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Charles Mingus, Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and human rights activist.
Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona. He was raised largely in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California. His mother's paternal heritage was Chinese and English, while historical records indicate that his father was the illegitimate offspring of a black farmhand and his Swedish employer's white granddaughter,

His mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for jazz, especially the music of Duke Ellington. He studied trombone and later cello. Much of the cello technique he learned was applicable to double bass when he took up the instrument in high school. He studied five years with H. Rheinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, and compositional techniques with Lloyd Reese,

In addition to his musical and intellectual proliferation, Mingus goes into great detail about his perhaps overstated sexual exploits. He claims to have had over 31 affairs over the course of his life (including 26 prostitutes in one sitting). This does not include any of his five wives (he claims to have been married to two of them simultaneously). In addition, he asserts that he held a brief career as a pimp. This has never been confirmed.

Mingus's autobiography also serves as an insight into his psyche, as well as his attitudes about race and society.[Autobiographic accounts of abuse at the hands of his father from an early age, being bullied as a child, his removal from a white musician's union, and grappling with disapproval while married to white women and other examples of the hardship and prejudice

As respected as Mingus was for his musical talents, he was sometimes feared for his occasional violent onstage temper, which was at times directed at members of his band, and other times aimed at the audience. He was physically large, prone to obesity (especially in his later years), and was by all accounts often intimidating and frightening when expressing anger or displeasure. Mingus was prone to clinical depression. He tended to have brief periods of extreme creative activity, intermixed with fairly long periods of greatly decreased output.

When confronted with a nightclub audience talking and clinking ice in their glasses while he performed, Mingus stopped his band and loudly chastised the audience, stating "Isaac Stern doesn't have to put up with this sh& amp;He once played a prank on a similar group of nightclub chatterers by silencing his band for several seconds, allowing the loud audience members to be clearly heard, then continuing as the rest of the audience snickered at the oblivious ,

Guitarist and singer Jackie Paris was a first-hand witness to Mingus's irascibility. Paris recalls his time in the Jazz Workshop: ;He chased everybody off the stand except [drummer] Paul Motian and me... The three of us just wailed on the blues for about an hour and a half before he called the other cats back
On October 12, 1962, Mingus punched Jimmy Knepper in the mouth while the two men were working together at Mingus's apartment on a score for his upcoming concert at New York Town Hall and Knepper refused to take on more work. The blow from Mingus broke off a crowned tooth and its underlying stub,According to Knepper, this ruined his embouchure and resulted in the permanent loss of the top octave of his range on the trombone - a significant handicap for any professional trombonist. This attack temporarily ended their working relationship and Knepper was unable to perform at the concert. Charged with assault, Mingus appeared in court in January, 1963 and was given a suspended sentence. Knepper would again work with Mingus in 1977 and played extensively with the Mingus Dynasty, formed after Mingus' death in 1979.
Mingus was evicted from his apartment at 5 Great Jones Street in New York City for nonpayment of rent, captured in the film ;Mingus: 1968 by Thomas Reichman, which also features Mingus performing in clubs and, in the apartment, shooting a shotgun, composing at the piano, and discussing love, art, and politics and the music school he had hoped to create,By the mid-1970s, Mingus was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a wastage of the musculature. His once formidable bass technique suffered, until he could no longer play the instrument. He continued composing, however, and supervised a number of recordings before his death.

Reproduced from a stamp designed by Dick Davis, illustrated by John Boon and issued by Royal Mail on 24 March 1998

For over 200 years the Smalls Lighthouse has been acting as a guide and hazard warning to passing ships. John Phillips, a Welshman, first conceived the idea of setting a lighthouse on the Smalls, one of two tiny clusters of rocks lying close together in the Irish Sea, 21 miles off St. David's Head in Wales, the highest peak of which projects only 3.5 metres above the highest tides. He advertised for designs and chose one submitted by Henry Whiteside, a musical instrument maker from Liverpool. Whiteside had designed an octagonal house or hut of timber, 4.5 metres in diameter, perched on nine legs or pillars, five of wood and three of cast iron, spaced around central timber post. During the Winter 1775-1776, Whiteside erected the whole structure temporarily at Solva, a small Welsh Haven over 25 miles from the Smalls. In the Spring of 1776, and thanks to the preliminary assembly during which the parts were carefully fitted together, work proceeded so well that by September the oil lamps were lit.

Drastic repairs and alterations became necessary after the storms of December 1777, but Phillips had no funds to carry them out. He discharged the keepers and extinguished the light and made over his interest to a Committee of Liverpool Traders. They induced Trinity House to obtain an Act of Parliament in 1778 which authorised the Brethren to repair, rebuild and maintain the lighthouse and to collect and levy reasonable dues. In view of Phillips' services and his financial losses, they granted him a lease on 3rd June, 1778 for 99 years at a rent of ?5.

Authoritative accounts of this lighthouse bear witness to a tragic episode which appears to have occurred before 1801. Apparently one of the two keepers on the station died and the survivor, fearing that he might be suspected of murder if he committed the body to the deep, put it into a box which he made from the interior woodwork of the house and lashed it to the lantern rail. Passing ships noted this strange object but raised no alarm before the usual relief boat arrived to succour the unhappy survivor. After this episode three keepers were appointed to the lighthouse.

Although the lighthouse was described in 1801 as a "raft of timber rudely put together" it survived for 80 years. Whiteside's design of raising a super-structure on piles so that the sea could pass through them with "but little obstruction" has been adopted since for hundreds of sea structures.
The present lighthouse was built under the supervision of Trinity House Chief Engineer, James Douglass. Its design was based on Smeaton’s Eddystone tower and it took just two years to build being completed in 1861.

In 1978 a helideck was erected above the lantern and the lighthouse was automated in 1987.
In June 1997 the red and white stripes that had distinguished the tower were no longer considered necessary for navigation and the tower was grit blasted back to natural granite.

Specifications
Established1776 (Present Tower 1861)
Height Of Tower41 Metres
Height Of Light Above Mean High Water36 Metres
Automated1987
Lamp400 Watt Mbi
Optic1st Order Catadioptric
CharacterWhite Group Flashing 3 Times Every 15 Seconds
Intensity1,000,000 Candela
Range Of Light25 nautical miles
Fog Signal CharacterTwo Blasts Every 60 Seconds