George Koval (1913–2006) was a Soviet intelligence officer. According to Russian sources, Koval's infiltration of the Manhattan Project as a Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) agent "drastically reduced the amount of time it took for Russia to develop nuclear weapons". Koval was born to Jewish immigrants in Sioux City, Iowa. Shortly after reaching adulthood he traveled with his parents to the Soviet Union to settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region near the Chinese border. Koval was recruited by the GRU, trained, and assigned the code name DELMAR. He returned to the United States in 1940 and was drafted into the US Army in early 1943. Koval worked at atomic research laboratories and, according to the Russian government, relayed back to the Soviet Union information about the production processes and volumes of the polonium, plutonium, and uranium used in American atomic weaponry, in addition to descriptions of the weapon production sites. After the war, Koval left on a European vacation but never returned to the United States. In 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Koval the Hero of the Russian Federation decoration for "his courage and heroism while carrying out special missions". (more...)
Over fifty ordinary people who died saving the lives of others are commemorated on ceramic tiles on the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman's Park in the City of London. First proposed by artist George Frederic Watts in 1887, the scheme was not accepted at that time. In 1898 Watts was approached by the vicar of St Botolph's Aldersgate church, who was trying to raise the profile of a park in St Botolph's former churchyard. The unfinished memorial was unveiled in 1900 with space for 120 memorial tablets to be designed and made by William De Morgan, but only four of the tablets were in place. Watts died in 1904, and his widow Mary Watts took over the project. In 1906, after making 24 memorial tablets for the project, William De Morgan abandoned the ceramics business to become a novelist, and Royal Doulton took over making the tiles. Mary Watts lost interest in the project and work to complete it was sporadic, ceasing altogether in 1931 with only 53 of the planned 120 tiles in place. In 2009 the first new tablet in 78 years was added to the memorial. (more...)
Fritillaria meleagris is a species of fritillary native to much of Europe. In many places, including France, Slovenia and Romania, it is an endangered species that is rarely found in the wild, but is common in gardens. The flower may be pure white, but usually has a chequered pattern in shades of purple, which gives the plant its scientific name, as "meleagris" means "guinea fowl".
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