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Salih ibn Mirdas

Salih ibn Mirdas.
Salih ibn Mirdas (died 1029) was the founder of the Mirdasid dynasty and emir of Aleppo from 1025 until his death. His sons and grandsons ruled Aleppo for most of the next five decades. In 1008 he seized the Euphrates river fortress of al-Rahba. He was imprisoned and tortured in 1012 by the emir of Aleppo, Mansur ibn Lu'lu', before escaping two years later and capturing Mansur in battle. With his Bedouin warriors, Salih captured a string of fortresses along the Euphrates, including Manbij and Raqqa, by 1022. He later allied with the Banu Kalb and Banu Tayy tribes in their rebellion against the Fatimids of Egypt, who ruled Aleppo. He annexed the central Syrian towns of Homs, Baalbek and Sidon before conquering Aleppo in 1025 and establishing a well-organized administration. He paid formal allegiance to the Fatimids, but his alliance with the Banu Tayy drew him into conflict with the Fatimid general, Anushtakin al-Dizbari, whose forces killed Salih in battle near the Sea of Galilee.

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A Rugrats Kwanzaa

A Rugrats Kwanzaa.
"A Rugrats Kwanzaa" is a television special from the American animated series Rugrats, first broadcast on December 11, 2001. It was one of the first mainstream television shows to feature the holiday Kwanzaa. In the episode, the toddler Susie Carmichael and her friends – Tommy Pickles, Chuckie and Kimi Finster, and Phil and Lil DeVille – learn about the holiday during a visit from her great-aunt. Anthony Bell directed the episode from a script by Lisa D. Hall, Jill Gorey, and Barbara Herndon. "A Rugrats Kwanzaa" was praised by critics for its representation of the holiday and the voice acting; there was a mixed response to its commercialism. Cree Summer, who voices Susie, earned a nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth at the 34th NAACP Image Awards for her role in the episode. A picture book entitled The Rugrats' First Kwanzaa was adapted from the script.

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Charles H. Stonestreet

Charles H. Stonestreet.
Charles H. Stonestreet (1813–1885) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who led several institutions in Maryland and Washington, D.C. After becoming a professor at Georgetown University, he led St. John's Literary Institution and St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, Maryland. He was appointed president of Georgetown University in 1851, and oversaw the expansion of its library. The following year, he became provincial superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Province, which faced growing anti-Catholicism from the Know Nothings; as a result, he forbade Jesuits from wearing their clerical attire in public. While president of Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C. (today a high school), he oversaw construction of St. Aloysius Church, becoming its first pastor. In the trial of the conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he was called to testify about a parishioner, Mary Surratt, and a former student, Samuel Mudd.