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3 unusual facts about Villalba, Sicily


1943 in organized crime

Popular myth has it that a US Army airplane had flown over Vizzini’s home town Villalba on the day of the invasion and dropped a yellow silk handkerchief marked with a black L (indicating Luciano).

1944 in organized crime

September 16 - Leaders of the Blocco del popolo (The Popular Front) in Sicily, the communist Girolamo Li Causi and socialist Michele Pantaleone, went to speak to the landless labourers at an election rally in Villalba, challenging Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini in his own personal fiefdom.

Angelo Bruno

Born in Villalba, Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his teens and settled in Philadelphia.


2005–06 Serie C2

Division C2/A was mainly composed by Northern Italy and Sardinian teams, whereas division C2/B included North-Central and Central Italy teams, with the exception of two teams from Campania (Benevento and Cavese), and division C2/C was represented by teams hailing from Central-Southern Italy and Sicily.

8th Airlift Squadron

The history of the 8th includes airborne assaults on Sicily and Southern France, support of partisans in Northern Italy and the Balkans, and transportation of personnel and supplies in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, during World War II.

Agonum muelleri

In Europe, it is found in Albania, the Azores, Baltic states, Belarus, Benelux, Great Britain including the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, mainland Portugal, Russia, Sardinia, Sicily (doubtful), mainland Spain, Ukraine, Scandinavia, Yugoslavian states, and Central Europe.

Álvaro de Bazán, 2nd Marquis of Santa Cruz

The other male of the family, Fernando, became Chancellor, Rector, of the University of Salamanca, and later, after ecclesiastical jobs at Seville and Cordoba, Archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, Italy .

Ana Sacerdote

In the mid-1950s, she exhibited with Carmelo Arden Quin, Martin Blaszko, Gregorio Vardanega, Virgilio Villalba, Luis Tomasello, and others in the Asociacion Arte Nuevo in Buenos Aires, organized by Aldo Pellegrini.

Antonino Giuffrè

Giuffrè became part of the "directorate" that was established by Bernardo Provenzano, according to Antonio Ingroia, a leading anti-Mafia magistrate in Sicily.

Battle of Panormus

Towards the end of 252 BC or early 251 BC, Carthage had put down a Libyan revolt in Africa and sent an army under the command of Hasdrubal, son of Hanno the Great, to Sicily.

Besana

Initially with almonds from Puglia and Sicily region (Italy) and in the early 60’s with Brazil nuts, Pecan nuts, dried fruit, seeds, pistachios, pine kernels, Macadamia nuts and finally the snack lines.

CAID

Qaid (also caid or kaid), various forms of responsible official found in places ranging from the Kingdom of Sicily to rural North Africa

CB Collado Villalba

Club Baloncesto Collado Villalba was a professional basketball club based in Collado Villalba, Spain.

Charles Anthony Schott

Mr. Schott was a member of the Government parties that observed the total eclipse of the sun in August, 1869, at Springfield, Illinois, and at Catania, Sicily, in December, 1870.

Dago Creek

The name derives from the numerous Sicilian fishermen who would anchor in the protected waters during closed fishing periods and collectively celebrate their heritage with plenty of food and wine.

Danilo Dolci

He was helped out from time to time, predominantly by English families whose fortunes had been made with the sweet Marsala wine manufactured in Sicily.

David ben Judah Messer Leon

However, in 1495 the city fell to the French under Charles VIII, and he fled east to the Ottoman Empire to escape the violent pogroms that ensued, spending time in Istanbul before moving sometime between 1498 and 1504 to teach Torah in Salonica, at that time in a state of intellectual vibrancy due to the settlement there of many Sephardi exiles forced to leave after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sicily in 1493, and Portugal in 1496.

Douglas Hopkins

From 1971 to 1973 he worked at several volcanic sites, including the Italian islands of Sicily and Stromboli, as well as Guatemala and Chile.

Dwarf elephant

Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta (at Ghar Dalam), Crete (in Nomos Chanion at Vamos, Stylos and in a now under water cave on the coast), Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese Islands.

Edward Rooker

Among Rooker's early works are a view on the Thames from Somerset House (1750), and a view of Vauxhall Gardens (1751), both after Canaletto; a view of the Parthenon for Dalton's 'Views of Sicily and Greece' (1751), and a section of St. Paul's Cathedral, decorated according to the

Enna

In the time of Agathocles we find Enna for a time subject to that tyrant, but when the Agrigentines under Xenodicus began to proclaim the restoration of the other cities of Sicily to freedom, the Ennaeans were the first to join their standard, and opened their gates to Xenodicus, 309 BC.

Euphemia of Sicily

Euphemia of Sicily (1330–1359) was regent of Sicily from 1355 until 1357 during the minority of her brother, King Frederick the Simple.

Ferdinando d' Aragona y Guardato, 1st Duke of Montalto

1.2.1) Maria d'Aragona y de Luna, 5th Duchesa of Montalto; she married, 1590, Sicilian Francesco de Moncada y de Luna, 3rd Prince di Paternò, deceased 1595.

Harpalus affinis

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Novaya Zemlya, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Harpalus anxius

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: Andorra, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Portugal, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Hauteville-la-Guichard

It is famous as the original stronghold of the Hauteville family who made their fortunes in southern Italy and Sicily as the Norman kings of Sicily, beginning with the modest Norman seigneur Tancred of Hauteville, who is commemorated by a simple exhibit housed in the former presbytère.

