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« Përgjigjja #15 më: 14-03-2007, 01:36:21 »

Claudius II Gothicus
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Claudius II Gothicus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-

Claudius II, Roman emperor from 268 to 270 AD, belonged to an obscure Illyrian family. On account of his military ability he was placed in command of an army by Decius; and Valerian appointed him general on the Illyrian frontier, and ruler of the provinces of the lower Danube. During the reign of Gallienus, he was called to Italy in order to crush Aureolus; and on the death of the emperor (268) he was chosen as his successor, in accordance, it was said, with his express desire. Shortly after his accession he routed the Alamanni on the Lacus Benacus (some doubt is thrown upon this); in 269 a great victory over the Goths at Naissus in Moesia gained him the title of Gothicus. In the following year he died of the plague at Sirmium, in his fifty-sixth year. He enjoyed great popularity, and appears to have been a man of ability and character.


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« Përgjigjja #16 më: 14-03-2007, 01:37:22 »

Carus
Marcus Aurelius Carus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-

Marcus Aurelius Carus, Roman emperor from 282 to 283 AD, was born probably at Narbona (more correctly, Narona) in Illyria, but was educated at Rome. He was a senator, and had filled various civil and military posts before he was appointed prefect of the praetorian guards by the emperor Probus, after whose murder at Sirmium he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Although Carus severely avenged the death of Probus, he was himself suspected of having been an accessory to the deed. He does not seem to have returned to Rome after his accession, but contented himself with an announcement of the fact to the senate. Bestowing the title of Caesar upon his sons Carinus and Numerianus, he left Carinus in charge of the western portion of the empire, and took Numerianus with him on the expedition against the Persians which had been contemplated by Probus. Having defeated the Quadi and Sarmatians on the Danube, Carus proceeded through Thrace and Asia Minor, conquered Mesopotamia, pressed on to Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and carried his arms beyond the Tigris. But his hopes of further conquest were cut short by his death. One day, after a violent storm, it was announced that he was dead. His death was variously attributed to disease, the effects of lightning, or a wound received in a campaign against the Huns; but it seems more probable that he was murdered by the soldiers, who were averse from further campaigns against Persia, at the instigation of Arrius Aper, prefect of the praetorian guard. Carus seems to have belied the hopes entertained of him on his accession, and to have developed into a morose and suspicious tyrant.


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« Përgjigjja #17 më: 14-03-2007, 01:38:17 »

Carinus
Marcus Aurelius Carinus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-

Roman emperor, AD 283-285, was the elder son of the emperor Carus, on whose accession he was appointed governor of the western portion of the empire. He fought with success against the German tribes, but soon left the defense of the Upper Rhine to his legates and returned to Rome, where he abandoned himself to all kinds of debauchery and excess. He also celebrated the ludi Romani on a scale of unexampled magnificence. After the death of Carus, the army in the East demanded to be led back to Europe, and Numerianus, the younger son of Carus, was forced to comply. During a halt at Chalcedon, Numerianus was murdered, and Diocletian, commander of the bodyguards, was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Carinus at once left Rome and set out for the East to meet Diocletian. On his way through Pannonia he put down the usurper M. Aurelius Julianus, and encountered the army of Diocletian in Moesia. Carinus was successful in several engagements, and at the battle on the Margus (Morava), according to one account, the valor of his troops had gained the day, when he was assassinated by a tribunë whose wife he had seduced. In another account, the battle is represented as having resulted in a complete victory for Diocletian. Carinus has the reputation of having been one of the worst of the emperors.


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« Përgjigjja #18 më: 14-03-2007, 01:39:17 »

Numerianus
Marcus Aurelius Numerianus

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-

Marcus Aurelius Numerianus (d. November, 284), known in English as Numerian, was a Roman Emperor (December 283 – November, 284)

Numerian was the son of the Roman Emperor Carus and brother of Emperor Carinus, and was proclaimed caesar in Fall 282, short after his father's accession.

After marrying the daughter of the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Lucius Flavius Aper, Numerian and his father-in-law followed Carus on his expedition against the Sassanid Empire (Carinus had been proclaimed Augustus in Gaul). When Carus suddenly died in December 283, Numerian, proclaimed Augustus, had to bring the army back to its bases.

In March 284, the year of his consulship, Numerian was in Emesa. He fell ill, and Aper told the Emperor he had an inflammation to his eyes, and needed to travel in a closed coach. When, several days later, the guards sensed a bad smell coming from the coach and opened it, they found the dead body of the young emperor.

