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Year 1415 (MCDXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–December[link]

• April 30 – Frederick I becomes Elector of Brandenburg.
• July 4 – Pope Gregory XII officially opens the Council of Constance and then abdicates.
• June 5 – The Council of Constance condemns the writings of John Wycliffe and asks Jan Hus to recant in public his heresy; after his denial, he is tried for heresy, excommunicated, then sentenced to be burned at the stake.
• July 6 – Jan Hus is burned at the stake in Konstanz.
• July 31 – Henry V of England is informed of the Southampton Plot against him; he has the leaders arrested and executed before invading France.
• August 14 – Portugal conquers the city of Ceuta from the Moors, initiating the Portuguese Empire and European expansion and colonialism.
• October 25 – Battle of Agincourt: Archers of Henry V of England are instrumental in defeating a massed army of French knights.

Date unknown[link]

• Avignon Pope Benedict XIII orders all Talmuds to be delivered to the diocese and held until further notice.
• The Swiss Confederation takes the territory of Aargau from the house of Habsburg.
• The Grand Canal of China is reinstated by this year after it had fallen out of use; restoration began in 1411, and was a response by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to improve the grain shipment system of tribute traveling from south to north towards his new capital at Beijing. Hence, the problem with lack of food supply is sufficed by this year.
• The Orthodox Church in the lands of the tsardom of Muskovy (actual Russia) separates from the one in Ukraine and Byelorussia, both claiming to be the true Kiev patriarchate.

Births[link]

• March 10 – Vasili II of Russia (d. 1462)
• May 3 – Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (d. 1495)
• September 21 – Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1493)
• December 1 – Jan Długosz, Polish historian (d. 1480)
• date unknown
  • Benedetto Accolti, Italian jurist and historian (d. 1466)
  • John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (d. 1461)
  • Rennyo, Japanese Buddhist leader (d. 1499)

Deaths[link]

• April 15 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist
• July 6 – Jan Hus, Bohemian reformer (burned at the stake) (b. 1369)
• July 19 – Philippa of Lancaster, queen of John I of Portugal (plague) (b. 1359)
• August 5
  • Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (executed)
  • Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham (executed)
  • Thomas Grey (executed)
• August or September – Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (killed in battle) (b. 1367)
• October 13 – Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, English military leader (b. 1381)
• October 25 – Killed in the Battle of Agincourt:
  • John I of Alençon (b. 1385)
  • Charles d'Albret, Count of Dreux and Constable of France
  • Antoine, Duke of Brabant (b. 1384)
  • Michael de la Pole, 3rd Earl of Suffolk (b. 1394)
  • Frederick of Lorraine (b. 1371)
  • Philip II, Count of Nevers (b. 1389)
  • Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (b. 1373)
  • Dafydd Gam, Welsh nobleman (b. c. 1380)
• December 18 – Louis, Duke of Guyenne, Dauphin of France

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2011)

Zain Bhikha
Zain Bhikha in 2008
Background information
Born	(1974-08-09) August 9, 1974 (age 37) Pretoria, South Africa
Origin	South African
Genres	Islamic Nasheed
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Musician
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Jamal Records/Mountain of Light
Associated acts	Yusuf Islam, Dawud Wharnsby
Website	zainbhikha.com

Zain Bhikha (Hindi: ज़ैन भिखा, Urdu: زین بھکھا; born August 9, 1974) is an South African singer-songwriter, who has achieved success as a performer of Islamic nasheed songs. Associated with other Muslim musicians, including Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby, Bhikha has collaborated on albums and also released several solo albums. He has written several religious albums concerning Islam.^{[citation needed]}

Bhikha sometimes performs with a drummer and several backup vocalists who were the African singers in the Disney cartoon movie The Lion King.^[1] Bhikha did not himself contribute to that film.

