Diagho. The village is twinned with Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Estienne
Georges Estienne (18 April 1896 – 25 January 1969) was a French aviator, explorer and businessman. He mapped and commercially exploited the longest automobile route in the world, linking the Mediterranean to the Niger, Chad and Congo. His company ran a network of automobile transport lines across the Sahara, and later provided air service between many of the French colonies in Africa. The demand from tourists collapsed with the Algerian War (1954–62), and eventually Estienne's companies were taken over by the government of independent Algeria. Early years Georges Estienne's family originated in Lorraine. He was the third son of General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, polytechnician, who was known for developing armored vehicles and the tank. The four Estienne boys were brought up with military discipline. After the outbreak of World War I (1914–18), in September 1914 Georges enlisted at the age of eighteen. He served with the fourth battalion of ''Chasseurs Alpins'' in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne
Jean Baptiste Eugène EstienneEstienne's forenames are frequently incorrectly given as Jean-Baptiste Eugène. He was christened with the three names Jean, Baptiste, and Eugène, but disliked the name Baptiste, and preferred to be addressed as Eugène. He usually signed himself J.E. Estienne. See Mondet, Arlette Estienne: ''Le général J.B.E. Estienne, père des chars.'' L'Harmattan, 2010 (7 November 1860 in Condé-en-Barrois, Meuse – 2 April 1936 in Paris) was a general of artillery and a specialist in military engineering, one of the founders of modern French artillery and French military aviation, and the creator of the French tank arm. He is considered by many in France to be the ''Père des Chars'' (Father of the Tank). Early life Estienne was born at Condé-en-Barrois (now Les Hauts-de-Chée) in the Meuse valley. He was admitted to the ''École Polytechnique'' (the French Military Academy) at the age of nineteen. He graduated 131st of his year in 1882, the same year he won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
%2C_scene_at_the_river_front.jpg "Click for more on -> Niger River")