It was probable that Numerian had died naturally, and that the officers wanted to keep his death secret to avoid a turmoil in the army. The commander of the imperial bodyguard, Valerius Diocles, accused Aper of the death of the Emperor, and killed him; Diocles was acclaimed emperor by the army, and took the power with the name of Diocletian.

According to Historia Augusta, Numerian was a man of considerable literary attainments, of remarkably amiable character, and known as a great orator and poet. However, no other sources, apart the unreliable Historia, report anything about his personality.


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« Përgjigjja #19 më: 14-03-2007, 01:40:01 »

Decius
Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius

-Roman Emperor of Illyrian Origin-

Roman emperor, the first of the long succession of distinguished men from the Illyrian provinces, was born at Budalia near Sirmium in lower Pannonia in AD 201. About 245 the emperor Philip the Arab entrusted him with an important command on the Danube, and in 249 (or end of 248), having been sent to put down a revolt of the troops in Moesia and Pannonia, he was forced to assume the imperial dignity. He still protested his loyalty to Philip, but the latter advanced against him and was slain near Verona. During his brief reign Decius was engaged in important operations against the Goths, who crossed the Danube and overran the districts of Moesia and Thrace. The details are obscure, and there is considerable doubt as to the part taken in the campaign by Decius and his son (of the same name) respectively. The Goths were surprised by the emperor while besieging Nicopolis on the Danube; at his approach they crossed the Balkans, and attacked Philippopolis. Decius followed them, but a severe defeat near Beroë made it impossible to save Philippopolis, which fell into the hands of the Goths, who treated the conquered with frightful cruelty. Its commander, Priscus, declared himself emperor under Gothic protection. The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and resources of the Goths, that they offered to surrender their booty and prisoners on condition of being allowed to retire unmolested. But Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to cut off their retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final engagement, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, took place on swampy ground in the Dobrudja near Abritum (Abrittus) or Forum Trebonii and ended in the defeat and death of Decius and his son. Decius was an excellent soldier, a man of amiable disposition, and a capable administrator, worthy of being classed with the best Romans of the ancient type. The chief blot on his reign was the systematic and authorized persecution of the Christians, which had for its object the restoration of the religion and institutions of ancient Rome. Either as a concession to the senate, or perhaps with the idea of improving public morality, Decius endeavored to revive the separate office and authority of the censor. The choice was left to the senate, who unanimously selected Valerian (afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the dangers and difficulties attaching to the office at such a time, declined the responsibility. The invasion of the Goths and the death of Decius put an end to the abortive attempt.


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« Përgjigjja #20 më: 14-03-2007, 01:41:45 »

Leka Dukagjini

-Princ of Arbëria-

Leka Dukagjini (1410-1481) is an Albanian historical figure, contemporary of Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg, who fought against the Turks and is known for the code of law instituted in northern Albania and still applied today in some remote areas known as Kanuni.

Leka is though to have been born in Ulpiana near modern Prizren, Kosova in 1410. The County of Dukagjini had its center in Lezhë, and included Zadrima, the areas North and East-north Shkodra, and expanded far north up to the territories of what today constitutes Serbia, having as the second center the town of Ulpiana. Until he took over the ruling of his county from his father Pal in 1446, Leka Dukagjini had gained an overall knowledge, inspired by the European Renaissance humanism, in towns such as Venice, Raguza and Shkodër; meanwhile Skenderbeg had done a very rapid and excellent military career in the court of Sultan Murad II.

Leka was an Albanian prince that inherited his father's, Pal Dukagjini, princedom when he died in 1446. His lands stretched in the north and northeast of Shkodër, with Lezhë as its capital. They included lands in present-day Kosova, such as Zadrima and Ulpiana.

Leka was educated in Venice and Shkodër. He led the League of Lezha in 1444. He fought side-by-side Skanderbeg against the Turks, but they also fought against each other at times. However Lekë continued to fight against the Ottoman Empire until his death in 1481, sometimes besides the Venetians with the blessing of the papacy.

