Tom Brady

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent the first 20 seasons of his career with the New England Patriots, playing in nine Super Bowls and winning six of them (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, and LIII), both of which are the most of any player in NFL history. He has won a record four Super Bowl MVP awards (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIX, and LI) as well as three NFL MVP awards (2007, 2010, 2017).  Because of his numerous records and accolades, many sports writers, commentators, and players consider Brady to be the greatest quarterback of all time. 

After playing college football for the University of Michigan, Brady was drafted 199th overall by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Due to his late selection, Brady is considered the biggest "steal" in the history of the NFL Draft.  He went on to become the team's starting quarterback in his second season after an injury to Drew Bledsoe and played for the Patriots for 20 seasons, the NFL record for seasons as quarterback for one team.[b] Following the 2019 season, Brady left New England and signed a two-year deal with the Buccaneers.

Brady is one of only two quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl in their first season as a starter.[c] He is also the only quarterback to reach 200 regular-season wins,  Brady has never had a losing season as a starting quarterback. He has led his team to more division titles (17) than any other quarterback in NFL history. With a postseason record of 30–11, he is first all-time in playoff wins and appearances for an NFL player, including an NFL-record eight consecutive AFC championship games between 2011 and 2018 (and 13 overall). Brady has also been selected to 14 Pro Bowls, which ties the NFL record for most selections. For regular season and postseason combined, Brady is first all-time in career passing yards and touchdown passes. He is one of only two players in NFL history to amass 70,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards. 

Brady is second all-time in career regular season passing yards, second in career touchdown passes, and tied for fifth in career passer rating. He is first in postseason career completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns, and is fifteenth in postseason career passer rating. He also tied the record for the longest touchdown pass at 99 yards to Wes Welker.  He is the only quarterback in NFL history named to two all-decade teams , having been named first-team for both the 2000 and 2010 squads (the latter of which he was selected to unanimously). He was one of only 10 quarterbacks selected to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time team (and one of only four players active at the time they were selected), encompassing the entire 100-year history of the league at the time.

For his alleged involvement in the Deflategate football-tampering scandal, Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season.  Brady and the Patriots won two of the next three Super Bowls, making him the record holder for most Super Bowl wins by a player, and the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, at 41. 

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born in San Mateo, California on August 3, 1977, the only son and fourth child of Galynn Patricia (née Johnson) and Thomas Brady Sr.  He has three older sisters, Nancy, Julie, and Maureen,  and was raised as a Catholic. His father is of Irish descent, while his mother has German, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish ancestry.  Two of Brady's great-great-grandparents on his father's side, John and Bridget Brady, were Irish refugees from the Great Famine who moved to San Francisco from Boston before the American Civil War. They were accompanied by Bridget's sister Ann and her husband Lawrence Meegan, the parents of the 19th-century American Major League Baseball player "Steady" Pete Meegan. Brady's great-uncle Michael Buckley Jr. was the first American prisoner of war in World War II. 

In the 1980s, Brady regularly attended San Francisco 49ers games at Candlestick Park, where he was a fan of quarterback Joe Montana; Brady has called Montana his idol and one of his inspirations.[28] At age four, Brady attended the 1981 NFC Championship, against the Dallas Cowboys, in which Montana threw The Catch to Dwight Clark. As a child, Brady attended football camp at the College of San Mateo, where he was taught to throw the football by camp counselor and future NFL/AFL quarterback Tony Graziani.  Despite the rivalry between both teams, Brady grew up as a Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics fan. 

Brady attended Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he graduated in 1995; the ceremony was held at St. Mary's Cathedral.  He played football, basketball, and baseball in high school. He played against Bellarmine College Preparatory rival Pat Burrell in both football and baseball.  Brady began his football career as the backup quarterback on the Padres junior varsity team. At first, Brady was not good enough to start on the 0–8 JV team, which had not scored a touchdown all year.  Brady ascended to the starting position when the starting quarterback was injured. He became the varsity starter in his junior year and held the position until he graduated  By Brady's senior year, he was striving to be noticed by college coaches. He created highlight tapes and sent them to schools he considered attending  This led to strong interest from many football programs around the nation.

