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George Blowers
George Blowers (March 5, 1906 – October 19, 1969) was an American banker. A Harvard graduate, he became governor of the state banks of Liberia, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. During his career he was responsible for introducing two new currencies and represented Ethiopia at the Bretton Woods Conference. Early career and Liberia Born on March 5, 1906, in Pineville, Kentucky, Blowers graduated from Harvard University before gaining a job at the National City Bank in New York City in 1928. In 1938 he became general manager of the Bank of Monrovia in Liberia, during which time he was responsible for changing the country's currency from the West African pound ( pegged to sterling) to the Liberian dollar (pegged to the US dollar). The Smithsonian Institution's 1940 National Zoological Park expedition to Monrovia met with Blowers and he presented his household pets, a red forest duiker, a civet cat and a West African linsang, to them for use as zoo exhibits. British Foreign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pineville, Kentucky
Pineville () is a home rule-class city in Bell County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 1,732 as of the 2010 census. It is located on a small strip of land between the Cumberland River and Pine Mountain. History Pineville is one of the oldest settlements in Kentucky, located at the crossing of the Cumberland River by the Wilderness Road. It was established as Cumberland Ford in 1781 and formed part of Governor Isaac Shelby's land tracts. When Bell County was formed in 1867, Cumberland Ford was formally laid off; local landowner J.J. Gibson's 1869 land grant permitted it to be selected as the county seat, but the courthouse was not completed until 1871.Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names''p. 235 University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed 1 August 2013. Accessed 25 April 2010. The settlement was renamed "Pineville" in 1870 and formally incorporated in 1873. One of the earliest branches of the Sojourner Truth Woman's Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967. Called "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia. Additional facilities are located in Maryland, New York, and Virginia. More than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states,States without Smithsonian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II. Replacing an earlier proposal for a Morgenthau Plan, it operated for four years beginning on April 3, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize Manufacturing, industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan proposed the reduction of interstate barriers and the economic integration of the European Continent while also encouraging an increase in productivity as well as the adoption of modern business procedures. The Marshall Plan aid was divided among the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Cooperation Administration
The Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was a U.S. government agency set up in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan. It reported to both the State Department and the Department of Commerce. The agency's first head was Paul G. Hoffman, a former leader of car manufacturer Studebaker; he was succeeded by William Chapman Foster in 1950. The rest of the organization was also headed by major business figures such as Arthur A. Kimball (who was a key contributor to the ECA's founding) as well as David K.E. Bruce (who worked at the Office of Strategic Services in Europe during World War II). The ECA had an office in the capital of each of the 16 countries participating in the Marshall Plan. In theory the ECA served as joint administrator of the Marshall Plan development projects in each European country. In practice, local officials knew far more about what was needed than ECA representatives, who developed a management strategy of listening to local officials and allowed them to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopian Birr
The birr ( am, ብር) is the unit of currency in Ethiopia. It is subdivided into 100 ''santim''. In 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie I formally requested that the international community use the name ''Ethiopia'' (as it had already been known internally for at least 1,600 years) instead of the exonym ''Abyssinia'', and the issuing ''Bank of Abyssinia'' also became the ''Bank of Ethiopia''. Thus, the pre-1931 currency could be considered the ''Abyssinian birr'' and the post-1931 currency the ''Ethiopian birr'', although it was the same country and the same currency before and after. 186 billion birr were in circulation in 2008 ($14.7 billion or €9.97 billion). History First birr, 1800–1936 In the 18th and 19th centuries, Maria Theresa thalers and blocks of salt called "amole tchew" (አሞሌ) served as currency in Ethiopia. The ''thaler'' was known locally as the ''Birr'' (literally meaning "silver" in Ge'ez and Amharic) or ''talari'' (ታላሪ). The Maria Theresa ''thal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bretton Woods System
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into U.S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold (or 0.88867 gram fine gold per dollar). It also envisioned greater cooperation among countries in order to prevent future competitive devaluations, and thus established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor exchange rates and lend reserve currencies to nations with balance of payments deficits. Preparing to rebuild the interna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement
The Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement was a joint effort between Ethiopia and the United Kingdom at reestablishing Ethiopian independent statehood following the ousting of Italian troops by combined British and Ethiopian forces in 1941 during the Second World War. There was a prior Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement signed in 1897. This convention involved Menelik II and it largely dealt with the boundary between Hararghe (Ethiopia) and British Somaliland. Under the agreement After the return of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie to the throne, an interim Anglo-Ethiopian agreement was signed 31 January 1942 between the two governments; Major General Sir Philip Euen Mitchell, Chief Political Officer of the East African British Forces High Command signed on behalf of the United Kingdom. Britain sent civil advisers to assist Selassie with administrative duties and also provide him with military advisors to maintain internal security and to improve and modernize the Ethiopian army. The terms of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (''Enderase'') for Empress Zewditu from 1916. Haile Selassie is widely considered a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history, and the key figure of Rastafari, a religious movement in Jamaica that emerged shortly after he became emperor in the 1930s. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty, which claims to trace lineage to Emperor Menelik I, believed to be the son of King Solomon and Makeda the Queen of Sheba. Haile Selassie attempted to modernize the country through a series of political and social reforms, including the introduction of the 1931 constitution, its first written constitution, and the abolition of slavery. He led the failed efforts to defend Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and spent most of the period of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promotion as a young Conservative member of Parliament, he became foreign secretary aged 38, before resigning in protest at Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy towards Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy. He again held that position for most of the Second World War, and a third time in the early 1950s. Having been deputy to Winston Churchill for almost 15 years, Eden succeeded him as the leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 1955, and a month later won a general election. Eden's reputation as a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in 1956 when the United States refused to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez Crisis, which critics across party lines regarded as a historic setback for British foreign poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United States state law, a legal matter in another state Science and technology * Foreign accent syndrome, a side effect of severe brain injury * Foreign key, a constraint in a relational database Arts and entertainment * Foreign film or world cinema, films and film industries of non-English-speaking countries * Foreign music or world music * Foreign literature or world literature * '' Foreign Policy'', a magazine Music * "Foreign", a song by Jessica Mauboy from her 2010 album '' Get 'Em Girls'' * "Foreign" (Trey Songz song), 2014 * "Foreign", a song by Lil Pump from the album ''Lil Pump'' Other uses * Foreign corporation, a corporation that can do business outside its jurisdiction * Foreign language, a language not spoken by the peo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West African Oyan
The West African oyan (''Poiana leightoni''), also known as the West African linsang, is a linsang species native to the Upper Guinean forests in West Africa. It is one of the least known small carnivores in Africa. Characteristics The West African oyan's body is slender and long, with an elongated head and a pointed muzzle. Its fur is yellowish to reddish brown with dark oval shaped spots on the neck, and small spots on the back and legs. Its throat, chest and belly are lighter in colour and without spots. Its tail has 10 to 12 dark rings. Its body is long, with a long tail. Distribution and habitat The West African oyan inhabits the canopy of tropical forests in West Africa. Two known records in the Ivory Coast date to the 1960s and 1970s. In Liberia, it was recorded in ten localities between the 1960s and late 1980s. Its presence in Sierra Leone and Guinea is uncertain. Threats The West African oyan is probably affected by habitat loss due to logging of tropical forests, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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