Bhikha's music almost exclusively follows Islamic themes, with only voice and drums being used, since the use of musical instruments other than the voice and the drum is an area of debate in Muslim jurisprudence, considered harām, or "unlawful" by a portion of the Muslim community.^{[citation needed]}

Current work[link]

Bhikha is currently involved in educational projects in his native South Africa as well as international initiatives to educate through song.^[2] He is also working with Indian Islamic Channel, Peace TV.^{[citation needed]}

On April 24, 2008, Bhikha participated in an international annual singing competition on the Prophet Muhammad's birthday, named the Al Mahabbah Awards Festival, in Abu Dhabi. Bhikha was accompanied by the aforementioned drummer and backing singers. One song they performed was "Peace Train", composed by Yusuf Islam.^[1]

Discography[link]

• 1996 - READ ALL ABOUT IT
• 1999 - BABY
• 2000 - Children of Heaven
• 2001 - Faith
• 2002 - Our World
• 2005 - Mountains of Makkah
• 2006 - Allah Knows
• 2009 - 1415: The Beginning
• 2010 - First We Need The Love
• 2010 - A Way of Life
• 2011 - HOPE
• 2011 - Better Day

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Myspace.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

Robert Joseph "Bob" Vila (b. June 20, 1946) is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House (1979–1989), Bob Vila's Home Again (1990–2005), and Bob Vila (2005–2007).

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Vila, a Cuban American native of Miami, Florida, received a Bachelor degree in entomology from the University of Florida in 1969. After graduating, he served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, working in Panama from 1971 to 1973.^[1]

Career[link]

Vila was hired as the host of This Old House in 1979 after receiving the "Heritage House of 1978" award by Better Homes and Gardens, for his restoration of a Victorian Italianate house in Newton, Massachusetts.^[2] On This Old House, Vila appeared with carpenter Norm Abram as they, and others, renovated houses. In 1989 he left the show under controversial circumstances. Some cite the reason as being a series of conflicts with This Old House executive producer Russell Morash arising from his involvement with outside commercial endorsements,^[3] while others cite a specific instance- Vila's commercial work for New Jersey-based Rickel and the subsequent retaliatory pulling of underwriting from Rickel's competitor Home Depot and lumber supplier Weyerhaeuser- as the reason behind his departure.^[4] He was replaced by Steve Thomas.

After leaving This Old House, Vila became a commercial spokesman for Sears, and beginning in 1990 he hosted Bob Vila's Home Again (known from 2005 on as Bob Vila), a weekly-syndicated home improvement program. The series ran for sixteen seasons in syndication before it was canceled by distributor CBS Television Distribution due to declining ratings.^[5] Vila has also appeared on various episodes of the situation comedy Home Improvement as himself, where main character and cable TV host Tim Taylor (played by Tim Allen) saw him as a rival and went to great lengths to try to beat Vila at things, which he never succeeded in doing. Vila also made a cameo in the 1993 comedy spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux.

Vila has written ten books, including a five-book series titled Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of America. As of 2006, he still appears regularly on television. He can also be seen on the Home Shopping Network, selling a range of tools under his own brand.

Other productions[link]

Bob Vila's less widely known productions include Guide to Historic Homes of America (1996), In Search of Palladio, (1996) for A&E, and Restore America for HGTV.

Historic Homes of America[link]

Guide to Historic Homes of America (1996)^[6] included two-hour segments on each of four major regions of the United States: the Northeast, including New England and the Mid-Atlantic States,^[7] the South, the Midwest and the West.

The Northeast

• Morris-Jumel Mansion overlooking Yankee Stadium in Washington Heights, Manhattan
• Dyckman House on Broadway in Upper Manhattan
• Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts.
• Strawbery Banke restoration in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
• Olana - "a palatial amalgam of Middle-Eastern and European influences."^[6]

The Mid-Atlantic States

• Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis, Maryland - William Paca House and Hammond-Harwood House
• New Castle, Delaware - George Read II House, built by the son of George Read
• Baltimore, Maryland - Homewood House on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus
• Washington, D.C. - Decatur House on President's Park and Tudor Place in Georgetown

The South

• Thomas Jefferson

• University of Virginia - ten residential pavilions surround the great, terraced Lawn.
• Ash Lawn-Highland
• Poplar Forest - octagonal house filmed while undergoing complete restoration
• Monticello - includes Dome Room at top of building (not open to the public) and Honeymoon Cottage.

