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Xirka Ġieħ Ir-Repubblika
The Xirka Ġieħ ir-Repubblika is a society of honour that offers membership to those who have demonstrated exceptional merit in the service of Malta or of humanity. Its motto is ''Għall-Ġid tal-Maltin'' ("For the Benefit of the Maltese"). Award The Xirka is limited to twenty members. With the exception of honorary members, the number of new members may not exceed three persons for every two years. Once the maximum number of members has been met, a new member cannot be appointed until a vacancy occurs. Maltese nationals and distinguished citizens of other countries may be appointed as honorary members of the Xirka. Members and honorary members are legally entitled to have the initials "S.Ġ." (Sieħeb il-Ġieħ) placed after their names. Insignia The Badge of the Order, an enameled representation of La Valletta's Bartizan, is surrounded by a white band with golden inscriptions. The order's motto appears at the top and its name, "Ġieħ ir-Repubblika" at the bottom. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order (decoration)
An order is a visible honour awarded by a sovereign state, monarch, Dynasty, dynastic house or organisation to a person, typically in recognition of individual Meritocracy, merit, that often comes with distinctive insignia such as Collar (order), collars, medals, badges, and sashes worn by recipients. Modern honour systems of state orders and dynastic orders emerged from the culture of orders of chivalry of the Middle Ages, which in turn emerged from the Catholic religious orders. Terminology The word order (), in the case referred to in this article, can be traced back to the chivalric orders, including the military order (society), military orders, which in turn trace the name of their organisation back to that of the Catholic religious orders. Orders began to be created ''ad hoc'' and in a more courtly nature. Some were merely honorary and gradually the ''badges'' of these orders (i.e. the association) began to be known informally as ''orders''. As a result, the modern disti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (; 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician, statesman and banker who was the President of Italy from 1999 to 2006 and the Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994. A World War II veteran, Ciampi had fought for the Italian resistance movement after he evaded capture from the Wehrmacht in 1943. Afterwards, he became a prominent banker in the History of the Italian Republic, First Italian Republic, gradually rising in the ranks of the Bank of Italy before becoming its Governor of the Bank of Italy, governor in 1979. In his tenure as governor, the Italian lira was devalued amid conflict with Prime Minister Bettino Craxi in the mid 1980's and Italy's withdrawal from the European Monetary System in 1992. Beside his political career, he held numerous intergovernmental positions, including as Chairman of the Interim Committee of the International Monetary Fund from 1998 to 1999. Following the ''Mani pulite, Tangentopoli'' scandal th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Kaczyńska
Maria Helena Kaczyńska (; ; 21 August 1942 – 10 April 2010) was the First Lady of Poland from 2005 to 2010 as the wife of President Lech Kaczyński. She and her husband died in a plane crash in the Russian city of Smolensk. Early and personal life Kaczyńska was born in Machava (near Kabylnik, now Belarus), the daughter of Lidia and Czesław Mackiewicz. Her father fought in the Vilnius Armia Krajowa (Home Army), while an uncle fought in the Polish II Corps of Gen. Władysław Anders at the Battle of Monte Cassino during the Italian Campaign of World War II; another uncle was murdered by the NKVD (Soviet secret police) Fischer, Benjamin B.,The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field. "Studies in Intelligence", Winter 1999–2000. Retrieved on 10 December 2005. at Katyń. Kaczyńska attended primary and secondary schools in Rabka Zdrój in southern Poland. She studied transport economics and foreign trade in Sopot at what is now the University of Gdańsk. After g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (; born 15 July 1939) is a Portuguese economist and politician who served as the 19th president of Portugal, from 9 March 2006 to 9 March 2016, and as prime minister of Portugal, from 6 November 1985 to 25 October 1995. His 10-year tenure was the longest of any prime minister since António de Oliveira Salazar, Salazar, and the longest for a freely elected prime minister in Portugal's republican history. He was the first Portuguese prime minister to win an absolute parliamentary majority under the current constitutional system (dating to 1974). He is most recognized for guiding Portugal into the European Union. Early life and career Aníbal António Cavaco Silva was born in Boliqueime, Loulé, Algarve. He was initially an undistinguished student. As a 12-year-old, he failed the 3rd grade of the Commercial School, and his grandfather put him working on the farm as a punishment. After returning to school, Cavaco Silva went on to become an accomplishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Cavaco Silva
Maria Alves da Silva Cavaco Silva (born 19 March 1938) is the wife of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the 19th President of the Portuguese Republic and, as such, was the First Lady of Portugal from 2006 until 2016. A professor of Portuguese Language and Culture, she has been dedicating her attention to education and culture issues, but also to social solidarity and cohesion. Biography Maria Cavaco Silva was born Maria Alves da Silva, to Francisco dos Santos Silva and Adelina de Jesus Pincho, on 19 March 1938, in São Bartolomeu de Messines, Silves (Algarve). Her mother died in her youth, and she ended up being raised by her uncle and aunt in Lisbon. She Licentiated in Germanic Philology from the University of Lisbon in 1960. Her final thesis was about "Yearning ( saudade) in Hölderlin's Poetry". She also has a degree in Pedagogical Sciences from that same university, and began working as a teacher in 1960, in the Colégio das Doroteias. She has also taught in the Liceu Passos Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards Western world, the West, European Union, and NATO. Yushchenko's first career was in the banking industry. In 1993, he became governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, presiding over their response to hyperinflation and the introduction of Ukrainian hryvnia, a national currency. From 1999 to 2001 he was Prime Minister of Ukraine, prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma. After his dismissal as prime minister, Yushchenko went into opposition to President Kuchma and founded Our Ukraine Bloc, which at the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002 parliamentary election became Ukraine's most popular political force. As an informal leader of the Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of the two main candidates in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the other being Prime Min ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kateryna Yushchenko