The process of recruiting was much different during Brady's time, and athletes' rankings were not as prominent. In terms of recruiting in the 2000s, Brady would have been considered a four-star recruit. In essence, he was a highly rated prospect.  Brady was also on Blue Chip Illustrated as well as a Prep Football Report All-American selection.  After his recruiting process, he narrowed down his list to five schools.  "Probably the ones that we did hear from and ultimately pared the list to were Cal–Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Michigan, and Illinois”, his father said.  As a Cal fan, his father hoped that Brady would attend the nearby Cal, where Brady was a silent commit, and that he would be able to watch his son play. 

Brady was also known as a great baseball player in high school.  He was a left-handed-batting catcher with power. His skills impressed MLB scouts, and he was drafted in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos.  The Expos projected Brady as a potential All-Star, and offered him money typical of that offered to a late second-round or early third-round pick.  Nevertheless, Brady was determined to play football at the next level. He was always more passionate about football; when he found that there was significant interest in him, he decided to take the road of football.  Brady was recruited by Michigan assistant Bill Harris, and he signed to play for the University of Michigan in 1995. He finished his high-school football career by completing 236 of 447 passes for 3,702 yards and 31 touchdowns. He also won All-State and All-Far West honors and the team's Most Valuable Player Award. 

During the summers of 1998 and 1999, Brady was an intern at Merrill Lynch.  He was inducted into the Junípero Serra High School Hall of Fame in 2003, joining fellow Serra High graduates Barry Bonds, Lynn Swann, Gregg Jefferies, Jim Fregosi, and his older sister Maureen, among many others.  When Brady revisited two weeks after Super Bowl XLVI, in 2012, school administrators announced that they had named the football stadium Brady Family Stadium

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brady

Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division of the Western Conference. They have won six Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926. The Blackhawks are one of the "Original Six" NHL teams along with the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Since 1994, the club's home rink is the United Center, which they share with the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. The club had previously played for 65 years at Chicago Stadium. 

The club's original owner was Frederic McLaughlin, who owned the club until his death in 1944. Under McLaughlin, a "hands-on" owner who fired many coaches during his ownership, the club won two Stanley Cup titles. The club was then owned by the Norris family, who as owners of the Chicago Stadium were the club's landlord, and owned stakes in several of the NHL teams. At first, the Norris ownership was as part of a syndicate fronted by long-time executive Bill Tobin, and the team languished in favor of the Norris-owned Detroit Red Wings. After the senior James E. Norris died in 1952, the Norris assets were spread among family members and James D. Norris became owner. Norris Jr. took an active interest in the team and under his ownership, the club won one Stanley Cup title in 1961.

After James D. Norris died in 1966, the Wirtz family became owners of the franchise. In 2007, the club came under the control of Rocky Wirtz, who is credited with turning around the organization, which had lost fan interest and competitiveness. Under Rocky Wirtz, the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup three times between 2010 and 2015.

On May 1, 1926, the NHL awarded an expansion franchise for Chicago to a syndicate headed by former football star Huntington Hardwick of Boston. At the same meeting, Hardwick arranged the purchase of the players of the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Hockey League for $100,000 from WHL president Frank Patrick in a deal brokered by Boston Bruins' owner Charles Adams.  However, only one month later, Hardwick's group sold out to Chicago coffee tycoon Frederic McLaughlin. 

McLaughlin had been a commander with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 86th Infantry Division during World War I  This division was nicknamed the "Blackhawk Division" after a Native American of the Sauk nation, Black Hawk, who was a prominent figure in the history of Illinois.  McLaughlin named the new hockey team in honor of the military unit, making it one of many sports team names using Native Americans as icons. However, unlike the military division, the team's name was spelled in two words as the "Black Hawks" until 1986, when the club officially became the "Blackhawks," based on the spelling found in the original franchise documents. 