Overshadowed by Skanderbeg, Lekë Dukagjini is most well known for the set of laws ruling the highlands of northern Albania, known as the Kanuni. While identifying Skenderbg as the dragon prince who dared to fight and always win against any foe; cronicles portrayed Leka Dukagjini as the angel prince who, with dignity and wisdom, ensured the continuity of the Albanian identity. The set of laws was active in practice for a long time, but it was not gathered and codified until the late 19th century by Shtjefën Gjëçov. The most infamous laws of Kanuni are those regulating blood feuds. Blood feuds have started once again in lawless northern Albania after the fall of communism in the early 1990s, having been outlawed for many years during the regime.

source

Kanuni i Leka Dukagjinit
http://www.geocities.com/bressta/KanuniDiftojsi.html


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« Përgjigjja #21 më: 14-03-2007, 01:43:14 »

Joseph DioGuardi
-Former U.S. Congressman, and President of AACL-

Joseph J. DioGuardi (b. September 20, 1940) is an American Republican politician of Arberesh origin from the state of New York.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Joseph J. DioGuardi moved to Westchester County with his immigrant parents, brother, and sister in 1957. He is a 1958 graduate of Fordham Preparatory School, and in 1962 he graduated with honors from Fordham University. His parents were of Arbëreshë origin.
DioGuardi served for twenty-two years, twelve of them as a tax partner, with the international accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., one of the first public advocates of governmental fiscal responsibility. In November 1984, he brought his extensive professional and volunteer experience to Congress, when he became the first practicing certified public accountant ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1986, and served in Congress in 1985-89.
In Congress, DioGuardi authored the Chief Financial Officer's Act, a later version was passed by Congress and into law signed by President George Bush in 1990 -- two years after DioGuardi left office -- which mandated the assignment of a CFO to each major department and agency of the U.S. government.
DioGuardi founded and cochaired the Congressional Long Island Sound and Hudson River Caucuses, which secured increases in federal support for those waterways. In 1986, with the late Democratic Congressman Mickey Leland, DioGuardi initiated legislation to confer Congressional Medals of Honor on Black World War I and World War II military heroes. More recently, he cofounded with Congressman Jerrold Nadler the New York Task Force for Port, Rail, and Industrial Development in order to restore lost jobs to New York's manufacturing and transportation industries.
DioGuardi was defeated for re-election in 1988. In the years that followed, DioGuardi made a series of failed campaigns to return to Congress. DioGuardi won the Republican primary in 1992 but then lost in the general election. He performed even worse in later races, losing Republican primaries for Congress in 1994 and 1996. After losing the 1994 GOP primary, DioGuardi continued his campaign for the seat as the nominee of the Conservative Party and the Right-to-Life Party. In 1996, DioGuardi also lost the Conservative Party primary for Congress. He was the unsuccessful Right-to-Life Party nominee for Congress in 1996 and 1998. He briefly flirted with running again in 2000, but decided against entering the race. In December 2006, DioGuardi expressed an interest in running for Congress in 2008 against newly-elected Congressman John Hall (D). Source: Office of the Clerk, US House.
DioGuardi is an advocate for the human rights and self-determination of oppressed peoples in the Balkans. After leaving Congress in 1989, he has made fifteen trips to the region. As president of the Albanian American Civic League, he and Congressman Tom Lantos made the first official trip to Albania in fifty years, and he helped open the doors to democracy in this former Communist dictatorship. In August 1990, DioGuardi persuaded Bob Dole and six other U.S. Senators to visit the two million Albanians in Kosovo. In September 1996, he returned to Albania with Congressman Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the Committee on International Relations, to meet with President Sali Berisha to discuss Albanian national security and minority rights for the ethnic Greeks in southern Albania. In June 1997, DioGuardi led a delegation to monitor the national elections in Albania and in August, 1998 he traveled to northern Albania to assess the humanitarian crisis emanating from the war in Kosovo, at the request of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. In March 2007, he and his wife Shirley Cloyes went to The Hague to stand by Ramush Haradinaj as his war crimes trial begins at the ICTY.
Since leaving Congress in 1989, DioGuardi has established a nonpartisan foundation, Truth In Government, through which he continues his crusade for federal fiscal reforms. The author of Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn't Add Up, DioGuardi is a frequent speaker on fiscal responsibility and public accountability. In August 1994, as a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the American Accounting Association, DioGuardi persuaded professors of accounting to play an active role in federal budgeting and financial management. In May 1996, he returned to Washington as a keynote speaker on federal financial management reforms before the Institute of Management Accountants (formerly the National Association of Accountants). In April 1997, the Texas Society of CPAs published an article by DioGuardi in Today's CPA on the real magnitude of the national debt.
DioGuardi is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including investiture as a Knight of Malta in 1979, the International Humanitarian Award The Boys Towns of Italy in 1986, the Outstanding CPA in Government Award from the New York State Society of CPAs in 1986, the Torch of Liberty Award from the New York State Conservative Party in 1987, the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Westchester County Republican Committee in 1987, the Westchester Irish Committee's Dedication to Peace and Justice Award in 1988, the Paul Harris Fellow Award of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in 1988, and the Annual Achievement Award of the Association of Government Accountants, Boston Chapter, in 1992.
He has a daughter, Kara DioGuardi, a songwriter, record producer, and singer; and is married to Shirley Cloyes DioGiardi, Balkan Affairs Advisor and his co-founder of the Albanian American Civic League.

