Tartu

Tartu (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtɑrtˑˈtu], South Estonian: Tarto) is the second largest city of Estonia, following Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn. Tartu is often considered the intellectual centre of the country, especially since it is home to the nation's oldest and most renowned university, the University of Tartu. The city also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia and the Ministry of Education and Research. Situated 186 kilometres (116 miles) southeast of Tallinn, Tartu lies on the Emajõgi ("Mother river"), which connects the two largest lakes of Estonia. The city is served by Tartu Airport.

Historical names

Since 1918 the Estonian name Tartu has been used, but as Tartu has been under control of various rulers throughout its history, there are various names for the city in different languages. Most of them derive from the earliest attested form, the Estonian Tarbatu. In German, Swedish and Polish the town has been known and is sometimes still referred to as  Dorpat , a variant of Tarbatu. In Russian, the city has been known as Юрьев (Yuryev) after Yaroslav I the Wise and Дерпт (Derpt), the Low German variant of Dorpat. Similarly, the city has been known as Tērbata in Latvian. In Finnish, the toponym is Tartto.

Tartu (disambiguation)

Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia.

Tartu may also refer to:

Places:

Historical events:

Raadi Airfield

Raadi Airfield (Tartu Air Base) is a former air base in Estonia located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) northeast of Tartu. The land once belonged to Raadi Manor and is now designated as the new site of the Estonian National Museum.

History

In 1940 100 hectares (250 acres) were requisitioned from the Raadi Manor estates to create a Russian airport. The airfield was fought over during the Second World War and the manor house was burnt during the Tartu Offensive.

The airport became a major Soviet bomber base for fifty years. The secrecy of the airfield meant that foreigners were not allowed to visit the city. Over 100 bombers were based here making it the largest Baltic airfield. This meant that the museum's collection had to be stored in places like the city's churches. The airfield is still seen as a reminder that Estonia was occupied by Soviet forces.

It was a fairly extensive base with 24 large revetments and over 30 small ones. It was a Soviet base, home to 132 TBAP (132nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) which flew Tupolev Tu-16 and Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft. It was also a transport base with the 192 and/or 196 VTAP (Military Transport Aviation Regiment) flying Ilyushin Il-76M cargo jets until 1990. These jets were relocated to Tver.

List of minor planets: 35001–36000

Estonia

Estonia (ⁱ/ɛˈstoʊniə/;Estonian: Eesti [ˈeːsti]), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km² (17,505 sq mi) of land, and is influenced by a humid continental climate.

Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties, with its capital and largest city being Tallinn. With a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the OECD and the Schengen Area. Ethnic Estonians are Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish and the Sami languages, and distantly to Hungarian.

MS Estonia

MS Estonia, previously Viking Sally (1980–1990), Silja Star (−1991), and Wasa King (−1993), was a cruise ferry built in 1979/80 at the German shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg. The ship sank in 1994 in the Baltic Sea in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. It is the deadliest European shipwreck disaster to have occurred in peacetime, costing 852 lives.

Coordinates: 59°23′0″N 21°40′0″E / 59.38333°N 21.66667°E / 59.38333; 21.66667

Construction

The ship was originally ordered from Meyer Werft by a Norwegian shipping company led by Parley Augustsen with intended traffic between Norway and Germany. At the last moment, the company withdrew their order and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, one of the partners in the Viking Line consortium (SF Line, another partner in Viking Line, had also been interested in the ship).

Originally the ship was conceived as a sister ship to Diana II, built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi AB Slite, the third partner in Viking Line. However, when Sally took over the construction contract, the ship was lengthened from the original length of approximately 137 metres (449 ft) to approximately 155 metres (509 ft) and the superstructure of the ship was largely redesigned.

This Strange Engine

This Strange Engine is the ninth studio album by British rock band Marillion, released in 1997.

Release

It is the first of three albums in three consecutive years that Marillion released on a contract with Castle Communications, after being dropped by EMI Records following the relative lack of commercial success of Afraid of Sunlight in 1995; peaking at No. 16, Afraid of Sunlight had been the band's first studio album not to reach the top ten of the UK Albums Chart. Without the promotional efforts of a major label, This Strange Engine continued Marillion's decline in mainstream success; it reached No. 27 on the UK Albums Chart and stayed there for two weeks. The album sold significantly better in the Netherlands, home of one of the band's most loyal audiences, reaching #10.

Music

Most of the tracks are soft rock styled but relatively lengthy compositions.

The first single released from the album was "Man of a Thousand Faces". A music video was also released of this track. The second single from the album was "Eighty Days". Neither single received any mainstream radio airplay. For the first time, no singles from a Marillion album entered the UK Singles Chart.