The Black Hawks began play in the 1926–27 season, along with fellow expansion franchises the Detroit Cougars (now the Detroit Red Wings) and New York Rangers. The team had to face immediate competition in Chicago from Eddie Livingstone's rival Chicago Cardinals, which played in the same building. McLaughlin took a very active role in running the team despite having no background in the sport; he hired Bill Tobin, a former goaltender who had played in the Western League, as his assistant, but directed the team himself. He was also very interested in promoting American hockey players, then very rare in professional hockey. Several of them, including Doc Romnes, Taffy Abel, Alex Levinsky, Mike Karakas, and Cully Dahlstrom, become staples with the club, and under McLaughlin, the Black Hawks were the first NHL team with an all-American-born lineup

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Blackhawks

Dominion power

Dominion Energy, Inc., commonly referred to as Dominion, is an American power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of Utah, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Dominion also has generation facilities in Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, and Rhode Island 

The company acquired Questar gas in the Western United States, including parts of Utah and Wyoming, in September 2016.  In January 2019, Dominion Energy completed its acquisition of SCANA Corporation 

The company's asset portfolio includes 27,000 megawatts of power generation, 6,000 miles (9,700 km) of electric transmission lines, 14,000 miles (23,000 km) of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 1.2 trillion cubic feet (34 km3) equivalent of natural gas and oil reserves. Dominion also operates the nation's largest natural gas storage facility,  amounting to more than 975 billion cubic feet (2.76×1010 m3) of storage capacity. The company's Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on the Chesapeake Bay is one of the nation's largest and busiest facilities of its kind. Dominion serves more than 5 million retail energy customers in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the U.S.

In 2017, Dominion was listed at #238 on the Fortune 500.  A book about the company's 100-year history, Dominion’s First Century: A Legacy of Service, was published in 2010

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Energy

بيروت

بيروت هي العاصمة السياسية للجمهورية اللبنانية وأكبر مدنها. يتعدى عدد سكانها المليوني نسمة بحسب أحد إحصائيات سنة 2007. تقع وسط الخط الساحلي اللبناني شرقي البحر الأبيض المتوسط. تتركَز فيها معظم المرافق الحيوية من صناعة وتجارة وخدمات. وهي مدينة قديمة وعريقة إذ ذكرت في رسائل تل العمارنة والمؤرخة إلى القرن الخامس عشر ما قبل الميلاد وهي مأهولة منذ ذلك الحين.

بيروت هي مركز الثقل السياسي اللبناني حيث مقر معظم الدوائر السياسية مثل البرلمان ورئاسة الحكومة بالإضافة لمراكز معظم الوزارات والدوائر الحكومية. تلعب الدور الرئيسي في الحركة الاقتصادية اللبنانية. وتعد المدينة إحدى أهم المؤثرات الثقافية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط والوطن العربي لغناها بالأنشطة الثقافية مثل الصحافة الحرة والمسارح ودور النشر ومعارض الفنون والمتاحف وعدد كبير من الجامعات الدولية.

مرت المدينة بالعديد من الكوارث من زلالزل وحروب على مر التاريخ كان آخرها الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية المدمرة. وبعد انتهاء الحرب سنة 1990، أعادت الدولة في عهد حكومة رئيس وزراء لبنان آنذاك رفيق الحريري إعمار وتأهيل المدينة وبخاصة وسطها التجاري وواجهتها البحرية وملاهيها الليلية مما أعاد تألق سياحتها وجعلها مقصداً سياحياً جذاباً. قامت صحيفة النيويورك تايمز بمنح بيروت المركز الأول بين قائمة الأماكن التي ينبغي زيارتها في سنة 2009، كما تم تصنيفها من ضمن المدن العشرة الأوائل الأكثر حيوية في عام 2009 بواسطة دليل لونلي بلانت السياحي.

كشف مؤشر "ماستر كارد" لعام 2011، أن بيروت استأثرت بالمركز الثاني من حيث نسبة البذخ السياحي بين جميع مدن الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا. أما المركز الأول فاحتلته دبي، التي بلغ مقدار ما صرفه فيها السوّاح حوالي 7.8 مليار دولار، تليها بيروت مباشرة بحوالي 6.5 مليارات دولار، ثم تل أبيب بحوالي 3.8 مليارات، ثم القاهرة (3.7 مليارات دولار)، فجوهانسبورغ (3.3 مليارات دولار). كذلك وُضعت بيروت في المرتبة التاسعة بين قائمة أكثر المدن زيارةً في العالم.