The Official Web-Site of the Albanian-American Civic League (AACL)
http://blog.aacl.com/

Milosevic Vs. DioGuardi - A 15 year battle (A must watch, where he argues with a serbian congresswoman)


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« Përgjigjja #22 më: 14-03-2007, 01:45:22 »

Ali Pasha Tepelena

-Lion of Janina-

Ali Pasha Tepelena was born in 1740 at Tepelenë in southern Albania, and in his youth was a leader of brigands. Later he entered the service of the Sultan and managed to achieve his ambitions: he created the largest pashaluk (a territory ruled over by a Pasha) in the Ottoman empire. His ambitions were to amass a great fortune, to avenge himself on his private enemies, and to become the independent ruler of Albania and part of Greece. Ali Pasha established and maintained contacts with all the great powers of Europe at that time. He maintained contacts with Napolean, the English Admiral Lord Nelson, and the Russian Tsar. He also gave support to the Greek struggle for liberation from Turkish rule. His pashaluks harboured organizations dedicated to winning independence from Greece. He would also have liked to secede from the Ottoman empire.
Ali Pasha's ruthlessness, cunning, and diplomatic skills earned him the title "Lion of Janina", and his court was visited by many Europeans, including in 1809 Lord Byron, who was thus inspired to devote a canto of Childe Harold to Albania and the Albanians.*
Rival feudal lords, both Albanian and Turkish, whom Ali Pasha had ousted from their holdings in Albania, Epirus, and Thessaly, as well as the Greek patriots fighting for their own liberation, put pressure on the (Turkish) Porte to get rid of Ali Pasha. Turkish forces attackled Janina, and Ali Pasha found himself deserted by his sons and allies. He fought to the bitter end and was killed in 1822. His head was sent to Constantinople and publicly displayed.
Under Ali Pasha, Janina was the most advanced centre in the Western Ottoman empire. Although the great powers did not recognize the Janina and Shkodër pashaluks as independent principalities, they treated them as separate states as relations with the Porte deteriorated.
The great pashaluks created the conditions for a faster economic development of the Albanian regions. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the Ottoman empire entered a new phase of decline. Its downfall çame from within and not from without, through the successful struggle of the subjugated peoples in the European part of the empire -- a struggle in which the Albanians played a prominent part. A strong national independence movement took root in Albania which was not satisfied with concessions such as the creation of semi-autonomous pashaluks, but which demanded full national and cultural rights. It soon became a well-organized movement. PP 18 and 19, Albania and the Albanians, Ramadan Marmullaku, C. Hurst & Company, London, 1975
(Ali Pasha) was rather soft and mild in appearance. He spoke both Albanian and Greek, plus a little Turkish, but was illiterate. Short in stature (about five feet five inches), an excellent shot and fearless, he remained active, ambitious, and vigorous until old age. He ruled over both Greeks and Albanians, but his main power rested with the latter (although his worst vengeance was also directed against the Albanians). He carried out considerable construction in both Epirus and Albania, including road building and the draining of marshes, while the merciless punishments curtailed crime. Despite repellent traits of behavior and the violence and ruthlessness of his rule, in official historiography he is regarded as a patriot and a fighter for Albanian independence. It is remarked, too, that Ali's death was the immediate precursor to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence. PP 21 and 22, Historical Dictionary of Albania, Raymond Hutchins, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD and London, 1996


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« Përgjigjja #23 më: 14-03-2007, 01:46:20 »

Pashko Vasa

-Governor of Lebanon, and Albanian Nationalist-

In the 19th century, the Ottoman dominion of Mount Lebanon, i.e. the later country of Lebanon, which had a largë Christian population, was divided and governed by Christian Maronites and Druzes, the latter being members of an esoteric religion derived from Shia Islam. In 1861, the Ottomans agreed to a reunification of the country under a non-Lebanese Christian governor. How could this take place if Muslim-Christian relations were uniformly oppressive? One of the most famous governors of Lebanon was an Albanian Catholic, Pashko Vasa Shkodrani.