• Natchez, Mississippi

• House on Endicott Hill - early trader's house
• Rosalie - Federal architecture mansion^[8] with John Henry Belter^[9] furniture and a panoramic view of Mississippi River.
• Stanton Hall - "perhaps the grandest Greek Revival house anywhere."^[6] Designed by Captain Thomas Rose.^[10]
• Longwood - begun in 1860 by Samuel Sloan. Never finished: construction halted in April 1861.^[11]

• Texarkana, Texas - the Ace of Clubs House.^[12]

The Midwest and West

• Ellwood House - built by barbed wire entrepreneur Isaac L. Ellwood in DeKalb, Illinois.
• Frank Lloyd Wright

• Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, Illinois. "It's richer in detail than any other Wright home."^[6]
• Fallingwater in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains

• Cooper-Molera Adobe - early Spanish Colonial owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Monterey State Historic Park.
• Filoli - Woodside, California in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Designed by Willis Polk.
• Tor House^[13] - stone house and tower overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, built by Robinson Jeffers.

In Search of Palladio[link]

In Search of Palladio (1996) is a three-part, six-hour study of the work and lasting influence of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio. Palladio designed various types of buildings, but the series concentrates on his domestic architecture. (See also: Palladian Villas of the Veneto).

I. Villas of the Veneto

• Villa Giustinian, Roncade. - For Vila this building (not by Palladio) provides the context for Palladio's innovative thinking - gothic battlements, portcullis and stone walls concealing a Renaissance palace and farm buildings.
• Villa Pisani^[14] in Montagnana - a descendant of the original owners served as Vila's guide.
• Villa Cornaro - A suburban villa on a town street, a palatial residence which was also an on-site place of business for running a large farming enterprise.
• Villa Barbaro.
• Villa Emo - For Vila this is "perhaps the most dramatic farmhouse ever built".
• La Rocca Pisana - spectacular hilltop belvedere by Palladio's pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi.

II. The Palladians in England and Ireland

• London: Chiswick House, Marble Hill House and Stourhead.
• Bath, Somerset: Queen Square,^[15] The Circus and the Royal Crescent.
• Republic of Ireland: Casino at Marino - "the architectural equivalent of a Fabergé egg".
• Northern Ireland: Castle Ward - overlooking Strangford Lough with both Palladian and Gothic facades and interiors.

III. The Palladian Legacy in America

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Mount Pleasant.
• Marblehead and Waltham, Massachusetts: Jeremiah Lee Mansion and Gore Place
• Hudson Valley, New York: Boscobel House Museum - purchased in 1955 for thirty-five dollars. Meticulously restored, situated on a bluff on the east bank of the Hudson River opposite the United States Military Academy at West Point.^[16]
• Hartford, Connecticut: Austin House - built for Wadsworth Atheneum director Arthur Everett Austin, Jr.
• South Bend, Indiana. In Indiana Vila looks at University of Notre Dame architectural school "where Palladio and classical architecture are taken seriously indeed", Vitruvian House^[17] designed by Thomas Gordon Smith and Villa Indiana designed by Duncan G. Stroik.^[18]

Restore America[link]

Restore America consists of fifty one-hour segments which explore historic preservation and building restoration in each of the fifty U.S. states. Anticipating the turn of the 3rd millennium, it was first broadcast on HGTV between July 4, 1999 and July 4, 2000.^[19]

Bibliography[link]

Bob Vila has written two dozen or more books, which include:

• 1980: This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-17704-0.
• 1990: Bob Vila's Guide to Buying Your Dream House. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-90291-8.
• 1993-1994: Bob Vila's Guides to Historic Homes of America. New York: Quill (HarperCollins imprint).

• Historic Homes of New England. ISBN 0-688-12493-3.
• Historic Homes of the South. ISBN 0-688-12492-5.
• Historic Homes of the Midwest and Great Plains. ISBN 0-688-12495-X.
• Historic Homes of the West. ISBN 0-688-12496-8.
• Historic Homes of the Mid-Atlantic. ISBN 0-688-12494-1.

See also[link]

• List of Famous Cuban-Americans

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bob Vila's Official Website
• Bob Vila Video Channel on BobVila.com
• Bob Vila Biography at bobvila.com
• Bob Vila TV Show at bobvila.com
• Bob Vila's Home Again at bobvila.com
• Bob Vila Contractor Referral Website
• Bob Vila's Profile on LegendaryLife.com
• Bob Vila at the Internet Movie Database