أقدم ذكر وصلنا عبر الوثائق التاريخية لاسم بيروت ورد بلفظ "بيروتا" في ألواح تل العمارنة التي وجدت في مصر، والتي تحوي مراسلات تمت بين ملوك جبيل والفرعون امينوفيس الرابع المعروف بأخناتون ( مطلع القرن الرابع عشر ق.م.) ورد فيها اسم "بيروتا" وملكها "عمونيرا". سماها الفنيقيون "بيريت" ँ‌ऀ‌ओ‌क وهي كلمة فينيقية تعني الآبار. وقيل أنها كانت تدعى "بيريتيس" أو "بيروتوس" أو "بيرُووَه" نسبة للإلهة "بيروت"، أعز آلهة لبنان وصاحبة أدونيس إله جبيل. وعُرفت المدينة باسم "بيريتوس" (باليونانية القديمة:βηρυτός) في الأدبيات الإغريقية. واعتمد هذا الاسم في دوريات الآثار المنشورة في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت منذ 1934.

وذكر أن "بيروت" بالمعنى السامي تعني "الصنوبر" لغابات الصنوبر، بسبب وقوعها بالقرب من غابة صنوبر كبيرة هي اليوم ما يُعرف بحرش أو حرج بيروت. ومن الأسماء الأخرى التي دعيت بها منطقة بيروت هو: "لاذقية كنعان"، "مستوطنة جوليا أغسطس بيريتوس السعيدة"، "دربي"، "رديدون"، "باروت". ولقبت المدينة عبر العصور بالعديد من الألقاب منها: سماها الفينيقيون "بالمدينة الإلهة" و"بيروت الأبيّة والمجيدة" لعنادها في مقارعة مدينة "صيدون" و"زهرة الشرق"، وأطلق عليها الرومان "أم الشرائع" بسبب بناء أكبر معهد للقانون بالإمبراطورية فيها. ونعتها العثمانيون "بالدرة الغالية". في العصر الحديث خلدها نزار قباني بلقب "ست الدنيا". وعرفت أيضا باسم "باريس الشرق" خلال فترة الستينات وأوائل السبعينات من القرن العشرين، أي خلال عهد الازدهار الاقتصادي في لبنان.

مصادر

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%AA

Beirut

Beyrouth, pronounced [bɛʁut]) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been conducted, but 2007 estimates ranged from slightly more than 1 million to 2.2 million as part of Greater Beirut,  which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region and the fifteenth-largest in the Arab world. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, Beirut is an important regional seaport.
It is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been inhabited for more than 5,000 years. The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the Amarna letters from the New Kingdom of Egypt, which date to the 15th century BC.

Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with most banks and corporations based in its Central District, Badaro, Rue Verdun, Hamra, Ryad el Soleh street, and Achrafieh. Following the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beirut's cultural landscape underwent major reconstruction. Identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking, finance and law, Beirut is ranked as a Beta World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. 

The English name Beirut is an early transcription of the Arabic name Bayrūt (بيروت). The same name's transcription into French is Beyrouth, which was sometimes used during Lebanon's French occupation. The Arabic name derives from Phoenician Berot or Birut (𐤁𐤓𐤕‎ Brt). This was a modification of the Canaanite and Phoenician word be'rot, meaning "the wells", in reference to the site's accessible water table.  The etymology is shared by the biblical Beeroth (Hebrew: בְּאֵרוֹת)[12] which was, however, a different settlement somewhere near Jerusalem. The name is first attested in the 15th century BC, when it was mentioned in three Akkadian cuneiform  tablets of the Amarna letters,  letters sent by King Ammunira of Biruta to Amenhotep III or Amenhotep IV of Egypt. Biruta was also mentioned in the Amarna letters from King Rib-Hadda of Byblos. 