Kateryna Mykhaylivna Yushchenko (born Catherine Claire Chumachenko, September 1, 1961) is an American-born Ukrainian politician and philanthropist who was the First Lady of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010. Family Yushchenko's father, Mykhailo Chumachenko, was born in the village of , Kharkiv Oblast in 1917 to a large family of farmers. He was one of only a few members of his large family to survive the Soviet Famine of 1932–1933. Chumachenko studied electrical engineering in Lysychansk, Luhansk Oblast. He served in the Soviet Army, and was captured by German forces and taken to Germany in 1942. Yushchenko's mother, Sofia Chumachenko, was born in Litky, Kyiv Oblast, in 1927, and died 30 September 2012 in Kyiv. Along with many other young women of her village, Sofia Chumachenko was taken to Nazi Germany at the age of 14 to serve as a slave laborer, shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Kateryna Yushchenko’s parents met in Germany, married, and gave birth to her s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tassos Papadopoulos
Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos (; 7 January 1934 – 12 December 2008) was a Cypriot politician and barrister, who served as President of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008. An experienced member of the Makarios III’s cabinet, Papadopoulos took charge of the country’s parliament in 1976, two years after the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Turkish invasion, and became one the island’s most notable proponents of a hardline position on Cyprus peace process, Cypriot reunification. It was this sentiment that he successfully employed as a candidate in the 2003 Cypriot presidential election, 2003 presidential election, after which he directed the population to reject the Annan Plan. However, his inability to negotiate an alternative contributed to his failure to win re-election in 2008 Cypriot presidential election, 2008, despite generally maintaining high approval ratings during his presidency. Early life His parents were Nicolas and Aggeliki from Asha, Cyprus, Assia. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,300 other islands and islets on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. Its capital Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest List of cities and towns in Estonia, urban areas. The Estonian language is the official language and the first language of the Estonians, majority of its population of nearly 1.4 million. Estonia is one of the least populous members of the European Union and NATO. Present-day Estonia has been inhabited since at least 9,000 BC. The Ancient Estonia#Early Middle Ages, medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Rüütel
Arnold Rüütel (, 10 May 1928 – 31 December 2024) was an Estonian politician. He was the third President of Estonia from 8 October 2001 to 9 October 2006. Rüütel was the second president of the country after the end of the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation, and the restoration of the independent Republic of Estonia on 20 August 1991. Biography Rüütel was born in the village of Pahavalla in Laimjala Parish, Saaremaa, Estonia on 10 May 1928. His parents were Feodor Rüütel (1900−1965) and Juulia Rüütel (1905−1990). He graduated from the Agricultural College in Jäneda in 1949. He worked as a senior agronomist in Saaremaa (1949−1950) and then as a teacher at the Tartu School of Agricultural Mechanization (1955−1957). In between those two jobs, he served his term in the Soviet Army. In 1957, he was appointed the director of the experimental farm of the Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, and in 1963 he was appointed director of the Tartu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ingrid Rüütel
Ingrid Rüütel ( Ruus; born 3 November 1935) is an Estonian folklorist, philologist and former First Lady of Estonia. She was married to former President of Estonia Arnold Rüütel until his death on 31 December 2024. Personal life Ingrid Rüütel was born in Tallinn as a daughter of communist politician Neeme Ruus and his wife, actress Linda Karin Ruus ( Aruküll). Her father was killed by Nazi German occupation authorities in 1942. In 1958, she married Arnold Rüütel. They have two daughters and six grandchildren. Honours * : Order of the Estonian Red Cross, Class III (1997) * : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2002) * : ** Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (2003) ** Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (2006) * : Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (2002) * : Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (30 September 2004) [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harald Kujat
Harald Kujat (born 1 March 1942) is a retired German Air Force four-star general. He served as Chief of Staff of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, from 2000 to 2002, and as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2002 to 2005. Biography Kujat was born in Mielke, Reichsgau Wartheland (today Poland) to a farmer who died as a soldier in World War II. His mother with her four children fled the advancing Red Army at the end of World War II to Kiel. After passing his ''Abitur'' Kujat volunteered for the Luftwaffe in 1959. In 1965 he was promoted to lieutenant and became the staff officer of the German secretary of defense Georg Leber in 1972–1975. Kujat passed the general staff training at the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr (Hamburg) in 1975–1977 and served as the Staff Officer of Hans Apel in 1977. The same year he took over a department at the ''Luftwaffenunterstützungsgruppenkommando Nord'' at Münster and held several positions at the Department of Defense ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