source

Para se t'hupet kështu Shqypnia,
Me pushke n'dorë le t'dese trimnia!
Coniu, shqyptare,prej gjumit coniu,
Të gjithë si vllazen n'nji bese shterngoniu,
E mos shikoni kisha e xhamia:
Feja e shqyptarit është shqyptaria!

http://www.geocities.com/spiritofalbania/vasa.htm


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« Përgjigjja #24 më: 14-03-2007, 01:48:35 »

Giorgio Basta

-Austrian Army General-

Giorgio Basta (1544-1607), was an Austrian Army general of Albanian descent, sent to command Habsburg forces in the Long War (1591-1606) and later to administer Transylvania as an Austrian vassal. On his orders, his ally Michael of Wallachia, who unified Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia was murdered days after a joint victory at Goroszló (now Gurãslãu, Hereclean commune, Sãlaj county) in 1601.

Hungarian and Romanian historians alike portray him as a treacherous, licentious and violent man, motivated by pathological hatred of Magyars. During his intermittent control over Transylvania at the beginning of the 17th century, the principality descended into chaos. In the anarchic terror imposed by his marauding, lawless armies of mercenaries and bandits, Transylvania lost a third of its population, including most of the nobility.

Source


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« Përgjigjja #25 më: 14-03-2007, 01:49:20 »

Girolamo De Rada

-Arbëresh Writer and Italo-Arberesh Nationalist-

Girolamo De Rada (1814-1903), known in Albanian as Jeronim De Rada, is not only the best known writer of Italo-Albanian literature but also the foremost figure of the Albanian nationalist movement in nineteenth-century Italy.

Born the son of a parish priest of Greek rite in Macchia Albanese (Alb. Maqi) in the mountains of Cosenza, De Rada attended the college of Saint Adrian in San Demetrio Corone. Already imbued with a passion for his Albanian lineage, he began collecting folklore material at an early age. In October of 1834, in accordance with his father’s wishes, he registered at the Faculty of Law of the University of Naples, but the main focus of his interests remained folklore and literature. It was in Naples in 1836 that De Rada published the first edition of his best known Albanian-language poem, the ‘Songs of Milosao,’ under the Italian title Poesie albanesi del secolo XV. Canti di Milosao, figlio del despota di Scutari (Albanian poetry from the 15th century. Songs of Milosao, son of the despot of Shkodra). He was soon forced to abandon his studies due to a cholera epidemic in Naples and returned home to Calabria. His second work, Canti storici albanesi di Serafina Thopia, moglie del principe Nicola Ducagino, Naples 1839 (Albanian historical songs of Serafina Thopia, wife of prince Nicholas Dukagjini), was seized by the Bourbon authorities because of De Rada’s alleged affiliation with conspiratorial groups during the Italian Risorgimento. The work was republished under the title Canti di Serafina Thopia, principessa di Zadrina nel secolo XV, Naples 1843 (Songs of Serafina Thopia, princess of Zadrina in the 15th century) and in later years in a third version as Specchio di umano transito, vita di Serafina Thopia, Principessa di Ducagino, Naples 1897 (Mirror of human transience, life of Serafina Thopia, princess of Dukagjin). His Italian-language historical tragedy I Numidi, Naples 1846 (The Numidians), elaborated half a century later as Sofonisba, dramma storico, Naples 1892 (Sofonisba, historical drama), enjoyed only modest public response. In the revolutionary year 1848, De Rada founded the newspaper L’Albanese d’Italia (The Albanian of Italy) which included articles in Albanian. This bilingual ‘political, moral and literary journal’ with a final circulation of 3,200 copies was the first Albanian-language periodical anywhere.

Source


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« Përgjigjja #26 më: 14-03-2007, 01:49:59 »

James Belushi

-US Actor-

US Hollywood Actor

Internet Movie Database Link

Link


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« Përgjigjja #27 më: 14-03-2007, 01:50:29 »

John Belushi

-US Actor-

US Hollywood Actor

Internet Movie Database Link

Link


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« Përgjigjja #28 më: 14-03-2007, 01:51:09 »

Regis Philbin

-Half Arberesh / Half Irish-

Emmy Award-winning American television personality

Internet Movie Database

Link
Regis Philbin and Eliza Dushkufind out that they are both Albanian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6So9...eliza%20dushku