The Greeks hellenised the name as Bērytós (Ancient Greek: Βηρυτός), which the Romans latinised as Berytus.  When it attained the status of a Roman colony, it was notionally refounded and its official name was emended to Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus to include its imperial sponsors.

Before, under the Seleucid Empire, the city had been already founded and known as Laodicea in honour of the mother of Seleucus the Great.[citation needed] It was distinguished from several other places named in her honour by the longer names Laodicea in Phoenicia (Ancient Greek: Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ, romanized: Laodíkeia hē en Phoiníkēi) or Laodicea in Canaan (Phoenician: 𐤋‬𐤋‬𐤀𐤃‬𐤊𐤀 𐤀𐤔 𐤁‬𐤊𐤍𐤏‬𐤍, romanized: Llʾdkʾ ʾš bknʿn). 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beirut

فيكي دريفز

فيكتوريا مانالو دريفز (بالإنجليزية: Victoria Manalo Draves)‏ والشهيرة باسم فيكي دريفز (بالإنجليزية: Vicki Draves)‏ (اسم الولادة: فيكتوريا مانالو؛ 31 ديسمبر 1924 - 11 أبريل 2010) غواصة أمريكية من أصول فلبينية. فازت بميداليات ذهبية في كل من منصة ومنط الغطس في دورة الألعاب الأولمبية الصيفية 1948 في لندن. وقد أصبحت بذلك أول امرأة تحصل على ميداليات ذهبية لكل من المنصة التي يبلغ ارتفاعها عشرة أمتار ولوحة الانطلاق التي يبلغ طولها ثلاثة أمتار. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، أصبحت دريفز أول امرأة أمريكية تفوز بميداليتين ذهبيتين في الغطس، وأول أمريكية آسيوية تفوز بميداليات ذهبية أولمبية.

عنها

ولدت فيكتوريا مانالو في منطقة ساوث أوف ماركت في مدينة سان فرانسيسكو، لطاهٍ وموسيقي فلبيني يُدعى: تيوفيلو مانالو (بالإنجليزية: Teofilo Manalo)‏، وعاملة منزلية إنجليزية تُدعى: غرترود تايلور (بالإنجليزية: Gertrude Taylor)‏. التقى والداها وتزوجا في سان فرانسيسكو. نشأت مع والديها، وأختها التوأم كوني، وأختها الكبرى فرانكي، وأخيها الأصغر سوني، الذي توفي وهو في سن الطفولة. بدأت فيكي بأخذ دروس في السباحة الصيفية في سن العاشرة، في أحد مراكز الصليب الأحمر، حيث كانت تدفع خمسة سنتات ليُسمح لها بالسباحة في مسبح في منطقة البعثة. لعبت فيكي أيضًا كرة الريشة وكرة السلة والكرة اللينة حين كانت في المدرسة الثانوية، وقد تخرجت من المدرسة الثانوية التجارية في شارع فان نيس (بالإنجليزية: Van Ness Avenue)‏ في عام 1942، لتعمل إثرها في وظيفة مؤقتة في الخدمة المدنية في مكتب جيش بورت سورجيون.

المصادر

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%8A_%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%B2

Vicki Draves

Victoria Manalo Draves (née Manalo; December 31, 1924 – April 11, 2010) was an American competitive diver who won gold medals in both platform and springboard diving at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.  Draves became the first woman to be awarded gold medals for both the ten-meter platform and the three-meter springboard. Additionally, Draves became the first American woman to win two gold medals in diving, and the first Asian American to win Olympic gold medals  She was born in San Francisco. 

Manalo was born in the South-of-Market district of San Francisco to Philippine chef and musician Teofilo Manalo and English maid Gertrude Taylor. Her parents met and married in San Francisco.  She grew up with her parents, her twin sister Connie, her older sister Frankie, and a younger brother, Sonny, who died as a child. Manalo couldn't afford to take swimming lessons until she was 10 years old and took summer swimming lessons from the Red Cross, paying five cents for admission to a pool in the Mission District. Draves played badminton, basketball, and softball in high school. She graduated from Commerce High School on Van Ness Avenue in 1942 and worked a temporary civil service job in the Army Port Surgeon's office to add to the family's meager income

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Draves