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"A polliwog is a tadpole, the offspring of an amphibian. Polliwog or pollywog may also refer to: * Binyah Binyah Polliwog, a character on the children's television series Gullah Gullah Island * Pollywog, a sailor who has not crossed the Equator, in the Line-crossing ceremony initiation rite * "The Pollywogg", a song by Captain Bogg and Salty from Bedtime Stories For Pirates * Polliwog Park, in Manhattan Beach, California "
"The RDS-1 (), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (), was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was detonated on 29 August 1949 at 7:00 a.m., at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, after top-secret research and development as part of the Soviet atomic bomb project. In the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, it was discovered that the design of the RDS-1 was obtained via espionage, from documents stolen from the Los Alamos lab. Description The weapon was designed at the Kurchatov Institute, then at the time officially known as "Laboratory № 2" but designated as the "office" or "base" in internal documents, starting in April 1946. Plutonium for the bomb was produced at the industrial complex Chelyabinsk-40. David Greenglass's sketch of an implosion-type nuclear weapon design, illustrating what he allegedly gave the Rosenbergs to pass on to the Soviet Union. That was later discovered to be part of the plans involved in the development of RDS-1 at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The RDS-1 explosion yielded 22 kilotons of TNT, similar to the US Gadget and Fat Man bombs. At Lavrentiy Beria's insistence, the RDS-1 bomb was designed as an implosion type weapon, similar to the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan; RDS-1 also had a solid plutonium core. The bomb designers had developed a more sophisticated design (tested later as RDS-2) but rejected it because of the known reliability of the Fat Man type design, the Soviets having received extensive intelligence on the design of the Fat Man bomb during World War II, which was discovered in the espionage case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and during the Venona project. To test the effects of the new weapon, workers constructed houses made of wood and bricks, along with a bridge, and a simulated metro railway in the vicinity of the test site. Armoured hardware and approximately 50 aircraft were also brought to the testing grounds as well as over 1,500 animals to test the bomb's effects on life. The resulting data showed the RDS explosion to be 50% more destructive than originally estimated by its engineers. There are several explanations for the Soviet code-name of RDS-1, usually an arbitrary designation: a backronym "Special Jet Engine" (, Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Spetsialnyi), or "Stalin's Jet Engine" (, Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Stalina), or "Russia does it herself" (, Rossiya Delayet Sama). Later weapons were also designated RDS but with different model numbers. Mikhail Pervukhin served as the chairman of the commission in charge of the RDS-1 testing. Five RDS-1 weapons were completed as a pilot series by March 1950 with a serial production of the weapon that began in December 1951. The mushroom cloud from the first RDS-1 test (1949) Detection by the West Some United States Air Force WB-29 weather reconnaissance aircraft were fitted with special filters to collect atmospheric radioactive debris. On 1 September 1949, the Air Force Office of Atomic Energy had a WB-29 fly from Misawa Air Base in Japan to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. The plane collected some debris during this flight. This data was then cross-checked with data from later flights, and it was determined that the Soviet Union had effectively tested a nuclear weapon. Response in the West The test surprised the Western powers. American intelligence had estimated that the Soviets would not produce an atomic weapon until 1953, while the British did not expect it until 1954. When the nuclear fission products from the test were detected by the U.S. Air Force, the United States began to follow the trail of the nuclear fallout debris.U.S. Intelligence and the Detection of the First Soviet Nuclear Test, September 1949, William Burr, Washington, D.C., 22 September 2009 President Harry S. Truman notified the world of the situation on 23 September 1949: "We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R." Truman's statement likely in turn surprised the Soviets, who had hoped to keep the test a secret to avoid encouraging the Americans to increase their atomic programs, and did not know that the United States had built a