History of Thessaloniki

However, after the death of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire began to decline and in 1185, Norman rulers of Sicily, under the leadership of Count Baldwin and Riccardo d'Acerra, attacked and occupied the city, resulting in considerable destruction.

Ibn Hamdis

"Abd, al-Jabbar Ibn Hamdis left his native Sicily in 1078 at the age of twenty-four, and for the rest of his long life wandered in al-Andalus and North Africa as a court poet, singing the praises of his Arab hosts and lamenting the loss of his home and the demise of Muslim culture in the wake of the Norman invasion of Sicily and the Reconquista in Spain." (Gabriel Levin, To These Dark Steps, 2012, p.77)

Isabella del Balzo

A combination of King Louis XII of France and King Ferdinand II of Aragon had continued the claim of Louis' predecessor, King Charles VIII of France, to Naples and Sicily.

Italian classical music

Thus, we know that there was a vibrant troubador tradition in the 12th century in the Provence in their language and we know that 1000 miles away on the island of Sicily there was also a vibrant troubador tradition at the Hohenstaufen court of Frederick II, songs sung in the dialect of the people (very much influenced, for example, by Arabic), but it is conjecture as to exactly what either one sounded like.

John Thomas Jones

From Naples the troops sailed for Sicily, and, on the dethronement of the king, garrisoned Messina and Melazzo.

Kingdom of Southern Italy

A kingdom comprising Southern Italy prior to breaking up into the Kingdom of Naples comprising mainland southern Italy, and the Kingdom of Sicily comprising the island of Sicily.

Metapontum

At the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily, 415 BCE, the Metapontines at first, like the other states of Magna Graecia, endeavoured to maintain a strict neutrality; but in the following year were induced to enter into an alliance with Athens, and furnish a small auxiliary force to the armament under Demosthenes and Eurymedon.

Micropterix trinacriella

It is only known from the area near the northern shore of Sicily, as well as in the surrounding of Mount Etna.

Morgantina treasure

The Morgantina treasure is a set of 16 pieces of Greek silverware with details in gold dating from the third century BC, which was illegally excavated from Morgantina, an Ancient Greek city in Sicily, near modern Aidone.

Niccolò Turrisi Colonna

Niccolò Turrisi Colonna (August 10, 1817 - May 13, 1889), baron of Buonvicino, was a Sicilian politician from Palermo.

Pierre de Brézé

He had made his name in the English wars when in 1433 he joined with Yolande, queen of Sicily, the constable Richmond and others, in chasing from power Charles VII's minister La Trémoille.

Richard J. Burke

He was married on October 19, 1940 to Josephina Battaglia the daughter of Carmelo Battaglia of Monte Maggiore Belsito, Palermo, Sicily, and Antonia Fasulo of Burgio, Agrigento, Sicily.

Rock Partridge

While it generally manages to hold its own, the status of the Sicilian population may be more precarious and certainly deserves attention (Randi 2006).

Salvatore Contorno

Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno (born May 28, 1946) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta.

Salvatore Lima

Lima arranged an unusually lucrative concession to collect taxes in Sicily to Antonio Salvo and Ignazio Salvo, two wealthy mafia-cousins from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani, in exchange for their loyalty to Salvo Lima and the Andreotti faction of the DC.

Seguenzia monocingulata

It was originally described by Seguenza in fossil form during the Miocene in Calabria and during the Pliocene in Sicily.

Seventh United States Army

The headquarters of the Seventh Army remained relatively inactive at Palermo, Sicily, and Algiers until January 1944, when Lieutenant General Mark Clark was assigned as commander and the Army began planning for the invasion of southern France.

Sidney Sonnino

Leopoldo Franchetti's half of the report, Political and Administrative Conditions in Sicily, was an analysis of the Mafia in the nineteenth century that is still considered authoritative today.

Siege of Lilybaeum

The city of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala), lying on the western end of Sicily, connected the island with Africa and provided Carthage with an advanced harbor on the route to Sardinia.

Southern Italy

The peninsular territories, contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily, but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it.

Stefano Morrone

After Venezia's owner Maurizio Zamparini purchased Palermo, he joined the Sicily side along with team-mate: Daniel Andersson, Bilica, Igor Budan, Francesco Ciullo, Kewullay Conteh, Di Napoli, Valentino Lai, Filippo Maniero, Antonio Marasco, Francesco Modesto, Frank Ongfiang, Generoso Rossi, Mario Santana, Evans Soligo, Ighli Vannucchi and William Viali.

The del Carreto Barons of Racalmuto

The del Carreto Barons of Racalmuto were the descendents of Constanzia di Chiaramonte (1290 - 1350) the heiress and daughter of Federico di Chiaramonte, Lord of Racalmuto a member of the prominent Sicilian Chiaramonte family.

The Ruby in her Navel

Writing in the Guardian, John Julius Norwich said that the novel made him feel what it felt like to live, work and travel in the Sicily of that time.

The Sicilian

He is a very close personal friend of the Guiliano family, a mentor for Turi, and a man who caters to the Friends of the Friends (the word Mafia is rarely spoken in Sicily).

Treaty of Benevento

One of the chief authors of the treaty as it stands was a young notary named Matthew of Ajello, later of much fame in Sicily.

Villafranca Tirrena

In fact it offers a wide artistic and architectonic wealth and the possibility to effect trekking routes on the Peloritani or trips towards other towns of Eastern Sicily: Taormina, Catania, Etna, Siracusa, Eolie Isles, Messina, Tindari and Nebrodi Park.

Walter of the Mill

He was long thought to be an Englishman who came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret.


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