Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni ˈpiko della miˈrandola]; 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the “Hermetic Reformation."

Giovanni was born at Mirandola, near Modena, the youngest son of Francesco I, Lord of Mirandola and Count of Concordia (1415–1467), by his wife Giulia, daughter of Feltrino Boiardo, Count di Scandiano. The family had long dwelt in the Castle of Mirandola (Duchy of Modena), which had become independent in the fourteenth century and had received in 1414 from the Emperor Sigismund the fief of Concordia. Mirandola was a small autonomous county (later, a duchy) in Emilia, near Ferrara. The Pico della Mirandola were closely related to the Sforza, Gonzaga and Este dynasties, and Giovanni's siblings wed the scions of the hereditary rulers of Corsica, Ferrara, Bologna and Forlì.

Mirandola (local dialect: La Miràndla) is a city and comune of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in the Province of Modena, 31 km northeast of the provincial capital by railway.

Mirandola originated as a Renaissance city-fortress. For four centuries it was the seat of at Duchy, a possession of the Pico family, whose most outstanding member was the polymath Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). It was besieged two times: in 1510 and 1551.

It was acquired by the Duchy of Modena in 1710. The city started to decay after the castle was destroyed in 1714.

On May 29, 2012 a powerful earthquake hit the Mirandola area. It killed at least 17 people and collapsing churches and factories. Also 200 were injured. The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless .

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Bernd Franke (born 12 February 1948) is a former German football player.

Also an outfield player in his youth, young Bernd Franke made his steps towards the professional game following his impressiveness in the ranks of Saar 05 Saarbrücken. Their manager, Otto Knefler, remembered the young goalkeeper during his spell at Fortuna Düsseldorf and took him to Düsseldorf then. It was in 1971 when Knefler had been employed by Bundesliga side Eintracht Braunschweig and signed Franke once again, this time considering decent backup's for Horst Wolter, Braunschweig's regular goalkeeper. Instantly Franke ousted the former international goalkeeper, but could not stop his club from getting relegated in 1973. Poised to join 1. FC Kaiserslautern from relegated Braunschweig that summer, Franke rejected the chance of staying a Bundesliga player in the year before the 1974 FIFA World Cup. In 1974 he was back in the Bundesliga with Braunschweig, as reliable as usual, enjoying a third-place finish in 1977.

It was just days ahead of the 1978 FIFA World Cup when Franke finally started to fall prey to injuries, failing to report for first-team fixtures due to injuries in the remaining years of his career from time to time. A loyal servant for Eintracht Braunschweig, however, the respected keeper stayed on with the club for one more season outside the Bundesliga during 1980–81 and was, when free of injury, a regular for them until Braunschweig's latest relegation from the top tier of German football in 1985. That was the summer Bernd Franke retired in order to promote his career outside the game. In total he showed up in 345 Bundesliga matches for his sole professional club in between 1971 and 1985.