test-detection system using the WB-29 Superfortress. The announcement was a turning point in the Cold War, that had just begun. Once the Soviet Union was confirmed to be in possession of the atomic bomb, pressure mounted to develop the first hydrogen bomb. See also * RDS-3 * RDS-6s * RDS-4 * RDS-37 * RDS-202 (Tsar Bomba) * Plan Totality * Julius and Ethel Rosenberg References External links * Video of the Joe-1 Nuclear Test Category:Joseph Stalin Category:1949 in the Soviet Union Category:1949 in military history Category:Explosions in 1949 Category:August 1949 events Category:Nuclear proliferation Category:Soviet nuclear weapons testing Category:1949 in international relations Category:Nuclear weapons policy Category:Nuclear bombs of the Soviet Union Category:Cold War military history of the Soviet Union "
"Magnus IV Sigurdsson (c. 1115 – 12 November 1139), also known as Magnus the Blind, was King of Norway from 1130 to 1135 and again from 1137 to 1139. His period as king marked the beginning of the civil war era in Norway, which lasted until 1240.Magnus 4 Sigurdsson Blinde (Helge Salvesen. Store norske leksikon) Biography Magnus was the son of King Sigurd I of Norway and Borghild Olavsdotter. When King Sigurd died in 1130, Magnus became king of Norway together with his uncle Harald Gille. After four years of uneasy peace, Magnus began to openly prepare for war on Harald. On August 9, 1134, he defeated Harald in the decisive Battle at Färlev near Färlev in Stångenäs herred in Båhuslen. Harald fled to Denmark. Against the advice of his councilors, Magnus disbanded his army and traveled to Bergen to spend the winter there. Harald then returned to Norway with a new army and the support of the Danish King Erik Emune. Meeting little opposition, he reached Bergen before Christmas. Magnus had few men, and the city fell easily to Harald's army on January 7, 1135. Magnus was captured and dethroned. He was blinded, castrated and had one leg cut off. After this he was known as Magnus the Blind (Magnus Sigurdsson den blinde). Magnus was put in Nidarholm Abbey on the island of Munkholmen in Trondheim Fjord, where he spent some time as a monk. Harald Gille was killed in 1136 by Sigurd Slembe, another royal pretender who had himself proclaimed king in 1135. To back his claim, Sigurd Slembe brought Magnus back from the abbey and made him co-king. They decided to split up their forces, and Magnus headed for eastern Norway, where he had most popular support. There, he was defeated at the Battle of Minne by the forces of King Inge I. He then fled to Götaland and subsequently to Denmark, where he tried to get support for his cause. An attempted invasion of Norway by King Erik Emune of Denmark failed miserably.Sigurd Slembe (Store norske leksikon) Magnus then rejoined Sigurd Slembe's men, but they continued to have little support in Norway. After some time spent more like bandits than kings, they met the forces of King Inge I and King Sigurd II in a final battle on November 12, 1139. Magnus fell during the naval Battle of Holmengrå south of Hvaler in the Oslofjord. The loyal guard Reidar Grjotgardsson lifted his king at the final battle, but a spear impales them both. Magnus was buried in the Church of St. Hallvard in Oslo. There is a monument erected in memory of King Magnus the Blind at the Storedal farm in Skjeberg in Østfold county.Magnus 4 Sigurdsson Blinde – utdypning ( Nils Petter Thuesen. Store norske leksikon) Norwegian civil war During the civil wars period of Norwegian history (1130–1240) there were several interlocked conflicts of varying scale and intensity. The background for these conflicts were the unclear Norwegian succession laws, social conditions and the struggle between church and king. There were then two main parties, firstly known by varying names or no names at all, but finally condensed into parties of Bagler and Birkebeiner. The rallying point regularly was a royal son, who was set up as the head figure of the party in question, to oppose the rule of king from the contesting party. ((Baglers and Birkebeiners did not exist before until about 30 years later, so this entry is not relevant to the subject matter, as it was a completely different war, in the same historical series of conflicts)) References External links * The saga of Magnus the Blinde and Harald Gille * The saga of the sons of Harald Gille Category:1110s births Category:1139 deaths Category:12th-century Norwegian monarchs Category:Norwegian monarchs Category:House of Hardrada Category:Norwegian civil wars Category:Monarchs killed in action Category:Blind people from Norway Category:Blind royalty and nobility Category:Norwegian amputees Category:Castrated people Category:Norwegian military personnel killed in the Norwegian civil wars "